My thoughts on the Q1 2012 RAJARs

There are a few notable things in this new report, which was released at Midnight. 

The Cornish local radio stations, all down compared to last quarter.  Very unusual.  Usually one will be up even if the others are down.  Best performer out of the three was BBC Radio Cornwall, which was only down 2,000 in reach and 0.2% in terms of share.  The station maintained its average hours at 11.3 hrs per listener. 

Atlantic FM though, is already showing signs that the move by Global to buy it out might have been a mistake.  The announcement was made on 19th March, right towards the end of Q1.  And if these figures are anything to go by, then Atlantic's listenership might well had already started to desert by the end of the quarter.  The figures are down 5,000 on reach, average hours dropped to 5.4 and share dropped from 3.6 to 3.4%.  And this was before any of the Heart branding got added into the mix.

But surprisingly, the worst performer of the three was Pirate FM.  Down 8,000 in reach, down 0.3 hours in average hours, and down 0.8% in share.  Pirate FM did replace their evening presenter at the beginning of the quarter with an extension of their automated programming.  That maybe the reason why they're down.

In South East Cornwall, you might have expected Heart or Gold to be the beneficiaries of such a drop.  Well if Heart Devon did benefit, though it is unlikely, they lost out elsewhere in Devon.  Heart Devon saw their own audience drop 11,000 on reach, down 0.2 on average hours and down 0.1% on share.  But Gold did gain, but it might not have been entirely due to the reduction in audience in the other stations.  Gold Devon got carraige on DAB in North Devon and maybe that had as much to do with it, as anything else.  Gold gained 13,000 listeners in reach, saw their average hours increase by 4 hours, and as a result, their share more than doubled, from 1.2% to 2.6%.  I will need to pay a little more attention to Gold, to see if I can discern why their audience is growing that significantly.

You might have expected BBC Radio Devon to have picked up significantly from Heart Devon, but they did not.  In fact, they lost 22,000 listeners on reach.  However, average hours went up from 12.5 to 13.2 and as a result, share increased 0.2% on the previous quarter. 

In other news, BBC Radios Guernsey, Jersey and Cornwall continue to be the best performing of the BBC local radio stations, although Cornwall (37%) has moved into second place on that list, putting Jersey (35%) into 3rd place.  BBC Radio Norfolk is 4th on 30% reach, the only other station to achieve 30%+ in terms of reach in the BBC Local Radio stable.  Worst perfomer there is BBC London, in the ultra competitive London market only achieving a 5% reach.  Next was BBC Sussex and Surrey with 9% reach, and equal third, BBC WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, both with 11% reach.

In national commercial radio, Absolute Radio is down 32,000 listeners, whilst Absolute 80s gained 29,000 and Absolute 90s gained 32,000 listeners, Classic FM gained 80,000 listeners, Talk Sport gained 36,000 listeners, Smooth Radio UK gained 2,000 listeners, Jazz FM gained 52,000 listeners and Planet Rock gained 50,000 listeners.

BBC Radio 2 gaining 293,000 listeners, and 5 Live saw an icrease of 137,000 listeners but other BBC nationals did not perform so well.  Radio 1 saw a drop of 524,000 listeners, Radio 4 saw a drop of 527,000 listeners, Radio 3 lost 195,000 listeners.  The BBC national digital stations were also a mixed bag.  Whilst 5 Live Sports Extra saw a massive 336,000 listener increase, Asian Network increased by 68,000 and 6 Music gained 11,000 listeners, on the flip side, 1Xtra lost 99,000 listeners, World Service lost 85,000 and Radio 4 Extra lost 52,000 listeners. 

Overall, it's difficult to determine any distinct pattern or trend, although national commercial radio seemed to be the greater beneficiary, with a few exceptions.  Although Heart Devon lost listeners and Gold Devon gained, the reverse was true across the networks.  Heart gained slightly across the UK, whilst Gold lost listeners.  The Breeze South West continued to lose ground, losing another 5,000 listeners, and dropping below 1% in share, whilst sister station Jack FM gained 10,000 listeners in Bristol, but they average hours went down by 2 hours.  Local commmercial radio doesn't seem to gaining much ground, if any.  Without significant improvement to the local commercial radio product, listeners will continue to desert stations.  The BBC needs to be wary that any cuts made to BBC local radio, especially the replacing of regional evening shows with an England-wide evening show, may send listeners away from the radio entirely in the evening, especially with local commercial radio moving away from live evening shows themselves.  And once they disappear, it will be hard to get them back.

Rajar's released at Midnight.

All the radio stations that subscribe to RAJAR will have recieved their Q1 2012 figures today, and the public figures get released at Midnight tonight.

For me here at Viewpoint, this means that I will be paying especially close attention to the figures for Atlantic FM.  And no, I do not mean Heart Cornwall, as that did not start until May 7th, so well into Q2.  These figures will be the last set of figures for Atlantic FM, as it was.  The figures in Q2 will be transitional between Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall, so we won't get an idea how Heart Cornwall is really doing until Q3.  Even then, because RAJAR use a year's worth of listening figures to determine the final numbers for Atlantic FM / Heart Cornwall, it won't be until the Q2 2013 figures are released before we get a clear set of Heart Cornwall figures as opposed to a combination of Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall.

There are three sets of figures that you should pay close attention to. 

Average Hours Per Listener: This is quite simple.  The average number of hours that a listener listens to the station per week.  The lower the number, the less time is spent listening to the station.  For example, 7 hours per listener would indicate an average of an hour per day.  Less than this is considered bad performance.  Above 10 hours a week would be considered good performance.

Listening Share in TSA: This requires a little bit of explanation.  TSA means Total Survey Area, the area which is used to measure the audience.  The population figure on the results give you the size of the population in that TSA aged 15 or older.  The total number of hours that the station accrues, is divided by the total number of hours spent by listeners listening to the radio as a whole, and that gives you your share of listening.  The higher the number, the better the performance.  Below 5% share in considered bad performance, whilst above 10% is regarded as good performance.  Very few stations achieve over a 20% share.

Weekly Reach: This is quite simple.  It's how many people listen to a station for at least 5 minutes a week.  This is measured against the 15+ population (people aged 15 or older) and a percentage is taken.  Generally the higher the percentage, the better the performance, but there are many more factors in here when it comes to judging this.  In London, there are a large number of local radio stations broadcasting on AM, FM and DAB, as well as the national ones.  Whilst in somewhere like Cornwall, there is only the BBC local radio station and 2 ILRs to go with the nationals.  Guernsey and Jersey have only the local BBC station and one commercial station against the nationals.  And now with DAB, there are over 20 national radio stations, not the 8 we've been used to on AM and FM.  It does mean that making sense of the reach figures in a bit trickier.  However, for a local station, a reach below 10% is not good.  And even up to 15% probably indicates some improvement needed.

Basically to improve your overall performance, you need to reach as many people as possible, and once they're listening, get them to listen for longer.  It's not easy, but there are ways to be more successful at it.  I'll get into those methods in a future post.

I'll be ready at Midnight tonight to get the data release and analyse it myself to see what can be determined. 

 

Goodbye Atlantic FM...

So the last live presenter on Atlantic FM signed off today at noon.  The station formerly known as Atlantic FM, but currently known as "Heart is coming", has been playing back to back music since.

Heart Cornwall officially launches at 8am with Victoria Leigh, ex of Atlantic FM's Full Cornish Breakfast, doing the first and only live breakfast show exclusively for Cornwall on Heart.  As it currently stands, there will not be another one in the foreseeable future.  Heart Devon have the excrusiating Emma Scott.  Heart Cornwall will usually just have to put up with her on Saturday Mornings as she will host Saturday Breakfast from 8am to Noon.  Dave Luck hosts Sunday Breakfast between the same times.

Normally, Victoria Leigh will do the drivetime show exclusively for Cornwall from 4pm to 7pm Weekdays, whilst Heart Devon will have Emma Scott.

We won't get our new regular breakfast show until Tuesday morning with Matt and Caroline.  And you can bet that in the 26 hours from Monday 8am to Tuesday 10am, most of the links will be promoting the new Heart Cornwall, even on network programmes.  They have the ability to voicetrack separate links for individual transmitters if they need to, and they'll be taking full advantage of that during that 26 hour period and probably at least once per hour for the rest of the week, except of course during Victoria Leigh's shows.

So, farewell Atlantic FM.  0730 06/07/2006 - 1200 06/05/2012

And farewell as well to Heart Plymouth on the NOW Cornwall DAB multiplex.  That has been replaced already by Heart Cornwall, same output as FM.  Well at least, we're getting the right version of Heart right now, which is still more than can be said for listeners to DAB in North Devon.  I understand they are still getting the Exeter ads on their version of Heart on local DAB.

But although Heart Cornwall may be coming in the morning, I will probably be saying goodbye to it soon afterwards, as I will almost inevitably return to the better products that exist on the radio.  Pirate FM, BBC Radio Cornwall, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC World Service, WNYC, WETA, WGBH and the many other superior choices that are available online. 

But I do have something to look forward to.  CHBN Radio, formerly known as Truro Hospital Radio, will be launching soon on FM, and I will be awaiting their launch with a lot of interest. 

And so, the homogonisation begins...

Yes, the dreaded process of assimilating Atlantic FM into the Heart network has begun.  By comparing the output of Heart Plymouth on DAB and Atlantic FM on FM, I can tell that they are playing excatly the same songs, in exactly the same order.

I am reminded of Star Trek's The Borg in all this.  "We are Heart.  Resistence is futile.  You will be assimilated."  Central playlists, one of the scourges of great radio, going back to days of GWR Group.  Yeuch!!!

Still, this is the reality we have right now, but to know that commercial radio can do so much better, but they seem to only want to do just about adequate, which doesn't cut it with lots of listeners.  There is an old joke that rings so true here.  "Good enough?  Good enough is not good enough, Goodenough!"

Why should listeners put up with good enough, when they can do so much better, and we can hear so much better on the internet.  Content is still king, despite what the big commercial radio groups think.

A Rebuttal to Radio Today's Stuart Clarkson

Radio Today is supposed to be a radio news site.  But last week's commentary from Stuart Clarkson about brands, which although spoke a lot of truth, asked one really stupid question.  Was anybody missing Plymouth Sound?

Yes, people are missing Plymouth Sound, and Gemini FM, and Lantern FM, and South Hams Radio, and Orchard FM and Westward Radio and all the other local names.  Listeners miss that feeling of a local friend they can turn to.  Because of the lack of localness, there are implications for things like flood warnings and weather warnings.  Local radio stations would be able to give detailed warnings of flooding risk, the kind that are released by the Environment Agency.  A network operation even with split links, cannot provide that same degree of localness.  The reason for this is simple, it's impossible to talk about any area like you have a local knowledge, if you are not from that area.  You can't buy the local knowledge that comes from having lived for a while in that area.  That kind of local knowledge cannot be duplicated from a network hub.

But, this week, Stuart Clarkson exposed his own lack of local knowledge when writing a commentary on the aftermath of Global buying Atlantic.  Time to debunk some myths, and translate the rest of it back into actuality.

But first, an actual piece of truth.

"In many cases, small stations are struggling to make ends meet, and for some the only option is to consider whether there’s a better option than handing back the licence and depriving local advertisers of a marketing outlet that’s needed more than ever in these tough economic times."

Yes, this is true, small stations are struggling to make ends meet, and they don't make it any easier for themselves when they do things wrong, like trying to promote a station with a marketing budget of exactly £0.  Social media is helpful as part of a marketing strategy, but it cannot be the entireity of the marketing strategy.
And for a small station that is struggling, asking presenters to help the sales team in selling advertising is a trick that needs to be done.  Even if it's only for an hour or so a day, every little thing that can be done to help a station, should be done.  Unfortunately, far too many stations don't do everything they can to make things work.

"So-called radio fans and industry folk took to social media sites and our own comments box to demonstrate their outrage at the ‘big bad Heart’ and wish bad things to happen to Global."

When listeners realise that the station they used to like is gone, there is a backlash and a drop off in listenership.  Global is basically nothing than GWR version 3.0, combined with the worst of the attitudes that ITV exhibited between about 1993 and 2005.  That's a hell of a lot of negative baggage to be carrying around.  The only way Global could shift that excess baggage is to totally reverse course and it is impossible to see that happening in the current conditions, but it is still extremely unlikely to happen even if the economy improves, because it does not seem to be in Global's heart, pardon the pun, to produce radio that makes people sit up and listen.  They're not making radio that would enthuse people, they are creating aural wallpaper.  Is it any wonder that listeners actually don't like what Global and Heart represent?  Bland maybe safe, but it's not a winner, it's merely a way to avoid losing badly.  Unfortunately, this means that people who are looking for more interesting radio are having to look around for something better.  Hence why the BBC does so well.  BBC Radio right now is just a better worked product.  If commercial radio was more prepared to put more content into their product, they might find it better liked by listeners, and by advertisers.

"Which got me thinking. Isn’t it time we stopped the whinging, and just accepted that the state of the economy and the legacy of licensing decisions down the years means we are where we are? And that we should focus on the future of our industry instead of harping back to a ‘golden era’ that will never return? Just a thought."

No, because factually that does not hold true.  Whilst it may be true that regulatory approval was required to create GWR from the combination of Radio West and Wiltshire Radio, the attitude that became prevalent in that company was a product of greed and ambition.  The fact that so many stations have been bought up to create these networks that we see now, is also partially a fault of the radio stations themselves.  The inability to adapt to changing situations is ultimately what allowed a lot of these stations to be bought out.  Also, newer stations that came on stream didn't actually plan things out properly, with non-existent marketing budgets and no back-up plans in case of problems.  If you can't respond to change, expect to not be around for long.

And by the way, all this talk of harping back to a golden era that will never return, just came from you, Stuart Clarkson.  Nobody is harping back to any so called golden era, which in fact didn't exist.  What we are looking for is for stations to have an attitude towards providing a service that people truly want, something that will enthuse them, rather than providing something bland and uninspiring that they just accept because it's about as good as it currently gets.

"Stop and think for a second about your own radio listening habits. And then think about how a friend or family member who doesn’t work in radio (or have an unhealthy interest in the medium) consumes it. "

Oh, now this is just a humungous insult to radio listeners.  For far too long, anybody who had an interest and expressed a point of view about television was denigrated in the same way.  It is just an insult to people's intelligence, and demonstrates that the only view you're interested in, is the one that agrees with you.  I've heard opinions from a lot of people over the years who would not fit that description, and they have expressed the exact same concerns, the exact same worries, the exact same issues.  Unfortunately it seems that most radio stations seem to be chasing a C2DE audience exclusively, which leaves the ABC1 audience looking elsewhere.  Far too often, you get the sense that your intelligence is being insulted by what you're listening to, that the station is not trying to appeal to a broader market, say BC1C2D, and you're left feeling like they're not speaking to you, and since radio's main benefit is it's ability to speak to people on a 1 to 1 basis, you feel that radio stations are disobeying the first commandment of radio.  Thou shalt always make a connection with your audience.  So not only is this whole idea of someone who has an unhealthy interest in the medium not only an insult, but a deliberate lie.  It says "you'll get what we give you and like it, and if you don't, we're not going to listen to you."  Surely no bigger cardinal sin exists in broadcasting.

"In an age of the internet, smartphones and multi-channel TV, listeners are far less bothered about where their favourite radio station is based than they were in the 70s, 80s or even the 90s."

There is a grain of truth here, but the reason for it is a direct result of the GWR/GCap/Global slow erosion of local radio and radio content.  Over the years, radio companies, primarily led by GWR and Capital, fought against all the regulations that the IBA, Radio Authority and Ofcom have been required to enforce, and it's a battle they've been slowly winning.  Now, if they'd put as much effort into winning listeners over, as they had into fighting the regulator, it's very likely, they wouldn't be fighting for survival, they'd be doing bloody well, making plenty of profits and the BBC would probably be struggling to justify its existence.  If commercial radio was a much better product than it is now, the BBC would not be as successful.

In other words, they're not so bothered about where they get their radio content from, because they've been disenfranchised by commercial radio in this country, which has forced them to look further afield.

Ironically one of the few stations that has bucked the downmarket trend is one that was originally set up to compete with the highbrow BBC Radio 3.  Classic FM had to go slightly down from the Radio 3 level, but could not afford to go too far downmarket, as the audience for classical music, was at a higher demographic level than popular music.  And Classic FM is the most popular national commercial radio station in the country.  It just goes to show that if you go for higher demographics with content, you can win.

Now do that at a local level, and promote and market your station effectively, and anything is possible.

"In many markets, Radios 1, 2 and 4 still knock the local commercial competition into oblivion. Which tells me this: big name DJs (yes I know that contradicts my point above, thanks), a professional sound, and content that has no local relevance are all still a massive hit with listeners."

I'm afraid that that is purely a reflection of how bad the local commercial stations, and in some cases, the local BBC stations, are in those markets.  Any good national product, will defeat any local product that is mediocre or worse, but a good local product beats a good national product every time.  Just ask listeners in Cornwall and Devon.

"So will Atlantic’s change to Heart lose audience for the frequency? I very much doubt it. If anything it’ll go up. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. A core audience of listeners love it – and that’s good for business, and good for the survival of our industry."

This segment is doubly wrong.  I'll take the second one first.  "A core audience of listeners love (Heart) - and that's good for business, and good for the survival of our industry."  Whilst a core audience may like it, and I have seen first hand evidence that that is actually true, just maintaining your core audience, is not good for your station, in neither the present, nor the future.  Every CEO of any major company the world over, will tell you that you need to grow your business, and for radio, the only way is to increase the listenership, and the only way to do that, is to provide a product that is less aural wallpaper, and more attention seeker.

Now, for his prediction that Heart's audience will rise from Atlantic's levels.  Evidently, he has never spent time in Cornwall or Devon, or actually spoken to anybody round here about radio.  So clearly he doesn't understand the market.  I'll give him an idea just how wrong he is.  There are still major intertown and intercity rivalries, across both Devon and Cornwall.  Plymouth vs Exeter, Truro vs Falmouth, St Austell vs Bodmin, Camborne vs Redruth, and that is not just restricted to the sporting fields.  There is a local saying that comes to mind.  'Redruth is Redruth, Camborne is Camborne, and never the twain shall meet, except at Pool Market on Sundays.'  The whole of the South West, is very much locally driven, locally focused.  When Plymouth Sound and DevonAir back in 1990, said they were going to air joint evening and overnight output, there was hell up from listeners around Plymouth, saying how dare you give us programming from Exeter.  My prediction is to expect a major drop off in listenership, from the current 71,000 down to around 17,000 or even 7,000 within about a year or so.  You already have the Heart Plymouth signal relayed in Cornwall on DAB, along with Capital, XFM and Kiss 100 all relayed from London, and I guarantee you none of the stations have very significant listenerships, not merely because of only being transmitted down here on DAB, but also because they don't connect with listeners down here.  If you expect Heart to connect with listeners, in a market which is strongly local, when they shown no interest in anything strongly local to anywhere, then I'm afraid your logic is very flawed, and your expectations are far too high.

"We must not forget that commercial radio is a business. Yes, in the early days it was about ensuring local democracy, doing ‘lost pets’ features and promoting the bring-and-buy sale at your local town hall. But times have changed. All around the UK, small local stations – whether part of groups or stand-alones – are struggling. And why should those owners carry on throwing money at something that’s showing no signs of returning to the heyday of the 90s when single town stations were changing hands for upwards of three or four million pounds a pop?"

Yes, Commercial Radio is a business, and yet, that is exactly why they need to do more to get back to profitability.  The lower you set your targets, the harder it is to get there.  I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but how often have we seen in sports, teams set a low target and they can't get there, and yet the same team gets set a much higher target in a different game, and they make it with ease.  There is a saying.  'Aim for the moon.  Even if you miss, you will still be among the stars.'  Yes, times are difficult, the money is tight, but if you aim high and truly believe you can get there, then  even if you miss by a little bit, you'll still be doing much better than you are now. 

"I’ve heard comments before along the lines of “Ofcom should just give Heart and Capital a national frequency and let local groups have the local frequencies back to do proper local radio.” If that thought has entered your head then you need to sell your house and move into the real world – and fast. Global don’t want a national licence for Heart or Capital. They might want to share all programming 24/7 on the stations one day, but they don’t want to give up the ability to sell local ads in local markets. That’s their business model and it seems to be doing pretty well for them right now. Programmes of a standard worthy of national radio with a mix of national, regional and local sponsors and advertisers – plus the ability to do just the right amount of local news, sport, travel, weather and what’s ons that the listeners say they want. What’s not to like?"

Quite a lot really.  First of all, they are blocking other competition from getting into the market, and that's enough of a reason.  If they want to do national radio, let then do it on a second national multiplex, which by the way, there's enough demand out there from both sides, from both listeners and from other stations.  Put Heart on there, put Capital on there, put Kiss on there, put XFM on there, and that will free up space on many local multiplexes for other local stations, including those that are still currently FM only, to join the digital revolution, ready for the switch off of analogue radio, a switch off that frankly I don't believe should be happening, but realistically, it looks like it is going to be happening, so the industry needs to get on board, because the train is leaving the station and it seems there will be no delaying it.

And how can you say their business model is working for them, when they haven't made a profit in the last 2 years?

"We’re in the middle of a defining period in our industry and I expect the next few weeks will bring more change too. So let’s try to embrace that change, look for the positives and pull together as an industry to ensure a secure future for radio in the UK."

A defining period???  What we are seeing here is the same thing we have been seeing for the past 20+ years, a slow painful decline in an industry that has forgotten how to go on the offensive, and only play defensive.  If you truly want to secure a future for commercial radio that has the degree of loyalty that we have seen recently from listeners of BBC Local Radio with the cuts that were threatened, then the commercial radio industry needs to buck its ideas up, offer a better product than just aural wallpaper, and get people interested again. 

Global buys Atlantic FM: There are no winners here.

I am disappointed at the recent news that Global Radio is buying Atlantic FM and rebranding it to Heart.

Programming will no longer come from Atlantic's studios in St Agnes but from the old Gemini FM studios in Exeter.  Programmes from Exeter, for a Cornish audience.  That's really going to get an audience... NOT!

You see Heart's owner, Global Radio, is a combination of all the worst parts of UK broadcast history.
It goes all the way back to 1980.  Back then, a radio station called Radio West started broadcasting in Bristol.  By 1985 though, it and nearby station Wiltshire Radio were losing money hand over fist.  The IBA, the regulator at the time, examined the situation and was presented by the stations with a proposal.  Allow the two stations to merge, and broadcasts could continue, otherwise, both stations would have failed and the licences would have to be readvertised. 

The IBA knew that re-adveritisng licences for areas where stations had failed could be problematic.  The IBA had previously disallowed a takeover of Centre Radio in Leicestershire in 1983, and the station had gone off air.  The owners of Radio Trent offered to start a new station in Leicestershire, called Leicester Sound, and 11 months after Centre Radio went off air, Leicester Sound signed on.  So the IBA had previous experience of the difficulties of re-advertising a licence.  They were determined not to make the same mistake again.

So the IBA basically allowed the merger to go ahead.  But in the process, a monster was born, that thought that expansionism was the way to go.  Once the IBA had been replaced by The Radio Authority and the ITC by Margaret Thatcher's government, GWR began expaniding it's reach.  GWR teamed up with Capital to buy Plymouth Sound and DevonAir Radio.  DevonAir was replaced by Gemini FM in a franchise auction, and Capital basically sold the rest of Plymouth Sound to GWR.  GWR continued to pick up stations including the Chiltern Radio network and would begin the process of slowly eroding localness from it's output.  First, all the AM stations were replaced by a networked Classic Gold service with just 4 hours of local output per day for 6 days out of 7, a total of 24 hours of local programming a week.

Then GWR tried to get local programming cut down to just 13 hours a day across their network, but the regulator said that it had to be 16 hours a day.  As a deliberate move, they made 3 of the local hours 3am to 6am in the morning, at the most unprofitable time of the day.  It was as though they were trying to send a message to the regulator that local doesn't work.  Network programming ran from 7pm till 3am.

Eventually, OFCOM backed down and basically local programming has been slashed on Heart ever since.  There is now only 7 hours of "local" programming on Heart on weekdays, and 4 hours at weekends, a total of 43 hours a week.  The company behind Heart, Global Radio, basically these days is a mixture of the GCap attitudes and the attitude of Charles Allen, who basically oversaw the downgrading of ITV from a serious regional broadcaster with a unique selling point, to a company that is little different from the myriad of digital TV broadcasters.  In short, it is the worst of all media worlds, joined together in one place.

People have said this will increase choice.  It won't.  Heart were already broadcasting in Cornwall via DAB Digital Radio, relaying the Devon service with Plymouth ads.  The least I can hope for is that on the Cornwall mux they arrange to playout the Cornwall ads instead.  Other than that, there would be no discernable difference in output, and we have lost the Atlantic FM sound on FM, to make way for Heart.  Jermey Scott called this an upgrade for Atlantic.  it is not, it is a downgrade, and most listeners in Cornwall will know this.
Expect the listenership figures for Atlantic/Heart to plummet from the current 71,000, to a level nearer 17,000 or even maybe nearer 7,000.

Pirate FM and BBC Radio Cornwall will undoubtedly be the beneficiaries.  There's enough history as well to back that up.  In 1999, Plymouth Sound AM was replaced by Classic Gold.   The figures dropped from 67,000 to 20,000.  Pirate FM picked up most of the listeners who deserted.  Now, history will repeat itself, and Global Radio haven't learned the lessons of the past.  If you don't learn from the past, you are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past, which is what Global will do.

The worst part is whilst Atlantic FM never made a profit, they were almost as well respected as Pirate FM.  They knew they were coming into a tough market with both Pirate FM and BBC Radio Cornwall being long established and successful stations.  That Atlantic FM couldn't be profitable despite their best efforts is regrettable, and understandable.  But the fact that Global haven't understood the dynamics of the area they are proposing to move into and are going to output to Cornwall from Exeter and London, shows how much the company is out of touch with actuality. 

Global Radio haven't even been profitable the last 2 financial years, yet Ashley Tabor has taken home about £6million in bonuses.  Bonuses for failure.  Failing to grow in terms of listeners, and failing to grow in terms of credibility and respect.

Global is about as hated as GWR Group and GCap Media were before them.  That sort of baggage only weighs a company down.  Global is a company that needs to change it's whole direction and priorities.  Being overfocused on cutting costs, does not lead to making profits.  Their whole mindset, has to turn towards growth, growing the company and investing in its future.  ITV know all about that.  Since Charles Allen left ITV, they have been trying to grow their business, but the market does not have faith in ITV.  It was in 2007 that ITV last saw their share price above the £1 level that indicates market confidence in a company, and even though they have recovered from their March 2009 lows of around 18p per share, they have still yet to recover above the £1 level.  Global is not a plc, unlike ITV, so it's shares do not trade.  But I would imagine that if they did trade on the stock exchange,they would similarly trade below £1.

This move is not good for commercial radio as a whole, and further reinforces the image that Global, through their actions, are slowly destroying local radio, in the same way that ITV decimated regional television.  And whilst that definitely isn't what they are trying to do, that is the perception they are giving off, and as I always say, perception IS reality.

Ratings Review: RAJAR Quarter 3 2007

The new set of RAJARs for June to September 2007 are out, and there are many interesting things to report.

First to the BBC Local Radio stations, and their top 10 by reach percentage...

01. BBC Radio Jersey - 45%
02. BBC Radio Cornwall - 36%
03. BBC Radio Guernsey - 35%
04. BBC Radio Cumbria - 33%
05. BBC Radio Stoke - 32%
06. BBC Radio Humberside - 30%
07. BBC Hereford & Worcester - 29%
08. BBC Radio Suffolk - 27%

and then we have a 4-way tie

09=. BBC Radio Derby - 25%
09=. BBC Radio Devon - 25%
09=. BBC Radio Norfolk - 25%
09=. BBC Radio Shropshire - 25%

BBC Radio Cornwall's performance is a real standout in that list, despite having a lot of competition in the area, with Pirate FM, Atlantic FM, and on DAB, Plymouth Sound as well, broadcasting across the county of Cornwall, and despite being 2% down on the last quarter.

Pirate FM have done well this quarter with 31%, up 1% on the last quarter. But the local story in Cornwall is Atlantic FM, who are up 3% on the quarter, despite still being in third place overall.

Nearby Plymouth Sound are down 2% on the quarter to 29% reach. BBC Radio Devon are holding steady at about 25%. Gemini FM are down 1% to 34%, whilst Lantern FM are down 2% at 39% reach.

Orchard FM have managed their own standout performance, gaining an extra 3% to 39% reach. South Hams Radio is down 1% at 14%.

Meanwhile, the newly merged Classic Gold and Capital Gold brand, known only as Gold, is floundering badly. Gold Plymouth is down 1% to 3% in percentage terms, but that represents losing about 25% of their audience, from a reach of 13,000 listeners to a reach of just 9,000. The audience for the 1152 AM frequency has collapsed since the local Plymouth Sound AM was closed and replaced with the semi national Classic Gold Plymouth, as it was. Perhaps OFCOM will do well to remember this when the Plymouth AM licence comes up for renewal. The licence is due to expire at the end of 2015.

However, the Exeter & Torbay version is a bit of a standout gaining 2% to 5%. An extra 7,000 listeners for the AM station which partners Gemini FM.

It's a little trickier to discern the top perfomers in local commercial radio,due to the sheer number of stations but here we go...

01. Radio Borders - 54%
02. Radio Pembrokeshire - 53%
03=. Manx Radio - 52%
03=. Channel 103 FM - 52%
05. Island FM 104.7 - 49%
06. Moray Firth Radio - 47%
07. West Sound - 45%
08. Spire FM - 44%
09. Yorkshire Coast Radio 42%
10. C. F. M. Radio - 41%

Notable there is that the two locals for the Channel Islands, Channel 103 FM and Island FM, both manage to outscore their BBC counterparts, and as well, between BBC Radios Geurnsey and Jersey, Channel 103 and Island FM, they manage to almost completely dominate radio listneing in the Channel Islands. The national stations between them don't get much of a look in.

Also notable there is Manx Radio which is unconnected to the ILR network, and began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, 9 years before ILR began and 3 years before any BBC Local Radio stations. 1964 was the height of the pirate radio revolution in Britain. Radio Caroline had begun broadcasting just 3 months earlier on 28th March and Radio Atlanta had lanuched on 12 May. At the time of Manx Radio's launch, Radio Atlanta was days away from closure and eventual merger with Radio Caroline to become Caroline South.

On the national front, BBC Radio 2 continues to be the most popular national station with just over 13 million listeners. Radio 1 is next with around 10.5 million listeners and third is BBC Radio 4 with just over 9.25 million listeners.

Next comes the most popular national commercial radio station, Classic FM with over 5.8 million listeners. Radio Five Live is just behind them with just under 5.5 million listeners.

Of the pseudo-national commercial networks, the top performers continue to outperform the national stations on AM and Digital, TalkSport and Virgin Radio. Magic is the best performing network with 3.43 million listeners, followed closely by Heart with just under 3.33 million listeners. Kiss is also a top performer with just under 3.1 million listeners, as is Galaxy's network with 2.6 million listeners.

By comparison, Virgin have around 2.47 million listeners and TalkSport, a mere 2.31 million.

Comparing very unfavourably in the network stakes is Gold. I highlighted the Plymouth station as a particular failure of the brand, but as a whole, the network is not much better. The network of stations on AM and DAB gets just under 1.5 million listners, which is down from the around 1.58 million listeners of the combined Capital and Classic Gold networks last quarter. When you think that this includes station in high population areas such as London, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester, this performance comes across as doubly poor!