Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

Radio listeners deserve a little respect

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

One item of debate in the US radio industry is a fake regular caller - Dwayne from Swedesboro, who used to call into a radio station almost every day. Dwayne didn’t exist. He was a character dreamt up and played by a producer of the show, though the presenter...

04 September 2016

Podcasts stats: what we know (a follow-up)

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

In July, I posted a piece about how much we don’t know about podcast stats. Today I wanted to write about the iTunes podcast chart: because it isn’t a chart, and not nearly enough people know that. But before I do, a few points from the last time I wrote about this.

As a result of my earlier piece,...

28 August 2016

AM Radio - Does It Have A Future?

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

In the Coachella Valley in California, two AM radio stations have just shut down: KPSI and KWXY. The closure came with a two-hour special program, looking back at the history of the station.

These...

21 August 2016

Radio internet listening - hit, or myth?

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

In a piece in The Guardian over the weekend, former radio presenter turned podcaster Scroobius Pip says, of a meeting with US podcaster Joe Regan:

At the time, I had a radio show on Xfm, which went on to win two Sony awards. Joe asked: “Why do you work for someone else?” I...

14 August 2016

A radio sales tactic your station must try!

The radio ads targeted to just one person

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that radio, as an advertising medium, works really well. Really well. People listen to what’s on the radio - even advertising messages.

You might remember a few radio ads for radio itself. Most of them I’ve ever heard are either talking about the “theatre of the mind” (not very interesting to a would-be advertiser), or use...

07 August 2016

On losing your voice

Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland

Talking for a living, whether you’re on the radio or off it, needs one thing: a voice.

When I woke up on Saturday morning with a sore throat, I reckoned something was probably up. A quick trip to the pharmacy gave me enough strange throat lozenges to get through a 75-minute speech - just - but that was probably pushing things too far. By the time I’d slinked away from the conference later that day, my voice...

31 July 2016

Why doesn’t your station name include the word ‘radio’?