Paul Easton

London Rajar - Q4/2011

2012-02-02T00:01:00.006Z

It's an interesting set of figures, which sees Capital and Magic overtaking BBC Radio 2 in Reach, although Radio 4 remains dominant.

Capital take the honours for breakfast with Johnny Vaughan's final quarter. As with any major change it's going to take a while for Dave Berry to settle in but it'll be interesting to see any likely defections among the Capital audience; especially older listeners.

Nick Ferrari on LBC 97.3 also had a good quarter, ahead of Heart, Magic and Kiss. Speaking of Kiss, they've done well during afternoons and evenings going neck-and-neck (and sometimes ahead) with Capital. In terms of Share they're now ahead of Radio 1, LBC 97.3 and Heart.

I've often likened the major London players' performance in Rajar to a game of 'musical chairs' and this time round it would seem to be Heart's turn to be "squeezed out" on Reach. It's a dynamic radio market which proves that things can, and do, change quickly and a good example of why you should never take a single quarter in isolation.

LBC 97.3's usual dominance of the late-night hours appears to be recovering after a couple of poor quarters. Clive Bull, who held down the late-night slot for many years until last summer, was always going to be a hard act to follow but the figures would suggest his sucessor Anthony Davis is beginning to make the show his own.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

This next chart got a lot of interest after I posted it last time so it's been updated and shows the 30 stations with the highest audiences.

Note: Figures used in all charts for Absolute are 'Total Absolute Radio (London)'

Survey period -19th September - 18th December 2011. Source: Rajar/Ipsos Mori/RSMB.

You can find the previous Q3/2011 charts here - http://pauleaston.blogspot.com/2011/10/london-rajar-q32011.html

You'll also find some good analysis/comment from James Cridland, Matt Deegan and Adam Bowie.

Living By Numbers

2012-01-28T10:04:00.001Z

The latest Rajar figures are out this coming week for Q4/2011 (19th September - 18th December).

Radio stations and agencies etc. will get them at 10.30 on Wednesday morning, with the public release embargoed until 00.01 on Thursday.

As usual I'll be compiling my usual chart showing how the main London commercial stations have fared and "cutting through the hype" as one person described it.

So please remember to check back here on Thursday morning.

I'll Have An 'R' An 'I' And A 'P' Please, Bob

2012-01-06T14:06:00.002Z

I was sorry to have learned of the death of Bob Holness; especially as it was thanks to him, in a small way, that I ended up working in radio.

Back in my hospital radio days in the early-1970s Bob Holness, who lived in Pinner had become a good friend of Radio Northwick Park. At the time he was the regular presenter of the Monday edition of Radio 2’s Late Night Extra and one evening a few of us were kindly invited to come to Broadcasting House and sit in the studio's control room while the programme was broadcast.

It was quite exciting to watch what was going on, with studio guests coming and going, as well as reporters arriving with tapes for the programme. At times it all seemed rather hectic yet, at the same time, everything went quite smoothly as far as the listener was concerned. It also struck me that, while Radio Northwick Park’s facilities were rather modest compared to those in this BBC basement studio many of the general techniques, with which I was becoming familiar, were the same.

A couple of years later I found myself working at LBC as a studio operator and, by then, Bob had also joined the station. He originally reported from the station's traffic helicopter but after a while partnered Douglas Cameron for many years on the station's 'AM' breakfast show.

So thanks, Bob. Those few hours one evening watching 'Late Night Extra' being broadcast was a life-changing moment. It was also a pleasure to have worked with you.

(Photo © Paul Easton 1975)

Christmas Day In The Workhouse

2011-12-19T11:38:00.002Z

Even with increasing automation there’s still a chance some of you will be working over the Christmas period; possibly even on Christmas Day itself. I’ve done it myself on more than a few occasions and there does seems to be something a bit special about being on the radio, or just working there, on Christmas Day.

Actually, for my first “radio Christmas”, as a young Tech Op at LBC/IRN in 1974, my standard shift pattern meant having to work 0830-2030 on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. So it was not much of a family Christmas at home that year.

Radio tends to don several different guises on Christmas Day.

In the morning, radio usually provides “music for opening presents”. I know several presenters who encourage kids to call-in and talk about what they got for Christmas, which, whatever the usual target audience, always seems to be popular.

Later in the day TV, and other distractions, tend to take over and radio listening decreases for the majority of people. That’s usually why many stations tend to concentrate their efforts and have their main presenters doing shows on Christmas morning; by the afternoon and evening programming these days is often networked, automated/voice-tracked or otherwise pre-recorded.

In the late evening, though, radio can provide a welcome refuge for those who are thankful that, after a day of cooking, eating, drinking and entertaining, Christmas comes but once a year!

For those of you on-air, at whatever time of day (but especially those ‘low’ hours), it’s worth remembering that not everybody will be full of Christmas spirit and seasonal goodwill. It’s not just the ‘Eleanor Rigbys’ of this world, but also those who are, perhaps, away from their friends and families for various reasons. Others will be having to cope with their first Christmas on their own after the loss of a loved one during the year; whether through the break-up of a long-term relationship or marriage, or because of a bereavement.

For them, TV can sometime consist of too much ‘enforced jollity’, so radio has the chance to become even more of what someone once called “your friend in a box”; possibly even providing the only contact with the ‘outside world’ someone may have that day.

It’s even likely some presenters may fall into that particular category themselves and, after their show, will go back to an empty home.

So, it might be worth bearing those people in mind when you’re on-air, and being a little bit more “one-to-one” in your presentation style.

If you’re in management it’s usually a good idea to put in an appearance at some point on Christmas Day; mid/late-morning always seems a popular time. If you can bring in some mince pies, chocolates and, maybe, some ‘bubbly’ as well this can be a good way of boosting morale among those who are having to work, as well as adding to the overall festive feel at the station. I’m sure many of you already do this, but it doesn’t hurt to point it out to the others.

If you are on-air over the Christmas period have a good time.

December Will Be Magic Again

2011-12-01T08:08:00.000Z

'December Will Be Magic Again' by Kate Bush is one of my favourite Christmas songs and I always like to play it on this particular day.

This year I thought I'd dig out the vinyl original rather than the CD and it reminded me how much I loved the picture sleeve (by Nick Price)!

May this December bring you magic, love and hope for the future.

Everybody's Talkin'

2011-11-18T08:58:00.009Z

Back in the late-70s a US TV series WKRP in Cincinnati, was set in a struggling fictional radio station.

At the start of the series the station, which had been playing easy-listening music "that was out of date 20 years ago", underwent a radical format change under its new programme director.

Following the change the station's reception area was "invaded" by some former listeners protesting about the change and demanding WKRP revert to its previous format.

Arthur Carlson, the sometimes-ineffectual general manager (who only got the job because his mother owned the station), began to panic; especially when he learned a TV news crew was on their way up.

Meanwhile PD Andy Travis seized the moment and asked the protestors "Do you want to be on TV? We want you to wave your banners and let everybody know you're as mad as hell because WKRP is now playing rock music!" A cynical ploy, perhaps, but it was a clever way of getting some free marketing.

In 1996 Status Quo famously took legal action against BBC Radio 1 for not playlisting their latest single; a re-working of the Beach Boys' classic 'Fun Fun Fun', which was a collaboration by the Quo with the Beach Boys. Following the major changes at Radio 1 which had seen the departure of popular, long-serving presenters such as Simon Bates, Dave Lee Travis and Bruno Brookes, it could be argued Status Quo's action only succeeded in helping to highlight the station's transformation from "Smashie and Nicey" cheese to Britpop "Cool Britannia".

Now, ahead of the launch of Absolute Radio 60s - one of its latest digital 'brand extensions', - Absolute Radio have said they won't be playing any music by Sir Cliff Richard (and some other 60s artists) because he isn't "cool". The howls of protest by Cliff's supporters have been deafening, including articles in the national press as well as other media coverage. Even 'core' Absolute artists, such as Roger Daltrey and Francis Rossi, have come out in support of Cliff and, in the process, have helped the new station to get the sort of PR coverage money can't buy.

As Oscar Wilde once said: "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about" and the furore over the Cliff "ban" is giving the new station a great deal of all-important "talkability".

It's been interesting to watch this PR stunt develop and I can't wait to see what happens next! I suspect a surprise, happy ending; although I'm not (yet) convinced a one-off 'Absolute Radio Cliff' station is on the cards!

(Disclosure: I occasionally undertake work on specific projects for TIML/Absolute Radio, but have not done so in the past six months. Jack FM Oxfordshire and Glide FM, which are owned by the management team at Absolute (but run as totally separate operations) are regular clients).

Winner!

2011-11-10T17:03:00.000Z

Excitement + Emotion = Great Radio!

London Rajar - Q3/2011

2011-10-27T00:01:00.010+01:00

As usual here's my hour-by-hour breakdown of how the main London commercial stations are performing - coupled with my regular caveat about not taking a single quarter in isolation.

The London commercial market is dominated by Magic, Capital, Heart and Kiss who seem continually engaged in what I've described in the past as a game of "musical chairs".

Last quarter Magic was back as London's No. 1 commercial station, but this time Capital has the most listeners while Heart has the highest share, while Magic gets pushed off the top spot.

Smooth has gained an additional 126,000 listeners this quarter, with a corresponding increase in hours of 1.16 million.

LBC 97.3, which took a bit of a hit last time has lost a further 20,000 listeners, but also gained an extra 2.14 million hours. Some people have suggested LBC should have done quite well this quarter because of the summer riots in London, but they only lasted for about a week and, therefore any short-term gain would have been evened-out across the full survey period.

The same goes for BBC London, who also won plaudits for its coverage but has shed 80,000 listeners since the previous quarter

LBC has also lost what used to be a clear dominance of late-night and overnight listening. After many years in the 2200-0100 weekday slot, "London's late-night legend" Clive Bull left the station a few weeks into this survey period. Although overall audience figures for that slot have generally held steady, it's going to take another quarter to see how things settled down after Clive's departure.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Finally a quick comment on digital-only stations in London. Stations such as BBC Radio 4 Extra, 6Music, Jazz FM and Absolute 80s (which has now passed the 1 million mark nationally) are starting to make their presence felt with more than 200,000 listeners a week.

Note: Figures used in all charts for Absolute are 'Total Absolute Radio (London)

Survey period - 27th June - 18th September 2011. Source: Rajar/Ipsos Mori/RSMB.

Charts for Q2/2011 can be found here.

Recommended commentary on the latest figures from Matt Deegan, Adam Bowie and Nik Goodman

...Then There Were Two...

2011-10-16T05:00:00.072+01:00

Last weekend I posted audio of the opening of LBC (London Broadcasting), Britain's first Independent Local Radio station, on Monday October 8th 1973.

Just over a week later, on Tuesday October 16th, London's other commercial station began broadcasting. Here is the opening, complete with Richard Attenborough, the National Anthem (arranged by Malcolm Arnold and performed by the Royal Choral Society and the London Philharmonic Orchestra) and George Martin's wonderful station theme.

Another slice of British broadcasting history.

Capital Radio Tuesday October 16th 1973

Here are the programme proposals from Capital's original franchise application submitted to the Independent Broadcasting Authority in December 1972. How very different things were back in those early days.

Capital Radio - Programme Proposals

In those days only the winning applicant's programme proposals were made public - and not until after the station had begun broadcasting. The rest of the application - as well as all of the unsuccessful ones - remained confidential.

(It's scanned from the original document and, as a result of its age, the quality isn't brilliant).

Also here's 'Capital Radio Calling', the 4-page promotional "newspaper" published as part of the station's launch marketing:

As Blogger appear to have changed the way they display pictures - you can find the full-size versions at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauleaston/sets/72157627892925378/

You Can't Say That (Allegedly)!

2011-10-09T13:32:00.003+01:00

Book Review:

It's long puzzled me why knowing the basics of media law is considered important for radio journalists but rarely, if ever, for radio presenters. This is especially true as some of the worst on-air cases of breaking the law have come from music presenters and not journalists.

In November 2003 the breakfast presenters on Beacon FM Shropshire were taken off-air, and subsequently left the station, after they made prejudicial comments about the Soham murder case whilst it was still taking place. The pair were reading out listeners’ comments asking whether Ian Huntley's evidence could be believed, with one of the presenters saying "It's almost like the most unbelievably made-up story in the world ever, really, isn't it?". It was not until a year later the Attorney General decided that no action would be taken against the presenters or the station.

A few years earlier a couple of presenters on Rock FM in Preston narrowly escaped a prison sentence for contempt of court as a result of comments made on-air during the trial of Harold Shipman. It was only because the trial judge said he had been “sufficiently impressed by the contrition and response” of Rock FM’s management, that stopped him from referring the matter to the Attorney General for possible prosecution.

Other judges in the future might not be quite so lenient, or magnanimous.

Considering the penalties for getting it wrong can be quite severe it’s surprising, and perhaps worrying, just how few stations seem to ensure that all of their on-air staff, and not just the news team, have a basic understanding of what is, and isn’t, permissible under the law.

One of the standard reference books for many years has been McNae’s Essential Law For Journalists but, while an excellent resource, can often be intimidating for some people.

Now Hang The DJ? - The Radio Presenter's Guide To The Law, by Paul Chantler and Paul Hollins, aims to provide an easily-digestible guide to the basics of media law. Its purpose is not to turn presenters into ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’, but to provide them with, at least, a sufficient understanding of the basics to ensure that they hear ‘alarm bells’ ringing at the appropriate times.

This book (available in paperback, PDF/e-book and Kindle versions) manages to guide its readers along the twisted pathways of defamation and contempt of court without resorting to too much legalese. It also provides many real-life examples of where broadcasters have fallen foul of the law. In one case an online community station was forced to close after losing a libel case brought by a well-known MP at the time because of a damages settlement in five-figures.

One unfortunate outcome of a lack of training is that some presenters end up labouring under some serious misapprehensions regarding broadcast law.

For example, despite what you may have been led to believe by ‘Have I Got News For You?’, the word “allegedly” is not a defence against a possible libel action; if anything it just digs you even deeper into the hole in which you’ve dug yourself. In libel cases, the burden of proof is on the defendant, so by using “allegedly”, you are, in effect, admitting you are not totally sure of the facts, and, therefore, have no adequate defence.

It’s also worth remembering that HIGNFY has a BBC lawyer present in the studio during recording, as well as in the edit suite afterwards to ensure legal compliance in the final programme. Even then they don't always get it right!

This book is a 'must-read' for anybody in broadcasting who cares about getting it right; especially when getting it wrong could land you in court.

Talking of which, I'm just sorting out a piece for tomorrow's programme when we'll be going "behind the scenes" at the big trial taking place at the local Crown Court. One of the jurors is a good mate of mine, so I’ll be asking him if he agrees that John Doe is going to be found guilty. I'm convinced he will as he's got a record as long as your arm; in fact I’m surprised it's not been mentioned in court.

Oh, wait. I think we might have a problem with this!

(Disclosure: I have known both of the authors for several years, but purchased my own copy of this book instead of receiving a free review copy).

In The Beginning...

2011-10-08T10:09:00.007+01:00

Happy Birthday, LBC - the UK's first Independent Local Radio station.

Hear the station's opening (unedited) - including the first news bulletin, read by Ken Guy, the first ad for Birds Eye Fish Fingers and the start of the Morning Show with David Jessel.

A true slice of British broadcasting history.

LBC Monday October 8th 1973

"Britain's first commercial radio station went on the air just a few minutes ago - and you're listening to it." - at 5'39".

Here are the programme proposals from LBC's original franchise application submitted to the Independent Broadcasting Authority in December 1972.

London Broadcasting Company - Programme Proposals

In those days only the winning applicant's programme proposals were made public - and not until after the station had begun broadcasting. The rest of the application - as well as all of the unsuccessful ones - remained confidential.

(It's scanned from the original document and, as a result of its age, the quality isn't brilliant).

Also here's the 4-page promotional "newspaper" published as part of the station's launch marketing.

As Blogger appear to have changed the way they display pictures - you can find the full-size versions at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauleaston/sets/72157627875888108/

Eight Days A Week

2011-09-27T14:24:00.000+01:00

UKRD has announced that, with effect from October 1st, its regular weekday presenters and journalists will now only work Monday to Friday and no longer be required to do a sixth shift at the weekend.

CEO William Rogers explained that the company is “determined to afford presenters and journalists the same consideration and working terms and conditions as others who work in the radio industry. This is an antiquated and wholly inappropriate requirement and at UKRD we are determined to give all presenters and journalists a better work life balance. These people work incredibly hard and in these days of multi-tasking, do so much more than their specifically allocated role. I think that presenters and journalists have been receiving the rough end of the radio stick for years and its time this unfair practice stopped."

I know there are some (myself included, at first) who wondered whether UKRD's move would simply mean those presenters affected by the change would be paid less to reflect the cut in their hours, along with their current live weekend shows probably becoming voice-tracked. When I raised this point on Twitter I was pleased to get a reply from one UKRD presenter who told me "Our wages remain the same and existing live shifts will be covered by freelancers at considerable cost!" He also added "So much distrust in the industry...!"

While I agree that might have seemed a cynical question on my part, I did reply to the effect that it is understandable given the way some other stations and groups have behaved, but I was pleased to learn that UKRD's current presenters will not see their money cut, while the resulting gaps in the schedule could provide additional work opportunities for existing freelance presenters, as well those looking to get their foot on the first rung of the career ladder.

I notice, incidentally, that UKRD is currently top of the 'Sunday Times 100 (Mid-sized) Companies to Work For' listings in 2011.

Meanwhile LBC 97.3 has also made a few weekend schedule changes, which will see James Max presenting breakfast on both Saturdays and Sundays. Until now Sunday breakfast has been presented by Steve Allen, who also does weekday early breakfast, while Max has been doing Saturday breakfast and Sunday afternoons. As Allen was the only weekday presenter to work six days a week (pre-recorded programmes, such as Nick Ferrari's 'Review of the Week' highlights package) in the current schedule, this change simply brings him in line with everybody else.

Why did it become the norm for radio presenters, especially in the commercial sector, to be expected to work six days a week?

Much of it, I suspect, is financial. If you're paid on a 'per show' basis then obviously the more you do the more you get paid. On smaller stations where show fees are low, an extra 4-5 shows a month can make a difference, which is usually why people are willing to do it. Those stations also require their presenters to undertake additional duties, such as production, music scheduling, commercial traffic, promotions and, in some cases, even sales, which can also help to top-up the pay packet. You may only be on-air for 3-4 hours but you'll still be putting in a full day's work; 'Show and Go' is a luxury only for larger stations.

There's also the school of thought which says putting your weekday talent on-air over the weekend is A Good Thing because it helps expose them to listeners who might not normally get to hear them during the week. I remember during my time at Capital the regular weekday presenters, apart from Chris Tarrant, all did a weekend shift; usually on a Sunday and at their regular weekday times. The downside to doing this is that listening patterns and lifestyles are different over the weekend, which means simply doing a regular weekday programme is unlikely to work as well.

Meanwhile, BBC Surrey's weekday breakfast presenter Nick Wallis will be adding Saturday breakfast to his duties.

The 'official' line is:“We’re really delighted that Nick is going to be bringing the best of weekday breakfast to Saturdays. Listeners will be able to hear his unique view on life and hear in-depth discussions about the news stories affecting the people of Surrey from 6am.”

Personally, though, in view of recent moves made elsewhere I can't help but think this is a backward step.

Summer Holiday

2011-08-22T08:05:00.001+01:00

It’s August, which of course means it’s the peak season for people wanting to take time off; especially those with families who need to work things around school holiday dates.

Ideally in radio when it comes to holiday leave you try to disrupt the normal schedule as little as possible. On a station with a relatively small number of presenters it's usually possible to organise everybody's holiday leave requests so that you don't have more than one person off at a time.

While it's usual to use a weekend/part-timer as a swing jock to cover the gaps in the schedule, it's not always possible to do it for weekday breakfast; in which case one of the other main daytime presenters will be moved to cover it and, in turn, their own regular slot will be done by the swing person.

Dick Stone, PD at Capital East Midlands, makes a good point in his blog about operating a 'One Off, All Off' principle for his breakfast show team. "...the reason being that it impacts the on air output the least in terms of weeks of the year when the full contingent are not together. A double header both with say 4 weeks holiday per year might not agree on dates and so 8 weeks of the years you are down on breakfast and not firing on all cylinders."

One advantage of presenters taking a holiday is that it gives a programme controller an opportunity to try out someone else in a different slot, as well as giving presenters a chance to show what they can do; especially if they’re usually on-air at the weekend or off-peak times during the week. The downside, of course, is that some presenters (especially those on breakfast) can become a bit paranoid when they go off on holiday in case the PC decides that their holiday cover is doing a better job than them!

As a result some try to avoid taking time off; I know of one presenter on a major London station who has often said on-air he doesn't like to take holidays and usually only takes the occasional week off "under protest". I happen to think that’s a bad idea because it’s important to have some breaks throughout the year to recharge your batteries and return to the show refreshed and revitalised.

It's also a good idea to take regular breaks throughout the year so that you don’t go for too long without one and become rundown and un-productive as a result.

That, of course, will be exactly the time your PC is wondering whether you’re still the right person for that particular slot!

London Rajar - Q2/2011

2011-08-04T00:00:00.008+01:00

As usual here's my hour-by-hour breakdown of how the main London commercial stations are performing - coupled with my regular caveat about not taking a single quarter in isolation.

This quarter's game of 'musical chairs' sees Magic back as London's No. 1 commercial station -with Capital and Heart arguing over who gets Silver or Bronze, depending on whether you are ranking by Reach or Share; although it's really Radio 4 which is London's "No 1 Station".

The one thing that has really caught my eye is that, after a strong performance during the past year, LBC 97.3 has taken a bit of a hit; most noticeably in what used to be its clear domination of late-night, overnight and early-morning. It may, of course, simply be a 'blip'. Only time will tell.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Note: Figures used in all charts for Absolute are 'Total Absolute Radio (London)

Survey period - 28th March - 26th June 2011. Source: Rajar/Ipsos Mori/RSMB.

Previous charts for Q1/2011 can be found here and, for a Year-on-Year comparison, Q2/10 is here.

Some other good blogs:

Matt Deegan has written an interesting blog post about RAJAR and how some behavioural changes happen quick and some take a little longer: - http://www.mattdeegan.com/2011/08/04/state-of-radio-q211/

James Cridland writes about the power of the brand in building Rajar numbers - http://james.cridland.net/blog/its-all-in-the-brand/

Adam Bowie has a good overview - http://www.adambowie.com/weblog/archive/003167.html

Reeling In The Years

2011-07-01T08:29:00.002+01:00

This is a revised version of an article that was published in the 1,000th issue of The Radio Magazine.
( Photo: © Martin Stevens)

37 years ago today, on 1st July 1974, I joined LBC as a young ‘Sound Technician/Studio Operator’; my first radio job; I had been involved with hospital radio for the previous four years. This week has also seen The Radio Magazine’s 1000th edition and between us we’ve seen a lot of changes in radio over the years.

When I entered radio there were just five ILR stations: LBC, Capital, Clyde, BRMB and Piccadilly. Metropolitan Broadcasting, in Newcastle, launched a couple of weeks later.

Issue No. 1 of The Radio Magazine, in April 1992, reported on plans by the Radio Authority to licence a new tier of regional commercial radio stations, as well as around 300 projected local stations. Perhaps if the industry knew then what it now painfully knows, those plans might have been very different.

The way we make radio has certainly changed. In 1974 a typical radio studio was equipped with record turntables, cart machines and reel-to-reel tape machines. All of those have now been replaced by computer playout systems and presenters are no longer required to juggle records, carts and tapes throughout their shows; something a friend of mine once called “the ballet of radio”. Mind you it did keep you on your toes.

Tape editing was done using razor blades; can you imagine dealing with the inevitable Health & Safety risk assessment you would need to go through in order to do it like that today? Instead the ‘Undo’ button makes life so much easier and avoids having to rummage through the bin to find the bit of tape you discarded earlier. It could be argued, though, that the old-fashioned method did force you think more carefully before making that cut.

The way people listen to radio has also changed, thanks to the emergence of the RadioPlayer, iPhone applications, podcasts, downloads and online streaming, while radio itself is facing increasing competition for people’s time from multi-channel TV, the internet and games. Radio is becoming a multi-platform medium which now means, as Absolute Radio’s Clive Dickens put it “We go where our audience is - online, on demand, on-air, on everywhere.”

While it’s important to remain aware of the way radio is changing and evolving, I believe it’s equally important to be aware of its past.

This is not a lament about how the industry has changed, or a call for a return to the sort of radio many of us of “a certain age” grew up with. Those days are gone, the world has moved on and listeners’ tastes and expectations have changed. It is, though, about the need to retain a sense of perspective on what we are doing.

Historians often remind us that in order to understand the present and the future we have to understand the past, otherwise we learn nothing about ourselves.

One common complaint about the UK radio industry is that too often it seems unable, or unwilling, to learn from its mistakes. New managers seem keen to re-invent the wheel simply because they want to make their mark rather than because what they are doing will actually improve their station’s performance. Once they’ve finished sorting out the inevitable mess, they move on (or are moved on) and someone else then comes in and starts changing everything again.

Wanting to change something just because “it’s always been done that way” isn’t the way to go about it. Obviously a station should continually be evaluating itself, and finding new and better ways of doing things; that’s how you continue to remain relevant to your target audience. It’s when the new methods turn out not to be better, or have not been thought through properly in the first place, that the problems begin. “If it ain’t broke…break it, then bodge it back together again” becomes the new mantra; even though things rarely work as well as they did before.

Similarly, some less-enlightened members of senior radio management have been known to dismiss the past as “irrelevant”, with the result that large quantities of (often valuable) archive recordings have ended up in a skip as a ‘heritage’ ILR dumped its, er, heritage. I’ve heard many stories of people rescuing such material and then being asked to lend it back to the same station some years later because it’s needed for their 25th etc. birthday celebrations.

I mentioned earlier that we need to retain a sense of perspective. Without it we are in danger of finding ourselves in the position where, as Oscar Wilde once put it, we know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Then the future of radio will indeed be bleak!

Conference Call

2011-06-22T08:24:00.004+01:00

James Cridland recently blogged about his experience of the Zurich Radio Festival and observed:

"All the radio conferences I go to are very much aimed at suits: and there seems little aimed at people that spend time behind microphones, or who produce radio or web.

Radio conferences for three or four hundred pounds are still excellent value for a company: if they’ll pay. But there doesn’t appear to be a radio conference that presenters and producers could afford to pay for out of their own pocket, or take a day off work to attend...

...But what about a conference for “people that do”?

The answer is that they're usually too busy "doing" to be able to take time off. but I quite agree with the comment.

The Radio Academy's annual Radio Festival is an excellent event which brings together people from all areas of radio; this year's returns to The Lowry at Salford Quays from 31st October to 2nd September. It's always been well-attended but I wonder how many Radio Festival attendees would still go if they had to pay out of their own pocket and not because a generous employer is picking up the tab.

As I'm self-employed I don't have that luxury and, even though I'm obviously able to claim the cost as an allowable business expense for tax purposes, I still have to fork out the full amount in the first place.

Several years ago the Radio Academy used to organise an annual one-day 'Music Radio Conference' which, for many years, provided a good meeting-ground for those from both the radio and music industries (with some good stuff in the delegates' bags). A similar Speech Radio event was also organised for a couple of years before the two were merged under the 'Production 200x' banner. These events were more affordable and were also quite well-attended.

In the past few years the economic climate has meant the Radio Academy has had to bring elements from their former one-day conferences (including 'Radio At The Edge') into the main Festival. That's understandable, but the the cost of attending can be outside the budget of many radio people who would otherwise want to attend; especially "the people who do".

Which is why I'm pleased to learn of a new radio conference taking place in Central London (near Euston station) on Thursday 15th September which is aimed directly at them.

At last – a radio conference for radio people.

It’s not designed for the suits. It’s not something that will just appeal to you if you work in a particular part of the radio industry. It’s designed for people who like radio, who want to be inspired by new ideas, who recognise that technology will help it to change and adapt and for those who want to meet like minded people.

The cost? An affordable £99.

Full details can be found at http://nextrad.io/

Unfortunately a prior committment prevents me from being there myself but if my endorsement counts for anything then I'm happy to give it to this event. There are some great speakers lined-up so I can promise you it won't be like the picture above!

If this does interest you then you'll need to act quickly as there are only ~~120 tickets available~~ a few tickets left.

Reviewing The Situation

2011-06-14T15:43:00.001+01:00

The long-awaited report by former GMG Radio Chief Executive John Myers on the BBC's four popular music networks has now been published.

'Synergies within BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra and 6 Music', to give it its full title, is the result of a study (carried out from 24th January to the end of March 2011) into how those stations could be run more efficiently without sacrificing quality.

It's interesting to note that Myers does not believe that "appeasing commercial radio" should be the primary motive for change within the BBC. "The more compelling reason must be that a modern BBC aims to deliver its remit by constantly reviewing its operations and seeking out value for money, through working smarter and collectively. This review is part of that process and just one aspect of good management for the organisation."

Myers was impressed with what he found in terms of skills, passion and knowledge, with staff who were proud of what they did and who they do it for. There were, though, some areas which he felt would benefit from synergies that could deliver cost savings while retaining the quality of programming.

For example the way the various networks tend to work in a silo means that a huge amount of experience and knowledge that could be shared is not.

One area in particular was the news operation across the four stations, and I was amazed to learn that Radio 1's 'Newsbeat' employs 52 full time staff, in addition to its own technical and production personnel. Really? A couple of years ago I expressed similar surprise that 'Today' on Radio 4 had a team of 55 people - How Many People Does It Take?

Meanwhile Radio 2 has a team of announcers who read the news on the hour (outside of breakfast) but do not write any of the news material themselves. Instead this is written for them by the BBC Newsroom and have little else to to do until the next hour's bulletin.

The report also claims that 6 Music has 5 people who read the news on the network but don't write it. I am reliably informed that, in fact, there are 4 people who both write and read the news.

Also on the subject of staffing I am also reliably informed by a former R2 'insider' that Jeremy Vine's show has "...the editor and two senior producers, two other producers (who are known as BAs purely because of the way audio and music is set up - they should be BJs really) and someone who does the admin. On top of that there is usually someone on contract, and perhaps a freelancer in too. When the show is live, there are some people who come in as phone-ops too.. maybe two or three extra people I guess?"

It's a content-heavy show, but could that be done as efficiently with fewer people without sacrificing quality?

On several occasions Myers suggests that it would be a good exercise to get the Independent Sector to provide a comparison metric for shows such as Friday Night Is Music Night. i.e. could the same programme be made cheaper without losing its existing high production values?

The report also recommends that more of Radio 2's non-daytime programmes should be live as this would save hours of compliance listening before transmission. Radio 1, with more live programming, is less costly and less time-consuming as a result.

The report's main recommendations are:

4.1 Explore improving coordination of the popular music network radio stations (Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2 and 6 Music) through a common operating model, delivering:

• Significant reduction of overheads

• Slimmed down management structure

• Removal of all mirrored departments within each network

• Reduced recharges from News

• Operational efficiencies

• Sharing of expertise at all levels In my judgement, this would best be achieved through co-‐location in a single building

4.2 Examine the advantages of operating under a single tier management structure across all four popular music networks.

4.3 Ask the network controllers to define the term ‘quality’ to their respective staff, to ensure costs are managed within an agreed framework.

4.4 Review the model and the level of recharges across each network to improve simplicity and effectiveness.

4.5 Explore the possibility of Newsbeat becoming the central newsroom for all four popular music networks within its current staffing levels and with independent network readers approved by each controller.

4.6 Re-plan the operational needs of studio managers within Radio 2. Ask presenters to “self-op” whenever possible, unless there are specific production issues, or they are only occasional presenters or complicated programming exists.

4.7 Continue to reduce the compliance burden appropriately. Wherever possible return the decision-‐making process back to the producer, especially for obviously low risk programming.

John Myers' report should certainly give the BBC some food for thought; although whether it gets buried within an internal review is another matter.

As much as I consume and enjoy a great deal of the BBC’s radio and TV output during a typical week – and, as a result, personally consider the licence fee to represent good value for money on the whole – I do feel that it is important to ensure that that money is being spent wisely and would prefer that as much as possible of it is invested in programme-making and not on propping-up countless tiers of management.

I notice UTV, owners of talkSPORT, who have recently locked horns with 5 Live over whether the BBC network is still working within its service remit, have already called for an investigation into 5 Live's budgets. Personally I think the time has now come, if not already overdue, for a similar Myers-type exercise with both Radio 4 and 5 Live.

After all, in the current economic climate we are all having to 'tighten our belts' and look at ways to be more economical so I fail to see why the BBC should be immune from that.

As Lionel Bart wrote in 'Oliver' (in the song whose title I used for this piece) - "I think I'd better think it out again!"

Terms of Engagement

2011-06-07T12:05:00.004+01:00

Rajar is to introduce an online radio listening diary and a new digital personal interviewing aide from Quarter 3/2011.

The digital rollout of collection data is being introduced as radio engagement evolves across an increasing number of platforms, including the internet and mobile phones.

Rajar claims the move will enable it to offer improved demographic representation and will enhance the capture of listening data across all platforms; whether analogue, internet, DAB or DTV. The new online survey will mirror the current paper diary in content, allowing all data to be integrated for reporting.

This is not, though, a new electronic system of measurement; it's simply offering diary-holders the opportunity to provide their listening info in a different way. That is still likely to be some years away.

It's been introduced in the US in recent years by Arbitron (the US radio ratings company) using their Portable People Meter (PPM). What's been interesting from the US experience has been the way the PPM has resulted in some very different figures for some stations.

Harker Research is not impressed with the way PPM is being used and also point out that, unlike their American counterparts, European broadcasters insisted on carrying out their own tests. In the UK Rajar tested a number of devices, including the PPM, and got markedly different results from identical models being exposed to the same radio listening pattern. Allen Kepler of Broadcast Architecture has also aired some controversial views on Mark Ramsey's Blog.

One other problem the PPM has thrown-up is what has been called "drive-by listening", in other words tracking listening data from a station that the PPM-wearer is not actively listening to.

For example, if I pop into my local corner shop to get a pint of milk and they have the radio on I'm only there for a few minutes and, therefore, would not include that very brief snatch of listening in a diary because it's less than 15 minutes. Electronic measurement, though, says I was listening, because the PPM operates on a smaller time-frame.

This, in turn, raises the matter of engagement; whether people are actually listening to a particular station, or whther it's just on in the background.

In the 1980s ad agency Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury ran a controversial ad in the trade magazine Campaign which questioned the reliability of existing media research.

In the 2010s the problem would still appear to be with us.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all in favour of improving the way Rajar works. The current paper diary may be old-fashioned and rely on listener recall but it's been shown to be statistically robust and the new measures being introduced are more evolutionary than revolutionary. Electronic measurement will happen eventually, but the results must still be robust and enable the radio industry to continue to buy into the Rajar data and its "common currency" across the industry.

It is also becoming increasingly essential to broaden the range of radio research to provide credible metrics to cover online and non-linear listening, music streaming services such as Spotify and community radio. So far only the BBC and Absolute Radio are the only broadcasters who regularly publish such comparable information.

Bookends

2011-05-31T14:16:00.005+01:00

It's long been an accepted wisdom in radio that you have a strong late-night programme so that those people who go to bed with your station wake up with it first thing in the morning because their bedside radio alarm is still tuned to you. Even if they change it once they're awake you've still had the chance to persuade them to keep listening.

Over the years presenters such as Pete Price, Alan Robson, Allan Beswick, James Stannage, 'Scottie McClue', Ian Collins and James Whale have all been extremely successful in that slot with 'must listen' phone-in shows. Late Night Love with Graham Torrington worked well for GWR/GCap's stations and in the past few years Iain Lee has been building something of a cult following on Absolute Radio.

These days, though, fewer stations are doing late-night phone-ins; probably because it's cheaper to have someone play a few tunes (perhaps even automated) than a live presenter, especially when good phone-in hosts who can generate good calls and engage well with their audience don't come cheap.

It's still a format that works, though. As you can see in an earlier post, LBC dominates the highly-competitive commercial radio market from 10.00pm through until 7.00am. Station stalwart Clive Bull has been a regular fixture in the 10.00pm - 1.00am weekday slot for many years, which has helped to build heritage and audience loyalty, and the station itself often refers to him as "London's Late Night Legend".

Here's a look at the share of listening in London at that time of night. You'll notice that I've also been able to include the BBC nationals, as well as BBC London 94.9, Classic FM, TalkSPORT, Sunrise and Premier.

(Click on graphs to enlarge)

If a strong late-night show can help build the breakfast audience, many stations also consider 'Early Breakfast' starting around 5.00 as a strong 'warm-up' for the main Breakfast show, as well as providing something good for those people who need to be up at that time (and in London there are plenty of them).

In that slot another LBC stalwart, Steve Allen, has the second-highest share of listening between 5.00 - 7.00am.

Steve is very much a 'Marmite' presenter. Each weekday morning he talks for two hours, pausing only for news, travel and commercial breaks, and mainly by himself; he does have a few regular contributors a few times a week. It's not a phone-in but he does read out texts and emails from listeners.

What seems to pull in the listeners is his lack of time for those Z-list celebs, especially Katie 'Jordan' Price and Kerry Katona, who have a seemingly-constant desire to appear on the front page of the 'red-tops' as often as possible, or who seem to be famous just for being famous. Benefit scroungers and those who abuse disabled stickers on cars are also on his list of bêtes-noires and, as a result, equally likely to feel the sharp end of his tongue.

On-air Steve comes across as eccentric. We know he is diabetic and because he is so scared about losing his feet (gangrene and amputation can be a problem with some diabetics) he never wears the same pair of socks twice; each day's pair are thrown away and he buys them in bulk from M&S. He drives a Bentley, the boot of which seems full of stuff he's bought but never quite got round to taking into his home; which itself is probably piled high with DVD boxsets. Oh and he buys two of everything!

Whether you choose to believe anything he says on-air is another matter, of course, but it's all a carefully-crafted act, and one that works well for both him and LBC.

It's certainly one of those shows where you feel you want to keep listening because you don't believe what you're hearing, or want to know what he's going to say next; and that's a factor that's not too common on radio these days. Sadly.

(Note: The figures shown for LBC are those for 'LBC (ILR)' which is a combination of LBC 97.3 and LBC News 1152; which simulcasts 97.3 from 1900-0700. Even without the additional listening on AM, LBC 97.3 still has the second-highest share of listening in both of those dayparts).

Only When You Leave

2011-05-25T07:23:00.006+01:00

Should presenters be allowed the chance to say ‘Goodbye’ on their last show when leaving a station? It’s not uncommon for presenters to be taken off-air as soon as it’s known they are leaving - whether it’s the station’s decision not to renew their contract, or the presenter’s choice to go.

It could be argued that presenters achieve audience loyalty through forging a ‘friendship’ with their listeners, so it’s only right they should be able to let people know they are moving on; especially if they have been a regular fixture in the schedule for many years.

If the presenter is leaving at the station’s behest, there is usually some concern they might start slagging-off the station/management, break format and generally lose motivation.

I knew one person who was ‘let go’ and who spent the last five minutes of his final show giving a rather self-indulgent speech outlining his time at the station (including some thinly-veiled criticisms of the station's management) and then proposed over the radio to his girlfriend, which gained some press coverage for his departure.

If the presenter has decided to leave, it’s sometimes better to let them go straight away and pay off their contract, rather than let them work out their notice period; especially if they’re leaving to join a rival station. It also helps prevent episodes such as the one I just mentioned.

Either way, when someone is leaving they usually become ‘demob happy’ and are no longer fully-focused on their present job. As a result, they can be a distraction to the other members of the team.

There are, obviously, exceptions to this. It all depends on the person and the circumstances, but I’ve worked at places where some presenters have been taken off-air immediately while others have been allowed to stay on.

Similarly, you don’t need me to tell you that managing presenters is not always easy. They’re the team members who are at the forefront of your station’s ‘shop window’ and therefore come under continual scrutiny while being expected to give a consistent performance every time they are on-air. No matter what might be going on in their personal lives they have to be able to leave it outside the studio and concentrate on the job in hand, so it’s important to ensure that your presenters are working in a good, positive, atmosphere that is conducive for making good radio.

That doesn’t mean molly-coddling them or pandering to their egos but simply treating them with respect, as you would any other person, while appreciating that some presenters can go through periods when they don’t feel they’re able to ‘come up with the goods’ and need some reassurance and encouragement as a means of motivation.

Everybody likes to be told they’re doing a good job. I also happen to think that if you acknowledge good work, it also gives you more credibility, and authority on those occasions when you might need to pick someone up on something, or even discipline them.

There are some people in management, though, who seem to rule by fear. While such an approach might keep everybody on their toes, it doesn’t do much for team morale, or encourage people to give their best. Often the only real motivation the staff get at times like that is to do their best to find another job as soon as possible!

After all, you can’t keep your eyes on the road ahead if you’re constantly having to look over your shoulder!

Bristol Channels

2011-05-17T13:22:00.002+01:00

Each quarter I try to look in more detail at other, non-London, radio markets and this time the spotlight falls on Bristol. Like many places this is a city which has seen a lot of change in its radio stations over the past year or so.

GWR became Heart Bristol and is now Heart West Country, sharing Breakfast and Drivetime with the former Orchard FM in Taunton. Kiss is now mainly networked from London. Original became Jack while Star, acquired from UKRD by Celador, changed format and name to become Breeze during this survey period, which is why the station is still shown under its old name. More importantly, as Star has a yearly survey period these figures cover from 29th March 2010 - 27th March 2011.

Jack, once again, has added listeners this past quarter; I've already talked about its success in a previous blog post and there's not much I can add to that now.

BBC Radio Bristol is also a solid performer with a very healthy reach and share in this TSA.

Here's how the major stations rank. I've taken the figures for Star Radio (Bristol) as these are the best ones that enable a straight comparison.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Almost all stations have shown a Year-on-Year increase in reach, which can only be good for radio as a whole.

In terms of share, though, things are rather mixed.

Finally, here's how the stations do in terms of daytime dayparts; note a very strong performance by BBC Radio Bristol during Breakfast and mid-mornings.

London Rajar - Q1/2011

2011-05-15T08:29:00.002+01:00

(This is a re-post following technical problems at Blogger last Thursday)

As usual here's my hour-by-hour breakdown of how the main London commercial stations are performing - with my usual caveat about not taking a single quarter in isolation.

The big story this time is that Capital is back as London's No. 1 commercial station - although overall it is in third place after Radio 4 and Radio 2 - while Magic has slipped to third place (Reach) but second in % Share.

LBC 97.3 continues to dominate the late-night and overnight hours; especially with LBC stalwarts, "late-night legend" Clive Bull (2200-0100) and Steve Allen (0500-0700).

In Q3/2010 the station had been overtaken by several of its competitors in this time period but has since bounced back. (Please note that the figures used in these charts do not include those for LBC News 1152AM, which simulcasts with the FM station at this time).

Smooth has a strong showing this quarter - especially at Breakfast with Simon Bates (who joined the station at the beginning of the year).

Christian O'Connell is also showing a stronger performance on Absolute after last quarter's figures showed some daytime hours were getting more listeners.

On the whole there are going to be some smiles, some frowns and a few people scratching their heads in puzzlement - but that's always the case.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Note: Figures used for Absolute are 'Total Absolute Radio (London)

The previous charts for Q4/2010 can be found here. There's also an interesting analysis of London stations by platform on Adam Bowie's blog.

Ticking All The Right Boxes

2011-05-06T12:46:00.004+01:00

I was interested to read a piece on The Drum website about how French radio stations are struggling to fulfil the quota of French-language material they are required to play.

Since 1994 at least 40% of the music they play has to consist of French-language titles, half of which must be by new artists, but there is a problem in that the number of pop songs being produced in French is dwindling. This is because many French artists prefer to sing in English in order to gain greater overseas sales.

The Drum quotes Maryam Salehi of leading French radio group NRJ: "How can you ask radio broadcasters to respect quotas if producers dry up the source?"

France isn't the only country to have imposed quota systems for radio airplay. Probably the best known is ‘CanCon’, or ‘Canadian Content’, which requires radio stations to play 35% of music that fulfils at least two of the ‘MAPL’ requirements: M - Music composed by a Canadian; A - Artist performing is a Canadian; P - Produced in Canada; L - Lyrics written by a Canadian

These rules are quite specific; so much so that, for many years, Bryan Adams failed to qualify under ‘MAPL’ because he now lives and records in England and it was considered that there was no longer sufficient ‘Canadian Content’ in his records. It was only a rule change (named after him) that enabled Adams’ songs to become ‘CanCon’ once more.

I also seem to recall music quotas being one of the main topics being discussed at PopKomm, the German music industry convention, several years ago which led to some rather heated exchanges between record company bosses and radio programmers at the time. The record companies were upset that radio stations were not playing more music of German origin, while many programmers argued that too much of it wasn't good enough to be played.

Could something similar work here for UK music? Do we really need it? I don't believe we do.

I vaguely seem to remember calls for something similar in the UK in the mid-70s; mainly from Hughie Green, who was upset that Capital Radio were not playlisting hit records by Opportunity Knocks winners such as Lena Zavaroni and Paper Lace! More recently Radio 1 's Andy Parfitt has said the station “aims to play” at least 40% British music.

As far as I can tell British artists don’t seem to be having too much of a problem getting airplay, even if there have been perhaps (to my taste at least) too many ‘instantly-manufactured’ artists appearing (and disappearing) through TV shows such as X-Factor. If there is a lack of British artists anywhere on radio it’s more likely to be on stations such as Capital and Kiss, which do seem to be playing a higher proportion of US artists.

The question we should be asking ourselves is “Are we playing songs because they are the ones our listeners want to hear, or are we doing it purely as part of a record company’s marketing strategy?”

Really, it should be the former; although radio has always enjoyed a symbiotic, if occasionally rather strained, relationship with the music industry over the years. The two sides may be intertwined, but they are not inseparable, and the smarter radio and record people have realised this.

It’s always good to be able to champion deserving new artists, but any good radio programmer still needs to exercise some form of quality control; those artists should be played not because they help fulfil a quota but because they are good.

Besides, if your audience really don’t like what you’re playing, you’ll soon find out once you start testing it as part of your regular music research, or when the next Rajar book comes out.

Talking of which... the Rajar figures for Q1/2011 (3rd January - 27th March) are released next week and, as usual, I intend to be able to provide my regular commentary on the results.

Teenage Dreams So Hard To Beat

2011-04-15T15:19:00.001+01:00

BBC Trustee David Liddiment has expressed his concern that Radio 1 is still failing to reach its target audience. Speaking at the Spring Conference of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer he claimed the average age of the Radio 1 listener was 30 (against a target age group of 15 to 29), which was the same as it was when he conducted a review of the station two years ago.

"It hasn't got any worse but it hasn't got any better. The average age remains 30 and it still remains a challenge. We are in dialogue with management how to achieve this."

Here's a breakdown of the Radio 1 weekday audience by age group, which shows that while it does attract listeners over 35, its main listenership is 15-34.

I can't help feel that Radio 1 is caught between a rock and a hard place here.

If, as Liddiment seems to suggest, the average age has to come down to well below what it is at the moment that means R1 would need to gain a large number of new listeners from the younger end of its target audience while jettisoning those who are considered to be "too old". That's a big ask.

If it broadens its appeal to engage with a much younger audience by playing more music from teen-orientated artists then the station gets accused of "distorting the market" and providing little point of difference with commercial rivals such as Capital and Kiss. Incidentally, the average age of listeners to both of those stations is also over 30.

There's also the problem that most people don't like to think - or be reminded - that they're getting older. Many of those who grew up with Radio 1 still listen because that's what they've always done, they still enjoy listening to it and probably even still consider Radio 2 to be for "old people" despite the addition of people such as Chris Evans and Simon Mayo to the schedule. Maybe those older R1 listeners remember listening to them years ago but don't equate that with growing old and still enjoy listening to R1; even if it's just for Moyles.

It's not just about the music, though. Some commercial radio people have called for Radio 1 to employ more younger presenters, but the real question is whether those currently there, regardless of age, are still able to engage with the target audience; especially when other research has warned that younger people are simply not listening to the radio for music in the same way as previous generations did.

In its report last year on Radio 2 the BBC Trust pointed out that there was no connection between the age of the presenter and that of the listeners, and David Liddiment acknowledged a similar situation with R1: "Sometimes [it requires] a proper understanding of changes in behaviour and it may well be that something of that kind would apply here. It's not so much the age [of the DJ] as their style and ability to connect with the audience."

"It's not for the BBC Trust to tell the station who it should hire and who it shouldn't hire. What there is is an acknowledgement that the average age is still about 30 and we are interested in hearing what steps the BBC management will take to keep the focus on a younger age. That is what the station is there to do."

The upheaval carried out by Matthew Bannister at R1 in the mid-90s was the result of years of stagnation, leading to drastic action being needed in order to restore the balance and shed the 'Smashie & Nicey" image in favour of something that was more cool and trendy. What is needed now is a major strategic review of the station in order to identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as perceptions, among the target audience and be prepared to make changes if necessary.

This time, though, the change should be more evolutionary than revolutionary in much the same way Jim Moir overhauled Radio 2.

Interestingly R1 has a higher percentage of listeners 35-44 than Radio 2; which itself has been charged by the BBC Trust to ensure that the average age of the R2 listener stays above 50.

So if R1 drops its average age, while R2's stays above 50, where are a large number of disaffected 30/40-somethings to go if R1 is going to have to tell them "F**k off Grandad, we're too cool for you and you're too old for us now!"

While commercial radio benefited during the Bannister era, I'm not convinced it's as good a likely home this time around. Capital may be positioning itself as a rival to Radio 1 but its tight, urban-skewed, playlist makes it untenable for many Radio 1 listeners, and I can't imagine a current Radio 1 listener in his/her 30s being too interested in what a station such as Heart is offering.

In any case how do you tell someone they're "too old to be listening to this"? Surely that's up to them to decide.

April Fool!

2011-04-01T07:46:00.003+01:00

It's April 1st and time for the media to come up with something that they hope will capture the public's imagination.

The Radio Today website is running a story today about 'Radio 3 Extra' - a new digital radio service from the BBC. It's a clever idea and has just enough credibility to be real.

One of the true classics was on BBC-TV's Panorama programme in 1957, which broadcast a film narrated by Richard Dimbleby featuring a family from Ticino in Switzerland carrying out their annual spaghetti harvest. It showed women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry; at the time spaghetti was not a widely-eaten food in the UK and was considered by many as an exotic delicacy.

The film explained how each year the end of March is a very anxious time for Spaghetti harvesters all over Europe as severe frost can impair the flavour of the spaghetti. It also explained how each strand of spaghetti always grows to the same length thanks to years of hard work by generations of growers.

Another was in 1977 when The Guardian published a seven-page travel supplement extolling the delights of the republic of Sans Seriffe in the Indian Ocean. This country consisted of two main islands, Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse, and its leader was General Pica.

Those who knew about printing terminology and fonts would have got the joke but many more fell for it.

Radio, too, has had its fair share of notable stunts.

During his time on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show Noel Edmonds did an outside broadcast from a cornflake factory. During the programme he interviewed a person who claimed there were twelve different shapes. This, apparently, led to thousands of listeners tipping their cornflakes out of the box to check.

A couple of personal favourites - probably because I worked there at the time - were done by Capital FM.

One year April 1st fell on a Saturday so Chris Tarrant and the entire weekday breakfast show team came in and did the show as though it was a Friday. Quite a few people got caught out by that one.

A year or two earlier, Tarrant had been away and 1st April was his first day back. On-air he sounded so laid-back he made Bob Harris or the late John Peel sound manic by comparison, and was playing very mellow music to match. Apparently, so the story went, he had been on a ‘Transcendental Fishing’ trip and, in the process, had been taught a special mantra that had changed his life. Listeners could hear more about this by calling a premium-rate line - on which they were reminded, after a minute or so, which day it was, and that all proceeds from the call would be going to Help A London Child!

What made all of these so memorable was that the idea was just plausible enough to be true, rather than be easily recognisable as an obvious April Fool stunt. The execution also has to be believable for the stunt to work. There are other stunts which have failed miserably because they were just so obvious.

Some stations, though, have often been wary about April Fool's Day. A couple of ideas were pulled by management at LBC, even after much of the original production work had been completed. One of them involved a report that oil had been discovered in the St John's Wood area and Lord's Cricket Ground would be the site for a new drilling rig and oil well, complete with an interview with an irate, elderly cricket fan.

My all-time favourite stunt was by the late Jeremy Beadle when he did the late-night weekend show on LBC in the early-80s. The whole show was done from a car driving around central London visiting as many different 'blue plaque' buildings as they could. If a listener spotted Beadle and flagged-down his car they could win a T-shirt.

It all went quite well until the car broke down! Beadle and the team decided to abandon it and took the tube from Marble Arch (nearby) to St Paul's - the nearest open station on the Central Line to LBC (Chancery Lane was closed on Sundays) - continuing to broadcast as they went! When they got off the tube the duty newsreader filled while they dashed back to the studios in Gough Square to finish the show.

Well, that's what the listeners thought anyway, but the whole show was a complete fabrication; including a real-time recording of the tube journey. It was done so well it even fooled one of the station's senior engineers who could't understand how they managed to get a signal from a tube train!

Shortly after the show finished the police turned up. Apparently so many people had followed the "route" they were now jamming the narrow streets leading to Gough Square.

Brilliant radio - oh, and it wasn't done on April 1st!

Doctor Feelgood

2011-03-29T12:04:00.003+01:00

Last Saturday evening I had the pleasure of attending the Hospital Broadcasting Association's Awards and annual conference near Maidstone, and also presenting the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards for 'Station of the Year' to the worthy winners.

I've been a judge for the Awards for the past few years and always been impressed by the overall standard of those who have made it through to the nominations stage and, especially, into the final three.

Congratulations to all those who triumphed in Maidstone, especially Hospital Radio Plymouth who won Station of the Year. A full list of winners is available here.

The Awards and the annual conference also marked the start of 'Hospital Radio Week'. Organised in association with the Hospital Broadcasting Association - the national charity that supports and promotes Hospital Broadcasting in the UK - this has become a regular annual event and a good opportunity for hospital stations around the country to gain valuable publicity.

It was through hospital radio that I gained what I refer to as my ‘apprenticeship’ for several years so, as one of their original 'Day One' people in 1971, it was a pleasure to be able to present my former station, Radio Northwick Park in Harrow, with the 'Silver' Award for 'Station of the Year' on Saturday.

Of course back in the early-1970s there was nothing like the same choice of listening we have today; just four BBC national networks, a cluster of BBC local stations and Luxembourg in the evening. ILR, in the form of LBC and Capital, was still a couple of years away.

My own station provided 'full-service' programming consisting of magazine shows, features, interviews, OBs and local news, as well as the obligatory record requests, so, my time there provided me with a very good introduction to many basic radio skills.

It’s all too easy, and sometimes fashionable, to knock hospital radio for its “old-fashioned”, MOR-style programming and playing nothing but Perry Como and Jim Reeves for “Mabel in Ward C”. I think that’s often a rather unfair image; it’s also increasingly inaccurate. One of the most important things any good station does is to be listener-focussed and through its teams of ward visitors and request collectors hospital radio is probably the only broadcaster that carries out face-to-face research with its target audience on a daily basis. No callout research or auditorium testing for them.

Which means hospital radio stations are using their own research to get to know their audience and make programming decisions based on that knowledge; just like any other station really.

The development of affordable computer-based playout systems has made it possible for hospital radio to use automation to extend broadcasting hours as well as build and equip studios that are comparable with many small-scale commercial and community radio stations in terms of facilities.

I do feel rather concerned, though, when some hospital stations boast about sounding “much more professional” and having “better jingles” than some local commercial stations. I’ve never understood why this is quite so important; especially as those concerned seem to think that’s all that matters.

While there’s nothing wrong in striving to sound the best you can there’s far more to radio than having ‘hot’ jingles, the latest studio technology and ‘professional-sounding’ presenters. If those hospital stations don’t remain listener-focussed they end up being little more than a group of wannabes ‘playing radio’, where the emphasis is on providing what they want to hear rather than what their audience wants.

While it should not be seen purely as a training ground or stepping-stone to professional radio, hospital radio is still a great way to learn your craft, try out new ideas, get involved with many different aspects of radio, make mistakes (and hopefully learn from them) and generally have some fun while doing it; for many volunteers it’s simply a great hobby.

Most importantly you’re helping your listeners feel better.

Happy Jack

2011-02-23T16:21:00.011Z

When I've commented on the Jack format in previous blog posts someone has inevitably come along and said "Jack flopped at WCBS-FM/New York - therefore the format is a failure".

They are wrong. While Jack didn't work too well in New York I am reliably informed (from an impeccable source) that flipping to Jack was the wrong move for that station at that time, rather than a problem with the format itself.

In fact Jack is providing good results for many other stations across the States including top-rated stations among 25-54s in Los Angeles (KCBS-FM), San Diego (KFMB-FM), Seattle (KJAQ-FM), Dallas (KJKK-FM) and many more. It's proving not to be a 'fad format' in the same way that Jammin' Oldies and All-80s both crashed and burned after a couple of years.

Last month (21st January 2011) Inside Radio suggested Jack was a beneficiary of Arbitron's PPM electronic audience measurement system:

It wasn’t designed for electronic measurement — but it almost could have been. Adult hits’ clutter-free presentation is a case study in how to convey maximum personality with minimal words, while its variety music position is perfectly suited for PPM’s penchant for wide, mass appeal formats. No wonder nine years after the first “Jack” and “Bob” stations launched, many continue to ring the 25-54 ratings bell.

Of the 18 stations in markets where PPM has been currency for a full year, 14 ranked top ten in persons 25-54 in October (before Christmas programming disrupted normal market shares) and six ranked top 5. Adult hits stations in L.A., Seattle, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and San Antonio ranked top 5 in the money demo most of last year, with St. Louis #1 in every monthly. Some have fared better than they did in the diary, with South Central Communications “Jack FM” WCJK, Nashville the latest example. It improved from a four-book 25-54 average of 5.4 in its final diary surveys (ranked fifth) to a first place 10.3 in its maiden PPM survey (September).

The Jack format started nine years ago in Canada and is now licensed worldwide by Sparknet Communications, who provide stations with the Jack 'Playbook', a 'brand manual' which outlines the format's 'architecture' (music categories, suggested clocks etc.) and execution, as well as brand-generic artwork and TV commercials.

In Austria, Vienna's 88.6 runs the Jack format with the strapline- "Wir Spielen Was Wir Wollen" - but without the usual branding. found at other Jack stations. It also has presenters during the day.

Jack has also turned up in Russia on KEKC FM in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Here in the UK it's been a very good Rajar (Q4/2010) for Jack - with both the Oxford and Bristol stations posting their best-ever sets of listening figures. Jack FM Hertfordshire does not participate in Rajar.

Jack FM Oxfordshire, which launched in October 2007, has turned in a fairly steady performance over the past year or so and in the most-recent set of Rajar figures achieved its highest-ever weekly reach of 58,000 (Adults 15+) and total hours (348,000). It also performs well among its core target audience of Men 35+, which is an important selling point against its main commercial rival, the female-focussed Heart Thames Valley based in Reading, Berkshire.

Oxford is an interesting radio market. There is no 'heritage' AM/'Gold' station (The former Fox FM was one of the first ILR stations to launch as FM-only) and no regional FM station either. In addition local listening to BBC Radios 3 and 4 is higher than the national average.

Jack FM Oxfordshire has regularly punched above its weight; probably no more so than last November when they presented their Jack's Morning Glory breakfast show for a week live from Camp Bastion in Afghanistan; producing some compelling radio in the process. This week, along with stablemate Glide FM, they also launched their own 2 Strangers and a Wedding; the controversial contest first used in the UK by BRMB in Birmingham in 1999.

Jack Hertfordshire is also in wedding mode with 'My Big Fat Jack Wedding' where one lucky couple will win a dream wedding worth £25,000 although, unlike the Oxfordshire station, the bride and groom will have met each other before the actual wedding takes place!

Meanwhile in Bristol, Jack FM isn't doing a wedding-related promo but is offering to 'Adopt A Listener': "Each month during 2011 That Morning Thing will be choosing ONE listener and adopting them for a month. Our adopted listener will receive anything that we get for free (that we don't want). This could include invitations to exclusive events and openings, the chance to try posh dinners, DVDs, cookery paraphernalia, marmalade, books, CDs and pizza."

Jack Bristol replaced the Adult Alternative format of Original 106.5 in December 2009 and the latest Rajar has shown an impressive and continuing increase in audience for the station after a full year in the format; rocketing from 20,000 listeners (adults 15+) in Q4/2009 to 86,000 in Q4/2010!

Unlike Oxford, Bristol is a more-developed market and does, indeed, have an AM 'Gold' outlet as well as Kiss 101 as an FM regional. Gold, though, is already part of a national network and Kiss is about to follow. The former GWR-FM, now part of Heart West Country performs well, while the city's other FM commercial station, Star, (which has struggled under previous owners for a number of years) has recently relaunched as 'The Breeze', using new owner Celador's Soft AC formatt which is also in use on the South Coast.

Musically, the Jack format has been described as like being "an iPod on shuffle". Apart from having a playlist that is larger than many other stations; especially in the States, what distinguishes it from other stations is that, instead of avoiding them, "trainwreck segues" are encouraged and it's OK to mix musical styles.

Here's a typical hour of Jack FM Oxford:

Hungry Heart	Bruce Springsteen
Tears Of A Clown	Smokey Robinson/Miracles
Common People	Pulp
You Spin Me Round Like A Record	Dead Or Alive
You Wear It Well	Rod Stewart
Back To Black	Amy Winehouse
Angel Of Harlem	U2
Lonely Boy	Andrew Gold
I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)	Meatloaf
Bright Side Of The Road	Van Morrison
Once In A Lifetime	Talking Heads

As Jack, especially in the UK, is automated for much of the day it's easy to dismiss it as "just a jukebox", but this is unfair as the station still provides locally-produced news bulletins and regular travel reports throughout the day. There is also personality via the liners, voiced by Paul Darrow ('Avon' in Blake's 7). These are regularly updated in order to keep them fresh and topical, which can often mean two or three recording sessions a week and a number of freelance writers constantly having to come up with new lines.

Hardly "just a jukebox".

(Photo: Steve Martin/Earshot Creative Review)

(Disclosure: Jack FM Oxfordshire is a 'client'. I worked on their licence application, was part of the programming team around the time of the launch and continue to provide regular Rajar analysis, programming assistance and other 'ad hoc' project work for both Jack and Glide FM. I have also provided UK market analysis for SparkNet Communications).

The First Cut Is The Deepest

2011-02-15T13:35:00.003Z

40 years ago today - 15th February 1971 - the UK switched to decimal currency.

At the risk of showing my age, not only do I remember it well, but it was also the subject of the first-ever radio feature I produced - for hospital radio - and included vox-pops from the good citizens of Harrow and an interview with someone from the Decimal Currency Board.

In those days the interviews were recorded into cassette and then dubbed onto quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape which could then be edited.

This was done using razor blades, editing blocks, chinagraph pencils and splicing tape. Can you imagine dealing with the inevitable pages of a Health & Safety risk assessment you would need to go through in order to do it like that today? Let's also not forget the inherent dangers of working with reels of tape spinning at high speed without any safety guards or covers. Trying to stop a metal reel (or even a plastic one) by hand is not advised!

These days, of course, it's all done digitally with not a razor blade in sight.

For those of you whose first experience of editing was via a (probably) hacked copy of Cool Edit Pro the above method must not only seem old-fashoned but also rather slow and cumbersome, but it worked well and in the hands of a good editor could actually be done quite quickly.

Having an ‘Undo’ button makes life so much easier and avoids having to rummage through the bin in order to try to find the bit of tape you discarded earlier. It could be argued, though, that the old-fashioned method did tend to make you think more carefully in the first place before making that cut.

(To the best of my knowledge no copy of that 1971 programme remains in existence).

You're The Voice

2011-02-07T16:45:00.003Z

Back in another life when I ran the Commercial Production (and 'imaging') department at LBC I often received phone calls and letters which said "People have told me I have a good voice and should do voiceovers." I'm told it still happens today.

The reply to this is usually along the lines of "Are the people telling you this experienced voiceover artists or producers? Because having “a good voice” is very different to being able to voice ads or station idents; there's much more to being a good VO than meets the eye (or should that be ear?)."

The agency Excellent Talent, who have a number of top voices on their books, provides some down-to-earth advice on doing voiceovers: I've Been Told I Have Nice Voice - So Will I Make Money?

There is a huge difference between people who have a nice voice, read aloud well or whose friends tell them that they ought to do voice-overs - and a professional voice artist. Professionals understand that the smallest alteration in inflection can make the difference between success and failure; they understand why the client or director needs a particular style of read or performance. They appreciate the need to save time and know how to fit a forty second script into thirty seconds without it sounding like a machine gun.

Good voices develop a sense of timing in their heads. They can see a written script and tell you exactly how long it will take at an average read. They can sight-read to time without looking at the studio clock. They know how a scriptwriter's mind works, how to get inside a script, and what to bring out, without having to have it spelled out for them. They can lift the words off the page and take ownership of them, even thought they didn’t write them.

When I inherited Comm Prod at LBC it was towards the end of a very long-running campaign on the station (and occasionally Capital) for Barrett's Liquormart, a chain of cut-price off-licences. The ads, produced by my predecessor, had featured owner Freddie Barrett not only voicing his ads but also "singing" (I use the term loosely) the jingle.

This resulted in a spate of other local advertisers wanting to appear in their own commercials and, to make matters worse, LBC's local advertising ratecard at the time even had a section on production which included the line "To help keep costs down it may be possible to voice the commercial yourself." It was a long, hard, battle to get it removed from subsequent ratecards.

Letting the client voice his/her own commercial might have helped to save money, but the ads usually took much, much longer to record as the client learned the hard way that doing voiceovers is definitely not a doddle. In many cases I suspected it wasn't being done to save money on production but more to feed the client's ego. At least some of them admitted defeat and they then had salt rubbed into their wounds by watching an experienced VO do it properly; and in a fraction of the time.

Victor Kiam, who liked Remington shavers so much he bought the company, and Sir Freddie Laker reminding passengers "I've got my name on every plane!" - or at least whoever came up with the idea of getting the company bosses to front their TV campaigns - have much to answer for.

I've long felt that having the right voice is at least as important to the success of the campaign as having the right script, production and airtime. Get any of those wrong and your ad campaign is likely to fail; back in the 1990s even using John Cleese as the leading character in their TV commercials couldn't stop Sainsbury's 'Value To Shout About' campaign from dying on its backside.

Since my days in Comm Prod the technology and cost of it has changed much over the years so that it's now become common practice for many VOs to work from their own home studio via an ISDN line rather than travel around the company from one radio station or recording studio to another.

It has also meant that many people with a hacked copy of Cool-Edit Pro and a half-decent microphone and call themselves a 'production company', regardless of whether they are actually any good at it. In many cases they end up doing both the industry, and themselves, a disservice by creating poor ads that simply convince the advertiser that "radio doesn't work".

As I pointed out at the start, doing voiceovers isn't as easy as it sounds (and I'll happily admit to being rather rubbish at it myself, by the way) and this video, produced by Jonathan Kydd (who plays both the VO and producer), is perhaps a little too close to the truth when it comes to what can happen during studio sessions:

North of the Border

2011-02-07T08:18:00.005Z

This time I'm looking at radio listening in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

As usual I need to issue the caveat that, unlike London where all of the major stations share the same TSA and make it possible to do a straight comparison, other major markets are not so favourable. The citys' main stations all have different-sized, TSAs, while Real and Galaxy (now Capital) are regionals covering the Central Belt.

What I have done, therefore, is to take a look at the general performance of stations within the TSAs of Clyde 1 and Forth One in order to make a proper like-with-like comparison.

Because of this I'm unable to do the same hourly breakdown as for London, so it's by 'dayparts' instead.

It's interesting to see how both Glasgow and Edinburgh have changed over the past 12 months. Real Radio Scotland, which has been a key performer been a real (sorry!) rival to Clyde and Forth's dominance over the past few years, appears to have gone off the boil with a large drop in market share year on year. Meanwhile as Galaxy morphs into Capital that station appears to be on the up. In Edinburgh while Forth One has dropped, its AM partner Forth 2 has increased share.

(Note: I've included 96.3 Rock Radio in Glasgow's charts, although this station does not cover the full Clyde TSA)

London Rajar - Q4/2010

2011-02-03T08:40:00.004Z

The latest Rajar results are now available and, as usual, here are charts showing how each of the main commercial stations have peformed on an hourly basis.

I've often issued the caveat about never taking a single Rajar book in isolation but look instead at overall long-term trends, and the past few quarters have provided a good example of this as stations rise and fall. In Q2/2010 Kiss performed well but slipped back again in Q3. Now it's made a comeback. LBC lost its traditional dominance of overnight hours last time but, certainly during the week, it's back to business as usual. One swallow does not make a summer and neither does a poor Rajar book indicate a station may be on the rocks.

Meanwhile Magic 105.4 continues to be London's top commercial station, although BBC Radio 4 is still London's top station.

Adam Bowie has made some informed comments about the London market in Q4; especially how almost every major station has experienced a significant decrease in hours. There's also some equally well-informed commentary from Matt Deegan and James Cridland

Over the next week or so I'll be taking a closer look at how some other markets and stations have done.

For comparison - Q3/2010 and Q4/2009

Note: Figures used for Absolute are 'Total Absolute Radio (London)

Christmas Blessings

2010-12-23T08:03:00.001Z

A friend of mine sent me this a few years ago.

I think it's very apt - and a reminder that, no matter whatever else may be going on in our own lives, we still have much to be thankful for.

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dc4pcj4t_0hkf6m2gc

The final words for this blog post come from Mel Tormé and Robert Wells, who wrote one of the most-enduring Christmas songs of all time. They say it all:

And so I'm offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although it’s been said many times, many ways,
Merry Christmas to you.

Advertising Space

2010-12-20T11:31:00.003Z

Earlier this year I wrote about Ofcom's plans to change the rules on commercial separation.

Of the four suggested options I said at the time I would probably go with ‘C’, which would allow the integration of commercial communications and programming (except in relation to spot ads).

As Ofcom explained, “This option would remove the principle of separation between commercial communications and programming except in relation to spot ads (which would need to remain distinguishable from programming). This would give radio stations wide discretion to integrate, for example, paid-for, promotional commercial references into programming provided these were transparent to listeners. This option would retain the value of spot ads as a distinct type of content and a distinct revenue source. It would be delivered as a slim set of rules designed to secure one principle: transparency of commercial arrangements. Such transparency would be central to ensuring consumer protection.”

In other words it would treat listeners with some intelligence, as well as providing transparency and maintaining the principle of separation.

As a result of their consultation, Ofcom have now introduced new rules for paid-for references to brands and products in radio programming wirth immediate effect, based on Option C.

While some top radio chiefs have already said they would like to see further liberalisation, today's news still represents a major change and we can expect to start to hear product placement and a broader range of sponsored programming and features before too long; if not a move away by some stations from a reliance on spot advertising.

The new Section 10 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, relating specifically to radio, can be found here

Christmas Day In The Workhouse

2010-12-18T08:58:00.003Z

There’s a good chance some of you will be working over the Christmas period; possibly even on Christmas Day itself. I’ve done it myself on more than a few occasions and there does seems to be something a bit special about being on the radio, or just working there, on Christmas Day.

Actually, for my first “radio Christmas”, as a young Tech Op at LBC/IRN in 1974, my standard shift pattern meant having to work 0830-2030 on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. So not much of a family Christmas at home that year.

Radio tends to don several different guises on Christmas Day.

In the late evening, though, radio can provide a welcome refuge for those who are thankful that, after a day of cooking, eating, drinking and entertaining, Christmas comes but once a year!

For them, TV sometimes consists of too much ‘enforced jollity’, so radio has the chance to become even more of what someone once called “your friend in a box”; possibly even providing the only contact with the ‘outside world’ someone may have that day.

It’s even likely some presenters may fall into that particular category themselves and, after their show, will go back to an empty home.

So, it might be worth bearing those people in mind when you’re on-air, and being a little bit more “one-to-one” in your presentation style.

If you are on-air over the Christmas period have a good time.

Sleigh Bells Ring - Are You Listening?

2010-12-07T13:01:00.006Z

It’s Christmas time. There’s no need to be afraid. It’s just that time when the ‘Sleigh List’ gets dusted down for another year.

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without hearing those hardy annuals from Slade, Wizzard and Wham!, as well as tracks from Phil Spector’s 1963 classic album A Christmas Gift To You, blaring out of the radio or instore PA system wherever you go. As a result they tend to ‘burn’ quickly after a few weeks, but they can then be put away for another year; magically sounding fresh again for another brief outing in twelve months’ time.

While compiling Music Choice’s original ‘Christmas Channel’ in the mid-90s, and having to work my way through a very large crate of Christmas CDs in the process (and during a rather warm and sunny September!), I came to the conclusion that there’s quite a cultural difference between US and UK Christmas favourites.

The Americans seem to love sentimental schmaltz such as dreaming of a white Christmas while walking in a winter wonderland or taking a sleigh ride together with you before rocking around the Christmas tree and watching chestnuts roasting on an open fire; all rather reminiscent of those 60s/70s Bing Crosby/Andy Williams/Osmonds-type TV specials. Christmas music on the radio also tends to be dominated by the standards.

I also began to wonder whether American artists all have a clause in their contracts that requires them to record a Christmas album at some point; and all containing the same dozen or so songs as everybody else's.

Many AC stations in the States tend to flip to an 'All-Christmas' format on Thanksgiving Day right through until Christmas with much of the music tending to be very sentimental and traditional stuff. This is mainly because those songs test much better with the target audience either because they are most likely to provide strong psychological ties with the Christmas music of their childhood, or they have remained in the popular consciousness through continued use on TV specials and movies.

It's "comfort listening" and many US programmers believe it's impoprtant to be THE Christmas station in their market. Even if some people are not ready for it, it's important they know where to hear it when they do want it.

While All-Christmas continues to be popular with listeners in the States, here in the UK we tend to be rather more cautious by playing the occasional Christmas song in an hour from early-December and gradually building up until Christmas Day itself. Anything more is often seen as overkill.

A few years ago Edison Research carried out some research in the US, which tested 600 Christmas songs on a national sample of 30-to-49-year-old women who said they liked or loved hearing Christmas music on the radio. These turned out to be the most-loved - and most-hated - Christmas songs of 2007:

LOVED

1. Nat King Cole/The Christmas Song

2. Bing Crosby/White Christmas

3. Johnny Mathis/Do You Hear What I Hear

4. Burl Ives/A Holly Jolly Christmas

5. Harry Simeone Chorale/Little Drummer Boy

HATED

1. Singing Dogs/Jingle Bells

2. Cartman/O Holy Night

3. Elmo & Patsy/Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

4. Jackson 5/Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

5. Barbra Streisand/Jingle Bells

In the research it emerged that because the standards are so much better entrenched, there’s a strong bias toward older titles. The newest song among the top 10 was ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ by John Lennon, which is now nearly 40 years old. Of the top scoring songs 48% were from 1967 or before, with a further 24% from 1968 – 1988.

While we Brits can usually take the American syrupy stuff in small doses, it does seem as though we tend to prefer our Christmas hits to be rather more ‘party-friendly’ - i.e. Slade, Wizzard, Shakin’ Stevens, Paul McCartney etc. - with just the occasional hint of sentimentality from artists such as Mud and Cliff.

Just to add to the above list from 2007, these were the 20 most-played Christmas songs on AC radio in the States between November 1st and December 31st 2009.

1. A Holly Jolly Christmas – Burl Ives

2. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee

3. It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Andy Williams

4. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms

5. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole

6. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey

7. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon

8. White Christmas – Bing Crosby

9. Jingle Bell Rock – Daryl Hall John Oates

10. Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano

11. Do They Know It's Christmas? – Band Aid

12. Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney

13. Please Come Home For Christmas – Eagles

14. Last Christmas – Wham!

15. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry

16. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Johnny Mathis

17. Merry Christmas Darling – Carpenters

18. Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson

19. Christmas Canon – Trans-Siberian Orchestra

20. Winter Wonderland – Eurythmics

The full Top 100 can be found here.

Interestingly in that chart the Phil Spector and Motown Christmas albums, which are both staples in the UK, got much less airplay in the States. Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes (53) is the highest showing from the Spector album, while the Motown album's best performance is I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by the Jackson 5 (79).

How NOT To Get A Job In Radio - Part 2

2010-12-05T10:08:00.003Z

Earlier this year I posted a link to a frank video produced by Canadian broadcaster Adam Buckley who drew attention to some examples of badly-written applications and 'Jobs Wanted' ads.

"If you're looking for ways to NOT get a job in the radio broadcasting business, or most businesses in general, here are some ways to go about doing just that. Hopefully these examples will help you in not being a complete drooling idiot when presenting yourself to a potential employer."

'By popular demand' Adam has now produced a follow-up:

A Tonic For The Troops

2010-11-28T08:59:00.000Z

Last week Oxfordshire's Jack FM broadcast its breakfast show, 'Jack's Morning Glory', live from Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

This was done with the support of the Royal British Legion, and BFBS Radio and is the first time a local radio station has broadcast back to the UK from a war zone.

Before leaving for Helmand, Jack's programme director Sue Carter explained the reason for the trip as: "Our aim is to experience a taste of life ‘in theatre’ and meet up with many of Oxfordshire’s serving troops who are out there."

The whole exercise was the best part of a year in planning and included all four team members having to be kitted out with body armour and helmets; these were also labelled with their names and blood type!

During the week there were some moving moments, especially when Jack was able to reunite, if only temporarily, some serving troops from Oxfordshire with family back home.

As Sue Carter described it in a blog post: "I loved watching Matthew Cullinane from RAF Benson’s face when we managed to link he and his fiancée Sophie together for a chat, Matthew sitting with us here in the BFBS studios while Sophie was at JACKfm on Woodstock Road… and how he lit up when she told him she’d felt their baby kick the other day for the first time…. Similarly the twinkle in Verity Skinner’s eye when she managed to talk to her parents who had brought her dogs into the Jack studio…… But even more special was the heartfelt thank you that both Matthew and Verity gave me as departed the BFBS studios to head back into their busy world. Seeing how important those few extra minutes of talk time was to them meant a lot."

As well as the daily programmes, the team were busy uploading photos and video clips Jack's Afghanistan 2010 micro-site, as well as blogging their thoughts and impressions.

From a listener's point of view I found the week's programmes managed to convey a strong sense of what life must be like for the troops on active service in Afghanistan and produced some compelling radio.

For all of the team this will undoubtedly have been a great experience and I, for one, believe they can all feel proud of what they have achieved this past week.

(L-R: Greg Burke, Trevor Marshall, Rosie Tratt and Sue Carter)

Mancunian Way

2010-11-19T13:19:00.000Z

"Why don't you look at some of the other cities' Rajars?" is something I'm occasionally asked and, once again, I'm happy to oblige.

Last time it was Birmingham so this time I've turned my attention to Manchester.

Unlike London, where all of the major stations share the same TSA and make it possible to do a straight comparison, other major markets are not so favourable. The city's main stations all have different-sized, TSAs, while Real and Smooth are regionals and cover a much larger part of the North West.

What I have done, though, is to take a look at the general performance of stations within the TSA of Key 103 in order to make a proper like-with-like comparison.

Because of this I'm unable to do the same hourly breakdown as for London, so this time I've done it by 'dayparts' instead.

Beatles For Sale

2010-11-16T16:14:00.001Z

Following today's announcement that The Beatles' back catalogue is now available on iTunes, Absolute Classic Rock has flipped to an all-Beatles format "for at least the next 24 hours" - and is offering the chance to win 13 studio albums as a download.

I'm a big Beatles fan - I Want To Hold Your Hand was the first record I ever bought - so it's been great to hear them all the time on the radio.

One of radio's great strengths is its immediacy and the way Absolute have been able to move quickly to get this on-air - and managed to gain some talkability for one of their 'brand extensions' at the same time - is a good example of this.

London Rajar - Q3/2010

2010-10-28T08:21:00.005+01:00

As usual, here are my charts showing how each of the main commercial stations in the capital are performing throughout the day.

This quarter London's Magic 105.4 is the clear winner and now as more listeners in London than BBC Radio 2.

In some ways the biggest surprise, for me anyway, has been the drop in LBC's dominance of late-night and overnights, which has usually been very evident in previous quarters. Although showing a slight drop since last quarter the station itself is up year-on-year, with Nick Ferrari at Breakfast and Steve Allen's idiosyncratic "bitchfest" (Weekdays 0500-0700 and Sundays 0700-1000) continuing to do well.

Also, Kiss Breakfast has dropped since getting a 'Gold Star' for a great performance last time.

Absolute Radio makes a good showing this quarter - especially pulling ahead of Capital during weekday daytimes and a strong performance on Saturday mornings by Frank Skinner.

The previous quarter's charts can be seen here.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Airport - You've Got A Smiling Face

2010-09-27T14:48:00.000+01:00

There's been a series of commercials running recently on the radio (I've heard them on LBC 97.3) extolling the virtues of Gatwick Airport.

There are two main ads, both of which feature a 'cheesy' 70s-style hotel lounge singer.

The first ad is obviously trying to get people to think of Gatwick as a great place for shopping, not just a place to fly from.

Sorry, but I've done a fair bit of travel in my time, both for business and pleasure, and I find airports to be anything but a wonderful place to be; they're a pain in the proverbial. It's annoying enough having to be there hours before departure because you have to queue for ages to drop-off your bags, even when you've checked-in online, and the necessary security checks, before having to hang around for ages waiting until your flight is actually ready to board.

Airports take advantage of the situation, and of you, by attempting to sell you things. Back in the days of 'proper' duty-free shopping, even for flights to/from EU destinations, it was sometimes worth having a nose around. Not any more, though, as in many cases the 'special' prices can often work out more expensive than buying it in a regular 'high street' shop or store.

I remember reading an article a few years ago that said airports made more money through income from retail concessions than from aircraft landing fees etc. Not only can I believe that, but it wouldn't surprise me if airports deliberately make passengers hang around for ages simply in order to entice them into the shops because it "gives them something to do".

I also find the restaurants and bars end to be over-priced and overrated. The only saving grace for airport shopping is that it can often be possible to pick up paperback copies of recent books well in advance of their official publication date in 'airside' shops.

I'd like to be able to just sit down and read, or use the 'down time' to catch up on emails etc. but there's rarely any free wi-fi access (and I refuse to pay a small fortune just for 30-60 minutes), while in some airport terminals there seems to be a shortage of suitable seating; probably a further ploy to get people into the shops instead of sitting around not spending money.

The other ad in the campaign is for Gatwick Parking and, unless I've mis-heard it, the ad seems to give the impression that you come back from holiday, go to the long-term car park and you'll be amazed your car is still there. While the impression they want to give is that you can trust them to look after your car, it could easily be taken the other way!

Sorry, Gatwick, but your cheesy lounge singer commercials don't do it for me because I just don't believe them; they don't match my personal experiences of what airports are like. Now perhaps if you had a campaign where you promised shorter queues, quicker check-in and security searches - and were able to deliver them - I'd be more likely to think about travelling through your airport whenever there was a choice.

Poptastic!

2010-09-27T13:04:00.001+01:00

Tony Blackburn is to take over from Dale Winton as presenter of Pick Of The Pops on BBC Radio 2 from November 6th.

He'll continue to present weekend breakfast on Smooth Radio (which becomes a national station from next Monday 4th October), regular shows for KMFM in Kent, KCFM in Hull and BBC London 94.9, as well as a syndicated weekly show featuring Soul and Motown. He's already done a couple of Bank Holiday one-offs this year for Radio 2 so it's no real surprise that he's now joining the country's most-popular network on a regular basis.

That's a busy schedule for anybody and at 67 he puts many people more than half his age to shame. He's also an enthusiastic adopter of new technology and a regular user of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Audioboo.

I've been a fan of Tony's ever since he was on the offshore pirate stations in the mid-1960s, as well as the first-ever presenter on BBC Radio 1 in 1967, and his was the show I'd listen to while getting ready for school.

To many of my classmates at the time Tony was seen as the antithesis to everything that was "cool"; after all he liked pop and Motown singles rather than album tracks from artists such as Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart or whichever band was being championed by the late John Peel. He also told corny jokes and sounded bright, rather than the low-key presentation adopted by Radio 1's "serious" DJs such as Peel, Bob Harris and Pete Drummond.

As a radio fan (the term "anorak" didn't appear until many years later), though, I enjoyed Tony's shows because he was a "slick operator" and I was able to appreciate, and begin to understand, the qualities needed to do a show like that. On the breakfast show I felt he struck the right chord., whereas Peel & co were rmore suitable for the evening or late at night, when people were more likely to listen because they had time to do so properly, rather than simply use the radio as background to their breakfast/morning routine.

In the early-90s I had the pleasure of working with Tony for three years at London's Capital Gold, where he was presenting the Breakfast Show at the time. He was always a total professional and a genuinely likeable person who was good fun to work with.

I believe the most important factor in Tony Blackburn's continuing success is that he is a true radio personality in an era where few 'personality' presenters exist; whether because (thanks to poor programmers and programming) they've been stifled or because, frankly, some of them never had a proper personality in the first place. His style is always "up" and he's still one of the best in the business when it comes to "selling" the station, the music and the show.

POTP, even in its later incarnation as a classic chart show, will be forever associated with the late Alan ' Fluff' Freeman and, while Dale Winton has done a good job over the past ten years it's good to see a real 'master' at work.

If anybody deserves to step into Fluff's hallowed shoes, Tony Blackburn is the one to do it.

PS. Since writing this piece, it has been announced that Tony will be leaving Smooth Radio at the end of this month.

"Not A Good Way To Make Your Day!"

2010-09-16T08:51:00.003+01:00

In Media Guardian a few days ago Global Radio's Chief Executive Ashley Tabor tried to justify his company's decision to turn Capital and Heart into 'national brands'.

“I’m afraid to say there are not 33 good mid-morning presenters in this country and there are not another 33 good afternoon presenters. I wish there were, but there aren’t.”

I'm convinced that quote will come to haunt Ashley Tabor in years to come, in much the same way as Gerald Ratner's famous 1991 comment describing his £1 earrings as "cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks & Spencer, but the sandwich will probably last longer."

First of all Ashley Tabor's comment is probably as good an example of bad people management as you can get.

If you don't think there are as many good mid-morning or afternoon presenters as you would like then the last thing you should do is say so in public.

Can you imagine how those people must feel to discover, through a comment in the press, that their company CEO doesn't think they're good enough. It's hardly the best way to motivate any of your staff, apart from making them think they'd be better off working for a company where those who work there are appreciated; and doing so before they're "let go" anyway.

Praise in public but criticise in private.

It also contradicts what Global's Richard Park told Media Guardian a couple of years ago:

Park recognises the commercial sector has not helped itself. His charge sheet is short but to the point: commercial stations have spent too long doubting themselves in the face of a sure-footed BBC. That led to panic and too many short term fixes. How to sort things out? Find the talent, trust it, and celebrate it.

“It led me to refresh my own memory about how many good broadcasters there are outside London who never get the chance,” he says. “All I was ever reading from people in publications like yours was that there is no one out there, nothing doing, we can’t find any talent. Well excuse me, you’re not looking.” He accepts the talent production line has stuttered to a halt but insists it can be restarted. “There are people broadcasting right now in Newcastle, in Scotland, in Manchester, in Birmingham that could be very good.”

Global's problem doesn't seem to be a lack of talent within the company, or even the industry as a whole, but its failure to invest the time and effort to find, nurture and develop talent.

"You Can Turn On The World With Capital Radio"

2010-09-14T11:19:00.006+01:00

Rumours have been circulating for a while but yesterday came the official announcement by Global Radio that London’s Capital FM, the present ‘Galaxy’ stations, as well as Red Dragon in Cardiff and Trent, Ram and Leicester Sound in the East Midlands, are to form a ‘national’ network under the Capital name.

Although I fully understand the reasoning and business strategy behind this decision to create a 'national brand' I’m not entirely convinced whether the 'Capital' name is the right one to use. It's a familiar heritage brand in London but will it mean “diddly-squat” to many people ('normal' listeners not radio anoraks) in Leeds or Newcastle?

Many people who grew up listening to ‘Capital Radio’ often look back to how they remember the station in the past with a certain amount of affection and dewy-eyed nostalgia. Admittedly I’m biased because I was part of the team that helped make it happen from 1991-1994, and it did sound great, but I’m not one of those who believes turning back the clock is the answer.

It’s too easy to forget that, back then, Capital had the mass London radio audience to itself and much has changed since then; not just more stations, such as Heart, as well as the transformation of Melody into Magic, but also the gradual evolution of Radio 2 into its current position as the nation’s most-popular station.

What I’ve always found interesting was the way Magic grew slowly and quietly by re-defining its focus and appealing to a younger audience than its predecessor. Once anybody at Capital realised what was happening it was too late and, together with Heart, Magic had squeezed Capital in the middle of a ‘pincer movement’ for the listeners that advertisers find most attractive.

The radio landscape has also changed elsewhere in the country and the ‘heritage’ ILR stations have come under increasing competition from targeted regional/local stations with common brands, such as Heart, Galaxy, Real and Smooth.

Since Global acquired the Chrysalis Radio stations and then those owned by Gcap (itself the product of a merger between GWR and Capital Radio Group) it has turned Heart into a large semi-national Adult Contemporary station. It is now doing the same with its Galaxy and Hit Music stations.

Is this the final nail in the coffin of local radio?

At the risk of repeating myself, these changes could provide an opportunity for smaller local stations to punch above their weight and build audiences by really playing the local card. Listening around, though, I hear too many of them programmed by those who seem to be stuck in a timewarp and have yet to realise that the world has changed, or "that'll do" seems to be the standard to which to aspire. “That'll do” just isn't good enough right now and 1980s-style local radio is not the answer to the problem either. I suspect in most cases it's because those in charge don't know any better or prefer to keep within their comfort zone.

Obviously I’m not advocating a return to the days when ILR stations were shackled by ‘needletime’, required to provide ‘meaningful speech’ and presenters were regularly giving out details of jumble sales and lost pets; far from it. Local doesn’t have to mean yokel.

There’s more to ‘localness’ than just doing ‘What’s On?’ features or tagging local place names onto the end of weather forecasts; for example “In (say a different place name each time) it’s currently 22 degrees”. Is it really, or is it just somewhere selected at random from a list of places for that hour’s forecast? I suspect the latter.

Those local stations that are successful understand that their strength is not only in being able to give listeners a sense of ‘belonging’ but also providing the feel for an area a listener should get by tuning into a particular station. "Love of life around here" as one former group's stations used to put it.

The question to be asked is ‘Does a particular programme/strand clearly come from the area it is supposed to serve, or could it come from anywhere?’ On that basis, it would seem that some stations are going to have to work at providing greater ‘localness’ because they appear to be rather lacking on that front.

In many ways it could be argued that it's those badly-run stations that are as much to blame for "killing" local radio as the expansion of 'national' brands by the big groups. Poor programming drives away listeners.

Glide Path

2010-08-20T08:57:00.001+01:00

This is where the 'F-Word' rears its head. Not the four-letter one beloved of Gordon Ramsay and the first scene of Four Weddings and a Funeral, but the three-letter one - F U N !

I hear so many people moan about how "radio isn't fun anymore" and I have to agree; after all we are supposed to be part of the entertainment business, aren't we?

So it's been fun this week to hear and observe the transformation of Oxford's FM107.9 into its new identity as Glide FM via the short-lived Glee FM.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the station had applied to Ofcom to change its format from a station playing a mix of 'cutting edge and credible chart music' targeting 15-29s to an easy listening soft music service aimed at a 45-plus audience. This was turned down but Ofcom did permit the station to broaden its music format, while still targeting the under-30 audience.

At 9.00am on Monday 16th August Oxford's FM107.9 "closed down" and announced it was becoming 'Glee FM', playing nothing but songs from the hit TV series.

Was this real, or was it simply a publicity stunt?

After all, the team in Oxford are no strangers to stunts. In 2006, after they had acquired Passion Radio (as the station was at the time), former Big Brother contestant and radio engineer Eugene Sully locked himself in the on-air studio and played Mah-Na Mah-Na by the Muppets non-stop all day until the new management came round to his way of thinking that "better music was played on the station".

An identical stunt had been done a couple of years earlier when Dublin's Lite FM re-branded as Q102. Programme Director at the time there was Ian Walker, who is now Station Manager at Jack/Glide in Oxford.

All was finally revealed at 5.00pm on Wednesday afternoon when Glee FM announced it was closing "for legal reasons" and the station unveiled its 'proper' new identity of Glide FM.

When stations re-brand or re-launch there's often a transitional period, especially if it's a fairly major change, between the old format and the new one. In many cases this has usually consisted of playing non-stop music over a weekend (or sometimes even longer), with the 'new' station launching on the following Monday morning.

In this case the Glee/Glide stunt managed to put a gap between what had gone before and the 'new' station, while having a bit of fun on-air and gaining some 'talkability' in the process; including a number of national newspapers, "celebrity blogger" Perez Hilton and the Sky News website; even the New York Post picked up on the story. Closer to home there was a good piece in the Oxford Mail.

You can't buy that sort of publicity.

So what of the 'new' station itself? Glide could probably be best described as Jack FM's "younger sister", targeting young professional women under 30. Jack targets 30/35+ males and in the latest Rajar figures (Q2/2010) the station had a higher percentage reach among men 15-44* than its commercial rival Heart Oxfordshire.

Glide FM describes itself as "Great music you know, as well as fantastic songs old and new that you might not. From the latest chart music for however you're feeling to songs that take you back to a favourite film or TV show and some new artists destined to become your most loved."

It's still very early days to tell how the station will do, and like any station will need some time to "bed-in", while the first full Rajar figures for Glide won't be available until early next year. This licence has had a chequered history over the past 13 years under a number of names and this change to a more mainstream music format marks a completely fresh start.

We'll just have to wait and see, but in the meantime we've had a bit of radio fun, and that's no bad thing, surely.

* Males 15-44 Jack Fm Oxfordshire - Source: RAJAR Ipsos MORI/RSMB Q2/2010

Strapped

2010-08-10T09:56:00.000+01:00

Another Rajar has been and gone and, as usual, station reactions have been predictable. Even if the figures have been disappointing every station somehow manages to put a positive spin on them; and I have to admit I’ve been guilty of doing just that on several occasions.

In some ways it’s a bit like political parties after a by-election: “Well, yes, we not only lost the seat, with our candidate pushed into third place and losing her deposit, but the other parties’ share of the vote was down on the last election, and just look how well we did in the recent local council elections…!”

It’s understandable radio stations want to trumpet their successes, and find a glimmer of good news among the bad, but there have been mutterings in some quarters that some stations have been putting a bit too much spin on the figures.

In any case, isn’t there a danger of spending too much time selling the sizzle and not enough on the sausage itself?

It has been interesting to learn of recent “strapline battles” in Manchester and Cornwall. In Manchester both Key 103 and Galaxy have been using "Manchester's Number One Hit Music Station", although in the recent Rajar figures, Key 103 was ahead of Galaxy in both Reach and Market Share (and in both the Key and Galazy TSAs).

Several years ago Capital FM dropped “London’s Number One Hit Music Station” even before they lost out to Heart and Magic. As Keith Pringle, Capital’s PD at the time explained, “That’s not important in our relationship with our listener; he or she doesn’t listen to us because we’re number one but because we are their number one. We don’t have to keep overselling.”

Surely the only people really interested in a station’s performance at that level are those who are looking to buy airtime on it, and those working for it; either because they like to know how their work is being received, or because their jobs are on the line if they screw up.

Admittedly, it’s nice to be associated with a winner, but, as Keith asks, do people really listen because it’s No. 1, or because they just happen to like what it does, and feel they have a relationship with that station? As someone once put it “Radio is your friend in a box”

So are we spending too much time saying slogans, and telling our listeners what they already know; assuming they even care in the first place? That isn’t to say we should abolish straplines, because we do need something to ‘reinforce the brand’ (as my marketing friends would put it), but I do wonder whether it’s time to re-think the way we sell our station and its programming to the audience. For example, what does “30 minutes non-stop music” really mean?

From one station I heard it would seem to mean 25 minutes of music with no commercial breaks but quite a few sweepers, promos and one or two presenter links. Hardly lives up to the promise, does it?

I quite like Jack FM’s “We play what we want”, which is an integral part of that format’s on-air ‘attitude’.

My all-time favourite station strapline, though, has to be “Cuddly Capital”. Somehow, that two word phrase, coined by that oft-missed genius of the airwaves, Kenny Everett, succeeded in encapsulating the essence of what the station was about, and how it was perceived by its listeners, at the time.

Much better than “The Number One station playing today’s best mix of music with ten great songs in a row commercial free and first for local news and football too”.

Much snappier, too!

Brummagem Fare

2010-08-06T17:27:00.009+01:00

"Why don't you look at some of the other cities' Rajars?" is something I'm occasionally asked.

Unlike London, where all of the major stations share the same TSA and make it possible to do a straight comparison, other major markets are not so favourable. Stations such as BRMB and Galaxy have different-sized, TSAs, while Heart, Smooth and Kerrang! are regionals and cover a much larger part of the West Midlands.

What I have done, though, is to take a look at the general performance of stations within the TSA of one of the major stations in Birmingham - in this case 96.4 BRMB - in order to make a like-with-like comparison.

As I'm unable to do the same hourly breakdown as for London I've done it by 'dayparts'.

(Click on images to enlarge)

This graph shows the overall ranking of stations within the market.

(Just out of interest I've also done a similar set of charts using Galaxy's TSA. As you can see, there is a difference in figures between the two TSAs - I told you it can get complicated!)

You Can't Change That

2010-08-06T15:26:00.005+01:00

Earlier this year Oxford's FM107.9 applied to Ofcom to change its format from a station playing a mix of 'cutting edge and credible chart music' targeting 15-29s to an easy listening soft music service aimed at a 45-plus audience.*

Last month Ofcom declined the request and the station has since gained Ofcom's approval to broaden its music format, while still targeting the under-30 audience.

For readers outside the UK it may come as a surprise that a station needs to get permission to change its format; especially in the States where such 'flips' are commonplace and, in some cases, quite sudden and drastic. I remember reading some years ago about how a well-respected jazz station in New York switched format to Country (a popular format at the time) with just two hours' notice to its staff. Existing presenters were 'let go' immediately and the station played non-stop music while new on-air staff were being hired.

In the UK one of the conditions of being awarded a commercial radio FM licence is that the new station must "broaden choice for the listener... in relation to existing local commercial radio services in the area."

Over the years, though, many stations have moved away from their initial remit through what is commonly referred to as 'format creep', and some changes have been done gradually over a period of time (with perhaps occasional approval from the regulator) resulting in a very different station to that which was originally licensed.

A good example of this was Jazz FM in London and Manchester which struggled to gain a commercially-viable audience (mainly, I would argue, as a result of poor programming decisions) and tried re-positioning itself as 'JFM' and, by using its very broad 'promise of performance' which allowed them to play "jazz and any other music related to or inspired by jazz", started to play a broader mix of mainstream popular music.

Tracks by Eric Clapton, for example, were played, not so much from his blues-based repertoire but the more-commercial offerings such as Wonderful Tonight and I Shot The Sheriff instead. At the time some people even wondered whether Simply Red would find their way onto the playlist because Mick Hucknall had, apparently, once walked past Ronnie Scott's!

JFM didn't work out, the station was eventually "reclaimed" by jazz enthusiasts and Jazz FM was re-born. Over the years, though, the station gradually moved towards a playlist that relied more on soul and funk than jazz. A further change of ownership eventually led to the station being allowed a format change to become 'Smooth' - with an easy-listening/oldies format targeting a 45-50+ audience. They were still required to broadcast some jazz on a regular basis but it was tucked away in the middle of the night and this week Ofcom has now allowed the station to drop the remaining jazz commitment.

Elsewhere Global Radio's transformation of a number of individual local stations into outposts of their 'Heart' brand has run into regulatory problems. Last year the former GWR-FM in Bristol was issued a 'yellow card' for playing too much "old music" after Ofcom carried out a three day survey of the station's output earlier this month, and found that only 47 per cent of its music was less than two years old, even though the station was supposed to be playing contemporary hits.

The Digital Economy Act 2010 has introduced new rules for radio and many stations have started to take advantage of such measures as co-location and merging of neighbouring stations and a reduction in the amount of locally-producing programming they are required to provide; it's now 7 hours a day during weekdays and 4 hours at weekends.

Should we now consider allowing stations to change format with only 'market forces' as the determining factor? In other words a station should be able to decide what to do and, if that doesn't work, try something else in order to bring in an audience which they can then sell to advertisers.

What might happen initially is that many stations will move towards the mainstream but, after some jockeying for position, the stations that do not become a dominant player in the market will look for another potential audience elsewhere. It also means that co-owned stations in the same market will become more distinctive because there's no point in two stations chasing the same target audience and, as a result, cannibalising their figures.

There is an argument that says that as stations were awarded a licence for a particular format they should be made to stick to it, but many of them date back to the early days of 'Independent Local Radio', which was conceived in the early-1970s when the media, social, political, economic and technological landscapes were very different to how they are today. At the time the new radio stations were required to provide public service broadcasting financed by advertising and were known as "independent" because, like 'Independent Television' they were separate from the BBC; "commercial" was a dirty word.

Much has changed in the past nearly-40 years and radio today is operating in a very different, and alien, environment to that envisaged in 1971, when the government 'White Paper' outlining plans for "An alternative service of radio broadcasting" was published.

During that time successive governments, both Conservative and Labour, have introduced legislation which has diluted the original ILR concept and, as I have blogged previously, the DEA would appear to signify the end of that particular era.

Maybe the time has come to move on and consider new possibilities.

*(I should declare an interest here as I was responsible for researching and writing the station's format change request document, as well as other items submitted in confidence. Despite the decision, a senior person at Ofcom described it as "the best argued request for a format change" they had seen).

London Rajar - Q2/2010

2010-08-05T07:27:00.001+01:00

As usual, here are my charts showing how each of the main commercial stations in the capital are performing throughout the day.

This quarter's 'Gold Star' , and probably the big surprise, is the success of Kiss 100 - especially Rickie & Melvin at breakfast. This, plus the continuing success of Magic 105.4, puts Bauer's two London stations in a dominant position during the day.

It's also another strong performance from LBC 97.3, especially during a quarter that included the general election, with a good showing from Nick Ferrari at Breakfast. The station continues to rule the late-night and overnight hours.

A couple of other notable standouts include Christian O'Connell on Absolute Radio and Tony Blackburn's Saturday breakfast show on Smooth.

(Click on the images to enlarge)

The previous quarter's charts can be found here.

Push The Button

2010-07-23T11:05:00.008+01:00

Some people, especially on anorak forums, get very worked-up about whether or not presenters drive their own desk.

In a frank interview on BBC Radio Five Live Breakfast in the aftermath of the Ross/Brand affair, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini criticised radio presenters (such as Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand) who do not 'drive the desk' - i.e. operate the equipment - themselves. "If you don’t do that, you are physically removed from the contents of your programme and you are obsessed on your own performance. "

Having spent some period of time as a presenter I always felt happier driving the desk because it gave me the feeling of being in complete control. These days, though, it's probably easier because all of your music, commercials, jingles etc. are all stored in a computer-based playout system, ready to be played at the push of the 'Next' button - or even done automatically without anybody in the studio. 'Back in the day', though, doing a live show - playing music from vinyl and commercials, ads, promos and jingles from carts (cartridges) - kept you on your toes throughout the show. One of my radio mentors described it as "the ballet of radio".

Not only that, but you also had to be your own producer - in the ‘proper’ sense of the term - as, especially if you were doing a daytime show, you would also be responsible for arranging interviews/studio guests and other features for your show’s speech content.

I'm not totally convinced, though, by the argument that you cannot produce good music radio unless the presenter drives their own desk.

In the 60s/70s the presenters on WABC New York (arguably one of the best music stations that ever existed) were not 'self-op' but had an operator to drive the desk - many of the large US stations were heavily-unionized. Interestingly, though, the presenter and 'board op' were in the same studio, rather than separated by a window.

(Radio legend 'Cousin Brucie' in the WABC studio in 1972. Photo: Bill Epperhart)

(WABC's Jay Reynolds (left) and board-op Marty Berstell. Photo: Marty Berstell)

Closer to home, 'Fab 208' - Radio Luxembourg - had engineer-operated studios for many years.

When I arrived at Blue Danube Radio in Vienna for the first time in November 1988 I was quite surprised to find that not only were most of BDR's programmes not 'self-op' but neither were most of the programmes on Austria's national pop music network Ö3 (their equivalent of BBC Radio 1), just a few studios along the corridor from ours. There was one small self-op studio ('DJ-1') which was used for a handful of programmes - including BDR's easy-listening afternoon show 'Serenade' - but that was it. In January 1989 BDR's music programmes went self-op - 'Serenade' moved into our main studio (in fact I have the dubious honour of being the last person to present that show from 'DJ-1') - although those shows with a high speech content, such as the 'Midday Magazine' and the evening news programme, 'World Report', remained with an engineer at the helm.

Similarly, while showing a friend of mine from Italian radio round Capital, when I worked there in the early-90s, he was surprised to see the studios were self-op - as I discovered when he returned the favour a few months later and showed me round RTL 102.5 in Milan, they used a separate studio operator.

Ideally music radio presenters should be self-op, but there is more to being a successful broadcaster than being able to drive a desk, talk up to the vocal, or do a really good segué.

The best broadcasters are those who 'connect' with their audience and surely that connection should not be hindered just because someone is not comfortable operating the equipment themselves.

(Me in studio AR-6 at the ORF 'Funkhaus' in Vienna doing the breakfast show on Blue Danube Radio in December 1988)

(Another one from Blue Danube Radio - this time in studio DJ-1 doing the afternoon easy-listening show in December 1988)

Now A Word From Our Sponsor

2010-07-13T12:56:00.000+01:00

Listening to ‘Nick Ferrari at Breakfast’ on LBC 97.3 recently I heard Nick do a live read of a commercial for The Times’ subscription offer of free delivery within the M25.

While commonplace in many other countries, presenter-read ads have been allowed here for many years but they are still extremely rare on most stations; especially major ones such as LBC.

Up until now it has always been the rule that “… the advertising and programme elements of a service are kept separate.” In the early days of ILR this meant having a station ident before and after each break, but although the rules are less rigorous several stations have received a slap on the wrist for not providing a clear-enough distinction between programming and advertising, especially in the case of presenter-read promotions.

In March 2008 Ofcom upheld a complaint against Mercia FM for ‘undue prominence’ in this link from a member of their ‘Thunder Crew’:

“…I’m going to get myself over to Coventry’s new Sytner Car Garage on Holyhead Road, between now and Sunday, and pick myself up a brand new BMW M3 saloon… it’s all very sparkly. They’re unveiling this new M3. Get yourself down there before Sunday and have a look at all the new nice shiny cars they’re showing off. We’ll be out and about … giving out prizes, giving out leaflets, explaining what’s going to be down there. So come and find us in and about Coventry and get down to Sytner on the Holyhead Road… ”.

In its judgement Ofcom did not accept GCap’s (who owned Mercia at the time) submission that the undue prominence of products or services in programming was minimal. “We do not believe it is reasonable to say that there was editorial justification to refer to the garage and its products in such exuberant terms simply to describe the Thunder Co-ordinator’s intended location. While we accept GCap’s assurance that no payment was made, the link was, in Ofcom’s view, likely to give listeners the impression that a ‘deal’ had been done. The reporter’s approach resulted in little more than the promotion of products and services, in breach of Rule 10.3 of the Code. The reporter not only established where he intended to be, but promoted the new BMW M3 saloon, after which, further references within programming to the associated brand, model, location or generic product, were not editorially justified."

Ofcom is now considering changing the rules on separation, and also allowing product placement, with four possible options:

· Option A: 'Do nothing' and maintain principle of separation.

· Option B: Maintains principle of separation but provide a defined set of exemptions.

· Option C: Allows the integration of commercial communications and programming (except in relation to spot ads).

· Option D: Allows the integration of commercial communications and programming (including in relation to spot ads).

Personally I would probably go with Option ‘C’. As Ofcom explains, “…this would give radio stations wide discretion to integrate, for example, paid-for, promotional commercial references into programming, provided they were transparent to listeners. This option would retain spot ads as a distinct type of content and a distinct revenue source. It would be delivered as a slim set of rules designed to secure one principle: transparency of commercial arrangements. Such transparency would be central to ensuring consumer protection.”

In other words it treats listeners with some intelligence, as well as providing transparency and maintaining the principle of separation.

Job done.

Performance Evaluation Translations

2010-07-12T08:40:00.002+01:00

If you work for a company that does annual appraisals, thanks to John Niland at www.success121.com - and his monthly newsletter - you might find these useful in cutting through the BS.

A keen analyst: Thoroughly confused.

Accepts new job assignments willingly: Never finishes a job.

Active socially: Drinks heavily.

Alert to company developments: An office gossip.

Approaches difficult problems with logic: Finds someone else to do the job.

Average: Not too bright.

Bridge builder: Likes to compromise.

Character above reproach: Still one step ahead of the law.

Charismatic: No interest in any opinion but his own.

Competent: Is still able to get work done if supervisor helps.

Conscientious and careful: Scared.

Consults with co-workers often: Indecisive, confused, and clueless.

Consults with supervisor often: Very annoying.

Delegates responsibility effectively: Passes the buck well.

Demonstrates qualities of leadership: Has a loud voice.

Displays excellent intuitive judgement: Knows when to disappear.

Displays great dexterity and agility: Dodges and evades superiors well.

Enjoys job: Needs more to do.

Excels in sustaining concentration but avoids confrontations: Ignores everyone.

Excels in the effective application of skills: Makes a good cup of coffee.

Exceptionally well qualified: Has committed no major blunders to date.

Expresses self well: Can string two sentences together.

Gets along extremely well with superiors and subordinates alike: A coward.

Happy: Paid too much.

Hard worker: Usually does it the hard way.

Identifies major management problems: Complains a lot.

Indifferent to instruction: Knows more than superiors.

Internationally known: Likes to go to conferences and trade shows in Las Vegas.

Is well informed: Knows all office gossip and where all the skeletons are kept.

Inspires the cooperation of others: Gets everyone else to do the work.

Is unusually loyal: Wanted by no-one else.

Judgement is usually sound: Lucky.

Keen sense of humour: Knows lots of dirty jokes.

Keeps informed on business issues: Subscribes to Playboy and National Enquirer.

Listens well: Has no ideas of his own.

Maintains a high degree of participation: Comes to work on time.

Maintains professional attitude: A snob.

Meticulous in attention to detail: A nitpicker.

Mover and shaker: Favors steamroller tactics without regard for other opinions.

Not a desk person: Did not go to college.

Of great value to the organization: Turns in work on time.

Uses all available resources: Takes office supplies home for personal use.

Quick thinking: Offers plausible excuses for errors.

Requires work-value attitudinal readjustment: Lazy and hard-headed.

Should go far: Please.

Slightly below average: Stupid.

Spends extra hours on the job: Miserable home life.

Stern disciplinarian: A real jerk.

Straightforward: Blunt and insensitive.

Strong adherence to principles: Stubborn.

Tactful in dealing with superiors: Knows when to keep mouth shut.

Takes advantage of every opportunity to progress: Buys drinks for superiors.

Takes pride in work: Conceited.

Unlimited potential: Will stick with us until retirement.

Uses resources well: Delegates everything.

Uses time effectively: Clock watcher.

Very creative: Finds 22 reasons to do anything except original work.

Visionary: Cannot handle paperwork or any project that lasts less than a week.

Well organized: Does too much busywork.

Will go far: Relative of management.

Willing to take calculated risks: Doesn't mind spending someone else's money.

Zealous attitude: Opinionated.

Book Review - Sounds of Your Life: The History of Independent Radio in the UK

2010-07-01T08:56:00.010+01:00

As someone who is interested in the history of British broadcasting during the past 50 years, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Tony Stoller's new book 'Sounds of Your Life: The history of Independent Radio in the UK'

Tony Stoller was formerly Chief Executive of the Radio Authority. He has also been a member of the IBA’s Radio Division, director of the Association of Independent Radio Contractors/Companies (now RadioCentre) and MD of Radio 210. His book has been described as “…remarkably frank and detailed revelations about what really went on behind the scenes at the IBA and Radio Authority”:

Independent radio was introduced into the UK in the early seventies. It was intended to be local, public service radio, funded by advertising but meeting a social as well as a market purpose. Across the eighties, as the old economic and political consensus came undone, what had been Independent Local Radio (ILR) gradually took on more the characteristics of commercial radio as understood elsewhere in the world. Independent National Radio (INR) arrived in the nineties, and by the first decade of the new century it was clear than independent radio had been replaced by commercial radio. This book charts the history of the rise and fall of independent radio. It is also a fable, illustrating the failure of the social liberalism of the seventies, and what happened when it was replaced by the market liberalism of the nineties.

I have often suspected that much of the 1972 Sound Broadcasting Act was devised as a means of getting the proposals through a conservative (with a small 'c') parliament; Postmaster General Christopher Chataway & co's way of allaying MPs' fears that commercial radio would be little more than non-stop pop jukeboxes. That was the argument put forward by those opposed to commercial radio, or who wanted Britain to avoid what they considered to be the "excesses" of commercial radio in the USA.

Under the Act the Independent Broadcasting Authority would own the actual licences and appoint 'programme contractors (i.e. the actual stations) to operate each local 'franchise'. The term 'independent radio' was the preferred description of the new service; describing them as 'commercial radio' was frowned upon. Stations would pay an annual 'rental' with the more-profitable also being subject to a 'secondary rental' levy, which would be used to help fund specialist programming such as concerts and documentaries, which would also be made available for other stations to broadcast.

With the exception of London, which was to have two stations - one providing 'General Entertainment' and the other 'News' - the new ILR stations were expected to provide a broad range of programming and would be required to provide “a public service disseminating information, education and entertainment”.

Even Capital’s schedule included drama, daily serials ("She And Me", “Dapple Downs"), a weekly arts magazine, classical music (with the late Robin Ray) and Brian Rust’s Sunday evening show where he played vintage 78s. Some very early programme schedules from Capital and Metro can be found here.

News was considered the most important aspect of programming, even to the extent that the IBA could decide how much news a station would carry. There was also a requirement to provide programmes “of an educational, religious, informational, children’s or other specialised nature”. Any changes to a station’s programme schedule even had to be cleared with the IBA beforehand.

For those whose experience of dealing with the regulator has been either with the 'light touch' Radio Authority or the lighter but 'evidence-based' Ofcom, the heavy regulation of the Independent Broadcasting Authority during the 1970s and 1980s will probably come as something of a shock.

Beyond the annual monitoring exercise, the chief mechanism for keeping ILR companies to their obligations was prior approval of programme schedules. Stations had to submit proposed schedules quarterly, with additional proposals for Christmas, Easter and any other time of significant change from normal output. The detail required was formidable, including regular feature items within each programme; the amount of music normally played within programming; regular competitions and promotion spots; time and duration of news bulletins; non-British content; live music slots; and any networked, syndicated or purchased material. Along with the fully exercised right of the IBA to approve any changes in broadcasting hours, this was highly interventionist regulation, and involved a lot of paperwork. IBA Radio Division staff actually checked all the incoming schedules, and did not infrequently go back to stations to require changes. In practice, though, the relationship was more sympathetic and informal than the apparent rigidity of the system implies.

Included in a Radio Consultative Committee Paper in 1978, in what was for those days a rare flash of lightness, was a supposed “caricature” of a scheduling discussion.

ILR programme controller: “Can I have approval to give the Top 40 show on Sundays to Bill Smith, so that Fred Jones can stand in for Ian Brown doing jazz on Wednesdays?

IBA radio officer: “We don’t mind too much about that, but isn’t it time you included some local education?”

That was not so far from reality, as I recall it, revealing the depth of involvement of the regulator in the programming process.

One of the more-interesting areas covered by Tony's book is how the IBA and Radio Authority approached the awarding of licences. It explains much of the thinking behind the IBA's decision to strip Radio Victory of the Portsmouth ILR franchise and award the newly-created Portsmouth/Southampton one to Ocean Sound. There is also a chapter that deals with the highly controversial decisions not to re-award LBC's licences in 1993, as well as the award of a London FM licence to Virgin Radio (which already held the INR2 national licence) in 1994.

It also reveals that when Capital was re-awarded its FM and AM licences in 1994 the Members of the Radio Authority asked Lord Chalfont, the RA Chairman, to "convey the Authority's disquiet about Capital's complacency". It seems the meeting had been told there had been "a certain amount of arrogance" in Capital's approach, and noted, presciently as it turned out, that the strong adult contemporary applications "represented a challenge to Capital's dominance." One of the other FM winners on that occasion was Chrysalis Radio's application as 'Crystal', offering a similar AC format to its recently-launched West Midlands regonal station, Heart FM, and which would eventually launch the following year as Heart 106.2.

One key chapter deals with what is now known as the 'Heathrow Conference' of ILR managing directors in June 1984 (so called because it took place at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Heathrow Airport), at which they called for less-interventionist regulation under the Independent Broadcasting Authority and greater commercial freedom. Tony Stoller considers this to be the pivotal moment in the transition from 'Independent Radio' to 'Commercial Radio'.

The book also acknowledges that, in hindsight, the Radio Authority's licensing strategy (and continued in a similar vein by Ofcom) resulted in the licensing of too many small-scale stations which would be unlikely to be profitable. In many cases those stations had based their market projections on having run a number of short-term 28-day Restricted Service Licences but, in the cold light of day, discovered the hard way that the local economy wasn't always able to support a longer-term station.

Some of these stations were then sold for what often turned out to be a vastly-inflated price which the new owners could only really have a chance to recoup through heavy cost-cutting or, in some extreme cases, simply handing back their licence.

At the time it was hoped these new stations would have provided "...a last flowering of the independent radio notion within ILR," but all too often they hit the reality of the commercial world in short order.

Here and there, some applicants had from the beginning more of an eye to the profit to be gained from selling on the licence than on the romance of running a station for their home town, but these were a smallish minority. Yet there were significantly more who were soon persuaded to sell on by the difficulty of making a go of it in the early months, the blandishments offered by potential buyers, and the natural anti-climax which came after the winning of the licence itself.

Events of the past week or so, in which Global Radio has re-structured its Heart and Gold 'brands' and the news that GMG proposes to turn the Smooth stations into a single national service, as a result of the new Digital Economy Act, would seem to have brought an end to the original ideals of 'Independent Local Radio'; stations which were locally-owned and locally-based while providing 'public service broadcasting' for a broad audience.

It makes Tony Stoller's final words even more poignant.

The house of independent radio has fallen; its commercial radio heirs are largely indifferent to their legacy; the old music has died. These days, if you want to listen to the sounds of your life in a single accessible local medium, you will mostly search in vain … except in the echoes of the past.

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Sounds of Your Life: The History of Independent Radio in the UK by Tony Stoller (Published: John Libbey & Co Ltd.).

Reading List

2010-06-29T12:16:00.004+01:00

I'm often asked to recommend some books about radio so here are a few favourites from my shelves:

Essential Radio Skills by Peter Stewart

This is an excellent practical, how-to guide to producing and presenting radio to a professional standard. Packed with day-to-day advice that captures the essence and buzz of live broadcasting; from preparing your show before it goes out, last minute changes to running orders, deciding what to drop in over a track, how to sell a feature or promote a programme, setting up competitions, thinking fast in a phone in- this book will help you do all that and more. It covers network and commercial, music and talk radio skills. It will particularly suit broadcasters at student, hospital and community stations as well as those at local commercial and BBC stations.

Radio Production by Robert McLeish

Written by by a former head of BBC Local Radio Training, this is is a good introduction to the basics of radio production. However, it is somewhat “thin” on contemporary music programming/formatting, computerised music scheduling etc., and, despite several revisions over the years, its 1978 BBC local radio origins are still very much in evidence.

Programme Making For Radio by Jim Beaman

This book provides focused practical guidelines to the professional techniques applied to the making of radio shows, explaining how specific radio programmes are made and the conventions and techniques required to produce them. The book describes how and why these methods are applied through the use of a behind-the-scenes glimpse at working practices and procedures used in the industry.

The Radio Handbook by Carole Fleming

A comprehensive overview that examines the various components that make radio, from music selection to news presentation, and from phone-ins to sports programmes.

Essential Radio Journalism: How To Produce and Present Radio News by Peter Stewart & Paul Chantler

An excellent, practical guide for anybody looking to work in radio journalism, whether in BBC or commercial radio.

A Guide To Commercial Radio Journalism by Linda Gage

Covering aspects from journalistic practice to media law, this guide gives instruction on the techniques of digital editing and using equipment, and on the basic skills of writing, reporting and producing. The legal section outlines the pitfalls of libel and contempt, particularly during elections.

Managing Radio by Brian Lister, Caroline Mitchell and Tony O'Shea

Managing Radio is the first detailed and comprehensive practical guide to all the essential elements of managing radio stations. It covers the management of public service, commercial and community radio stations and the wide range of new DAB, online, web and independent production opportunities.

A useful text for students studying the theory and practice of managing radio, it is also an authoritative guide to setting up a station or radio service from scratch. It explores how to create sustainable radio through managing for profit, public service or the participation of the audience in all parts of the station.

Managing Radio provides useful practical advice, examples of contemporary radio management practices and case studies of management in action, backed up with references to wider academic reading in media, business and cultural studies.

‘This Business Of Radio Programming’ by Claude and Barbara Hall. A true classic dealing with US radio in the 1960s/70s. Originally publishied in 1977, it was hard-to-find but has since been re-issued (but not updated) and is also available via Dan O’Day’s website - www.danoday.com

‘The Nation’s Favourite’ by Simon Garfield.

Probably one of the best books ever written about radio. A frank look behind the scenes of Radio 1 during the Bannister/Dann era of major change. Simon Garfield was given unprecedented access to managers, producers and presenters, as well as sitting-in on playlist and promotions meetings. An excellent read.

'Rocking America' by Rick Sklar

Of all the behind-the-scenes books about radio, this is undoubtedly one of the best. As Programme Director Rick Sklar was the genius behind WABC New York throughout the 60s and 70s; when the station was one of the most listened-to and most imitated on the planet!!

Not Quite Altogether Now: The Pioneering Days of Radio Clyde by Tony Currie

A very interesting, and highly enjoyable, account of the early days of Radio Clyde, which was notable for being something of a success story almost from the beginning; especially as both LBC and Capital had both come close to financial disaster in their early months on-air.

Tony’s book also reminds us that the way we make radio has changed considerably since then.

Where Does My Heart Beat Now?

2010-06-22T10:47:00.006+01:00

Global Radio, the UK's largest radio owner has announced a major 're-structuring' of its group of Heart stations.

According to a report in The Guardian, the present 33 local stations are to become a network of 15 regional "super-stations". Each of the newly-merged stations will have their own regional breakfast and drivetime shows, which means, for example that Heart Oxfordshire and Heart Berkshire will become 'Heart Thames Valley' (based in Reading) and will no longer have separate shows for each of the current stations.

All other programming (17 hours a day Monday-Friday and 20 at weekends) will come from Global's London HQ in Leicester Square.

The Guardian quotes Global's CEO, Ashley Tabor, as saying Ofcom's recent regulatory change "enables commercial radio to organise itself more efficiently and take advantage of new technology to enable our people to work smarter" Although this has meant some brave decisions for our business, these changes considerably strengthen our company by providing listeners with higher quality programming and our customers with a far superior service."

This regulatory change, which came into effect on Monday 8th June, allows an FM station which provides an enhanced news service, of local news at least hourly during daytime on weekdays and at weekend peak times, to produce a minimum of 7 hours a day of locally-made programmes during weekday daytimes (this should include breakfast). It is also now possible for stations within an 'approved area' to co-locate and share all of their programming.

It could be argued that Global's move, which is unprecedented in UK radio, is the final nail in the coffin of what used to be called 'Independent Local Radio'; stations which were locally-owned and locally-based while providing 'public service broadcasting' for a broad audience.

In his excellent book (a full review will follow soon) Sounds of Your Life: The History of Independent Radio in the UK, Tony Stoller places the pivotal moment in the transition from 'Independent Radio' to 'Commercial Radio' at the 'Heathrow Conference' of ILR managing directors in June 1984, at which they called for less-interventionist regulation under the Independent Broadcasting Authority and greater commercial freedom.

The changes at Heart could provide an opportunity for other smaller local stations to punch above their weight and play the local card. Listening around, though, I hear too many of them programmed by those who seem to have been stuck in a timewarp and have yet to realise that the world has changed, or "that'll do" seems to be the ultimate goal. That'll do just isn't good enough right now and 1980s-style local radio is not the answer to the problem. I suspect in most cases it's because those in charge don't know any better or prefer to keep within their comfort zone.

Obviously I’m not advocating a return to the days when ILR stations were required to provide ‘meaningful speech’ and presenters were regularly giving out details of jumble sales and lost pets; far from it. Local doesn’t have to mean yokel.

In particular one station’s local news coverage could best be described as scant; relying on the same lightweight ‘And Finally’ piece (admittedly with some changes of copy and audio) to provide their only local story throughout much of the day. I found it hard to believe that nothing else remotely newsworthy was happening in the station’s main TSA.

I have also heard a station run the same pre-recorded local news bulletin for eight consecutive hours. It was easy to spot because, apart from the story order and copy remaining the same, the newsreader stumbled in exactly the same place each time. That, to me, is not just lazy radio but is also treating your listeners with contempt; it’s hardly surprising that station has struggled for many years.

If you can give your content some genuine local relevance that firmly positions you as being part of the market you serve, as well as do it with a sense of passion and fun, there’s no reason why that shouldn’t reflect in improved Rajars and revenue.

DAB - Missed Opportunities?

2010-05-26T14:45:00.004+01:00

Yesterday Malcolm Bluemel, owner of Planet Rock, told the ‘Radiopuls’ conference in Sweden: “Nobody in the UK talks about DAB+ because more than 10 million DAB sets need to be replaced, but we're apparently just fine with replacing over 100 million analogue sets " (from a tweet by James Cridland - who was also speaking at the same event).

That’s quite a telling observation. I should, perhaps, point out that I currently have 3 DAB receivers and just one analogue-only tuner (in my hi-fi) so I'm hardly a 'refusenik'.

9 years ago (something I find hard to believe) I was a DAB pioneer, launching and programming ‘FLIX - Music From The Movies’ for UKRD/Infinity Media, as well as developing further DAB/internet formats. I still believe that radio's future is digital multi-platform, but like Malcolm (and others) I do wonder whether DAB is the answer.

Back in 2001 DAB was the ‘brave new world’. It was the first new transmission system since FM, and, while FM was an improvement on AM, it is questionable as to whether DAB is actually an improvement on FM. It should be, but, as DAB’s detractors point out, not everybody is making the most of what is supposed to be a superior system. When it first arrived, we were promised ‘CD-quality sound’, although this has since been changed to ‘crystal-clear sound’ and ‘interference free’.

The main criticism of DAB is that multplexes have been re-engineered in order to make space for additional stations, which has meant having to reduce the overall bitrates of existing stations. This has resulted in a reduction in audio quality. While not a 'techie' I gather there has been a similar situation with digital TV.

Meanwhile, the pro-DAB campaigners make the point that, in terms of getting ordinary members of the public to buy DAB, the real ‘driver’ is content - i.e. stations that are not available on FM or AM - rather than promises of audiophile quality.

The problem with DAB has been that growth has been much, much slower than originally anticipated 10 years ago. The result has been that many of those stations that were only available on DAB have closed, consigning names such as Primetime, Core, Saga, Life, theJazz, OneWord and, of course, FLIX to radio oblivion.

While many of those slots have since been filled by other broadcasters, DAB seems to have become an outlet mainly for niche/specialist programming or being used by religious/ethnic broadcasters. A couple of radio companies have been using it for 'brand extensions'; Absolute Radio with dabbl, Absolute 80s and the forthcoming Absolute Radio 90s; and Bauer with Q, Heat and The Hits.

Most of the rest seem to be used to expand existing stations, such as Smooth, LBC and XFM beyond their regular FM coverage areas. We're likely to see more of this as Ofcom has announced that large regional analogue stations will be able to request to drop their regional programming in exchange for providing a national version of their programme service on DAB, either on a national multiplex or a combination of local and regional multiplexes.

Meanwhile, as I commented in an earlier blog post about satellite radio, I can’t help wondering whether the founders of DAB missed a trick by not considering the possibility of incorporating some form of conditional access system in receivers to enable unique, premium content to be made available to paying subscribers. Such a move might have made a huge difference to DAB take-up if a “killer application” had been an option.

For example, imagine if football radio commentary rights had been won by a DAB-only service (Sky Sports Radio anyone?) and you not only needed to have a suitable receiver but needed to pay a monthly subscription to hear them, would it benefit DAB? Could that have boosted DAB's fortunes?

Satellite TV took off in the UK because it had the ability to use premium content such as sport (especially Premiership football) and first-run movies to encourage people to subscribe. These were assisted by offering new subscribers “free” (while clawing the money back through increased subscription charges) the dishes and set top boxes needed to receive it. We’re currently seeing the same thing happening with Sky and Virgin Media using HD as a marketing tool.

With hindsight another major mistake was giving stations automatic licence renewal in exchange for DAB carriage. While it helped to encourage stations to take space on a multiplex, doing so also turned out to be a millstone around their necks as, arguably, those carriage costs diverted money away from investment in the station’s output.

If a station decided against remaining on DAB they would lose their automatic renewal and their licence would then have to go through the usual renewal procedure - with no guarantee that they would win if it was contested. Then, of course, there’s the cost, both financially and in terms of management time, involved in putting together the application.

By nailing our colours so firmly to the DAB 'mast' 10+ years have we missed the boat in terms of enabling the adoption of other, newer (and better?) technologies?

Would it not be better in the long term, as Malcolm Bluemel appears to suggest, to consider migration from DAB to DAB+ rather than continue down a route of possible migration from analogue to digital?

Disappearing TOGS?

2010-05-21T07:41:00.005+01:00

In my previous post the charts showed a drop in older listeners to Radio 2's breakfast audience.

So where did they go?

It seems many of those listeners may have switched their allegiance at breakfast time to BBC Local Radio.

Looking at the changes in audience reach between 0600-0900 (a common segment which makes direct comparisons easier) BBC LR as a whole has seen an increase of 20% in the past quarter - with a 15.4% increase in listeners 55+. That's not quite as simple an answer as it seems, though, because there has also been an increase in other, younger, demographics.

I don't have access to figures for individual BBC local stations so, as the election pollsters would say, it may not be a uniform 'swing'.

This would seem to be borne out by some comparisons of a handful of stations provided by a top radio chief within BBC Local Radio. Some stations have increased their audience at that time while others have either shown little change or even lost listeners. Some of the increases are simply a continuation of steady year-on-year growth.

It is also likely that BBC LR's good quarter is down to several weeks of heavy snow and 'extreme weather' during the sweep, which would have meant many people would have switched because that was the station they felt was providing the best service for school closures and travel updates.

As my source says, "It's great for us that it coincided with Wogan/Evans, but I'll wait to see whether we hang on to many of them nationally."

Everyone's A Winner

2010-05-17T13:04:00.010+01:00

The most-recent Rajar audience figures, published last Thursday, showed some impressive increases for the threatened-with-closure BBC 6 Music and Chris Evans' debut on the Radio 2 breakfast show.

Much has already been written elsewhere by James Cridland, Matt Deegan, Adam Bowie and Nik Goodman so rather than repeat what they've already said I thought it might be more interesting to try to look a bit closer at some of the latest figures.

Let's start with BBC 6 Music, which has gained an additional 328,000 listeners a week and more than doubled its hours in a single quarter. What makes this even more impressive is that the survey period was January 4th to March 28th 2010, yet the announcement about 6 Music’s possible closure wasn’t made until March 2nd (officially, although it was leaked to the press on February 26th).

So if all those extra 328,000 listeners and 4 million hours have been because of the station's threatened closure then they’ve been gained in just under a month.

Taking into account these figures are averaged over a 3-monthly period the actual number of listeners could be much higher.

It was widely accepted that audiences for Radio 2's breakfast show would be likely to dip as Chris Evans took over the show from the Terry Wogan. Instead there has been an increase of more than 1 million listeners. In fact the number of new listeners to the show is greater than that because Chris Evans (and Radio 2 in general) has also lost listeners among the older age-groups.

Here's a breakdown of the daytime (0700-1900) audience by age-group from the previous quarter:

(click on charts to enlarge)

Now see how the audience has changed over the past quarter - especially among the older listeners:

Here's how the audience has changed between 0800-0830:

It's perhaps worth pointing that the 47.3% increase among 25-34s started from a relatively low base and that particular age group still represents less than 10% of the total audience at that time.

In its Service Review of Radio 2 the BBC Trust recommended that Radio 2 should ensure that the average age of its audience “does not fall below 50 for any sustained period without corrective action." While Radio 2's average age remains above 50 the increase in younger listeners could be cause for concern among the BBC Trust.

I shall, though, give the same advice I always give client stations when 'number-crunching' their own Rajar figures and that is not to take a single quarter in isolation but look at longer-term trends. So let's wait and see how things look when Rajar Q2/2010 is released in early-August.

Finally, London's breakfast listening has always been hotly contested among the leading stations. It's also difficult to make like-for-like comparisons because of different show times. Johnny and Lisa on Capital are on from 6.00-10.00, while Jamie and Harriet on Heart do 6.00-9.00 and Neil Fox starts at 5.30 and finishes at 9.00.

Here's how they stack-up in different time-slot combinations, as well as showing how the national stations perform within the London TSA.

London Rajar - Q1/2010

2010-05-14T08:26:00.008+01:00

As usual, here are my charts showing how each of the main commercial stations in the capital are performing throughout the day.

Sounds of Your Life: The History of Independent Radio in the UK

2010-05-11T09:47:00.001+01:00

Tony Stoller was formerly Chief Executive of the Radio Authority. He has also been a member of the IBA’s Radio Division, director of the Association of Independent Radio Contractors/Companies (now RadioCentre) and MD of Radio 210.

His book, published on Monday 17th May, has been described as “…remarkably frank and detailed revelations about what really went on behind the scenes at the IBA and Radio Authority.”

My review copy has just arrived and, needless to say, I’m really looking forward to reading this.

Independent Radio from the mid-1970s onwards touched the lives of an entire generation. Stations in the big cities and the smaller towns provided the music and the news and the style which accompanied the changing patterns of life as the UK grew into a youth-driven, modern state. The initial attempt to harness the power of popular radio, funded by advertising, to provide local public service was characteristic of the ambition of the times. Its later supplanting by commercial music radio illustrates the failure of those hopes on a wider front too.

Sounds of Your Life is the first comprehensive telling of the stories and the histories of Independent Radio. Its author, Tony Stoller, was a major figure in the medium. He has had unique access to the people who made and unmade the system, and to the formal and informal archives which cover over 30 lively years. The book is a substantial and substantive history, which illustrates the way in which Britain moved from a social to a market economy, while telling the tales of the people and the processes of Independent Radio as it touched its tens of millions of lsteners up and down the country.

A review of the book will appear on my blog in due course.

Incidentally, the title appears to have changed - on Amazon it’s still currently listed as ‘……The Rise and Fall of Independent Radio in the UK’

She's Always A Woman

2010-04-27T08:14:00.006+01:00

Like many people I'm a fan of John Lewis. They've just launched a new TV commercial for their 'Never Knowingly Undersold' strapline.

I think it's not only very clever and well made but it's also very emotive and engaging.

The music is She's Always A Woman written by Billy Joel and performed here by Fyfe Dangerfield.

Down Under

2010-04-18T09:23:00.004+01:00

One of the nice things about doing what I do is that it sometimes gives me the chance to explore the way radio is done in other countries.

In the past this has included music/content analysis of some stations in Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands as well as some desktop research on the major radio players in Eastern Europe. Having worked abroad in the past I always find it interesting to observe how other stations take a different approach to making radio.

Last week I got the chance to spend a couple of days doing research on how some of the major Australian stations are using popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Used well those sites can offer the opportunity to engage your audience and make them feel more a part of what you’re doing. Here in the UK some stations get it while others just don’t, and this seemed to be much the same with those stations I was researching ‘down under’; perhaps even more so.

Some stations or shows had very few Twitter followers but as most of their ‘tweets’ were simply re-posting links to entertainment stories there was no real incentive to follow them. There was nothing about what the station was doing or providing a call to action to listen to something they were doing. Give people a good reason to become a Facebook fan or follow you on Twitter and they’ll do so.

One breakfast show in the country’s biggest market hadn’t used Twitter since before Christmas, while a drivetime presenter on another station hadn’t updated since last July.

Another breakfast show, whose target audience would be most likely to use social networking, had an invitation on their website page to “connect with us” on Facebook and Twitter. There were even some nice large friendly logos, but because they were not clickable it meant you couldn’t go straight to the relevant sites. If you want people to sign-up make it easy for them to do so.

On the other hand Hamish & Andy’s drivetime show, which is networked across the Austereo-owned stations, have more than 650,000 fans on Facebook, while Kyle & Jackie O, who present Breakfast on Sydney’s 2Day FM (an Austereo station), as well as a daily networked evening show, are close to having 350,000 followers on Twitter.

Both of their respective Facebook pages had plenty of show-related content and, more importantly, with over 95% of posts coming from ‘fans’, there was obviously plenty of engagement; in one case around 1,300 fan posts in the course of the week.

At least I managed to avoid any stations or presenters who were bombarding their Twitter followers with a rapid and incessant succession of ‘tweets’. Last year I was invited to follow a UK station that may be small but punches well above its weight; and deservedly so, I should add. However, getting 8 tweets in 5 minutes from them was, for me, simply overkill and they were very quickly ‘un-followed’ again; I doubt I was alone.

What is important to remember is that by concentrating their efforts into engaging with listeners via websites, Facebook, Twitter and iPhone apps etc. some stations are in danger of overlooking their actual content. You may be at the forefront of new media and social networking but if what comes out of the speakers is below par then you're only shooting yourself in the foot.

Sleeping Satellite

2010-04-18T09:07:00.003+01:00

The following started life a recent comment I made on a Facebook note by former colleague. Some friends of his had just returned from the States where their hire car had come fitted with a satellite radio receiver and they were asking why we hadn’t got anything like it here.

Ondas Media, a Spanish-based company, is planning to launch such a system by the end of 2012 so it will be interesting to see what they will be offering once they launch. At the moment there’s not been much announced about actual content, although their website does mention that Jazz FM will be part of it.
Satellite TV (aka Sky) has, of course, been around for many years. Their biggest advantage has been the ability to use premium content such as sport (especially football) and movies as 'drivers' to encourage people to subscribe. These were assisted by offering "free" (and clawing the money back through increased subscription charges) the dishes and set top boxes needed to receive it.

Satellite radio in the States seems to be gaining popularity because it offers a wider choice of programming and stations which are not available to many of those outside the major cities, as well as premium content (such as Howard Stern) for an additional subscription. The programming itself also has the advantage of not suffering the 16-20 minutes an hour of commercials that seem to be the norm on many stations in the States. The service is also available just about everywhere across the USA so you don't need to tune from one local station to another while driving.

Like satellite TV in the UK, where Sky and its rival British Satellite Broadcasting, which will probably be best remembered for the ‘Squarial’, were forced into a merger for survival, the two US radio rivals XM and Sirius have also now merged.

Satellite radio over here would have similar advantages to the States in terms of the range of content but with the growing popularity of the iPod, phone apps and wi-fi radio etc. it would probably need to provide strong 'drivers' in terms of unique, premium, content in order to attract potential subscribers; for example if they could outbid the BBC and commercial radio (as well as TalkSport, Absolute Radio will have live commentaries from next season) for premiership football rights etc.

At the risk of going off on a tangent I wonder whether the founders of DAB missed a trick by not considering the possibility of incorporating some form of conditional access system in receivers to enable premium content to be made available to paying subscribers. Such a move might have made a huge difference to DAB take-up if premium content had been an option.

We do, of course, already have a form of satellite radio in the UK/Europe via Music Choice (I was their head of programming from 1994-2000) but as you're only able to hear it via satellite/cable TV I agree it's a very different animal to what’s being offered by Ondas, and what Sirius is already doing, but I don’t think it would be unfair to say that Music Choice has not been as successful as was originally hoped. Maybe its potential place in the market has been overtaken by other developments such as the iPod and internet streaming (which Music Choice doesn't seem to offer, but I suspect that may be a licensing matter).

Presenter Coaching

2010-04-18T08:54:00.002+01:00

If you’re a presenter how often do you have a snoop session with your boss? If you’re a programme controller how often do you hold coaching sessions with your presenters?

For many stations this should, ideally, be done on a regular basis. Some programmers like to meet with each of their main presenters for a session at least once a week; some will even meet with their breakfast show team on a daily basis.

It is not always as easy as it might seem, though. The average (usually in more ways than one) presenter is not always able to take constructive criticism, while those who do take it on board and continue to work hard in getting it right tend to be the ones who last. Those who can’t are usually the ones who fall by the wayside and find career progression difficult, if not impossible.

The most important thing is for the PC to be able to be positive and ensure that the presenter is also on-side and on-message about the station’s focus. I know of one top radio chief who uses what he calls a ’shit sandwich’; where you try to start and finish with positives and keep the negatives in the middle.

I’ve long believed that if you praise people for doing a good job it gives you more credibility on those occasions when you need to be more critical. After all, these sessions are not (or should not be) a means of belittling presenters or tearing them apart, but for helping them to improve by becoming more motivated and focused on what they do.

I know several presenters who, with the right PC, have found their snoop/critique sessions very informative and incredibly helpful. As one person told me, “I cringe hearing myself but its a great learning tool. To see your boss laugh at your links and say nice things is such a confidence boost. Similarly to get great constructive feedback is a huge help. Its strange because I don’t always look forward to a snoop but I always come out of them feeling good.”

That’s a good attitude to have and it’s often the case that snoop sessions can be useful in pointing out things you don’t know, or may not have noticed on your own. It’s also a good idea to record yourself on a regular basis in order to hear how you are sounding; as long as you’re able to listen objectively.

No presenter should be above getting feedback from their boss. In radio you should always be striving to improve and raise your game; even the best footballers still have to turn up for training sessions and that should also be the case for radio presenters.

I heard about one breakfast presenter who used to disappear for the day fairly soon after coming off-air and who rarely came to regular meetings of the show’s team or station presenters. That isn’t really something any good PC is going to tolerate for too long and in that case that presenter didn’t last. One final tip is to praise in public and criticise in private; that includes avoiding over-zealous use of the studio XD line or coming into the studio during the show to have a go at a presenter. 99.9% of the time it can wait until after they’ve finished and then deal with the matter in your office afterwards.

The Radio Ballads

2010-03-02T10:53:00.001Z

This evening at 10.30 on BBC Radio 2 is 'The Ballad of the Miners' Strike', to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the dispute.

I thought it might be appropriate to post the following, which first appeared in The Radio Magazine four years ago in March 2006.

Over the past couple of months I’ve had a few conversations with various people where the subject of Charles Parker’s groundbreaking ‘Radio Ballads’ has come up. So it was a delight to learn that BBC Radio 2 had commissioned, and are currently broadcasting, a brand-new series dealing with contemporary issues.

The original programmes, written by Ewan MacColl and produced by Parker, were first broadcast on the (then) BBC Home Service between July 1958 and April 1964.

At the time they were revolutionary in their style because instead of using a narrator or cast of actors to tell the story, they used the voices of the people themselves, linked by specially-commissioned folk songs.

BBC producer Charles Parker described the Radio Ballad as "a form of narrative documentary in which the story is told entirely in the words of the actual participants themselves as recorded in real life; in sound effects which are also recorded on the spot, and in songs which are based upon these recordings, and which utilise traditional or 'folk-song' modes of expression."

The first such programme, The Ballad of John Axon tells the story of a train driver from Stockport who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for an act of heroism in 1957 when he refused to abandon his runaway train and saved lives at the expense of his own.

MacColl and Parker recorded interviews with Axon’s widow and workmates but it wasn’t until they had done so that they realised that the raw material they had was much better as it was than simply as the basis for a script for a radio drama. MacColl then wrote songs inspired by the stories they had been told, with music directed by Peggy Seeger.

Apart from it being unheard-of on the BBC in those days to hear ‘real’ working-class voices, what also makes these programmes special is the realisation that they were produced using methods that seem primitive compared to today.

My own introduction to the Radio Ballads was through a short season of re-runs on Radio 4 in the mid-1970s; in particular I enjoyed John Axon and Singing The Fishing, which featured the men and women of the herring fishing fleets in East Anglia and Northeast Scotland. Other Ballads covered diverse topics including the building of the M1 motorway, gypsies, teenagers, boxing, coal miners and people with polio.

While, admittedly, not a great fan of folk music, I found the use of actuality and music to tell the tales both interesting and compelling; and sometimes moving.

The original Ballads are still held-up today as true radio masterpieces that utilise the medium’s greatest strength to paint pictures with sound, so the producers of the new series have a high standard to maintain.

From those I have heard, while the production and technical facilities available today are obviously very different from those used by Charles Parker, the style and structure of the new Radio Ballads has remained much the same in the way they tell their story.

The Radio 2 website has a section about Charles Parker's original Radio Ballads.

And The Money Kept Rolling In (and Out)

2010-03-01T08:36:00.010Z

Did I really hear a recruitment ad for MI6 agents on LBC this morning? I probably did; nestling among the ads from directory enquiry services, ~~ambulance chasers~~ personal injury lawyers, or the "Chairman" of a property development company whose bank has forced them to sell apartments at huge discounts.

Like many other stations, LBC's ad breaks contain a lot of government-funded commercials at the moment. They're not hard to miss.

There are two likely reasons for this. First of all we're coming to the end of the financial year and government departments are desperate to use up their advertising budget otherwise they'll lose it. The other reason is that, just in case you've failed to notice (obviously this does not apply to our overseas friends) a general election is looming and, once parliament has been dissolved and the campaigning officially begins, all of this advertising will have to be removed.

The Central Office of Information (COI) - the government agency for advertising and marketing - has long been one of the biggest spenders on radio for many years, regardless of the party in government. Their average annual spend is in the region of £21million, which is not to be sneezed at; even if it does come out of our own pockets (assuming you are domiciled in the UK for tax purposes).

Hearing so many of these ads on the radio at the moment you begin to wonder whether anybody else is advertising; although it does help non-COI commercials stand out from the crowd.

The problem is that not all government ads are paid-for. The COI also regularly produce a number of Public Service Announcements (known as "Fillers") which are available free-of-charge to radio stations and can often be heard padding out commercial breaks in off-peak hours on some stations.

“Radio Fillers are short health, welfare and safety messages that provide high quality content on issues that are important to your audience. They are available in a variety of lengths, from 10 secs to 60 secs to sit neatly in your schedule.

Fillers offer you flexible, ready to run programming to help fill any break, as a quick fix for an unexpected gap in your schedule, or as an alternative to a programme trail. Fillers are free of charge and fully cleared.”

(So now you know).

Back in another life (about 20 years ago!) I freelanced regularly for the COI’s Radio department where I produced paid-for commercials and ‘Fillers’, which was an interesting insight into the world of government advertising, as well as the machinations of the Civil Service (although more 'Yes Minister' than 'The Thick Of It' back then), and it never failed to amaze me just how much money was being spent on both airtime and production budgets.

Major ad campaigns were dealt with through a number of leading advertising agencies; I still have memories of having a meeting with one agency to decide what would be discussed at another meeting the following day! As the COI's producer my main role was to keep an eye on costs and rein-in some of the more extravagant demands from certain agency creatives who seemed to inhabit a very different planet from the rest of us. In particular, wanting to hire a 24-track mobile recording studio for a week to visit a number of different locations to get some short vox-pops for a 60-second commercial comes to mind.

Right now commercial radio stations are benefiting from this rather welcome influx of revenue. How will they cope, though, when the plug gets pulled in the next few weeks and the money stops rolling in?

If that simple truth has not yet dawned on some stations, it's time for them to pull their fingers out. Now.

"Thinking Young And Growing Older Is No Sin"

2010-02-21T10:36:00.003Z

The BBC Trust has now published its Service Review of Radio 2. Among its recommendations is that Radio 2 should ensure that the average age of its audience “does not fall below 50 for any sustained period without corrective action."

This follows concerns raised by the commercial radio industry that the station has been getting younger in recent years.

The Trust says: "Radio 2’s remit is to appeal to all ages over 35 but between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 the station’s under 35 audience grew significantly (albeit from a low base). However, since 2004-05 the age profile of the station has remained stable and there has been no increase in reach to under 35 year olds. Today, some 82 per cent of Radio 2’s listeners are within the target age group and the average age of the audience is 50. We believe that Radio 2 should maintain this stability, protect the interests of older listeners and ensure that the average age of the station does not fall.”

This is how Radio 2's audience looks during the day:

(Click on image to enlarge)

While Adults 55-64 dominate the mornings, 45-54 year-olds make up the next-largest group of listeners through the day and dominate the afternoons, followed by the 35-44s.

The decline in afternoon listening among the older listeners is most likely to be because they watch more TV at that time; a fact not lost on advertisers, which is why there are usually many commercials during that period for products such as walk-in baths and Stannah chairlifts. Some may argue that those viewers stop listening to the radio during the day because they consider Radio 2 is “too young” for them, but that afternoon TV audience profile goes back to the days of Gloria Hunniford and John Dunn.

At the risk of going back over old ground I covered last year, is Radio 2 really becoming younger, or is it simply evolving with the passing of time to encompass a fresh generation of listeners who want to hear ‘their’ music?

Any station targeting a particular age-group will need to ‘refresh’ its music every few years in order to take generational changes into account.

Ten years ago if you were targeting, say, a 45+ audience then your listeners would have been born before 1955, while someone in their early-50s in 2000 would have been one of the post-war ‘baby boomer’ generation, and in their teens during ‘Beatlemania’ and the 1967 ‘Summer of Love’.

Today’s 45 year-olds (who would have been born in 1965) became teenagers during the rise of Punk and the 70s Disco boom, while the baby boomers are now in their 60s. Meanwhile, the Teddy Boys of the mid-1950s are now at least in their mid-70s.

Taking all this into consideration it seems strange to find that there are still those (including some who should know better) who seem to labour under the misapprehension that as soon as people hit middle-age their musical tastes suddenly undergo a radical transformation; and who seriously believe 50 year-olds, who grew up with pop and rock, will be happily catered for by playing Doris Day, dance bands and Mantovani.

The Trust also points out that there is not a straightforward link between a presenter’s age and that of the audience. “For example, when Chris Evans, aged 43, replaced Johnnie Walker, aged 64, the average age of the audience stayed the same at 49 and when Jeremy Vine, aged 44, replaced Jimmy Young, aged 88, the average age of the audience stayed the same at 52. Nevertheless, there is a risk, given Terry Wogan’s longevity as a presenter, that fluctuations in reach and age profile will occur at least in the short term.”

Maybe it’s the balance between old and new music during the day that is provoking many of the criticisms; especially from the station’s older listeners, who feel that the only time Radio 2 caters for their music tastes is on a Sunday. In which case it might be the case that the music played during the daytime shows could be broadened in some way, but without creating a series of ‘ghetto’ programmes which cater for specialist tastes, while driving away mainstream listeners.

How Not To Get A Job In Radio

2010-02-12T10:44:00.002Z

Thanks to Canadian broadcaster Adam Buckley for this.

"If you're looking for ways to NOT get a job in the radio broadcasting business, or most businesses in general, here are some ways to go about doing just that. Hopefully these examples will help you in not being a complete drooling idiot when presenting yourself to a potential employer."

Talk Of The Town

2010-02-07T18:48:00.004Z

One of the biggest surprises in last week’s Rajar figures was LBC 97.3 having the second-highest market share of any of London’s commercial stations; behind Magic but ahead of Heart and Capital. Nick Ferrari at Breakfast now has the highest share among all commercial stations in that slot, as well as the highest number of listeners between 8.00 and 10.00.

Apart from late-night phone-in shows on some stations (and not forgetting City Talk’s short-lived incarnation on AM) LBC was the only local commercial Talk station until Talk 107 launched in Edinburgh four years ago. Having worked there in the 70s and 80s I have first-hand experience of what was a very bumpy ride at times with several rounds of redundancies and restructurings as the station struggled.

Despite this, by the mid-80s LBC was both a critical and commercial success with, under the former JICRAR ratings system, an audience of over two million listeners a week. It has been admitted by several people at the BBC that much of the ‘blueprint’ for Five Live was based on LBC’s successful programming at that time.

Today’s LBC 97.3 is a rather different animal. When Chrysalis (now Global) acquired the station in 2002 its perception for several years had been that of “the station for cabbies and old biddies”. While, probably not a totally accurate demographic description of the audience, that was certainly the impression one got from listening to it at times back then and it does now seem to be trying to carve a distinctive niche for itself in the busy London market and gaining a loyal listenership; even if some of the current presenters are not to everyone’s taste.

It’s been very easy for some to point to the failure of Edinburgh’s Talk 107 and the recent format changes at City Talk in Liverpool and claim “the Talk format doesn’t work”. There’s a big difference, though, between format and execution, and nobody seems to be pointing at LBC or TalkSPORT (which has also shown an impressive increase in audience this time) and making the same claims about them.

Talk is certainly popular in the States, but that’s usually because music radio is fragmented across many different formats, which could also be a reason for LBC’s rise in the crowded London market. US Talk stations tend to rely heavily on nationally-syndicated presenters such as Rush Limbaugh and Dr Laura Schlessinger for much of their schedule. Despite what some people may claim, though, Talk is not a dominant format.

In Los Angeles, for example, 18 stations (out of the 75 listed by Arbitron) have a speech-based format, such as News/Talk/Information, All-News, All Sports or Spanish News/Talk, and between them they manage a combined share of listening in the nation’s second-largest radio market of 16.9%. The top Talk station, ranked in fourth place in the market, is KFI-AM with a 3.9% share, followed (in 15th place) by All-News KNX-AM.

The important thing is that good talk radio needs to reflect what its listeners are thinking and do it in a compelling way. You also need a good stream of callers, as well as a presenter who can interact with them and be able to come across as articulate and informed.

Remember, what goes out on air has to engage the listener and make them want to keep listening, even if they don’t want to call.

London Rajar - Q4/2009

2010-02-04T16:00:00.011Z

The latest figures are now out and, as usual, here's my chart showing how each of the main commercial stations in the capital are performing throughout the day.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Weekdays:

Note a very impressive showing from LBC 97.3 at Breakfast.

Saturdays:

Sundays:

There seems to be a drop in audience during the afternoon for almost all stations.

(For Q3/2009 see http://pauleaston.blogspot.com/2009/10/london-rajar-q32009.html)

'On A Viennese Whirl'

2010-01-31T19:57:00.009Z

Although it closed ten years ago in January 2000 after more than 20 years on-air, Blue Danube Radio in Vienna has not only achieved near-legendary status and attracted considerable curiosity from many people, but is also fondly remembered by many of those who worked there over the years.

Blue Danube Radio launched on 23rd August 1979 to coincide with the opening of the United Nations’ complex in Vienna with a brief to provide an English-language service for Vienna's ‘international community’ as well as foreign visitors. It was run by the ORF (Österreichsicher Rundfunk), Austria’s public broadcaster, using a spare FM frequency to provide a local opt-out from the national pop music network Ö3 and based in the ‘Funkhaus’; Vienna’s answer to London’s Broadcasting House.

English was chosen as the station’s main language because research showed it was the one most likely to be understood by the majority of listeners. However, as the station’s ‘Welcome Guide’ for presenters explained: “Please remember also that although our listeners speak English they are not necessarily from the UK or the US. On the contrary, most of them are from everywhere but there. The style, therefore, is a little slower than that you may have been accustomed to back home since some of the audience may not fully understand everything that is said. Informality is the keyword.”Austria was not a member of the EU at the time so in order to employ English-speaking broadcasters, as well as get round problems with work permits etc., presenters could only be employed on 3-week contracts. While this did mean regular chopping and changing of the on-air sound, it is something that seemed to add to the station’s “charm” as far as the listeners were concerned. There again as Ö3 had a policy of not using presenters in regular slots, preferring instead to rotate them throughout the daytime schedule, BDR’s constant changes were not seen as that strange.

The money was fairly good and word quickly got around that Vienna was a rather nice place to go for a "busman's holiday". Some people would just come out once a year, while others, such as myself, who were totally freelance at the time and rather more available, often found ourselves doing rather more contracts; especially filling-in (sometimes at short notice) because the person originally booked had cancelled.

While you had to do two shows a day seven days a week it was all quite relaxed. In terms of style and content it was a cross between BBC local radio and 1970s ILR playing a mix of oldies and some current hits during the breakfast and lunchtime shows.

When I first went there in November 1988, there were two presenters. One would do the breakfast show every day (7.00 - 9.00) while the other would present the evening news programme, 'World Report' from 6.00 - 6.30, and then do continuity for the various (usually pre-recorded) specialist music/arts shows until 7.30 (including reading the 7.00 news).

They would also alternate on the lunchtime magazine programme or the afternoon easy-listening show, 'Serenade'.

In 1989 a new mid-morning show, 'Melody Fair', playing easy listening and light classical favourites was introduced. This not only helped fill a gap in the daytime schedule (filled by opting back into Ö3) but brought a third presenter onto the rota; although as that was the only show they did it meant they didn't get quite as much money as us double-shifters!

On Saturdays, because there was no evening news programme, the duty presenter would, instead, do a shortened version of Serenade, and then remain in the studio to play out Casey Kasem's American Top 40 until 6.00pm, when the station opted back into Ö3.

Several former Blue Danube presenters have commented that they enjoyed being ‘stretched’ by having to present a variety of different types of programme; especially those they would probably never have done back home. I think that was part of the station’s appeal, as well as the fact, to many of those who made the trip to Vienna, it was a fairly enjoyable three weeks with a work schedule that enabled you to have plenty of free time for sightseeing etc. despite having to work every day.

Around the time of its tenth birthday in 1989 BDR had begun to change from being just a local station for Vienna to providing the foundations for Austria’s fourth national radio network; thus enabling tourists to hear English-language programming throughout the country. It also proved highly-popular with Austrian listeners who enjoyed the novelty of hearing programmes in English as well as a different style of presentation to that employed by the regular ORF networks.

In 1992 BDR underwent a relaunch. Not only was it now able to broadcast from 0600-0100 but a new music policy of mainly light classical, jazz and MOR/easy-listening was introduced. Although there had been plans to rename the station ‘EuroRadio’ these were scrapped and the original name was retained. The other major change was that, following Austria’s entry into the EU it eventually became possible to employ presenters on full-time/long-term contracts and bring some stability to the schedule.

New studios and offices were also built and BDR became an early user of the VCS dira! playout system (now in use by BBC Radios 1 and 2) although it suffered from severe ‘teething troubles’ at the start. At one point it was decided that, although the late-night show was to be voice-tracked, because the system wasn’t considered totally reliable the presenter was still required to sit in the studio in order to ‘babysit’ the show and be ready to take over live “just in case”!

Duncan Larkin (RIP)

However, the long-awaited introduction of competition from newly-licensed ‘private’ commercial radio stations, coupled with new people at the top of the ORF, in the mid-1990s meant the former monopoly public broadcaster had to consider making changes.

Rather like BBC Radio 1 at the time, Ö3 had been accused of being out of touch with current musical trends while still employing ‘dinosaur’ presenters. Part of the ORF’s response meant that BDR had to close down at 1900 in order to accommodate FM4, a new 'youth' network playing harder dance and rock than could be heard on Ö3.

This situation lasted for several years until, eventually, on 31st January 2000, the powers-that-be having decided that FM4 should become a full-time network, Blue Danube closed. However, following a campaign by the ‘Friends of BDR’ it was agreed that some programming - including breakfast, mid-mornings and lunchtime - on FM4 would remain in English and presented by some of those involved with BDR in its final few years.

Blue Danube Radio may have gone, but the memories linger on.

You can find some more photos of Blue Danube Radio here

Good Morning, Britain

2010-01-11T09:34:00.003Z

After months of speculation and weeks of promotion, Chris Evans finally started on the new Radio 2 Breakfast Show this morning, and like many others I was listening with interest from 7.00.

Taking over the nation's most-popular breakfast show from a long-standing broadcasting legend is never going to be easy, so it wasn't surprising that Chris and the team sounded nervous and, perhaps, a little over-exuberant, at the start of their first show. The first couple of links sounded scripted but as the show progressed things seemed to settle down.

The music selection was a broad mix; two Beatles tracks and Frank Sinatra to begin, as well as Robbie Williams, The Seekers, Madonna, Paolo Nutini , Fats Domino and Ocean Colour Scene in the first hour, helped to reinforce the point that the show (and Radio 2) is targeting a wide-ranging family audience. The second hour included Elbow, Mika, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and Johnny Cash. Now that's diverse.

There was plenty of interaction with the audience, whether through emails or phone calls, including a seriously-weird interview with someone who holds the Guinness world record for bursting hot water bottles. Don't ask! It was handled well, though, and was actually the sort of thing that made you want to keep listening.

It was also nice to hear Moira Stuart reading the news. I've always liked her precise diction and authoritiative tone and although I thought she sounded a bit 'forced' during the lighter chats with Chris, I'm sure this will improve with time.

If I have one complaint (and I know I'm not alone in this judging by several comments on Facebook and Twitter) it's the way Chris will play a minute or so of a song and then trample over the rest of it. That is one my regular pet hates with radio presenters so I'm disappointed to hear it being done here.

These are all random first impressions so I think a more-considered review would be in order after a few weeks, by which time Chris and the team will have shed their first-morning nerves and the show will have 'bedded-in'. Overall, though, I think it was a promising start.

What will be interesting to see will be how the audience changes, and by how much. The next Rajar figures due at the beginning of February will cover the last three months of 2009, so we'll have to wait until mid-May to see how things are shaping-up; although such a major change will take considerably longer before things settle down.

It won't be the overall number of listeners but the demographic breakdown that will be of most interest. I have already blogged about Radio 2's audience a few months ago, but here's an updated chart to show how it currently (Rajar Q3/2009) looks during the day:

(Click chart to enlarge)

Snow Patrol

2010-01-08T11:05:00.005Z

James Cridland has written an interesting blog post where he looks at how Manchester's radio stations are covering the current 'snow event' (as the Met Office likes to call it) on their websites.

I've blogged before on the importance of radio's coverage of extreme weather conditions, and I've had some further thoughts.

The Guardian's Matt Wells recently tweeted: "Can it be true that a senior BBC news executive looked out of the window today and said "You see snow, I see viewers...?" If it is true then, though some may consider it cynical, it's actually also quite a good attitude for local radio programmers to have; if your station is on top of the situation then there's a good chance it will help bring you new listeners who want to know what's happening in their local area regarding school closures, travel updates and reliable weather forecasts.

After all, national stations can't give the sort of detailed information that local radio can (and should) provide. For example, my mother is usually a Radio 4 listener but during bad weather she will tune to BBC Suffolk to keep in touch with what's happening locally.

On occasions like this you need to play a short game for long-term gain. Additional listeners switching to you for a week or two because they know that's where to go for the information they want will not reflect across a longer Rajar survey period, but if you get your snow coverage right word-of-mouth from satisfied listeners will help spread the word and, if they really like what they hear, they might keep listening; and that will result in good figures.

As usual many stations have risen to the challenge well, with some staying live and local instead of switching to networked or automated programming in order to keep listeners up-to-date.

A station's website is an important add-on to the on-air information. Not everybody is able to access a website so it's pointless just putting all of the information on there and then telling listeners to look there for the information they need. You have to provide a rundown of the current situation on-air as well as provide more-detailed updates on your website.

Many stations are also using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to provide interactivity with their listeners. This can work well if done properly and used to maintain a dialogue, but please don't bombard followers with tweets as it often alienates people and will make them want to 'un-follow' you. So keep the info short and relevant.

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

2009-12-18T09:55:00.003Z

Here's how Terry Wogan signed-off from his final Radio 2 Breakfast Show:

"This is it then this is the day I have been dreading, the morning when you and I come to the parting of the ways, the last Wake Up To Wogan. It wasn't always thus. For the first 12 years it was the plain old Terry Wogan Show and you were all Twits, the Terry Wogan is Tops Society.

"When I returned to the bosom of the family you all became Togs, Terry's Old Geezers and Gals. It's always been a source of enormous pride to me that you have come together in my name, that you are proud to call yourself my listeners, that you think of me as a friend, someone that you are close enough to laugh with, to poke fun at and just occasionally when the world seemed just a little too cruel, to shed a tear with.

"The years together with you have not only been a pleasure but a privilege. You have allowed me to share your lives with you. When you tell me how important I have been in your lives it's very moving, you have been every bit as important in mine.

"We have been though at least a couple of generations together, for many of you your children like mine have children of their own.

"Your support for Children In Need has been consistent and magnificent… If anybody embodies the generous, warm spirit of this country it's you, my listeners.

"I am not going to pretend that this is not a sad day - you can probably hear it in my voice - I am going to miss the laughter and the fun of our mornings together. I know you are going to welcome Chris Evans with the same generosity of spirit that you have shown me.

"I am going to miss you, until we are together again in February have a happy Christmas. Thank you, thank you for being my friend."

Tribute To A True Radio Legend

2009-12-14T14:31:00.008Z

In case you hadn't noticed - or live outside the UK (in which case this will probably mean nothing to you) - Sir Terry Wogan is leaving the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show at the end of this week after a total of 28 years (1972-1984 and 1993-2009.

Some of his peers have contributed to this video tribute.