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. 

Why LBC 97.3 had to leave DAB in the regions

Copyright: Global Radio.

Over the last few months, the London speech station, LBC 97.3 has been gradually removed from multiplexes across the UK to make way for more profitable services due the consolidation of DAB services.

To improve DAB reception of local multiplexes, LBC with the exception of Glasgow and Edinburgh were on the MXR regional multiplexes.  MXR have decided not to renew their licences and the frequencies reused for local multiplexes, which arguably will improve digital reception of local services and give DAB reception for the first time to BBC local stations as more local muxes start broadcasting.

LBC started to gain regional DAB coverage in 2005 when DNN, which was a rolling news service provided by GMG and Chrysalis was axed.  However, the requirements for regional news and travel were required on the MXR multiplexes, so Chrysalis offered LBC as a sustaining service with those requirements replacing London news and travel.

Global Radio purchased Chrysalis in 2008 and the new owners requested the regional requirements to be removed, so all areas received the same bulletins as the London version.

As other media commentators have mentioned, those stations removed from MXR and not added to the local multiplexes had the lowest share in their regions.   LBC in the West Midlands had a reach of 5,000 listeners in the last Rajar quarter.  

It's common sense to concentrate on the area where LBC has the largest share of listeners and has 40 years of brand awareness, London.  Although the station discusses topics of national and international relevance, it is still a London-centric station which will heavily feature London politics, including a monthly phone in with the Mayor of London and covers London borough and Greater London Authority elections.   If an event, such as a pile-up on the North Circular Road or a extreme weather event in the capital happens, those few listeners listening in the North West or Yorkshire take second place to topics of relevance to the core audience inside the M25.

While I sympathise with listeners who have lost terrestrial coverage, Global Radio have tried their best to provide alternatives, such as recently acquiring a Freesat EPG slot, online apps for iPhone and Android, along with the current Sky EPG slot. 

LBC could have become the alternative to 5 Live and the former current affairs output on talkSPORT, however local commercial speech radio isn't simply viable outside London as seen with City Talk in Liverpool and Talk 107 in Edinburgh of which the latter closed and the Liverpool station now plays music.

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.

Do OXIS Media really know how to Jack?

Friday saw the shock announcement from OXIS Media which whose largest shareholder is Absolute Radio International (ARI Consultancy) about the expansion of their licensed Jack FM brand across the UK regionally and the launch of Jack FM 2, a female skewed version of the largely automated main station in Oxford.

Jack FM 2 replaces Glide FM, which itself launched with a blaze of glory by stunting as Glee FM, which played tracks from the hit musical tv series.  However since then, ARI hasn't been able to capitalise on it's early publicity and is now on it's third relaunch in a short period for a station which was also called FM 107.9.  As Oxford's only commercial radio station for young adults, this is a failure despite sharing resources with the main Jack FM station, yet it appears that a CHR skewed Heart is still continuing to bring in the numbers, despite being networked from Reading and London.

For those of you who are not aware, ARI are also under contract to manage Absolute Radio, the national AM and London FM station on behalf of the Times of India, which may also be converted to be a Jack FM later in the year.   While ARI have increased the share of the overall Absolute Radio network, this has been done by launching seven costly digital radio spin off stations based on the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s and a mainstream classic rock station.

While some of the programming decisions of the main station have to be applauded, such as their investment in personality presenters such as Christian O'Connell, Geof Lloyd, Frank Skinner and Emily Dean, the business continues to lose money and has been rumoured that the likes of Richard Branson and Bauer have attempted to acquire the station.

If TIML don't sell and ARI continue to operate the station as Jack FM, this is about preserving the business and cost cutting, rather than taking the money from a larger well resourced radio group as well as maintaining Absolute's AOR 'real' music policy while not having to pay presenters.  

The other rumour is OXIS/ARI may be ready to step in and acquire stations Global Radio have to divest as part of their acquisition of GMG Radio to launch Jack FM in major regional markets.  The beauty of the Jack brand is that it can be adapted to suit the formats of other stations, for example Jack FM Solent a former AAA format is as far as you can get from Jack Hertfordshire which plays Hot AC.  Both of these stations are not owned by OXIS, but they have licenced them to other media groups as part of the business to sell the branding to local stations.

If OXIS pulls this off, it'll take them from being a small scale operator in Oxfordshire and a loss making contractor in London to taking their one successful brand Jack into something special.  It could be that midas touch that stops Bauer's expansion of Planet Rock and puts them into another successful male skewed brand alongside UTV's talkSPORT while keeping the contract for the national and London station safe.