UK Commercial Radio Deregulation: The Good, and the Very, Very Bad.

I imagine there's a somewhat polarized response that is developing to the news that commercial radio formats are to go in terms of regulation from OFCOM.

Those who are closest to the front line on this will be mostly celebrating the deregulation. Those who are most passionate about radio will probably be bemoaning the loss of the localness requirement.

None the less, what we have here truly is a mixed bag of deregulation. There are some bits that are very good, and there are some others that are truly very, very bad.

So lets start with the best change of the lot. The removal of requirements to play a perticular genre of music. In practice, these were pretty much nonsense anyway, as the format could be written in such a loose way that you could often play almost anything popular and not contravene your format requirements.

Community radio stations have also over the past 10 years highlighted the problem with music formats. Because community radio didn't have this requirement to play a certain music format, it can and very often does, play almost anything and almost everything, within acceptable standards, such as definitely not having songs with losts of swear words in it during times when children would be listening.

Stations like Source FM actually make a point of playing local music from local musicians, music that, until now, gets zero airplay on commercial radio, despite the fact that many songs are indistinguishable in quality terms, from the material submitted by the big music companies. The only actual difference in the sound of the music will sometimes be the instruments used.

If anything, the elimination of music formats as a regulatory requirement, might actually free up commercial stations to take more risks at least musically. If you value localness in anyway, consider scheduling a locally originated track in one music slot per hour during your locally originated programming.

Or, how about an hour long weekly programme, where you only play locally originated music. BBC has already done something similar with their "BBC Introducing..." shows that air for one or two hours per week on the BBC Local Radio stations.

With Ofcom no longer required to approve music format changes, it should allow stations to be more free to add different genres music to their mix as needed. I'd argue that having classical music on a Sunday morning would be more popular than having the same normal music mix.

I'm also reassured by the assurances that there will be strong requirements to provide national and local news, weather and travel.

Local information is one of the key reasons that people tune into local radio as whole, be it BBC, commercial radio or community radio. It is especially important during times of severe weather, when information about school closures, power interruptions, disruption to public transport and many other things, goes from being merely a nicety, to being absolutely essential.

Local television and local radio in other countries understand that providing much more specific and localised information in times where it is required, is much more beneficial to the station, as well as being beneficial to the listeners.

The biggest problem with the deregulation is the removal of localness requirments. Now, stations will be able to share programming 24/7/365, rather than having to provide breakfast and drivetime programming on weekdays, and honestly, that is a big mistake.

I just said that during times of severe weather, local information is more important, and just because the technology is available to enable centralised hubbing of multiple stations with the ability to provide local links on those different stations, doesn't mean that localness should not be a requirement.

How do you build rapport with an audience in a local area, if your presenters and station staff aren't out and about in that area? It's difficult. The Breeze right now has network programming based in Bristol & Southampton. It's difficult for those presenters to build good rapport with audiences in Torbay, which is the most south westerly version of The Breeze.

Heart's Network programming is produced in London. Now how are they meant to be a presence from Scotland to Cornwall, when they're in London?

Local stations that have local presenters going out and about meeting local audiences at local events build much better rapport and have a much stronger connection with the audience, than a network presenter who might occasionally appear at an event in your local area, but mostly is never seen.

Yes, social media helps that process, but nowhere near as much as people think. Being out and about, representing the stations at local events, is at least 10 times more effective than anything social media can achieve.

So, overall, this has the potential to be far more positive for commercial radio, but radio needs to be careful not to do things that alienate the audience, because despite what commercial radio seems to think, the advertisers will not stay if the audiences decide to leave the station.

You can't make a station appealing to advertisers, you have to make it appeal to listeners, and then, the advertisers will come aboard, because you have the listeners. Reducing locally originated programme below the current minimum level, is likely to alienate the audience.

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. 

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.

Ian Beaumont Live & Direct on The Source FM 96.1

It's been a while since I wrote regularly here on Viewpoint.  That's mostly because my attention is focused currently on a new project.  I'm hosting a new show on The Source FM in Falmouth, called Ian Beaumont Live & Direct.

The show airs live on Tuesdays from 11am to 1pm and is broadcast on 96.1 FM in Falmouth, Penryn and surrounding areas, incluidng St Mawes, Flushing, Carnon Downs, Mabe and Devoran.  It's a music based show, and I play a number of very familiar tracks, and some less well known ones including tracks by local artists and brand new music.

Even when I'm not on the air, you can keep up with the programme in various ways.  I have a programme page at The Source FM website at http://www.thesourcefm.co.uk/programmes/ian-beaumont-live-and-direct where you can leave me messages for inclusion on the show.

You can also like the show's Facebook page, and interact with me there at http://www.facebook.com/IanBeaumontLiveAndDirect.  You can leave comments, requests and suggestions there too, I do love reading your comments.

The show also has a twitter feed at https://twitter.com/IBLiveAndDirect and you tweet me at any time, just start your tweet with @IBLiveAndDirect and it'll wend its way to me.

Or if you're on Google Plus, you can add the show to your circles to keep updated with the show.  You'll find my page at https://plus.google.com/102337430810815788919.  Again, your comments are most welcome.

So, if you are in Falmouth, Penryn or the surrounding parishes, and can hear us clearly on 96.1 FM, or if you're outside that area, and near a computer where you can point your browser to http://www.thesourcefm.co.uk/listen, please join me, every Tuesday at 11am UK time, for 2 hours of great music and good company.  It wouldn't be the same without you.