AM/FM #5 — November 1992

News from the UK Radio Industry. Edited by Stephen Hebditch.

BBC Delays Launch Of Rolling News Service

The BBC have delayed the launch date of their new rolling news service in an effort to try and placate listeners. The new service will not now launch until the Govenors of the BBC are "satisfied that transmission arrangements meet the listeners' needs throughout the UK". In practice they have set an "operational planning" date of April 5th 1994 for its launch on Radio Four's Long Wave frequency.

First ILR Licences Re-Advertised

The Radio Authority has re-advertised the first of the existing Independent Local Radio licences. By the end of 1993 it will have re-advertised the licences of all the stations that began broadcasting before 1991. These will be for each individual AM and FM frequency, rather than for each broadcast area as before. However, they say they will take into account locations where it would not be viable to have different companies running separate AM and FM services. The first licence to be re-advertised is that of Northsound Radio, which serves 230,000 listeners in the Aberdeen area.

BBC Cuts Local Radio In Scotland

The BBC has brought in massive cuts to its six local stations in Scotland. The services in Aberdeen, Orkney, Shetland, Tweed, Solway and the Highlands previously opted out from Radio Scotland for their own local programming. Under the new scheme, their only local input will be for short news, weather and travel bulletins.

One FM 'Most Popular For Pop'

Radio One has released a new survey showing that the station is the most popular for pop music among all age groups. The majority of those questioned said that the BBC should continue to have a pop station and that Radio One should not carry advertising. They would also not like the station to carry more speech programming. Fifty three percent said it was the best station for promoting new music, compared with 16 percent who said Independent Local Radio was.

GLR Goes All-Talk

GLR, the BBC Local Radio station for London, are to move to an all-talk format for an hour at breakfast, lunchtime and afternoon drivetime. Station staff are reported to be unhappy at the move which was forced on them by management higher up in the BBC. Management at the Corporation are keen to push the news side of BBC Local Radio to distinguish it from ILR, which in most parts of the country has diluted its local news output. GLR had argued that they were a special case given the rather different competition they face to most BBC Local Radio stations.

Radio Authority Cuts Licence Fees

The Radio Authority has reduced the licence fees paid by Independent stations for their right to broadcast. Classic FM has had its annual licence fee cut from 1,000,000 pounds to 600,000 pounds. Independent Music Radio will see a similar reduction of 40 percent to 400,000 pounds. ILR stations will see their licence fees reduced by around 16 percent.

Latest Wrist Slappings By The Radio Authority

Q-96 FM has been fined 1,000 pounds for failing to carry local news bulletins as required by its licence. The Glasgow station, which began broadcasting in September, says it was unable to finalise the news service in time for its launch. Birmingham's Buzz FM and York's Minster FM were also fined 1,000 pounds each for failing to keep proper logging tapes. The Radio Authority rejected a complaint against Classic FM that it was 'an insult to music and musicians', saying that it was outside its powers to deal with personal opinions of that kind.

New Guide To UK Radio Published

The British DX Club has published the latest edition of its Radio Stations in the United Kingdom guide. This lists all the AM and FM stations operating in the UK by frequency, with a reference section provding further details of individual stations. It includes details of all the latest ILR and Independent National Radio stations. Copies are obtainable from the British DX Club, 54 Birkhall Road, Catford, London, SE6 1TE. Price is 2 pounds sterling (cheques payable to "British DX Club") or 4 dollar bills. The price includes worldwide postage.

New Local Licences

The Radio Authority has advertised the first regional licence, covering around 600,000 adults in the Severn Estuary area.

The Radio Authority have announced that they plan to issue new licences for Manchester, Birmingham and Wolverhampton over the next 12 months. This is in addition to two new Londonwide licences on offer next year.

Lantern Radio has taken to the air in North Devon on 96.2 FM.

The Channel Islands has its first Independent stations: Island FM in Guernsey and Channel 103 in Jersey.

The Radio Authority have received just one bid for the Pembrokeshire ILR licence, from local group Haven Radio.

Eagle Radio, backed by Scandanavian satellite channel TV3 and UK Radio Developments, plan to bid for one of the new London licences. They want to start a country music station.

People

Radio Two are demanding that opera star Pavarroti return half his fee for a recent concert broadcast by the station at which he mimed rather than performing live.

Julie Maddocks, a former presenter on Invicta Radio, has won 11,000 pounds compensation against the station after losing her job when she had a baby.

Robbie Vincent has joined Jazz FM from Kiss FM, where he leaves behind his record collection — bought by Kiss when it first started.

David Icke is to become a presenter on Isle of Wight Radio.

Financial News

Crown Communications, owners of LBC, have had their shares suspended from the London stock market. The station is currently involved in talks with bankers over refinancing the company.

Capital Radio is to sell Riviera Radio, a station that broadcasts to English residents in the South of France.

Independent Local Radio advertising revenue was up by 5.1 percent to 64.1 million pounds for the six months up to the end of September.

According to a new survey, radio will grow faster than any other medium in 1993. The Advertising Association expects growth in radio revenues to be 6 percent, compared to 4 percent for all other media.

Bits

Mersey Television, producers of TV soap Brookside, are to produce a new soap for Liverpool's Radio City.

Independent Radio News began broadcasting from its new home at ITN on October 5th. There was a threat of action from some staff members over ITN's plans to axe 6 IRN journalists after taking over the service. This was dropped following further negotiations with the NUJ.

Channel 103, the new ILR station in Jersey, are to carry Chiltern Radio's Network News as their news service and Supergold as an overnight sustaining service.

The 3 main churches in the UK have protested to the BBC over their plans to move its religious radio programmes unit to Manchester.

The BBC have moved to all-digital editing for news and current affairs output from their Westminster studio. Other BBC news studios are also likely to move over to digital technology before long, the Westminster studio acting as a testbed for how well the technology performs.

Capital Gold have launched a new advertising campaign, highlighting the music the station plays rather its disk jockeys.