Capital UK

So as the ‘Army of Networking’ marches inexorably on, and a whole raft of stations become Capital FM, what are we to make of this latest move by Global? Is it another dark day for local radio or is it a brave move designed purely to simplify an offering to advertisers and maximise audience?

The answer is of course both.

We wave goodbye to the Galaxy brand, which has served audiences across the country well, and when it launched, provided listeners with a real alternative to their heritage ILR station. The local and regional stations Galaxy stations delivered some great shows and you felt instantly in touch with the areas they broadcast too anytime you tuned in. Over time and with increased networking, this sense of identity was diluted somewhat, but you can’t help feeling that a perfectly good brand has been ‘put to sleep before its time’.

And of course, the station that was the very essence of what is was to be Welsh... Red Dragon FM, is another brand casualty. It was and has always has been a station that’s proud of its nation, and used its ‘Welshness’ as a strong identifying factor. How will it fare by having some of its programming piped in from ‘over the bridge’?

There are of course many other cases to cite; Trent FM – another strong heritage brand going, and let’s spare a thought for the ‘Scottish station’... I hardly know what to call it now, after it has gone through more rebrands in a decade than most stations have in a lifetime!

So, laying the sentiment aside for a moment, is this a smart move? Well there’s no doubt that creating a strong single CHR brand makes it far easier to sell, and far easier to manage. Advertisers and agencies will instantly ‘get’ a pseudo-national Capital FM. And that’s the main reason behind this when all is said and done. They want to make more money, which is a perfectly noble ambition in business. It’s just that we get more attached to radio brands than we do to say, toilet roll or cleaning products... so there’s more of an outcry when it comes to rebranding to maximise profit in radio.

Of course the other argument used is about bringing a better product to listeners, and the theory behind that is perfectly sound... however as good as they are, bringing Roberto and 'The Bassman' on to replace you local offering during the day isn’t exactly going to have people skipping work just so they can stay home and listen all day.

The line touted to the media yesterday evening was very much along the lines of “this will be a station to rival Radio 1”. And sure enough the papers have bought that PR line, and reprinted old photos of Kenny Everett and Chris Tarrant to illustrate the ‘power of Capital’. Well yes – except that was the Capital of old, and the only real national star that Capital has now is Johnny Vaughan. So as it stands at the moment, Capital isn’t exactly a real rival to Radio 1 in terms of content. It’s just a very different offering indeed targetting a similar demo. (In the same way as Heart is touted as an alternative to Radio 2 - “Chalk and Cheese” anyone?)

Which brings us on to Johnny / breakfast. You get the sense that if the rules allowed it now, all local programming would be put to the knife, and Johnny and Lisa would be rolled out across the country. Surely it’s only a matter of time before the requirement for any local programming is quietly put to one side, and the true reason for all of this can be final made clear; Johnny Vaughan on Capital Breakfast and Jamie Theakston on Heart Breakfast... nationwide.

And once we have that, the plan will be complete... and then we can truly mark the demise of much of UK local radio as we used to know it. (There are of course notable exceptions and they continue to perform well... Key 103, Radio City, Wave 105 etc...)

Is it a ‘sad’ thing to see these latest stations disappear? Yes.

Is it a sensible move in a changing media environment? Yes.

So there we have it. The harsh reality of the ‘business’ of media ruling over sentimentality of it all.

A lesson for us all.

'Networking' - A Trump Card?

As soon as UK media regulator Ofcom announced in February that it was relaxing the rules on the amount of local programming it required stations to broadcast, it was only a matter of time until the bigger radio groups took advantage of this. ‘Global Radio’ were the first out of the traps with the move to network all output across Heart, aside from breakfast, mid-morning and Drivetime. ‘Galaxy’ have kept local Breakfast and Drivetime shows, but networked everything else.

Next was GCap (soon to be Global, so they’re pre-empting the inevitable really) who announced a new 3 hour daytime show across the One Network, details of which are still a little sketchy to be honest! And recently the three Xfm stations in London, Manchester and central Scotland announced they’re going to network another three hours of programming on weekdays, taking the local output from 10 hours to 7 hours. Lots of smaller UK radio groups are also taking advantage of the rule change and going a step further to relocate stations in central ‘broadcasting hubs’, with the obvious economies of scale that this brings.

So far Bauer have resisted the temptation to go for any daytime networking, with their ‘In Demand’ evening show being the only real networked programme. So what’s the deal? Is this good for listeners… good for the radio station… good for advertisers? Who benefits?

Yesterday, at the Radio 3.0 Conference in London, outgoing GCap Chairman Richard Eyre had some thoughtful insights about networking.

"Piping in a mega-DJ from London would mean sacrificing the key element of local radio: localness. The economics of radio in 2008 will mean that companies will not be able to resist. But it's still handing over one of our best assets to reduce costs. The economics say delocalise. But the relationship says keep it local."

With comments like that, it seems a shame that he’s the outgoing chairman really. I can’t help thinking that despite the best efforts of some radio executives to convince me otherwise, it’s all about saving money in the short-term during an economic downturn, and not thinking about the long-term effect of stripping localness from radio. I’m sure Global Radio have in their top drawer a plan to turn lots of their newly acquired GCap stations into the ‘Heart’ brand. How long before we hear a station’s positioning change to … “Fox FM – The Heart of Oxfordshire”. And we all know what comes next.

It’s quite easy to be snobby about the quality of some stations when you have a portfolio that includes well resourced brands like Heart and Capital on your books. And yes, the quality of the smaller stations could be improved in many places. But is the answer just to network this ‘mega-DJ’ from outside the area. Surely investing in training and development of new talent and programming skills on a local level is a more important long term objective? Go to places like Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds and imagine a world where Radio City, Key 103 and Radio Aire were pseudo-national stations with perhaps a local breakfast show as the only indicator of their true parentage. Sure you can use smoke and mirrors all you like to give the impression the output is ‘local’… but for me, you can’t beat the real thing. It doesn’t matter how good your smoke screen is, because local radio is best when it’s local… and not pretending to be local.

The next 12 months will see the inevitable ‘character-stripping’ out of many truly local stations, with some of their output replaced with no doubt well-produced, slick, but rather soulless programming. The radio landscape will be painted magnolia… designed to cause least offence, but not engender a reaction of any kind. Is this the type of local radio listeners want?

One of the great clichés about succeeding at programming a local / regional station is “Play the local card”. It seems that the deck is about to be rigged.

"If Winning isn't Everything, Why do they Keep Score?" - Sony Awards 2008

The starter was a nice warm vegetarian tart of some description… the main course was lamb… (I think) … and frankly the desert could have been anything, as by that stage a good quantity of the ‘table wine’ had been consumed!

I’m of course referring to the obligatory meal that accompanies UK radio’s annual back-slapping fiesta, otherwise known as the Sony Radio Academy Awards, or Sonys… or as most of the newspapers like to call them, the ‘Radio Oscars’! (It helps people understand it’s an awards ceremony I believe!)

The BBC traditionally does very well in these awards for 2 reasons. First, they make really good programmes and second, they don’t have much competition in areas such as drama and features and their news output is plentiful to say the least. This year didn’t disappoint for them, with the Beeb picking up around twice as many Gold Awards than the commercial sector.

A glut of famous names picked up some top awards, Jonathan Ross (who’d obviously been tipped off because he doesn’t turn up if he doesn’t win!) for Music Radio Personality, Russell Brand (who’s show I’m now warming to) for Entertainment Award… and Chris Moyles for Breakfast Show. His speech was a little like his show… very funny in parts, but there was no-one there to say ‘enough… move on!’ Even host Paul Gambaccini was unnaturally lenient in allowing the ceremony to drag on endlessly as Chris introduced his team one by one. Mind you, as he said himself, he’s unlikely to be there again, so he’ll make the most of it. The presentation of the award by his Mum and Dad was either really quite a sweet moment that brought a tear to the eye, or a hideously naff stunt designed to create a very crass ‘This Is Your Life’ moment onstage. You can watch it again and make your own mind up!

Commercial Radio did well in categories more suited to it’s natural home, like The Competition Award, Promo Award and Community Award which was picked up by Capital’s rather wonderful ‘Lights Out London’ initiative. Two awards that are normally very dominated by the BBC are Music Broadcaster of the Year and Specialist Music Award… but it was nice to see that the former went to Andi Durrant of the Galaxy Network, and the later to Krystle, a DJ I had the natural foresight and wisdom (!!!) to put on the air several year ago when I was PD at Forth. Being mentioned in her acceptance speech was really lovely and I have no doubt she’ll move on to bigger and better things in the years ahead. Well done Krystle. And beating Zane Lowe is no mean feat either!!

The list of guest presenters was varied as ever ranging from Joan Collins to Christopher Biggins… Boris Johnson to Tony Benn… and a genuinely moving appearance on stage by Edwin Collins, who’s still recovering from a cerebral haemorrhage he suffered several years ago. It kinda put the whole thing into perspective for me.

Needless to say, the merriment continued after the ceremony. Why the resident DJ feels that by playing the cheesiest 70’s disco records the dance floor will fill up is still beyond me, however he persisted with ‘Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel’ and ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ until some poor 'Tape Op' wearing a rather ill-fitting dinner jacket was dragged onto the floor by a tanked up Sales Exec to begin what, at best, could be described as “shit dancing”!

And as the strains of ‘Rock the Boat’ wafted through the barmy May night, and the queue of cabs lined up hoping for an expenses funded fare to Reading, we left it for another year, safe in the knowledge that we’ll all be back again in 12 months time.

Ghandi once said that there are two kinds of people… those who work and those who take the credit. He suggested being in the first group, as there was less competition there. On the evidence of Monday night, there are plenty of people who work, and work very hard… and it was nice to see them actually get the credit for a change.