Every day this week we’ve been releasing information about this year’s Radio Festival.

We’ve announced whole new areas of the festival such as Festival Extra and the Festival Cafe; sessions on music, advertising, and team leadership; speakers from Canada, India and America; and radio head honchos from BBC, Global, Bauer and GMG.

Other key speakers this year include Gwyneth Williams, newly appointed Controller of Radio 4 and Radio 7, Ford Ennals, Chief Executive of Digital Radio UK, Wendy Harmer, formerly of 2 Day FM in Sydney, and David Liddiment from the BBC Trust.

More Festival news coming shortly. Don’t forget to book your ticket.

At this year’s Radio Festival, we’re covering a whole range of topics under three key themes: Creativity, Business and Technology .

If you want to know how to build the perfect creative team, you won’t want to miss our session on cultural change, featuring the outspoken Tim Smit, the man behind the Eden Project.

If you’re interested in compelling business arguments – “Judge” Nick Ferrari, from London’s LBC 97.3, will try the case for and against advertising on radio (move over Judge Judy!).

And if you’re interested in all things future-facing, we’ll be looking at the revolution facing the music industry with Will Page, Chief Economist at PRS for Music.

Register here.

Steve Pratt (CBC, Canada)

Every day this week we’re announcing details of this year’s Festival programme right here on our blog.

It’s been a tricky year in our market due to the recession, but how has the rest of the world been coping? We’ll be finding out how overseas markets are behaving and what we can learn from them in a session featuring Prashant Panday (The Times of India), Steve Pratt (Director, CBC Radio Canada) and Andy Bird (Chairman, Walt Disney International).

Register here.

This year’s Radio Festival kicks-off with a hard-hitting health check on our industry, with writer and broadcaster Steve Hewlett questioning leading policymakers including Tim Davie (Director, BBC Audio & Music), Ashley Tabor (Chief Executive, Global Radio), Paul Keenan (Chief Executive, Bauer Media) and Andrew Harrison (Chief Executive, RadioCentre).

Register here.

Every day this week we’re announcing details of this year’s Festival programme right here on our blog.

We’re delighted to announce that Richard Bacon from BBC Radio 5 Live will host the programme in the main Quays Theatre, with Capital FM’s Margherita Taylor looking after our new Festival “Extra” room.

Also new this year is our Festival Cafe where you can relax and chat with colleagues, grab a coffee, or join one of our “speed dating” session with radio bosses Clive Dickens (Absolute Radio) and Bob Shennan (BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music).

Register here.

This year’s Festival committee have been beavering away to create a wonderfully packed and diverse range of sessions around three key themes: Creativity, Business and Technology .

Every day for the next week (starting Monday 9th August) we’ll be releasing more details about this year’s Festival programme right here.

Get the inside scoop before everyone else by following us on Twitter or by bookmarking this blog.

Register here.

What impact will the BBC license review have? Will the commercial groups have grown? Will the digital switchover be a reality? Are we still in an analogue production environment? What are the barriers to change? Will local radio need to become hyper-local to compete? What are the alternatives to linear broadcasting? Will new media and radio converge? And what will our new entrants look like?

This week, Adam has been listening to the Tour de France podcast from ITV and the Photo Focus podcast from America; Nick has been trying to distinguish Absolute 80s from Jack FM Bristol, and has noticed some on-air changes at 6 Music; and Chris has been enjoying Lauren Laverne, Guy Garvey, and Tom Ravenscroft on 6, alongside late night listens from John Kennedy (Xfm) and Iain Lee (Absolute).

You can find Adam’s detailed notes on where we’ll be in 5 years time here.

We’re off on our summer break for a couple of weeks, but will be back with a new season of radio-related discussion, debate and debacle. If you’ve got any suggestions for guests, topics or any comments about this series please email Producer Heather.

This year, the Festival is going to be at the Lowry Centre in Salford Quays, from October 18th-20th and we have given ourselves the ambitious theme “Taking The Lead“.

The committee has done a wonderful job of creating a world-class Festival featuring an excellent list of contributors.

Radio is at a fascinating and important point in its development and this year’s Festival has been designed to be an essential occasion for anyone involved in our industry. We have worked hard to ensure that the sessions appeal to everyone across commercial, community and public radio.

With this in mind, we’ll be concentrating on three main areas: creativity, business and technology and will be running sessions across three rooms. There will be keynote addresses, interviews, panels, workshops and demos of some things you haven’t even dreamed of yet. See the Radio Festival website for more details.

There is also plenty of time to make contacts. You can take part in our Radio Speed Dating session by booking time with industry leaders, relax in our Festival Cafe, or pitch a programme idea in Radio’s Got Talent. The winner walks away with a commission.

We expect places to fill fast so please do apply for tickets now.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes,

Tim Davie

Thanks to Emlyn for the fantastic camera-work!

1 BBC Radio 2 – 285
2 Izzy Whizzy Let’s Get Busy (Magic) – 280
3 Bits and Pieces - 258
4 BBC Trust Appreciation Society (6 Music) – 256
5 Quizzical Economy Act (Ofcom) – 239
6 We Have Sound – 235
7 When do I take over from Moyles? (Folder Media) – 222
8 We’ve won a World Record, what have you done? (1Xtra) – 220
9 Flotsam & Jetsam (MediaTel) – 216
10 …coming next, Take That (Global Radio) – 213
11 BBC Essex – 212.5
12 BIG AUDITING DYNAMITE (MGR) – 211
raWdio (ex-RaW) – 211
14 Trailer Trash (Xtrails) – 210
15 Comedy Genius (we think…) (BBC Comedy) – 194
16 Project North – 187
17 Ignite Creative TV – 184
18 Broadcasting Centre of Excellence (SRA) – 181
19 Fat Kids are Harder to Catch (RadioRelations) – 178
RadioCentre – 178
21 Nielsen Music – 177
22 QuizTeam Bleakley (Pure Tonic) – 174
23 David Cameron’s Small Society – 173
24 Manchester University Challenge Rejects (Fuse FM) – 172
25 MNC – 171
26 Radio Lynx – 163
27 Brighton Reverberators (Radio Reverb) – 162
28 Ambisonic (BBC Radio Engineering) – 161
29 Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (RadioRelations) – 152
30 God is a DJ (RadioRelations) – 149
31 W1 Programme – 136