It seems an astonishing statistic but 99.6 per cent of radio is broadcast live, delivered straight from the studio mike to your personal loudspeaker: 99.6 per cent! Compared with TV, which must be at least 80 per cent recorded, this is an extraordinary indicator of how radio is the on-message medium right now, able to deliver immediate content, live and interactive.
Yet a lot of radio listening is not done in real time these days, but later, after transmission, via the internet, the iPlayer, podcasts and downloads. We could experience a live connection but find ourselves switching on to a recorded moment. This is all about to be revolutionised with the launch earlier this month of a new version of iPlayer. We can now tune straight into all the BBC radio stations via this new ‘iPlayer Radio’ and choose either to listen to the ‘live’ schedule or look for a programme in the archive. As Daniel Danker, the general manager for BBC On Demand, claims, ‘every station will be able to write its own experience’ on this new kind of iPlayer. You can listen to what’s on at the moment, or ‘swipe upwards’ through the options to find the programme you missed yesterday — all on the same interface.
Trouble is this is essentially ‘internet’ radio, and if you want to tune in wherever you may be, on the sofa, in the car, in bed, you’ll need to buy the app — and have the right kind of smartphone. You’ll also need to fiddle around with swiping the pad, spinning the dial, and waiting for the connection. (There’s quite a time-lag between radio and iPlayer Radio.)
I’ll always be a fan of just pressing a button and finding yourself instantly somewhere you’ve never been before, or listening in to a conversation between people you would not normally come across or be interested in.
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