Europas wichtigste Konferenz für Radiomacher:innen ist zu Ende. #rde26

💈Das hier sind meine Notizen von Tag drei der Radiodays Europe in Riga.

Unofficial post-Radiodays Europe run club: gentle 5-6k to see the sights of Riga.

Shorter walking option available.

Meet at 17:45 Radison Blu Latvija Conference & Spa hotel. (Tues 24th March).

#rde26 #rde2026

Local community donors stepped up to support NPR and PBS when the US govt cut their funding. The challenge is to turn emergency donors into regular listeners and paid supporters. #rde26 #rde2026

Ryan Merkley from NPR says they aren’t there to save public radio, but to build the “public media that we need for the future”.

Mantra is about “building a thriving democracy together” with the audience and having “public media everywhere”. #rde26 #rde2026

Back in the @radiodayseurope.bsky.social conference rooms after a morning of breaking playout systems.

We're hearing how @npr.org is being targeted by the US government through funding cuts. It's affecting freedom of speech and democracy. #rde26 #rde2026

Die Radiodays Europe in Riga gehen weiter, Europas wichtigste Konferenz für Radiomacher:innen. #rde26

💈 Das hier sind meine Notizen von Tag zwei.

Also pro tip for a ‘silent’* disco: don’t have one of the tracks blaring on full blast over the main speakers…

*90dB.

#rde26 #rde2026

Singer in stage with video of woman in white dress in a grave behind her.

We’re watching the lady who is representing Latvia at @eurovision.tv this year. She is fab.

There is a jolly video of a woman being kidnapped and buried alive behind her.

I don’t understand pop music.

#rde26 #rde2026

Abosulte hysterics from part of the audience that the BBC can be "quick" to move towards the latest shiny thing...

(More serious point is that it's important not to throw out things that are older but brilliant just because they aren't new. Absolutely spot on!) #rde26 #rde2026

I think listening to any episode of @onambridge.bsky.social would belie the idea that the user experience of BBC Sounds is universally loved by the Radio 4 audience... #rde26 #rde2026

I'm still rather unclear on what the BBC's speech audio strategy is after this session (apart from carry on making amazing content and putting it on BBC Sounds and R4?) We were treated to a lovely screenshot of a behind-the-scenes spreadsheet, which is always a treat. #rde26 #rde2026

It turns out that I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue smut jokes do not translate to a European audience (apart from to the Irish delegation), judging from the reaction in the room. #rde26 #rde2026

Mohit Bakaya from BBC Radio 4 talks about the importance of public spaces and conversations for democracy.
“If you don’t know what’s true and not true, you don’t believe anything.” #RDE2026 #RDE26

Radiodays Europe now moves onto a session called What Radio Can Learn From Donald Trump.

I presume it's going to be make sure you have baseball caps as part of your prize cupboard and how to declare war in a tight 30s without crashing the news in ident? #rde26 #rde2026

Reaction from listners then feeds into new avenues. Crucially, they measure *conversations* and not just numbers on socials to see how far a story has had impact. Collaboration is key! #rde26 #rde2026

Europas wichtigste Konferenz fürs Radio hat begonnen. Die Radiodays Europe finden in diesem Jahr in Riga in Lettland statt. #rde26

🧵 Hier kommen meine Notizen von Tag eins der Konferenz.

As is traditional for radio conferences, the opening keynote explains why we are all going to die and our industry will be no more.

AI = people making their own content and not listening to ours, apparently. #RDE26 #RDE2026

Baiba Zuzena from Latvian Public Service Broadcaster - people will spend 60 minutes+ with a story if it matters to them. Maybe the problem is not attention span, but relevance. #rde26

Singers dressed in red with red umbrellas.

A (very good) choir has passively-aggressively (and possibly unwittingly) shown their distain for post-Brexit Britain by putting up umbrellas indoors.

Welcome to Latvia! 🇱🇻 #RDE26

RDE logo on main stage.

Day two (or possibly Day one, depending on how you count) of @radiodayseurope.bsky.social begins! #rde26

Marianne on stage at Radiodays Europe. hei-da.org

Marianne Bouchart is absolutely worth the #RDE26 ticket price alone.

If you are working out AI strategies and tricks for your newsroom, HIRE THIS WOMAN! (Company is HEI-DA).

Very excited to see Marianne Bouchart from Hey-Da speaking again. She knows all things AI and audio workflow and did a cracking session at @radiotechcon.com last year. #RDE26

Was sitting in the middle of a row with several empty seats on either side. Two men just pushed past me (ignoring empty seats on one side) and then sat next to me (ignoring empty seats the other side). Very intimidating. I’ve just had to move.

Don’t do this! #rde26

Radio people like free food. So @radiodayseurope.bsky.social delegates need to get to the Visit Latvia stall at the back of the #rde26 exhibition area pronto before all the delicious free samples of local food are gone. The ginger honey, birch vinegar and birch kombucha get my vote 😋

EU rules are changing. AI transparency will come into effect in August. Proposed Code of Practice is currently in draft but isn’t quite workable yet - eg first suggestion was an audio warning about AI content upfront, repeated for any audio over 30s. Audio industry is lobbying on this point #RDE26

Here we go. #rde26

Nicky Birch has asked the room who uses synthetic voice on air. Room is split between companies who are using it, and companies who are actively decided NOT to use it. #rde26 #GenerativeAI

First up at @radiodayseurope.bsky.social: the marvellous Nicky Birch from the BBC explaining the BBC’s AI strategy. Everything must be human supervised. Audiences are worried about trustworthy content and knowing what they see is real. #RDE26

A Qantas A380 aircraft taxiing past Heathrow Terminal 2

Early start on the way to Riga for #RDE26 - cold but sunny at LHR.

Catch Headliner next week at #RDE26!

Our Head of Growth, Sarah Toporoff, will be leading not one, but three sessions.

1. Who’s buying listeners? Podcast marketing strategies demystified
2. Where’s the money in podcasting?
3. Conflict journalism: How podcasts can break through the noise