Is British radio missing a massive opportunity? I recently spent time in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. I noticed how many great commercial talk radio stations there are and how well they’re doing. Commercial talk radio is one of the hottest radio formats internationally. There are hundreds of talk stations in the United States, at least two in every Australian capital city and even in New Zealand, a country with a population of only four million people; they have four national commercial speech-only radio stations.
Whenever I ask British radio people why we only have two commercial talk stations (LBC and TalkSport) and other countries have a lot more, I get one of two answers. It’s either, “Those countries don’t have the BBC” or “Talk is harder to sell”.
Let’s start with “Those countries don’t have the BBC”. Well, they do have public broadcaster to compete with. Radio New Zealand has a national listening share of 10.7% but their commercial talk rival, Newstalk ZB is still number one in Auckland with 13.9% share. In Sydney ABC 702 is beaten into second place with a 10.6% share behind the number one station overall, Newstalk 2GB which has 14.5% share. The most listened to radio stations in Auckland and Sydney are both commercial talkers and both beat strong commercial-free public broadcasters.
The USA is a little different, PBS does not get the kind of funding that Australia’s ABC or Radio New Zealand get but PBS gives commercial talk a run for its money. For example, in America’s fourth biggest market, San Francisco, the most listened to talk station is KQED, it’s a PBS station. Its the second most listened to station overall and it’s 5.6% share puts it well ahead of it’s nearest commercial talk rival KCBS who only have a 4.6% share.
If the rule is that when the public broadcaster dominates a particular format there’s no room for a commercial player, how come we even have commercial music radio in Britain at all? It’s a testament to how good commercial music radio is in the UK that it continues to survive like a cockroach despite the continued nuclear attack from commercial-free Radio 1 and Radio 2.
Let’s look at the other reason given, “Talk is harder to sell”. Really? I would have thought it would have been harder to sell on a music station, a medium that is consumed for the most part in the background. Commercials on a music station can be an interruption to the programming. Commercials on a talk station can almost become part of the programming and it’s a format that has to be paid attention to, wouldn’t that make the commercial more effective? And if they worked better, wouldn’t that make them easier to sell? You can also sell more minutes per hour on a talk format.
In the UK we’re really good at producing speech-only radio and it’s gaining more listeners and hours than the rest of the industry. Last week, Roy Martin, the Managing Editor of Radio Today looked at the combined performance of the “speech-only” stations: Radio 4, Five Live, Radio 4 Extra, Five Live Sports Extra, talkSPORT and LBC. He concluded that since 1999 when RAJAR started, “All Radio” hours have grown 7%, but the hours of these speech stations have increased by 31%.
I only know of one place where I can hear Nick Ferrari and only one place where I can hear Alan Brazil. With the same music available on hundreds of websites on my phone, what is music radio’s USP?
Instead of asking why commercial talk radio isn’t happening in the UK, we should be trying to work out why a country that consistently produces some of the finest speech based programming in the world isn’t turning that into money!
Speech radio: less music, more talk
Instead of asking why commercial talk radio isn’t happening in the UK, we should be trying to work out why a country that consistently produces some of the finest speech based programming in the world isn’t turning that into money
Graham Mack is a multi-award winning broadcaster, and radio talk show host. Currently freelancing at seven stations across the UK, Graham's seeking a permanent position. These are his personal opinions.
Visit Graham Mack's website
7 comments
Andy King posted on Wednesday 7th November 2012 at 12:15
Aren’t most of the US talk radio stations largely made up of syndicated content, particularly in second-tier markets and below? Many seem to have a local news-based morning show, but the rest of the content is the same – Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, a few stations still clinging onto Glenn Beck, and so on. It’s easy to make money on a talk format if you can just pipe in a popular show via satellite, turn out the lights and go home.
I know too little about Australia/NZ to comment, but I think one of the main differences between here and the US is that opinionated talk radio is allowed there. Rush Limbaugh, whatever you think of his views, is good at whipping up and entertaining a certain audience. If a British equivalent appeared on air, he’d be pulled off again pretty quickly for violating Ofcom codes, libel laws, impartiality rules and so on.
In the US, you can tune around the dial and find a host who largely chimes with your political views (particularly if they’re somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan). In this country, a lot of the talk radio is just plain boring because of the requirement to remain impartial – I remember City Talk in Liverpool, despite being very well-produced, it wasn’t the most exciting listen, and was promptly pulled.
If those rules were removed, and British equivalents of American politicised talk radio came on air, do you think we’d start to see a proliferation of speech radio here?
Lester Forbes posted on Wednesday 7th November 2012 at 12:41
I’ve been saying for years that UK radio has fallen decades behind and equally out of date with it’s thinking and attitude. People in commercial music radio seem to have accepted a crass pyramid system whereby more and more stations become syndicated and only have one output, only to benefit a few at the very very top, and everone nods in blind agreement that the bosses & shareholders need more and more money and their colleagues are loosing their jobs because of ‘todays tough economic climate’
A National talk-only station could work and could be profitable with the right people at the helm, people from countries that are making talk brands popular and profitable.
And when I say that attitudes are so far out of date here I mean that talk of a Talk station would only result in the ‘ah yes, but’ attitude. The ‘Ahh yes, but’... talk radio failed in the 90’s. The way people consume media is so much more different now than the 90’s, podcasts, web streaming, phone streaming, DAB, Digital TV and the best stations are taking advantage of all these and a national talk radio format CAN work today !
Anthony Rudd posted on Wednesday 7th November 2012 at 13:11
Excellent article.
I know everyone is doing a great job of ignoring his comment, but can I just mention to Mr Macartney that Graham Mack has an incredible history of presenting in all formats for decades and is a bit of an industry “legend”. Whereas you…..erm….aren’t.
Oh, and it’s “you’re English”, not “your English”. There is nothing I dislike more than a grammatically incorrect, vaguely racist comment.
Rob Harvey posted on Wednesday 7th November 2012 at 14:58
Talk radio is something we do in the UK often, as an din-between playing the ads and music, thing. Which annoys me….as we all love conversations and view points. Every interview or chat on-air creates phone calls and reactions in my experience. So Commercially talk radio should be viable as far as sponsored or endorsements- sadly I feel advertisers are too sacred
James Cridland posted on Thursday 15th November 2012 at 17:47
Phil Riley says, simply:
Interesting article on speech radio to which the 2nd answer is “older demographics are worth less” RT
<a href="https://twitter.com/jamescridland">jamescridland</a>:<a href="http://t.co/tXsF6WkZ" title="http://bit.ly/XIHAnH">bit.ly/XIHAnH</a></p>— Phil Riley (rileyorionradio) November 15, 2012
But – isn’t 75% of a less lucrative audience worth more than 15% of a more lucrative one?
Ian Beaumont posted on Friday 16th November 2012 at 12:17
I suggest Graham Mack does his research a little better. PBS does not do radio in the US. Public service radio broadcasting in the US is made primarily by National Public Radio, with additional programming supplied by Public Radio International, American Public Media, The Public Radio Xchange, and the various NPR member stations.
And whilst a lot of public radio in the US is talk based, it is not exclusively talk. Often, public radio stations will include classical music, jazz, and more eclectic mixes of music. KCRW in Santa Monica is well known for its “Morning Becomes Eclectic” programme from 9am to Noon, airing after NPR’s Morning Edition. They also have an HD Radio service which is known as Eclectic 24. Well worth a listen.
Commercial talk radio in this country is harder to sell, primarily because commercial radio companies have created the impression that commercial radio = music radio. This is something of their own making and if they truly want to do successful commercial talk radio, then they are probably gonna have to do more talk-based programming on regular stations first, just so the listeners can get familiar with the idea again.
Add your comment in seconds
Use a social media account you already have to log in. More info
If you're not on social media, register for a Media UK account.
By logging in, you are consenting to a cookie that personally identifies you to us. Here's more about our cookies.
Get the Media UK Daily
Get new articles, news, jobs and discussions every day into your inbox. Subscribe, free, now
Dare I say because your English and havent a clue.