Tag Archives: William Lee

Australia: “Whispering to the Asia-Pacific”

(Source: Australian Strategic Policy Institute via William Lee)

Australia gropes and stutters towards a renewed embrace of international broadcasting—the vital need to ‘speak for ourselves’ in the Asia–Pacific.

The latest lurch towards fresh understanding is the silent release of the review of Australia’s media reach in the Asia–Pacific. Note the irony that a report on broadcasting is soundless on arrival.

Behold a classic orphan inquiry, not wanted by either the government or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, nor particularly desired by the public service. The orphan was created as part of the price to win a Senate vote, and is dumped on the public doorstep without a word of welcome.

The review was completed last December but only released (published on the Department of Communications website) on 17 October. No announcement. No government decisions.

The inquiry matters because it nods towards significant policy failure and the absent-minded trashing of Oz international broadcasting.[…]

Click here to continue reading the full article.

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Radio Survivor podcast highlights “The FCC’s Effort To Decimate Community Media”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who shares the Radio Survivor’s Podcast #166: The FCC’s Effort To Decimate Community Media:

The FCC has proposed to de-fund community media through an arcane rule that determines how contributions from cable companies to public-access, educational and government (PEG) stations are counted. Because it’s arcane, the effort is flying under the radar. But we have two community media advocates to help explain what’s at stake.

Martin Jones is the CEO of MetroEast Community Media in Gresham, Oregon, just one of hundreds of PEG stations that would be affected. Sabrina Roach serves on the board for the Alliance for Community Media Foundation, the charitable arm of the group that represents and organizes PEG stations across the U.S. They tell us how proposed changes to the “franchise fee” structure would deprive PEG stations, as well as internet access at libraries and schools, from direct funding. If passed, this would decimate both community media and digital equity in most communities that have it. They also explain what steps we can take to oppose this change.

Listen to the full podcast via the embedded player below, or listen via the Radio Survivor website:

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Are industry bodies the secret sauce for some broadcasting markets?

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(Source: RadioInfo via William Lee)

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

I’m writing this in London, where the doors are (as I type) just about to open for Next Radio, the radio conference that I run here with my friend Matt Deegan. It’s a positive radio conference with an uplifting feel.

Go to a radio conference in the US or Canada, and there won’t be very many smiling faces. There’s a general feeling in the US and Canada that radio is managing decline. But in other countries, radio is behaving differently.

The UK commercial industry has grown, over the past year, by 5.2%. It’s now a US $887m market.

Australian commercial radio has grown too – over the past year, metro stations growing 3.8% to a US $573m market (and there’s more from the regions, too).

Commercial radio in Finland is growing, too. Their figures are harder to decipher, but July grew by 6.6% over June; and June grew by 17% over May. The market’s comparatively small at about US $93m – but it’s doing better than the UK if you bear in mind Finland’s small population.

These aren’t the stories you hear from the US and Canada; and I’m often asked why.

It’s not an easy answer.

[…]In the UK, commercial radio has an effective industry body, Radiocentre. They promote the medium to agencies, lobby government, and sing radio’s praises. They’re really very good at it.

In Australia, commercial radio, too, has an effective industry body. It’s called Commercial Radio Australia, and they, too, promote the medium to agencies, lobby government, and sing radio’s praises. They’re tenacious and efficient.

And in Finland, their industry body is Radio Media. They lobby government, promote the medium to agencies, and market radio as well: to great effect.[…]

Click here to view the full article at RadioInfo.

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New Zealand invests in free-to-air broadcasts to Pacific

Australia: Research shows radio has special appeal to older listeners

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(Source: RadioInfo via William Lee)

Dr Amanda Krause, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, is currently exploring the listening habits of older Australians.

With the country’s aging population rapidly growing, Dr Krause became interested in the link between listening and wellbeing.

Dr Krause found that people not only have strong preferences for radio programming from talkback to different music genres, but that the listener can also have a strong connection with some presenters.

“I think it is the human connection, that it is the voice.”[…]

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Radioinfo: “Are we moving to an all-IP media future?”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who shares the following article from Radioinfo.com.au:

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

We believe that the days when all media will be distributed over the internet are not too far away.”

Those are the words of the BBC’s Chief Technology and Product Officer, the very nice Matthew Postgate, who made a long speech which the BBC has reproduced on its press site. Digital TV Europe excitedly reported it as the BBC predicting an all-IP future.

I tweeted this last week, and it was retweeted heavily, with a lot of radio people posting “I told you so!” and “I’ve been saying this for ages!”; and a few online radio companies jumped to self-promote themselves as part of the all-IP future.

Calm down, everyone.

First, as a former senior manager at the BBC, I’d start with the seemingly trite statement that whenever you hear “we” coming from a BBC manager in a speech, what they really mean is, firstly, “my department”, and secondly, in most cases, they also mean “television”. Indeed, there is no mention of radio in the section of Matthew’s speech which talks about an all-IP future.

Radio and television are very, very different.[…]

Continue reading the full article at Radioinfo.com.au.

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triple j uncovers Australia’s filthiest radios!

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Photos submitted by triple j listeners.

(Source: RadioInfo via William Lee)

The topic of dirty radios cropped up on triple j yesterday, following a conversation between presenter Alex Dyson and listener Ryan from Wollongong.

[…]By the time Dyson and Ryn finished their chat, the triple j textline was bursting with pictures of filthy radios. And since most were from work sites, Joe from Whittlesea helpully pointed out that they’re actually TradieOs™: radios belonging to tradies.

I had a radio that, I believe, might have won this competition! It was a Grundig S350 that I used on site as I built my house. One of my sub contractors borrowed it to listen to music in the attic space as he worked up there. The following day, a crew arrived to install spray foam insulation between our rafters. The crew never noticed the radio until it was too late and the entire thing was covered in foam spray. I wish I would have snapped a photo of it. I scraped off all of the spray foam, but the radio was forever ugly–still worked great, though! I believe I eventually gave it to one of my subs.

Post readers: Care to share photos of your dirtiest radios? Please comment or contact me with photos. If I receive enough, I’ll make a separate feature post!

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