Listeners will name your radio station for you

My Winchester Radio colleague Anna O'Brien shared this last night:

We've just watched latest Midsomer Murders. Starts in radio station 'Midsomer FM'. I should be disturbed by dead animals; bridal deaths by tightening corset and confetti gun. But no - BRANDING! I'm more perturbed all signs say 'Midsomer FM' but jingles are 'Radio Midsomer'!

I haven't watched an episode of Midsomer Murders in at least six years - and just from hearing about this branding nightmare I'm glad I haven't!

What's more, even the presenters refer to Midsomer FM despite imaging that says Radio Midsomer.

It seems murder isn't the only offence committed in that place and I wish it wouldn't overshadow this crime against broadcasting.

All jokes aside, it resembles the renaming of radio stations that goes on all the time with people missing out words (always "Hampshire Radio") or bolting "radio" onto the beginning or "FM" onto the end or replacing the former with the latter and vice versa.

Why does it still seem to happen to us more than other brands even in an age where radio has as much of a visual presence as any other?

Old man yells at cloud

What reason to be angry could the Daily Mail possibly have found today I wonder?

How the hell is THIS going to help? Songs referring to 'fire' are BANNED from radio because woke stations fear the tunes could be seen as 'insensitive' amid Australia's deadly inferno crisis.

A few things to say:

1. Music radio stations taking some songs out of rotation is obviously not going to "help" the situation and nobody is suggesting that it will.
2. Understanding how your audience feels about something and reflecting them is fundamental.
3. Respecting sensitivities is not "woke" (by definition, "woke" is being "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination" - so nothing to do with the matter at hand).

I was programming a station in 2017 when the horrific deadly blaze at Grenfell Tower occurred and the sheer number of songs referencing "fire" or "burning" we rested during that time was surprising.

Reelworld's new sound for BBC Local Radio

Radio Leicester has today become the first of the 39 BBC Local stations to air the network's new sung jingle package from Reelworld.

ReelWorld Europe · ReelWorld BBC Local Radio 2020 Launch Demo

37 of them are still using the Mcasso 2015 package while BBC Hereford & Worcester is even further behind on the previous Mcasso package (circa 2011/12).

It's been suggested that this new sound indicates a totally new direction for the network. Perhaps - and questions will rightly be asked about whether or not that is the right strategy.

However, I do not agree that the jingles aren't suitable for a traditional BBC Local Radio audience. More modern (it is 2020 after all) but melodic and cheerful. You don't get stuck in the past when you turn 50.

UPDATE: 07/01/2020:

I'm perplexed by one criticism I've seen today:

All 39 stations using the same package would seem anything but local.

1.  A jingle package isn’t local content. It’s there to identify a station and reflect its sound.
2. Each station will have localised versions of the same cuts.
3. Stations have been ordering resings of existing packages for as long as jingles have been around.

Radio saving lives?

The fires down under are truly heartbreaking.

Australia's national broadcaster, ABC, has delivered exceptional coverage on all its platforms.

In many cases, the destruction of infrastructure has led to radio being the only form of communication for communities affected.

Journalist Calla Wahlquist highlighted the essential service local radio is providing and the lifeline it is proving to be:

Communities in East Gippsland are communicating with each other by calling in to the local ABC on UHF radio and knowing their family will be listening.

The only reason we knew of the 100 people stuck at Cann River is because they managed to call the ABC and the ABC told fireys.

The Flying Eye in the Sky

In 1974, LBC's Helicopter 417 took to the skies above the capital with reporter Bob Holness onboard keeping an eye on rush hour traffic conditions and providing live updates for listeners on their commute. Two years later, the iconic Capital Radio Flying Eye followed suit.

Analysing data from INRIX (or ROMANSE as we also used in Hampshire) is one thing, but to articulate news of a tailback you're looking at from several thousand feet above is quite the job.

Capital used twin-engined fixed wing planes which are faster and cheaper to run. G-FLYI, used first, is now based at Biggin Hill Airport and G-FLII is no longer in service.

Power and Ocean FM's Flying Eye was G-BSAW which is still operational and based at Compton Abbas Airfield in Dorset.

Clyde was the last station in Scotland to offer "bird's-eye view" travel news. The chopper used, G-BUXS, is also believed to still be operational having been used as an Air Ambulance in various regions over the last decade, including temporarily by Hampshire & Isle of Wight.

The most recent example of Eye in the Sky travel that springs to mind was JACK fm Berkshire (now The Breeze) which used a helicopter for reports into the breakfast show.

Radio doesn't come cheap

On this day in 1993 (according to David Lloyd's Radio Moments, obviously), GWR acquired Wolverhampton's Beacon Radio for £3.7m as well as Mercia FM, Leicester Sound and Trent FM for £4.8m.

Kieran McGeary notes Beacon's smaller local competitor, The Wolf, was purchased for £5.2m in 2000 by Forever Broadcasting.

With inflation, GWR's acquisition of Beacon would’ve equalled £6.8m in 2015 - the year Global acquired Liverpool's Juice FM from UTV for a whopping £10m.

Is this big money for a local or regional commercial radio station?

A business is often worth its price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) - in other words, a multiple of its profit which varies by industry and economic environment.

Other methods to value a company include:

• its balance sheet (tangible assets minus liabilities)
• calculate projected cash flow at today's rate of inflation
• compare how much it would cost to start a similar business from scratch
• factors that cannot be measured (location, reputation, trust, patents, trademarks)

For a loss-making startup, its valuation would be based on future prospects and/or turnover. Some industries have a "rule of thumb" or standard ways of calculating valuations (e.g. retail looks at number of outlets and customers).

Ultimately - and I know it sounds cliché - a business is worth what a potential buyer is willing to pay for it.

If there are synergies, the strategic benefit of an acquisition will be important in determining that figure or the buyer may have a vision to make the business more cost-effective.

In purchasing Juice, Global was able to fill a major gap in its FM coverage and saw the value in a CHR station with an established audience whose profile matched that of Capital's.

The only other way to have got that would've been to acquire Radio City, which Bauer would never have sold, so a strong and profitable Juice was Global's only option.

Election night live

Is it just me - a self-confessed political geek - or is there nothing quite like the buzz of the night after polls close in a general election?

The exit poll that may or may not prove accurate, the mad rush of collecting North East ballot boxes in a bid to be the first constituency to declare, the high-profile wins and losses, the swingometer... I could go on.

Work commitments have never allowed me to experience an election night unfolding in real-time - until last night, when I had a great time covering the local count from the press gallery for Winchester Radio.

Having watched the shock exit poll result at 10pm, I travelled to River Park Leisure Centre where counting was taking place for the Winchester and Meon Valley constituencies.

• While Meon Valley is a Tory stronghold, the BBC were forecasting a 63% chance of a Liberal Democrat gain in remain-voting Winchester.

• The incumbent, Conservative MP Steve Brine, held on at the last general election two years ago with a 52% share of the vote, down from 55% in 2015. His majority also decreased from 16,914 to 9,999.

• The Lib Dems increased their share of the vote by just over 10 percentage points last time around - up from 24.4% (13,511) to 34.5% (19,730) and they took control of the City Council from the Tories in May.

• The Green Party didn’t field a candidate in Winchester supporting Paula Ferguson (Lib Dems) as part of the 'Remain Alliance' pact between the two pro-EU parties.

Winchester Radio had its own table overlooking the count from the balcony viewing gallery and we were in esteemed company alongside colleagues from the BBC, ITV, Newsquest and the University of Winchester amongst others.

We kept listeners up-to-date throughout the night with as-live links and the result came in pretty much on schedule shortly after 5am (FYI the Tories hung on with a majority of just 985 - down by more than 9k - with the Lib Dems closing the gap by adding 7,715 votes).

Us radio people have all recorded, edited and/or uploaded things in a plethora of random places over the course of our careers. I polished our post-declaration interviews in Audition and uploaded them to Winchester Radio's Myriad playout system from the comfort of the balcony at River Park Leisure Centre.

Arriving home just before 8am, after a long and busy but thoroughly enjoyable (and fascinating) night, that horrible combination of needing to sleep immediately but also needing to eat immediately struck!

A few Birdseye waffles later, I was soundo! See you in 2024...?