TeamRock Radio - Brief snoop

At two minutes to midnight on Sunday evening, new digital station TeamRock Radio finally launched after six weeks of test transmissions.

The station built up a following before the launch, thanks to social media via ex presenters and background staff from Real Radio XS who resigned from the station and publicity from TeamRock's magazine titles Metal Hammer and Classic Rock Magazine, which both have shows on the weekday schedule.

After a reading of a poem by Edgar Allan Guest from Corey Taylor, a band member from Slipknot, the station went straight into a special programme covering the Download Festival, with artist interviews with TeamRock's presenters.   This could've been an anorak fest of ego's self congratulating themselves, but no, the target audience came first and should be congratulated.

I then tuned into to thirty minutes of the debut show on Monday from "Dewsbury", a former producer of Real XS Manchester's breakfast show and now the afternoon presenter and head of music for TeamRock Radio.

I heard one metal track, however the playlist was mainly radio friendly without selling out by not playing Beady Eye or Coldplay as Kerrang! Radio have been playlisting when they were a FM station in the West Midlands.

I tuned in again this afernnon and heard some metal, however they played between 2-3pm the likes of Queen, Guns n Roses and Nazareth which should be enough to keep the hardcore rock fans going without frightening away the 'dippers' who may find out they like the random metal track in between the radio friendly  tracks.

CONCLUSION:

TeamRock has launched to a great start, it's neither too commercial or too niche.  The presentation of the daytime shows is spot on, although listeners who like tight links will be disappointed and should have a healthy listenership of ex Real XS and Kerrang! Radio listeners, the latter who lost their FM service in the West Midlands to the mainstream Classic Rock station Planet Rock.  I do wonder how they'll monitise the station without spot ads, yet I think we'll see sponsored slots for the daytime shows once they finally report to Rajar.

The station could easily replace Absolute Radio if TIML Radio decide to sell at the right place, unlike AR which relies on mainstream stadium rock artists such as Muse, Coldplay and Snow Patrol and comedians at weekends, it'd fill a void on analogue radio (even on AM) of credible harder rock.  However Planet Rock (via Bauer) may finally win the day.  It's more likely they'll acquire the local radio licences of Real XS after Global's appeal to the Competition Commission is heard after their acquisition of GMG Radio was halted by being told to sell various radio stations across the country as they'd have an anticompetitive share of the radio advertising market.

Alternatives to Planet Rock in the West Midlands

Classic rock station Planet Rock replaced Kerrang! Radio on 105.2 FM across the West Midlands this afternoon bringing the third classic rock FM format to the UK.

While this is sad news for those modern rock listeners with analogue radios, such as in cars, there are many rock alternatives available to West Midlands listeners on DAB or Freeview.

Kerrang! Radio hasn't closed down and continues on DAB, Freeview & online across the UK and has announced a new line-up which starts on Monday with all the presenters on weekdays being from the old FM station which gives some continuity. However the station will be refocused to be closer to the brand ethics of the sister magazine publication.

TeamRock Radio is the new all rock station which has been test transmitting on DAB across England, Scotland and Wales since May.  They finally launch at 11.58pm on Sunday with an eclectic playlist of modern and classic rock and for the first time on daytime commercial radio, the sub genre of metal will be playlisted.

For those who liked Kerrang! Radio playlisting mainstream artists such as Beady Eye and Muse, London's alternative station Xfm can be heard on DAB across the FM area that Kerrang was on as well as Sky.

At a push, the analogue radio alternative is adult orientated rock station Absolute Radio on 1215 AM and various options digitally.

Saturated Rock

Rock formats appear to be the 'in' trend on UK radio at the moment.   Despite the closure of Kerrang! Radio on FM in the West Midlands on June 14th, we see two new rock stations competing for a mainly male audience joining Absolute (and it's Classic Rock digital spin-off), Real Radio XS, XFM and recent Bauer acquisition Planet Rock.

TeamRock Radio launches sometime in June and is already test transmitting on DAB nationally.  The team mainly consists of former GMG Radio people including John Myers, Billy Anderson and on-air presenters such as Moose, Dewsbury and Rachel Houghton who worked on GMG's Real XS.  They also have former Planet Rock presenter Nicky Horne, Metal Hammer Editor-in-Chief Alexander Milas and erm...former Bid TV assistant Sophie K.

Going by their test transmissions, TeamRock will playlist a broad range of new and classic rock genres and will playlist Metal for the first time on daytime commercial radio.   Unlike other commercial stations, TeamRock won't air spot advertising, instead going for sponsored slots.   Heat Radio when operated by Emap did this which led to mid-mornings being sponsored by Ford and afternoons by Diet Coke, yet reverted to spot advertising under Bauer ownership.

A surprising entry into the already saturated rock market is a new outfit which promises to combine sports talk and rock.  Eklipse Sports Radio, based in Glasgow will broadcast on DAB Digital Radio in Scotland's central belt with a "tightly formatted rock station interspersed with sports news and interviews" from mid-June.

It'll be interesting to see how this outfit will be able to compete with the might of Clyde 1's sports phone-in and Saturday football output and with Real Radio XS, which in itself may be sold although the recent Competition Commission review into Global Radio's merger with GMG Radio doesn't include Real Radio XS's FM frequency in Paisley as a station they have to sell.  

Incidentally Kerrang! Radio will also relaunch on June 14th as a digital only station which Bauer claim will be closer to the editorial of the magazine targeting younger listeners with new music.  This will put it in direct competition with TeamRock, while classic rock station Planet Rock will be broadcasting on FM for the first time in the West Midlands, replacing Kerrang! at 1pm on June 14th.

I can't see all of these Rock stations surviving, so will be interesting to see which stations can survive.  TeamRock may acquire the Real XS FM licences in Manchester and Paisley, considering Eklipse Sports Radio have decided not to acquire a FM outlet from the Global/GMG divestment and Bauer who have been rumoured to have been negotiating purchasing Absolute Radio from it's Indian owners TIML Radio, which would give Planet Rock additional FM coverage in London and national coverage on AM in addition to it's current national DAB slot and digital satellite coverage.

Considering Planet Rock was until earlier this year an independent station losing money which it's previous owner had subsidised with their own money, the potential for this station under Bauer with FM coverage in the West Midlands alone is staggering. The older male with disposable income surely led to Bauer's decision to  dump the Brummie Metal kid for his father.