So, it seems that we've got the beginning of the end of the BBC Local Radio evening show. BBC Radio London dropped the show some months ago, and next Monday, BBC Radio Cornwall also drops the show, with Tiffany Truscott taking on the Evening Show slot. BBC WM are also dropping their remaining airings of the show on Mondays & Thursdays, to replace it with local evening shows on those days, whilst Tuesday, Wendesday and Friday evenings are dedicated to local sport.
Other stations that have already dropped the show, include BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Newcastle, BBC Radio Sheffield, whilst BBC Radio Stoke have just one hour of the show on a Friday evening. Other stations have hours of the Local Radio Evening Show substituted for sports coverage and BBC Introducing, amongst other things.
This is a very piecemeal way of dropping the show. Individual stations are deciding when they are dropping it, rather than having a confirmed cut-off date, where the show officially ends. Where I live, I can pick up both BBC Radio Devon and BBC Radio Cornwall, and whilst Cornwall is starting their own evening programme next week, Devon is sticking with the show, except for some Tuesday sports coverage. Also, it seems that each individual station is now doing it's own thing in the evening slot, rather than the regional arrangements we've had before. Some stations are including BBC Introducing shows in the evening schedule, and specialist music and content shows, others are just doing one long evening slot. This is the first time ever, outside of sports coverage, that BBC Radio Cornwall has gone its own separate way for the evening slot.
In the Mid 80's BBC Radio Bristol supplied evening programming between 6pm and 8pm with Al Read presenting, but that disappeared shortly before Late Night Sou'West laucnhed in 1987 with Chris Langmore hosting from 10pm. Then BBC Radio Bristol supplied the evening output with Chris Mills between 7pm and 10pm. Later, Devon, Cornwall, Guernsey and Jersey would split away from Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and have their own evening show, then later on all the stations came back together for a while where all post 7pm output, including the late night show, was shared between all those stations. then later Duncan Warren hosted an evening programme on Devon, Cornwall, Guernsey and Jersey, with somebody else hosting the late night slot.
Now, you'll have Tiffany Truscott hosting just for Cornwall, and the only shared output, will be David Shepherd's Late Show. Very much not what I expected, I was expecting to see more regional output between 7pm and 10pm, but more local is good. Maybe it will help remind commercial radio that they should be more local than network.
Showing posts with label BBC Guernsey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC Guernsey. Show all posts
Wednesday, 15 August 2018
Thursday, 9 November 2017
Viewpoint: BBC Local Radio cancels the network evening show, and cancels the cuts!
Finally... some sense has at last permeated into the hallways of Broadcasting House, and penetrated the thick skulls of BBC management.
Just think about this. In the last year, BBC Local Radio in England reached 133,000 less people now than it did in 2016, according to RAJAR. And why is that? Because they were continuing to use an outdated idea of what BBC Local Radio is. Well, outdated is not perhaps the most accurate term for it. Try, short sighted, ill-advised, ill-judged, and outdated. The current local radio format, is basically the same one that has been in place since 1992, before the internet became a common thing, and before social media even existed.
At the time, the strategy seemed to be a good one, make BBC journalism the core of the local radio product. The net result of that though was a more talk format during weekday daytime, which felt a little off, and also an all talk breakfast slot. This felt a little bit like overkill, in trying to differentiate themselves from their commercial radio competition. As the internet has become a phenomenon and social media has come into being and grown into another phenomenon, so the strategy of serving the over 50s audience, allowing commercial radio to come in and hoover up the 18-54 audience, has looked more and more ill-judged. After all, local radio should be serving communities, not demographics.
In fact, BBC Director General Lord Tony Hall even admitted as much in his speech at the Frank Gillard Awards in Coventry Cathedral tonight. “Local Radio should be for everybody,” he said. “It’s there to serve the Facebook generation as much as the rest of us.”Too right it is there to serve everyone in a community, even if that community is as diverse and eclectic as Cornwall.
But the thing that makes me most overjoyed, is the cancellation of the network evening show. In my view, it was and still is, the biggest mistake BBC local radio ever made. Heck, there have been times in the past when BBC local radio had to save money, and cut the number of regional outputs in the evening slot from the previous 10, down to 4. Whilst it didn't feel particularly local, it didn't feel particularly distant either. The network evening show has felt distant and disconnected from the rest of the BBC local radio output, even though they were following the daytime more talk format, which was also a mistake for an evening show to do.
On top of that, it eliminated some particularly well thought out local strategies for the evening output, such as Duncan Warren's Evening Show on BBC Radios Cornwall, Devon, Guernsey and Jersey. Any sports coverage that any of the local stations needed to do was cleverly opted out of the show at the relevant point, and then they would opt back in at the end. Meanwhile Duncan's show would update the information on that sports event during the show for those who couldn't bear to listen to the coverage, or just weren't in the right area.
Listeners to BBC Local Radio stations in the South were annoyed to lose the thinner record spinner, Roger Day from their evening output. BBC Radio London would lose their nightly sports programme, which was a great idea for an area like London, where there are many different sports teams and usually at least one of them would be in action most evenings. In many areas, there was consternation about losing these good local shows for a network evening show. But now, the beast that is the network evening show, has been slayed, or at least is dying a slow death, officially ending next summer, probably right around the time next year's football season starts at a guess.
In fact, Tony Hall's speech at the Frank Gillard Awards held great promise for the future of BBC Local Radio.
“I’m a Director-General who believes in Local Radio. I recognise the unique value the BBC locally can bring. We’re an organisation that’s global, national and rooted in our local teams. Local Radio is in the DNA of our communities. I think that is more important than ever. England’s changing. It’s always been a patchwork of communities, with quite distinct identities. While Newcastle’s population is getting older, Bradford’s is getting younger and Birmingham is becoming one of the most diverse cities in Europe. Decision-making is being devolved too – there are mayors in some of the big metropolitan areas and that’s having an impact.
“I want to hear the sound of England as it changes. So while other media are becoming creatively less local, I want us to become even more so and to connect with our audiences in new ways.
“For many years the BBC has been reducing its investment in Local Radio. The development of new technology and the growth of smartphones has seen many people getting their local news, weather and traffic information digitally. But the rise of digital technology has also seen the rise of fake news, not just on a global level but on a local one as well. That’s why the role of BBC Local Radio is actually becoming more important – not less.
“Local Radio should be for everybody. It’s there to serve the Facebook generation every bit as much as the rest of us. My ambition for BBC Local Radio is for it to have more creative freedom, to celebrate local life, to be the place where we report local news but also the place we reflect local identity, nurture local talent and engage local audiences through digital platforms. I want to see a renaissance in Local Radio.”
Now, what this implies, is in many ways, a back to basics approach for BBC Local Radio, back to how it used to be before 1992, when the station's Managing Director, had much greater control over the local output, than the current Editors do.
Community Radio has taken on a lot of what BBC local radio, and indeed Independent Local Radio, used to be. Community radio has really become the community's voice on the airwaves, the place where local life is not only celebrated, it's almost revered. Community radio nowadays reflects local identity and nurtures local talent more than the BBC or Local Commercial Radio does. Local Commercial Radio is going more generic and more national, and has been for a long time. And Tony Hall is quite correct when stating that the BBC had been reducing investment in Local Radio, but from what he's saying, and this is purely speculation on my part, that increased investment in the Local Radio product is coming and its coming at a more local level. But what does this mean?
In an area which I'm most familiar with, the South West, I can forsee a few possibilities. The first, and easiest to achieve, is increasing the output of Somerset Sound, or as it is now known BBC Somerset. At the moment, BBC Somerset shares output with Radio Bristol 0500-0630 and 1200-1600 on weekdays, as well as sharing the evening and overnight output from 1900 to 0500, whether that's BBC Radio 5 Live, Ujima Radio, Somer Valley FM or BCFM, or any other programme for that matter.
At the weekends, BBC Somerset broadcasts local programmes from 0600 to 1300 on a Saturday, whilst on Sundays, BBC Somerset and BBC Radio Bristol completely share output. Changing that situation so that from 0500-1900 on weekdays, and 0600-1800 on weekends, BBC Somerset is completely local, is the minimum requirement.
The second requires more work, but I am sure this can be done, and that is to turn the weekday breakfast opt-out for Dorset into a full radio station. The minimum requirement here is adding some weekday drivetime output, but in reality, nothing less than a full local radio service will do. Lots of people in Dorset think that the BBC forgets about them, and to be fair, they have a point. Years ago, the BBC Dorset FM optout ran from 0630 to 1300 every weekday, opting out of BBC Radio Devon. Now it's merely 0630 to 0900 opting out of BBC Radio Solent. There needs to be some serious work done to change the long earned reputation that to the BBC, Dorset is the forgotten county.
The third is the one that I think might be least likely to happen, but they have done opt-outs before for this area, and could easily again, and that is to make the 95.7 FM frequency for BBC Radio Devon in Plymouth, as well as the DAB version on the Plymouth multiplex, a Plymouth opt-out or even, a full separate station. A BBC Plymouth, maybe titled BBC Plymouth Sound as a needle to Heart, would only have Radio Plymouth as the local competition, as Heart South West's output in Plymouth is the same as it is across the rest of Devon, minus adverts of course. The BBC could have the advantage by doing local Plymouth Breakfast and Drivetime shows, plus weekend breakfast as well. Eventually, you might look to go full time with it, but that could be a way off in the future.
A fourth possibility would be to give BBC Radio Cornwall, the same status as BBC Radio Wales, Scotland and Ulster, and make it a National Regional station. This is unlikely to happen, but if they are serious about increasing local output, then how about adding local output to evenings and late night, 7 days a week. This would give the station the same levels of programming that the national regionals do. Even adding a daily news bulletin in the Cornish Language, even if it was only a couple of minutes, would make a difference to how the radio station is percieved in the Duchy.
And that's just on four of the 40 stations that the BBC currently runs, with the option to increase that so much more. With ViLoR, their Virtual Local Radio software, they have an option to run continuous music overnight rather than Radio 5 Live. When Radio 5 Live was introduced as the overnight sustaining service in the mid 1990s, it was done because it was the only way to hear 5 Live without interference. Now you have 5 Live on Digital Satellite (both Sky and Freesat), Digital Cable, Digital Terrestrial, online, and on DAB as well, the 5 Live overnight sustaining service just isn't necessary any longer.
Stations can contribute programmes to air overnight, and there are already a number of good candidates in my view for this. Programmes like Paul Miller's Soul Show, Graham Pass's show of crooners and music from the vintage years, Richard Green's Vintage Chart Show, Gillham Gold, and many others could be shared across network overnight, just like some of these programmes are already shared between stations in regional structres weekend evenings and Sunday afternoons.
All of these things and many more can be done relatively easily and quite quickly. The BBC is also supposed to be working with the community radio stations. Now BBC Radio Bristol utilises this partnership quite well, with Ujima Radio, BCFM and Somer Valley FM all producing a weekly hour of output to go out overnight at the weekend, plus there's a best of community radio show on Sunday afternoons at 5pm, and all of those programmes can be heard on BBC iPlayer Radio. BBC Radio Cornwall for instance, could work with Coast FM, Source FM, CHBN and RSAB to provide weekly hours of output that could be used to provide more local content at weekends, evenings or overnights.
BBC Radio Devon have Soundart Radio, Phonic FM, Bay FM and The Voice as possible producers of community radio hours. There's a lot of options out there that BBC Local Radio could utilise.
Hopefully we'll start seeing changes in 2018, but the one I am most looking forward to, is saying goodbye and good riddance to the network evening show.
Just think about this. In the last year, BBC Local Radio in England reached 133,000 less people now than it did in 2016, according to RAJAR. And why is that? Because they were continuing to use an outdated idea of what BBC Local Radio is. Well, outdated is not perhaps the most accurate term for it. Try, short sighted, ill-advised, ill-judged, and outdated. The current local radio format, is basically the same one that has been in place since 1992, before the internet became a common thing, and before social media even existed.
At the time, the strategy seemed to be a good one, make BBC journalism the core of the local radio product. The net result of that though was a more talk format during weekday daytime, which felt a little off, and also an all talk breakfast slot. This felt a little bit like overkill, in trying to differentiate themselves from their commercial radio competition. As the internet has become a phenomenon and social media has come into being and grown into another phenomenon, so the strategy of serving the over 50s audience, allowing commercial radio to come in and hoover up the 18-54 audience, has looked more and more ill-judged. After all, local radio should be serving communities, not demographics.
In fact, BBC Director General Lord Tony Hall even admitted as much in his speech at the Frank Gillard Awards in Coventry Cathedral tonight. “Local Radio should be for everybody,” he said. “It’s there to serve the Facebook generation as much as the rest of us.”Too right it is there to serve everyone in a community, even if that community is as diverse and eclectic as Cornwall.
But the thing that makes me most overjoyed, is the cancellation of the network evening show. In my view, it was and still is, the biggest mistake BBC local radio ever made. Heck, there have been times in the past when BBC local radio had to save money, and cut the number of regional outputs in the evening slot from the previous 10, down to 4. Whilst it didn't feel particularly local, it didn't feel particularly distant either. The network evening show has felt distant and disconnected from the rest of the BBC local radio output, even though they were following the daytime more talk format, which was also a mistake for an evening show to do.
On top of that, it eliminated some particularly well thought out local strategies for the evening output, such as Duncan Warren's Evening Show on BBC Radios Cornwall, Devon, Guernsey and Jersey. Any sports coverage that any of the local stations needed to do was cleverly opted out of the show at the relevant point, and then they would opt back in at the end. Meanwhile Duncan's show would update the information on that sports event during the show for those who couldn't bear to listen to the coverage, or just weren't in the right area.
Listeners to BBC Local Radio stations in the South were annoyed to lose the thinner record spinner, Roger Day from their evening output. BBC Radio London would lose their nightly sports programme, which was a great idea for an area like London, where there are many different sports teams and usually at least one of them would be in action most evenings. In many areas, there was consternation about losing these good local shows for a network evening show. But now, the beast that is the network evening show, has been slayed, or at least is dying a slow death, officially ending next summer, probably right around the time next year's football season starts at a guess.
In fact, Tony Hall's speech at the Frank Gillard Awards held great promise for the future of BBC Local Radio.
“I’m a Director-General who believes in Local Radio. I recognise the unique value the BBC locally can bring. We’re an organisation that’s global, national and rooted in our local teams. Local Radio is in the DNA of our communities. I think that is more important than ever. England’s changing. It’s always been a patchwork of communities, with quite distinct identities. While Newcastle’s population is getting older, Bradford’s is getting younger and Birmingham is becoming one of the most diverse cities in Europe. Decision-making is being devolved too – there are mayors in some of the big metropolitan areas and that’s having an impact.
“I want to hear the sound of England as it changes. So while other media are becoming creatively less local, I want us to become even more so and to connect with our audiences in new ways.
“For many years the BBC has been reducing its investment in Local Radio. The development of new technology and the growth of smartphones has seen many people getting their local news, weather and traffic information digitally. But the rise of digital technology has also seen the rise of fake news, not just on a global level but on a local one as well. That’s why the role of BBC Local Radio is actually becoming more important – not less.
“Local Radio should be for everybody. It’s there to serve the Facebook generation every bit as much as the rest of us. My ambition for BBC Local Radio is for it to have more creative freedom, to celebrate local life, to be the place where we report local news but also the place we reflect local identity, nurture local talent and engage local audiences through digital platforms. I want to see a renaissance in Local Radio.”
Now, what this implies, is in many ways, a back to basics approach for BBC Local Radio, back to how it used to be before 1992, when the station's Managing Director, had much greater control over the local output, than the current Editors do.
Community Radio has taken on a lot of what BBC local radio, and indeed Independent Local Radio, used to be. Community radio has really become the community's voice on the airwaves, the place where local life is not only celebrated, it's almost revered. Community radio nowadays reflects local identity and nurtures local talent more than the BBC or Local Commercial Radio does. Local Commercial Radio is going more generic and more national, and has been for a long time. And Tony Hall is quite correct when stating that the BBC had been reducing investment in Local Radio, but from what he's saying, and this is purely speculation on my part, that increased investment in the Local Radio product is coming and its coming at a more local level. But what does this mean?
In an area which I'm most familiar with, the South West, I can forsee a few possibilities. The first, and easiest to achieve, is increasing the output of Somerset Sound, or as it is now known BBC Somerset. At the moment, BBC Somerset shares output with Radio Bristol 0500-0630 and 1200-1600 on weekdays, as well as sharing the evening and overnight output from 1900 to 0500, whether that's BBC Radio 5 Live, Ujima Radio, Somer Valley FM or BCFM, or any other programme for that matter.
At the weekends, BBC Somerset broadcasts local programmes from 0600 to 1300 on a Saturday, whilst on Sundays, BBC Somerset and BBC Radio Bristol completely share output. Changing that situation so that from 0500-1900 on weekdays, and 0600-1800 on weekends, BBC Somerset is completely local, is the minimum requirement.
The second requires more work, but I am sure this can be done, and that is to turn the weekday breakfast opt-out for Dorset into a full radio station. The minimum requirement here is adding some weekday drivetime output, but in reality, nothing less than a full local radio service will do. Lots of people in Dorset think that the BBC forgets about them, and to be fair, they have a point. Years ago, the BBC Dorset FM optout ran from 0630 to 1300 every weekday, opting out of BBC Radio Devon. Now it's merely 0630 to 0900 opting out of BBC Radio Solent. There needs to be some serious work done to change the long earned reputation that to the BBC, Dorset is the forgotten county.
The third is the one that I think might be least likely to happen, but they have done opt-outs before for this area, and could easily again, and that is to make the 95.7 FM frequency for BBC Radio Devon in Plymouth, as well as the DAB version on the Plymouth multiplex, a Plymouth opt-out or even, a full separate station. A BBC Plymouth, maybe titled BBC Plymouth Sound as a needle to Heart, would only have Radio Plymouth as the local competition, as Heart South West's output in Plymouth is the same as it is across the rest of Devon, minus adverts of course. The BBC could have the advantage by doing local Plymouth Breakfast and Drivetime shows, plus weekend breakfast as well. Eventually, you might look to go full time with it, but that could be a way off in the future.
A fourth possibility would be to give BBC Radio Cornwall, the same status as BBC Radio Wales, Scotland and Ulster, and make it a National Regional station. This is unlikely to happen, but if they are serious about increasing local output, then how about adding local output to evenings and late night, 7 days a week. This would give the station the same levels of programming that the national regionals do. Even adding a daily news bulletin in the Cornish Language, even if it was only a couple of minutes, would make a difference to how the radio station is percieved in the Duchy.
And that's just on four of the 40 stations that the BBC currently runs, with the option to increase that so much more. With ViLoR, their Virtual Local Radio software, they have an option to run continuous music overnight rather than Radio 5 Live. When Radio 5 Live was introduced as the overnight sustaining service in the mid 1990s, it was done because it was the only way to hear 5 Live without interference. Now you have 5 Live on Digital Satellite (both Sky and Freesat), Digital Cable, Digital Terrestrial, online, and on DAB as well, the 5 Live overnight sustaining service just isn't necessary any longer.
Stations can contribute programmes to air overnight, and there are already a number of good candidates in my view for this. Programmes like Paul Miller's Soul Show, Graham Pass's show of crooners and music from the vintage years, Richard Green's Vintage Chart Show, Gillham Gold, and many others could be shared across network overnight, just like some of these programmes are already shared between stations in regional structres weekend evenings and Sunday afternoons.
All of these things and many more can be done relatively easily and quite quickly. The BBC is also supposed to be working with the community radio stations. Now BBC Radio Bristol utilises this partnership quite well, with Ujima Radio, BCFM and Somer Valley FM all producing a weekly hour of output to go out overnight at the weekend, plus there's a best of community radio show on Sunday afternoons at 5pm, and all of those programmes can be heard on BBC iPlayer Radio. BBC Radio Cornwall for instance, could work with Coast FM, Source FM, CHBN and RSAB to provide weekly hours of output that could be used to provide more local content at weekends, evenings or overnights.
BBC Radio Devon have Soundart Radio, Phonic FM, Bay FM and The Voice as possible producers of community radio hours. There's a lot of options out there that BBC Local Radio could utilise.
Hopefully we'll start seeing changes in 2018, but the one I am most looking forward to, is saying goodbye and good riddance to the network evening show.
Sunday, 1 May 2016
BBC Local Radio: Does it have a future?
So, I'm doing my regular skimming around the various forums, looking for interesting posts, and I spot something on Digital Spy that actually got me thinking.
I know, something on Digital Spy actually got me thinking, that's a first!
The poster posed a question about BBC Local Radio as a whole. Has it, as an idea, had its day? Indeed, some of the commenters there raised very valid and accurate points about the state of BBC Local Radio.
BBC Local Radio as a whole has over 8.5 million listeners every week. That's not a shabby performance, especially when you consider the nearest thing to a comparable commercial network, Heart, gets over 9.1 million listeners per week, and other than Heart, the only stations that score higher, are BBC Radios 1, 2 & 4. By those standards of measurement, surely BBC Local Radio's future as a whole is secure.
But start digging just below the surface of those numbers, and the picture looks a lot different.
Just in the last year, BBC Local Radio as a whole, has lost over 400,000 listeners. That's not so good. The overall share of listening is also down slightly.
And when you start looking at individual stations, it doesn't get much better.
Let's start with BBC Guernsey. In a market where you have two main local stations, one BBC and one commercial (Island FM), you'd think that given the way the BBC is always portrayed by commercial radio companies as being dominant that the BBC Local station would be the runaway leader here, and you'd be wrong.
In a market that has only 53,000 available listeners, BBC Guernsey scores 20,000 whilst Island FM scores 32,000. In the last year, BBC Guernsey has lost 4,000 weekly listeners, whilst Island FM has also lost listeners, just 1,000 of them though. Obviously national radio in Guernsey has gained listeners compared to the local stations.
But even with losing 1,000 listeners, Island FM has still seen its share of listening go up from 45.7% to 46.1% in the past year. Not too shabby. By comparison BBC Guernsey's share of listening has dropped, from 20.9% to 20.5%. So how does Island FM do so much better than BBC Guernsey?
Some could put it down to the fact that Island FM is a more music service, but that's too simple an explanation. If that was all it was, commercial radio as a whole would be outperforming the BBC and that simply isn't the case. BBC Radio 4 outperforms every other station and network, except for BBC Radio 2, so the amount of music clearly isn't the deciding factor here.
When you listen to the output of Island FM, one thing stands out immediately. It has a very community-based feel to it. They talk a lot about local events and promote local causes. Live local programming hours are greater than on most mainland local commercial stations, from 6am to 10pm on weekdays, 7am to 6pm on Saturdays, and 8am to Midday on Sundays, their Sunday afternoon show is voice tracked, according to their public file, although when listening in myself, I couldn't tell that it wasn't live. It's also one of the few remaining local commercial stations to feature a sports show on a Saturday afternoon.
If anything, it's a mixture of having a good mix of music, familiar enough, yet with enough variation that allows you to discover tracks you might not have heard before, combined with the community feel, and a professional imaging that doesn't make the station sound small and you have what I consider to be the perfect balance of elements to make great commercial radio.
The news on the hour doesn't feel too long, at 3 minutes, and you feel briefed, rather than feeling like you've not been told enough. Radio news itself is another whole separate issue that I could talk about in another long article, but I'll save that for another time. Suffice to say, Island FM's news feels about right.
Okay, so I can hear the next question forming in your minds. "That's in a one BBC versus one local commercial situation, but in my area, there are 2 or more local commercial stations up against one BBC local radio station. Does BBC Local Radio do any better there?"
Well, let's use BBC Radio Cornwall as an example. BBC Radio Cornwall has traditionally been one of BBC Local Radio's better performers, so if that is leading, then maybe the picture isn't quite so bad.
Well, BBC Radio Cornwall does score a decent 141,000 listeners in a market of 463,000. That's a 30% reach, that's pretty good... but that's down 12,000 listeners in the past year. It's scoring decently on share as well, a none too shabby 16.1% share of listening... down from 18.3% a year ago. Oh dear, this picture ain't looking too great to be fair. But, if it's ahead of its commercial competition, then we can still call it more successful.
Let's start with the biggest national name in local radio, Heart. Heart do report their Cornwall service separately, so we do have a direct comparison. And they score... 117,000. 24,000 less than BBC Radio Cornwall, so BBC Radio Cornwall is still more popular. However, that score is up 20,000 on the same time last year. That doesn't sound so good for BBC Radio Cornwall, who have lost 12,000 listeners in the same time.
How does share of listening compare. Well, Heart are much further back on that count, scoring only 8.5% share, but that is up on the 6.6% of a year ago. However, it's still nowhere near BBC Radio Cornwall's 16.1%.
But although they may be the biggest name in local commercial radio nationally, Heart are comparative newcomers to Cornwall, as Pirate FM were Cornwall's first local commercial radio service, launching in 1992. How do they compare to BBC Radio Cornwall?
Well, on the reach side, Pirate FM scores... 165,000. 24,000 more than BBC Radio Cornwall, and that's up 5,000 in the last year. That's not so good for BBC Local Radio. However, on the share side, Pirate FM comes in at 11.7%, quite a way back from Radio Cornwall's 16.1%, and itself, down from 12.5% a year ago.
And those figures don't show how that compares to recent entrant NJoy Radio, who broadcast on DAB, and are not currently registered with RAJAR for ratings, nor does it show how it compares to the various community stations that broadcast on FM across Cornwall, Penwith Radio, Source FM, CHBN, The Hub and RSAB. And even then, because of broadcast area, we don't know how many listeners in the Cornwall area listen to other stations that are available in the area, but are not predominantly targeted at Cornwall, such as Radio Plymouth, BBC Radio Devon and Smooth Plymouth. Also, we don't have figures for two other DAB stations that Pirate FM produce. Pirate Oldies or Escape To Cornwall.
It's not clear cut by any means, but it is fair to say that BBC Radio Cornwall is amongst the best performers in the BBC Local Radio stable. Their next door neighbour, BBC Radio Devon, has had in recent times one of the worst collapses of audience I've ever seen. In just one year, they've dropped from 212,000 weekly listeners, to just 169,000. That's a massive 43,000 listeners deserting BBC Radio Devon. The figures for share of listening are no better. One year ago, 11.4% share. Today, just 7.6% share. That's a drop of a third overall. A 33.3% fall in share of listening, just let that sink in for a second. There's a third less listening overall to BBC Radio Devon in the past year. That's a big problem. A problem that is somewhat disguised by the fact that there isn't really a direct comparison available with Heart in Devon, or with Radio Plymouth, Radio Exe and The Breeze (formerly Palm FM). Also, there are no figures for any of the community radio stations in Devon, Soundart Radio, Phonic FM, The Voice or Bay FM. So it's difficult to know exactly where the listeners are going, and how BBC Radio Devon should respond.
But even if they did know, they are hamstrung by the dictats from London which limit what BBC local radio can actually do. The BBC Local Radio formula which was devised back in the early 1990s might have seemed like a good idea then, but the audience profile has changed so significantly, that BBC Local Radio these days sounds ridiculously old fashioned and out of date, a museum piece that needs to be brought up to date.
Whilst it's admirable to commit to local journalism, nothing that BBC local radio does in journalism terms even comes close to being worthy local journalism. This is a similar problem that has been facing local NPR stations across America, and they've come up with many different applications but the basic guiding principle has been the same. Don't go for the easy stories, the ones that are important, but basically dull. Also, don't go for the standard commercial fare, high on the interest scale, but lacking any importance at all. Find stories that are both interesting and important, and find new, more interesting, more compelling ways to tell them.
Indeed, I found one such story that I brought onto my own show, which had so many angles that I needed to give the whole story a lot more time. The basic story was the local food bank was having a public fundraising appeal to help pay for the bigger premises that they had to move into, because of increased demand for the food bank's help. But the food bank wasn't the only community service that was in the new location, there were other services that were sharing that building, so it made sense to me to cover the basic story, but also to talk about each of the services that were at that location.
The story also played into the two higher tiers in the Public Radio News Director's Guide. There are four tiers of news, according to the guide.
Tier One: Commercial
Tier Two: Staged
Tier Three: Local Impact/National
Tier Four: Local Meaning.
The story was a local impact of a national trend, the growing use of food banks since 2010, so it fitted in tier three. But it also fitted in tier four. It was about something that was truly making a difference in the local community. It made perfect sense to do that story, and to give it more airtime than BBC or commercial radio would ever give it.
Unfortunately, most BBC local reporting still fits into Tier one or two on the scale. Very little comes under tier three or tier four. Also, a lot of the reporting can be summed up as worthy, but dull, and that does nothing for the appeal of BBC local radio.
Whilst it's understandable that commercial radio would stick pretty close to tier one and tier two, and indeed mostly does, there are occasions when even commercial radio will touch on tier three or tier four, and those are the times commercial radio genuinely surprises. BBC local radio on the other hand, rarely does surprise.
So, what does BBC local radio need to do?
Well, its local journalism needs to be more interesting, better presented and produced, and it needs to be less commercial, and more tier three and tier four, more relevant to the local area, more local impact and local meaning.
The music needs to be generally broader, and at times, there does need to be more music than talk. Not every hour should be more music, or more talk, or even all talk. What it needs to be is right for the time of day. Breakfast should always aim to be more informed, but that doesn't necessarily mean music has to be completely excluded. By enforcing a strict 70:30 ratio of talk to music during daytime and evening, it means that far too often, BBC local radio is just talking about stuff to fill airtime, stuff that really shouldn't be taking up that airtime, and stories that deserve more time, just aren't getting it.
Let the balance of music and talk work itself out for each station. Also, BBC local radio's reliance on phone ins to help fill the airtime doesn't help matters as often, the contributions go on way too long, and leave you begging for a producer to pull the plug on a phone call because somebody's spoken for far too long and said very little if anything of any use to the station or the listener.
What BBC local radio needs is a complete overhaul, but unfortunately, I don't see any such overhaul coming.
I know, something on Digital Spy actually got me thinking, that's a first!
The poster posed a question about BBC Local Radio as a whole. Has it, as an idea, had its day? Indeed, some of the commenters there raised very valid and accurate points about the state of BBC Local Radio.
BBC Local Radio as a whole has over 8.5 million listeners every week. That's not a shabby performance, especially when you consider the nearest thing to a comparable commercial network, Heart, gets over 9.1 million listeners per week, and other than Heart, the only stations that score higher, are BBC Radios 1, 2 & 4. By those standards of measurement, surely BBC Local Radio's future as a whole is secure.
But start digging just below the surface of those numbers, and the picture looks a lot different.
Just in the last year, BBC Local Radio as a whole, has lost over 400,000 listeners. That's not so good. The overall share of listening is also down slightly.
And when you start looking at individual stations, it doesn't get much better.
Let's start with BBC Guernsey. In a market where you have two main local stations, one BBC and one commercial (Island FM), you'd think that given the way the BBC is always portrayed by commercial radio companies as being dominant that the BBC Local station would be the runaway leader here, and you'd be wrong.
In a market that has only 53,000 available listeners, BBC Guernsey scores 20,000 whilst Island FM scores 32,000. In the last year, BBC Guernsey has lost 4,000 weekly listeners, whilst Island FM has also lost listeners, just 1,000 of them though. Obviously national radio in Guernsey has gained listeners compared to the local stations.
But even with losing 1,000 listeners, Island FM has still seen its share of listening go up from 45.7% to 46.1% in the past year. Not too shabby. By comparison BBC Guernsey's share of listening has dropped, from 20.9% to 20.5%. So how does Island FM do so much better than BBC Guernsey?
Some could put it down to the fact that Island FM is a more music service, but that's too simple an explanation. If that was all it was, commercial radio as a whole would be outperforming the BBC and that simply isn't the case. BBC Radio 4 outperforms every other station and network, except for BBC Radio 2, so the amount of music clearly isn't the deciding factor here.
When you listen to the output of Island FM, one thing stands out immediately. It has a very community-based feel to it. They talk a lot about local events and promote local causes. Live local programming hours are greater than on most mainland local commercial stations, from 6am to 10pm on weekdays, 7am to 6pm on Saturdays, and 8am to Midday on Sundays, their Sunday afternoon show is voice tracked, according to their public file, although when listening in myself, I couldn't tell that it wasn't live. It's also one of the few remaining local commercial stations to feature a sports show on a Saturday afternoon.
If anything, it's a mixture of having a good mix of music, familiar enough, yet with enough variation that allows you to discover tracks you might not have heard before, combined with the community feel, and a professional imaging that doesn't make the station sound small and you have what I consider to be the perfect balance of elements to make great commercial radio.
The news on the hour doesn't feel too long, at 3 minutes, and you feel briefed, rather than feeling like you've not been told enough. Radio news itself is another whole separate issue that I could talk about in another long article, but I'll save that for another time. Suffice to say, Island FM's news feels about right.
Okay, so I can hear the next question forming in your minds. "That's in a one BBC versus one local commercial situation, but in my area, there are 2 or more local commercial stations up against one BBC local radio station. Does BBC Local Radio do any better there?"
Well, let's use BBC Radio Cornwall as an example. BBC Radio Cornwall has traditionally been one of BBC Local Radio's better performers, so if that is leading, then maybe the picture isn't quite so bad.
Well, BBC Radio Cornwall does score a decent 141,000 listeners in a market of 463,000. That's a 30% reach, that's pretty good... but that's down 12,000 listeners in the past year. It's scoring decently on share as well, a none too shabby 16.1% share of listening... down from 18.3% a year ago. Oh dear, this picture ain't looking too great to be fair. But, if it's ahead of its commercial competition, then we can still call it more successful.
Let's start with the biggest national name in local radio, Heart. Heart do report their Cornwall service separately, so we do have a direct comparison. And they score... 117,000. 24,000 less than BBC Radio Cornwall, so BBC Radio Cornwall is still more popular. However, that score is up 20,000 on the same time last year. That doesn't sound so good for BBC Radio Cornwall, who have lost 12,000 listeners in the same time.
How does share of listening compare. Well, Heart are much further back on that count, scoring only 8.5% share, but that is up on the 6.6% of a year ago. However, it's still nowhere near BBC Radio Cornwall's 16.1%.
But although they may be the biggest name in local commercial radio nationally, Heart are comparative newcomers to Cornwall, as Pirate FM were Cornwall's first local commercial radio service, launching in 1992. How do they compare to BBC Radio Cornwall?
Well, on the reach side, Pirate FM scores... 165,000. 24,000 more than BBC Radio Cornwall, and that's up 5,000 in the last year. That's not so good for BBC Local Radio. However, on the share side, Pirate FM comes in at 11.7%, quite a way back from Radio Cornwall's 16.1%, and itself, down from 12.5% a year ago.
And those figures don't show how that compares to recent entrant NJoy Radio, who broadcast on DAB, and are not currently registered with RAJAR for ratings, nor does it show how it compares to the various community stations that broadcast on FM across Cornwall, Penwith Radio, Source FM, CHBN, The Hub and RSAB. And even then, because of broadcast area, we don't know how many listeners in the Cornwall area listen to other stations that are available in the area, but are not predominantly targeted at Cornwall, such as Radio Plymouth, BBC Radio Devon and Smooth Plymouth. Also, we don't have figures for two other DAB stations that Pirate FM produce. Pirate Oldies or Escape To Cornwall.
It's not clear cut by any means, but it is fair to say that BBC Radio Cornwall is amongst the best performers in the BBC Local Radio stable. Their next door neighbour, BBC Radio Devon, has had in recent times one of the worst collapses of audience I've ever seen. In just one year, they've dropped from 212,000 weekly listeners, to just 169,000. That's a massive 43,000 listeners deserting BBC Radio Devon. The figures for share of listening are no better. One year ago, 11.4% share. Today, just 7.6% share. That's a drop of a third overall. A 33.3% fall in share of listening, just let that sink in for a second. There's a third less listening overall to BBC Radio Devon in the past year. That's a big problem. A problem that is somewhat disguised by the fact that there isn't really a direct comparison available with Heart in Devon, or with Radio Plymouth, Radio Exe and The Breeze (formerly Palm FM). Also, there are no figures for any of the community radio stations in Devon, Soundart Radio, Phonic FM, The Voice or Bay FM. So it's difficult to know exactly where the listeners are going, and how BBC Radio Devon should respond.
But even if they did know, they are hamstrung by the dictats from London which limit what BBC local radio can actually do. The BBC Local Radio formula which was devised back in the early 1990s might have seemed like a good idea then, but the audience profile has changed so significantly, that BBC Local Radio these days sounds ridiculously old fashioned and out of date, a museum piece that needs to be brought up to date.
Whilst it's admirable to commit to local journalism, nothing that BBC local radio does in journalism terms even comes close to being worthy local journalism. This is a similar problem that has been facing local NPR stations across America, and they've come up with many different applications but the basic guiding principle has been the same. Don't go for the easy stories, the ones that are important, but basically dull. Also, don't go for the standard commercial fare, high on the interest scale, but lacking any importance at all. Find stories that are both interesting and important, and find new, more interesting, more compelling ways to tell them.
Indeed, I found one such story that I brought onto my own show, which had so many angles that I needed to give the whole story a lot more time. The basic story was the local food bank was having a public fundraising appeal to help pay for the bigger premises that they had to move into, because of increased demand for the food bank's help. But the food bank wasn't the only community service that was in the new location, there were other services that were sharing that building, so it made sense to me to cover the basic story, but also to talk about each of the services that were at that location.
The story also played into the two higher tiers in the Public Radio News Director's Guide. There are four tiers of news, according to the guide.
Tier One: Commercial
Tier Two: Staged
Tier Three: Local Impact/National
Tier Four: Local Meaning.
The story was a local impact of a national trend, the growing use of food banks since 2010, so it fitted in tier three. But it also fitted in tier four. It was about something that was truly making a difference in the local community. It made perfect sense to do that story, and to give it more airtime than BBC or commercial radio would ever give it.
Unfortunately, most BBC local reporting still fits into Tier one or two on the scale. Very little comes under tier three or tier four. Also, a lot of the reporting can be summed up as worthy, but dull, and that does nothing for the appeal of BBC local radio.
Whilst it's understandable that commercial radio would stick pretty close to tier one and tier two, and indeed mostly does, there are occasions when even commercial radio will touch on tier three or tier four, and those are the times commercial radio genuinely surprises. BBC local radio on the other hand, rarely does surprise.
So, what does BBC local radio need to do?
Well, its local journalism needs to be more interesting, better presented and produced, and it needs to be less commercial, and more tier three and tier four, more relevant to the local area, more local impact and local meaning.
The music needs to be generally broader, and at times, there does need to be more music than talk. Not every hour should be more music, or more talk, or even all talk. What it needs to be is right for the time of day. Breakfast should always aim to be more informed, but that doesn't necessarily mean music has to be completely excluded. By enforcing a strict 70:30 ratio of talk to music during daytime and evening, it means that far too often, BBC local radio is just talking about stuff to fill airtime, stuff that really shouldn't be taking up that airtime, and stories that deserve more time, just aren't getting it.
Let the balance of music and talk work itself out for each station. Also, BBC local radio's reliance on phone ins to help fill the airtime doesn't help matters as often, the contributions go on way too long, and leave you begging for a producer to pull the plug on a phone call because somebody's spoken for far too long and said very little if anything of any use to the station or the listener.
What BBC local radio needs is a complete overhaul, but unfortunately, I don't see any such overhaul coming.
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