The UK Radio Player is up and running.
It’s a single online source for all radio in the UK. It’s very easy to use and you can search for radio by station, presenter or programme name and more. It will show results for live radio and podcasts/on-demand audio.
There are two things in particular that impress the hell out of me with this project;
1 – It’s ease of use. Simple use is a core quality of radio and we have to maintain this into the future. The various standards/players you …

Jazz FM have just gone truly national on the Digital One UK DAB network.
This is an exciting move for a station which started off as an online accompaniment to the London FM station of the same name. When the FM station flipped format to “Smooth FM” the web service jumped into the digital broadcast arena by taking up DAB slots in a number of regions. With a niche but very dedicated audience the station has grown with a weekly reach of 448,000 in the last RAJAR’s.
By moving from regional …

Car manufacturer Ford have just announced that DAB radios will be fitted as standard in all Ford models from next year.
Part of the roadmap for switchover to DAB in the UK is to have DAB as standard in all new cars by 2013. So Ford have beaten that deadline by a year.
Read the full story at What Car magazine.

Why go digital is the most frequent question we get asked by broadcasters. FM works. Why fix something that isn’t broken?
Well, asides from massive cost savings, brand expansion and new revenue possible with DAB, there is something much Much MUCH bigger at stake. Losing your audience.
Watch this 2 minute video. It will change your world.

Significant political weight to the adoption of digital radio across Europe has come from Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes. (pic)
In her opening address to this weeks Association of European Radio Conference (AER) she has come out in support of establishing a digital standard to protect the medium of radio in the future. Her comments echo sentiments made by BAI Chairman Bob Collins last year. Her full speech is here;
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the North African revolutions we are currently witnessing, many commentators have stressed the role played by ICT …

Some interesting numbers emerging from online music service, Pandora, that may be of interest to those who support internet broadcasting.
First the good news. Pardora’s accounts show their revenue was a massive $90.1m for the first nine months of 2010. Most of this was raised through advertising while 15% was raised from listeners willing to pay a small subscription for “ad-free music”.
Now the bad news. Music Royalties for the period cost $45.4m. This is half of all the entire revenue Pandora made. Even more bad news, when you factor in …

The very very big news this week is that Norway has confirmed it will to switch-off its FM network and migrate exclusively to DAB within six years.
Unlike the UK, where they are waiting for digital radio usage to hit 50% before naming a switch-off date, Norway have confirmed it will happen by 2017.
Being a mountainous country Norwegian broadcasters have seen that DAB allows them to provide more radio services at a cheaper cost than expanding their FM network. They were particularly concerned that a decision be made sooner rather than …

Two stories you should be aware of this week that may cause you to worry about the future of radio on the internet.
The first was a claim that Apple were about to ban single station radio apps from their iTunes store. Apple clarified this by saying they expected radio apps to deliver more than just the station logo and a link to the audio stream. They compare simple apps like that to spam-like “fart” apps. Just what you want your radio station to be compared to, right ?
The second …

I attended the recent EBU Digital Radio Conference in Belfast where an affirmative plan has been put in place by the EBU to advance the actual introduction of digital radio across Europe.
What surprised me most about the conference was the amount of consensus and agreement despite the room being full of disparate parties and viewpoints. Three points came across loud and clear; co-operation between interested parties, content is king and the importance of the internet.
Co-Operation
In her keynote speech Clare Duignan, RTÉ Director of Radio, said public and commercial broadcasters need …

Good to hear lots of positivity around DAB from within the industry. At last weeks Digital Radio Conference in Belfast, the consensus was that the road to DAB will be a long run and a hard journey, but it is most definitely the way to go. As previously reported the EBU are now to lobby the EU to establish DAB as the main broadcasting platform for the future.
Another positive update also today on DAB progress worldwide from WorldDMB which reads as follows;
While traditional radio listening is threatened by new …