[Adsales]

What a great indictment of society. "Its good but not in a businesses sense so it's got to go. This new model is shitter but better for capitalism".

I'm not sure how any of what Global has done it "shitter" than what we had before. Happy to discuss if you share your thoughts though!

[London Lite]

Global and Bauer to a lesser extent have had to compete with not just other radio stations, but the music streaming services already mentioned.

Global have gone for an ad funded model across the board which isn't surprising as they're an advertising company first who use radio alongside their billboard business as a platform for their clients, while Bauer have gone for a paywall model online to increase revenue from listeners to fill a decreasing ad spend in a cost of living crisis.

Bauer I think have it more tricky than Global. They still have a decent share in Scotland without resorting to using national branding on their FM stations in the central belt and North of Scotland, while the AM stations and two FM stations in the South of Scotland are using an adapted version of the Greatest Hits Radio brand that suits the Scottish market, while a group of FM stations in the north of England, the Midlands and South Wales have kept their local branding, but take Hits Radio programming outside Breakfast with everything else is now Greatest Hits Radio.

Global have gone in by stealth, replaced all the local and regional stations with one of three brands and on the whole integrated them well making them into quasi-national stations.

[Kim Wexler’s Ponytail]

I'm not sure how any of what Global has done it "shitter" than what we had before. Happy to discuss if you share your thoughts though!

Well, you explained it yourself. We lost local radio because it wasn't deemed a good business model. Not because it wasn't popular or that it wasn't serving the needs of its audience but because it didn't make good business sense to preserve it. In it's place we got these generic quasi-national brands... which are "profitable" but serve local audiences how? And, contrary to the spin we were sold to justify this, people do actually want local content. The fact that so much of the media is now bending over backwards to desperately try and prove they're not London centric is testament to that. But all their efforts are performative compared to what we've lost of. I'm not saying everything Global does is terrible. They've managed to not ruin Classic FM like they did with XFM for example.

[London Lite]

Well, you explained it yourself. We lost local radio because it wasn't deemed a good business model. Not because it wasn't popular or that it wasn't serving the needs of its audience but because it didn't make good business sense to preserve it. In it's place we got these generic quasi-national brands... which are "profitable" but serve local audiences how? And, contrary to the spin we were sold to justify this, people do actually want local content. The fact that so much of the media is now bending over backwards to desperately try and prove they're not London centric is testament to that. But all their efforts are performative compared to what we've lost of. I'm not saying everything Global does is terrible. They've managed to not ruin Classic FM like they did with XFM for example.

There were loss making smaller sallie stations that wouldn't have survived in the old GCap portfolio that required them being part of a regional network. Note during the pandemic that when Bauer acquired stations from Lincs, Wireless, Celador and UKRD that there was a panic to rebrand and relaunch them as Greatest Hits Radio in the quickest time possible when the ad market crashed due to the lockdowns. When Bauer's accountants saw the books for some of those stations, it had to be done promptly.

[IanJRedman]

There were loss making smaller sallie stations that wouldn't have survived in the old GCap portfolio that required them being part of a regional network.    Note during the pandemic that when Bauer acquired stations from Lincs, Wireless, Celador and UKRD that there was a panic to rebrand and relaunch them as Greatest Hits Radio in the quickest time possible when the ad market crashed due to the lockdowns.  When Bauer's accountants saw the books for some of those stations, it had to be done promptly.

Yes - changes were made a lot sooner than originally anticipated. I know for the ex-Celador stations, there was an interim period (a couple of months?) in which the stations were effectively GHR, but with their old name and a separate breakfast show, which wasn't part of the original plan.

The only 'catch' was that the new stations weren't yet able to properly network with GHR at the time, so the presenters had to voicetrack separate shows, which were played out while those same presenters were broadcasting live on the other GHR stations...

[Adsales]

Well, you explained it yourself. We lost local radio because it wasn't deemed a good business model. Not because it wasn't popular or that it wasn't serving the needs of its audience but because it didn't make good business sense to preserve it. In it's place we got these generic quasi-national brands... which are "profitable" but serve local audiences how? And, contrary to the spin we were sold to justify this, people do actually want local content. The fact that so much of the media is now bending over backwards to desperately try and prove they're not London centric is testament to that. But all their efforts are performative compared to what we've lost of. I'm not saying everything Global does is terrible. They've managed to not ruin Classic FM like they did with XFM for example.

They were loss making and we would likely have lost many by now in any event.

More importantly, commercial radio is a business as much as you don’t like it. As it stands, the large majority of people in age groups relevant to advertisers (the people who pay for commercial radio), could not care less about local content on radio. In fact, they simply want music, often in the background. For many even DJs are too much which is one reason why more and more are switching to their own playlists on streaming platforms.

[London Lite]

Yes - changes were made a lot sooner than originally anticipated. I know for the ex-Celador stations, there was an interim period (a couple of months?) in which the stations were effectively GHR, but with their old name and a separate breakfast show, which wasn't part of the original plan.

The only 'catch' was that the new stations weren't yet able to properly network with GHR at the time, so the presenters had to voicetrack separate shows, which were played out while those same presenters were broadcasting live on the other GHR stations...

From what I recall, UKRD and Lincs kept their presenters until the full relaunch with the GHR playlist due to those groups having their presenters on contracts. Celador and Wireless presenters were freelance, which led to the GHR panic schedule with the existing presenters voicetracking on those stations outside breakfast.

Even after the relaunch fully across those stations, there were ex UKRD sites being used to route the local news and ads as Openreach/BT didn't get the lines ready from the regional hubs to send the feeds directly to the transmitters. That's how panicked Bauer were.

[Kim Wexler’s Ponytail]

They were loss making and we would likely have lost many by now in any event.

More importantly, commercial radio is a business as much as you don’t like it. As it stands, the large majority of people in age groups relevant to advertisers (the people who pay for commercial radio), could not care less about local content on radio. In fact, they simply want music, often in the background. For many even DJs are too much which is one reason why more and more are switching to their own playlists on streaming platforms.

What next? "Well advertisers are telling us people dont even want music anymore, just ads!" If you gut something people liked and replace it with something inferior of course they're going to stop listening. It's self inflicted and now it's happening to TV.

[Stooky Bill]

Global have gone in by stealth, replaced all the local and regional stations with one of three brands and on the whole integrated them well making them into quasi-national stations.

It's worth remembering that Global have had a decade or so head start, more than that if you count the former GWR network. 

GHR is just the new Heart, they're doing exactly the same as Global with 2 different formats.

Global now have a great range of stations, streams and podcasts, it all feels very slick and cohesive. When they started using the Global brand on air and for their app it helped tie everything together.

Bauer less so, they have a much wider, more disperate range of brands. They're all quality products but it doesn't feel like there's much cohesion or strategy. This might change when they bring all their stations under a single app soon

[Adsales]

What next? "Well advertisers are telling us people dont even want music anymore, just ads!" If you gut something people liked and replace it with something inferior of course they're going to stop listening. It's self inflicted and now it's happening to TV.

So let me get this right. You’re saying that people in Leicester would listen in greater numbers than now if they still had Leicester Sound, someone reading the local news and traffic from Leicester rather than London.