Bauer Media, the second largest UK Radio group, have today announced they are taking Kerrang! off their West Midlands FM regional frequency, replacing it with the newly acquired Planet Rock, hitherto only on digital and online. Planet Rock comes from London, so yet more good West Midlands radio people will hit the scrapheap. And it’s bad news for local musicians who lose another outlet sympathetic to their efforts.
Kerrang will limp on as a youth-positioned rock service on digital, but almost certainly not from Birmingham. There is one really interesting angle to all this. Planet Rock had a smaller reach than Kerrang. The station has never made money, and its founder unloaded it last year. Planet Rock, if truth be told, had a considerably smaller profile that Bauer was hitherto able to give to Kerrang with cross-platform positioning.
So why kill the bigger brand now?
I’m sad about this, of course, but now the deed is done, it seems so obvious. Here’s why.
This decision is about positioning, market share and demographics... and absolutely not about the love of music. There’s a new and very noisy rock radio/web/magazine brand about to land in the UK with a pronounced splat, and Bauer are getting their ducks in a row early. And where is the big money-making audience for Rock? It's older listeners - exactly what Planet Rock delivers.
The big rock icons are now in their fifties, sixties and even seventies. The listenership will be, broadly, in their late thirties to sixties. This audience still uses the radio waaaay more than web-savvy twenty-something rock fans. It’s the same dynamic that has meant Radio 2 has continued to storm ahead of commercial radio, that haven of risk-averse programming, and Radio 1, who do take risks, but continue to, er, not gain young listeners.
And as for contemporary Rock? Where’s that at? It’s a LOT noisier and more aggressive than Classic Rock. Metal has splintered into dozens of sub-genres, much of it not remotely built to sound good on the air anymore. Compare and contrast with any Classic Rock act, and their contemporary derivatives, who all sound reassuringly cosy in comparison.
Put that way, it’s a business no-brainer.
But I am very sorry for the great local broadcasters on Kerrang, and the airtime now lost to local bands. It was only ten years ago or so that niche radio seemed like a good idea - a viable business proposition. Sadly, that didn’t work out. Many diehard radio fans will blame the big radio groups for killing niche radio off, and of course that’s exactly what they’ve been happy to do.
But the main factor driving this change is the web, which continues to push twentieth century media into a corner. It’s ironic that an old fart rock format has won out over a youth rock format.
But that’s where the money is.
Kerrang to come off-air - here's why
Follow @RobinTValk
Sad news - another local radio service exits the Midlands
This article was originally published on RadioToGo and is reprinted here with permission.
Robin Valk has worked in music and music radio and, more recently, software and digital media, for over 40 years. He was a presenter and Head of Music for BRMB in Birmingham, and has also worked for BBC Radio 2 and a variety of stations abroad.
Visit Robin Valk's website
9 comments
Martin Phillp posted on Friday 24th May at 11:40
Just a slight error in an otherwise excellent piece, Malcolm Blumel isn’t the ‘founder’ of Planet Rock, he alongside a consortium of rock people acquired the station from GCap Media who decided to sell the station as part of it’s strategy of not having digital only brands.
The station was originally a GWR station as part of the original Digital One line-up in 1999.
James Martin posted on Friday 24th May at 15:23
Excellent piece. A sad decision, but I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do in business terms. What a difference ten years makes!
Robin Valk posted on Friday 24th May at 17:20
Thanks for the ownership correction, Martin; much obliged.
Art Grainger posted on Saturday 25th May at 07:24
This was predicted by some people.
Methinks it won’t end there either.
On another thread there is discussion about Global’s allowed ownership of radio stations throughout the UK, with what they can keep (offcially), along with speculation as to what stations they could dispose of. The ultimate of all of this is that Global certainly will hold on to the stations that will give them a profile that allows their brands to broadcast to as much of the UK (on FM) as possible, so Capital may be disposed of but Heart will very likely be rolled out and Smooth could become Gold in time. Unfortunately for Global, they’re also holding onto Real XS in just two markets and XFM in just two markets. I don’t think they’ll want to hold onto those for much longer, so this could be an opportunity for Bauer to acquire at least one or two of those four stations and use the opportunity to put Planet Rock on FM in London, possibly Manchester and Glasgow, alongside Birmingham…. the four largest UK markets.
James Martin posted on Monday 27th May at 15:22
A lot of it seems to be about making Bauer a leaner, fitter company. The TFM/Metro stunt for example is probably Bauer getting all their ducks in a row ready for the launch of Heart North East.
The way I see it going is Bauer buy Absolute and Real XS. Planet Rock goes on 1215AM nationwide, and on FM in London, West Midlands, Manchester and Glasgow.
There’s also another knock-on effect of this if they acquire a number of Smooth Radio licenses. They’ll obviously acquire lots of DAB space from TIML, which could be used to put Magic (London flavour) nationwide on D1. Consequently, any acquired Smooths could simply air a national version of Magic with no need to rebuild studio bases, as could the London license, and potentially Wave 105.
Tim Page posted on Monday 27th May at 22:01
Are Bauer in the frame for Smooths? Apart from whether they have the money, wouldn’t they come up against competition issues similar to Global’s in most of the markets?
Martin Phillp posted on Tuesday 28th May at 12:39
Are Bauer in the frame for Smooths? Apart from whether they have the money, wouldn’t they come up against competition issues similar to Global’s in most of the markets?
Yes, in all Smooth TSA’s for sale except the East Midlands where Bauer don’t have any stations currently, but I can’t see them operating the station as a stand-alone considering they’ve just decided to network their West Midlands licence with Planet Rock. Networking with Magic 105.4 is a possibility if Bauer put the London station on D1.
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another sad day in radio