Radio Round-Up – August
Classic FM obviously dominated the radio industry during August, with programming details being released throughout the month in readiness for yesterday’s launch.
Britain’s first national commercial radio station has received a mixed reaction but it will be several months before the station’s long-term popularity can be judged.
The second national station Independent Music Radio is due to launch next March. It plans a rock music format but has the disadvantage of transmitting on the AM waveband. Further details about the station are likely to be released in October, when John Pearson takes up his position as sales director.
The radio industry is eagerly awaiting the first wave of RAJAR which runs from September 21 to December 20. It will survey more than 50,000 individuals, compared with the 30,000 surveyed by JICRAR. The increased sample size means that national data will now be published on a monthly basis.
A number of stations not included on the JICRAR survey will take part in RAJAR, including Choice FM, Spectrum Radio and Atlantic 252. Data from the the first wave will be released next January.
The Radio Authority has slowed up its advertisement of Independent Local Radio licences for the time being, although it will advertise 128 new licences over the next few years. It plans to advertise 55 before the end of 1993 and 73 in the following 2 years.
There are also plans to launch 5 super regional services covering central Scotland, North East England, North West England, West Midlands and the Severn Estuary. It is hoped these will be on air by 1994. In the meantime the Radio Authority is still awarding licences for areas it advertised earlier this year. The ILR licence for Carlisle has been awarded to Carlisle Radio Ltd (CRFM) and the licence for Harlow has been awarded to Harlow Radio.
Despite receiving 3 applications for the licence covering Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy, the Authority has decided not to award the licence because it felt none of the applicants satisfied the requirements of the Broadcasting Act. This licence will not be re-advertised in the immediate future. September 1 saw the launch of Q96 FM, which was awarded the ILR licence for the Paisley area. The station broadcasts a classic hits format and transmits for 18 hours a day.
A new local station for the Salisbury area, Spire FM, is set to launch on September 20. It is part of the GWR group and will also broadcast a classic hits format.
Next month the Radio Authority begins the lengthy task of re-advertising every ILR licence in the country. The most controversial aspect of this is that where stations were originally awarded a single licence for 2 frequencies, as in the cases of Capital and LBC, they will now have to reapply for each frequency separately. To retain both frequencies they will have to demonstrate that they can offer 2 completely distinct and separate services.
In anticipation of this, 2 weeks ago LBC split its frequencies to offer different programming on the AM and FM bands. This is not a new feature for the station which 3 years ago split into LBC Talkback and LBC NewsTalk; this split was poorly received and they were reunited to form NewsTalk. The next 12 months in the radio industry promise to be turbulent with the emergence of 2 more national stations, numerous new local stations and no doubt, as with the TV franchises, existing licences falling into new hands.
RADIO AUTHORITY: 071 430 2724
HARLOW RADIO: 0279 414996
CARLISLE RADIO: 0228 25101