So, it's being reported today that Global Radio is to buy GMG Radio for £50million. It's being reported that UTV Media, Absolute Radio and Bauer Radio are expected to lodge complaints to the Competition Commission.
It's strange to watch this happen, knowing that this has happened already in two broadcasting related industries, and in both of them, they are significantly weaker now, than they were before the whole merging process began. Instead of becoming more than the sum of the parts, in both cases, the industries have become singiificantly less than the sum of the parts that made it, and it's already been happening in radio and it seems to be getting worse.
When radio stations first started being sold in the UK, back in the early 1990s, the usual valuation for a station was around £10million each. Accounting for inflation, which doubles every 15 years roughly, that would make each station today worth somewhere between £20-25million. Except, that Global has just bought 10 stations for £50million. That's £5 million per radio station. Accounting for inflation, that valuation of radio station back in the early 1990s would be somewhere near £2million. In other words, the value of an individual radio station has fallen 80% in the last 20 or so years.
That's some pretty massive depreciation. It's a damning indictment of an industry that seems to be doing what both Virgin Media in cable and ITV in terrestrial broadcasting. Merging themselves, not into oblivion, but into irrelevance. And as this trend continues, listeners will slowly continue to desert those stations that are part of this massive conglomerate, and seek other alternatives, from overseas if necessary.
And there is a bigger issue than merely the massive depreciation in the value of the radio industry over the last 20 years. This is the biggest radio company in the UK, buying the third biggest, when it is already way more than double the size and reach of the second biggest. And all this does is make Global bigger and make radio a less attractive industry for people and other business to come into. Radio was a better industry and a stronger industry, when there were more players in constant competition.
What's often refered to as consolidation is in fact nothing more than seeking to eliminate competition. And Charles Allen, who was the man responsible for the assimiliation of many of the ITV regional companies into Granada, and the eventual merger with Carlton to form ITV plc in 2004, knows all about that. And with GMG willing to sell, Global basically, being the biggest, could offer the most money, and yet, they still undervalued the group by at least half, according to GMG's own valuation in it's last annual report.
Global want to basically consolidate all of commercial radio under one company, much like Charles Allen tried to do at ITV, and almost succeeded. This deal is not designed to increase competition or preserve it, it is designed to reduce it. For that very reason alone, the Competition Commission should refuse this deal.
Monday, 25 June 2012
Friday, 15 June 2012
Busting Media Myths #1: 'How real people consume media'.
One thing that really makes me feel disappointed about the state of radio and broadcasting in general. The attitude that was summed up in an article in March 2012 on the Radio Today website written by Stuart Clarkson.
"Stop and think for a second about your own radio listening habits. And then think about how a friend or family member who doesn’t work in radio (or have an unhealthy interest in the medium) consumes it."
There is so much wrong with that statement, that I couldn't deal in detail with all the various problems with it in my rebuttal to him. But in this article, I can deal with all those problems and show why stations should not fall into the trap of believing that "real people consume media differently" from anybody else.
The first problem with that is the idea that there is a distinction between 'real people' and 'people who have an unhealthy interest'. This idea that there is a distinction between these two groups and that the more knowledgeable group should be negatively regarded is exclusive to the media. It does not exist in any other industry.
Imagine if I was a shop worker, and another shop worker from a different store came into my store with a complaint about a product I sold. Which would be the correct response?
A) "I'm sorry, but you have an unhealthy interest in retail. I will do nothing about your complaint."
B) "I do apologise. Would you like a replacement or refund?"
Generally, the correct answer would be B. If I had ever come out with anything remotely like A, I would have expected the shop manager to have hauled me over the coals in his office, and rightfully so.
So why do broadcasters regard complaints from some viewers and listeners in the same way by claiming the person has an 'unhealthy interest' in the medium? It's not good customer service, and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the viewer or listener.
There's another problem with this distinction. It shows up an attitude problem within the broadcaster. It says that the broadcaster looks at viewers or listeners, and does not consider them to be the most important people for the station. Probably they think their advertisers are more important than their listeners or viewers. But this shows they have forgotten or not understood one key fact.
Advertisers follow where the viewers or listeners go, rather than the other way round.
We have seen repeated examples of stations losing lots of listeners for one reason or another, and the advertisers desert the station. Plymouth Sound saw that in 1999 when their AM service was replaced by Classic Gold and the station lost 2/3rds of their listeners. Advertisers started to go to Pirate FM in order to get the reach they used to get with Plymouth Sound AM.
Without listeners or viewers, advertisers do not have anybody to advertise to.
It's a simple as that. Anytime you prioritise advertisers over viewers or listeners, you are putting the cart before the horse. The most important people to the success of any station is your viewers or listeners.
Now after all that, let's talk about 'consuming media'.
The first question there really is do we consume media? Well in a sense, we do, because the media is mostly a consumer product. We buy newspapers, magazines, radios, televisions, computers, games consoles, computer and console games, DVD's and Blu-Ray's, so in a sense, media is a consumer product. However, the idea that we really consume media implies that we do not make a conscious choice about which media we consume.
Far too often when we go shopping for food, we aren't really making conscious choices. We are merely picking up the same things we have always picked up, because we have got used to their texture and taste. In that situation, exercising real choice would be to decide to buy a different product, or to decide to not buy any other product, or after thinking about it, deciding to buy it anyway.
However, with most media, it is a conscious choice. It is a choice whether we go to the cinema or stay at home. It is a choice whether or not we switch on the radio or the television. It is a conscious choice when we decide which channel we are going to watch, or which radio station we are going to listen to. It is a conscious choice which game we play, or which movie we watch on DVD or Blu-Ray. So I would not call it consuming media. We interact with it, consciously making choices. Those who refer to it as consuming media are again basically forgetting that the viewer or listener is the most important person to that station. Without them, the station cannot survive.
If your radio station needs more audience to attract more advertisers and make more money, then does it make sense to keep doing the same thing you've always done? No, you have to make changes. By hiring me as a consultant, I can guide you how to improve your product, and maximise your reach by precise use of new and old media techniques. Email me to find out more.
"Stop and think for a second about your own radio listening habits. And then think about how a friend or family member who doesn’t work in radio (or have an unhealthy interest in the medium) consumes it."
There is so much wrong with that statement, that I couldn't deal in detail with all the various problems with it in my rebuttal to him. But in this article, I can deal with all those problems and show why stations should not fall into the trap of believing that "real people consume media differently" from anybody else.
The first problem with that is the idea that there is a distinction between 'real people' and 'people who have an unhealthy interest'. This idea that there is a distinction between these two groups and that the more knowledgeable group should be negatively regarded is exclusive to the media. It does not exist in any other industry.
Imagine if I was a shop worker, and another shop worker from a different store came into my store with a complaint about a product I sold. Which would be the correct response?
A) "I'm sorry, but you have an unhealthy interest in retail. I will do nothing about your complaint."
B) "I do apologise. Would you like a replacement or refund?"
Generally, the correct answer would be B. If I had ever come out with anything remotely like A, I would have expected the shop manager to have hauled me over the coals in his office, and rightfully so.
So why do broadcasters regard complaints from some viewers and listeners in the same way by claiming the person has an 'unhealthy interest' in the medium? It's not good customer service, and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the viewer or listener.
There's another problem with this distinction. It shows up an attitude problem within the broadcaster. It says that the broadcaster looks at viewers or listeners, and does not consider them to be the most important people for the station. Probably they think their advertisers are more important than their listeners or viewers. But this shows they have forgotten or not understood one key fact.
Advertisers follow where the viewers or listeners go, rather than the other way round.
We have seen repeated examples of stations losing lots of listeners for one reason or another, and the advertisers desert the station. Plymouth Sound saw that in 1999 when their AM service was replaced by Classic Gold and the station lost 2/3rds of their listeners. Advertisers started to go to Pirate FM in order to get the reach they used to get with Plymouth Sound AM.
Without listeners or viewers, advertisers do not have anybody to advertise to.
It's a simple as that. Anytime you prioritise advertisers over viewers or listeners, you are putting the cart before the horse. The most important people to the success of any station is your viewers or listeners.
Now after all that, let's talk about 'consuming media'.
The first question there really is do we consume media? Well in a sense, we do, because the media is mostly a consumer product. We buy newspapers, magazines, radios, televisions, computers, games consoles, computer and console games, DVD's and Blu-Ray's, so in a sense, media is a consumer product. However, the idea that we really consume media implies that we do not make a conscious choice about which media we consume.
Far too often when we go shopping for food, we aren't really making conscious choices. We are merely picking up the same things we have always picked up, because we have got used to their texture and taste. In that situation, exercising real choice would be to decide to buy a different product, or to decide to not buy any other product, or after thinking about it, deciding to buy it anyway.
However, with most media, it is a conscious choice. It is a choice whether we go to the cinema or stay at home. It is a choice whether or not we switch on the radio or the television. It is a conscious choice when we decide which channel we are going to watch, or which radio station we are going to listen to. It is a conscious choice which game we play, or which movie we watch on DVD or Blu-Ray. So I would not call it consuming media. We interact with it, consciously making choices. Those who refer to it as consuming media are again basically forgetting that the viewer or listener is the most important person to that station. Without them, the station cannot survive.
If your radio station needs more audience to attract more advertisers and make more money, then does it make sense to keep doing the same thing you've always done? No, you have to make changes. By hiring me as a consultant, I can guide you how to improve your product, and maximise your reach by precise use of new and old media techniques. Email me to find out more.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
What's wrong with the media #1: Lazy continuity.
I've been watching Challenge most of the day, watching a Takeshi's Castle marathon. I love the show, it's wonderfully silly. But in doing so, I've spotted a horrible example of what's wrong today with the media.
Broadcasters today seem to have forgotten that not only are they part of the Entertainment industry, but that it is also a Service industry. There seems to be very little in the way of service and the continuity announcements on Challenge today have been no exception. Most announcements over closing credits have been simply voiced promos for regular programmes, no mention of what's coming up next. The announcements into a programme have been nothing more than station promotion liners, no mention of what programme was actually about to air.
Quite frankly, if you're going to have some pre-recorded continuity, then at least make it about the shows you are showing now and next, rather than general promotion of other shows. For all the good that those announcements would actually do, they may as well not have had them airing in the first place. They were neither entertaining nor providing much of a service.
Broadcasters today seem to have forgotten that not only are they part of the Entertainment industry, but that it is also a Service industry. There seems to be very little in the way of service and the continuity announcements on Challenge today have been no exception. Most announcements over closing credits have been simply voiced promos for regular programmes, no mention of what's coming up next. The announcements into a programme have been nothing more than station promotion liners, no mention of what programme was actually about to air.
Quite frankly, if you're going to have some pre-recorded continuity, then at least make it about the shows you are showing now and next, rather than general promotion of other shows. For all the good that those announcements would actually do, they may as well not have had them airing in the first place. They were neither entertaining nor providing much of a service.
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Olympic Torch Relay: Day 1: Truro
A selection of photos from the events that took place today in Truro surrounding the Olympic Torch Relay.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
My thoughts on the Q1 2012 RAJARs
There are a few notable things in this new report, which was released at Midnight.
The Cornish local radio stations, all down compared to last quarter. Very unusual. Usually one will be up even if the others are down. Best performer out of the three was BBC Radio Cornwall, which was only down 2,000 in reach and 0.2% in terms of share. The station maintained its average hours at 11.3 hrs per listener.
Atlantic FM though, is already showing signs that the move by Global to buy it out might have been a mistake. The announcement was made on 19th March, right towards the end of Q1. And if these figures are anything to go by, then Atlantic's listenership might well had already started to desert by the end of the quarter. The figures are down 5,000 on reach, average hours dropped to 5.4 and share dropped from 3.6 to 3.4%. And this was before any of the Heart branding got added into the mix.
But surprisingly, the worst performer of the three was Pirate FM. Down 8,000 in reach, down 0.3 hours in average hours, and down 0.8% in share. Pirate FM did replace their evening presenter at the beginning of the quarter with an extension of their automated programming. That maybe the reason why they're down.
In South East Cornwall, you might have expected Heart or Gold to be the beneficiaries of such a drop. Well if Heart Devon did benefit, though it is unlikely, they lost out elsewhere in Devon. Heart Devon saw their own audience drop 11,000 on reach, down 0.2 on average hours and down 0.1% on share. But Gold did gain, but it might not have been entirely due to the reduction in audience in the other stations. Gold Devon got carraige on DAB in North Devon and maybe that had as much to do with it, as anything else. Gold gained 13,000 listeners in reach, saw their average hours increase by 4 hours, and as a result, their share more than doubled, from 1.2% to 2.6%. I will need to pay a little more attention to Gold, to see if I can discern why their audience is growing that significantly.
You might have expected BBC Radio Devon to have picked up significantly from Heart Devon, but they did not. In fact, they lost 22,000 listeners on reach. However, average hours went up from 12.5 to 13.2 and as a result, share increased 0.2% on the previous quarter.
In other news, BBC Radios Guernsey, Jersey and Cornwall continue to be the best performing of the BBC local radio stations, although Cornwall (37%) has moved into second place on that list, putting Jersey (35%) into 3rd place. BBC Radio Norfolk is 4th on 30% reach, the only other station to achieve 30%+ in terms of reach in the BBC Local Radio stable. Worst perfomer there is BBC London, in the ultra competitive London market only achieving a 5% reach. Next was BBC Sussex and Surrey with 9% reach, and equal third, BBC WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, both with 11% reach.
In national commercial radio, Absolute Radio is down 32,000 listeners, whilst Absolute 80s gained 29,000 and Absolute 90s gained 32,000 listeners, Classic FM gained 80,000 listeners, Talk Sport gained 36,000 listeners, Smooth Radio UK gained 2,000 listeners, Jazz FM gained 52,000 listeners and Planet Rock gained 50,000 listeners.
BBC Radio 2 gaining 293,000 listeners, and 5 Live saw an icrease of 137,000 listeners but other BBC nationals did not perform so well. Radio 1 saw a drop of 524,000 listeners, Radio 4 saw a drop of 527,000 listeners, Radio 3 lost 195,000 listeners. The BBC national digital stations were also a mixed bag. Whilst 5 Live Sports Extra saw a massive 336,000 listener increase, Asian Network increased by 68,000 and 6 Music gained 11,000 listeners, on the flip side, 1Xtra lost 99,000 listeners, World Service lost 85,000 and Radio 4 Extra lost 52,000 listeners.
Overall, it's difficult to determine any distinct pattern or trend, although national commercial radio seemed to be the greater beneficiary, with a few exceptions. Although Heart Devon lost listeners and Gold Devon gained, the reverse was true across the networks. Heart gained slightly across the UK, whilst Gold lost listeners. The Breeze South West continued to lose ground, losing another 5,000 listeners, and dropping below 1% in share, whilst sister station Jack FM gained 10,000 listeners in Bristol, but they average hours went down by 2 hours. Local commmercial radio doesn't seem to gaining much ground, if any. Without significant improvement to the local commercial radio product, listeners will continue to desert stations. The BBC needs to be wary that any cuts made to BBC local radio, especially the replacing of regional evening shows with an England-wide evening show, may send listeners away from the radio entirely in the evening, especially with local commercial radio moving away from live evening shows themselves. And once they disappear, it will be hard to get them back.
The Cornish local radio stations, all down compared to last quarter. Very unusual. Usually one will be up even if the others are down. Best performer out of the three was BBC Radio Cornwall, which was only down 2,000 in reach and 0.2% in terms of share. The station maintained its average hours at 11.3 hrs per listener.
Atlantic FM though, is already showing signs that the move by Global to buy it out might have been a mistake. The announcement was made on 19th March, right towards the end of Q1. And if these figures are anything to go by, then Atlantic's listenership might well had already started to desert by the end of the quarter. The figures are down 5,000 on reach, average hours dropped to 5.4 and share dropped from 3.6 to 3.4%. And this was before any of the Heart branding got added into the mix.
But surprisingly, the worst performer of the three was Pirate FM. Down 8,000 in reach, down 0.3 hours in average hours, and down 0.8% in share. Pirate FM did replace their evening presenter at the beginning of the quarter with an extension of their automated programming. That maybe the reason why they're down.
In South East Cornwall, you might have expected Heart or Gold to be the beneficiaries of such a drop. Well if Heart Devon did benefit, though it is unlikely, they lost out elsewhere in Devon. Heart Devon saw their own audience drop 11,000 on reach, down 0.2 on average hours and down 0.1% on share. But Gold did gain, but it might not have been entirely due to the reduction in audience in the other stations. Gold Devon got carraige on DAB in North Devon and maybe that had as much to do with it, as anything else. Gold gained 13,000 listeners in reach, saw their average hours increase by 4 hours, and as a result, their share more than doubled, from 1.2% to 2.6%. I will need to pay a little more attention to Gold, to see if I can discern why their audience is growing that significantly.
You might have expected BBC Radio Devon to have picked up significantly from Heart Devon, but they did not. In fact, they lost 22,000 listeners on reach. However, average hours went up from 12.5 to 13.2 and as a result, share increased 0.2% on the previous quarter.
In other news, BBC Radios Guernsey, Jersey and Cornwall continue to be the best performing of the BBC local radio stations, although Cornwall (37%) has moved into second place on that list, putting Jersey (35%) into 3rd place. BBC Radio Norfolk is 4th on 30% reach, the only other station to achieve 30%+ in terms of reach in the BBC Local Radio stable. Worst perfomer there is BBC London, in the ultra competitive London market only achieving a 5% reach. Next was BBC Sussex and Surrey with 9% reach, and equal third, BBC WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, both with 11% reach.
In national commercial radio, Absolute Radio is down 32,000 listeners, whilst Absolute 80s gained 29,000 and Absolute 90s gained 32,000 listeners, Classic FM gained 80,000 listeners, Talk Sport gained 36,000 listeners, Smooth Radio UK gained 2,000 listeners, Jazz FM gained 52,000 listeners and Planet Rock gained 50,000 listeners.
BBC Radio 2 gaining 293,000 listeners, and 5 Live saw an icrease of 137,000 listeners but other BBC nationals did not perform so well. Radio 1 saw a drop of 524,000 listeners, Radio 4 saw a drop of 527,000 listeners, Radio 3 lost 195,000 listeners. The BBC national digital stations were also a mixed bag. Whilst 5 Live Sports Extra saw a massive 336,000 listener increase, Asian Network increased by 68,000 and 6 Music gained 11,000 listeners, on the flip side, 1Xtra lost 99,000 listeners, World Service lost 85,000 and Radio 4 Extra lost 52,000 listeners.
Overall, it's difficult to determine any distinct pattern or trend, although national commercial radio seemed to be the greater beneficiary, with a few exceptions. Although Heart Devon lost listeners and Gold Devon gained, the reverse was true across the networks. Heart gained slightly across the UK, whilst Gold lost listeners. The Breeze South West continued to lose ground, losing another 5,000 listeners, and dropping below 1% in share, whilst sister station Jack FM gained 10,000 listeners in Bristol, but they average hours went down by 2 hours. Local commmercial radio doesn't seem to gaining much ground, if any. Without significant improvement to the local commercial radio product, listeners will continue to desert stations. The BBC needs to be wary that any cuts made to BBC local radio, especially the replacing of regional evening shows with an England-wide evening show, may send listeners away from the radio entirely in the evening, especially with local commercial radio moving away from live evening shows themselves. And once they disappear, it will be hard to get them back.
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Rajar's released at Midnight.
All the radio stations that subscribe to RAJAR will have recieved their Q1 2012 figures today, and the public figures get released at Midnight tonight.
For me here at Viewpoint, this means that I will be paying especially close attention to the figures for Atlantic FM. And no, I do not mean Heart Cornwall, as that did not start until May 7th, so well into Q2. These figures will be the last set of figures for Atlantic FM, as it was. The figures in Q2 will be transitional between Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall, so we won't get an idea how Heart Cornwall is really doing until Q3. Even then, because RAJAR use a year's worth of listening figures to determine the final numbers for Atlantic FM / Heart Cornwall, it won't be until the Q2 2013 figures are released before we get a clear set of Heart Cornwall figures as opposed to a combination of Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall.
There are three sets of figures that you should pay close attention to.
Average Hours Per Listener: This is quite simple. The average number of hours that a listener listens to the station per week. The lower the number, the less time is spent listening to the station. For example, 7 hours per listener would indicate an average of an hour per day. Less than this is considered bad performance. Above 10 hours a week would be considered good performance.
Listening Share in TSA: This requires a little bit of explanation. TSA means Total Survey Area, the area which is used to measure the audience. The population figure on the results give you the size of the population in that TSA aged 15 or older. The total number of hours that the station accrues, is divided by the total number of hours spent by listeners listening to the radio as a whole, and that gives you your share of listening. The higher the number, the better the performance. Below 5% share in considered bad performance, whilst above 10% is regarded as good performance. Very few stations achieve over a 20% share.
Weekly Reach: This is quite simple. It's how many people listen to a station for at least 5 minutes a week. This is measured against the 15+ population (people aged 15 or older) and a percentage is taken. Generally the higher the percentage, the better the performance, but there are many more factors in here when it comes to judging this. In London, there are a large number of local radio stations broadcasting on AM, FM and DAB, as well as the national ones. Whilst in somewhere like Cornwall, there is only the BBC local radio station and 2 ILRs to go with the nationals. Guernsey and Jersey have only the local BBC station and one commercial station against the nationals. And now with DAB, there are over 20 national radio stations, not the 8 we've been used to on AM and FM. It does mean that making sense of the reach figures in a bit trickier. However, for a local station, a reach below 10% is not good. And even up to 15% probably indicates some improvement needed.
Basically to improve your overall performance, you need to reach as many people as possible, and once they're listening, get them to listen for longer. It's not easy, but there are ways to be more successful at it. I'll get into those methods in a future post.
I'll be ready at Midnight tonight to get the data release and analyse it myself to see what can be determined.
For me here at Viewpoint, this means that I will be paying especially close attention to the figures for Atlantic FM. And no, I do not mean Heart Cornwall, as that did not start until May 7th, so well into Q2. These figures will be the last set of figures for Atlantic FM, as it was. The figures in Q2 will be transitional between Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall, so we won't get an idea how Heart Cornwall is really doing until Q3. Even then, because RAJAR use a year's worth of listening figures to determine the final numbers for Atlantic FM / Heart Cornwall, it won't be until the Q2 2013 figures are released before we get a clear set of Heart Cornwall figures as opposed to a combination of Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall.
There are three sets of figures that you should pay close attention to.
Average Hours Per Listener: This is quite simple. The average number of hours that a listener listens to the station per week. The lower the number, the less time is spent listening to the station. For example, 7 hours per listener would indicate an average of an hour per day. Less than this is considered bad performance. Above 10 hours a week would be considered good performance.
Listening Share in TSA: This requires a little bit of explanation. TSA means Total Survey Area, the area which is used to measure the audience. The population figure on the results give you the size of the population in that TSA aged 15 or older. The total number of hours that the station accrues, is divided by the total number of hours spent by listeners listening to the radio as a whole, and that gives you your share of listening. The higher the number, the better the performance. Below 5% share in considered bad performance, whilst above 10% is regarded as good performance. Very few stations achieve over a 20% share.
Weekly Reach: This is quite simple. It's how many people listen to a station for at least 5 minutes a week. This is measured against the 15+ population (people aged 15 or older) and a percentage is taken. Generally the higher the percentage, the better the performance, but there are many more factors in here when it comes to judging this. In London, there are a large number of local radio stations broadcasting on AM, FM and DAB, as well as the national ones. Whilst in somewhere like Cornwall, there is only the BBC local radio station and 2 ILRs to go with the nationals. Guernsey and Jersey have only the local BBC station and one commercial station against the nationals. And now with DAB, there are over 20 national radio stations, not the 8 we've been used to on AM and FM. It does mean that making sense of the reach figures in a bit trickier. However, for a local station, a reach below 10% is not good. And even up to 15% probably indicates some improvement needed.
Basically to improve your overall performance, you need to reach as many people as possible, and once they're listening, get them to listen for longer. It's not easy, but there are ways to be more successful at it. I'll get into those methods in a future post.
I'll be ready at Midnight tonight to get the data release and analyse it myself to see what can be determined.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Goodbye Atlantic FM...
So the last live presenter on Atlantic FM signed off today at noon. The station formerly known as Atlantic FM, but currently known as "Heart is coming", has been playing back to back music since.
Heart Cornwall officially launches at 8am with Victoria Leigh, ex of Atlantic FM's Full Cornish Breakfast, doing the first and only live breakfast show exclusively for Cornwall on Heart. As it currently stands, there will not be another one in the foreseeable future. Heart Devon have the excrusiating Emma Scott. Heart Cornwall will usually just have to put up with her on Saturday Mornings as she will host Saturday Breakfast from 8am to Noon. Dave Luck hosts Sunday Breakfast between the same times.
Normally, Victoria Leigh will do the drivetime show exclusively for Cornwall from 4pm to 7pm Weekdays, whilst Heart Devon will have Emma Scott.
We won't get our new regular breakfast show until Tuesday morning with Matt and Caroline. And you can bet that in the 26 hours from Monday 8am to Tuesday 10am, most of the links will be promoting the new Heart Cornwall, even on network programmes. They have the ability to voicetrack separate links for individual transmitters if they need to, and they'll be taking full advantage of that during that 26 hour period and probably at least once per hour for the rest of the week, except of course during Victoria Leigh's shows.
So, farewell Atlantic FM. 0730 06/07/2006 - 1200 06/05/2012
And farewell as well to Heart Plymouth on the NOW Cornwall DAB multiplex. That has been replaced already by Heart Cornwall, same output as FM. Well at least, we're getting the right version of Heart right now, which is still more than can be said for listeners to DAB in North Devon. I understand they are still getting the Exeter ads on their version of Heart on local DAB.
But although Heart Cornwall may be coming in the morning, I will probably be saying goodbye to it soon afterwards, as I will almost inevitably return to the better products that exist on the radio. Pirate FM, BBC Radio Cornwall, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC World Service, WNYC, WETA, WGBH and the many other superior choices that are available online.
But I do have something to look forward to. CHBN Radio, formerly known as Truro Hospital Radio, will be launching soon on FM, and I will be awaiting their launch with a lot of interest.
Heart Cornwall officially launches at 8am with Victoria Leigh, ex of Atlantic FM's Full Cornish Breakfast, doing the first and only live breakfast show exclusively for Cornwall on Heart. As it currently stands, there will not be another one in the foreseeable future. Heart Devon have the excrusiating Emma Scott. Heart Cornwall will usually just have to put up with her on Saturday Mornings as she will host Saturday Breakfast from 8am to Noon. Dave Luck hosts Sunday Breakfast between the same times.
Normally, Victoria Leigh will do the drivetime show exclusively for Cornwall from 4pm to 7pm Weekdays, whilst Heart Devon will have Emma Scott.
We won't get our new regular breakfast show until Tuesday morning with Matt and Caroline. And you can bet that in the 26 hours from Monday 8am to Tuesday 10am, most of the links will be promoting the new Heart Cornwall, even on network programmes. They have the ability to voicetrack separate links for individual transmitters if they need to, and they'll be taking full advantage of that during that 26 hour period and probably at least once per hour for the rest of the week, except of course during Victoria Leigh's shows.
So, farewell Atlantic FM. 0730 06/07/2006 - 1200 06/05/2012
And farewell as well to Heart Plymouth on the NOW Cornwall DAB multiplex. That has been replaced already by Heart Cornwall, same output as FM. Well at least, we're getting the right version of Heart right now, which is still more than can be said for listeners to DAB in North Devon. I understand they are still getting the Exeter ads on their version of Heart on local DAB.
But although Heart Cornwall may be coming in the morning, I will probably be saying goodbye to it soon afterwards, as I will almost inevitably return to the better products that exist on the radio. Pirate FM, BBC Radio Cornwall, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC World Service, WNYC, WETA, WGBH and the many other superior choices that are available online.
But I do have something to look forward to. CHBN Radio, formerly known as Truro Hospital Radio, will be launching soon on FM, and I will be awaiting their launch with a lot of interest.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Leveson Inquiry, Murdoch and Jeremy Hunt
We have had an explosive day at the Leveson Inquiry, and quite frankly, this one damages not just James Murdoch, who continues to sound like an executive trying to get round claims of dodgy dealings by claiming incompetence, in which case he shouldn't have been in the role in the first place; it not only damages the Con-Dem government, by showing that Jeremy Hunt and his office and advisers had had contacts with BSkyB, News International and James Murdoch, and thus also damages the credibility and position of Jeremy Hunt to the point where he has no option but to resign; but also damages the whole newspaper industry and the Conservative Party.
Not surprisingly, Conservative Central Office have sent out the party loyalists to both BBC and Sky to defend Jeremy Hunt, but quite frankly, what we are talking about is indefensible. Before he went into DCMS, he was pro-BSkyB, aggressively so, and his actions during the NewsCorp bid to gain full control of BSkyB do absolutely nothing to change the perception that he was a Murdoch puppet, and as such, he was the wrong person to rule on the takeover.
JEREMY HUNT MUST RESIGN!
Not surprisingly, Conservative Central Office have sent out the party loyalists to both BBC and Sky to defend Jeremy Hunt, but quite frankly, what we are talking about is indefensible. Before he went into DCMS, he was pro-BSkyB, aggressively so, and his actions during the NewsCorp bid to gain full control of BSkyB do absolutely nothing to change the perception that he was a Murdoch puppet, and as such, he was the wrong person to rule on the takeover.
JEREMY HUNT MUST RESIGN!
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Guernsey Elections 2012
Well, last night in Guernsey saw one of the more interesting and unpredictable elections we've had in a long time. No political parties, 78 candidates vieing for 45 seats in 7 parishes in the States of Deliberation, Guernsey's political assembly.
Of the 45 previous deputies who had been in the States, 10 decided not to run again, so we were guaranteed 10 new deputies. We got 22. Almost half the seats went to new deputies. And there were some high profile casualties including the Deputy Chief Minister and the Father of the House.
The fact that 6 of the 7 top polling candidates in this election were new deputies, also adds to the perception that the people of Guernsey, voted for change.
In fact, since the 2004 States, only 13 of those deputies remain. Such radical voting patterns have not been seen before. It's leaving even seasoned political observers somewhat surprised and baffled.
Even the current Chief Minister, Lynden Trott, came close to losing his seat in the parish of St Sampson, as he came 6th out of the 11 candidates in the 6 seat parish, beating Jane Stephens by just 73 votes.
Can he claim a mandate to remain as Chief Minister? You might think so when you consider the fact the Deputy Chief Minister did not retain his seat. But coming in as the final elected deputy in St Sampson in 6th place? Hardly a ringing endorsement from the voters.
May 1st is when we will find out who will become Chief Minister in the new States of Deliberation. And there are two recounts happening Friday.
In the parish of Vale, the margin between success and failure was 42 votes, and the losing candidate there, James Symons, has asked for and been granted a recount. But in St Peter Port North, the margin there between success and failure was just 3 votes. Rhoderick Matthews could be the beneficiary there challenging Lester Queripel, although I imagine that Elis Bebb, who is just 7 votes ahead of Queripel, will also be watching with interest.
Hopefully we'll find out the results of the recount Friday afternoon.
Of the 45 previous deputies who had been in the States, 10 decided not to run again, so we were guaranteed 10 new deputies. We got 22. Almost half the seats went to new deputies. And there were some high profile casualties including the Deputy Chief Minister and the Father of the House.
The fact that 6 of the 7 top polling candidates in this election were new deputies, also adds to the perception that the people of Guernsey, voted for change.
In fact, since the 2004 States, only 13 of those deputies remain. Such radical voting patterns have not been seen before. It's leaving even seasoned political observers somewhat surprised and baffled.
Even the current Chief Minister, Lynden Trott, came close to losing his seat in the parish of St Sampson, as he came 6th out of the 11 candidates in the 6 seat parish, beating Jane Stephens by just 73 votes.
Can he claim a mandate to remain as Chief Minister? You might think so when you consider the fact the Deputy Chief Minister did not retain his seat. But coming in as the final elected deputy in St Sampson in 6th place? Hardly a ringing endorsement from the voters.
May 1st is when we will find out who will become Chief Minister in the new States of Deliberation. And there are two recounts happening Friday.
In the parish of Vale, the margin between success and failure was 42 votes, and the losing candidate there, James Symons, has asked for and been granted a recount. But in St Peter Port North, the margin there between success and failure was just 3 votes. Rhoderick Matthews could be the beneficiary there challenging Lester Queripel, although I imagine that Elis Bebb, who is just 7 votes ahead of Queripel, will also be watching with interest.
Hopefully we'll find out the results of the recount Friday afternoon.
Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)