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ftm Radio Page - December 3, 2010

Vintage podcasts a hit
“We are amazed”

Public broadcasters save everything, or at least try. Archives – and preserving them – has been a big deal among many. There’s a reason. Listeners always like the greatest hits.

Italian public broadcaster RAI Radio 2 posted the first episode of the popular comedy show “Il Ruggito del Coniglio” (literally; The roar of the rabbit) to iTunes podcasts. The show featuring Antonello Dose and Marco Presta was broadcast October 2, 1995. Within a few hours, according to giornalradio (December 3), it became one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes.

“We discovered the web,” said co-host Antonello Dose, “so people listen to us from around the world. Then there is the universe of Facebook. Today we have nearly 100 thousand (Facebook) fans. We are amazed.” (JMH)

Digital radio summit called
Bring money

It’s war out there. The sides show no sign of backing down. It’s all about the money.

UK commercial broadcasters and the BBC are at odds with each other and the UK government over who will pay for DAB digital radio coverage. UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey wants the warring broadcasters to sit for a “coverage summit” next March to come up with a financial plan, according to John Plunkett of The Guardian (December 2). All sides want somebody else to pay for additional DAB transmitters and towers to fill in all coverage gaps.

The UK government seems intent on keeping to a 2015 – or thereabouts – digital switchover deadline, giving citizens a few years to replace tens of millions of analogue FM receivers with favorite stations etched into their dials. Commercial broadcasters – many but not all – have all but thrown in the towel for DAB as hopelessly uneconomical. Digital radio receivers were reasonably popular a few years ago among the early adopter set. That seems to have stalled. (More on digital radio here)

A Christmas sales push was organized, cute radio ads commissioned. When it came time to air the campaign, several of the big commercial radio companies backed out. They didn’t want to commit valuable Christmas airtime to DAB receiver ads until somebody else was forced to pay for the coverage shortfall.

One owner of local radio stations, UKRD, is threatening to air an anti-DAB campaign: “A DAB radio may be for Christmas but might not be for life.”

The BBC has stood steadfastly behind DAB digital radio, except for trying to ditch a couple of their popular digital-only channels. In negotiating a Dickensian license fee package with the new Conservative-Murdoch government intent on shrinking the BBC to the size of a town public library money for more DAB transmitters and towers was struck from the deal. Now BBC executives say, “We’ve got no money.”

The big commercial broadcasters are on less solid ground. The government is holding hostage license renewals for some of the country’s most profitable channels. Somewhere there are accountants bleeding under their eyeshades.

Meanwhile, UK media and telecom regulator OFCOM is pushing 4G LTE mobile broadband roll-out by 2013. Reports on this years Christmas gizmo spending suggest it will be a big holiday for smartphones and related devices. (JMH)

Radio Page - November 26, 2010

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Recently added radio audience figures and references

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