Listen up - let's hear it for radio...

(From Guardian Unlimited)

The death of radio is greatly exaggerated, writes Michael Hedges in a piece adapted from his presentation to the Brave New Radio conference last week.

His look at the state of the medium across Europe comes up with some positive, and surprising, results.

"In virtually every audience survey in Europe radio listening is up," he writes. "Not simply up, but at record levels." He continues:

"In the last 30 years we've seen an absolute explosion of radio channels and stations. Within the 44 countries in the UN definition of Europe... there are roughly 15,000 broadcast radio outlets, about one for every 50,000 people. Ten years …