"A Local Show... for Local People"

Another week goes by and another 'networking' announcement for us in the radio business to absorb. This time it was the turn of Bauer's Scottish stations (that were formally the SRH group) to succumb to the temptation.

Radio Clyde will be the base for the weekday evening programming with Romeo (so good he's only known by the one name... think Madonna, Kylie etc.) doing a Scottish version of the 'In Demand' Show, and then Clyde's Gina McKie doing the late show. The weekend stuff is still to be announced, but I think we can expect more off-peak and overnight networking, perhaps with some specialist shows thrown in for good measure.

The justification for all of this is 'quality of product' and not cost-saving, according to Bauer and their delightfully enigmatic MD of the network, Travis Baxter. I buy that. They're not going to save a whole load of money by culling some badly paid late night jocks. The argument is that by wielding the 'power of the group' the quality of sessions / interviews etc improves, as those promoting their wears have a one stop shop to visit, rather than schlep around rainy Scotland... sorry, I mean travel in style around the most delightful shores of the British Isles.

Will listeners care that their 'local' DJ has been replaced in most cases by someone from out of town? Scotland is quite tribal in many ways, and radio is no exception. Many of the stations have built up loyal audiences, all be it quite young and sometimes quite small, in the evening. Is it a nostalgic and romanticised notion to want these evening shows to continue to exist, or has the radio world changed so much that local only makes sense in peak time?

Growing up in Liverpool in the 80's, my connection to pop culture was principally through the radio, and mostly every evening from 7pm till when I finally fell asleep. Tony Snell was the DJ on Radio City (he's still going strong on BBC Radio Merseyside now I'm glad to say) and through him I felt part of my home town, I knew what was going on... I knew the places he was talking about... I knew the schools he was mentioning... and I knew that somehow I was connected to all the other kids in my area via this strange and wonderful evening show that he presented and everyone listened to. (Tony also highlighted a whole load of bands to listeners and knew so much about music, but DJ's who know about music... that's another conversation!)

My point is this. Would I have felt less of a connection to my hometown (and loyalty to my local radio station) if the show was a generic networked show, produced... say... from Manchester. Actually, I probably would have done. Radio City gave me a little piece of my own tribal identity as a kid from Liverpool growing up in the 1980's. I felt there were others like me and a sense of localness was really important to me at age 13. After all, at that age, there's not much that defines you more than where you are from.

So, I fear, there will be a generation of kids growing up in the Scottish towns and cities who will no longer be served by their 'own' little evening / late shows, but by a rather generic product imported from another universe. Will they care? Possibly. Possibly not. But I know that having that connection to something very real and very local certainly gave me something to cling on to in those 'interesting' teenage years of development; a sense of identity and a reference point that was unique. 

The debate about local v networked will no doubt continue, but the drip, drip effect of more and more networking seems to be irrevocably eroding the very fabric of what still makes radio different. It's localness.

RAJAR Qtr 1 2008 - "Story of The Blues"

Every set of listening figures tells a story beyond that of the immediate numbers, and the latest set of figures in the UK issued by RAJAR last week are no exception.

Actually, it’s a story with several tales to tell.

First, the main theme. The BBC is starting to pull seriously ahead of commercial radio, with almost 57% of listening verses Commercial radio’s 41%. Depending on which side of the fence you sit on, you can either see this as just rewards for investment in content and talent… or a blatant abuse of a privileged position designed to drive any commercial rivals into the ground… and stand on them hard! The BBC is long used to allegations of this sort, and to be fair, has to walk a delicate line of being successful… but not too successful, because “that’s just not fair”!

Perhaps it’s also tied into that peculiar British disease. We like success, but then when we see something becoming too successful, we cry foul, and denounce it as terribly unjust and really not very… well… ‘British’. Odd. To give a parallel example in the world of retail, I need only mention the word ‘Tesco’! ‘Nuff Said!

With Radio 1 back above 11 Million listeners and Radio 2 at 13.6 Million, there is no doubt that the BBC has made further inroads into the beleaguered commercial sector.

Virgin Radio’s resident number cruncher (and generally all round good-egg) Adam Bowie has written a very thoughtful piece on his personal blog about this topic and illustrated the theme with a rather good graph, which I've "borrowed". (I'll give it back whenever you want Adam!)

I think I need say no more on this topic, as the lines speak for themselves!

Another theme in this great RAJAR story is the tale of woe that continues for GCap. Capital has now slipped to 4th place in terms of reach with Kiss 100 now cume-ing an audience of 1.583 Million a week compared to Capital’s 1.563 Million.

Despite Kiss being a strong listen, I expect this to reverse itself over the remainder of the year as the ‘Denise’ effect kicks in. Word on the street is that the internal research is very strong for her and it’s only a matter of time before this translates to RAJAR. The fact of the matter is she’s a far bigger star than Johnny now. But how long can Capital hold on to her for? Hmmmm…

Elsewhere in GCap, Xfm’s worst nightmare has come true. Its market share is under 1% (at 0.9%) and its audience dropped a whopping 26% to just 379,000! (That “let’s get rid of all the DJ’s across the day” was a cracking idea wasn’t it!!) Is it time for that brand to be “humanely euthanized”? The boys at Global Radio certainly have a full ‘in-tray’ when they take over from the GCap!

And finally to a more subtle, yet highly significant tale: The number of people listening to some sort of digital radio continues to grow. Almost a third of the population (31.4%) listens to digital radio at least once a week, with DAB being the dominant technology. Sure… most of this is to analogue stations on digital, but it was great to see Planet Rock cume well the half million mark! Even The Jazz signed off with over 400,000 listeners. A bit too hasty to switch that one off? Over 27% of the UK’s population has a DAB radio, so it seems although the commercial sector is in turbulent times over the economics of DAB, the public still quite like it.

So, what’s the morale of our story? Simple really - invest in content! Easier when you have guaranteed funding I accept, but nonetheless, it seems to be a bit of a no-brainer really. And what is commercial radio’s answer to the current situation? Networking. Hmmmm – is this really investing in content? More on that to follow I think…

"To Network or not To Network... that is the question"

There's been a flurry of activity in the networking world of late. Maybe it's the season for it.

First, Guardian Media Group announced that they are networking Mark Goodier's show across the majority of their 'Smooth Radio' stations. Then GCap Media trumpeted the arrival of Ryan Seacrest to the One Network with the promise of an entertainment show like no other on a Sunday morning.

For programmers, the options to "import" programming from elsewhere has always been there. I remember the exciting task of having to be the T/O for "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40" on Radio City in Liverpool on a Sunday evening... loading up the 1/4 inch tapes... and hoping I was playing them in the right order. Invariably listeners got to hear the Top 10 during the first hour and numbers 25 - 40 during the last hour, but no-one seemed to mind that much. The point was that there was "An American on the radio in Liverpool... WOW!"

Does having a big name on you radio station do anything for listeners? What do they think of these networked shows? Do they care that it's not local?

Essentially we're dealing with 2 different things here. The 'networking' of live shows, and syndicated programmes, but both have a commonality.

The debate about networking seems to have died down a little of late. The harsh economic factors and the economies of scale that networking brings seems to have won the argument... for the time being. Many GCap and EMAP stations both have networked shows across evenings and countless smaller groups send out programming from a central hub. Kiss do it across certain daytime programmes and now Smooth. I've no doubt that adding Mark Goodier to a line-up of a local station is a smart idea. His show is really starting to sound good of late, and I'm sure the listeners will appreciate having him on their 'local' station. Do they care he's not sitting in their town or city? Probably not.

And what about getting a big American star to spurt forth inconsequential entertainment froth on a Sunday morning? Will it be better than what was on there in the first place? Probably... yes.

Listeners understand a global perspective more than ever. They don't really care that their local show, broadcast 10 miles down the road, is followed by a show that was made 10,000 miles away. As long as it's relevant to them and engaging to listen to. The internet has made the world a much smaller place and their is no longer a 'Wow' factor with 'Americans on the radio' or programming that has been sourced elsewhere. People are accoustomed to media from all sorts of sources. It's part of their media-scape now.

However, with every silver lining, there is a cloud.

Evening shows in UK local radio used to be the breeding ground for lots of great talent, who were able to try out their zany style of radio to an audience of 15 year olds, who inevitably would be the morning radio consumers of tomorrow. Too much networking lessens the chance of some of these guys getting exposure.

"Yes - but there are far more stations for them to work on now" I hear you cry! Sure, but it's much harder to get a break doing the evening show on Radio Scrot in Bollockshire than it was to get a break doing the evening show on a station like Radio City in the 90's.

I hope we find a balance in the UK between enough local programming and good quality, well produced 'imported' shows. I'm confident we will.

And I look forward to tuning in to Mark Goodier's networked offering just to remind myself that "... he' the man who's got the best music... Mark Goodier... Mark Goodier... wha-ooo..." etc etc...