Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

Sigh. Ever since we lost Plymouth Sound to Heart, Radio Plymouth has filled a slot which a lot of Plymouthians regard. It's done a good job in the last 10 years and when the pandemic hit it kept us going in work.

Now we're going to lose again.

Indeed, I know you didn't!

The Radio Plymouth of 2020 is a shadow of its 2010 self. Barely any presenter-led shows and mainly jukebox format or voicetracked. They couldn’t even launch on DAB properly (no - 56kbit mono is not acceptable).

I actually welcome GHR replacing it as I reckon it’ll sound better than what we have now. You can’t really compare this to the Plymouth Sound -> Heart switch as there was certainly more presenter led programming albeit not much locally.

I believe it wasn’t in financially good health either so COVID has probably speeded things up.

Is losing Radio Plymouth a shame? Yes.
Will it be missed? For the majority, probably not. If you want local, BBC Radio Devon has it covered.

Given the state of Radio Devon at the moment, and the fact that their last official RAJAR figures were 172k reach and an 8.5 share, and that's across Devon, I wouldn't be so certain that Radio Devon does have it covered. I'd say that 35k/4.3 share audience that were reported by RAJAR as listening to Radio Plymouth as being well and truly up for the taking, and the likes of Goldmine could well benefit from some of that audience.

Heck, BBC Radio Cornwall aren't in a great position either. They've fallen from a peak of 172k reach and 17.9 share in Q3/2014, all the way down to a 96k reach and an 8.2 share. Neither station are best placed to capitalise on the downfall of Radio Plymouth.

As for what the Radio Plymouth of 2010 was, it was unsustainable. When I was there for a couple of months in 2011, the live programmes were just breakfast and drivetime on weekdays, 6am to 2pm on Saturdays and Sunday Breakfast, everything else was automation or a limited amount of voicetracking, and not great voicetracking at that.

The fact that they managed to have a daytime show at all, in the current situation, was something, even though the weekend was just weekend breakfast live, and they had recently added a Saturday evening show. But honestly, they have been for as long as I've known, just surviving month to month, barely making much in the way of income at all. Some months they did better than others, but overall, they just about survived year to year. Not much of a financial success at all.

Radio Plymouth are now using GHR-style jingles and TOTH. Presenters saying “Playing the greatest hits, this is Radio Plymouth” etc etc. Does anyone know when the switch to GHR will happen? Presumably the same date that GHR Cornwall officially launches on DAB?

Just announced today, Greatest Hits Radio comes to Plymouth (it's already in Plymouth, but network feed only) on Monday 2nd November, which ties in nicely with the previously announced launch of GHR Cornwall in November, so I expect both to happen on the same day.

It’s a shame that Bauer won’t take the bandwidth from Radio Plymouth’s DAB slot to make GHR 128kbit stereo on DAB. At least Global have invested in DAB/DAB+

Also announced today, Ipswich 102 is to become Greatest Hits Suffolk under a brand license deal, although it is part owned by Bauer

This is an odd and complicated one...

It won the license from Town 102 when it was re-advertised in 2018, one of the handful of stations that's won a license against an incumbent. The reason it was re-advertised was because Town 102 weren't on DAB and part of the reason it lost was because it had no plans to, unlike Ipswich 102.

So Town 102 lost its FM license and ironically went DAB only, while Ipswich 102 launched on FM. Come the Bauer takeovers and Town's owners Celador are swallowed up by Bauer and it becomes GHR Suffolk. Meanwhile Lincs FM who part-owned Ipswich 102 also got swallowed up by Bauer.

Still with me? So now Ipswich 102 will become part of GHR Suffolk under license and to avoid duplication the DAB slot that was previously Town 102 and is now GHR will change to Hits Radio.

A bit sad really as after all that to win the license the station lasted 2 years and unlike the one it replaced it was all local. As its to be part of GHR Suffolk there's already a 'local' drive presenter so presumably no one will be kept on

It is a crying shame that Ipswich 102 is being morphed in to GHR and by the press release it would seem that no one is being kept on. Paul Morris who hosts drive was / is the Station Manager like he was at Town & Dream before AR became a regional network under Celador and was at SGR / Heart before the regional networking too.

A regional drive show from Norwich is just not enough to class it as LR anymore once it becomes GHR despite the spin that bauer are putting on it. I wonder whether this "Brand Arrangement" was Bauer putting their "Size 9's" in or if Ipswich 102 was struggling to survive post-covid?

Good point. It clearly wasn’t going to happen originally, but they’ve done it now?

I suppose businesses can survive post-COVID, if the owner is willing to weather the storm a bit. Bauer COULD afford it, but for 1 station, when they've got the cost effective solution ready to go... sadly it seemed inevitable.

Bristol's SAM FM is next in line to be converted, this time to 'Hits Radio', according to a request that Ofcom is consulting on as of today.

Is that just for the name change? Ofcom approved the format change in July according to this, which I thought was strange, as Ofcom says major format changes should not be made within the first two years of a licence. Sam FM’s licence was only re-awarded in December 2018, and it was originally assumed this was the reason why they weren’t rebranded with all the other stations in September.

But then Ofcom approving the format change in July would suggest they could have done all along. Maybe I’ve missed something, but I’m a bit confused by this.