It all started - on the internet, at least - with an interesting story in the Daily Record, on 26 February 2007 - 5 million listeners - and radio boss Ryan is only 15. A heartwarming story, penned by Rod Mills, of a young boy making it big in the radio business, and teaching the big boys a thing or two. After two years, Ryan Dunlop is employing 40 people and running an internet radio station; and the headline, while confusing ‘hits’ with ‘listeners’, is a great good-news story.

And it was quickly picked up by other media: keen to bring some good news to their readers, listeners, or viewers. After a few fluffy appearances on BBC Scotland and Scottish television company STV, national newspapers were next: Teen tycoon hits paydirt with shed radio station appeared in The Sunday Times on the 4th March 2007.

The Sunday Times article contains a lot of information about this station’s success: all the more remarkable since it broadcasts from this grey-roofed shed in a well-to-do suburb of Ayr. We learn that his employees are actually volunteers, paid in gig tickets. We learn…

A 15-YEAR-OLD schoolboy has grown an internet radio station run from his father’s garden shed into a company that claims 250,000 listeners and has 40 people working for it. [...] The peak slot is drive-time between 4pm and 7pm, which Dunlop says averages 80,000 listeners. He is projecting turnover of more than £1m in his first year of trading, most of which will be profit.

These are serious numbers, so many congratulations should go to this young chap. who we discover from a later interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, thinks his station has the potential of bringing in £25m a year. All in all, this is a great story. Ryan is clearly a businessman with great talent.

However, users of a radio discussion area, Media UK (which I run), were suspicious. “Some pretty big claims”, posted one user from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Another posts, “something doesn’t add up”. Petty jealousy is a staple diet of many internet chatrooms and forums, but Media UK doesn’t normally show this. Impressed with Dunlop’s claims, some people did what the journalists should have done - research the story: sharing their industry knowledge of the station’s likely costs of HitzRadioUK, based on the figures the company’s quoting.

There are three main costs to any radio station: transmission (in this case bandwidth); music costs, and staffing costs.

• In terms of staffing costs, the Sunday Times article was clear: all (40?) staff were volunteers.
• The transmission cost can be estimated by contacting Spacial Audio. One member did, and works out that the total streaming costs per month, according to Spacial Audio’s ratecard, would be £24,960.
• The music costs were jointly worked out, too. For the drivetime show alone (”an average of 80,000 listeners”), the cost would be £28,800 per month for PPL, and a further percentage of revenue, estimated at £2,800, for PRS/MCPS.

So, total outgoings for the station must be at least £55,000 per month. On the face of it, that’s quite low. So, other users examined the business for revenue opportunities; to discover that, at the time, the only advertising on the website was an ad for Expedia through Commission Junction. The link to Ticketmaster isn’t one that earns revenue, either. And the station’s very light on audio advertising, too.

The inescapable conclusion - Ryan Dunlop is a fantasist; making up figures to look good, and egged-on by the flattering media attention. But let’s be fair: it took a number of internet and radio specialists to come to this conclusion. The real question is: was there anything that a journalist without any radio experience would have been able to discover about this story? A journalist just armed with a web browser?

Simply surfing the website, surely it would look slightly odd that a radio station with “250,000 listeners” has a website forum which has only attracted 25 registered users since November 2006?

But a journalist armed with Google would have found out so much more suspicious activity:

• ‘The latest TV ad being shown’ on YouTube, including video from NASA or an aeroplane manufacturer followed by video from the V Festival (featuring Paul Weller) with a soundtrack by Gary Jules on it, and the well-known ad duration of one minute 22 seconds. (He has since removed this.)
• A claim in job adverts that it’s “the world’s largest independent radio station”; and a “head of sales” who shares the same email address as Ryan Dunlop.
• Craig Harris (Director of New Media) claiming that they don’t just broadcast online; when the station doesn’t have an Ofcom licence. Craig also claims the station has a PPL licence; PPL refuse to confirm that.
• Craig also posts as Ryan, who claims: “We do festival coverage so we chat to alot of the bands/artists backstage in our temporary porta cabin studio at festivals and they perform acoustics again! good for P.R.!!!”; unfortunately all of the major festivals (T in the Park, IOW, V, Wireless, Reading) that his website promotes already have an exclusive broadcaster signed.
• A claim that he is under obligation to run news bulletins under Ofcom, but he only broadcasts online, which isn’t regulated by Ofcom - and Ryan mysteriously posting as ‘head of sales’.
• Ryan also appears to be trading in copyrighted MP3s; hardly the activity you’d expect.
• Another DJ, Haggerz, claims he is listened to by “millions”.
• The following claim should have ended any doubt: Ryan claims I’m currently the head of sales for Hitz UK - a media group in the UK which owns 3 FM stations, 4 DAB stations and 2 internet stations.

So, the investigation has moved on. We’re no longer wondering whether what Ryan says is true - he’s a fantasist, a child who is flattered by media attention and bolstering his own lies with more lies; even hiding the facts from his own parents. He deserves to be pitied, not pilloried. He can, and will, learn from his mistakes.

The real question is: why did journalists swallow this false story? Two minutes of Google searching produced a substantial and inescapable realisation that the story was false; just one call to any radio expert would have blown the whistle. Why didn’t they check their facts? The people who should be ashamed in this episode are the journalists in the newspapers and the television, who went to air with a false story.

And if it’s happening here - about something this community knows and understands - then how may other stories from journalists are printed with no fact-checking and absolutely no resemblance to the truth?

How rotten is the state of journalism today?

UPDATE; 8/9 April: Ryan Fisher contacts me with this story about Hitz Radio UK which contains some interesting claims apparently made by Ryan, and pictures of their London building - and ‘London studios’ which look identical to the shed. Again, the Media UK community comes up trumps: the building is the Quay House Business Centre in the Docklands. One member reports that it’s the first result in a Google Image Search for ‘London Offices’, though I can’t replicate this behaviour. Since it’s now under question whether there is a London office at all, it should be worth pointing out that a Google search shows that the London number that Ryan uses in many of his advertisements is a Skype number.

UPDATE: 23 April I complained to the BBC about the interview. Their reply is as follows:

Dear Mr Cridland

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the interview with Ryan Dunlop about
his internet radio station which ran on the ‘Stephen Nolan ’show on 4 March
just after midnight.

I have since been in contact with Five Live Senior Broadcast Journalist,
(Name given) who has responded as follows:

“Thanks for your correspondence; our producers fact-check their stories as
thoroughly as possible before broadcasting. On this occasion, we checked
out the Hitz Radio website and listened to broadcasts, and verified Ryan’s
role with them by calling the station itself. As you pointed out, the story
had run in several local and national newspapers, but because we could not
ensure that the listening statistics they quoted could be verified for
certain, we ensured our introduction went as follows:

“A 15 year old schoolboy who started his own 24 hour radio station from his
parent’s garden shed now ‘claims’ to have 250,000 listeners.”

When it came to discussing the turnover Ryan suggested the station might
make, the word “projected” was used, and the presenter Stephen Nolan was
deeply sceptical throughout. He says “let’s see if this stacks up”, and
later says “is this for real?”. He challenges Ryan saying “where are you
getting these figures from?” and the tone in his voice is one of
incredulity. He later says “I’m sorry if you think I’m being cynical.”
Since Ryan is just 15, Stephen didn’t want to be seen to bully him, but the
clear impression you get from the interview is that Ryan might be being
naïve about his station’s revenue possibilities.

However, as a piece of radio, I feel it was a justifiable broadcast. The
station clearly exists and is broadcasting programmes as we speak. Ryan is
entitled to hypothesise about Hitz Radio’s future possibilities, and he was
robustly questioned.”

I trust this sets out the BBC’s standpoint on the issue. Please be assured
that your comments have been registered and thank you again for your
e-mail.

Yours Sincerely

(Name given)
Divisional Advisor
BBC Information

On balance, I can see their point.

---

28 May: Following a telephone conversation tonight with John Dunlop, Ryan’s father, I’d like to make a few things clear.

I’ve been careful to back up every claim I’ve made with a statement of fact. Ryan is entitled to a right of reply, one I will gladly give him should he wish to put across his side of the story. However, I’m not actively continuing this story: because I don’t believe any further demolition of Ryan’s claims is helpful (or required). My last posting on this story was on the 9th April.

It’s desperately sad to me that this original false story made it as far as local television, and national radio, when not one of the ‘facts’ as reported were true. But this story isn’t about Ryan; it’s about lazy journalists who print stories without checking the facts first. Journalists who take too much at face value is a concern; journalists who reprint the original story without any further fact-checking are also simply not doing their jobs. That’s the point of this story.

Which is why I’m closing ‘comments’ today on this story, and doing some judicious editing of the comments that exist. And why, too, I’m disappointed to hear that people are threatening Ryan (and his family). If there’s one thing I admire Ryan for, it’s his ability to make people believe him. He’s done fantastically well. He certainly doesn’t need threatening; and it’s concerning to me to hear that his family are worried for their safety over a silly radio station. He’s just turned 16. He’s still, to all intents and purposes, a child.

Many may claim that he can’t have it both ways - making tremendous claims and then hiding behind the fact that he’s a child when things get nasty. But if there’s one thing I know and understand, it’s that we all have the capability to make mistakes; and (depending what religion you practise), we also all have the capability to be forgiven.