The First Edition

Looking at some big stories in audio this week

I’ve been thinking about writing a regular newsletter on audio, radio and podcasting for some time now, but I keep finding reasons to delay it.

So, it’s time to grasp the nettle, to rip off the band aid, to mix some metaphors and get on with it.

I’m Liam Thompson, I’ve over 30 years of experience working in audio, from work experience in what turned out to be a short lived national station in Ireland called Century Radio, to working across Europe and the Middle East and even launching Virgin Radio live from a moving train in the UK, I’ve been around radio most of my life.

I’ve also been deeply involved in podcasts for the last number of years, working with Jamie East to launch the Smart 7 and co-founding the Daft Doris production company.

So, I think I’ve probably spent enough time talking, thinking and making audio to bring some useful insight to the debate…

The plan is to publish this newsletter weekly, looking at big stories in audio, plus some insight and experience from my time in radio and audio.

Hopefully you find something of use in it, if you have something you’d like to share, or an area you’d like to see discussed, drop me a mail or find me on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamthompsonconsulting/

A very Irish scandal…

I’m mostly based in Ireland at the moment, and we’re in the middle of a full on public service broadcasting drama…

The Director General of RTE (State Broadcaster, dual funded via licence fee and advertising) Dee Forbes has just resigned, with immediate effect.

It comes after a blistering 5 days of revelations around the payments to RTE’s top star and occasional BBC Radio 2 fill in presenter, Ryan Tubridy.

Ireland’s Parliament requires the State Broadcaster to publish the salaries of it’s top 10 broadcasters, a list which is keenly watched by tabloids and the public alike. Ryan has been perched on top of the list for quite some time, but it turns out, his declared salary was actually considerably less than the amount he actually received.

He’d been paid something over 300,000 euro more over a five year period, through a back door commercial deal, that never made it to the RTE official accounts.

Now, there’s an investigation, or several in fact and the outgoing DG has stepped down on Monday morning, after a suspension last week.

It’s become a story that has captured the public imagination, I was buying hayfever tablets on Saturday and the chemist, out of the blue said “What about that Ryan Tubridy thing?”

It’s potentially really damaging for RTE as they were seeking to restructure the licence fee and how they’ve funded, with a proposed new broadcast levy being floated. It’s hard to see how the public would support anything like that until the current mess is resolved.

Spare a thought for incoming DG Kevin Bakhurst, who has just left his job at Ofcom to return to what now looks like a hot mess…

It’s also a concern at a time when trust in media is low, where social media platforms are increasingly erratic and newspapers continue to decline, that a state broadcaster can manage to shoot itself in the foot so spectacularly.

Podcasting

Do we think to “Meghan Markle” will become a thing in podcasting? That’s, I guess, the practice of one of the team doing an interview and then dropping in the questions from the high paid host later on…

If the 20 million dollar Archewell deal gives us nothing else, except 12 episodes of an ok podcast, then maybe that will have to do…

I think most pods have found themselves in a situation where a host can’t make it and someone else fills in on an interview, or records elements that will have the host built in later, but I guess when you’re paying 1.6 million dollars per episode, you’d want the host to be present for the whole show…

Of course, anyone who works in podcasting knows, that Meghan and Harry won’t be getting 20 million, but the bigger question is whether or not the end of these kind of celebrity deals is a good or bad thing for the wider industry?

It seems Spotify are switching focus to a stronger Creator driven approach and swapping Trevor Noah for Meghan & Harry seems like a pretty solid move. Most interesting though is the fact that the comedian and former Daily Show host is not tied to a Spotify exclusive platform deal, his show will be available everywhere.

For me, that’s a positive. Part of the appeal of Podcasting is that it is ubiquitous and I’ve never been a big believer in the walled garden as a consumer friendly business model.

Radio Question

With the continuing rise of TikTok as a music platform and the continued growth in streaming audio, radio seems like it must be under pressure…

But in the UK and Ireland, radio is actually performing better than expected, with growth in the last few quarters for the medium and positive signs in terms of revenue.

It feels like there’s been a shift in radio’s mindset, with more content and more entertainment on the air, a switch away from the “more music” battle versus music streaming services and a focus on what makes radio really work, being “company” for the listener.

But for younger audiences, who get more and more of their new music from platforms like TikTok, how does radio stay relevant?

I’ve been kicking around a format gimmick but haven’t actually gotten round to testing it out, maybe iRadio’s Mark Cunning might give it a spin and see if it works?

I’m fascinated by the way music has shifted, to make songs shorter, based in part on Spotify’s pay per play model, so the old fashioned “needle time” where artists were paid by duration of their record has become less relevant than the number of times a song is played.

So, now songs are short, in the hopes that fans will play them multiple times, but for radio, that just doesn’t happen, we have our rules on rotation and repetition. So, the next time you hear that Lizzo or Ice Spice song, will probably be at least 90 minutes from now.

But, what if we played the biggest hits twice? So, only the hottest songs, only once in the hour, but it’s so good, we’re going to play it again…

“The biggest hits, twice… Your Hit Music Station XXX”

Would it stand out? Would it catch the younger audiences interest?

That’s way too much for this week, back next Monday – please do subscribe / follow and feel free to comment below