A consortium of broadcasting companies and organizations has joined forces to develop an open and universal interface to ease the implementation of digital radio on smartphones.

The Open Mobile Radio Interface (OMRI) was announced during IBC and comes only months after the world's first DAB+ enabled smartphone, LG Stylus 2 DAB+, hit the shelves in Australia and Europe.

The commercial radio industry has launched a new marketing campaign to encourage Australians to upgrade their old radio sets to a new DAB+ digital radio.

The campaign likens the switch to DAB+ to the transition of TV from analogue to digital, and focuses on the benefits of upgrading, including better sound quality and up to 30 extra stations.

Metropolitan commercial radio ad revenue has recorded an increase in August up 4.36% to $65.565 million with Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth showing growth compared to August 2015. 
 
According to the 2016 Metropolitan Commercial Radio Advertising Revenue, as sourced by Deloitte, Perth was up 7.85% to $8.865 million, Melbourne increased by 7.17% to $20.699 million, Brisbane was up 5.92% to $10.161 million, Sydney rose 1.80% to $19.995 million and Adelaide was down 3.55% to $5.845 million.

Oz Magazine co-founder Richard Neville has died.

The 74-year-old passed away after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

A social commentator and author, Neville who came to international prominence in the 60’s and 70’s with the creation of the notorious international magazine, was a guest speaker at the Commercial Radio Conference on the Gold Coast in 2011.

He spoke to delegates on where Australian society is headed and how the media will fit in. 

M&C Saatchi has won round 2 of the Siren Awards with a thought-provoking ad for the St Vincent de Paul Society that takes a fresh approach to the social issue of homelessness.
 
The touching ad, titled “Bedroom”, uses the voice of a young child bidding good night to inanimate objects surrounding her to communicate the twist that she is homeless and sleeps in a car.
 

Commercial radio stations in the central western NSW city of Orange have the results of the first radio ratings survey conducted in the region since 2001.

Star FM was the station listened to most with 32.5%, followed by 2GZ FM with 24.8% and ABC Local Radio 11.9%.

The first radio ratings survey to be undertaken in the Queensland city of Bundaberg have released today, as part of an initiative to promote regional radio.

Hitz FM 93.9 was the station listened to most with 23.3%, followed by 93.1 Sea FM with 22% and ABC Local Radio 17.4%

Commercial radio finished the financial year on a positive note, with advertising revenue for metropolitan stations reaching $775.464 million in 2015/16, up 5.88% compared to the previous year, according to figures sourced by Deloitte and released today by Commercial Radio Australia.

The figures showed ad revenue across the five capital city markets grew by 5.79% in the month of June to $75.003 million.

Joan Warner, chief executive officer of CRA, said the industry had grown advertising revenues for the fourth consecutive year.

Results from GfK Survey 4 will be released tomorrow.
 
Many announcers and CD’s who headed off for the survey break are now back into it and eagerly anticipating tomorrow.
 
The big story from Survey 3 was Adelaide with both Nova 919 and FIVEaa doing well.
 
Most radio pundits will tell you that it is not till Survey 3 that some realistic trends start to emerge.
 

DAB+ digital radio is continuing to grow in popularity, gaining 168,000 listeners to reach 3.52 million in the five metropolitan capital cities, according to the latest digital radio report by GfK, released today.

Peak industry body Commercial Radio Australia said the numbers were helped by solid growth in in-car listening, with another 91,900 new vehicles sold with DAB+ installed in the first quarter of 2016.