So, the Sunday Times is reporting that GCap’s Fru Hazlitt is switching off digital radio. When the sub-editor doesn’t bother reading a story to make a headline, it’s a concerning time for journalism.

If the story’s true (and you and I will find out tomorrow morning at 7.30am) then GCap are dropping their majority shareholding of Digital One - the commercial DAB Digital Radio multiplex - and switching off their digital-only radio stations.

Their existing analogue brands will continue on digital radio. This is not a switchoff of digital radio, whatever the headline says. It’s also not a lack of confidence in the technology: just the economics surrounding it.

In the middle of an advertising downturn and a general lack of confidence in the radio industry, it’s my guess that removing these stations won’t actually make any difference to GCap’s profits (I’d expect these channels are just breaking even). However, it’ll make a good difference to GCap’s profit margin, since radio traditionally operates on a high profit margin (at least 50%, if not higher).

If you’re trying to impress analysts, this is exactly the way to go.

Next thing in digital radio’s future: the DRg local London multiplex apparently needs ten transmitters, yet the FM coverage for that area is done by just one. Perhaps now’s the time to make the industry realise that the transmission providers get money based on how many big sticks they convince you to put up…

Photo: me. It’s from a Jon Ronson book.

I’ve had an interesting and varied week. Thursday gave me the chance to visit BBC Radio Devon, though accurately, I ought to write ‘BBC Plymouth’, since it’s a tri-media operation. BBC Radio Devon is in the middle of a trial of what the corporation is calling digital medium wave (’DRM’ was felt to have negative connotations). I was hugely impressed at the organisation of the trial, and of the day. Too early for me to comment on the technology, and how the BBC is thinking of using it, though.

While some of my colleagues caught the 7.25am train back to London, I had breakfast and then caught a train just after 10.00am (hammering the heck out of my BlackBerry) to go to visit GCap Media in Bristol - the home of GWR FM (both GWR Bristol and GWR Bath), and, seemingly, much else.

Following an excellent pub lunch at The Bridge Inn (a Bath Ales house; I enjoyed a small glass of Spa), I was taken on a guided tour of the entire building. GCap Bristol was described by a BBC colleague as “a small, typical, local radio station”; which might be the case for public broadcasters but, in terms of a commercial broadcaster, it’s huge. There are five floors and fifteen studios within the building; some dating from GWR’s expansion into DAB Digital Radio, and some reflecting the fact that Bristol, not London, is still the hub of the GCap One Network.

When GWR Group and Capital Radio merged, it was a real clash of cultures; and one still visible when looking around their building. The Capital Radio culture appeared to get in consultants and third-parties and pay them to do a good job; but the GWR culture was to do it themselves. Which is why the building in Passage Street has a large call-out centre: used for many of their radio stations to help track how their music is faring, for example; and a 24-hour manned traffic and travel department - why subcontract when you can do it yourself? I saw a number of really interesting technical things which I’d better not post about, but which clearly show the team there is innovating and trying new things. The method of using studios is fascinating - simple sharing of studios for many different services means you get great value out of a mixing desk. It’s clear that the building has quite an effect on commercial radio as a whole. The old GWR Group was possibly one of the most innovative companies of its day.

And, on the subject of the old GWR Group, It does feel that the last three months has seen a final closure on the GWR Group chapter of commercial radio. Ralph Bernard has been replaced by the able Fru Hazlitt; another ex-Virgin, Paul Jackson, is now heading up Capital Radio, while Group Operations Director Steve Orchard, and the group programme director, Dirk Anthony, leave the company. While much is said about GWR’s centralist method of producing radio in the 1990s (mostly on the radio discussion boards using less than polite words) GWR ran their stations tremendously successfully, both in terms of revenue and in terms of audience. It’s the company that, above all else, has ensured DAB’s success; their successful stewardship and development of Classic FM ensured a good growth for commercial radio; and these men all played their part.

Steve and Dirk are genuinely nice people, friendly and engaging and still really committed to producing great radio. They both recognise that radio is entering a new place, and that we have to be careful to ensure that it’s still relevant to a new generation of listeners who might be weaned-off radio by the allure of the iPod or the last.fm. I hope that new challenges for them are in the UK, and that we don’t lose them to the US or Australia.

Photo: Sunset at Bristol Parkway. Photo: netlancer2006. Used under licence.

Photo uploaded today by Niek R. Used under licence.

Executive Producer Mobile, Audio & Music Interactive, BBC
A good-looking job within the BBC if you do mobile and you do radio. You do? Excellent. You’ve got just ten days to get your application in.

Digg: We’re Fixing The Annoying Ads
Digg removes auto-playing audio ads from their website. Another example why I think jackfm.co.uk shouldn’t auto-play on visiting their website… (though I guess it’s a little different)

Twitter killed the Status Star
The excellent Mike Butcher posts about Twitter. I think he won’t like my status updates then. Oh dear…

Twitter / jamescridland
It’s me, on Twitter. Suddenly really got into Twitter, since it’s updating my Facebook status automatically now, and also is full of surprisingly interesting people. If you’re on, please FOLLOW JAMESCRIDLAND, I’d like that

Why DAB Stations Closing Down is Good News
Core closing… Life closing… and OneWord closing. Anyone would think this is… good news? A cogent and quite splendid piece by Matt Deegan.

New Capital 95.8 Website
Another post from Matt Deegan, including the gem: “GCap have done a good job with the latest roll-out of sites … I think they they clearly lead radio’s online presence”. I think you’re talking bollocks there, Matt.

Listening to internet radio while on the move
“I’ve been taking advantage of my spiffy new EV-DO net connection.” Man (or woman) listens to radio via the internet in the car. Likes it.

I posted, a little while ago, a short and ill-considered piece titled Google Audio Ads are coming to eat you up. On thinking further, and reading further, I’m not entirely sure that’s the case.

In that post, I linked to lots of screenshots of the Google Audio Ads process in action. (There are also some presentations about Google Audio Ads online). A media purchaser gets almost the same experience as they would buying Google AdWords. Interestingly, they also get no way of purchasing stations directly, thereby leaving stations free to continue to sell ads themselves.

Further, thanks to Jonathan Marks, I’ve been sent a job specification for an Account Manager at Google Audio Ads - which makes interesting reading by itself.

The lucky candidate(s) will be charged with “Selling Google Automation products”, not only AdSense for Audio. This appears to confirm a strong rumour in the industry that Google has developed its own playout system - or, at the very least, has used its purchase of dMarc to also leverage dMarc’s own playout system called Maestro. Is it possible that this playout system may be free for use if Google gets a certain %age of airtime? Does this dramatically change the business of running a small commercial radio station? Will it have APIs and other web services to enable better hook-ins to the playout system itself, therefore enabling better additional metadata and visual elements?

The other interesting element to the job ad is a requirement of “Knowledge of emerging media technologies (Podcasting, Online Streaming media, Digital Radio Broadcasting, etc.)”. This is interesting since it suggests that AdSense for Audio may well also be a solution for podcasters, not just terrestrial radio stations. And why are Google interested in ‘Digital Radio Broadcasting’?

It’s clear that Google AdSense for Audio is going to dramatically lower the costs of radio advertising. If you’re a creative producer, this would appear to massively increase your potential business - far from being ‘afraid’, as I said originally, I think you should be hugely excited. More businesses will want to make radio commercials as a direct result. You should be gearing up now to cope with the additional business.

If you’re a radio station, this would also appear to massively increase your client numbers, particularly if you’re working for a local station. There is real benefit in attracting more advertisers to radio, at lower cost. This is great news.

The only worry is if you’re currently a media sales house. I would see Google AdSense for Audio as cutting out the middleman - and that’s you. Why would you go to a media sales house, who deal with a number of radio stations (and thus have little knowledge of those stations), when you can get almost the same experience from Google AdSense - indeed, probably a better experience given the quality of Google’s planning tools?

The more that emerges from the Google Audio Ads stable, the more I’m convinced it may well single-handedly save smaller commercial radio stations.

Let’s think radically. Anyone can sell spots on your radio station. With the latest RAJAR (or Arbitron) figures, anyone can plan these ads, too. However, only your radio station knows how to sell sponsorship, and how to sell out-of-break promotions, because only people who understand the product can sell it. So if Google AdSense for Audio takes off the way I predict it will, I believe that local radio stations could radically change their business. First, remove your spot-sales team completely. This is a large cost to most local radio stations, and with the advent of Google AdSense for Audio, you simply don’t need them. Cut the amount of spots on the station, too - use this as a way to improve the audio experience, not to grow profit. Double the size of your sponsorship/promotions department - this better-sounding and more relevant commercial content will be the way of the future. Watch your audiences grow, because of the smaller amount of instrusive commercials and the local connections you’ll be making by having your DJs talk about your local businesses out of the break, rather than in it. It’s a bright future indeed.

The commercial radio industry in the UK has a track-record of doing the wrong thing, more often than not: GCap and Emap removed all the localness from their output in the late 1990s and are now wondering why listeners flocked away from local commercial radio and towards national services in the 2000s, for example. The next twelve months will show whether those in charge of commercial radio ‘get it’. It may be a crucial time.

.

Full disclosure: My current employer is a national commercial radio station, who used Maestro as a playout system for a while. Google AdSense funds my sandpit website.