Radio Industry Round-Up 1997
The events in the radio world of 1997 mean the Q4 1997 Rajar’s (released next Friday) are amongst the most eagerly anticipated listening figures ever. The first-time experience for Chris Evans of running the company and presenting the flagship show simultaneously at Virgin will be measured in terms of success early next month while the new Radio One doubles partnership of Zoe (until now a radio innocent) & Kevin, who entered the Ball game of hosting the all important breakfast show against Evan’s rival morning broadcast, will also face a “day of reckoning”. Meanwhile, in the Capital camp the interest will go further as it will be revealed whether either of these big guns can dent the armour of old hand Chris Tarrant.
‘London’s Only Alternative’, XFM, will provide serious insight into the viability of stations catering for an audience previously neglected (apart from on a small scale) when its figures become known. Its mix of essentially ‘underground’ indie, dance, rock and rap provides music for listeners who can’t stomach boy bands, cheesy Euro-pop or M.O.R. crooners. Ultimately XFM will look for inspiration from across the Atlantic where U.S. College radio is so influential in-amongst the more conventionally commercial stations. Back in March of last year Mike Gorman of the appointed Saatchi & Saatchi sales team expressed his views:
” ‘The launch is probably the most overdue and eagerly awaited media launch for many years.’ He believes that London is saturated with middle of the road mass appeal stations which, though delivering high audiences, have listeners which are already brand loyal and mature customers. He went on to say that XFM will be able to deliver an audience that are willing to experiment and influence people.”
The influx of new stations in 1997 reflect the post-modern phenomenon of increasingly fragmented audiences with more specialised taste and localised support for certain genres. The effect of this meant that the BBC’s national stations have struggled more and more as Radio One tries to hold on to an audience that supposedly would be into such combinations like Drum ‘n’ Bass and manufactured Boy Bands. Meanwhile Radio Two aims to cater for Motown and Country music fans when notably RTL Country threatens to take the latter on the back of the current Line Dancing trend.
1997 began with the news that revenue figures for Q4 1996 were the highest ever. This was a trend that was to continue throughout the following three-quarters of 1997 with year-on -year increases between 12-15% for each period. Nationally though all the attention in January was on Chris Evan’s abrupt departure from Radio One and the surprise appointment of well loved late evening presenters Mark & Lard as his replacements, as opposed to a ‘big name’. The comic duo earned many plaudits for their Manchester based show but not enough listeners in order to last the pace. By March Danny Baker had followed his ginger friend out of the Beeb. His early evening Saturday slot at Talk Radio put him in direct competition with David Mellor broadcasting at 6:06 on Radio Five Live and was later to earn a sponsorship deal with News Of The World.
Away from the ‘big names’ Lochbroom FM in North West Scotland became the smallest ever broadcaster to be granted a licence – not bad for a station run by volunteers operating from “a disused cobbler’s workshop in the Scottish Highlands”! (Albeit with the aid of National Lottery grant.) In the same month national commercial station Radio Ireland launched. It was to experience a disappointing start but a verdict of unfulfilled potential from the Media Bureau. By December the Independent Radio and Television Commission ensured that the station would have to pull it’s socks up before too long by inviting applications for 19 areas in Ireland. Earlier, in April, Merseyside saw two new stations launch, one of which, Crash FM, pre-empted XFM’s birth with a not too dissimilar ethos: “Programming will be cutting edge Indie and the cream of dance.” During the year Sussex would be given three new stations and Cheshire two. The new licence offered for the North-West region would attract no fewer than 21 applicants during the 3 months it was advertised.
The Radio Authority introduced fresh advertising and sponsorship rules in the Spring. The new code included ‘voice’ commercials being permitted within certain guidelines, a clamp down on weaponry advertising – specifically a post-Dunblane ban on firearms commercials -and a new approach to alcohol promotions . The Authority also demanded a clearer distinction between programmes, advertisements and sponsorships. Later in the same month Chiltern Radio became the first station to run a bingo advertisement since the 30 year ban had been lifted just sixty seconds earlier at midnight!
The first Rajar Quarter of the year revealed total commercial radio share again moving ahead of the BBC. The main sufferer was the post-Evans Radio One, although BBC Radios 2, 3 and 5 Live provided good news for Auntie, each recording increases. The figures for the national commercials Talk and Virgin illustrated why they saw the need to invest in broadcasting ‘heavyweights’ Baker and Evans as they were unveiled to have lost significant slices of their audience. Talk’s strenuous efforts to buck it’s downward trend would by December be boosted by a successful bid to cover the French World Cup in summer 1998. In London Heart 106.2 and Melody rose at Capital’s expense, but 95.8 was still by far the city’s favourite frequency. News Direct was confronted with the news that it’s Rajar figures were well down but they and LBC had gained a 30% increase since over the General Election period according to a tracking survey by Hallett Arendt. RTL Country and Manchester’s Jazz 100.4 FM were among those others on the up.
May also saw the winners of the annual Sony Radio Awards announced. Classic FM took the national prize whilst Moray Firth further gave further exposure to radio in the north of Scotland, following Lochbroom’s launch, by winning the best local station category for the second year in a row. John Inverdale (Radio 5 Live) triumphed as broadcaster of the year. Later, in the summer, Essex Radio would scoop Commercial Station of the Year at the Commercial Radio Awards.
Telling research into the youth market was carried out by Capital Radio . It’s survey found how radio was an under-exploited medium when it comes to targeting youngsters. Furthermore the study revealed three clear target groups requiring differing approaches – Pre-pubescent, Pubescent and Post-Pubescent. ‘Capital Youth’ was revealed more fully at that autumn’s Media Research Group meeting. The under exploitation of radio was perhaps explained to a degree when the MRG met to discuss the opinion that ‘Rajar Needs To Change’ where grievances about the lack of trust in Rajar figures were aired. In November however Rajar announced some changes it will be making to its measuring methodology, in particular introducing a “card sort” diary method, which will replace the existing method after the current contract period finishes at the end of this year.
The Summer brought along the advent of specialist temporary stations to cover certain events, from ‘Royal Ascot Day Radio’ and ‘Special Olympics FM’ to broadcasts covering music festivals like Glastonbury and ‘T’ in the Park.
Quarter 2 of the Rajar survey saw trends established from the first quarter continuing. Overall commercial radio edged further ahead of the BBC, but on a national scale it was not immune from the general decline of non-local stations as the likes of Virgin AM and Atlantic 252 found out. Kiss 102 in Manchester, recently purchased by Chrysalis Group and soon to be re-named, proved a good investment with a significant rise in the ratings. Its sister station in Yorkshire, Kiss 105, made an encouraging debut – despite this the ‘Kiss’ title for both was soon substituted in favour of ‘Galaxy’.
MediaTel’s Radio Database launch was of course as keenly awaited as any of the numerous radio station births in 1997 and it came in time for Rajar’s Q3 release the next day. Unfortunately the good news about the Radio Database was soon countered by poor Rajar figures for nearly all radio as more people chose to keep their wireless’s off during the summer months compared to the previous year. Just five local stations could boast increases which made the achievements of Spectrum Radio on 558 AM (catering for ethnic minorities – weekly reach up 13%) and Jazz FM in Manchester (up 9.1%) all the more remarkable.
There was also major consolidation in the radio sales house front. When Capital announced its intentions for Virgin in May, it decided to disband its Media Sales & Marketing operation to form Capital Advertising. This then prompted Emap to form Emap on Air while GWR formed Opus, the idea being that dedicated sales houses would be better at selling their own airtime.
1997’s final month began with Capital Advertising’s sales director Fru Hazlett giving Newsline an exclusive interview. Amongst her conclusions were that the BBC needed to be fought with even more local stations across the country, despite the major influx of new broadcasters already. The exception to this rule for her was the currently saturated London area. She stressed that radio sales houses needed to work more closely together in order to promote the radio medium as a whole. A wish for a fourth national commercial station was also expressed. Unfortunately, disappointment for Fru would come on two fronts in December. Firstly, of course, Chris Evans denied Capital the Virgin deal it had been eyeing up for some time. Secondly the Radio Authority announced that a fourth national commercial licence would not be permitted.
Richard Branson had ensured, by accepting an offer lower than Capital’s for Virgin Radio, that the ginger DJ & TV presenter from Warrington had ended the year as he had begun it – in the headlines.
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