The Radio Today Blog

Radio Today performs first radio show

Sat, 12 May 2012 20:31:51 +0100

It had to happen sooner or later.

Your radio industry news website is venturing into the familiar world of radio broadcasting, with our first actual radio show. Sure, we’ve played with podcasts in the past, but this will be a very special event.

The date: Monday 14th May
The venue: Grosvenor House Hotel, London
The event: Sony Radio Academy Awards 2012

The main thing you need to know is that if you are not attending the Sonys, but would like to find out who’s won, Radio Today is all you need. In previous years, we’ve tweeted and blogged the winners the second they are announced on stage. We’ll be doing that again this year of course, but in addition, Radio Today Live will commence at around 5pm and be with you all evening.

We’ll build up the atmosphere by chatting to those attending. The judges, the nominees, the VIPs and the lucky ones who managed to secure or blag a much wanted space in the Great Hall.

Just head over to radiotoday.co.uk/live - click the audio play button (if it doesn’t start automatically) then click the play button in the CoverItLive window. Then you can hear and see all the action. Live tweets, live photos, live interviews, live stage feed and live commentary.

The best thing is, thanks to our sponsor Broadcast Bionics, all this is free of charge. All we ask is that you tweet the hell out of our page and let everyone working in radio know about it.

If you tune in, you’ll hear our Editor - the man in the know - Stuart Clarkson, along with Pat Sharp bringing you all the action, balconyside, overlooking the entire event.

We hope you can tune in and spread the word!

How Do! We’ve been nominated! Radio Today has been...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:07:00 +0000

How Do! We’ve been nominated!

Radio Today has been nominated in the regional How Do media awards for the North West of England.

Our growth over the last 12 months must have impressed the judges enough to put us forward for the award, which will be given out at a glitzy event at Old Trafford.

We’re up against some tough competition in the Best Media Website category though, including Rock FM and the Manchester Evening News.

We’ll be sure to let you know how it goes, and my thanks to the team making Radio Today the best radio industry news website there is (only one there is?!), and to the radio industry for enjoying our content.

Roy

RadioHub.co.uk sold to G Media

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:58:27 +0100

Over the years we’ve tried to encourage people working in the radio industry to join and take part in a social network aimed at them.

We created a place presenters, producers, journalists, engineers, sales staff and even managers could share audio, photos, videos, memories and status updates. We tried it with raydio.org which attracted 500 members, then again with radiohub.co.uk, which we thought, was the perfect place to do so.

But once a registration was made, and a profile picture was added, people didn’t come back to join in the fun.

And lets face it - we’re not alone. Just look at Google +.

So instead of spending money on something which simply wasn’t wanted by the radio industry, we decided to close the site and transfer ownership of the domain and twitter address to someone who wanted to use the name “RadioHub” for something else (not another social network). It is radio related, and all will be explained soon by the nice people at G Media.

If you did register at radiohub.co.uk in the past - G Media did not buy your information - just the domain ownership. All your personal details have been destroyed.

Thanks for being a part of it!

We're moving a few things around

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:00:05 +0100

We’ve always strived to cover all aspects of the radio industry - with news, comments, photos, links, videos and more. Until now, all content has been spread out over numerous domains and sub domains.

We’ve been doing some thinking and come to the conclusion that some of our content may not be reaching everyone who might like to see it - so we’ve decided to put most of our content in one place - in front of our 5,000 Facebook fans.

Most of the content will also appear on Twitter via @RadioToday - with our @RadioTodayLive account being reserved for coverage of major radio events.

Links which previously appeared on RadioTonight / Radio Today Extra will now appear in our Facebook feed. Our “Today in Radio” tweets will move to @RadioToday and also appear on Facebook, along with real-time radio information and comments, and our photos will appear mostly on Facebook.

These are just some of the features we’re working on, but as ever if you have any suggestions on how we can better serve the radio industry, please let us know.

The Radio Today Forums have moved

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:29:42 +0100

If you’re one of the people who kept an eye on the forums on the old Radio Today site, you’ll be pleased to know they now have a new home.

Pop along to RadioForums.co.uk and you’ll see the complete archive, news feeds and fresh discussion ready to accept your old Radio Today login and password. If you have forgotten your details, don’t worry, just click the I’ve forgotten my password link.

If you’re having problems remembering your password, you can re-join using your Facebook or Twitter account - or better still, log in and join your account up with either of the social networking sites and sync your profile photo, updates and more to the new site.

We do encourage the use of real names on our forums, although it isn’t mandatory. We believe there is a gap for interesting radio discussion balanced half way between the mostly anonymous moaning on Digital Spy, and the previously private real-name Media UK discussions.

We hope you think so to, and we look forward to hearing your views over at RadioForums.co.uk

Radio Today - now powered by WordPress

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

After a couple of days of being offline, we are pleased to announced RadioToday.co.uk is back, and is now powered by WordPress.

We’ve brought back the basics - our radio news categories and jobs page - although these and future features will be tweaked over the coming days with additional elements.

The change in site “software” also means one or two bugs with the Radio Today App. This will be fixed shortly with a new release.

Many thanks for your understanding - to both our readers and advertisers.

Visit the new site.

And welcome to our new friends on our Facebook page and Twitter accounts:

@RadioToday (normally the news feed from our main site)

@RadioTodayLive (event coverage and real-time radio industry information)

The Radio Today team.

Radio Today joins Audioboo!

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:25:00 +0100

The guys over at Audioboo will be pleased to know we’ve chosen them as our platform for delivering audio-based radio news to the radio industry.

There are dozens if not hundreds of podcast platforms available for audio content creators but we’ve chosen Audioboo for its simplicity - and because we think the technology behind Audioboo has great potential for the radio industry.

Each week we’ll record a round-up of news we’ve covered on the site, the features we’ve covered in eRADIO and additional snippets and feedback we’ve not posted anywhere else. In future editions we’ll also include clips from the people making the news.

Our pilot edition is in the style of a typical top-of-hour radio news bulletin - it’s a mile away from the excellent Radio Academy RadioTalk Podcast, and we hope they will compliment each other nicely.

And because we’ve chosen to use Audioboo, it’ll be easy for us to upload additional content direct from our smartphones as stories break, or at one of the many radio events we attend.

Your thoughts, as ever, are welcome.

New Editor for Radio Today

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:59:01 +0000

Stuart Clarkson chats to Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt at the 2010 Radio Festival

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve appointed Stuart Clarkson as Editor of RadioToday.co.uk and eRADIO.

Stuart has been working with Radio Today on a freelance basis for the last 5 years, covering the newsdesk and playing a major part in our coverage of industry events. He takes up the day-to-day role and as well as overseeing content on the Radio Today website will edit our weekly e-zine, lead our advertising sales operation and head up our events coverage team including at the various radio awards ceremonies and festivals.

Stuart, 30, will continue his part-time work as a freelance broadcast journalist, presenter and PR consultant in the North of England alongside his role at Radio Today. His previous jobs include as a journalist in commercial radio, PR Manager with Cambridgeshire Safety Camera Partnership and Deputy PR and Marketing Manager at Rochdale Council.

Stuart said: “It’s a really exciting time for Radio Today right now. Our audience continues to grow and we’re working to bring additional and unique content to our readers and subscribers. We’ll soon be launching our first smartphone app too so that people working in the industry can get their hands on the latest radio news and content on the move in an easily-accessible way.”

As Editor, Stuart will continue to work with Radio Today founder and site owner Roy Martin to develop new ideas for the site and enhance the experience for readers. Roy added: “Stuart has an eye for a story and journalistic talent as well as a background in marketing and PR, so he’s the perfect man for the job as Radio Today continues to grow. From just a handful of subscribers in the early days, the site has grown into the industry’s leading trade news and features website and become a daily visit for those working in or with an interest in radio.”

AUDIO: Listen to our interviews with the winners at the IRN...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:31:29 +0000

AUDIO: Listen to our interviews with the winners at the IRN Awards 2011, plus we chat to awards host Charlotte Hawkins, Chair of Judges Andy Ivy and GMG Radio’s James Rea who was on the panel for a session earlier in the day about social media.

It’s Capital FM Day at RadioToday.co.uk We’ve got...

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:01:16 +0000

It’s Capital FM Day at RadioToday.co.uk

We’ve got TwitterFall on the monitor, website reaction on another, we’re busy editing and uploading audio of the launch of Capital FM South Coast, Yorkshire and our own local version here in Salford Quays - Manchester on the other.

We’ve published your reaction, the official quotes from Global Founder and Executive President, Ashley Tabor and Richard Park, Global’s Director of Broadcasting, and launch audio.

We’re enjoying your reactions on our Facebook page too, so keep them coming at facebook.com/radiotoday.

Our reaction? We love the sound - but still not convinced their charity “Help a Capital Child” will do down as well as hoped with the residents of Salford. Or Barnsley. Or Glasgow.

We talk #radiofail on the radio!

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:03:56 +0000

We do lots of talking about our favourite subject - radio - most days. But it’s not often we’re asked to go on the radio to talk about radio.

This morning we did two interviews following yesterday’s well-publicised slip-of-the-tongue on Radio 4’s Today Programme, where James Naughtie ‘did a Nicky Campbell’ and dropped a massive c-bomb to his millions of breakfast time listeners.

First up we did BBC Radio 5 Live down the line from the booth at Radio Lancashire:

Our reporter Stuart Clarkson spoke to Nicky and Shelagh for just over a minute (when he could get a word in edgeways) about a few classic radio fails. Listen here:

5live-bloopers by stuartclarkson

After being rudely interrupted by the Prime Minister live from Kabul, our man nipped downstairs to pop in for a chat with Graham Liver on BBC Radio Lancashire. Listen to the longer interview with a few of Radio Lancashire’s own #radiofail moments thrown in too that you might not have heard before:

bbclancashire-bloopers by stuartclarkson

Thanks to our friends at #radiofail for putting us in touch with the BBC to do the interviews - don’t forget to follow their twitter feed to get the latest fails as they appear in the site!

Radio Today Wallplanner spotted on Channel 4 show Secret...

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 23:16:00 +0000

Radio Today Wallplanner spotted on Channel 4 show Secret Millionaire..

This makes us happy. The 2011 edition is almost ready, and you can request yours today.

Student virgins heading for London

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 21:46:58 +0000

We don’t mind admitting it. We are Student Radio Awards virgins.

We’ve never been to the Student Radio Awards, and Thursday night this week will be our first time. We’ve been invited in the past but always unable to go, but this year, we got a kind invite from the one and only David Cameron Walker - Chair of the Student Radio Association asking if we’d like to come.

After some negotiation about us sticking our banners up near the bar (we predict the busiest place of the night) we worked out a plan.

We’ll be taking a few photos and tweeting a few tweets, and you can follow the fun by keeping an eye on our live page.

Don’t get us wrong, we love Student Radio, and have always covered the results on our home page, but this time we’ll be in the thick of it.

We’ve been told there will be lots of beer and famous people. Why have we not been before?

We're off to the awards ceremony*

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:44:06 +0000

The date has been set and Radio Today will be attending the NDL Group Radio Academy Promotions & Marketing Awards 2010 in London on November 22nd.

We’ll be blogging the results live as they are announced on Twitter and on the live page of RadioToday.co.uk between 7:30pm and 8:15pm.

We’ll also be providing exclusive video interviews with attendees and winners, along with a full photo album of the evening.

So good luck to everyone who has been nominated, and we hope to see you at The Venue.

*we might even be at next week’s Student Radio Awards too, as we’ve just been invited..

What day is it?

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:03:48 +0000

We appear to have a bug in our calendar, and if you are one of the 3000+ people who receive our daily “24 Hours in Radio” email, you might be wondering what is going on.

Today, Tuesday, you may have an email in your inbox titled “Wednesday’s 24 Hours in Radio,” which, if you have, we apologise. The Radio Today team can exclusively reveal that, sadly, it is still very much Tuesday.

We’re looking into it and hopefully tomorrow it will actually be Wednesday.

The Radio Festival coverage - technical details and special thanks.

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:53:55 +0100

So the team have just about recovered from the Radio Festival. We had a great time and apart from a couple of issues with Wi-Fi in the main theatre, we managed to cover most sessions over the three days. The main theatre was a wi-fi black-out but the other rooms were well covered. Thanks to Phill Clark’s Mi-Fi connection for keeping us going at one point too!

Firstly, thanks for joining us in Lime Bar on Sunday evening for pre-festival drinks if you did. We didn’t quite expect such a good turn-out but I’m sure it will be something which is repeated year-on-year.

It was announced at the Festival that Salford Quays will be the permanent home of the Festival too, which is great news. To give the event a base is good, but to make it part of Media City UK too is excellent. We look forward to welcoming more people over the years to our Salford Quays base.

So on to the reason for this post - you may remember our last post was about experimenting with the iPhone as a fully functional event coverage tool. And it worked!

The boss’s iPhone 4 was used for recording, editing, producing and uploading HD videos with some great people, live blogging via the CoverItLive app, taking HDR photos and instantly uploading them to Flickr, Twitter and the blog, and even doing an AudioBoo from the bar.

It was also used for the usual Facebook updates, Twitter updates, local weather information, Checking In, Instant Messaging between the team and more.

The main success was videos - we invested in a specially made iPhone holder from Singapore which in turn attached to a typical camera tripod from Argos and a 4-Pole 3.5mm to 3 x RCA lead with an RCA to 3-pin XLR connector wired to a battery powered Rode NT3 microphone.

We did it not only as an experiment, but to demonstrate to radio stations who want to provide multi-media content for themselves that providing such a service doesn’t cost the earth, and the results really are worth it.

Special thanks to Stuart Clarkson, Sophie Greenwood, Craig Stewart and others (they know who they are!) for all their assistance this year, and we’ll be back next year to do it all over again!

Roy Martin
Owner, RadioToday.co.uk

The big Radio Festival iPhone video experiment

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:56:07 +0100

So we’ve decided to put the iPhone 4 to the test at the Radio Festival this year.

Not only will we use multiple devices to blog from the various sessions and take photos, but we’ll also be using the built in HD video recorder to shoot interviews and guides, then edit them down on iMovie.

We’ve even bought an XLR mic connector and tripod so you don’t get our shaky camera work.

The first couple of test videos are online now on our YouTube channel, and viewable via our Facebook page too.

We’re not promising a big budget production, but hopefully you’ll find the content useful and be happy to be part of our big iPhone HD experiment!

http://radiotoday.co.uk/live

The Radio Today Daily

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:13:43 +0100

For the last few week’s we’ve been sending you tweets each day about the Radio Today Daily.

This is a third party website provided by paper.li which gathers information automatically from Twitter about radio industry news. Or that’s the theory anyway.

We have our own opinion about how useful this is but we’d love to hear from you about what you think. Do you click on the link and read the content? Is it relevant?

Do let us know by reply or email us.

Are you exhibiting at the Radio Fair?

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:04:00 +0100

We are busy getting ready for the big radio industry bash that is the Radio Festival - three days and nights of entertaining, informative and interesting radio industry events.

And this year it takes place right next door to our office in Salford Quays - overlooking Media City UK at The Lowry. The Radio Today team will be there in force providing a complete live blog, plus interviews, photos and more.

On Wednesday, we’ll be publishing a special edition of eRADIO, looking ahead to the event with some local knowledge and information which you might find useful about the event and the area.

So if you are exhibiting at the Radio Fair, please drop us an email before Tuesday afternoon with any information you’d like us to mention. Maybe it’s a new product launch or you just want to let people who you’ll have a big tin of Roses on your stand. Anything really, just let us know and we’ll tell the rest of the radio industry on your behalf. All for free, naturally.

Security issues resolved at RadioToday.co.uk

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 10:48:11 +0100

Running CMS software on any site is subject to attacks at some point or other, and the software we use on RadioToday.co.uk certainly gets its fair share.

Today we are upgrading our site to the very latest secure version, (e107 v7.24) so not only will those hidden Viagra ads disappear (thanks to those who have emailed us), but we should be running a little bit faster now.

As always if you spot anything which doesn’t look right, feel free to drop us an email.