James Cridland

Two big changes in radio in the UK - and what it means for everyone

An LBC ad on a BT phonebox, from Global

UK broadcaster Global is to drop local and regional shows in England, on its Heart, Capital and Smooth radio stations. All the output for these stations will be broadcast from London from the end of February. That’s around 20 local and regional shows which will disappear.

There will also be only one set of national shows for Wales, coming from Cardiff. That means the loss of separate shows for Heart and Capital in North Wales. (I don’t see anything about Capital Cymru, the quietly-existing Welsh-language service, but chatter is that it will also go.)

In most cases, the shows going are drivetime shows - which were the only locally-produced shows on Heart and Capital. Regional breakfast shows on Smooth will also go, to be replaced by a London-based show. There will continue to be regional news, travel and, of course, advertising, throughout the station output - and, as now, the national presenters can direct individual voice breaks/links to specific regions. That’s important to know - this isn’t just “push a fader up and leave the building”.

It will result in a number of job losses, and regional offices will close across the country.

Why are Global doing this?

Those local presenters were undoubtedly an asset, since they could be the regional face of a station that was otherwise nationally programmed, and could do local events and appearances. They could, of course, also do promotional activity during their shows for local businesses. So, why would Global remove them?

It’s mostly because they now can - the Media Act last year dropped much of the requirement for local programming. Clearly, closure of studio facilities (and the resulting simplification of transmission) will be a significant cost saving.

Global is a private company, but we can peer into its accounts in the UK’s Companies House. The latest accounts are for financial year-ending 31 Mar 2024. Unlike radio companies elsewhere, Global is not in bad financial shape. The company also owns an out-of-home advertising business: but the audio part of the business made an overall operating profit of £76.6mn ($95mn). That figure, impressive though it is, was down by 9% year-on-year. Savings - of people and property - will be welcome.

National programming also makes it easier to promote: few media in the UK is local, after all, and it’s complicated to promote specific shows to specific regions.

But, “live and local”?

Let’s not forget that the majority of programming output on these English stations wasn’t local - for Heart and Capital, we’re talking about one three-hour shift from 4pm-7pm. For many listeners, the station was a national one anyway.

That hasn’t harmed audience figures. UK commercial radio hit an all-time high last year - in both total numbers and in share (if not, to be honest, in total hours). Global itself also posted its biggest-ever figures.

“Live and local” is an easy mantra to follow. But it’s not what wins audiences. A bored man sitting in a local studio above the pizza shop back-announcing another ten songs in a row will not magically save a radio station just because it’s “live and local”. It’s what you put there that counts. A human connection, and a shared experience. Or, as Valerie Geller will tell you - tell the truth, make it matter, never be boring.

Localness in the US, and Australian capital cities, is one thing. But I’ve always felt that much of England lacks that strong localness. Yes, you might live in Leeds, but there are precious few brands and experiences that you have that aren’t just as applicable to Coventry or Bristol. In short, what does “local” mean, to parts of England without as much of a strong local identity? For every Liverpool, there’s a Bolton, a Grimsby, a Gloucester, a Taunton. Is “local” really just “England”?

We should also note that Global’s output on Capital Scotland and on Heart Scotland is fully local from 6am to 7pm. (Scotland is, um, not overly fond of English accents).

All said - it’s sad for the great people the radio business will, essentially, lose. Of what I know about Global, they’ll be treated quite well: but, realistically, with BBC Local Radio leaning more on cost-cutting and shared programming, there’s nowhere for these fine people to go. And that’s a damn shame.

(Perhaps some should look at the success of Toni and Ryan - a super-successful podcast in Australia, run by a big radio programmer but a show that’s never been on the radio, ever. And maybe, just maybe, the Global Player would be a good place for some of those people.)

RCS

Global’s accounts also show us that its out-of-home company made £10mn operating profit in year-ending Mar 2023, reversing a £9mn loss the previous year. Owning an out-of-home ad business always seemed to make a lot of sense for a bigger media company, since it allows you to use unsold inventory to promote your other products. (Just ask Pattison in Canada, or - once - ARN in Australia). Global bought three companies - Exterion, Primesight, and Outdoor Plus - in 2018; and they have quite the contracts - including all the advertising on BT phoneboxes in the high street (see above), the Transport for London contract including buses and tube stations, and plenty of other big-name placements. There are also obvious synergies between your work in ad agencies selling radio ads and selling poster sites.

So, the other big news is that Bauer, Global’s competitor in the UK for commercial radio, is buying Clear Channel Europe, essentially Global’s main competitor in out-of-home.

The UK is still a diary-based radio research country; and Bauer now gets access to more than 40,000 advertising sites across the UK to help remind audiences about what they listen to (and plenty more across Europe, where - unlike Global - Bauer owns a number of stations). That will, if they are crafty about it, help bolster both businesses.

While I find much of Bauer’s strategy oddly timid, this is a crafty move from the company.

(Bauer also announced this week that they’re buying Star Radio in Cambridge and turning it into Hits Radio - see above).

Fun fact: Primesight, and cinema advertiser Pearl & Dean, used to be owned by Scottish Television, which also owned Virgin Radio in London. What goes around, comes around!

Elsewhere…

  • A few long drives over the last week, and much use of the “search” button on the in-car radio. On FM, the ABC in Australia doesn’t use RDS - an odd choice for a national broadcaster - so listening is not particularly easy on a five hour drive. But, nice to hear ABC Radio National as well as NewsRadio on FM - I enjoyed a documentary from Earshot about the Māori Haka - along with a few local ABC stations. Can’t tell you which, thanks to the lack of RDS, and outside of the capital cities, ABC Local Radio never identifies individual stations after 10am anyway. (I’m fascinated how people know what station they’re listening to for the audience figures).

  • Also, interesting to catch Chris Smith on 4GY out of Gympie. After an enforced career break for a few years, he’s now on the Super Radio Network as the new John Laws, and given we’re not in survey currently, it is good to hear him introducing himself to his audiences. Of what I could hear over the lightning interference on AM, he sounded good. We’ll not know how good: the Super Radio Network doesn’t, as far as I know, participate in the audience figures. Shame.

  • And I blogged a bit about podcasting’s unique selling proposition - and why I think it’s a bad idea for podcasting to be chasing the video dollar.

Thank you to Hubbard Radio’s Greg Strassell who has joined as a new, regular, supporter of this newsletter. Excellently kind of you, Greg, and that coincides with our local coffee shop reopening after the Christmas break.

Also, thank you to Irene Hulme (off of that excellent Game Changers Radio podcast) for your coffees! Very grateful. Thank you.

Want to supercharge your radio show? Here’s a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep - from a world class radio consultant and the best show-prep writer in the UK. Great for UK stations, or for English-language stations everywhere, too. (ad)

Where I am speaking next

I’m done for this year, but…

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