[London Lite]

Radio Jackie is an interesting station, possibly technically the oldest commercial radio station in the UK.

When I was a kid it was the station we listened to, it was massively popular and part of the community. Their car stickers were everywhere, even my school maths classroom had one on the window as late as the early 90s. But it was an unlicensed station running as if it was an ILR. Dave Pearce and Paul Mckenna were both DJs on Jackie. They famously were legit in every way except their license - registered for VAT and PAYE etc so the taxman was happy with them even though the DTI weren't. They knew where they were based as the studios in Worcester Park High Street had a massive sign in the window. A recording of their output was played in parliament in the early 70s as a demonstration of what local radio could sound like. They weren't a pirate as we think of pirate radio today.

They were forced to close in 1985 and disappeared until 2003. Then they bought out the struggling Thames Radio who won the 'Sallie' license for South West London. So they've now be on air longer as a licensed broadcaster than not.

It's a proper old fashioned community orientated commercial station, but with a contemporary playlist rather than a historic station. It gets out a heck of a way too. I've seen it used as an example of how local radio can work today, but as said above it's a bit of a vanity project, apparently not profitable, the owner keeps it afloat.

Jackie certainly innovated as a pirate and really set in motion what became small scale commercial radio in the 90s, but then they relaunched after buying out Thames Radio and then time stopped.

It's an AC station stuck in 2003 imaging wise. It appears to be an outlet for two ex Capital FM presenters to continue playing at radio. While they change the new music, the rest of the playlist seems to be exactly the same as it was programmed 20 years ago.

However their contribution to local news and training up journalists, some on their first gig after leaving Uni is exceptional and they really do provide local community information and are out in the TSA at events.

[lookoutwales]

Kingdom FM / Original 106 / Pure Radio - Wouldn't be surprised if Bauer is eyeing them up as a way to move GHR from AM to FM in these areas. Global could be interested, but it's difficult to know without knowing how their networks do on other platforms in the area.

The DC Thomson stations are an interesting case study - Kingdom is a strongly local and successful station in Fife and Original, to its credit, has held its own against the heritage Northsound 1 in Aberdeen.

I’d have thought they might make a better fit for Global to expand Heart, personally (Bauer did close Northsound 2 on AM a few years ago - and this was after the end of local output)

The outlier is Pure - which in Dundee and Perth is an FM relay of the Central Scotland DAB station with opts for local news.

It gets about a tenth of the figures on FM that Tay gets (bear in mind this replaced the local Wave FM) and on DAB, it struggles to get beyond 30k in the central belt.

FM aside, it did have a ‘no news’ policy as part of its personality-led format (Robin Galloway is both breakfast host and programme controller) but that was dropped last month and they’re now going for a tighter’ more music’ format outside breakfast.

It is of an acquired taste to say the least (even before Pure, I’m sure Galloway pledged not to do any crank phone calls when he was at Heart - he quickly backtracked on that…)

[JAS84]

I'm pretty sure DC Thomson has no intention of selling up. It's their print division that they're cutting back on (Beano and Sunday Post are safe but they recently shuttered a bunch of magazines).

[BBI45]

I'm pretty sure DC Thomson has no intention of selling up. It's their print division that they're cutting back on (Beano and Sunday Post are safe but they recently shuttered a bunch of magazines).

I'm not expecting them to sell up either to be fair. I tried to focus more on where the interests of Global and Bauer were, rather than the likelihood of the owners selling up. For example, whilst I can see the merits of both Global and Bauer trying to buy out Dee and Silk, I can't see the owners taking up any offers given their recent expansion onto SSDAB.

[lookoutwales]

I also hadn’t realised that Sunshine was a Muff Murfin operation - interesting stuff.

Pardon the very late reply but yes, it has been under Murfin's ownership for most of its legitimate years.

He also owns a couple of community stations - the former Youthcomm Radio in Worcester, which is now the reborn Radio Wyvern (Bauer apparently gave them the blessing to use the Wyvern name)

It's an odd one because it's still licensed as a youth-focused station for 11-25 year olds. The output suggests anything but - and according to their Public File, their programme controller - who also presents Drive - is based in the USA.

www.radiowyvern.co.uk 

Radio Wyvern
Radio Wyvern - Worcestershire's Hit Music Station
  Source: www.radiowyvern.co.uk

Murfin's other community licence is Big City Radio in Birmingham, which has had a very chequered history and a few run-ins with OFCOM over the years.

Its latest move, officially announced today, is rebranding and relaunching as BRMB next month, with the Big City service going online-only.

Not too sure whether Bauer will give their blessing this time.

radiotoday.co.uk 

BRMB name returns to Birmingham after 10 years away – RadioToday
Some of the original team behind BRMB in Birmingham are bringing the radio stati…
  Source: radiotoday.co.uk

Murfin also took over Buzz FM (one of the first 'incremental' commercial stations) after the infamous Chris Cary took the station off air in November 1993 - only to see Buzz lose its licence months later.

[BBI45]

More FM expansion for GHR.

radiotoday.co.uk 

Gem to go digital only as Greatest Hits Radio gets ready to take over 106FM R…
East Midlands regional radio station Gem is to lose its FM frequency to Greatest…
  Source: radiotoday.co.uk

[lookoutwales]

The official Bauer PR also tells us Kent and Northern Ireland will get their own localised versions of GHR on DAB, including local news and travel opts, from Monday.

www.bauermedia.co.uk 

Greatest Hits Radio to launch on FM in East Midlands as Gem Radio goes 100% digi…
Gem Radio will continue to be available on DAB digital radio, online and on smar…
  Source: www.bauermedia.co.uk

Gem falls under OFCOM's Central approved area, so I guess they would probably take the 1-4pm show from Birmingham?

[Jon]

Interesting that they’re bothering with the DAB version and presumably keeping a live breakfast show.

Think this is what happened with Lincs FM too, although that had a full local schedule which it kept? Presumably likely to happen to Pirate FM at some point.

[Spencer]

Interesting that they’re bothering with the DAB version and presumably keeping a live breakfast show.

Think this is what happened with Lincs FM too, although that had a full local schedule which it kept? Presumably likely to happen to Pirate FM at some point.

I suspect after Lincs' audience didn't drop off a cliff following their first Rajar as a DAB only station, they figured maybe some of the regional and local brands can survive without an FM frequency.

A shame they never considered this three years ago – some of the more successful stations they rebranded maybe could have been saved.

[London Lite]

The value of the FM transmitters is declining, but they still have value with older listeners who are likely to tune into GHR on FM and still have analogue receivers.

Bauer would have done the numbers with Lincs and now Gem and presumably the shares for DAB over FM are now higher, so can take the risk with a regional FM licence.

In any case, since Bauer replaced Gem's AC format with CHR, it now directly competes with Capital who have a strong audience share across the East Midlands.