Feature: London’s Youth Radio
Radio has had an important role in youth culture since the days of Radio Caroline, and according to the Radio Advertising Bureau, this has yet to change. Encouragingly for advertisers, 72% of listening by 4-14 year olds and 64% of listening by 15-24 year olds was commercial, according to September’s RAJAR figures, and while an average week’s listening for the younger group totals 11.1 hours, the older age group listens for an average of 16.4 hours.
In line with the rest of the local commercial radio sector, which saw a period on period increase in reach of 5.2% in the June’s RAJAR figures, London’s youth-oriented radio stations saw both year on year and period on period increases in reach during the three month period.
The exception was Choice FM, the smallest of the group, which since beginning RAJAR submissions in September last year has only topped the 300,000 mark in terms of reach during one period.
Despite the headway made by Kiss and Xfm, Capital, which revamped its image and logo last year, remains the dominant force in this market. Having topped the 3.5m reach mark in 1999, the station suffered something of a fall off during the following months, but has seen reach growing again for the past two audit periods, with June’s figure hitting 3.37m.
Both Kiss and Xfm have embarked on high profile marketing campaigns recently, with Xfm introducing an animated stereo and Kiss a ventriloquist dummy as slightly offbeat brand characters. Following a period of fairly slow growth, Xfm now commands a reach of around half a million, while Kiss sustains a reach around three times this size.
With the younger generation showing the greatest affinity with New Media, it is unsurprising that all four of these stations have a significant web presence. As well as the expected offerings of programme schedules, added value comes from elements such as listings services, additional music features and news, competitions, online listening capability and retail opportunities in partnership with high street names. For the advertiser, these sites can provide useful cross-media opportunities
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