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Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

The majority of its acquisitions last year (May 2020)

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IS
Inspector Sands
For a station that is supposedly national, a lot of it sounds like provincial local radio from the 1980s.

Although if you take notice of the enthusiasts who post on radio forums, that's what people want


This misconception is completely bonkers. None of the "enthusiasts" you talk about ever suggested such a thing. Most enthusiasts want to see a return to personality radio, rather than the more minimalist style that's been the way for some years now outside of breakfast.

Well surely that's part of what 'provincial local radio from the 1980s' provided.

As I say they should be happy as it not only is a fairly standard solid format but it's also got all the presenters that everyone was angry when they got sacked from other stations.

Quote:
Sadly, the closest thing we get to personality radio, is famous people presenting radio shows, **cough**Amanda Holden**cough**

And you accuse me of talking bonkers? No personality radio?

Yes, dragging presenters on from TV doesn't always work (sometimes it does) but to say that there are no presenters on radio without a personality
SP
Spencer
Jon posted:
GHR is a very different proposition to many of the stations it’s replacing. The Lincs Group and UKRD stations in particular have been very family-focused, playing songs from the mid 80s to the present day. I just can’t see an oldies station replacing these as the top choice of listening on the school-run. And whilst many might enjoy the odd sing-along song from the 70s or 80s, people who enjoy listening to Adele, Sam Smith, Pink, Coldplay, (recent) Take That, Michael Bublé and other big, accessible, popular current artists aren’t going to be satisfied with a diet of classic hits. I expect there will be a lot of tuning around.

This is the key point I think. The stations are going to lose a lot of people straight off the bat with the change of music policy (which will ultimately have the biggest impact), it’s very difficult to see where new listeners to replace those they lose will come from.

I think what Bauer should have attempted is a different model, that uses technology for all the cost savings and building closures but allows a playlist in each area that reflects what ever the gap in the market is in that particular TSA.

Of course you can do all the national marketing for the brand you want, but the likes of Eagle or Yorkshire Coast aren’t going to win enough new listeners to maintain listening at the current levels.

Then again, I don’t suppose they’re that bothered if certain stations lose most their audience, as long as they can claim Greatest Hits Radio has ‘x million listeners’ nationally. But I think it’s a missed opportunity for a network which has much greater reach to offer advertisers.


I think rolling out Magic instead of GHR would have made so much more sense. The music would have been a closer match, it’s a stronger brand, it would have filled a gap left by Heart when it refocused with a younger playlist a couple of years ago, plus it’s got a strong presence in London which always makes national airtime sales easier as the big agencies there understand the brand better.

But for some reason, Bauer Radio seems to be run as two separate divisions with little cross-over, based in London and Manchester respectively.
Last edited by Spencer on 31 August 2020 9:21am
JV
James Vertigan Founding member
Seems some of the team behind Spire FM are already planning a new station.

www.salisburyradio.co.uk
Last edited by James Vertigan on 31 August 2020 1:51pm
JO
Jon
Seems some of the team behind Spire FM are already planning a new station.

www.salisburyradio.co.uk

It’s a shame the process to get an FM community licence is so cumbersome, meaning by the time it becomes any kind of reality they’ll have lost any momentum and listeners will have largely moved on.
LL
London Lite Founding member


Inrix will be providing travel presenters. They did a test run on Eagle Radio on Saturday. Sunday was read out by the presenter on-air.

Is this new work for INRIX? The changes to their contract with BBC Local a few months ago meant a lot of on-air people were let go


It appears so, yes.
JV
James Vertigan Founding member
Jon posted:
Seems some of the team behind Spire FM are already planning a new station.

www.salisburyradio.co.uk

It’s a shame the process to get an FM community licence is so cumbersome, meaning by the time it becomes any kind of reality they’ll have lost any momentum and listeners will have largely moved on.


The plan could be to launch online and then maybe get a slot on the Salisbury DAB multiplex when that launches before looking at an FM licence?

That’s certainly what they did at The Voice in Barnstaple. An initial challenge was made for the North Devon ILR licence when that was up for renewal but that was scuppered by the extension of the Exeter/Torbay multiplex into North Devon, but then The Voice were allowed to launch on the mux taking the space of the Pop Up Radio channel. They later launched on FM covering Barnstaple, Bideford and Ilfracombe and surrounding areas on a community licence.
JO
Jon
As I said very cumbersome.

Is it one of the small scale DAB multiplexes that’s launching in Salisbury?
JV
James Vertigan Founding member
Jon posted:
As I said very cumbersome.

Is it one of the small scale DAB multiplexes that’s launching in Salisbury?


Yes. I believe Ofcom are advertising the multiplexes from tomorrow.
IS
Inspector Sands

As far as I can see, Eagle was in the very unusual and fortunate position of being one of the very few original ILR stations (if you count it as a continuation of the original County Sound) that actually still existed as a standalone local station. Nearly every other equivalent 'heritage' station across the south has, through a series of mergers and takeovers, ended up in the hands of Global and thus assimilated into the Heart network a decade ago or more, such as neighbouring Mercury, and even by that stage I don't know how long it had been since that had actually broadcast a full schedule of its own local programmes.

It's only through a quirk of ownership that Eagle lasted as long as it did, and I think it was a question of when not if, that it too ended up as part of a national network.

Yes, I'm not sure whether it's considered a continuation of the original County Sound or not. Some of the same people were involved and it took over the end of the previous license (Westward/TSW style) but it's not really the same station.

It's one of the few stations that's won a license against an incumbent and it was the last license (so far at least) to be awarded as a pair of FM/MW licenses

In that respect it's a shame it's going but you're right it did well to last as long as it did
BB
BBI45
They've now shut down the old radio station websites. Peak FM and Yorkshire Coast Radio, which were accessible a few hours ago, now direct to GHR North Derbyshire and GHR Yorkshire Coast. Also just tested Pirate FM, and it now redirects to their page on Planet Radio.
JO
Josh
Yep, same with my local.
PL
plymouthbloke1974
BBI45 posted:

That's why I was confused by the suggestion that GHR Cornwall would be the same as GHR London, but with custom jingles and travel.


Here’s a question..... so they will be creating a GHR Cornwall that will take the SW feed with local news etc.... The Breeze in Torbay is becoming GHR Devon - presume the DAB feed for GHR on that MUX is going to be changed to the Devon version.

So what about GHR on the Plymouth MUX? Will that change to GHR Devon as well or just stay as a UK version? If so that’s nuts!

Plus, any indication that they’ll change bitrates on the current feeds to something decent (ie: at least 128kbit Stereo)?

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