The beginning of the end of the oldies format in the UK?

The Greatest Hits of all Time...for not much longer.

A tale of two cities which both have classic hits formats.  New York's CBS-FM this week announced the addition of former PLJ and Z100 legendary presenter Scott Shannon as their new breakfast presenter.   Shannon has a pedigree of programming CHR formats which transformed Z100 into one of the world's best pop music station.  He later moved to WPLJ, where he co-presented the 'Scott and Todd' show for 22 years which made PLJ a must listen Hot AC station.   Listeners in London may remember the Heart 106.2 test transmissions for which they simulcast the show along with all PLJ output.

WCBS-FM is currently third in the fiercely competitive New York tri-state market.

Back home in London, the national classic hits network Gold announced that it would no longer broadcast to the majority of the country on it's AM and DAB Digital Radio network except for three areas, which include London, Leicestershire, Notts and Manchester. 

The remaining outlets would be replaced with Global's new 'sexy' brand catering for the over 45's market Smooth Radio.   As I've blogged recently, Smooth recently announced a plethora of celebrity presenters in an effort to increase audiences and the addition of Gold's AM network will increase their reach.

Unlike Gold, Smooth targets women with a relaxing mix of classic hits and the occasional new track, where as Gold is male skewed, plays plenty of rockier music and is more eclectic than it's sexier sister brand.

Gold doesn't have celebrity presenters, instead relying on traditional radio presenters, including Tony Dibbin on Breakfast and Dean Martin who's 'Gold Requests' show borders on public service broadcasting by playing a mix of classic songs which hardly receive any airplay.  I've certainly discovered plenty of music from the 1950s thanks to his 50s request segment.

While these programmes on Gold are certainly worthy, the British market has made it hard to market this type of music where as Smooth's Soft AC format is easier to attract advertisers.     It may have been different if Gold was allocated an FM frequency in the London market.

In 1996, Gold's predecessor Capital Gold applied for the 104.9 FM frequency, the final London wide frequency to Xfm, which is now also part of the Global Radio empire.   This may have ensured the longer term future of the classic hits format.   During the glory days of the 1990s, Capital Gold had over 1m listeners and well respected radio presenters in the UK, such as Kenny Everett, Tony Blackburn and David Hamilton to mention three presenters.

However (Capital) Gold was left on AM, the other main selling point was it's Premier League football commentary which the parent company decided to no longer bid for.  DAB, Sky and online coverage was introduced as a way of receiving Gold in stereo, yet didn't do enough to raise it's share.

So what's left of the oldies format?    There's Bauer's Magic AM network across Northern England and the 'Greatest Hits Network' in Scotland.   However, they also playlist a minimum of new music.   There are specialist shows on Radio 2 (Sounds of the Sixties and Pick of the Pops) and BBC Local Radio, but they don't air 24/7.  Bauer's Absolute Radio offers decades stations from the 1960s to the 2000s, however they have a 'real music' policy which doesn't play certain pop music artists, so no Cliff and the Shadows then!

Gold is the only terrestrial radio station in the UK dedicated to a vast range of classic pop music from the 1950s to the 1980s without new music being in the way and it's slow painful demise is due in part to a lack of FM coverage and the British market not being able to monetise from the format.      Luckily those markets in the United States have found a way of making it work and CBS Radio who manage CBS-FM, K-Hits and others should be congratulated for keeping it going, although they've had to tweak the format to be 70s and 80s skewed.

March 24th is when Smooth Radio replaces Gold.  Make the most of it.

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.

Global Radio changes, how will it affect you?

So we finally have it, Global have announced various changes to their brands, including the sale of 8 stations to the Irish media company Communicorp, who own Today FM and Spin in Ireland.

Radio Rental will attempt to explain in layman's terms what will happen to each brand and how you can still listen, although some final details are still to be confirmed.

REAL RADIO:  These stations will all rebrand to Heart with network programming from London.  Real North Wales and Real Yorkshire have been sold to Communicorp.  The current Welsh station will be split between South and Mid and North Wales when it rebrands to Heart.

CAPITAL: No change for the average listener, Capital South Wales and Capital Scotland will be owned by Communicorp, but will continue to take programming from Capital in London.  A new Capital station will launch in North Wales on Heart's existing frequencies.  However Welsh language programming will continue on those stations with those requirements.

HEART: Business as usual for the existing Heart network, with the exception of North Wales where the existing station will move to Real Radio's frequencies and will be owned by Communicorp.  Heart North Wales will no longer have to broadcast Welsh language programming which will move to Capital.

GOLD: Gold will no longer broadcast to the majority of the country on DAB and AM, except in London, Manchester and the East Midlands.  Speculation is rife that Gold will replace Smooth on national DAB with a 70s, 80s and early 90s format. 

SMOOTH RADIO:  The station will be removed from national DAB with all current Smooth regional FM licences providing local programming for seven hours a day on weekdays and four at weekends.  The station will also be available on local DAB and AM in areas currently served by Gold with the exception of London, Manchester and the East Midlands where Smooth is on FM.    In Wales, Smooth will also provide national programming within Wales for four hours a day on weekdays on AM in Cardiff/Newport and Wrexham. 

Communicorp will also own Smooth in the North West, North East and the East Midlands.

REAL RADIO XS: In Glasgow, the station will rebrand as Xfm which outside of local hours will network from London.   It's unconfirmed how Real XS Manchester will continue, but has been purchased by Communicorp.

LBC 97.3 will go national on Digital One DAB from February 11th replacing Birdsong and there is no change to LBC News 1152, Capital Xtra or Xfm in London and Manchester.

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.

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. 

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.