[Jon]

I'm not sure if Rayo has been delayed or was just announced too early, but yes it will hopefully make things better. 

Problem they have compared with Global is that Global has 7 brands, all nice and neat. Looking at the list of stations in Planet Radio, there's loads and it's a right mess. Some are the same station just with a different brand - Free Radio and Hits Radio, a lot are just playlists rather than stations and some stations have multiple varients. All the versions of Absolute could fill a seperate platform themselves there's so many now. Definately needs a tidy, and a bit of a purge. 

I’m not sure any of that is an issue though. Surely if the more variety you appear to be offering on a service you’re charging for the better. Also if you’re picking Metro Radio over Hits Radio it’s because it’s your local station, so it doesn’t matter that it’s a duplication of content. Considering Spotify has infinite playlists and choice and each stream is going to be relatively cheap to achieve it make sense.

On the subject of Free Radio and the Hits brand given their is no heritage value in the former it’s a rebranding which would have made sense to do years ago. 

Surely the ultimate aim of these apps from the big radio groups should be to let the listener choose their format and their speech content. So you could have Gold’s music (or something even more tailored) with Chris Moyles fronted links and local news for your region or Classic FM breakfast with Roman Kemp’s links and sports news.

[Adsales]

Using the local with a national spine analogy that Adsales has done in his previous post, tv viewers still cherish regional news, but they tend to watch the 6/6.30pm bulletins which are still doing well as appointment to view.

Transferring that loyality to radio is much harder.  When Global took LBC's rolling news station national, they kept three local elements, travel, weather and commercials, otherwise London news stories are squeezed in with national news broadcast across the UK.

Global, Bauer and now the BBC are doing this.  A France Bleu format where it's local or regional where it needs to be with a national spine.

Don't get me wrong, I still consume local information, but it comes from online sources rather than radio.

Fully agree with all of that. Although the regional news on TV (both BBC One and ITV1) are ageing out of relevant age groups which is a whole different kettle of fish and not for this thread 😊

[gav]

Surely the ultimate aim of these apps from the big radio groups should be to let the listener choose their format and their speech content. So you could have Gold’s music (or something even more tailored) with Chris Moyles fronted links and local news for your region or Classic FM breakfast with Roman Kemp’s links and sports news.

Sounds impressive until you realise a lot of what Chris and Roman talk about is the music and the artists they play. So it wouldn't really work in practise.

[Kim Wexler’s Ponytail]

You're forgetting/ignoring a number of things here:

1. The same shift in listener behaviour can be seen in countries with local radio still available.
2. Technology such as streaming, smart speakers/assistants, satnavs would still be available had the nationalisation of local radio not happened and therefore the convenience factor would still apply.
3. Local stations (with very, very few exceptions) were never profitable. Many would be gone by now.

No, I’m not
1) Ok, but I never said otherwise. If everyone else does it we tend to follow whether it’s a good idea or not.
2) again ok, but I don’t recall denying smart speakers are easy to use.
3) actually I think I addressed that a number of time. I’ve conceded it’s good that we get rid of things that people like and value if they’re aren’t profitable. It’s what every good society does.

[Jon]

Sounds impressive until you realise a lot of what Chris and Roman talk about is the music and the artists they play. So it wouldn't really work in practise.

Although at Bauer’s Absolute I’m assuming they don’t as they’re already breakfast shows that go out on multiple stations with different music. It’s more the general concept which I think has legs obviously they’d need some adapting.

[Adsales]

No, I’m not
1) Ok, but I never said otherwise. If everyone else does it we tend to follow whether it’s a good idea or not.
2) again ok, but I don’t recall denying smart speakers are easy to use.
3) actually I think I addressed that a number of time. I’ve conceded it’s good that we get rid of things that people like and value if they’re aren’t profitable. It’s what every good society does.

Lol. 

1. You’ve still yet to prove that people liked what you liked.

2. You seem to think that a commercial business can exist without making money just so as long as it does what you deem right for society.

Oh, we didn’t follow other countries. At least Global didn’t. Bauer, iHeart, Audacity and RTL would be happy if they were where Global is today.

[Kim Wexler’s Ponytail]

Lol. 

1. You’ve still yet to prove that people liked what you liked.

2. You seem to think that a commercial business can exist without making money just so as long as it does what you deem right for society.

Oh, we didn’t follow other countries. At least Global didn’t. Bauer, iHeart, Audacity and RTL would be happy if they were where Global is today.

 Local commercial radio was popular for decades. I dont know why you refuse to believe that and seem to think I'm making it up but it's true. And 2. No I dont really think that at all...or do I? Interperate things however you want, I really don't think I have anything more to say without repeating myself. The demographic advertisers care about the most say nobody wants anymore of this.

[Joe]

I feel like there’s a really interesting discussion to be had here and it seems a shame for shift into a negative tone?

[London Lite]

Local commercial radio was popular before more competition was added on FM, then on DAB and now online.

Some of us were around when radio choice was down to four BBC nationals and a local full service ILR and some areas had BBC LR. London was fortunate to have two ILR licences, splitting general entertainment from a news focused all speech format.

When the likes of Kiss, Choice and co were licenced as incremental stations, finally there was an alternative to what was a stogid mainstream pop skewed playlist with increased speech commitments to radio stations finally being able to offer different music formats.

[Adsales]

I feel like there’s a really interesting discussion to be had here and it seems a shame for shift into a negative tone?

Agree. Maybe we should just concentrate on the now and the future as not much point upsetting anyone about what’s in the past and what will never be again. But likewise I’m more than happy to continue to talk about the why and how we got to where we are.