Radio seXist?

"If you've read about Radio X being a radio station being for men only, that is rubbish," he said. "Nobody agrees with this except for the one person who put it in the press release."  proclaimed Chris Moyles, the former 'Saviour of Radio 1' as he launched Global's new brand, Radio X.

Radio X before it launched caused controversy after press releases were sent out announcing the radio station was a radio station for men.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I felt that Global shouldn't have put that quote out to the media as this is clearly a marketing exercise for advertisers and sponsors, which include O2 for Chris Moyles and other shows by Gillette ProGlide men's razors.

So onto today's output.   I didn't listen to Chris Moyles, except for a 30 minute extract on AircheckDownloads.com where Moyles made his quote and talked a lot.   He has freedom to produce his own show (as Global believe he'll bring in plenty of disgruntled Radio 1 listeners under Brand Moyles) that after what seemed an eternity of waffling, he then played Girls Aloud.   

Mid-morning had Vernon Kay who quite frankly was awful, too much waffling, an inane phone-in comp and a pointless two way with the afternoon presenter where he mentioned that his first gig was on Xfm where he was let go after a week.   How he got back into radio beggars belief, but messers Park and Tabor from Global know better as they've successfully relaunched Capital, LBC and Smooth Radio.

Dan O'Connell then took over and basically took the old Xfm format using the art of solid jockery for three hours with new and classic near mainstream guitar music.

Then 'Middle Aged Bloke FM' returned with Johnny Vaughan at drive.  A person who may have been relevant to a younger audience in the noughties when he opened BBC Three, yet in 2015, the topics for Radio X's Camdenista's were "Who should be on a bank note?" and "who is your favourite weightlifter?"   Topics which would be perfectly fine for his previous show on talkSPORT, but not on a radio station where for the last 18 years where music has been prominent.

Phil Clifton then took over at 7pm where he welcomed us "to a brand new radio station"    No it's not Phil, it's the carcus of the old Xfm, with where Global really want to take the direction of the station in, a hybrid of talkSPORT and Absolute.

So did Radio X and Global stop the fears of female listeners who feel the station isn't for them?   No, after this little ditty was played during breakfast 
"We love women, with your make-up & high heels, you're so cute"

Stereotyping and Everyday Sexism still exists in the British broadcasting industry.

Farewell Xfm

After 18 years as a full time station, Global are closing indie station Xfm.

For those of us who have listened to the station over the years, it comes as no surprise as one of the management of Global Radio is Director of Broadcasting Richard Park.

Back in 1998, less than a year after launch as a full time station, Xfm had been sold to the Capital Radio Group and Mr Park was put in charge of relaunching the station.    The format changed from the original aims of Sammy Jacob and Chris Parry (who managed The Cure) to a Virgin Radio style Adult Orientated Rock format overnight with a playlist of Alanis Morrisette, The Beautiful South, Dave Matthews Band and other mainstream rock offerings alongside a tokenistic freeform show with Sir Bob Geldof.

The Radio Authority fined Xfm's new owner £4,000 for not adhering to their alternative format alongside the lack of a gig guide and Capital were forced to introduce more alternative programming, such as the re-introduction of John Kennedy's late night 'Peelesque' show which was rebranded Xposure, The Rock Show with Ian Camfield and Steve Taylor's A to X of Alternative Music.

Park was replaced by Andrew Phillips who introduced slightly more near-mainstream rock music and celebrity presenters with a laddish skew, he introduced Tom Binns, Robin Banks, Tim Lovejoy, Zoe Ball, Dermot O'Leary and the returning Vernon Kay.

After that period, Xfm started to take the format a bit more seriously.  Muso presenters such as Shaun Keavney, Lauren Laverne (both now at BBC 6 Music) and Iain Baker were introduced with more near-mainstream alternative music.  Other presenters included Natasha Desborough and later Marsha Shandur.

Xfm's downfall in my opinion was when Capital stretched themselves by launching spin-offs in Manchester, Scotland and Wales.

GCap Media replaced Capital and along with it, Xfm South Wales was sold months after launching while Manchester was under threat of being sold along with Scotland.   They also introduced an automated format called XU between 10am-4pm while Manchester started sharing programming with London outside breakfast and drive.   Xfm felt unloved once again.  This was when I as a listener turned it off.

This continued under Global, Xfm Scotland became Galaxy and now Capital FM, while Manchester and London limped on with a bland mix of indie pop until September 21st....

Once again Xfm has turned back the clock to a hybrid of Park's 1998 station and Phillips celebrity skewed format with the new name Radio X.

Chris Moyles, an undisputed radio presenter with a clear background of award winning radio over the years has returned to present breakfast after a three year absence after leaving Radio 1.   However he is a polarising personality, you either love his work or think he's a misogynistic pig.   He'll certainly bring in a lot of ex thirty something Radio 1 listeners, but may lose a ton of indie/alt and female listeners.

Global have really executed the pre-launch poorly by saying the radio station is 'male skewed', while it's true and suits advertisers, it does nothing to reassure female listeners that this station is gender-netural and for all.   Sadly broadcasting is still a largely sexist industry which makes it harder for radio people to understand that both sexes expect equality from entertainment formats.  However advertisers are first behind listeners which is a sad part of commercial radio.

Heart, Xfm's sister station which is largely female skewed doesn't say it's a women's only station, nor does UTV's talkSPORT which is uber blokey and white van man.

Other celeb presenters include Family Fortunes host Vernon Kay who had a stint on Xfm in 2000 and wasn't well received then and former Capital FM DJ Johnny Vaughan who presents drivetime.

So later this month, Xfm goes into radio history and a white middle aged executive's format from 1998 finally replaces a creative vision that alternative music people had vision to create in the 1990s.

Radio X will do well, but once again alternative music radio in the UK goes niche. 

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.

The future editorial policy of LBC 97.3 once it goes national

Copyright: Global Radio 2014

With the announcement that LBC 97.3 will become the UK's first national 'news talk' station when it launches on the Digital One DAB multiplex on February 11th, it raises issues about the future editorial policy of the station.

Since 2007, LBC was given the strapline of 'London's Biggest Conversation' with additional investment in re-focusing the station as radio's answer to the Daily Mail with right-wing commentators such as Iain Dale alongside political presenters Ken Livingstone, David Mellor, the current Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Deputy PM Nick Clegg who's Call Clegg chat show is partially responsible for the rise in LBC's share in the London area.

With the re-focus of LBC as 'Leading British Conversation' to compete with BBC Radio 5 Live, this will inevitably dilute the London-centric content the station has been famous for since October 1973.

Despite the current station providing national topics, there are elements of the station which are core London.  News, travel, weather, the Ask Boris feature on Nick Ferrari's breakfast show and other London talking points are still core to LBC's editorial agenda.

Will tube strikes, transport fare rises and local election coverage be reduced or axed as LBC's new found focus on national issues, such as Scottish independence take more importance as part of James Rea's new national station?

There is of course an alternative to LBC in the form of BBC London 94.9, the flagging licence-fee funded station which has a broader remit than LBC providing varied speech and music, yet doesn't have the slick format that LBC has, nor provides local news and travel between 1900-2200 weekdays due to taking the national evening show as part of the BBC's Delivering Quality First cuts.

London also has the new local television channel 'London Live' which launches at the end of March, which is owned by the Evening Standard newspaper which promises up to five and a half hours of current affairs content on weekdays.   However unlike LBC, it's targeting a younger audience and Vikki Cook, London Live's head of news promises a more irrelevant look at local news, which will hardly attract the LBC audience.

If LBC and Global Radio dump the local audience, it could be a massive blow not only in audience share, but the other local speech outlets aren't up to the job yet.  

Happy Birthday LBC

The various incarnations of LBC Radio over 40 years.

Waking up this morning felt like being in a timewarp.  Douglas Cameron was once again reading LBC 97.3's news bulletin with his effortless delivery.  It almost made me want to get my satchel on again and head off to primary school with my mother.

LBC is 40 years old today, the first commercial radio station to be launched in the UK (with Capital Radio on October 16th), it's main role to provide speech radio to London.  The business would at the time be viable as they would provide the national news service for commercial radio stations which would be launched gradually throughout the 70s, known as Independent Radio News (IRN).

My early memories of LBC was listening to the late evening phone-ins from the likes of Robbie Vincent and Mike Allen which mixed serious topical discussion with more light hearted discussion, however Clive Bull's show was legendary.  Moving from Through the Night to the late evening slot where callers became as much a listen.  Babs from Bermondsey, Adrian from Tottenham Court Road and others were great radio.

LBC's politics off-air was just as interesting.  Strikes in the 1970s, numerous owners, the business nearly going bust, being sold to a foreign company who moved the station away from the City of London to Hammersmith, being forced to split the FM and AM licences to provide alternative services and then eventually going bust in 1993 when the Radio Authority decided to award the award LBC's two licences for FM and AM to Reuters who then bought the station to maintain the output until the official licence handover in October 1994.

Reuters replaced LBC with two non LBC branded stations, London News (Rolling news) and London News Talk (phone-ins), the latter taking on LBC's heritage in all but name.   However the two formats didn't perform as well as expected and a new consortium which included the Daily Mail and General Trust and upcoming media group GWR relaunched LBC on it's AM frequency and moved output to ITN's then new modern building in Gray's Inn Road, while keeping the rolling news service on FM.

In 2002, LBC was sold by the London News Radio consortium to Chrysalis who owned Heart FM, so once again moved from central London to West London.   The formats were also flipped, rolling news moved to AM while the talk radio format switched back to FM for the first time since 1994.  

The relaunch format was more highbrow, however Chrysalis didn't learn from the mistakes of Crown FM in 1989 which attempted to compete with BBC Radio 4 and then brought in David Lloyd who controversially brought in 'appointment to listen' radio.  This basically meant LBC's heritage format of news talk was axed outside of weekday breakfast and the rest of the output consisted of pub ammo style discussion.  One of the most controversial signings was Iain Lee, who brought with him younger listeners which Chrysalis desired to attract advertisers.  Yet it felt as if the heart of the station had been ripped out in Lloyd's attempt to bring revenue.  However he should be congratulated for the innovative LBC podcast where listeners paid a small fee to listen again to shows listeners missed.

Chrysalis eventually sold their radio business to a new radio group, Global who then acquired GCap Media, so Global moved it to their new broadcast centre in Leicester Square.   Under Global, LBC is at the heart of their newsroom, while a revamped news talk format was introduced which has seen ratings soar to over a million listeners.  Politicians are regulars on the station, with Nick Clegg and Boris Johnson presenting phone-ins and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone with former Tory MP David Mellor on Saturday mornings. 

LBC has finally settled down as an alternative to Radio 4, 5 Live and BBC London, but has returned to it's core values of news and giving Londoners a mouthpiece.

Happy Birthday LBC, it's well deserved.

Goodbye Smooth Radio 70s

In the early hours of Sunday morning, decades station Smooth Radio 70s will be replaced by a test transmission of Global Radio's new spin-off station Capital XTRA aimed at younger audiences.

GMG started experimenting with spin-off brands on DAB with the novelty format Smooth Christmas, which then led to the launch of Smooth 70s on December 27th 2011.  Less than two years later and after acquiring a total audience of 730,000 listeners to add to Smooth Radio's total brand audience, it'll be a part of digital radio history.

Unlike the main station under GMG, this was a focused product which played a broad playlist, those which anoraks and musos love, this despite being broadcast at 80 kbps mono on DAB.

I was at first very critical of the format, as it launched after Absolute Radio launched it's own 70s decade station earlier in 2011, yet like all good things, I doubt the station ever made money, so would be a drain on resources.

If you consider it from Global's point of view, they have two slots on Digital One acquired from the acquisition of Real & Smooth Limited, both serving the over 50s.  Sadly, it's a fact that younger listeners despite using other ways to listen to music are still the most attractive to advertisers.  Capital XTRA gives Global a national platform to attract listeners from Kiss and 1Xtra who playlist similar dance and urban music on the same digital platform.

Once Smooth 70s closes, there's still Absolute Radio 70s on DAB in London and online, however it is more rock focused due to the Absolute brand values.  This station and it's parent Absolute Radio are currently in the middle of being acquired by Bauer Radio who may use the space on DAB for other uses instead. There are other online stations providing 70s music all day long.  Some of which have promoted themselves on Digital Spy and social media outlets.

From day 1 of the opening of Smooth 70s, it was always inventable that it'd close.

Global's insensitive rebranding of Choice FM to Capital XTRA

Copyright: Global Radio Ltd.

The decision by Global Radio to close Choice FM abruptly at noon today ahead of a rebrand to Capital XTRA brought back memories of the sudden decision of Capital Radio PLC to move indie station Xfm from it's base on Charlotte Street to it's Leicester Square base in 1998 with an automated playlist and sacking of specialist presenters with a lack of support from listeners from a management headed by Richard Park who didn't quite understand the audience.  Mr Park is now the executive director of Global Radio.

Unlike the subtle change in output on local radio stations which rebranded to Heart and Capital and even the more recent changes on Smooth Radio on Tuesday, this was sharp, sudden and poorly thought out considering how Choice is ingrained in London's black community starting as Britain's first commercial radio station for black people, based in Brixton in 1990 before being sold to Capital Radio PLC in 2004.

I can see why Global's decision to rebrand Choice as a spin-off of Capital FM considering the demographics are very similar and it'll boost the share of the overall Capital brand which makes it very attractive to advertisers, however the audiences couldn't be more polarised.

Global are using Choice and Smooth as pawns in a game of radio chess with rival Bauer Media.  Their brands Kiss and Magic are market leading in the capital and Global has lost ground to those stations.   As Smooth Radio became part of Global Radio on Tuesday, this has allowed them to tweak Smooth towards a more easy listening format and are using the Digital One National DAB slot currently used by Smooth 70s to launch Capital XTRA in it's place.   Kiss is also on national DAB, so will also be competing for the youth audience with them and the public service urban station BBC Radio 1Xtra.

Returning to the black community in London, the feedback on social media is largely negative, although this may work to the advantage of community, DAB and pirate stations to cater for those audiences.  Colourful Radio is largely similar in format to the original Choice FM and has former presenters from the station, I wouldn't be surprised if Daddy Ernie's Superjam ends up on there, younger listeners in North West London may prefer BANG Radio on 103.6 FM and there's the pirate stations, such as Metro Love Radio, On Top, Genesis and TSOL - The Soul of London which may benefit from Choice's closure.

I wish Capital Xtra all the best for their launch on Monday, however they may have a struggle to keep the existing audience who feel that Capital is a brand focused on One Direction and Lawson rather than urban artists and the community they're supposed to support. 

Smooth Wallpaper Radio

Today is the first day of Smooth Radio coming under the control of it's new owner Global Radio.  However the company only owns two of the licences currently in London and the West Midlands as the other licences in northern England and Glasgow remain in hold separate with Real & Smooth Ltd.

Moving the studio to Global's Leicester Square broadcast centre will stem the losses from the London licence, which has continually hemorrhaged listeners under GMG/R&S Ltd due to the clash in format with Hot AC Heart and Bauer's soft AC format Magic 105.4. 

Global have made some subtle tweaks to the output today, regular speech features have been removed, such as Our Tune from the Breakfast Show and Lynn Parsons's quiz alongside specialist output on a Friday evening.   It also appears that new music that was playlisted under GMG/R&S has been removed, although stubbornly the second to last song played on Smooth from Laser House in Salford was Daft Punk's latest track, which jarred terribly amongst the classic hits.  

However The Golden Hour has been saved, presumably as it's heavy on music.

Like other Global brands, Smooth has become more music intensive with longer sweeps and short speed links which has made it an easier listen for those who don't like speech heavy links on music radio.  It also compliments Global's sister brands, rather than competing with them.  There are tracks which crossover with Heart and Gold, however as Global specialise in 'mood radio', this isn't a problem.

I think Smooth will have more changes once the issues with the Competition Commission are resolved.  Global now own two over 50's brands, the male skewed Gold which broadcasts on AM and now the female slanted Smooth which if Global don't have to sacrifice any of the regional licences contested on the more valuable FM frequencies, which surely will either lead to a merger or a sale of the less viable AM station.

To the normal listener, there isn't much to complain about as the regular presenters during the day have stayed with only small changes in overnight output with a shorter night shift and an early breakfast show presented by Global stalwart Nicola Bonn who has presented overnight shifts on Heart.

Anoraks on the radio message boards are not happy alongside a couple of people on Facebook, however I imagine that is due to the company who has taken over, rather than any real programming changes.  Niggling about technical problems on day 1 is petty.

It's a big improvement to how the station was sounding last week or even yesterday as the takeover was near and Global should be congratulated on maintaining the brand, however toxic it has been in London. 

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.

Preconceptions about Gold Radio

A typical forum comment.  Copyright: Hearst Magazines UK.

"Worn out old songs" and "repetition" come up regularly on media forums when it comes to discussing Gold Radio and at times isn't seen by some in the anorak community as a proper oldies radio station.  You get kudos if you have a broad playlist like Smooth Radio, online such as Big L which is managed by volunteers or a radio station in the Netherlands which the quote is from a discussion about a poll from a Dutch radio station where they're counting down listeners votes which has an eclectic selection of classics.

So what is Gold apparently doing wrong?  Their proposition under Global management has been "The Greatest Hits of All Time"  A straight out of the tin brand where they play the big hits mainly from the 60s and 70s with a dash from the late 50s and early 80s with tight personality links which is perfectly fine for the average listener.

However Gold doesn't just play the big hits.  Gold Requests on Sunday to Friday evenings is presented by Dean Martin, a promoter and passionate presenter with an encyclopedic knowledge of music.  He's probably the flag bearer for the brand where he uses the traditional straight to air calls from listeners to discuss the songs they'd like to hear in addition to more modern social media techniques to discuss elements of his show while on-air which gives the listener a feeling that he's interested in the listener and isn't afraid to play what could be considered off-target tracks.   If a listener requests The Wombles, it gets played.   There are also specialist request segments for the 50s and 60s.

Gold is a different beast from the big budget Capital Gold of the 80s and 90s which included heritage presenters such as Kenny Everett, Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett, but continues to treat those core early songs from the birth of mainstream pop music in an entertaining and respectful manner.  It'll never have the wide playlist of a 'Big L' or an niche oldies Dutch station, but it was never meant to be in the first place.

How to solve a problem like Global

Copyright: Real and Smooth Ltd.

After the Competition Commission's decision on the acquisition of GMG Radio (trading as Real and Smooth Ltd) by Global Radio, the owner of national brands such as Capital FM and Heart, the group has to sell seven stations in areas where the company would have an unfair advantage in the advertising market in those areas.

In most areas, they have to sell at least one regional station, which means one national brand will be sold or franchised to keep the other.

Most professionals and anoraks agree that Global's reported £70m acquisition is to expand the Heart brand into areas of the UK the station doesn't broadcast on FM on licences currently held by Real Radio, which should mean those stations will be kept on by Global, although there's debate if the mix of North Wales local FM Heart licences will be kept, despite cumbersome Welsh language commitments, especially on the Anglesey licence instead of the North and mid-Wales Real regional licence which has no Welsh commitments and already has an agreement with Ofcom to network with the South Wales Real station as it'd mean existing listeners would be forced to retune.

Another issue is the Smooth regional licences, do Global sell the brand on, franchise it  or merge with existing brand Gold, the oldies/classic hits station which also caters to over 45's, but with an older musical sound in comparison to Smooth?

In the North West, Smooth is the most listened to regional station with under a million listeners in a market place saturated with AC and CHR formats, yet in London, the UK's most competitive market, the station bobs around the 400-600k listener level while their nearest competitor Magic 105.4, owned by Bauer Radio has under 2 million listeners.

Suggestions have been made that Smooth could be re-focused (for the third time mind) as a Soft AC station to directly compete with Magic, yet the brand has been used as a classic soul, later refocusing as an Easy Listening station and hasn't made a dent in the market, this would be a waste of resources, which is why I personally feel that a straight FM simulcast of Gold would be the best use for this frequency as it'd cut costs considerably and bring a new format to London's FM marketplace.

Smooth could still be kept on as a brand in London by flipping the formats of Gold and Smooth so that the latter moves to Gold's 1548 AM frequency.  This would allay any fears of a lack of a London presence in the national advertising market to any investor interested in their regional FM licences.

Capital is a likely candidate to be franchised off in areas where the CC has asked Global to consider to sell.  Who'd want to buy them though if a company can't change the programming output? Orion, who acquired a Heart franchise in the East Midlands and Gold in the West Midlands eventually quit as a franchisee to go it alone with Gem and Free Radio 80s.   A consortium may come forward to buy those licences from Global to 'hold' them before the rules change again which would let them buy the stations again, but do Global want to be around in ten years when they surely have a strategy to sell the group altogether to an overseas investor?

What happens next?

Global have another 11 weeks at time of posting to inform the Competition Commission their plans to sell or franchise the stations in each area.

It's also very likely that we'll see a decision to sell classic rock station Real Radio XS in Glasgow and Manchester although the CC didn't include the Scottish station on the for sale list as Global have no direct brand to merge the licence with.

Whatever happens, the radio landscape will be different, even if a brand continues with a new owner with no change in programming output.