[Emma_Johnson1]

Originally Posted by Martin Phillp

LBC's two stations would also be a good fit for UTV and would easily compliment each other with talkSPORT.

Marin and Simon - who posted above - good idea

Yes the creation of a national talk channel would be a option to UTV and a nice fit with Talksport.

Current LBC FM frequency in London to new channel

Real XS FM frequecy in Manchester to new channel

Real XS Glasgow and Real North Wales frequencies to new channel.

This would give a combined potential listening figure of 15 and a half million on FM with the rest of the country covered by DAB

It would.please regulators and much more important advertisers having the 2 major markets in the UK of London and Manchester on FM.

Could UTV make that profitable ?

[LaurelandHardy]

It says on the Heart Cheshire and North East Wales Wikipedia page (yes I know it's not a very reliable source) that Marcher Radio Group Ltd remains as the official licensee of the station! Is this true?

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by Emma_Johnson1

Marin and Simon - who posted above - good idea

Yes the creation of a national talk channel would be a option to UTV and a nice fit with Talksport.

Current LBC FM frequency in London to new channel

Real XS FM frequecy in Manchester to new channel

Real XS Glasgow and Real North Wales frequencies to new channel.

This would give a combined potential listening figure of 15 and a half million on FM with the rest of the country covered by DAB

It would.please regulators and much more important advertisers having the 2 major markets in the UK of London and Manchester on FM.

Could UTV make that profitable ?

I'd seriously forget this idea that keeps coming round here that LBC becomes a national talk station.

Speech radio broadcast on local FM frequencies outside the capital has been proven to not be viable, Talk 107 was axed by UTV, City Talk is mainly music in Liverpool and Real XS Manchester originally had a speech element as Rock Radio which was axed.

LBC 97.3 only works in London because of the large population in it's TSA and would lose it's USP of being able to cover London events if it was diluted to become a national station. The majority of it's audience live in the FM coverage area.

Most of the country can listen to LBC outside London on Sky or DAB if they wish to discuss current affairs topics without listening to the BBC, although I'd be happy to have the station on D1 as long as it doesn't lose the London focus and if UTV if they decided to acquire the station think's it's viable. It would need talkSPORT to support the station's additional costs.

[SouthCity]

Originally Posted by Emma_Johnson1

Marin and Simon - who posted above - good idea

Yes the creation of a national talk channel would be a option to UTV and a nice fit with Talksport.

Current LBC FM frequency in London to new channel

Real XS FM frequecy in Manchester to new channel

Real XS Glasgow and Real North Wales frequencies to new channel.

This would give a combined potential listening figure of 15 and a half million on FM with the rest of the country covered by DAB

That isn't going to work I'm afraid.

The two Real XS stations don't qualify for national broadcasting (the Real XS Glasgow station has to have 7 hours per day from Scotland in any case).

Real North Wales has to do 7 hours per day from Wales.

Therefore each of these stations would have to do a local speech breakfast and drive show. It just isn't going to make money - past experience (talk 107, City Talk) tells us that.

[Martin Phillp]

I've had a listen to Smooth this afternoon for under an hour. Output was mainly 60s or 70s motown to comply with the London and NW regional licence formats with Supertramp and The Style Council jarring against the other music.

I didn't hear any new music though.

[Harris Tweed]

I agree Xfm, Choice, Real XS and all the other bits and pieces are prime candidates for being sold.

Growing Heart, Capital and a Third Older Network (from Gold and Smooth) will be the strategic priority. Most of the rest will be dispatched with Global's customary lack of sentiment.

BUT my suspicion is that they'll hang onto LBC and Classic FM if they can. Both are handy flags to wave in the face of MPs and Ofcom to demonstrate their breadth and power to take on the BBC's range. I guess Classic makes a few bob too. In turn, they help MPs point to Global as a British success story, providing some sort of "public service" with speech and classical music (as they wave through the latest relaxation in the rules!)

I still think shifting the 'small' stations, something in north Wales and maybe a regional somewhere in the Midlands might be enough. It'll certainly be their opening gambit.

(And re:Capital coming to Marcher/Buzz. Can't see it myself. Wrexham only has Real and Heart licensed to cover it - doesn't it? - so under one owner, that falls at the first Ofcom hurdle.)

[Harris Tweed]

And further on Capital in Wrexham:

This rather proves the groups' point that common ownership in a market can extend choice.

Heart and Real is like a choice between cheddar and red leicester. You might have a slight preference for one or the other.. but on the whole you'll stick either in your sandwich if you have it in the fridge.

Heart and Capital is a far broader choice. Cheddar and Parmesan. A whole range of pasta dishes opening up as well as sandwiches. Or something

(Not suggesting radio brands are cheese, obv.)

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by Harris Tweed

BUT my suspicion is that they'll hang onto LBC and Classic FM if they can. Both are handy flags to wave in the face of MPs and Ofcom to demonstrate their breadth and power to take on the BBC's range

Good point, LBC draws in the big political names and justifies Global's newsroom, who otherwise would be a shoestring operation providing short showbiz slanted news headlines for Capital and Heart.

If you add LBC's Rajar for both FM and AM in London, it brings in over a million listeners, which isn't bad at all for a London marketed brand.

For Global's current brands, Choice and Xfm look the must vulnerable for being sold.

[Cassandra.Cass]

Originally Posted by DiJit

The question is, will the new owners have the good sense to try to entice Scottie McClue onboard at REAL radio assuming he''d be prepared to take it on and rebuild the numbers?
The man is still a legend!

DiJit

But is he really up for the job? Will they pay him enough? He might be better staying in the internet.

[hanssolo]

Originally Posted by Harris Tweed

I agree Xfm, Choice, Real XS and all the other bits and pieces are prime candidates for being sold.

Perhaps Virgin might buy Xfm if the "price was right", but do a deal with Global for studios and advertising?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...o-auction.html

The Daily Telegraph first revealed in April that Virgin Group was attempting to buy back the former Virgin Radio 14 years after selling the UK radio group.
Sir Richard's Virgin Radio International has been investing heavily in expanding its radio operations worldwide. The group has been keen to regain a presence for the Virgin Radio brand in the UK, although sources said Virgin will "not overpay" and is "hoping for a bargain". Sir Richard would change the name back to Virgin Radio.

The talks to buy Absolute back fell out over money, but XFM and perhaps Real XS with FM licences in London, Glasgow and Manchester with DAB everywhere else might work as Virgin and help satisfy the regulators?

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by hanssolo

Perhaps Virgin might buy Xfm if the "price was right"

Can't believe that would be a good thing as Virgin Radio didn't play alternative music in any of its previous incarnations (apart from digital only sub-brand Virgin Radio Extreme). Does Virgin have any alternative stations in its portfolio?

[Shrewn]

Could they keep Heart on 103.4 and do something else with the 88 Mhz frequency? It could get very confusig with all the Heart 103.4 stickers that are about

[CapitalLife]

Originally Posted by simon243

I suspect Global's main argument to the OfT (and CC if it comes to it) will be that although the GMG purchase will give it over 50% of the commercial radio advertising market, commercial radio as a whole only accounts for 3% of total UK advertising (compared to 23% for press, 26% for TV and 28% for internet), so in the grand scheme of things Global will still be a very small player compared to the likes of ITV, Sky, News International and Google.

I've no doubt they will argue that the deal should be considered against a backdrop of the overall advertising market, not just the radio advertising market. We'll just have to wait and see whether the OfT buys it.

In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see if Bauer and UTV make a play for anyone. This deal makes them very distant runners-up in commercial radio. Absolute and Orion suddenly look very attractive for a takeover.

Well that's a very interesting angle for them to take, and I'd argue that there is a flip side to that and that you can look at such things in reverse. Suppose Google were to offer to buy up enough large firms in the UK to allow them to almost dominate the online advertising in this country. They then suggest when challenged that all the online advertising was only amounting to 28% of the total advertising spend in the UK. Therefore they could say that whilst they might have a significant position in the online sector they don't have it all so they're not even at 28%. Therefore they don't dominate the total ad market, as they can point to the vast 70%+ of adspend that they don't have under their belts as proof of this. Meanwhile they are in virtual control of one of the largest advertising mediums in the UK.

If Global are able to successfully argue that radio should be treated in isolation then the regulators really have gone to the dogs. Written with the knowledge that I've never worked in sales and have little knowledge of those departments.

[DrBloodsplatter]

Originally Posted by Cassandra.Cass

But is he really up for the job? Will they pay him enough? He might be better staying in the internet.

The character has had its day and as far as I'm aware Colin has gone back to teaching.

[CapitalLife]

Originally Posted by Martin Phillp

Chrysalis at the time even ordered new imaging for Century using Philippa Collins as the VO during the transition.

Some show names were changed, Skool Daze became 80s Night and the Legends became the Century Football phone-in. (Heart kept the latter for a while)

I seem to remember they used the original Century log for a while before slowly shifting towards Heart's playlist.

I would suspect that there were format issues that meant they kept the football show. There was supposed to be a high speech content on the Century stations and the football was one way of providing that. They just took the time to lobby Ofcom to get the format changed.

[CapitalLife]

Originally Posted by LaurelandHardy

It says on the Heart Cheshire and North East Wales Wikipedia page (yes I know it's not a very reliable source) that Marcher Radio Group Ltd remains as the official licensee of the station! Is this true?

Very probably, there were a lot of small Ltd companies running radio stations that were owned by GCap and were bought by GWR. The Ltd's were just wholly owned subsidiaries of GWR and then GCap Media.

[bluesdiamond]

Originally Posted by Martin Phillp

I've had a listen to Smooth this afternoon for under an hour. Output was mainly 60s or 70s motown to comply with the London and NW regional licence formats with Supertramp and The Style Council jarring against the other music.

I didn't hear any new music though.

Failing to notice ABBA, between Supertramp and The Style Council?

However looknig through the music played today on the website, a distinct lack of new releases, current songs...hope this is not going to phase into Gold FM.

[hanssolo]

Originally Posted by Inkblot

Can't believe that would be a good thing as Virgin Radio didn't play alternative music in any of its previous incarnations (apart from digital only sub-brand Virgin Radio Extreme). Does Virgin have any alternative stations in its portfolio?

Still has Virgin Rock Extreme in Italy but I expect if in the remote chance Virgin do make an offer to take over XFM, they will get a format change to make it more mainstream during the day?

edit another remote option for selling XFM might be to ARI or Cellador for JackFM

[hanssolo]

Originally Posted by bluesdiamond

Failing to notice ABBA, between Supertramp and The Style Council?

However looknig through the music played today on the website, a distinct lack of new releases, current songs...hope this is not going to phase into Gold FM.

Smooth is currently playing Jason Mraz

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by bluesdiamond

Failing to notice ABBA, between Supertramp and The Style Council?

However looknig through the music played today on the website, a distinct lack of new releases, current songs...hope this is not going to phase into Gold FM.

Yes I did hear Abba and a Bates dry bed crashing into it.

I also had another dip and heard Gabrielle. This should be on Real.

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by hanssolo

Still has Virgin Rock Extreme in Italy but I expect if in the remote chance Virgin do make an offer to take over XFM, they will get a format change to make it more mainstream during the day?

It seems that Virgin Radio on FM in Italy is much more rock-oriented than the UK version ever was. There is an Italian web station called Virgin Alternative which might be a bit like daytime Xfm. I just can't imagine a UK company partnering with Virgin to put a version of Virgin Alternative on FM.

[hanssolo]

Originally Posted by Inkblot

I just can't imagine a UK company partnering with Virgin to put a version of Virgin Alternative on FM.

Guess Global might if it helps them with the competition regulations and they still get income from ads and studios?

They probably have a legal and marketing team working on options for the various brands?

[James Martin 2]

Just wondering - will they necessarily have to sell Smooth East Midlands? Orion and Quidem both operate in that market, so there are other places advertisers can go to.

Originally Posted by Harris Tweed

And further on Capital in Wrexham:

This rather proves the groups' point that common ownership in a market can extend choice.

Heart and Real is like a choice between cheddar and red leicester. You might have a slight preference for one or the other.. but on the whole you'll stick either in your sandwich if you have it in the fridge.

Heart and Capital is a far broader choice. Cheddar and Parmesan. A whole range of pasta dishes opening up as well as sandwiches. Or something

(Not suggesting radio brands are cheese, obv.)

This is true. Heart and Capital in London were historically trying to compete with one another, and both got hurt in the process - Capital especially so.

By having both owned by one company, some clear blue water has been placed between the two stations, and whilst one might argue Heart 106.2 has paid a small price for becoming part of a national brand proposition audience-wise, having common ownership has bought Capital back from No. 4 to No. 1.

I'd rather have Global owning two stations offering me Heart and Capital rather than Global owning one station and offering me Capital, and another company owning the other station, but doing a Lidl version of Heart that's in competition with Capital.

The more and more I think about this, the more I think its' time to do away with regulation totally (apart from taste/decency/standards/etc.) and have a properly free market.

[bluesdiamond]

Originally Posted by Martin Phillp

Yes I did hear Abba and a Bates dry bed crashing into it.

I also had another dip and heard Gabrielle. This should be on Real.

She is a well established British soul singer, so should fit in to Smooth.

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by bluesdiamond

She is a well established British soul singer, so should fit in to Smooth.

The point being is the Gabrielle track chosen is too close to Heart and Real territory. If Smooth playlisted one of her lesser known tracks, then you might have an argument to justify another random playlisting choice which once again crosses into another well established brand.

It's another one of those scheduling decisions which takes away from Peter to feed Paul which will hopefully go away once Global fully take charge of Smooth Radio.