The broadcast model is essentially a centralised distribution model. It is one that dominated media distribution throughout the 20th century. Radio was, and still is, the original broadcast medium. At its heart, the broadcast model produces content from a central location to a large number of receivers (listeners in the case of radio, viewers in the case of television).

Radio content by its nature has a strictly linear structure, which offers little or no control to listeners. This was all well and good during the analogue age, where users were subject to the authority of content producers. However, the Internet, [...]

I had been keeping an eye out for articles relating to the Guardian Changing Media Summit which took place in march, and was far beyond my budget to attend(about £340!). According to this article on the media guardian website, commercial radio is ‘dying out’. It even has a rather doomsday-esque warning that it could be gone within 15 years. This is based upon the declining advertising revenues in the commercial radio sector. Commcercial radio is, as the name suggests, entirely dependant on advertising/sponsorship to fund its operations. Advertisers are being tempted by the benefits of online advertising, such as more [...]

I have suffered a bit of a setback, due to the fact that the streams the BBC offer are not compatible with flash. I contacted James Cridland, who is the head of future media & technology at the BBC (formerly head of digital at Virgin Radio). James writes a regular blog on the radio industry which is fascinating, I urge anyone who has even a mild interest in radio to have a read. Anyway, he kindly got back to me and explained that the BBC only provide two external links to their streams, .asx to play in windows media player, [...]