Money Crisis Causes Christian Radio To Change Format

Premier Radio, the UK’s only Christian commercial radio station has announced a major restructuring today “designed to reduce costs sharply”. This will involve management and staff restructuring, as well as programme changes which will aim to increase audience in both numbers and listening hours.

The speech/music ratio, currently 75:25 will change to near 50:50; “This will enable us to maintain the quality of speech whilst also saving money” said Diane Gault, Head of Sales. She maintained Premier’s revenue is healthy, forecasting income of around £1.2m for 1996, but “the problem has been the high running costs of the station.” There will also be a number of redundancies.

Peter Meadows, Chief Executive, and main driver behind the station’s launch in June this year, has left, as has Mark Seaman, Programme Director. The Executive Committee will lead the station into the new year, said a statement. News of the restructuring comes just one month after the station launched a funding appeal, hoping to raise £500,000.