BBC Radio London to return, is it worth it?

The various brands of BBC local radio in London.

Radio Today is reporting that BBC London 94.9 is rebranding back to BBC Radio London, the brand used by the BBC for it's local radio station for the capital between 1970 and 1988 on October 6th 2015.

Ever since Radio London launched, it has struggled against BBC nationals and commercial radio, this despite being London's only local radio station for three years until LBC launched in 1973.   

There were also reception issues for FM listeners as the transmitter used was in Wrotham in Kent.  This gave excellent reception for most in the capital, except South London.   FM moved to Crystal Palace and then stereo in 1981.

Radio London attemped a revamp in the mid 80s with the soul format, where Tony Blackburn had a successful tenure until yet again, the station lost listeners.

It could be argued that the best era for the station was when Matthew Bannister and Trevor Dann relaunched Radio London as GLR - Greater London Radio with a rock/male skewed format which replaced Radio London in 1988.   It was critically aclaimed and the format lives on as BBC Radio 6 Music.  It also ensured that BBC local radio for the capital survived and didn't become a relay of a national radio station broadcasting in AM.

The trouble really started for the station in the late 90s when it was proposed to close GLR and rebrand as a tri-media service, BBC London Live which proposed a more mainstream service, dropping specialist shows and increasing the speech quota with recognised presenters.

Later in the decade, the station rebranded as BBC LDN and then BBC London 94.9.

So is BBC Radio London, the latest attempt by the BBC to make the station relevant?  Managing Editor David Robey claims it's because the station is on so many platforms, that the station branding is no longer accurate.

BBC London 94.9's Rajar share is lower than LBC London News, a part-time rolling news station staffed by Global Radio journalists, while other speech radio listeners tune into BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the defacto 'local' breakfast show or LBC, the tabloid topical phone-in station or 5 Live.

This has led BBC London 94.9 to go uber niche, with contributors to their phone-in shows being regulars and other shows being a diluted version of programmes available elsewhere.

I wish BBC Radio London all the best with their relaunch, yet I doubt it'll make a dent on Radio 4 or LBC's Rajar unless David Robey changes elements of the format.   An identical version of BBC Radio London from the 70s and early 80s won't work.  It didn't then either.

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. 

Share Radio - An under served speech format

Digital radio start ups are usually either brand extensions of current radio stations or so niche that they don't cater to my mainstream ears.

However on November 4th, Share Radio launched on the London 3 DAB multiplex.  I was expecting to hear a Bloomberg style rolling business news format throughout the day, yet this radio station has found it's niche between providing hard business news and providing output for those who haven't got a clue about finance like yours truly who got an F in GCSE Maths, yet isn't dumbed down broadcasting.

Features such as explaining the jargon in business bring the world of finance closer to average people who don't have a clue about business, while business news is explained in a way which makes the information relevant.

Morning Money, the breakfast show presented by unknown Danish presenter Sandra Kilhof is as you expect a solid programme of business news, yet as mentioned above doesn't exclude those who don't work in the City or Canary Wharf.

It then gets a bit lighter from 9am when Consuming Issues with BBC London 94.9 sports reporter Georgie Frost takes over.  Along with her producer Annie Weston, they take a look at issues which affect the average person while keeping up to date with breaking business news.  They even have a Youth business slot on Friday mornings with blogger Iona Blair which looks at the issues affecting young people and students with their finances.   Interactivity is key with this programme when they ask the listener to pose questions, set the news agenda or my favourite part, the light questions such as what have you lost while travelling.

Business broadcasting legend Ed Mitchell (EBN/CNBC/ITN) takes over at 1pm with Investment Perspectives.  This is Ed's first gig since his much publicised issues that affected him a few years back.  

One of his features looks at ethical business which will help people like me understand that not all investors are in it for the greed, but ensure that a company works in an ethical manner.

The evening show (5-9) with Simon Rose is similar to Morning Money, but is not as straight laced with lighter discussion regarding the business stories of the day.

For a station that didn't even have a studio four months ago, the quality of the programming is on a par with 5 Live and LBC, although of course there are some small issues which I'm sure they'll sort out in due course.

News bulletin copy is excellent, but the delivery could be improved, that could be down to lack of piloting or inexperience.   Weekend shows are hard to find.  I found a 'Desert Island Discs' type programme on Saturday afternoon.  There's apparently other weekend shows, but bar the music show, the weekends I found to be repeats of programming from the week.  

Share Radio is also bidding for the 963/972 AM licence for the London area and plan to go national on DAB at some point in the future.

I wish these guys the best for the future as this is one station which is finally providing a much needed under served viable format which may just break even. 

Internet Radio may be the future...kind of

To be honest, I always obtain technology when it becomes outdated.  As a kid, AM radio was still the main way to listen to radio for me, until the big ILR split of local radio stations in the late 80s when the chart music moved to FM and AM became the home of golden oldies.

So it may come to no surprise that I only had landline ADSL2 broadband installed yesterday.   It's on TalkTalk's dirt cheap 'Simply Broadband' deal where for £1.75 plus line rental, I can now discover the wonders of various radio stations thanks to the unlimited broadband they provide.

In the noughties, I'd visit easyeverything, a internet cafe in London where they had banks of computers which had headphone jacks so you could listen to music.   Back then, it wasn't very good.  32k Windows Media Streams or the inferior Real Player ones were the norm with some sounding sub AM quality.  Considering we just got out of dial-up, this wasn't surprising.

Now the possibilities are endless. Hi-fi quality streams providing better than FM with higher bitrates, although 128k mp3 or 48k AAC+ appear to be the norm for your average listener.   You can listen on your smartphone etc either on wifi or on mobile broadband, so you're not tied to your PC.

One of the best things about internet radio is that anyone can set up a niche format station.  I'm a big fan of the 1990s rave scene and numerous stations playing the music from my era of the scene from 1991-1996 have popped up, such as Break Pirates Radio and Rave Tape Radio just to name two and simulcasts of London pirate radio stations.    While the pirates are on FM, the coverage on FM isn't as great as in the 90s, so listening on wifi around the house takes away the issue of interference.  

Having that amount of choice, reminds me of the days of London Pirate radio of that era when I could tune into any number of stations from across the capital playing underground dance.

I did try mobile broadband to listen to online radio.  It does work, but I did it when my phone provider Virgin Media offered unlimited data for £10 on PAYG.  It's now only 1GB, so limits you to low bitrate AAC streams for short periods, so the phone is now used for looking at social media while the trusted old PURE PocketDAB 1500 is used to listen to radio stations.

Bauer's Absolute stations are offered to registered listeners in high quality stereo with less ads and extra music.  This means I now listen to their 80s and 90s decade stations online instead of 64kbps MP2 mono on DAB at home at least.

Wifi has clearly opened up internet radio to the masses who don't need to buy an internet radio by simply using their smartphones using either the TuneIn or UK Radioplayer apps, yet mobile listening using the 3G/4G networks are still not ready for it.  Data limits and coverage are still an issue, so I wouldn't give up on FM or DAB just yet.   But when it does become popular, commercial radio will have to up it's game again.   There's only so much you can do with tightly formatted radio, however good Heart or Smooth is programmed.

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.