Dissent is beginning to well and truly break out in the radio world with, broadly speaking, Gcap set against the rest as it opposes Ofcom’s announcement before Christmas that it will indeed be inviting applications to run a second national commercial DAB multiplex.
Essentially GCap’s Ralph Bernard believes that GWR was awarded the sole national digital multiplex in 1998 by Ofcom’s predecessor, the Radio Authority. What Ofcom has now said is that “any proposed line-up of services on a further national multiplex should appeal to tastes and interests that are distinct from those catered for by services on the existing national multiplex.”
I feel very slightly sorry for Bernard, but only slightly. It’s true that GWR did take something of a punt on DAB at the time, with no certainty of it taking off. And even now, it can’t be said to be completely successful. It’s carved out a niche, and the future seems bright for it just now. But it’s slow process, with DRM approaching rapidly from the horizon and large parts of the rest of the world not having adapted DAB to date.
Miranda Sawyer, The Observer’s new radio reviewer, seems to be under the impression that the death knell for analogue radio has already been sounded. Analogue radio is not going to be switched off in ten years’ time.
The reason I don’t feel completely sorry for Bernard is that he hasn’t done that badly out of the whole deal. He’s the sole gatekeeper for reaching a national audience on a commercial radio service. And it’s not even as though Digital One, the national multiplex, is stuffed full of radio services. At time of writing, 20% or so of the multiplex is turned over to the BT Livetime trial. This allows streaming mobile television – a service that’s bound to be subscription based. Previously, Sky News, Sky Sports News and a music channel were broadcast. More recently it’s been E4, ITV2, Cartoon Network, and, er, after hours, the pixelated delights of “Late Night TV” whatever that may be. I remain seriously unconvinced by the merits of TV on mobiles beyond downloading clips of goals etc. Oneword struggles along with barely any stuff, seemingly unloved.
But the reality of digital radio is that nothing too exceptional is really being tried. Most are jukebox services, with the audiences not sustaining the investment, and the stations therefore not improving the output. It’s not even as though we’ve had any startlingly original music jukeboxes, with lots of variations on similar themes.
Then everyone sits back and sees the BBC take an ever stronger lead over commercial radio, and blames it all on Jonathan Ross and Chris Moyles getting loads of free advertising. This is a problem, but it’s only part of it. A greater problem is commercial radio’s failure to properly invest in content and even allow DJs voices to be properly heard. Sticking too closely to rigid playlists and not allowing original voices to breakthrough are common problems from a listener’s point of view.
Capital Radio has relaunched this week, and part of its new philosophy is to make it more about London, with increased news bulletins. But long gone are the days when it had The Way It Is, a truly original and worthwhile news programme. Indeed, arguably, it’s only the smaller local stations that are doing this job properly. And it’s invariably those same stations that achieve decent market shares, albeit in small TSAs.
Meanwhile we’re left with a homogenous and bland product which doesn’t have any spirit. There are always exceptions to the rule, but with radio revenues falling, nobody dares do something different.
What all this means is that if I were GWR GCap, I wouldn’t be too worried about another national multiplex, as I don’t forsee any programming that’s going to cause me, or a big audience, to lose much sleep.