Congratulations to all the winners in this week's industry awards, especially BBC Tees here in North East England.
But I was saddened to see there is now no specific Radio Academy Award for smaller stations as Station of the Year. There used to be a <300,000 category. Surely this can't be a policy decision not to specifically support the smaller and community stations which are the seedbed of our industry? I know the nominations and awards meant a lot to people in those smaller operations, who the Academy is also supposed to involve.
Wednesday 14 May 2014
Friday 7 February 2014
Commercial radio licences have value after all
After a long period of stagnation the UK commercial radio market is starting to warm up. A couple of years ago you could not give away the average commercial radio licence, indeed a few closed after failing to find buyers.
This past week has seen Irish telecoms billionaire Denis O'Brien buying eight stations from Global Radio in a sale reported to be worth £35m while mobile phone company Lyca Media has acquired four radio stations from the administrators handling those parts of Sunrise Radio which went bust last month, in a deal rumoured to amount to well over £3 million..
Sunrise Radio 1, Sunrise Radio 3, Time 107.5 and Time 106.6 are now owned by the international calling card company Lyca. Separately, Irish media company Communicorp has bought Smooth Radio North West, North East and East Midlands, along with Capital South Wales, Real Radio North Wales, Capital Scotland, Real Radio Yorkshire and Real XS Manchester (Global Radio had to sell the eight radio stations following a ruling by the Competition Commission when it bought GMG Radio in 2012).
Of course the value of these radio assets to both purchasers has a lot to do with their long term strategies. They may have over-bid just to get a position in the market. In the case of the former Global stations national sales and non-peak programming will still be provided by Global Radio under a franchise agreement.
It is perhaps more surprising to see such a high value being put on the London AM stations formerly owned by Avtar Lit. The Sunrise boss has kept the ex-Buzz Radio frequencies of 963 and 972 AM for a new version of Sunrise Radio. It is less clear how Lyca will use the former Kismat frequency of 1035 kHz or the original Sunrise 1458 kHz frequency. There has been speculation that the Time FM licences for 107.5 MHz (based in Romford) and 106.6 (based in Slough) may be transferred to other operators.
Whatever the outcome it is good to see that at least some companies are willing to put money behind conventional AM and FM licences – even if they are just stepping-stones to future developments.
This past week has seen Irish telecoms billionaire Denis O'Brien buying eight stations from Global Radio in a sale reported to be worth £35m while mobile phone company Lyca Media has acquired four radio stations from the administrators handling those parts of Sunrise Radio which went bust last month, in a deal rumoured to amount to well over £3 million..
Sunrise Radio 1, Sunrise Radio 3, Time 107.5 and Time 106.6 are now owned by the international calling card company Lyca. Separately, Irish media company Communicorp has bought Smooth Radio North West, North East and East Midlands, along with Capital South Wales, Real Radio North Wales, Capital Scotland, Real Radio Yorkshire and Real XS Manchester (Global Radio had to sell the eight radio stations following a ruling by the Competition Commission when it bought GMG Radio in 2012).
Of course the value of these radio assets to both purchasers has a lot to do with their long term strategies. They may have over-bid just to get a position in the market. In the case of the former Global stations national sales and non-peak programming will still be provided by Global Radio under a franchise agreement.
It is perhaps more surprising to see such a high value being put on the London AM stations formerly owned by Avtar Lit. The Sunrise boss has kept the ex-Buzz Radio frequencies of 963 and 972 AM for a new version of Sunrise Radio. It is less clear how Lyca will use the former Kismat frequency of 1035 kHz or the original Sunrise 1458 kHz frequency. There has been speculation that the Time FM licences for 107.5 MHz (based in Romford) and 106.6 (based in Slough) may be transferred to other operators.
Whatever the outcome it is good to see that at least some companies are willing to put money behind conventional AM and FM licences – even if they are just stepping-stones to future developments.
Friday 24 January 2014
The Heart of the issue
Much debate this week after Ofcom showed some teeth and found Heart Cornwall wasn’t operating within its required Format.
Apparently Ofcom was responding to a complaint that the station was not broadcasting enough local news or since changing from Atlantic FM to Heart.
What is especially significant is that, for the first time in recent memory, Ofcom had to consider not only the formal news, weather and traffic bulletins on the station but also the content of presenter links. I’ve always found it ridiculous to suggest that a local radio station could adequately reflect the interests, mood and culture of its area simply in news bulletins – with the other 57 minutes of the hour being generic region- or nation-wide music radio. The most successful local stations have always had presenters who could talk about and be involved in their local communities.
At Heart Cornwall Ofcom found the Cornwall-specific material within presenter links typically accounted for less than five minutes per day!
In this case Global Radio asked in 2012 to change the Format of the station to remove the requirement for “full service speech” but had been rejected by Ofcom.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of this position, the simple fact is that it was the station itself which (stupidly) promised up to 50% speech when applying for the licence. I think it is quite proper for the regulator to say that if a station – even if it has changed hands and rebranded – can’t do what it said in its licence application then the licence should be taken back and re-advertised.
In the past I’ve been in a situation where I’ve helped with an FM licence application only to be beaten by another group who made extravagant promises to Ofcom. For that group to come on-air then crawl to Ofcom for permission to ignore their commitments is not only unfair but makes a mockery of the whole licence application process.
If it’s true (and I don’t believe it always is) that truly local radio can’t be made to generate a profit in some areas then lets re-run the licence contest in those areas with Ofcom taking a more realistic view of the financial issues. Simply letting the biggest radio group in the country re-write the rules cannot be the best answer.
Apparently Ofcom was responding to a complaint that the station was not broadcasting enough local news or since changing from Atlantic FM to Heart.
What is especially significant is that, for the first time in recent memory, Ofcom had to consider not only the formal news, weather and traffic bulletins on the station but also the content of presenter links. I’ve always found it ridiculous to suggest that a local radio station could adequately reflect the interests, mood and culture of its area simply in news bulletins – with the other 57 minutes of the hour being generic region- or nation-wide music radio. The most successful local stations have always had presenters who could talk about and be involved in their local communities.
At Heart Cornwall Ofcom found the Cornwall-specific material within presenter links typically accounted for less than five minutes per day!
In this case Global Radio asked in 2012 to change the Format of the station to remove the requirement for “full service speech” but had been rejected by Ofcom.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of this position, the simple fact is that it was the station itself which (stupidly) promised up to 50% speech when applying for the licence. I think it is quite proper for the regulator to say that if a station – even if it has changed hands and rebranded – can’t do what it said in its licence application then the licence should be taken back and re-advertised.
In the past I’ve been in a situation where I’ve helped with an FM licence application only to be beaten by another group who made extravagant promises to Ofcom. For that group to come on-air then crawl to Ofcom for permission to ignore their commitments is not only unfair but makes a mockery of the whole licence application process.
If it’s true (and I don’t believe it always is) that truly local radio can’t be made to generate a profit in some areas then lets re-run the licence contest in those areas with Ofcom taking a more realistic view of the financial issues. Simply letting the biggest radio group in the country re-write the rules cannot be the best answer.
Sunrise charity question
Since my last post someone has reminded me of another Sunrise Radio story.
In November 2011 the Guardian reported that Ofcom was to investigate Sunrise Radio after it was accused of withholding tens of thousands of pounds of listeners' charity donations:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/nov/04/ofcom-investigates-radio-station-charity
The paper reported: "A separate investigation by the Charity Commission last month concluded that the London-based Sunrise Radio, which has a listenership of 2 million and a sister station, Kismat Radio, had inappropriately left £160,000 of disaster relief money to sit dormant in a bank account for seven years. The money had been raised after station appeals during the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.
"Before the commission confiscated the money and handed it to two British charities working the area, the fund had grown to more than £180,000 with interest. In its report, the Charity Commission criticised the commercial radio stations for failing to "provide a sufficient satisfactory explanation or provide evidence to give reason for their delay". The cash was held in an account called Sunrise Radio South-east Asia Disaster Appeal."
The report made it clear that there was no suggestion the money had been used for any other purpose.
An Ofcom spokesperson was quoted as saying: "Ofcom is currently investigating this case relating to Sunrise Radio. We will publish our findings in due course." But, more than two years later, I can't find any trace of Ofcom's findings. What did they conclude?
In November 2011 the Guardian reported that Ofcom was to investigate Sunrise Radio after it was accused of withholding tens of thousands of pounds of listeners' charity donations:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/nov/04/ofcom-investigates-radio-station-charity
The paper reported: "A separate investigation by the Charity Commission last month concluded that the London-based Sunrise Radio, which has a listenership of 2 million and a sister station, Kismat Radio, had inappropriately left £160,000 of disaster relief money to sit dormant in a bank account for seven years. The money had been raised after station appeals during the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.
"Before the commission confiscated the money and handed it to two British charities working the area, the fund had grown to more than £180,000 with interest. In its report, the Charity Commission criticised the commercial radio stations for failing to "provide a sufficient satisfactory explanation or provide evidence to give reason for their delay". The cash was held in an account called Sunrise Radio South-east Asia Disaster Appeal."
The report made it clear that there was no suggestion the money had been used for any other purpose.
An Ofcom spokesperson was quoted as saying: "Ofcom is currently investigating this case relating to Sunrise Radio. We will publish our findings in due course." But, more than two years later, I can't find any trace of Ofcom's findings. What did they conclude?
Thursday 23 January 2014
The Sunrise saga
Earlier this week most of the Sunrise Radio Group was put into administration. On Monday 20th January 2014 Grant Thornton UK was been appointed administrators of Sunrise Radio Limited, Kismat Radio Limited, Time FM 107.5 Limited, Tristar Broadcasting Limited and London Media Company Limited.
Sunrise Radio Limited operates Sunrise Radio 1, Kismat Radio Limited runs the station recently renamed Sunrise Radio 3, Time FM 107.5 Limited owns and operates Time FM in East London and West Essex, Tristar Broadcasting Limited is the owner of Time 106.6 broadcasting to Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor.
In May 2013 Sunrise Radio appealed on-air for donations to keep the station afloat. See my post of 29 May 2103: http://brianlister.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/sunset-or-sunrise.html
Time 106.6 won its licence back last year after Ofcom re-advertised it. Awarding the licence to Time rather than a station based around Slough’s existing Asian community station, Ofcom said “The ability of Litt Corporation to provide Time with funding as and when necessary, which it has consistently done in the past, also provided reassurance of the applicant’s ability to maintain the service.”
http://brianlister.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/is-sunrise-able-to-fund-station-or-not.html
Then, in August, it emerged that Sunrise Radio Group owed HMRC a tax bill of £400,000. Sunrise Radio went off digital radio in Scotland on digital radio due to spiralling costs as did Punjabi Radio in London and Kismat Radio in Bradford.
Nobody in the radio business should be happy to see any other station fail. These situations serve only to damage the image and reputation of our whole industry with advertisers, investors and listener. We can only hope that the administrators can find good new owners for these services who will be acceptable to Ofcom. The alternative is that the stations go off the air and Ofcom would have to be persuaded to re-advertise the licences, something it does not generally seem keen to do.
Sunrise Radio Limited operates Sunrise Radio 1, Kismat Radio Limited runs the station recently renamed Sunrise Radio 3, Time FM 107.5 Limited owns and operates Time FM in East London and West Essex, Tristar Broadcasting Limited is the owner of Time 106.6 broadcasting to Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor.
In May 2013 Sunrise Radio appealed on-air for donations to keep the station afloat. See my post of 29 May 2103: http://brianlister.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/sunset-or-sunrise.html
Time 106.6 won its licence back last year after Ofcom re-advertised it. Awarding the licence to Time rather than a station based around Slough’s existing Asian community station, Ofcom said “The ability of Litt Corporation to provide Time with funding as and when necessary, which it has consistently done in the past, also provided reassurance of the applicant’s ability to maintain the service.”
http://brianlister.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/is-sunrise-able-to-fund-station-or-not.html
Then, in August, it emerged that Sunrise Radio Group owed HMRC a tax bill of £400,000. Sunrise Radio went off digital radio in Scotland on digital radio due to spiralling costs as did Punjabi Radio in London and Kismat Radio in Bradford.
Nobody in the radio business should be happy to see any other station fail. These situations serve only to damage the image and reputation of our whole industry with advertisers, investors and listener. We can only hope that the administrators can find good new owners for these services who will be acceptable to Ofcom. The alternative is that the stations go off the air and Ofcom would have to be persuaded to re-advertise the licences, something it does not generally seem keen to do.
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