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ftm Radio Page - week ending July 3, 2020

Big audience for annual summer show, special guest
"wonderful feeling"

In Sweden the summer solstice is a special day. It announces the coming summer holiday, which in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia is the month of July. Since 1959 Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) main channel P1 has produced a special program called Sommar i P1 (Summer on P1).

This year the program aired, obviously, on June 20th. And the special guest was environmental activist and Sweden’s famous teenager Greta Thunberg. Lest one think Swedes could have tired of hearing about Ms Thunberg, think again. More than a million tuned in, according to measurement service Kantar SIFO, 1.048 million actually, the biggest audience ever. On top of that, within three days the podcast of the program had been downloaded 870,000 times, said an SR statement (June 24). "It is a wonderful feeling,” said P1 program director Bibi Rödöö. (See more about media in Sweden here)

Ms Thunberg spoke for an hour and a half about climate, activism and science. She also talked about meeting the world’s great leaders (“not impressed”) and the constant demand for selfies. For those who missed it, the English-language version will appear on the BBC July 11th.

Media support not forthcoming, executive unhappy
"not concerned about being politically correct"

Support is contentious for media outlets plunged into financial distress due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic downturn. Governments entering these media support efforts are cautious and setting priorities. Newspaper publishers, particularly large ones, are benefitting. Anybody else, not so much. This is raising a whole new level of questions.

Not included in a media support program through Norway’s Culture Ministry announced last week (June 26) were outlets that showed a profit last year. “I was shocked,” said Bauer Media Norway chief executive Jim Receveur, quoted by media news portal Medier24.no (June 26), “when the government presented the crisis package… and saw that they had put in a sentence that excludes us from getting benefits. It is very serious for us. Exclude that one exclusionary phrase that came on Friday. If not, I must go to the board and recommend closing the operation in Norway.” That the company already implemented a cost containment program, in effect this year, was also an excluding condition. (See more about media in Norway here) (See more about media support here)

Bauer Media Norway operates eight radio channels, including Radio Norge, Vinyl and Radio1. Mr. Receveur joined Bauer Media Norge a year ago, coming directly from Bauer Media Denmark. "With a radio manager who is not concerned about being politically correct in Norway, anything can happen," said current Bauer Media Denmark chief executive Kyrre Dahl to Medier24.no (July 1).

Newspaper brand extension lands on radio, smart speakers not so much
"noise and confusion"

The all new Times Radio made its debut in the UK this week. The all-talk channel is available nationally on DAB multiplexes. The impending arrival was announced in January by owner News UK to extend the brands of daily newspaper The Times and the Sunday Times.

Day one of Times Radio featured British prime minister Boris Johnson in a morning interview, considered “significant” as PM Johnson has avoided BBC Radio 4 since October, noted the Evening Standard (June 30). “Our promise to listeners is that, in a world of noise and confusion, Times Radio will offer intelligent and thought-provoking news, analysis and conversation, hosted by respected and entertaining presenters,” said Times Radio program director Tim Levell in a statement, quoted by Press Gazette (June 29).

The digital “news and current affairs” channel, described by the Times (June 29), is completely ad-free. UK media watchers see this as acknowledging the struggle to entice BBC Radio listeners who have not experienced ad-break interruptions. Times Radio will also have no phone-ins, perhaps to contrast with commercial all-talk channel LBC, owned by Global Radio. (See more about media in the UK here)

Not all the digital components performed perfectly on launch day, causing a few chuckles. Seeking to be quite op-to-date, smart speakers from Apple (Siri) and Amazon (Alexa) need only call out “play Times Radio.” Those who tried on launch day were directed to Times Radio Malawi, an east African music and talk station. At least one report said similar commands to the Google Smart Assistant tuned in London station Radio X.

When Virgin Radio, owned by News UK through the 2016 acquisition of The Wireless Group, debuted 18 months ago the only ads were sponsorship mentions for pay-TV channel Sky. The big news of its launch was the hiring of BBC Radio 2 host Chris Evans. More than a decade ago, News UK attempted a brand extension of the tabloid The Sun. That lasted 18 months. News UK is a subsidiary of News Corporation, principally controlled by the Murdoch family.


Radio Page week ending June 26, 2020
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Radio Page week ending June 19, 2020
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Radio Page week ending June 12, 2020
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Radio Page week ending June 5, 2020
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Radio Page week ending May 29, 2020
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Radio Page week ending May 22, 2020
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Radio Page week ending May 15, 2020
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Radio Page week ending May 8, 2020
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Radio Page week ending May 1, 2020
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Radio Page week ending April 24, 2020
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Radio Page week ending April 17, 2020
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Radio Page week ending April 10, 2020
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Radio Page week ending April 3, 2020
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Radio Page week ending March 27, 2020
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Radio Page week ending March 20, 2020
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Radio Page week ending March 13, 2020
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Radio Page week ending March 6, 2020
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Radio Page week ending February 28, 2020
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Radio Page week ending February 21, 2020
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Radio Page week ending February 14, 2020
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Radio Page week ending February 7, 2020
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Radio Page week ending January 31, 2020
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Radio Page week ending January 24, 2020
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Radio Page week ending January 24, 2020
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Radio Page week ending January 17, 2020
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Radio Page week ending January 10, 2020
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Radio Page week ending December 20, 2019
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Radio Page week ending December 13, 2019
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Radio Page week ending December 6, 2019
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Radio Page week ending November 29, 2019
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Radio Page week ending November 22, 2019
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Radio Page week ending November 15, 2019
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Radio Page week ending November 8, 2019
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Radio Page week ending November 1, 2019
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Radio Page week ending October 25, 2019
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Radio Page week ending October 18, 2019
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Radio Page week ending October 11, 2019
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Radio Page week ending October 4, 2019
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Radio Page week ending September 27, 2019
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Radio Page week ending September 20, 2019
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Radio Page week ending September 13, 2019
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Radio Page week ending September 6, 2019
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Radio Page week ending August 2, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 26, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 19, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 12, 2019
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Radio Page week ending July 5, 2019
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Radio Page week ending June 28, 2019
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Radio Page week ending June 21, 2019
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