David, you are an industry veteran who has been around the block since 1980. You have so much experience and your books and blog are full of valuable insights that mostly are bang on the money.
But nobody bats a perfect innings, nobody hits the ball out of the park every time, and I'm afraid in your Open Letter To Tony Hall, you miss the mark by such a wide margin, that it's hard to believe that you actually spent a year in BBC Local Radio. I feel I shouldn't have to be explaining what I'm about to say to you, but here goes.
This is a new time for BBC Local Radio, and indeed for all media. Now more than ever before in the broadcasting world, broadcasters need to work as though they are working for multimedia operations, because the reality is, they are.
Back in the early days of the internet, a radio station's website or a TV station's website, could be like a shop window, giving people a flavour of what the radio station or TV channel could provide, if you chose to listen or watch.
Nowadays, the online shop window concept seems about as archaic as silent movies, a style of movies that I love and adore, yet are so associated with the early days of Hollywood and film making.
Radio and TV broadcaster websites these days have to be another platform, for the broadcaster. Online broadcasting for radio is now commonplace, and few radio stations worldwide don't actually have some form of online relay of their signal, or in some cases, an online-only schedule that allows them to have content going out online whilst live sports content that they don't have online rights for goes out over the airwaves.
How often do you hear on jingles these days something like, On FM, online and on your mobile? Online broadcasting allows for greater reach, and through mobile apps like BBC iPlayer Radio, Tune In, RadioPlayer and others, as long as you are in range of mobile signal, you can listen to any station you choose, from just about anywhere in the world.
Of course, the text side of the equation is still there, and many radio stations are using the resources that are available to them, on their website to provide local news and information, plus taking national and international news and sport from Sky News or some other national provider.
And now, social media is added to the mix. And this is where things get interesting.
Your own words David...
"...A
radio station cannot target everyone. Radio One would be less
successful were it targeted at everyone, and so would Radio Two. It does
not work. You will create a radio network which is
expensively-producing valuable output, consumed by ever fewer people..."
This is where you are wrong, David. These days, a radio station can target everyone, but in different ways.
Social media is about the younger demographic, they get their news these days mostly from social media and the internet. Radio is becoming an older demographic thing generally. People gravitate onto radio usually through online listening these days, alongside their surfing and web browsing.
And here's another time you made the same point in the article...
"...You
suggest moving from a 50+ target. The BBC appears to believe it is
appropriate to require a Radio 1 to target young - but not for any one
of your services necessarily to trouble with those of us over fifty -
radio’s most avid consumers. Not only a puzzling decision, but
irresponsible. Commercial radio cannot target 50+ given it is simply not
economically viable . You have just announced that BBC radio should no
longer charge itself with the interests of those over fifty. Can that be
right?"
Okay, two big problems here. First, commercial radio cannot target 50+ due to lack of economic viability? How come channels like Gold and Smooth, and the Bauer City 2 stations, and My Music Radio and Encore and Classic FM all do so well. Most of the demographic targets of those stations are 35-64 year olds, which means according to you that half the target audience of these stations is untargetable.
And as for the fact that BBC national services don't target the over 50s, I would suggest that BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBC World Service all to some degree target the over 50s audience and do fairly well in that demo.
Heck, I'm aware of commercial stations picking up audiences way older than their demographic targetting, because the person likes what they hear.
What the BBC is doing, is similar to what community radio has been doing for itself. Defining the role for the station, rather than the demographic, which is at best, is imprecise, and at worst, an idea drowned under the weight of stereotypes that don't exist and nobody actually believes in. Nobody actually matches the stereotypes, so forget about them. And forget about demographics, they'll only lead you down the wrong path.
Instead, define what your station's role is. Radio 1's role is to pioneer new music and new artists. The community radio station I do programmes for, Source FM, has a role, to promote local music and local issues that are of interest to the audience in our area, which is generally more progressive than other parts of Cornwall, which are more conservative. In 2016's Brexit referendum, the Truro and Falmouth constituency voted Remain by 54-46. BBC Local Radio's role is also to provide coverage of local issues. But it needs to do more than just that, it needs to carve out its own important role, and Tony Hall's speech actually suggested that he had a vision for what BBC Local Radio should be.
"...Firstly, I want us to be more creative; and more local. As I said, I’m going to restore responsibility and accountability for
the evening schedule – giving it back to local editors. Next summer
we’ll be ending the All England show. I understand why it came about,
but it’s not local enough; and it limits creativity.
We’re going to help you change the music you play too – giving you
playlists which reflect the diversity of our cities and our counties. I
want that to happen – and your colleagues at Radio 2 are going to work
with you to do that.
Secondly, we need to do more to celebrate the diversity of our communities
So, as and when I can, I’ll introduce a fund to help you do just that....
...And, finally, I want us to continue to invest in our digital future. It’s something David Holdsworth has felt very strongly about too.
Rightly so. We need the right kit. We’ve got some brilliant journalists
working in local radio – and I’ve already seen some great innovation.
But you simply don’t have the best mobile equipment. That’s going to
change.
And it’s going to help our local editors – every one of you – to be more ambitious.
Over the next few months, we’ll be working out how you can produce,
publish and take charge of all your digital content. Because I want to
put you in control."
Now, do I agree with everything that he sets out in his vision? Most of it, but whether I agree with it or not, is not the point. The point is he's defining the broad strokes of BBC Local Radio's role in the future.
Now, a couple more points...
"...You
announce that budgets are not being reduced. Frankly, Tony, this is
appalling. In such demanding times, every media outlet in the country is
making economies. As I have demonstrated with granular detail at the
invitation of your executives,BBC local stations could be managed more
efficiently on far less money with greater success. You are wasting
licence fee payers’ cash. Whilst many people on local radio work their
socks off producing great radio, just about every employee could point
to many inefficiencies too, if invited. Local radio will always be
expensive, and this short -term announcement simply places local radio
irresponsibly in long term peril."
...The only point I agree with here is that BBC Local Radio could be managed more efficiently on far less money, although whether that would bring greater success is debateable. But frankly, there is massive overspending in other areas outside local radio, and the BBC needs to look at that first. They do need to change the way they produce local radio, but even then, the idea that you need to cut budgets on BBC local radio is preposterous. It's losing them listeners, you have said so yourself. Adjusting how programmes are done so that the budget can go further, sure, but don't cut any more and really, they should invest more in local radio.
How local is Heart really? Heart only provides 43 hours a week of local/regional programming. The remaining 125 hours a week are networked. Commercial radio is heading towards a mostly networked model, with weekday breakfast, weekday drivetime and weekend breakfast being the only parts of the schedule that are local. Local News might be done throughout daytime, but that is minimal local content in network daytimes, which really shows up commercial radio's commitment to localness, little more than a tick box exercise to keep the regulator happy.
Meanwhile, BBC Local Radio is live and local for at least 14 hours a day Monday to Friday, 12 hours on Saturday and 13 hours on a Sunday. That adds up to a total of 95 hours of local programming, with the rest either being shared regional programming, the network evening show, and 5 Live's Up All Night, which totals around 73 hours. Which one were listeners more concerned about? Heart's network invasion of daytime, or BBC local radio's network evening show? The answer was BBC local radio's network evening show, despite the fact the evening slot had fewer people listening to that than were listening to Heart's Daytime output. I think that says it all about how little people truly care about local commercial radio. But the BBC's local output is held in far greater esteem.
You might think this is the wrong move from the BBC. I think this is exactly the right kind of thing that the BBC should be doing more of. More local radio, more regional TV. Such a move would solidify the BBC's position in local and regional broadcasting, a position that right now seems to be built on quicksand. Better, more stable foundations will make for a better BBC.
Showing posts with label BBC Local Radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC Local Radio. Show all posts
Friday, 10 November 2017
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.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
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.
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.
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