Radio Round-Up – September/October
On the surface Independent Radio appears to have taken a back seat over the last couple of months, after the attention surrounding Classic FM’s launch, while BBC Radio has hit the headlines. After a more detailed review it becomes apparent that the commercial sector has, in fact, been quietly busy.
The BBC’s plan to replace Radio 4’s longwave transmissions with a 24-hour news network has received much public opposition. Those who are currently unable to receive Radio 4 on the FM band will no longer have access to the station when the news service launches. The BBC defends its’ decision by stating that the Government requires it to stop simulcasting on longwave and FM and that there is a call for an all news service. To back up its claim it refers to the success of Gulf FM.
As well as the question of losing one of Radio 4’s frequencies there is also the uncertainty of what will happen to Radio 4’s news, which accounts for 40% of its programming. Will this be transferred to the new service and if so what will replace it?
The projected launch for the BBC’s news service is now April’94, 3-months later than originally planned. The future of the BBC’s other national stations has also come up for debate with the issue of funding frequently top of the agenda. Peter Baldwin, chairman of the Radio Authority, has broached the idea of a £10 licence fee for car radios. He claims this would raise £200m for the BBC’s 40 plus stations, which currently cost £338m to run.
The 2-month old Classic FM is claiming a good response so far, although it has not released any audience research to substantiate this. The first data to be publicly released will be RAJAR in January. In a recent interview programme controller, Michael Bukht, described the identity of the station’s audience as follows; “I have someone very specific in mind. She lives in a suburb in Manchester. She’s married to a computer programmer. She’s 35 years-old and has two kids. She has a part-time job to help out with the income.” When asked her name he suggests ‘Mildred’. If this is the case then Classic will have to find 3.5m Mancunian Mildreds to meet its target audience.
The second national station, due to launch next March, has been christened Virgin Radio. A fairly predictable name given the fact that the station is jointly owned by Richard Branson. The other shareholder is TV-am.
During October 4 new ILR stations went on air. On the 15th Island FM began transmitting classic hits and adult chart music across Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. On the 25th Channel 103 went on air in Jersey with a similar format.
Lantern FM launched in North Devon on the 19th, its programming is based on CD charts from classical to rock. Sunshine 855 went on air across North Herefordshire, North Worcestershire and South Shropshire on the 18th. It plays what it describes as ‘melodic’ music. The Radio Authority advertised the first of the 5 new regional licences for the Severn Estuary in September. The remaining 4 will be advertised over the next 6-months although the order and dates have yet to be decided.
The re-advertisement of existing licences began in October with the first ones being the Aberdeen AM and FM frequencies, which are currently held by NorthSound. The next to be re- advertised are the Leeds frequencies, currently occupied by Aire FM and Magic 828, and the Southend and Chelmsford frequencies, currently occupied by Essex and Breeze. October saw the merger of UK Radio Developments with Infinity Radio backed by £500,000 of finance from the 3i group. The 2 companies will continue to operate as before, under the guidance of Mike Powell, former managing director of County Sound.
UK Radio Developments provides investment for new radio projects and currently owns 40% of Cornwall’s Pirate FM and 25% of Tristar, which was recently awarded the ILR licence for Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor. The company has also announced it will be leading a bid for one of the new London AM licences due to be advertised next year. It proposes a country music station which it believes is the one remaining unserved niche in London.
The Radio 92 conference, which took place in Deauville a fortnight ago, critically examined many areas of the radio industry. One of the proposals put forward at the conference came from Capital Radio’s managing director, Richard Eyre. He announced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of advertising packages sold nationally across the IR network. Eyre’s proposal, which he called INR4, follows a recent AIRC agreement to establish a mechanism for the creation and marketing of network programming on ILR. To increase its 2% share in revenue radio must offer a viable alternative to television, for this to happen it must aspire to national medium status. The AIRC’s agreement, together with Eyre’s initiative, at least shows that radio recognises the direction it must follow.
At the same time radio must take care not to alienate local advertisers, otherwise it will be in danger of gaining national revenue at the expense of local revenue. Somehow a careful balance must be achieved.