From amfm-errors@orbital.demon.co.uk Wed Dec 15 15:17:31 1993 Received: from gate.demon.co.uk by cs.tut.fi with SMTP id AA13406 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Wed, 15 Dec 1993 15:17:06 +0200 Received: from orbital.demon.co.uk by gate.demon.co.uk id aa06791; 15 Dec 93 13:10 GMT Received: from (server@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by orbital.demon.co.uk (8.6.4/8.6) with SMTP id LAA13138; Wed, 15 Dec 1993 11:31:15 GMT Received: from localhost (steveh@localhost) by orbital.demon.co.uk (8.6.4/8.6) id LAA13097 for amfm-list; Wed, 15 Dec 1993 11:30:21 GMT From: Stephen Hebditch Message-Id: <199312151130.LAA13097@orbital.demon.co.uk> Subject: AM/FM #18 - UK Radio Industry News To: amfm-list@orbital.demon.co.uk Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 11:30:16 +0000 (GMT) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 16513 Sender: amfm-errors@orbital.demon.co.uk Reply-To: amfm@orbital.demon.co.uk X-Mailing-List: AM/FM Mailing List Status: RO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * ------- ******* ------- * * ** ** * ** ** AM/FM #18 FOR DECEMBER 1993 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***** * * * NEWS FROM THE UK RADIO INDUSTRY ***** * * * * * * * * * * * * EDITED BY STEPHEN HEBDITCH * * ------- * ------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this issue: SECOND ILR LOSES LICENCE THIRD INR ADVERTISED MORE SPEECH ON RADIO ONE - AFTER ALL LESS IMPACT THAN EXPECTED IF ONE-FM PRIVATISED BROADCASTERS HIT OUT AT NEW LONDON LICENCES PROFITS UP AGAIN AT CAPITAL BIRMINGHAM STATION CLOSES LOCAL LICENCES RESTRICTED SERVICE LICENCES PEOPLE ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS FINANCIAL NEWS BITS SURVEY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** SECOND ILR LOSES LICENCE The Radio Authority has decided for the second time not to re-award the licences for an ILR station. DevonAir, which broadcasts to Exeter and Torbay, will be replaced from January 1995 by Gemini Radio. DevonAir is owned by the Capital Radio group and GWR. Gemini is a local consortium headed by Ivor Stolliday, former secretary of Television South West, and David Rogers, Managing Director of Taunton's Orchard FM. It will offer a chart-based service on FM a gold format on AM featuring 50% speech during morning and afternoon drivetimes. The Radio Authority faced considerable flack for not making its reasons clear when it took away LBC's licence. This time it was more detailed in outlining why it reached its decision. It says it decided to award the licence to the rival because it was impressed by their well researched and detailed proposals for two complementary services on AM and FM. DevonAir had planned to continue with a primarily pop based service on both of its two frequencies. The Radio Authority has warned other stations carrying the same programming on AM and FM that their licences could also be in danger when they come up for renewal. Ten ILR stations currently simulcast the same programming on AM and FM. Nicholas Winterton MP, chairman of the all-party backbench media committee, has written to Peter Brooke, Secretary of State for National Heritage, asking him to change the rules to make the awarding of ILR licences more open. *** THIRD INR ADVERTISED The Radio Authority has advertised the third INR licence. This will be for a mainly speech based service with no more than 50% of music allowed in any three hours. If it does play music then no more than 10% of airtime will be allowed to be given over to rock and pop. The station will also be required to be substantially different from the other two INR stations, Classic FM and Virgin 1215. Possible formats include news / talk, sports, phone-ins or a mix of features and music. INR 3 will use the current medium wave frequencies of Radio One on 1053 and 1089 KHz. An additional frequency may be made available on 1107 KHz to improve night-time reception. The station will be expected to establish its own transmitter network. The franchise for the station will be awarded to the highest bidder. In addition the winning station will also have to pay a licence fee of UKP 400,000 to the Radio Authority and 4% of revenue to the Treasury. Applications close on 15 March and the winner will be announced in the summer. The station could be on the air by early 1995. Bidders for the new station seem likely to include LBC, their replacement London News Radio, women's station Viva Radio, Chiltern's Network News, comedy station Radio Barking and a consortium comprising ITN, Reuters, Associated Newspapers and SelecTV who will offer a news and talk service. *** MORE SPEECH ON RADIO ONE - AFTER ALL Radio One has announced its latest programme shake-up. From the beginning of January the breakfast show will be hosted by Steve Wright, as previously predicted by AM/FM. Simon Mayo will continue on mornings, and lunchtimes will see Jakki Brambles replaced by Emma Freud. Jakki will be leaving the station to go to the USA where she is involved with an independent production company, but may still continue to contribute to One-FM. Current breakfast presenter Mark Goodier will move to afternoons and Nicky Campbell will return to the station after his brief absence to present a new drivetime show. There is speculation that Newsbeat and News 93 will be axed and their content merged into the lunchtime and drivetime shows. As part of the increase in speech content Emma Freud will also be bringing in guests to take part in debates on her show. Gary Davies will be replaced by Kevin Greening at the weekend. Davies opted to leave the station after being unhappy at planned changes for his current adult rock oriented show. *** LESS IMPACT THAN EXPECTED IF ONE-FM PRIVATISED A report into the effects of transferring Radio One to the commercial sector has found that there would be less impact on Independent Radio than previously anticipated. The independent study was put together by the Henley Centre and commissioned jointly by the Radio Authority and the Association of Independent Radio Companies. It estimates that if Radio One were to take paid advertising it would increase the size of the total radio advertising cake by around 20%. The earliest it could carry ads would be in 1997, after the renewal of the BBC's charter in 1996. The report anticipates that Radio One could initially generate revenues of UKP 53 million in 1997 rising to UKP 74 million by 2002. However, with around 20% of the audience share it would also attract a substantial amount of advertising from existing stations - around 15 million pounds in 1997 at 1992 prices. This would be enough to take Atlantic 252 and Virgin 1215 into the red due to their similar audience profiles. Several of the larger ILR stations could also become unprofitable, but the smaller stations relying primarily on local advertising would be largely unscathed. The report suggests that the effects could be compensated for by a 'safety net' which would levy a surcharge on Radio One in the event of other stations going into the red. Such a system already exists with Channel Four and ITV. Another proposed alternative would be a limit on the amount of advertising that could be carried in each hour. Most commercial stations are dismissive of the possibility of Radio One being taken into the private sector. The BBC is also campaigning strongly against it and seeking to differentiate Radio One's output from that of the commercial sector. Government sources, however, suggest that privatisation could be a possibility if the Government's need to balance its books becomes too great. The findings from the report will be submitted to the Department of National Heritage for use as evidence on the BBC's charter renewal. *** BROADCASTERS HIT OUT AT NEW LONDON LICENCES Existing stations are unhappy at Radio Authority plans to offer new licences in London. The Authority has already announced that it will advertise two new FM licences when Capital Radio's two licences are re-advertised next April. Now it says that another three could be on offer over the next year in the soon the be freed 105-108 MHz part of the spectrum. Brian West, Director of the Association of Independent Radio Companies, says the Authority has no regard to what the market can bear. More than half of the commercial radio operators in London are currently losing money. An alternative use for the freed frequencies could be for a new national network, but the Authority fears this may hamper the expansion of local radio by leaving few spare frequencies for new broadcasters. *** PROFITS UP AGAIN AT CAPITAL The Capital Radio group has announced pre-tax profits of UKP 11.7 million for the year up to the end of September on a turnover of UKP 32.3 million. This is an increase in profits of 48% over the previous year. It was helped by an upturn in advertising revenue in the last quarter plus additional profits from its purchase of Midlands Radio. It hopes for an even better performance in the current financial year following the relaunch of BRMB. Managing Director Richard Eyre has indicated that he would like an FM frequency for Capital Gold and would like to see an end to Radio Authority rules limiting companies to one AM and one FM station in each market. The group is also to look into applying for the third INR licence. *** BIRMINGHAM STATION CLOSES Loss-making Birmingham black music station Buzz-FM has closed down after failing to find a new backer. Owner Chris Carey previously claimed to have turned the station around into profitability and to have agreed a sale with a new buyer. He now says it was losing UKP 4,500 a week and needs a UKP 200,000 investment. Buzz had previously been controlled by three different companies, none of which were able to make the station commercially viable. Muff Murfin, owner of a Worcester production company, has now expressed an interest in taking it over. The licence for the station was recently re-advertised by the Radio Authority. *** LOCAL LICENCES Stray FM has won the ILR licence for Harrogate and the surrounding area in Yorkshire. Severn Sound based in Gloucester and KFM in Stockport have both retained their licences. Three groups have applied for the Bradford ILR licence currently held by Sunrise FM. Rivals for the Asian station include Black Rose FM and Rainbow FM. BCR has seen one rival for its re-advertised Belfast licence: Lagan Communications. KCBC was the only station to apply for its re-advertised licence. The AM and FM licences for Inverness' Moray Firth and Leicester Sound have been re-advertised. The FM coverage of the Leicester station is likely to be expanded. Four groups have applied for the new ILR licence for St Albans and Watford. They are Century Radio, Herts FM, St Albans Radio and Radio Verulam. The Eurotunnel consortium has applied to run a new service for the Channel Tunnel. Eleven-Seventy AM, the new ILR station for High Wycombe, has begun test transmissions. It will launch in early 1994. *** RESTRICTED SERVICE LICENCES X-FM is on the air in North London until Christmas Eve playing indie music. Festival Radio is on the air in London until Christmas Eve. Kingston FM began a 4 week service to the Kingston, Surrey area on November 27th from Teddington Studios. Belfast Festival Radio broadcast in November as part of the Belfast arts festival. *** PEOPLE Breakfast presenter on LBC Mike Carlton is to leave the station at Christmas. He will terminate his two year contract early and return to work in his native Australia. He will be replaced by former Observer newspaper editor Donald Trelford. Virgin 1215 late night presenter Nick Abbott has received another reprimand from the Radio Authority. He had attacked a journalist working for the Independent newspaper who had branded the station sexist and racist. Robbie Vincent has celebrated 20 years of hosting phone-ins on London's airwaves. Starting on BBC Radio London he has since moved to LBC and may be picked up to present a programme on LBC Talkback's replacement, London Forum Radio. Michael Aspel is presenting a new Sunday morning show on Radio Two. Richard Cook, former host of the jazz programme on GLR, has joined Jazz FM to present two new weekly shows. Metro Radio's Alan Robson abandoned plans to broadcast his show from a buried coffin after insurers declared the charity stunt was too risky. *** ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS Virgin 1215 are running a joint promotion with package holiday company Club Med and House of Fraser stores in the run-up to Christmas. Ever Ready are to sponsor Atlantic 252's Top Forty Countdown. Energiser batteries will sponsor a weekly mix on Judge Jules' programme on London's Kiss FM. A new advertising sales house has been set up to service small independent stations. First Choice has been founded by former IRS managing director and Spectrum International sales director Dick Seabright. National Network Radio has signed up Beggars Banquet and Toyota as the first customers for its dance music and business packages. NNR allows national advertisers to buy into slots to reach particular sections of the ILR audience. The business package will be placed around local stations' business and financial news targeting ABC1 males while the dance package will be incorporated in dance programming targeting 15-24 year olds. Capital Radio is to supply a new entertainment news package to ILR stations which will be sold by NNR. Chiltern Radio has switched to sales house IRS for its national advertising. *** FINANCIAL NEWS EMAP has reported a UKP 400,000 profit on a UKP 3.9 million pound turnover for its radio division for the 6 months to the start of October. EMAP currently owns Radio City in Liverpool and Kiss FM in London. It plans to acquire more stations as an inexpensive way of increasing its non-print media expertise. *** BITS London News Radio are in discussions with LBC about taking over LBC's FM frequency before their licence runs out in December. LNR are keen to get on the air as soon as possible to build up the rolling news station before the BBC can properly establish its own rolling news and sport service. The BBC is drawing up plans to move more staff from London to centres in other parts of the country. It is currently seeking to rationalise its London offices and hopes to achieve savings of UKP 100 million in the process. 408 MPs have signed a cross-party motion condemning plans to cut the budget of the BBC WOrld Service. This is the third highest total for an Early Day Motion in Parliamentary history. The Peace Ship, home of offshore radio station The Voice of Peace has been sunk in the Mediterranean by its owner, Abie Nathan. The station closed down following the signing of the Israeli / Palestinian peace accord. Having failed to find backers to turn it into a museum, Abie Nathan decided to deliberately sink the ship in defiance of international maritime regulations. Classic FM claims to have received 100,000 entries for its 'Fly free for the rest of your life' competition. BBC Radio Cornwall are to broadcast a news programme in Cornish on Sundays. London Transport has banned two advertising posters for Choice FM from its property for being "offensive and sexually overt". One featured the slogan 'You have the choice to play with your knob' whilst the other featured a condom-wrapped banana. *** SURVEY Thank you to those people who responded to our reader survey in the last issue of AM/FM. Information on the results and responses to some of your questions and suggestions will appear shortly in a separate mailing. One idea that was proposed was an Internet mailing list for discussing radio in the UK. If you would be interested in this idea then please write and let us know. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Postal address: AM/FM, BCM Box 225, London, WC1N 3XX, England. E-mail: amfm@orbital.demon.co.uk. Fax: +44 81 509 0729 The AM/FM Newsline. Updated weekly. 0336 404550. Calls charged at 36p per min cheap rate, 48p per min other times. Available in the UK only. Service provider: TQM Communications, PO Box 2306, London, E17 4TU. The AM/FM Newsletter. Published monthly. Subscriptions priced at 22 pounds sterling within the UK, 28 pounds sterling to elsewhere in Europe and 38 pounds sterling by airmail to the rest of the world. Payment should be by cheque or bankers draft in pounds sterling made payable to 'TQM Communications' and sent to AM/FM, TQM Communications, BCM Box 225, London, WC1N 3XX. The AM/FM Online Edition. Published monthly. To subscribe write to listserv@orbital.demon.co.uk with a message whose body starts with the line 'subscribe amfm Your Name'. Back issues are available from the same list server - send the command 'help' for more details. The Online Edition is also available on the Usenet rec.radio.info newsgroup, in the 'broadcast' conference on London's CIX conferencing system and UKFORUM on CompuServe. Copyright (C) 1993 TQM Communications. All rights reserved. This publication may be freely distributed provided it is done so in whole, no alterations are made and only basic online charges are levied. ------------------------------------------------------------------------