Radio's Renaissance?

Ribble FM - one of today's licence winners

On the day Ofcom hands out more community radio licences we're feeling decidedly upbeat about the changing shape of our industry. Suddenly, after the gloom and despondency of recent times, an awful lot seems right about the way things are evolving:

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• A potential doubling of national commercial digital services was heralded yesterday by the advertisement of a second national multiplex;
• Ofcom did the right thing by consulting on DAB+. Consequently, and, with immediate effect, multiplex operators will be allowed to introduce services using 'MPEG-4 High Efficiency Advanced Audio Encoding v2 (HE AAC v2) Layer 2 profile described in ISO/IEC 14496-3v and TS 102 563'. To you and me that's DAB+. (Although they will need to seek "written prior approval" from Ofcom first. Surely just a formality?)
• The protracted and, at times, painful morphing of ILR into quasi-national brands is entering the end stage.
• And good old 'AM' even appears to have won a stay of execution with new licences awarded today for medium wave services in Barnsley, Warrington, Bury and Manchester. 

We think this 'New World Order' has the capacity for everyone to win.

Let's be honest, the brands are great. Be it Heart, Kiss, Capital or Smooth, each station is polished, distinctive, superbly executed and targeted to precision. The game changer for listeners is the ability to listen to their station-of-choice almost anywhere...except, it would seem, in Lincolnshire and Stoke-on-Trent. 

But the sector with most to gain right now is Community Radio. As audiences continue to fragment, with migration by default to the brands, many listeners 'of a certain age' remember with fondness their local radio station.

• The station that talked about things of interest, relevance and value to local listeners;
• The station that proudly lived up to its claim of being "First With News";
• The station that played a wide range of music - and not the same few songs over and over again;
• The station with friendly local presenters who used to appear at all the big local events;
• The station that people could call up for a 'mention' or to get their local event publicised.

Remember the 'brand' ILR? The radio format that, at its peak, achieved around the same share of listening as all BBC radio services combined. Now, though, with just a handful of exceptions, e.g. the UKRD and 'heritage' UTV stations, ILR is just a memory. 

It's our belief that a huge vacuum exists where ILR used to flourish. Well-programmed, professionally-delivered Community Radio stations can fill that vacuum.

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The key word, however, is 'Professional'. 

Here at The Radio People we recently managed a promotion which ran across a number of community stations. In general we were very impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the people we worked with. Thanks to online analytics we also gained an insight on how stations are building up solid and responsive audiences. (More on this in a future blog). 

So, our advice to Ribble FM, Radio Warrington, Beyond Radio, Radio Barnsley, Heritage Community Radio, Bury Community Radio and Radio Victoria is simple:

Delivering your Key Characteristics is a given. As is staying compliant!  But, when it comes to the output, the 'essence' of your station, make sure you're paying attention to the really important things. We don't have space here to go into detail but you could do a lot worse than having a listen back to some of the giants of ILR in their heyday:

Trent, Piccadilly, Metro, Swansea Sound, Clyde, Hallam. Wonderful radio stations that remained true to their original remit until the homogenisation started. If Community Radio can continue to raise its game and superserve local communities in the tradition of early ILR it will truly become a force to be reckoned with.

The future's bright - the future's RADIO!

John Evington is a Partner at The Radio People

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