Radio stations need to innovate and invest…

Duncan Child, associate director at Starcom MediaVest, says stations that innovate and invest show the best long term results: “We hope to see some of the more staid stations following suit”…

Commercial radio as a whole will be pleased with the year on year performance, despite the slip back in share vs the BBC this quarter. Within this set of figures though, there are some clear winners.

Bauer make the headlines with their two London stations dominating. Magic’s appearance at the top of the reach and share charts is pretty much the expected outcome based on recent performances. However, it really is a bonus to have beaten Radio 2 within London for a second successive quarter, showing that commercial stations can challenge the mighty Beeb.

Backing this up is Kiss, gaining 2nd place in the London share market, a testament to the innovation in programming. It wasn’t that long ago that they were struggling with the reduction in popularity of R&B, which makes the turnaround all the more impressive.

In the national arena, the return to form of Classic FM with their best figures for 3 years, and the phenomenal growth of talkSPORT, show that advertisers can build scale in their radio communications.

Overall, from a buyer’s perspective, the RAJAR’s always give positives and negatives, but the ongoing trends show that stations which innovate and invest show the best long term results, and we hope to see some of the more staid stations following suit.