Tony Blackburn has been there since the beginning. There were no legal “pop” music radio stations in the 1960s. The launch of BBC Radio 1 was prompted by the popularity of the illegal pirate radio stations off the coast in the UK. Tony Blackburn said the launch was a bit of a

Connected home devices are great but do they just reinforce the radio stations you know? How will listeners hear about your radio station for the very first time? At the moment, connected home devices aren’t great for discovery. Instead they are getting better with new products and technologies, as demonstrated by Michael Hill from Radioplayer. The main

What skills do you need to be a great producer? And how do producers take a radio programme to the next level? In a riveting masterclass, some of the world’s finest radio producers and presenters give their insight in making a range of radio shows. Joel Sucherman, Senior Director, Digital Products at NPR,

Adrian Feuerbacher from NDR in Germany opened the session by discussing his public news station, where they do lots of investigative reporting. They like to show the audience the whole picture with nothing held back. Instead NDR want to create a more accurate understanding of situations. Adrian said that lots of feedback on radio is negative… but

For talent, it is just as important to know what you’re not capable of and where your weaknesses lie, as it is being confident in your own performance. Confidence is still an issue for many, if not all, radio presenters - no matter how successful or how many years they have been in the industry. When

This session looked at how radio organisations are mixing digital and broadcast and whether they are moving apart or coming together. Helena Sahlen Folke said that ‘today, broadcast and digital are very integrated but we need to focus sometimes – we need people to work on making a very good podcast. We

Listening figures for music streaming services are rising year on year, and younger audiences are most enthusiastic than ever. Services like Spotify and Mixcloud are often seen as the ‘enemy’ of radio, and in this session two leaders in the streaming industry talked about its future and how radio and streaming can

Top 2000 has become an annual holiday tradition in the Netherlands. The NPO programme reaches 74% of the Dutch population and has made the station the market leader over the winter months. For flagship features, Jan-Willem suggests programmers should pick a special week, start small and don’t stop. ‘F**k the format and trust the listeners,’ if the

Birthe Linddahl calls herself a "Futurologist on the Future". She looks at trends, gimmicks and "things" and tries to discern the difference between these. "It’s very fashionable to talk about trends, but what are they?" Well, there are "mega trends", those that affect the whole of society! These ones are the most

Stevie Munzner said that we are going through a revolution and promised that he would give us a way to get to the future in a safe way. The world is pretty fast paced in 2017 – we have no idea what to do with the changes that are coming fast at us and there is