Chris Evans’ move to Virgin marks peak commercial radio
Neil Tookey on why Chris Evans’ departure from the BBC to join Virgin – on the back of the defection of BBC veteran Eddie Mair to LBC – is a coup for commercial radio
“Some of us are mountain climbers, but if you get to the top of your favourite mountain and you stay there, you become an observer. I want to keep climbing.”
Powerful quote wasn’t it.
It was with these words, live on air, that BBC stalwart Chris Evans resigned from his 13-year stint at the Radio 2 Breakfast slot. It later emerged that he was returning to his roots and moving to Virgin Radio over at Wireless HQ, a station he owned in the heady days of the late ‘90s.
Commercial radio is having a moment. The Chris Evans bombshell comes hot on the heels of Eddie Mair deciding to plump for a new life at LBC – one which is in direct competition with his old Radio 4 ‘PM’ slot. The latest move is yet further evidence of the growing strength of commercial radio in the battle for listeners and talent.
Media pundits have also murmured that these recent high-profile transfers to commercial radio may hint at bigger problems behind the scenes at the BBC. Some have speculated that Mair and Evans’ moves are pre-empting the inevitable conversations about their gargantuan salaries, which are now coming under much closer scrutiny.
But whatever is it that has prompted the shift of BBC mainstays, it’s becoming clear that commercial radio is a force to be reckoned with, and one which is attracting some of the best-known personalities from the other side of the broadcasting tracks.
What’s more, it is no coincidence that, earlier this year, it was revealed that commercial radio had broken records both in terms of revenues and reach. New figures for the first quarter of this year, published by RAJAR, the body responsible for measuring radio audiences in the UK, revealed the largest ever audience of just under 36 million listeners; an increase of almost 5% on the same period the year before. This also represents commercial radio’s biggest ever lead over BBC radio, with 960,000 more listeners overall.
In addition, the continued strong performance of the commercial radio sector, which also kicked off 2018 with its highest ever revenues Q1 at £179.3m – an increase of 12.5% YoY is making the medium more attractive than ever – for the talent it can afford to pay for, as much as anyone else.[advert position=”left”]
In the rapidly-evolving media landscape radio can also lay claim to being the fastest growing medium right now, ahead of the entire market including the internet, according to the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report.
It may seem strange that the oldest form of modern mass-communication has held up so well amid the modern cacophony of streaming, gaming, TV, online video and all the other entertainments at our fingertips. But radio is a highly engaging medium and commercial radio in particular is undergoing a renaissance of unfettered creativity, bubbling over with energy – something which the irrepressible Evans is also well known for.
But it is not only radio’s intimacy and listener connection which ensures it remains appealing to advertisers. The medium continues to reinvent itself, staying ahead of the curve and ever opportunistic. Programmatic, audience-led buying through DAX and inStream coupled with dynamic, personalised audio ads mean that radio offers advertisers both huge reach and pinpoint targeting.
Meanwhile, an increasing range of stations catering to different audiences means that radio is always improving our ability as advertisers to target by demographic as well as day, time and location. This is all without mentioning the opportunities presented by a steep rise in voice-activated and connected devices meaning listening is easier than ever. The audio revolution is truly in full flow and radio is leading the charge.
Ambitious commercial radio stations, as a result of all this, can afford to poach stars from the likes of the BBC – stars who can most likely see that commercial radio is on a roll. Hopefully it will be some time yet, however, before Evans regards that it has reached its pinnacle.
Neil Tookey is head of press, OOH & Audio at Essence