Global's revamped Smooth line-up, an open goal to Magic 105.4

Global Radio have announced their presenter changes to Smooth Radio after a staggered revamp of the music playlist since October.

Former GMTV presenter Andrew Castle who currently presents on LBC will replace Simon Bates at Breakfast in the London area, while his former colleague Kate Garraway replaces Lynn Parsons from next Monday.

Chris Skinner, formerly of Essex FM replaces Carlos on evenings while ex Magic 105.4 presenter Paul Phear replaces Gary King on afternoons.  Recent addition Anthony Davis remains on drive.

While the changes are more than most have expected, having Andrew Castle competing against the might of Neil Fox and Verity Geere on Magic 105.4 in London won't be giving Bauer bosses much cause for concern.   This despite almost throwing in the towel axing Richard Park's old formula for Magic which now includes some personality links and off-target tracks.

Kate Garraway who incidentally has a radio background, starting as a broadcast journalist at BBC Radio Oxford is up against one of the best solid jocks of the soft AC format on Magic.  Gary Vincent has more listeners in London than Heart and Smooth who compete for a similar audience.

Magic is also market leading around 2200 during Mellow Magic, which means Chris Skinner's 'Sanctuary' will have to provide something special to grab listeners from the long established Magic format of love and slow songs.

I'm not against celebrity presenters as Magic uses Kim Wilde and Rick Astley in off-peak slots, however they compliment the brand, where as two ex GMTV presenters of which were a turn-off not helped by the premium rate competition scandal and the Marmite Myleene Klass may be enough for those Smooth listeners who have found Richard Park's old Magic format may retune elsewhere and in-particular back to Magic.

Bauer will be relieved tonight.

Bauer's acquisition of Absolute Radio

Eventually, Bauer have won the prize London FM slot alongside two more slots on the Digital One DAB multiplex that it's been alleged they've been attempting to acquire for months.

Absolute Radio, the AOR format station which was previously Virgin Radio also operates a national AM licence, six decades stations and a classic rock format on digital radio and online.

Bauer already have complimentary rock orientated brands such as Q, Kerrang! and Planet Rock, the latter which recently launched on FM in the West Midlands.

So what could Bauer do with it's new acquisition?  In the press statement from Bauer and One Golden Square, the brand is staying, yet that doesn't mean it'll stay in it's present form.  Bauer cut costs from the then digital only Planet Rock on-air by axing live shows from 7pm and airing repeats of weekend specialist shows.  It's almost certain the station will move from One Golden Square to Bauer's hub a few minutes walk away to share with Kiss, Magic 105.4 and Planet Rock.

I believe that for Planet Rock to increase it's share in the London area, it'll need to replace Absolute Radio on 105.8 FM.  An FM presence in London, the most competitive market in the country is important for national advertisers to hear what the brand is about.   This is why Smooth Radio despite having little or no regional output still uses 102.2 despite having a flagging share in the capital.   This is a high risk strategy as Absolute has taken five years to gain some form of a presence after rebranding from Virgin Radio in that market.

Absolute has a higher share of listeners over Virgin Radio, however the latter only had two digital spin off stations which you could only hear in the London area.   Absolute has invested heavily in DAB and satellite transmission for it's seven digital spin-offs across the country with the 80s and 90s stations on the national Digital One multiplex.

So considering Bauer are committed to Absolute, this 'could' happen.

London FM: Planet Rock replaces Absolute to provide a regional FM network for London and the West Midlands.   In London this provides a new format for the capital.

1215 AM:  Stays as Absolute Radio.  My own personal opinion is to replace it with PR, but I doubt it'd raise share in the likes of Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh even if had classic rock on it instead.  Those who listen to PR there already use DAB.

Digital One DAB: Absolute Radio and 80s stay, although the latter is rebranded under one of Bauer's brands which can skew the playlist away from rock to AC which will enable the 80s station to reach it's full potential without the stigma of trying to be uber cool too.  90s is axed. 

Local DAB multiplex relays of the decades stations:  All axed.  With the exception of Classic Rock, the 60s, 70s and 00s stations have very little reach. These could be sold to OXIS Media for their expansion of Jack FM.

I really hope as many staff from Absolute are kept on as possible.   Despite the Islington skewed nonsense from management which I felt dogged their five years on-air, those with a real passion for radio not just on-air have an affinity for a station which has had an interesting history over the last twenty years.

The 'real' music era nonsense and cheap publicity stunts such as banning Cliff Richard are coming to an end.

Big groups are not 'protected' on radio discussion forums

A member calling himself 'neilm833' claims on the main radio discussion board that the big radio groups are protected when people promote niche online radio stations.

This is complete nonsense.

Global, Bauer and the other main groups come in for more scrutiny by anoraks than any other radio station.  Threads about Global's Heart, Gold, Capital FM, LBC 97.3 and the acquisition of GMG Radio are popular topics of discussion alongside Bauer's recent decision to switch Kerrang! for Planet Rock in the West Midlands and the merger of Metro Radio with TFM in the North East.

People from the radio industry will reply to defend their stations output or at least try to explain why they playlist stations in such a manner, which is largely met with resistance from elements of the anorak community.

Threads about internet radio stations tend to be created to either promote the station to fellow anoraks or to bash the major stations output as they have a more extensive playlist than your average radio station which cater to Joe Public.

Not all internet radio is programmed for the anorak in mind, the .977 stations in the US have many formats, but are tightly playlisted to attract different demographics and advertisers unlike the specialist culture of those promoted on the radio forums.

My own personal opinion is if somebody wants to recreate a heritage ILR in internet form for the anorak community, good luck to them, but please don't try to compare it to a mass market, larger budget commercial radio station as there's no comparison as both have different audiences.

As for 'neilm833'  Members of radio forums may remember a certain character from the noughties who'd complain about bitrates and post about soul/jazz stations etc.  Some things never change in the wonderful world of radio forums.

Why Global are right to appeal

I'm not an expert in the advertising market, however it's clear that Global are right to appeal the decision by the Competition Commission based on these simplistic factors.

Ofcom's investigation into the merger between Global and GMG Radio took on board all the other media outlets, such as tv, print and online and approved it.  Global also offered to provide increased news for Real Radio in Wales and Central Scotland with journalists to cover the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Government.

The other is Bauer Media who were proactive in being against the merger to Ofcom and the CC.  In Northern England and Scotland where Real and Smooth compete with them, Bauer own heritage brands under their 'Place' banner where if Global rebrand Real as Heart would be a threat to their business.   This is nothing to do with Bauer losing advertising to a new rival in those markets, rather than Global have ready made brands which are tightly targeted to a particular audience.    This would be a greater threat to Bauer's broad heritage Place brands which target a wider female audience.

Take Yorkshire for example.  Global have been asked to sell Real or Capital.  Only Capital serves the whole of Yorkshire on FM, Real is a smaller regional licence covering the South and West.  Each part of Yorkshire has at least one commercial rival, such as UTV in Bradford, the Lincs FM Group stations, UKRD in York and Bauer in Leeds and Sheffield alongside local and regional press and websites.  To base the decision on just the radio advertising market is archaic.

A part of me thinks that Global should just 'take it on the chin' and franchise the brands in the conflicting areas as Global did with Heart and Gold in the Midlands after the merger with GCap, but there's also a golden opportunity to bring the Competition Commission into the 21st Century by getting them to take on board the other media providers in each area.