Classic FM Reveals First Advertisers

At a press conference this morning Classic FM’s sales director, Nigel Reeve, revealed that the UK’s first national commercial radio station has £1.3m of advertising and sponsorship is already booked, predominantly for its first 3-months on air.

This figure is a third of the total annual revenue projected by sales houses for the station. Classic, which launches on September 7, chose to handle its own sales rather than appoint a sales house.

The very first ad to be broadcast will be for Barclays Bank. Others who have booked space include Sony, The Spectator, Commercial Union, Bradford & Bingley Building Society, Woolwich Building Society and EMI.

Time magazine is to sponsor one of the stations’s morning programmes, WH Smith is to sponsor the weekend CD chart show, hosted by Paul Gambaccini, and the Guardian is to sponsor the station’s sports coverage.

Reeve said that Classic is hoping for an annual turnover of £8-9m. This figure is slightly less than earlier predictions.

The station’s target audience is ABC1 25-54s and research suggests that the audience will mainly come from existing Radio 4 and Radio 2 listeners. Reeve believes that with the changes that are taking place in the medium, station loyalty will be a thing of the past and listeners will select a station depending on their current mood and requirements.

Classic FM will have a potential audience of 39m adults across the country with an ABC1 profile of 70%. The station is confident it will achieve a weekly reach of 7%. It has already joined RAJAR and is currently negotiating to become the first station to produce monthly research.