Radio Ink’s “Radio Tech Summit” runs through today at Microsoft’s Executive Conference Center in Mountain View, California. Media UK’s James Cridland was the kick-off keynoter and asserted that “radio is not dead…but it must compete on content not platform.” Cridland, speaking of the U.K. radio industry’s decision to develop a country-wide single radio player for all stations across platforms, spoke to a rising tide strategy of a “single voice not a single choice” for U.K. radio listeners.

Unlike the U.S., there is significant cross-platform distribution of radio in the U.K. For example, BBC Radio 1Xtra gets a quarter of its measured listenership via digital television transmissions and almost a fifth via the Internet. For stations in the U.K. the goal is to have one branded voice and let consumers get to that radio service on whatever platform they like.

BBC Radio 1Xtra
• 19.1% – Internet
• 24.6% – TV
• 23.2% – DAB
• Rest – unknown

Fred Jacobs led a panel on “CX: The Mobile Consumer Experience,” which explored the idea of cross-platform radio based on ethnographic research video clips to which he asked panel members to respond. One of the comments there was how clearly smartphone users have reorganized their lives around the “apps” metaphor. Radio could be an app, but BIA/Kelsey suggested on the panel that radio stations may be better off with multiple lifestyle driven apps rather than envisioning their station as a single app.

Another session dealt with developments in HD Radio Technology by iBiquity. BIA/Kelsey is project manager for a NAB FASTROAD funded project with iBiquity, Emmis Interactive and SiPort to design and build Android smartphones that have fully function HD Radio technology including middleware and user apps.

The Tech Summit concludes today and seamlessly rolls into the “Convergence” summit that runs through tomorrow.