GMG Plans Round The Clock Talk Radio For Manchester
The impending award of an FM radio licence in Manchester continues to draw proposals from the nation’s largest broadcasting companies, with GMG the latest radio operator to throw its hat into the ring, offering a 24-hour speech and news station for the region.
The station, to be named Channel M Radio, would provide the city with speech based content around the clock, with a dedicated team of journalists and presenters given access to resources from the Manchester Evening News and Channel M Television, already based in the city.
The FM licence for Manchester is to be advertised in November by industry regulator Ofcom, offering broadcasters the opportunity to reach over 2.3 million adults across the city. If successful, Channel M Radio is expected to launch in 2005 with a staff of over 20 journalists.
Guardian Media Group claims that its heritage of producing news in Manchester will give its offering the edge over competitors, offering a quality talk station dedicated to the news, sport, views and opinions and lifestyles of people in the city.
Commenting on GMG’s proposals, John Myers, chief executive of the radio group, said: “Our research shows that there is a huge variety of music led stations in Manchester but not one single commercial speech station is on the dial in the region. By pooling the extensive journalistic resources of the Guardian Media Group in Manchester, and adding expertise and additional talent, we are the only group with the capacity to successfully operate a talk format station for this city.”
However, competition for the licence is expected to be fierce, with Capital Radio’s alternative music station Xfm and Emap’s rock focused Kerrang! both lining up to bid for Manchester’s last remaining slice of the valuable FM radio spectrum.
Xfm claims that an existing fan base in the city, currently tuning in via the internet and through digital radio, will guarantee success for its bid. While Emap’s Kerrang! is understood to be preparing a similar bid to its winning West Midlands licence acquisition last year, following trial broadcasts in February (see Kerrang Radio Prepares FM Broadcasts In Manchester).
Guardian Media Group: 020 7713 4452 www.gmgplc.co.uk/
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