NEW LOCAL COMMERCIAL RADIO LICENCES FOR LONDON TO BE ADVERTISED, BUT DELAYED AND RESTRICTED TO AM BAND by GRANT GODDARD

www.grantgoddard.co.uk September 1992

It's official! London is definitely to have several new commercial radio stations, though their arrival will take longer than anticipated. Licences for two new citywide stations will be advertised next Spring, the winners probably going on-air in early 1994. Both will broadcast on the lo-fi AM waveband, one on 'GLR's present channel which the BBC has at last agreed to relinquish by the end of next year. Bids for these licences are open to all-comers, but one winner is likely to be an ethnic minority station, possibly Asian, whilst the other could be a music channel aimed at the older audience for country & western or 70s rock. A new East London station, which had been expected this year, has now been postponed until next Autumn and, likewise, will be restricted to a dull old AM channel, at a time when listeners are turning to higher quality FM radio in droves. Britain's third national commercial radio station, whose licence was to have been advertised this year, will not launch until Spring 1995. By law, most of its output has to be speech-based and it will broadcast on 'BBC Radio 1's old 275 and 285 AM channels. The first of the national stations, 'Classic FM', arrived this month and the second, 'Virgin Rock', opens next year. The decision to slow down the expansion of commercial radio was forced by the mediocre economy and uncertainty over the future of the BBC's radio services. Its recent decision to launch an all-news national station in January 1994 has already gazumped the commercial sector's intention to do the same, and forced it instead to contemplate an all-sport or phone-in service. But if Radios '1' and '2' really do succumb to BBC mandarins' desire to purge them of pop music, there could be opportunities for more commercial pop stations, along the lines of 'Capital Radio', to take their place. More critically, the radio business is in the economic doldrums. The Radio Authority may insist "how splendidly they've all done in such a period of awful recession," but most stations' share prices, including Capital and 'LBC', are at rock-bottom. New stations, in particular, face an uphill struggle for advertising. Just see how few hands you need to count the number of advertisers using Classic FM.

[Submitted to 'City Limits' magazine, #572, unpublished]

Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk
New Local Commercial Radio Licences For London To Be Advertised But Delayed And Restricted To AM Band page 2 1992 Grant Goddard