Don't pre-judge

I’m always puzzled by comments about national radio brands from angry folk who’ve clearly never even heard the station in question. It’s like suggesting a football match is obviously going to be "terrible" or "dull" simply because the ball wasn’t made 10 minutes down the road.

Understandably, some will be genuinely upset (and job losses are grim) but things move on.

A small minority of people - who dismiss a station and conclude that it can’t be any good (without having heard it) because it’s not coming from their town and have no understanding of business/fail to recognise the challenges facing the industry - bashing a keyboard or clicking a petition won’t achieve anything. It’s happened and it’ll keep happening.

Whether or not something is a good listen isn’t determined by where the presenter is sat. Relevant content doesn’t have to be local - often, it isn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see their passion and local radio still means a lot to people, but there’ll be many others who are satisfied with the new product (music, features, personalities) and stick with it or even start listening - not to mention that each licence will retain local news/travel bulletins and they’ll still be expected to react on-air to a major event in a timely manner.

Bauer has a strong commitment to local news so hopefully hyperlocal journalists will be kept so they can keep across each area efficiently.

Greatest Hits Radio is more likely to appeal to a typical listener of these local stations than a CHR brand. I think it'll be popular - with the exception of Smooth, it's largely young(er) brands on FM nationally.

Loving the tunes Bauer

Views on networking aside, I’m seeing a largely positive reaction to the Greatest Hits Radio playlist on UKRD stations - who’d have thought older listeners to local radio would rather hear Diana Ross or Stealers Wheel than Jax Jones or Nathan Dawe?!

Of course, the idea this audience doesn’t like anything older than 1999 is complete baloney, but for these stations there has been a noticeable shift away from those core eras towards playing more recent songs overall, which I think was a mistake, as some classics were moved to the decade spin-off stations.

You should never hear two unfamiliar currents back-to-back on an AC format - better to have the clock positions more varied so you keep coming back to those core songs that listeners love and expect, peppered with surprises.

The music has changed but on Mix, Spirit etc it’s like the same songs on a loop - GHR, however good or bad, do play a decent amount of variety but that will change shortly when the stations are more integrated to GHR.

I must admit, I haven’t really listened to any station in transition to Greatest Hits Radio but I know the next phase (imaging and features) is starting soon. Tight rotation of the most popular songs is standard ahead of a rebrand to give listeners the best possible flavour of what’s to come.

No censorship - unless we want to censor it

Johnny Depp’s libel case against The Sun and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, has commenced at the High Court today.

Wootton began his talkRADIO show this afternoon by declaring it a "no censorship" zone. Now, no-one is expecting him or anyone else to comment on a live court case, but surely the station is running this story in its news bulletins (as the BBC, Global and others have done)? Of course not! I call that "censorship".

In 2015, Global advised its stations not to report on the HSBC scandal - in which the bank’s Swiss arm helped wealthy customers conceal millions of dollars in assets and dodge taxes - for "editorial reasons".

A name is what you make of it

All credit to Global for its continued success, having built up Capital as a powerhouse national CHR brand.

I didn't understand why this particular name was rolled out across the country in the first place. Galaxy was growing and other heritage stations were rebranded without hesitation. Capital didn’t mean anything outside London.

Fast-forward nine years and the word is now synonymous with youth, trends and hit music - proving the point that a name is what you make of it and the strength of a brand is down to how you pitch it.

We are the capital of hit music, that's how we view the brand.

BBC Local cuts: here we go again

The BBC is to cut 139 jobs in Local Radio as it keeps the standardised schedule format introduced in March and creates a new network late show.

Gutted for the many trusted voices and their teams. I just hope the many loyal older listeners about to lose their favourite presenter(s) will continue to feel welcome and heard by the new network shows.

Local radio is expensive but could be more cost-effective with fewer managers and smaller, equally committed, teams.

I wholeheartedly support BBC LR but it mustn’t lose focus on the core 50+ demographic and certainly mustn't think it can serve everyone with some hybrid music & content policy. Even further decline would result in calls to axe which I wouldn’t want to see.

While quality local news and information is a hugely valued aspect, in order to thrive, it ultimately needs to be a true friend of those who value it most.

In February 2020, when Storm Dennis hit, not only did Radio York and Radio Leeds share the latest fact-checked information such as travel news and official advice from the authorities, they put an arm around listeners with reassuring words.

See also this moving letter from an elderly listener sent to Radio Solent after he passed away to say how much his favourite station meant to him, this heart-breaking account from Radio Cornwall and the Make a Difference campaign, including offering free DAB radio sets to vulnerable people over 70.

There’s also never been a better time for more collaboration with community radio, especially where the BBC station covers a large region and is unable to do hyperlocal in the same way. After all, vital public service output is precisely the purpose your licence fee serves.

Community Media Association members have been given free access to BBC content this year. Equally, when quality audio is produced by a community project (including those with no FM/DAB broadcast), the BBC can broadcast it. I believe partnering with local organisations generally is key to CR success.

The broadcast and podcast overlap

David Lloyd wrote last autumn:

Are we suggesting that a quality half-hour of audio material which attracts thousands of attentive downloads can’t be called radio just because it’s not been transmitted? And yet if it’s broadcast in the middle of the night on FM to one man and a dog, it is suddenly radio. And if a human being curates a great - and genuine - online-only radio station, it's not really radio, it's just pretending?

Petersfield Community Radio's daily round-up of essential local information available on demand has been a must-listen for many in the same way as a traditional breakfast show - so why shouldn’t we call it "radio"?

The Oxford and Cambridge dictionary definitions of "radio" are almost identical:

Oxford: The activity or industry of broadcasting sound programmes to the public.

Cambridge: The system or work of broadcasting sound programmes for the public to listen to.

Cambridge seems to have kept up with the times better than Oxford based on the definitions of "broadcast":

Oxford: Transmit (a programme or some information) by radio or television.

Cambridge: To send out a programme on television or radio, or over the internet.

In fact, "send out" could be interpreted as linear or on-demand.

Changing the subject slightly, Mick on Twitter observes that online-only stations are using "FM" in their names which I've never understood. You wouldn't call an email a letter.

I appreciate many listeners crowbar an "FM" onto the end of every station name as if it's just an abbreviation for radio, but it makes no sense to confuse people by having a platform they can't find you on as part of your brand. It's nothing but anorakky.

No one-size-fits-all for ILR

Why is Bauer preserving Pirate FM and Lincs FM as standalone stations - like Wave 105 - when other acquired brands with just as much heritage (e.g. Spire, Eagle, Yorkshire Coast) will disappear?

The company says it will only rebrand stations where it sees an opportunity to increase listeners by doing so and that retaining the likes of Hallam, Metro and Radio City is the best way to maximise their audiences.

For the Hits Radio Network, which produces a mixed bag of figures, it would clearly be risky to radically change key revenue drivers.

No decision will have been taken lightly but clearly cuts are necessary in these times. Bauer says the distinct cultures of Cornwall and Lincolnshire have led to its decision not to rebrand.

Pirate, Lincs and Wave, together with all Hits/GHR stations, are being sold as part of the Hits Radio Brand Network to agencies so they’re meeting increased demand for simplified national ad campaigns.

Initially, I thought Bauer would be more radical and, at least, align Wave 105 with one of the two networks and Nation’s Sam FM South Coast becomes the other brand leaving Fire Radio (and potentially The Breeze South) as KISS.

Again, Wave is a powerhouse regional and, especially considering the industry-wide revenue decline we’re facing, I can see how it’s too much of a gamble right now.

It’s worth noting that while heritage certainly adds value through familiarity, favourability and trust, it can also have negative perceptions such as being deemed uncool or old-fashioned by younger demographics and uninviting to former listeners who’ve gone elsewhere for whatever reason.

It can also maintain undeserving RAJAR reach. If I can’t recall the station I was listening to, I’ll select one that immediately springs to mind and, perhaps, whose brand I have affection for (because I grew up with it etc) - which always begs the question of whether or not a heritage station’s figures are an entirely valid assessment of its output.

People become attached to things that have been a constant during certain periods of their lives. Some rebrands perform better than others. Ultimately, nobody chooses based on a name alone, it’s what is made of it and whether the product delivers for them that matters.