Google have quietly been testing their own verion of Facebook called Google Plus. Currently only a small number of peopel have acccess to the new service while Google tests it. However the service could layunch within the next few days.
Google plan to base their Social Networking around Circles. They describe it this way: “You share different things with different people. But sharing the right things with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another and your boss in a circle all on his own – just like in real life.”
You can go here and leave your email address so you are one of the first to know about this product when it becomes available. By the way the page crashed when I tried so either Google has a problem or there are just too many people trying to sign up for this service.
Read more about it here thanks to PC Magazine.
Here is the Google Video about Google Plus
If you have a public profile please watch this video about a radio shock jock who got more than he bargained for, as he attempted to check in late for a flight in New Zealand. Given the incident happened in an airport, it should come as no suprise that it was captured on security video. I gave this young man his first radio job in radio, so I was dissapointed to see a promising career end this way.
Watch the video here and please excuse the funny accent!
Here is something most of us who work in the industry have known all along, that when people listen to radio they feel happier. Now some new research commissioned by the RAB and conducted by Sparkler Research has put a number on it. Listeners to radio are 100% happier than those who do not listen according to this research conducted amongst 1000 people via their smartphones. They were asked what media, if any, they were consuming and then to rate aspects of their mood, ie how happy they were feeling or how much energy they had, from minus five to plus five.
“When compared with people who were not consuming any media, people who were only watching TV rated themselves 62% happier on average, people using the internet rated themselves 69% happier but people listening to the radio were an impressive 100% happier,” reports Mediaweek. “The differences were even more stark when comparing energy levels. People watching TV rated themselves as having 180% more energy than people who were not consuming any media, people online rated themselves as having 220% more energy and people listening to the radio rated themselves as having 300% or three times more energy.”
Read more about this study here thanks to Mediaweek.
Another broadcaster has come out in support of forcing cell phone manufactures to add FM chips to all cell phones as a public safety measure. The floods, fires and Tornadoes that have caused death and destruction in many areas in the USA appear to be part of the reason that prompted this Television General Manager to speak out. “Having an FM chip in every single smartphone sold in America should not be an option, it should be a service provided by every telecom company out there as a matter of public interest” says Mike Smythe, VP/GM of Raycom’s CBS KFVS-TV 12 out of Cape Girardeau MO. Smythe called on smart phone providers to do the right thing and turn on the chips that are already in most models, at no charge to consumers, no less.
KFVS serves the Paducah-Cape Girardeau-Harrisburg-Mt. Vernon DMA, and Smythe used his own chunk of spectrum to go to bat for the safety and well-being of his own viewers in the event of a natural or manmade disaster. In an editorial, he said that an activated FM radio chip should be a free service provided in every single smart phone out there as a simple matter of public safety.
Smythe had to go no farther back in history than the recent devastating tornadoes in Joplin and elsewhere. Cell towers were downed, rendering mobile phones useless. But radio stations were still up and running, providing critical information to the devastated area. He said there is absolutely no question that every person in that area with a mobile device would have loved to have access to radio during that excruciatingly difficult time.
Most of the rest of the world has FM available on their mobile device, noted Smythe, and he said 50% call broadcast radio one of the top three features on their phone.
Read the full story here thanks to RBR
I recently experienced a cell phone with an FM receiver as my iPhone was being repaired. This loaner phone (An LG Gossip pictured above) while lacking many of the functions of my iPhone was simple to use and allowed me to save my favourite stations. It provided very good FM reception provided I had the headphones plugged in. Having an FM receiver in a cell phone offers a real benefit to consumers and is not difficult for manufactures to provide.
Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the parent company of XM Canada, and Sirius Canada Inc., is pleased to announce that the organizations have completed the merger announced in November 2010. Operating as SiriusXM Canada, the newly merged entity will have more than 1.8 million subscribers and form one of the country’s leading media companies. The combined company’s stock will continue to be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “XSR”.
Read more here.
The CRTC’s hearings on vertical integration begin Monday. For the next two weeks, this means that the four major vertically integrated media companies in Canada – Bell, Shaw, Rogers and Quebecor – could face tough questions about whether they have the clout to dominate telecom, media and Internet services across the country and, if so, what should be done to curb that potential?
Read more here
Based on the latest Arbitron Radar 109 National Radio Study to be released on June 20, the number of people listening to the radio in the USA has increased over the last time radio listening was measured which was June 2010. The number of persons twelve and older listening to radio each week now reaches an estimated 241.5 million, representing 93.1 percent of all persons twelve and older.
The study shows that in an average week, radio attracts nearly 96% of adults aged 18-49 with a college education and a household income of more than $75,000 – nearly 22.8 million listeners. Radio reaches approximately 71.7 million adults aged 25-54, or 96%, with a household income of $50,000 or more. Radio also delivers an estimated 95%, or 17.3 million, adults aged 18 to 34 with a college degree – an attractive demographic for advertisers
Read more here.
“101 Gadgets of All Time,” produced by A&E Television networks in conjunction with Popular Mechanics and technology journalists, ranked radio ahead of television and personal computers.
Click here to see the All Access article.
The Windsor Star reports that “It was a night of nights Tuesday for the Lady with the Golden Ears, CKLW’s legendary Rosalie Trombley.”
The legendary music director was honoured at a tribute dinner at St. Clair Centre for the Arts. Click here to read the Windsor Star article.
The chairman of the federal broadcasting regulator has raised the possibility of legislation to deal with the onslaught of so-called over-the-top services such as Netflix, Google TV and Apple TV.
Read the whole story here.