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.
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Q4 2012 RAJARs: 6Music steals the spotlight
Well, there is no doubt in my view about what the headline is from the latest RAJARs. 6Music is definitely a growing station. The station reached almost 1.9 million listeners, a record breaking performance, especially when you consider it broadcasts only on digital radio. The performance can really be put down to things, having the right presenters in the right slots, and the intelligent approach to music that 6Music uses. Many other stations could learn a lot from 6Music and allow a few tracks on the playlists that are less familiar, but often just as good as the more familiar ones.
On the local side, the spotlight really falls on 3 stations. Radio Exe, who reduced their TSA by over 100,000; Palm FM, and Radio Plymouth, who recieved their first official ratings in this quarter. All of these stations and Pirate FM as well, are up against the newly formed monolith that is Heart South West, who are reporting combined numbers for the first time rather than separate numbers for Cornwall and Devon.
Heart South West reported 394,000 listeners. The best we can tell, that is actually an increase on the quarter and a small increase on the year. The station was listened to for 8.1 hours per listener per week, whihc is a reasonable figure. So how do their competition measure up?
Let's start with Radio Exe, whose TSA figure is basically now the city of Exeter and not a lot more. The reach does not look good at just 21,000 listeners, down from 25,000 the previous quarter. However, in the smaller TSA, that now represents 11% of the TSA, rather than the 9% or so last quarter. Average Hours per week went up rto 8.3 from 7.4, but that was not enough to stop the total hours dropping from 183k to 176k. This does mean that in the smaller TSA, the share went up to 4% from 2.8%. A lot of this feels like cosmetic changes really rather than anything solid.
However, at the beginning of 2013, they made some fairly significant changes to their schedule. Matt Young left the station, and Chris Dinnis took over a shortened drivetime from 2pm til 6pm. Nino Ferreto, who at one time had been the breakfast presenter on Radio Exe in it's previous identity of Exeter FM, has come back and taken over the daytime slot between 10am and 2pm. Ashley Geary's Live and Local expands and becomes a regular show every weeknight between 6pm and 8pm. Kellow's Bootlaces and The Pow Wow, two shows about Exeter's local football and rugby teams take the 8pm slots for an hour on Mondays and Thursdays respectively, with Gary King's Totally 90s getting an airing on Fridays at 8pm. Radio Exe is obviously making a play at being the home of local music and sport, though that seems a little strange when the saturday afternoon show, when both local teams are in action, is not particularly sport focused. On the local music side, they are in direct competition there with local community radio station Phonic FM, which has actually been around longer than Radio Exe, by all of 3 days. It will be interesting to see if Radio Exe's strategy actually pays off for them. The next set of RAJARs for them will be very important, as it will be the first test of how the revised schedule is actually working for them.
For Palm FM, the problem was much simpler in understanding, stop a downward trend that had been developing over the past 18 months or so, and it looks like they might have done that. 37,000 listeners is up 3,000 on the quarter and level for the year, so it looks like some stability may have returned to Palm FM. Or has it? The share and hours figures don't read as well as the reach figure does. The share has dropped to 4.7%, the lowest level since 2008, and way down from a peak of 7.2% in Q4 2010. At only 7 hours per listener per week, the total hours figure has dropped to 261k, the lowest level since 2009 and down from the peak of 340k in Q3 2010.
Much like Radio Exe, Palm FM has also made some changes in 2013, with John Hogarth leaving the role of Programme Controller to concentrate on Breakfast, and Jon White, formerly Radio Plymouth's Breakfast Show host, replacing Hogie as Programme Controller and also replacing Dave Gould as host of the Interactive Afternoon. Dave Gould also seems to have left Palm FM, as Allen Fleckney has taken over Dave's old Sunday Afternoon slot. Again, much like Radio Exe, the Q1 2013 numbers will be very interesting to watch.
For Radio Plymouth, the problem has been not knowing how many people were listening. Now, with their first official RAJARs, they know. 37,000 listeners, same number as Palm FM. 7.3 hours per listener per week, 271k total hours and a 4.9% share are respectable numbers and a good starting point. However, these numbers were during Jon White's time on the Breakfast show. Jon is now Palm FM Programme Controller, so Chris Batchelor has taken over the Breakfast show, and it will be interesting to see whether the movement in the numbers in Q1 2013 will be up or down.
For Pirate FM, the last quarter saw a big drop in reach down to 153,000 and a very low 11.8% share, their worst performance that I can verify going back to 1999. Total Hours dropped below 1.5 million, the worst performance since Q4 2008. Radio Cornwall saw a small drop down to 152,000 listeners and 16.1% share, down from 154,000 and 16.3% respectively, whilst Radio Devon recovered some ground, rising to 225,000 listeners and 10% share, from 203,000 listeners and 8.9% share. But all these stations have some serious opposition already from community radio stations, and in 2013, there will be many more launches across Cornwall and Devon, meaning that more stations will be competing for listeners attention.
In Cornwall, there's already Radio Scilly, The Source FM and Radio St Austell Bay broadcasting on FM, with Penwith Radio, Redruth Radio, CHBN Radio and The Hub all due to launch this year. In Devon, the competition from community radio already exists with Soundart Radio in Totnes and Phonic FM in Exeter on FM, and The Voice, already broadcasting across North Devon, Exeter and Torbay on DAB, even though the editorial area is only North Devon. The Voice are due to add FM distribution in North Devon this year, and will be joined by Bay FM in Exmouth, Plymouth Community Radio, Q-mmunity Radio in Crediton and Totnes FM in Totnes. All these stations are taking small chunks of the audience now, and these chunks are getting slowly bigger, and soon there will be more chunks being taken out of the audience pie. It will be interesting to see just how the more established stations respond.
On the local side, the spotlight really falls on 3 stations. Radio Exe, who reduced their TSA by over 100,000; Palm FM, and Radio Plymouth, who recieved their first official ratings in this quarter. All of these stations and Pirate FM as well, are up against the newly formed monolith that is Heart South West, who are reporting combined numbers for the first time rather than separate numbers for Cornwall and Devon.
Heart South West reported 394,000 listeners. The best we can tell, that is actually an increase on the quarter and a small increase on the year. The station was listened to for 8.1 hours per listener per week, whihc is a reasonable figure. So how do their competition measure up?
Let's start with Radio Exe, whose TSA figure is basically now the city of Exeter and not a lot more. The reach does not look good at just 21,000 listeners, down from 25,000 the previous quarter. However, in the smaller TSA, that now represents 11% of the TSA, rather than the 9% or so last quarter. Average Hours per week went up rto 8.3 from 7.4, but that was not enough to stop the total hours dropping from 183k to 176k. This does mean that in the smaller TSA, the share went up to 4% from 2.8%. A lot of this feels like cosmetic changes really rather than anything solid.
However, at the beginning of 2013, they made some fairly significant changes to their schedule. Matt Young left the station, and Chris Dinnis took over a shortened drivetime from 2pm til 6pm. Nino Ferreto, who at one time had been the breakfast presenter on Radio Exe in it's previous identity of Exeter FM, has come back and taken over the daytime slot between 10am and 2pm. Ashley Geary's Live and Local expands and becomes a regular show every weeknight between 6pm and 8pm. Kellow's Bootlaces and The Pow Wow, two shows about Exeter's local football and rugby teams take the 8pm slots for an hour on Mondays and Thursdays respectively, with Gary King's Totally 90s getting an airing on Fridays at 8pm. Radio Exe is obviously making a play at being the home of local music and sport, though that seems a little strange when the saturday afternoon show, when both local teams are in action, is not particularly sport focused. On the local music side, they are in direct competition there with local community radio station Phonic FM, which has actually been around longer than Radio Exe, by all of 3 days. It will be interesting to see if Radio Exe's strategy actually pays off for them. The next set of RAJARs for them will be very important, as it will be the first test of how the revised schedule is actually working for them.
For Palm FM, the problem was much simpler in understanding, stop a downward trend that had been developing over the past 18 months or so, and it looks like they might have done that. 37,000 listeners is up 3,000 on the quarter and level for the year, so it looks like some stability may have returned to Palm FM. Or has it? The share and hours figures don't read as well as the reach figure does. The share has dropped to 4.7%, the lowest level since 2008, and way down from a peak of 7.2% in Q4 2010. At only 7 hours per listener per week, the total hours figure has dropped to 261k, the lowest level since 2009 and down from the peak of 340k in Q3 2010.
Much like Radio Exe, Palm FM has also made some changes in 2013, with John Hogarth leaving the role of Programme Controller to concentrate on Breakfast, and Jon White, formerly Radio Plymouth's Breakfast Show host, replacing Hogie as Programme Controller and also replacing Dave Gould as host of the Interactive Afternoon. Dave Gould also seems to have left Palm FM, as Allen Fleckney has taken over Dave's old Sunday Afternoon slot. Again, much like Radio Exe, the Q1 2013 numbers will be very interesting to watch.
For Radio Plymouth, the problem has been not knowing how many people were listening. Now, with their first official RAJARs, they know. 37,000 listeners, same number as Palm FM. 7.3 hours per listener per week, 271k total hours and a 4.9% share are respectable numbers and a good starting point. However, these numbers were during Jon White's time on the Breakfast show. Jon is now Palm FM Programme Controller, so Chris Batchelor has taken over the Breakfast show, and it will be interesting to see whether the movement in the numbers in Q1 2013 will be up or down.
For Pirate FM, the last quarter saw a big drop in reach down to 153,000 and a very low 11.8% share, their worst performance that I can verify going back to 1999. Total Hours dropped below 1.5 million, the worst performance since Q4 2008. Radio Cornwall saw a small drop down to 152,000 listeners and 16.1% share, down from 154,000 and 16.3% respectively, whilst Radio Devon recovered some ground, rising to 225,000 listeners and 10% share, from 203,000 listeners and 8.9% share. But all these stations have some serious opposition already from community radio stations, and in 2013, there will be many more launches across Cornwall and Devon, meaning that more stations will be competing for listeners attention.
In Cornwall, there's already Radio Scilly, The Source FM and Radio St Austell Bay broadcasting on FM, with Penwith Radio, Redruth Radio, CHBN Radio and The Hub all due to launch this year. In Devon, the competition from community radio already exists with Soundart Radio in Totnes and Phonic FM in Exeter on FM, and The Voice, already broadcasting across North Devon, Exeter and Torbay on DAB, even though the editorial area is only North Devon. The Voice are due to add FM distribution in North Devon this year, and will be joined by Bay FM in Exmouth, Plymouth Community Radio, Q-mmunity Radio in Crediton and Totnes FM in Totnes. All these stations are taking small chunks of the audience now, and these chunks are getting slowly bigger, and soon there will be more chunks being taken out of the audience pie. It will be interesting to see just how the more established stations respond.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Why I write on Viewpoint and on Twitter
Well, it seems that I have caused somewhat of a stir on Twitter with my coverage of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections. And quite frankly, that pleases me no end, because it means that I am doing my job on this blog, and on my twitter feed, which has in many ways become an extension of this blog.
My goal with this blog has always been to challenge the myths and misconceptions about the news stories and about life in general. That can be done many ways. One way is to present both sides, where both have strong cases, and there is no clear right or wrong answer. But I prefer it when the facts are clear and unambiguous, and in those situations, when you still have people who argue that black is white, then you need to challenge them, with unvarnished, undiluted facts and truth, and watch as they try to spin their way out, and end up spinning out of control.
Now I know that half the world will not agree with any single opinion of mine, and I'm comfortable with that. But, when your opinions are based on something easily disprovable, expect to called on it. My friends have done it to me in the past, and I expect no less from them.
I know that some people just cannot handle being told the truth, upfront, straight and to the point. But if I get people thinking about it, and responding to what I write, then frankly, I have done my job well.
My goal with this blog has always been to challenge the myths and misconceptions about the news stories and about life in general. That can be done many ways. One way is to present both sides, where both have strong cases, and there is no clear right or wrong answer. But I prefer it when the facts are clear and unambiguous, and in those situations, when you still have people who argue that black is white, then you need to challenge them, with unvarnished, undiluted facts and truth, and watch as they try to spin their way out, and end up spinning out of control.
Now I know that half the world will not agree with any single opinion of mine, and I'm comfortable with that. But, when your opinions are based on something easily disprovable, expect to called on it. My friends have done it to me in the past, and I expect no less from them.
I know that some people just cannot handle being told the truth, upfront, straight and to the point. But if I get people thinking about it, and responding to what I write, then frankly, I have done my job well.
Sunday, 18 November 2012
PCC Elections: Time to make voting mandatory.
In the aftermath of the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections, we're hearing people say that they weren't interested, didn't know who to vote for, etc.
The translation of all this is quite simple. 85% of the UK electorate didn't want to bother to work something out for themselves, but rely on someone or something else to tell them what to do.
It seems that many people have forgotten what citizenship really means. It means you have both rights and responsibilities. Apparently many people just want the rights, not the responsibilities.
Crime affects everyone. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, as it raises prices for all of us. Any of us could be victims of crime at any time.
I think it's time to consider making voting mandatory, like they do in Australia.
The translation of all this is quite simple. 85% of the UK electorate didn't want to bother to work something out for themselves, but rely on someone or something else to tell them what to do.
It seems that many people have forgotten what citizenship really means. It means you have both rights and responsibilities. Apparently many people just want the rights, not the responsibilities.
Crime affects everyone. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, as it raises prices for all of us. Any of us could be victims of crime at any time.
I think it's time to consider making voting mandatory, like they do in Australia.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
US Elections 2012: More international coverage
I've been scouring the internet for any information that I can find about coverage. ABC in Australia is airing an extended Breakfast on ABC1 until 10am, with additional coverage of the election between midday and 1.30pm and between 3pm and 4pm, all times for Sydney. Meanwhile ABC News 24 airs Breakfast until 10.30am and then rolling coverage until 6pm Sydney time.
CBC News Network is airing coverage from 5pm ET with a 3 hour long Power and Politics special, then Peter Mansbirdge takes over at 8pm until 6am with all night National special.
EuroNews has rolling coverage from 8pm UK, 2100 CET. France 24 and RT are expected to have special coverage as well. In RTs case, the likelihood of coverage coming from RT America in Washington would be quite high, but so far nothing has been explicitly advertised.
Politico have coverage online from 7pm, which is being simulcast on C-Span from 8pm ET. Democracy Now also has online coverage from 7pm for 6 hours.
In America itslef, there's lots of coverage. Each of the main networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, have coverage beginning at 7pm ET, whilst CNN's main coverage begins at 4pm. FOX News Channel's coverage begins at 6pm ET and MSnbc's coverage also begins at the same time. Current has their "Politically Direct" coverage anchored by Al Gore, starting at 8pm ET.
Over on twitter, I'll be tweeting coverage during the night using the hashtag #vpus2012. I will see you there.
CBC News Network is airing coverage from 5pm ET with a 3 hour long Power and Politics special, then Peter Mansbirdge takes over at 8pm until 6am with all night National special.
EuroNews has rolling coverage from 8pm UK, 2100 CET. France 24 and RT are expected to have special coverage as well. In RTs case, the likelihood of coverage coming from RT America in Washington would be quite high, but so far nothing has been explicitly advertised.
Politico have coverage online from 7pm, which is being simulcast on C-Span from 8pm ET. Democracy Now also has online coverage from 7pm for 6 hours.
In America itslef, there's lots of coverage. Each of the main networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, have coverage beginning at 7pm ET, whilst CNN's main coverage begins at 4pm. FOX News Channel's coverage begins at 6pm ET and MSnbc's coverage also begins at the same time. Current has their "Politically Direct" coverage anchored by Al Gore, starting at 8pm ET.
Over on twitter, I'll be tweeting coverage during the night using the hashtag #vpus2012. I will see you there.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
US Election Analysis and Coverage.
This election cycle in the US has been the most divided and one of the closest in recent memory, certainly the closest since 2000. But an improving economy and the most unwelcome of October surprises in Hurricane Sandy, handled brilliantly by President Obama, may have swung the election away from Mitt Romney. Obama had the easier path to 270 anyway this year, and Mitt Romney looks like he has had just too much to do to turn it round.
However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT. This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008. Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system. I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.
However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating. RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.
Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement. Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011.
Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr. Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers. It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win. With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008. The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious.
There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact. In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television. Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am. Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage. BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast. Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak. Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins. LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.
Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage. One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am. Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am. Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am. CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am. Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am. But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm. Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.
Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth. Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins. NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled. On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.
TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird. Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm. TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am. However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live. I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot. Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.
As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them. Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well. On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod. It should be a fascinating night.
However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT. This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008. Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system. I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.
However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating. RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.
Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement. Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011.
Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr. Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers. It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win. With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008. The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious.
There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact. In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television. Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am. Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage. BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast. Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak. Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins. LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.
Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage. One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am. Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am. Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am. CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am. Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am. But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm. Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.
Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth. Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins. NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled. On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.
TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird. Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm. TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am. However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live. I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot. Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.
As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them. Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well. On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod. It should be a fascinating night.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Danny Baker axed by BBC London.
So, it's been reported today that BBC London are axing Danny Baker's weekday afternoon show, as well as removing Gaby Roslin from the breakfast show. But most attention has been on Danny Baker, who has often had an off and on relationship with BBC bosses.
He started on BBC GLR back in 1989, arrived on BBC Radio 5 with SportsCall on a Saturday lunchtime, and by February 1992, he had taken over the station's breakfast show, Morning Edition. He did shows on Radio 1, Radio 5 Live, Talk Radio, Virgin Radio, before returning to BBC London in 2001, and taking over the weekday afternoon show in 2005, the show which has now been axed. He continues to broadcast a show on BBC Radio 5 Live every weekend.
Danny Baker is one of those talents, rather like Chris Moyles and Chris Evans, who have never really sat totally comfortably, within the BBC. In the past, pre-2002, they would have easily found a home within commercial radio. These days, commercial radio has gone ultra-safe, timid, generic, and bean-counting to the Nth degree. So it's harder now to see Danny Baker finding a home on commercial radio these days.
Some people have compared Danny Baker to Kenny Everett, but that is an unfair comparison, as they are two very different types of radio personality. Kenny Everett had personality and a lot of creativity. Danny Baker has attitude, and that's about it. But the thing they both shared was that they knew exactly what they wanted to produce and how they wanted to produce it, and there are very few like them currently, across the world, people like Steve Wright, Danny Baker, Chris Evans, Keith Olbermann and Gay Byrne, and they are an essential part of the mix, yes, they are all difficult to manage, but at the end of the day, the passion they have for the product they produce comes through and they connect with listeners and viewers. At the end of the day, that connection is what every station needs, not only to survive, but to grow.
He started on BBC GLR back in 1989, arrived on BBC Radio 5 with SportsCall on a Saturday lunchtime, and by February 1992, he had taken over the station's breakfast show, Morning Edition. He did shows on Radio 1, Radio 5 Live, Talk Radio, Virgin Radio, before returning to BBC London in 2001, and taking over the weekday afternoon show in 2005, the show which has now been axed. He continues to broadcast a show on BBC Radio 5 Live every weekend.
Danny Baker is one of those talents, rather like Chris Moyles and Chris Evans, who have never really sat totally comfortably, within the BBC. In the past, pre-2002, they would have easily found a home within commercial radio. These days, commercial radio has gone ultra-safe, timid, generic, and bean-counting to the Nth degree. So it's harder now to see Danny Baker finding a home on commercial radio these days.
Some people have compared Danny Baker to Kenny Everett, but that is an unfair comparison, as they are two very different types of radio personality. Kenny Everett had personality and a lot of creativity. Danny Baker has attitude, and that's about it. But the thing they both shared was that they knew exactly what they wanted to produce and how they wanted to produce it, and there are very few like them currently, across the world, people like Steve Wright, Danny Baker, Chris Evans, Keith Olbermann and Gay Byrne, and they are an essential part of the mix, yes, they are all difficult to manage, but at the end of the day, the passion they have for the product they produce comes through and they connect with listeners and viewers. At the end of the day, that connection is what every station needs, not only to survive, but to grow.
Thursday, 25 October 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Who's On Heart breaches broadcasting code, and listener trust
Do you remember the competition that Heart ran for about 6 months during their daytime shows between 10am and 4pm? It caused a lot of controversy on some radio forums, and apparently, OFCOM also recieved a complaint about it.
The complaint from a listener to Heart's Devon station, now mostly merged with Heart Cornwall, formerly Atlantic FM, to form Heart South West. There were three incidents that the complainant reported where the presenter, in this case Toby Anstis, host of the Mid Morning slot from 10am to 1pm across the whole Heart Network, did not make clear that the competition was across the whole Heart Network, not merely the station that the listener was listening to.
OFCOM found that the station had been in breach of Rule 2.15, which states that...
“Broadcasters must draw up rules for a broadcast competition or vote. These rules must be clear and appropriately made known. In particular, significant conditions that may affect a viewer's or listener's decision to participate must be stated at the time an invitation to participate is broadcast.”
Now, it has to be said, this I think is something of a harsh decision, as I believe the top prize on the competition was around £50,000, or maybe it had gone up to £60,000, but either way, that would be enough motivation for any listener to want to call in. Also, as OFCOM noted in the decision, only the person who got through to the studio was charged for the call, and others would not be.
But there are a couple of interesting points that are worth remembering here.
The first is the issue of listener trust. Now this is something that some people in the broadcasting industry either don't understand, or forget about, or think that it doesn't matter. Yet, listener trust is one of the most important commodities that any station can have, as it helps to build ratings and credibility, two of a radio station's results. It's very easy to destory listener trust, and once that trust has gone, it's very difficult to get it back.
And Heart, in its very construction, is a station that actively avoids being upfront with listeners. The fact that 35 stations have become 17 all under a single brand, with 17 hours a day of network programming on weekdays, and 20 hours a day on weekends, yet tries to say with a straight face that it prides itself on it's localness, just doesn't ring true. A listener to Heart South West in Penzance, wouldn't feel that a station based in Exter and London, is very local to them. After all, Exeter is 110 miles away, and London is 289 miles away. Not exactly local, especially when compared to Pirate FM, that is based in Pool, near Redruth, which is only 15.7 miles away, and does locally originated programming for all except 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon
Heart's words and actions are not congruent, and as such, to me as a listener, it does not make me want to trust them as a radio station.
The second point I'd like to make is one that would annoy a lot of the fans of Heart on the various radio forums and sites, but is a very pertinent point.
Heart's parent company, Global Radio, have set themselves up as the big guns in the industry, and with their intended purchase of the entity formerly known as GMG being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading, this breach of the broadcasting code doesn't help matters for them, even if it doesn't hinder them. And even if this breach is counted against them in that process, which is unlikely, it's not exactly a big minus. But when you set yourself up as the biggest company in the industry, there will be people who will not like what you do, just as there will be people who do like what you do.
However, some of the reactions that I have seen from Heart's fans, or as I usually call them, the Heartophiles, have been definitely derogatory towards the complainant. Some of the thoughts about who the complainant might be, are logical and believable. After all, in creating Heart Devon, Global took 5 different breakfast shows, 4 different daytime shows and 5 different drivetime shows, and replaced them with 1 countywide breakfast show and 1 countywide drivetime show, with network daytimes. They basically fired a lot of people and it's not inconcievable that some of them might have an agenda against Heart. However, it has to be said that a number of those who used to work for those stations that became Heart Devon, still have some very strong friendships with those who still work at Heart.
But it is worrying that the attitude is that the person invloved is somehow either a professional complainer, or someone at a rival station, that's a very damaging attitude to hold. When you are working at a radio station, you are busy doing so much, that you don't have time to dissect the opposition's output, much as you'd might like to. I find the whole idea of a rival station getting a complaint submitted to OFCOM to be totally ludicrous. The other idea of a professional complainer, whilst being more plausible, considering the past actions of organisations like MediaWatch UK, also seems unlikely in this situation. The professional complainers, such as MediaWatch UK, go after the BBC, or Channel 4, or Sky. The groups that are anti-Global and anti-Heart, are rag-tag Facebook groups of individuals, many of whom don't even have the time to actively monitor Heart's output all day.
The idea that "normal listeners" don't complain is something that broadcasters have been trying to use for years to discredit anybody who did complain about their output. It's a dangerous attitude to hold, and is very insulting to listeners, who are the most important people for any radio station. If you don't value the feedback you get from your listeners, then why should they listen to your station?
All in all, this is small fry, this is a minor infraction. In the NFL, you'd call this a 5 yard penalty. It's nothing. But the reaction of the Heartophiles online, is very disconcerting. They're treating it, like they've given up a 15 yard penalty, a major infraction, and they've basically attacked the motivation of the complainer, without having any proof, or any eveidence, or even anything slightly circumstancial. Rather than accept that Heart made a few mistakes, they throw some quite wild unprovable accusations, just so they can feel better. Such behaviour is unjustified, unwarranted and does not help Heart from a public relations standpoint.
It's a shame that these so called fans cannot just accept the fact that Heart go caught out on some minor infractions of the broadcasting code and let things be. But any big company can be regarded as a target, as the BBC, ITV, Sky and NewsCorp have all found out. And now Global are starting to realise that as the biggest commercial radio company, you are there to be shot at, and some people will take potshots at you, and some will hit the target. The measure of a company is how you react and recover from those hits and do you make your product better as a result.
The complaint from a listener to Heart's Devon station, now mostly merged with Heart Cornwall, formerly Atlantic FM, to form Heart South West. There were three incidents that the complainant reported where the presenter, in this case Toby Anstis, host of the Mid Morning slot from 10am to 1pm across the whole Heart Network, did not make clear that the competition was across the whole Heart Network, not merely the station that the listener was listening to.
OFCOM found that the station had been in breach of Rule 2.15, which states that...
“Broadcasters must draw up rules for a broadcast competition or vote. These rules must be clear and appropriately made known. In particular, significant conditions that may affect a viewer's or listener's decision to participate must be stated at the time an invitation to participate is broadcast.”
Now, it has to be said, this I think is something of a harsh decision, as I believe the top prize on the competition was around £50,000, or maybe it had gone up to £60,000, but either way, that would be enough motivation for any listener to want to call in. Also, as OFCOM noted in the decision, only the person who got through to the studio was charged for the call, and others would not be.
But there are a couple of interesting points that are worth remembering here.
The first is the issue of listener trust. Now this is something that some people in the broadcasting industry either don't understand, or forget about, or think that it doesn't matter. Yet, listener trust is one of the most important commodities that any station can have, as it helps to build ratings and credibility, two of a radio station's results. It's very easy to destory listener trust, and once that trust has gone, it's very difficult to get it back.
And Heart, in its very construction, is a station that actively avoids being upfront with listeners. The fact that 35 stations have become 17 all under a single brand, with 17 hours a day of network programming on weekdays, and 20 hours a day on weekends, yet tries to say with a straight face that it prides itself on it's localness, just doesn't ring true. A listener to Heart South West in Penzance, wouldn't feel that a station based in Exter and London, is very local to them. After all, Exeter is 110 miles away, and London is 289 miles away. Not exactly local, especially when compared to Pirate FM, that is based in Pool, near Redruth, which is only 15.7 miles away, and does locally originated programming for all except 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon
Heart's words and actions are not congruent, and as such, to me as a listener, it does not make me want to trust them as a radio station.
The second point I'd like to make is one that would annoy a lot of the fans of Heart on the various radio forums and sites, but is a very pertinent point.
Heart's parent company, Global Radio, have set themselves up as the big guns in the industry, and with their intended purchase of the entity formerly known as GMG being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading, this breach of the broadcasting code doesn't help matters for them, even if it doesn't hinder them. And even if this breach is counted against them in that process, which is unlikely, it's not exactly a big minus. But when you set yourself up as the biggest company in the industry, there will be people who will not like what you do, just as there will be people who do like what you do.
However, some of the reactions that I have seen from Heart's fans, or as I usually call them, the Heartophiles, have been definitely derogatory towards the complainant. Some of the thoughts about who the complainant might be, are logical and believable. After all, in creating Heart Devon, Global took 5 different breakfast shows, 4 different daytime shows and 5 different drivetime shows, and replaced them with 1 countywide breakfast show and 1 countywide drivetime show, with network daytimes. They basically fired a lot of people and it's not inconcievable that some of them might have an agenda against Heart. However, it has to be said that a number of those who used to work for those stations that became Heart Devon, still have some very strong friendships with those who still work at Heart.
But it is worrying that the attitude is that the person invloved is somehow either a professional complainer, or someone at a rival station, that's a very damaging attitude to hold. When you are working at a radio station, you are busy doing so much, that you don't have time to dissect the opposition's output, much as you'd might like to. I find the whole idea of a rival station getting a complaint submitted to OFCOM to be totally ludicrous. The other idea of a professional complainer, whilst being more plausible, considering the past actions of organisations like MediaWatch UK, also seems unlikely in this situation. The professional complainers, such as MediaWatch UK, go after the BBC, or Channel 4, or Sky. The groups that are anti-Global and anti-Heart, are rag-tag Facebook groups of individuals, many of whom don't even have the time to actively monitor Heart's output all day.
The idea that "normal listeners" don't complain is something that broadcasters have been trying to use for years to discredit anybody who did complain about their output. It's a dangerous attitude to hold, and is very insulting to listeners, who are the most important people for any radio station. If you don't value the feedback you get from your listeners, then why should they listen to your station?
All in all, this is small fry, this is a minor infraction. In the NFL, you'd call this a 5 yard penalty. It's nothing. But the reaction of the Heartophiles online, is very disconcerting. They're treating it, like they've given up a 15 yard penalty, a major infraction, and they've basically attacked the motivation of the complainer, without having any proof, or any eveidence, or even anything slightly circumstancial. Rather than accept that Heart made a few mistakes, they throw some quite wild unprovable accusations, just so they can feel better. Such behaviour is unjustified, unwarranted and does not help Heart from a public relations standpoint.
It's a shame that these so called fans cannot just accept the fact that Heart go caught out on some minor infractions of the broadcasting code and let things be. But any big company can be regarded as a target, as the BBC, ITV, Sky and NewsCorp have all found out. And now Global are starting to realise that as the biggest commercial radio company, you are there to be shot at, and some people will take potshots at you, and some will hit the target. The measure of a company is how you react and recover from those hits and do you make your product better as a result.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Osbourne: Part-Time, Work Experience, Chancellor
On the day when GB's Women Footballers kicked off the sporting action in an Olympics that is supposed to lift our spirits, we got word from the Office of National Statistics that showed the UK suffered a 3rd quarter of economic contraction, down a worse than expected 0.7%.
When publications such as The Daily Telegraph, and The New Statesman have such damning stories about a "part-time"... "work experience" Chancellor of The Exchequer, in other words, George Osbourne, you know you're in trouble.
But also, if you were a shareholder of a company that had seen three consecutive quarters of losses, 4 quarters of losses in 5, and 5 quarters of losses in 7, you'd demand a change at the top level. Both the CEO and CFO would be unquestionably under threat. David Cameron and George Osbourne should be very seriously thinking about their positions, and George Osbourne should definitely resign.
Austerity Doesn't Work!
That should now be clear to every human being and your more discerning domesticated animals.
When publications such as The Daily Telegraph, and The New Statesman have such damning stories about a "part-time"... "work experience" Chancellor of The Exchequer, in other words, George Osbourne, you know you're in trouble.
But also, if you were a shareholder of a company that had seen three consecutive quarters of losses, 4 quarters of losses in 5, and 5 quarters of losses in 7, you'd demand a change at the top level. Both the CEO and CFO would be unquestionably under threat. David Cameron and George Osbourne should be very seriously thinking about their positions, and George Osbourne should definitely resign.
Austerity Doesn't Work!
That should now be clear to every human being and your more discerning domesticated animals.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)