Viewpoint: An Open Letter To David Lloyd

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.

Q3 2012 RAJARs: The troubles deepen

Since Midnight, the RAJAR figures for the thirdf quarter of 2012 have been made public, and it has to be said, at first impressions, the figures don't look good for the health of radio.  None of the sectors saw any gain in hours on the last quarter, and local commercial radio has continued a steady downward trend that has been ongoing, since 1999.  In terms of reach, BBC radio saw a very minor gain, whilst commercial radio saw a very minor loss.

Both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 saw drops in reach terms on the quarter, whilst Radio 3 and Radio 4 both saw reach gains.  Radio 3's is it's traditional summer bump from the Proms, which always brings listeners to the station who may not normally listen at other times. 

Interestingly, both 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra saw no Olympic bounce at all.  In fact, both saw slight declines. 

Of the BBC's DAB stations, only Asian Network was below 1 million.  Both Radio 4 Extra and Radio 6 Music saw gains, whilst World Service held steady and 1Xtra saw a small decline. 

On the national commercial radio side, Talksport saw it's reach climb above 3 million, Classic FM saw a slight decline, whilst Absolute Radio saw a major decline overall, down over 200,000 listeners on reach to just above 1.5 million listeners.  However, Absolute 80's the group flagship digital station, saw an increase, as did Absolute 90s.

Global Radio can't be too happy with their brands overall.  Only Xfm saw gains in both reach and hours, LBC saw a gain in reach, but as with a lot of stations that see gains in reach, LBC saw a drop in both hours and share.  All the other brands, Heart, Gold, Capital, Choice, Real and Smooth, all of them saw drops in both reach and hours overall.  Within those general figures there are some incredible strange variations, some of which this time are more unusual than normal.

Looking deeper, into the individual stations, there are some interesting stories, but the one that stands out, and for very much the wrong reason, is Gold Devon.  If you were to look at the year to year figures, you'd ask what the issue was.  In the past year has gained 3,000 listeners, 30,000 hours and 0.2% share.  Unfortunately those figures do not reveal the whole story about Gold Devon.  In early 2012, the Exeter and Torbay local DAB multiplex arrived in North Devon, which increased the availability of Gold Devon into an area where it had never been available on AM before.  Between Q3 2011 and Q1 2012, Gold Devon's reach almost doubled from 28,000 to 52,000.  Their hours more than doubled from 271k to 605K, and their share more than doubled from 1.1% to 2.6%.  Things were looking quite good for Gold Devon at this point.

However, that changed in April with the arrival on DAB of North Devon based community radio station, The Voice.  The Voice had long lobbied to be allowed to broadcast to North Devon after the almagamation of Lantern FM, into what eventually became Heart Devon.  They had been broadcasting a 28 day FM RSL and during that RSL, they agreed a deal with NOW Digital, to broadcast on DAB as well full time on the multiplex that had not long arrived in North Devon.  They launched on DAB in April, broadcasting not just to North Devon, but also to Exeter and Torbay.  The net result: Gold Devon got hammered.  They lost about 40% of their reach, dropping from 52,000 to 31,000.  Their hours have dropped by a little more than half, down from 605k to 301k, and their share halved from 2.6% to 1.3%

In the past year, Gold Devon has been on a huge rollercoaster, and we still don't yet know where this rollercoaster will end.  There is still a possibility that Gold Devon could drop even more listeners.  At one time, Gold Plymouth had just 7,000 listeners, and the Plymouth area is the only area in Devon now where Gold broadcasts on both AM and DAB.  The fact that Gold's local advertising has to be sold together with Heart in Devon, rather than separately, suggests that Gold Devon may not be profitable on its own, even with the fact that there is no local programming, and limited local content, sometimes as little as a 20 second weather forecast per hour. 

Every station's figures fluctuate to some degree, but Gold Devon's figures are amongst some of the wildest swings I've ever witnessed.

In Devon and Cornwall, few stations are performing well.  BBC Radio Cornwall is down 7,000 reach on the quarter, but is up 2,000 reach on the year.  Over the year, Radio Cornwall has gained 42,000 hours, but the share has dropped 0.4%, mainly because the TSA figure is 4,000 more now than it was in Q3 2011.  On the quarter, Radio Cornwall has gained 84,000 hours and 0.3% share, mainly due to the fact people are listening longer.  12.4 hours per week this quarter, compared with 11.3 last quarter. 

BBC Radio Devon's reach was stable at 203,000, still down 56,000 listeners on the year, but the station saw a massive drop in listener hours.  9.5 hours per week this quarter compared with 11.4 hours last quarter and 10.7 hours a year ago.  As a result of this, the total hours figure dropped below 2 million for the first time in a long time, if ever.  I cannot recall nor can I find currently evidence that it has ever been that low.  The share of listening dropped below 10% for the first time in a long time, if ever, in fact it dropped below 9%.  Something has clearly gone awry at Radio Devon, and frankly without some in-depth investigation, I'm not sure what the answer is.  It maybe that the cancellation of the separate Plymouth breakfast show has significantly hurt the station. 

Whatever the problems are at BBC Radio Devon, Heart Devon has definitely benefited from them.  Although down in the reach by 19,000 on last year, the station is up 17,000 on the previous quarter.  Share is up by 1.2% on the previous quarter as well, and total hours was also up by 241,000, though that's still down 96,000 hours on last year.  Sister station Heart Cornwall is also performing well, well above my own expectations.  69,000 listeners is up 1,000 on the quarter, down 1,000 on the year, so definitely holding steady there.  However, Heart Cornwall is outperforming its predecessor, Atlantic FM in terms of holding on to listeners.  Average Hours per week in up to 7.4 hours, a new high for the licence, beating Atlantic FM's previous best of 7.1 hours per week in Q1 2011.  Both Heart Devon and Heart Cornwall are outperforming the network as a whole on Average Hours per week, with Heart Devon's 8.1 and Heart Cornwall's 7.4 beating the network's 7,2.  However, all these figures are still on the low side of what I consider to be the mark to aim for, which is 10 hours a week and higher.  However, none of these figures are remotely anywhere near the worst.  Absolute 70's scores 3.1 hours per week, then The Hits scores 3.0 hours per week.  Pulse 2 scores a paltry 2.8 hours per week, but that is beaten by Q, the worst performer of them all at just 2.7 hours per week.  In terms of keeping them listening, Heart do okay.

The other story that I've been following with interest is Celador Radio, and more particularly, their soft AC brand, The Breeze.  Figures for The Breeze have never been great, and even though the Hampshire version has increased their reach by 7,000 to 42,000; the South West version has slipped from 29,000 to 26,000.  Even the recently rebranded Midwest Radio, which is now The Breeze, but still reports under the Midwest Radio name, has slipped from 37,000 to 35,000 listeners.  Given the fact that The Breeze has been removed from the Bristol and Hampshire local multiplexes, the viability of the brand as a whole, as an FM only brand, is seriously called into question.  Given that two other FM only stations in Devon have either lost listeners in the past quarter or not gained any listeners, the idea that any station only needs to be on FM these days, is starting to smell like a busted myth.  Radio Exe did not gain any listeners in the last quarter, holding at just 25,000 reach.  However, it did keep listeners for a bit longer, so hours and share were up.  Palm FM on the other hand lost 3,000 listeners in the last quarter, and both hours and share were maginally lower.  Back with Celador, until recently, Jack FM was the better performer.  However, in the last quarter,, Jack Bristol saw a sharp decline in reach, from 116,000 to 92,000.  However, hours and share both saw an increase on the previous quarter, but are still way down on last year.  Jack Oxfordshire is seeing declines in reach, hours and share on the previous quarter.  However, Jack South Coast is performing better on reach, hours and share.

Another story worth mentioning is Free Radio 80s, which replaced Gold in the West Midlands.  In the Birmingham area, Free Radio 80's is outperforming what Gold used to achieve.  93,000 compared to 71,000.  Even around the Coverntry area, performance is the same at 21,000.  So right now, I'd call Free Radio 80s a success story so far.

So overall, what do the figures tell us?  Well, non-music radio held itself together, better than music radio in the last quarter, and digital radio only stations seemed to perform better than FM only stations.  Brand radio seemed to do poorly, but other stations also suffered.  The Olympics were great for TV audiences, but those increased TV audiences meant radio lost out.  Local commercial radio continued to trend downward, with little or no sign that stations are actively trying to reverse the trend.  Radio needs to do something pretty drastic if they are going to attract the attention of younger listeners these days, and just being aural wallpaper, is not going to cut it any longer.