ASIA

Indian Network Big FM has launched a new show titled ‘Big Katha’, which will reimagine and retell stories from the past with a modern twist, while retaining their core essence and morals.Hosted by popular RJ Khurafati Nitin and RJ Pihu, the show airs Saturdays from 8 pm to 9 pm and Sundays from 6 pm to 7 pm.Nitin and Pihu will play the characters of Akkad Singh and Babita respectively, which are based on Mughal emperor Akbar and one of his courtiers Birbal – who was famous for his quick wit.

Speaking about the show, Sunil Kumaran, Country Head, Product, Marketing and THWINK BIG, BIG FM, said: “We are contextualizing the classic folklore of Akbar and Birbal for the newer audiences. It is modern day storytelling, reimagining the tales and narrated in a unique avatar for our listeners.”RJ Khurafati Nitin, popular BIG RJ from Delhi, commented: “Storytelling is in our Indian DNA, be it in the form of classic tales, books or content. I am looking forward to recreating these stories giving it a modern twist while not losing their essence and morals.” […]

Content from BPRIf you think of your competition as merely the other broadcast radio stations in the market, you are missing the big picture. With each passing year, radio’s competition from non-radio audio services is increasing. No format is immune to this trend. With the expansion of the digital communication world, our listeners are constantly drawn to and occupied with other media. This impacts not only music stations but news and talk formats as well.

Industry veteran and All Access President Joel Denver recently spoke with Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeart Media. In a discussion about the future of radio, Pittman made clear the dilemma radio operators are facing when he said, “You use the word Radio, Radio, Radio.  I do too.  It’s a habit.” He then cited the younger generation’s perception of radio, “When you do research on young people, they’ll say ‘why are you calling it a device?  It’s a thing. That’s just one place I get it.  I actually will get in on my phone, and I get it on my video game machine’.”The message is that younger listeners consider radio to be simply one of many audio sources. They consider traditional radio sets to be just one of the ways to hear our broadcasts. For them, radio is just a device among many. What matters to them is the content, not the device.So, what does this mean for our business? The fact that radio can be accessed on various electronic devices means that we are now competing with all of the readily available digital audio services. In the past, the alternative to listening to one station was to simply switch to another station. Today, the alternatives extend far beyond our broadcast band radio competitors.Stations that rely on music as their primary programming material now compete with digital streaming services of all kinds. Additionally, listeners can access their own downloaded music on smartphones, tablets and computers. There is a streaming service for every musical taste from Hip Hop to Classical. In many cases, music streaming services offer multiple styles of music each of which can be programmed far more narrowly than any broadcast station. Even in the largest markets, a niche station that exclusively programs electronic dance (EDM) or early jazz would probably not be viable. However, as digital streams, such styles would have a good chance at building an audience large enough to justify the format.News and talk formats now have competition from a variety of digital sources, most notably podcasts. It is now possible to find a podcast devoted to one’s most esoteric tastes and interests. Services such as Google News are regularly updated and easily accessible on smartphones, tablets and computers. A recent study by Pew Research reported that 80% of people in the US get their news from digital sources. Most newspapers and television news channels have their own on-line news services. Digital newspaper subscribers are rapidly surpassing subscribers of traditional newspapers. The futures of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Daily Mail and The Sydney Morning Herald are digital.Radio still has unique features that are difficult for other media to copy. Localism is high on the list. Radio stations have the ability to relate to their community in real time. Popular personalities and programs exclusive to your station are also a major source of differentiation.It is now easier to listen to radio than ever before. Listeners can access your station across a wide range of devices. Radio is more portable than before. We can now listen to radio while jogging or working out at the gymnasium. Radio still has an important role to play in people’s lives. Let’s just stop thinking about it as “radio” but rather as locally-based audio content providers attuned to the particular needs of the listeners in their broadcast area.By Andy Beaubien, BPR […]

Indian network Big FM has launched ‘Dhun Workouts’, an initiative for the workout of the lungs and soul.According to the network, these exercises will not be the regular ‘Breathe-Hold-Release’ that is common in the health and fitness space, but will unleash the hidden potential of Bollywood music that will leave audiences singing along and enjoying to their heart’s content.With Dhun Workouts, the network will curate a list of few Bollywood songs that will help in better breathing and concentration.

These will be played on air every hour for 30 seconds where station’s RJs will encourage listeners to sing along. These lung workouts can be done anywhere and anytime as listeners just have to sing along to the tunes and see their lungs feel better after the exercise. These songs will help listeners breathe better, leading to being able to concentrate better. The exercise will also help improve the posture to facilitate efficient breathing, overall aiding to healthy lungs.Speaking about the same, Sunil Kumaran, Country Head, Product, Marketing and THWINK Big, Big FM, said: “The past two years have laid emphasis on the importance of having good health like never before. Amidst the covid crisis, the prominence of having good lung health has been of the utmost importance. We have always believed in reaching out to our listeners through our various initiatives for their good health, be it mentally or emotionally. As the frontrunner in launching purpose-driven campaigns and initiatives aimed towards bringing positive change in the society, ‘Dhun Workouts’ is our earnest attempt to reach out to our listeners and raise awareness on the importance of having healthy lungs.” […]

An Afghan journalist barely survived a car bomb attack on his car this week in Kabul.The journalist, who we will call Journo to conceal his identity for fear of reprisals against him, had been in hiding after Taliban heavies came to his house searching for him. His family and neighbours were repeatedly questioned and harassed in attempts to get them to reveal his whereabouts.Here is the journalist’s story, told to radioinfo by a relative:

From the day when Taliban tookover Kabul, Journo has been followed by gunmen, therefore he has been unable to go out of his home for three months.He has been hiding along with his children and wife. This is because he had 20 years of journalism experience and one year worked with foreign organisations (details withheld).
In the last three months Journo shifted 5 or 6 times from one house to another, in the last home theylived in a small cold and dark room. He had to stay there only with his wife and small children because there was not enough space for them all to live all in one room, so Journo had to separate his family in to two parts. One part was Journo, his wife and their three infant children, and in the second part his two eldest sons. His children were living apart and used to call him and were crying to visit him. 
On 17thNovember, 2021 he wanted to bring his children to his hiding room. On the way he felt some people were following him, he called to me at 3pm and told me some unknown people are following me, I told him go back and hide. But on the way back his children called him (“father please take us home!”) so he continued his journey to bring his children back. 
There was a bloody attack on his vehicle at 3:45 pm near to his home. As the result Journo was injured very seriously and he was taken to hospital. Now he cannot walk, speak on the phone or write. The journalist has applied for emergency asylum but has not yet heard anything about his asylum claim. He fears that he will be killed and his family mistreated if his claim is not processed quickly, allowing he and his family to be evacuated from Kabul.Journo’s story is one of many similar stories we are hearing from Afghanistan under the Taliban. It indicates that the Taliban’s claims that they will not take revenge on people who worked for foreign organisations cannot be trusted.The moments after the car bomb attack were captured by a observers and posted to facebook. […]

Virtual and free, the DRM Consortium IBC 2021 event is scheduled for December 1st 1200-1500 UTC (1300-1600 CET) and promises to be an exciting showcase of the practical advances of DRM in various parts of the world.The focus will be on the recent VHF band II test in India and improvements to the DRM performance, equipment, and receivers featuring some of the attractive extra DRM features and benefits.Members of the Consortium will give a well-illustrated, quick, and global view of DRM, so that participants can get the best and most reliable information on DRM developments directly from the specialists.

Companies like: Ampegon, BBC, Cambridge Consultants, CML Microcircuits, Encompass, Fraunhofer IIS, Gospell, Inntot, Nautel, RFmondial, RF2Digital and others are ready to give short and attractive updates already. There will be also surprise announcements, so register in good time for your front seat.DRM is expanding and giving even more weight to the event on December 1st to compensate for the cancellation of the live streamed Nautel hosted DRM event initially scheduled for Saturday 4th of December at RAI, Amsterdam, which will now have to be scheduled at a future date due to COVID-19 restrictions.Ruxandra Obreja, the Consortium Chairman, says that: “We are trying to make our DRM IBC event bigger and more attractive than ever. By doing this we hope to  impress on all those interested how much progress DRM has made in both take-up and receiver solutions over these last trying months. It will be a recap of the great activities of 2020-2021 and a good starting point for next year’s decisions and steps. DRM is more attractive and in tune with the needs of the world than ever, with its energy and spectrum cost savings and its extra features and possibilities like delivering education and emergency warning.” […]

Peter Saxon asks Raoul Wedel: How will this end?The concept of synthetic voices generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around since 1965 when Robby the Robot got lost in space along with the family Robinson. 20 years later Max Headroom starred in his own TV show and in ads for New Coke.

Robby the Robot from Lost in Space
Both fictional android characters, Robby and Max, were played by real actors giving their interpretation of what an artificially generated voice might sound like, sometime in the future.

Well, that future has arrived. Synthetic Voices like Alexa and Siri are used extensively in smart speakers as well as in car Satnavs and much more.Now, the people at the Adthos Creative Studio have taken the whole concept to a much higher plane offering broadcast quality audio ads using AI generated voice technology.As you are probably aware by now, Adthos is a major advertiser with radioinfo, which means you probably also know that they’ve created a readymade campaign for radio stations focused on encouraging vaccine uptake, which can be downloaded and used for free, covering 6,500 cities in 40 countries, and in 70 languages and dialects.As exciting as all that sounds, one can’t help but feel that the better, the more realistic synthetic voiceovers become, there could be some less positive outcomes arise from it.Will AI make voice artists redundant? Is this how Big Brother will finally take over?To answer those and other questions about the ethics of AI is the man behind all the high tech, Raoul Wedel, founder of Wedelsoft Software, the organisation behind the Adthos brand.I asked him straight out: Now that thousands of stations and production houses worldwide have had a chance to sample the product, have you had any negative feedback regarding the ethics involved?“There has, and to be honest, it greatly varies by the country, the ad itself, and also by the voiceover artist, of course, because they’re still human beings who have different opinions and different views.“One voiceover that we recorded is actually a major iHeart talent in the US. And he did many shows on KISS-FM Boston while located in Los Angeles, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. He said, ‘You know, this is going to happen anyway. There’s no way that I’m going to change that. So, I might as well just take it and run with it.”There’s a myriad application for AI that can “sample” a voice and generate audio from a script.As Mr Wedel explains, “Our system comes with a set of default voices. If you’re a brand, let’s say McDonald’s and you have 400 locations in your country and you want to send every local station a different version of an ad with the local address of the local franchise, then we can take their regular corporate voice that does all their ads on TV and radio. We can put that voice into the system and create 600 versions. And the franchisees could potentially change that too. Ton the highest end on the spectrum of what we’re doing.”Does the voice get paid more for the coverage, even though they don’t have to physically read each individual version?“Sure, they do. It’s different, though, from market to market. There are great differences because the smaller the market is, the more afraid the talent is of competing with an AI version of themselves in their own market, because then potentially they’re going to hear their voice on every station and then nobody’s going to book them in real life anymore, especially if the talent pool is small.“We have two fee models for voice artists. We have a buyout model, where we give them a one-time fee and we can use their voice for it in smaller markets. We also have an option where the talent’s paid royalties.”I saw a meme once on a car salespersons desk that said: ‘The key to salesmanship is sincerity. Once you learn to fake that, you’ve got, it made.’It was a joke, of course. But will there be a time that AI will include the full gamut of nuanced emotions so that you won’t be able to tell the difference a synthesised voice and a real or ‘analogue’ one?“You can compare this with the first music synthesisers. It’s kind of the same thing. And when those first synthesisers came along and you heard a string orchestra, it didn’t sound very much like a string orchestra. But these days, most professional musicians wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a synthesised violin and a real violin because the quality has improved so, so fast.“This is growing extremely fast. The technology provider we’re working with has updates coming all the time on a day-by-day basis.”There’s much more to synthetic voices than radio and audio advertising. They’re developing text to speech engines to record audio books, for example.Mr Wedel says, “I personally think that in five years time, there’s not going to be a Starbucks or a McDonald’s that has a real person taking an order on the speaker of the Drive-Thru. The technology is there and it’s going to be very quick.”

Peter Saxon […]