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Global Radio axes all regional/local breakfast shows

(February 2019)

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LL
London Lite Founding member
In addition to Nick Ferrari and James O'Brien becoming big names on the back of LBC 1152, BBC business presenter Maryam Moshiri started at LBC as a co-presenter of the entertainment programme which was part of the LBC@7 strand, where different themed shows were aired on weeknights. She co-presented with Tamzin Sylvester who ended up on London Tonight.

1152 was also on DAB, I remember listening to the final months of the station without interference on AM before the relaunch in 2003 when DAB was still rather niche and it cost me £150 for a DAB tuner to plug into my HiFi system.

Another thing that springs to mind is LBC's Crown FM period, a very short disastrous period where the FM station went high brow during daytime hours, yet simulcasted the 'downmarket' phone-ins from 10pm-5am. Nobody really listened and Newstalk replaced it with just some revoiced sweepers using the Crown FM music. Mike Carlton on Breakfast, a brash and funny Australian was one of my favourite breakfast shows of the 90s. He left once LBC lost the licence and Newstalk plodded along until the end.
MA
Markymark

Largely forgotten now but he {Douglas Cameron} was Mr LBC for years. Familiar outside London too as his bulletins in the mornings were on IRN too


He was Mr IRN in many areas outside of London. 70s/80s, they had some excellent newsreaders, Allan King, Robin Houston, Steve Allen (yes the very same) Therese Birch, Steve Crozier, and thanks to editor Ron Onions IRN/LBC punched well above its weight.
VM
VMPhil
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned in this thread but Tony Dibbin has left Global’s Gold radio station, which is a music jukebox for most of the day now apart from at breakfast which he’s been doing since 2012. It was pretty sudden news given it was only announced a day before the last show.

Apparently further changes to Gold will be announced soon…

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/05/tony-dibbin-leaves-gold-ahead-of-major-station-changes/
SP
Spencer
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned in this thread but Tony Dibbin has left Global’s Gold radio station, which is a music jukebox for most of the day now apart from at breakfast which he’s been doing since 2012. It was pretty sudden news given it was only announced a day before the last show.

Apparently further changes to Gold will be announced soon…

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/05/tony-dibbin-leaves-gold-ahead-of-major-station-changes/


Global is due to launch its new Heart Dance station soon. It seems inevitable that it will replace Gold on DAB.

There have been some rumours that Gold might be closed completely, which if that happens, begs the question what Global will do with its AM frequencies in London, Manchester and the East Midlands. Smooth Country perhaps?
LL
London Lite Founding member
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned in this thread but Tony Dibbin has left Global’s Gold radio station, which is a music jukebox for most of the day now apart from at breakfast which he’s been doing since 2012. It was pretty sudden news given it was only announced a day before the last show.

Apparently further changes to Gold will be announced soon…

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/05/tony-dibbin-leaves-gold-ahead-of-major-station-changes/


Global is due to launch its new Heart Dance station soon. It seems inevitable that it will replace Gold on DAB.

There have been some rumours that Gold might be closed completely, which if that happens, begs the question what Global will do with its AM frequencies in London, Manchester and the East Midlands. Smooth Country perhaps?


The contracts with Arqiva for the AM transmitters for Gold London and LBC London News are up for renewal before the end of the year. If they replace Gold with a Heart brand (preferably 80s), it may suggest that they'll renew the broadcast contracts, if not, it may be a sign in the case of LBC London News becoming a digital only station and no replacement on 1548 Khz.
IS
Inspector Sands

Robbie Vincent "We'll be hearing things that have happened over the past 23 years"... on a 23-year-old clip! Shocked Shocked

Bloody Hell it is, I hadn't realised.


Robbie Vincent made an appearance on Ian Lees show a few months back, still seems well and on form. Him and Mike Allen were my under the covers listening for years
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 4 June 2019 8:39pm
MA
Markymark

Robbie Vincent "We'll be hearing things that have happened over the past 23 years"... on a 23-year-old clip! Shocked Shocked

Bloody Hell it is, I hadn't realised.

Robbie Vincent made an appearance on Ian Lees show a few months back, still seems well and on form. Him and Mike Allen were my under the covers listening for years


Same here, but I suspect a decade earler when Mike was on Capital, and Robbie on BBC Radio London.

Robbie’s last radio gig was Jazz FM but rumour has it he stormed off when the station abondoned being on the D1 mux. He was back on Jazz FM at Christmas as a contributor to a tribute programme for Peter Young ( another radio hero for folk of my age, who was also taken far too early)
IS
Inspector Sands
If Gold is on the way out then its quite a sad, but understandable demise for the format and the station. I remember Capital Gold in the early 90s when it was a very well produced proper station with big name DJs and live football commentary. Around the country each ILR station had its own 'gold' format station too.

Now there's just one, in a few areas of the country and it is just a jukebox.

I suppose the big issue the format has is that it's range of music is very limited. If you consider popular music as starting in the late 50s then in the late 80s a gold station's playlist was a third of all popular music. 30 years on and now it's a niche. Those who remember the 60s don't necessarily just want to listen to music from that era.
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 4 June 2019 10:35pm
LL
London Lite Founding member


I suppose the big issue the format has ios that it's range of music is very limited. If you consider popular music as starting in the late 50s then in the late 80s a gold station's playlist was a third of all popular music. 30 years on and now it's a niche. Those who remember the 60s don't necessarily just want to listen to music from that era.


Not only that but the target audience for Gold is drifting out of the group that advertisers want to promote their products on. Sadly the advertising industry is ageist, but the fact it's harder to find advertisers on stations that target 65+ adults.

The trend for Classic Hits formats currently is to have an 80s skew with some 70s and 90s which attract middle-aged working adults rather than than the pensioners who remember the 60s. Alas Bauer's Greatest Hits Radio and numerous mainstream classic hits stations in the US have shifted to the 80s at the core of the programming.
DV
DVB Cornwall
I'm really waiting for the first RAJARs for Scala Radio, I suspect many Global services will lose listeners to Scala. The impact of Scala or not will be pivotal for the Commercial Radio sector for several years to come. Further niche services will surely follow impacting on usual patter stations if Scala works.
JO
Jon
I'm really waiting for the first RAJARs for Scala Radio, I suspect many Global services will lose listeners to Scala. The impact of Scala or not will be pivotal for the Commercial Radio sector for several years to come. Further niche services will surely follow impacting on usual patter stations if Scala works.

I’m sure a bigger worry for Global will be the amount of people who say “Alexa play Classical music” than are tuning into Scala.

And I think streaming services is going to be a real battle for music radio over the next decade.

I actually find RAJARs hard to believe considering how people listen to music has clearly changed in the last 10 years but there mysteriously hasn’t been a drop in radio listening figures.
DV
DVB Cornwall
It's the frankly brilliant music policy of Scala that I think will do damage to a lot of Contemporary stations. Yes it's a Classical Station but not purely. Their regular insertion of classic arrangements of 'pop' tracks into their playlist and their presenter list will pull many across in the short term, of which considerable numbers I feel will stay. RAJAR drives advertising too hence my consideration that the initial set will be critical across the industry.

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