New Australian broadcast rules - covering AI and kids

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Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist.

And this is Radio Land, my weekly radio trends newsletter and podcast.

And it is the 10th of February 2026.

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Australian broadcast radio content regulations are a little odd

if you've ever worked in a different radio market.

As I wrote about in mid-November, the ACMA, the media regulator,

is surprisingly toothless.

It has just one big weapon, an additional license condition,

which is a big heavy weapon, and only brought out if it's got no other choice.

And if those additional license conditions are broken,

the only thing the ACMA can do is turn the radio station off,

either temporarily or permanently.

There is a fine set by law at currently $165,000 Australian dollars a day.

That's about 120,000 US, which may be ludicrously large or piflingly small.

They can't change it anyway.

But for contents of radio broadcasts, there is a co-regulatory framework

where broadcasters and their trade associations work on their own codes of practice,

and the ACMA registers these and assesses compliance.

And commercial radio and audio has released a new code of practice today,

which has just been registered by the ACMA.

It's the first since 2017.

I've mirrored the codes just in case they go away on my website.

The press release tells us that there are two new things in there.

Firstly, something called special care at times when kids are most likely to be in the car.

That's from 8 till 9 in the morning and from 3 till 4 in the afternoon.

It's not very clear what special care means,

but you can bet that this is in relation to the stuff that Kyle and Jackie O have been broadcasting

during this time slot without a clear understanding of what special care means,

because it's not defined anywhere.

It doesn't seem to mean an awful lot, but at least there's something there, I guess.

And there's also something in there about AI transparency.

It's a move I think against ARN's horrible dishonest radio announcer called Ty,

which was a badly produced, badly written AI voice on Cader,

and never disclosed as being AI, as you can tell I'm a fan.

The devil is in the detail.

Because if ARN wanted to disclose that Ty was just an AI voice,

then they can post somewhere no one looks like a page buried on their website somewhere,

and the letter of this new rule is complete as long as it's been mentioned somewhere, then it's fine.

So not quite so sure whether either of these two clauses are going to be particularly helpful,

not mentioned in the press releases headline,

but much more welcome is that the CRA will publish an annual report

with a summary of all the complaints, which will be quite interesting to look at.

In case you're wondering what all of the changes are,

well, there's a little bit of a change in terms of corrections to news broadcasts.

They must now be mentioned, be made as soon as he's reasonably practical.

There wasn't any time guidance before there,

so you could just correct something a couple of months later, and that would have been fine.

There are changes to the formats for Australian music content,

Oz Khan, as I'm going to call it, which nobody else calls it here.

If you play hip hop, then hip hop has moved from a 15% minimum Australian content

to a 25 minimum content for some reason,

and accordingly, 25% of that needs to be new instead of just 15% cater,

is the only station I think that describes itself as hip hop and R&B,

at least, the broadcasts on an FM frequency anyway.

There is some changing of words to clarify what a complaint is and what feedback is.

Particularly, feedback appears to be able to be ignored, but a complaint isn't.

So I guess, remember to use the C word in your letter, complaint, obviously.

It does seem that there is a new requirement for an online complaint form

to be made available on radio station websites.

There used to be a word if in that clause.

It's gone now. I'm actually wondering if that's a typo, to be honest with you,

but still there we are.

And then there's the annual report and the brand new section about AI transparency as well.

In the NHL, Silver is second to none.

The playoff push begins.

Alex Ovechkin in the capital.

He's fired. He's gone.

Take on Chekios, David Posternaak in the blue.

The USA hero, Jack Hughes in the devil's host fellow countryman,

JT Miller and the Rangers.

The NHL is back.

Saturday on ADC.

Elsewhere in the UK, the new radio figures came out.

The media club with Matt Deegan has Adam Bowie on to talk about them.

It's worth a watch if you'd like to know what's up in the country and what's down.

And what's up with Adam's thumb.

Adam, what have you done to your thumb, mate?

Anyway, LBC, a talk station has record numbers, which is good to see.

That was my station of choice when I used to live in London.

Spent a house and interviewed me on ABC Radio Brisbane at the end of last year about AM radio.

And I managed to upset Peter of Wavel Heights so much that he sent a t-shirt into Spencer to pass on to me.

And I link in my newsletter to a clip of some video of Spencer waving it about.

It's a big picture of an old AM transmitter, which says something like 300 kilometers.

Total distance or something like that.

I'm sure that's not what Peter sounds like.

There is also a big sheet of paper explaining why I am wrong as well.

Let's just pull that up for you so that I can maybe talk about what it says.

Because what does it say?

There's a thing.

I've got it hidden away on this machine over here.

Yes, so it is on about coverage, 300 kilometers radius, lovely.

It talks about AM, which is ground waves or ground guided, as he says.

We do learn that FM radio doesn't work in the rain, which is something that I was hidden to unaware of and you probably as well.

So that's a thing.

There's a long talk about misguided legislation that is happening in the US.

No mention of the fact that it's only for seven years anyway in terms of making sure that AM radios are in new cars.

I'm not actually sure whether that has been yet passed.

I don't think it has been yet.

And it says in remote Australia, AM is more likely to be your companion.

Peter, I agree with that.

Absolutely.

Yes, I'm not talking about in remote Australia.

I'm talking about in the cities.

And in the cities, really, an AM radio station needs to be on FM in order to be listened to.

That's the important bit.

Anyway, it's nice to see that so many people feel so passionately about this stuff.

And if Peter from Wavel Heights would like to get in touch, then I will return the favor by buying him a DAB plus radio.

So he can enjoy three times the choice of stations.

And I'm sure that he will enjoy that very much.

New York Public Radio has a new CEO.

Christie Tanner has an impressive media background, if not any.

A particular radio experience to point to.

I don't think I mentioned that the CEO of RCS Philippe General Lee is to step down at the end of this month.

Philippe is an unusual CEO.

He's often really visible at industry events.

A large number of which they support.

And as you'll see from the RCS banner in the newsletter, RCS has been a supporter of many parts of the radio industry for many years.

A lot of that is down to Philippe and his team.

And I do wish him all the very best for retirement.

I look forward to RCS's next chapter as well.

And last time on this podcast.

And in my newsletter, I mentioned that Chanel Vella, who's been doing ABC Radio Melbourne's Monday to Friday breakfast show,

was highlighted as a media trainer by her talent agency's bio, which apparently shouldn't be allowed.

Anyway, that's been changed.

It now reads Chanel was highly sought after as a media trainer during her timing commercial networks.

So I'm happy to make that clear that she's no longer a media trainer.

The conflict of interest only really arises if she's interviewed anyone who she trained.

But we don't know whether she has, but she's off very shortly on maternity leave.

So perhaps that's one that we can leave for now.

Where am I speaking next?

Well, I'm speaking in New Delhi in India today at the radio festival.

I am on video.

I recorded that in this very office three or four days ago.

Live mixed it as well.

It's all very exciting.

Anyway, that is all done.

It's talking about where the future of radio is going.

Radio days Europe is where I'm speaking next in person.

That's in Riga in that via in mid-March.

Talking about the future of audio being people powered and very much looking forward to doing that.

And the podcast show in London in mid-May.

I'll be keynoting.

I'm also recording a pod news weekly review.

And that keynote may be slightly different this year.

I'm just seeing if I can get approval from the podcast show folk.

It's probably an email already saying yes or saying hell no.

One of those two.

So we'll find out what they say.

But it should be a good event.

Very much looking forward to doing that.

I'm there in London pretty well all week.

And it'd be great to catch up with you if you are in London too.

And thank you to the many supporters of the newsletter and of the podcast.

Including Greg Strassel and Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs,

Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.

If you would like to support my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee.

You can become a member if you like.

Kevin Watson has done that as well.

And I should probably say thank you to him in the newsletter version.

So I will probably do that.

See if I remember to do that a little bit later.

Anyway, you can give me one of coffee or five or sign up regularly.

Buy me a coffee.com slash James Kridland is the place to go.

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You can find me there.

James at BNE.Social.

That's Brisbane BNE.Social.

My website has more details about who I am and what I do and whether I can help you further.

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And until next time keep listening.