Interesting, so you expect the first DAB+ stations to be existing stations that are too small to keep on inefficient DAB but too valuable to discard all together?
It's not a bad strategy actually. The stations will take a hit in listener numbers but the brands survive and with practically every new radio supporting DAB+ their listenership can steadily increase again but at the much lower cost base of DAB+.
I would not be surprised if ofcom alow local multiplex to offer DAB+ say 24kbs for community radio use ?.
A few possibilities...
- UTV launches localised versions of Juice on DAB in Bradford and Staffordshire (with most content fed from Liverpool) to serve as young siblings to Pulse/Signal, in the manner of Bauer City 3/Capital
- Global acquires some of the DTT capacity released by BT Sport and adds Classic FM, LBC, Gold, Capital XTRA, Smooth Extra and Xfm London to Freeview (for those baffled, you can get several audio streams into the capacity of one TV service)
- Bauer acquires Orion Media and relaunches Gem 106 as a new version of heat radio; this is also launched nationally on D1, with Absolute 80s going into the current local heat slots. Free Radio takes certain network shows e.g. InDemand. Free 80s becomes Free 2, and a Free 3 launches
- In the event Bauer doesn't win control of Orion, Wave 105 will be used to launch the new heat.
- Bauer launches a rock/alternative City 4 format, with networked content as per City 3, on its owned local DAB muxes, taking Absolute Classic Rock's slots here; ACR continues in non-City Network areas. City 4 shows will be sourced from Kerrang! which, like The Hits, would continue as a station on Freeview.
- With Kiss now run largely as a national service from London, Global attempts to buy the FM frequencies in East Anglia and Severn for Capital, but this raises competition concerns, not least with the Communicorp-owned Capital in Cardiff...
- UTV buys some of the mid-sized stations around and about the place, such as Eagle in Surrey, to boost their competitive clout, though in Eagle-land the contract to have Premier on AM remains; Eagle3 becomes Juice Surrey. UTV also buys Jack/Jack 2 in Oxfordshire; Jack 2 becomes Signal Oxford and Jack is rolled out as a male-leaning rock/alternative option in UTV DAB areas and potentially elsewhere.
- To reflect its differing licence requirements from the rest of the network, Capital Birmingham on FM flips to carrying Capital XTRA network shows, retaining local split breakfast and drive. On DAB, the shows outside local hours continue to be fed from Capital 95.8 as XTRA is on D1 and Capital isn't
- Global attempts to compete with Bauer's Absolute/Planet Rock dominance of the adult rock market by launching older-skewing rock station Xfm Xtra - this starts off by replacing The Arrow in London with a view to subsequently rollout nationally subject to capacity on D1/D2 becoming available.
- Adventure buy the Anglian stations. Building on the Heart Watford deal, Adventure discuss franchise options with Global with a view to potentially bringing Capital to the Essex frequencies, though this would only be taken forward by Global if they couldn't get their hands on the eastern Kiss FM slot.
- EG Digital dissolved (in the manner of ITV buying Granada Plus, or BP-Safeway petrol stations being split up post-Morrisons): this removes duplication of Kiss in these areas and D1 and enables Kisstory to be made available on DAB in these areas e.g. Essex
- Kerrang! re-added to local DAB in the Midlands, either by removing an existing station or by reaching agreements to reduce bitrates of other services slightly to free up space
- Northsound 3 launches following a social media campaign by short-changed young listeners in Aberdeenshire (well, actually after a thorough cost-benefit analysis, but claiming the campaign swayed their minds makes for the more flattering media story...)
- Bauer acquires Orion Media and relaunches Gem 106 as a new version of heat radio; this is also launched nationally on D1, with Absolute 80s going into the current local heat slots. Free Radio takes certain network shows e.g. InDemand. Free 80s becomes Free 2, and a Free 3 launches
If Bauer does succeed they'll probably decide to bring back the heritages names (BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern).
Communicorp possibly rename Real XS and it gets wider coverage on DAB either on local multiplexes or Digital One. On a local level Communicorp may acquire local DAB slots from Global in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and London if Gold is replaced by either Heart Extra or Smooth Extra which will be available in these areas except Yorkshire on AM and DAB nationwide on Digital One.
Or Communicorp comes to an agreement with Global to franchise the brand The Arrow or XFM Extra in Manchester with Communicorp providing 7 hours local output on Breakfast and Drive and 4 hours on Weekend with the rest of the output coming from Leicester Square in London. In London Global would hire presenters to present on The Arrow (or if The Arrow is renamed XFM Extra) network output and local output for London. The station would be available on local DAB only in London and FM only in Manchester.
Global is keen to launch a classic rock station on national DAB with some local FM coverage so Communicorp and Global agree to swap ownership of Capital Manchester and Real XS. Communicorp acquire Capital Manchester which remains on FM and Local DAB and Global acquire Real XS to rename The Arrow or XFM Extra.
The swap of the ownership removes the headache of providing local output on the FM frequency in Manchester at certain times and listeners are not confused in the Manchester area by having one presenter on national DAB and another presenter on FM at certain times like Breakfast. As Global own the whole station in Manchester and the station being on Digital One enables the station to share the same output from London at all times like Bauer's Kiss network and when GMG owned Smooth. With Communicorp now owning Capital there will be less confusion as the station is not available nationally and the same output will be available on Local DAB and FM. Communicorp would provide 7 hours of local output as normal on Breakfast and Drive on weekdays and 4 hours on Saturdays and Sundays with the rest of the output as normal coming Leicester Square in London.
Global is keen to launch a classic rock station on national DAB with some local FM coverage so Communicorp and Global agree to swap ownership of Capital Manchester and Real XS. Communicorp acquire Capital Manchester which remains on FM and Local DAB and Global acquire Real XS to rename The Arrow or XFM Extra.
Global owned Planet Rock at one time never showed any interest in it and disposed of it, when they took over GMG they couldn't wait to get rid of the XS stations replacing the Scottish station with XFM and selling the Manchester station to Communicorp, The Arrow is only kept to allow automatic renewal of certain FM licenses. Not going to happen.
What will probably happen in 2015 is that Bauer will sort out what they intend to do with their Rock stations, Planet and ACR will probably be merged into one, Kerrang will eventually be closed.
The last remaining radio stations not owned by Bauer/Global will be taken over and turned into yet another station playing the same 6 trashy songs on a loop.
Juice FM will lose even more Liverpool based programming.
Radio City will also lose even more Liverpool based programming.
Planet Rock was sold by Gcap, very shortly before Global took over
Just been looking at the wiki pages and yes you are correct but Global were in discussion about taking over GCap and did nothing to try and stop the sale, they treated the XS stations with complete indifference when they took over GMG, I find it very hard to believe they are keen to have a classic rock station at this moment in time.
Bauer or UTV to buy the Orion Stations as others have said Bauer could give them back their old names and Gem to be renamed as Magic and Free 80s given a local name
Bauer & UTV might consider buying a few smaller stations with Bauer turning if they did turn them into absolute Radio
UTV could given them their old name back or rebranded them as Signal along with Gem and free radio 80s
Gold EM & Manchester to switch format to talk and make them LBC or sell to UTV or just rename them as Heart xtra or Smooth XTRA
UTV will Expand down south if they can't get Orion Stations could along with UKRD or Global possibly try and but the Lincs Group and/ or buy Adventure Radio Stations
UKRD group & Celedor will battle it out to buy Qudem(sp) Stations
Quite a lot of predictions (some of them lol) but I think some could come true next year:o
1. UKRD put Star Radio on DAB in the North of the country?.
2. Pick of the Pops with Tony Blackburn is extended to a three hour show and Dermot O' Leary is reduced to two hours?.
3. Scott Mills sits in for Steve Wright on Radio 2?.
4. After ratings plummet as a result of Cara Amfo taking over BBC Radio 1's Chart Show, Radio 1 decide to axe the show altogether?.
5. BBC Radio 1 then decide that more people actually purchase albums than singles and what with singles being sold at very few outlets up and down the country, they decide to launch an album chart show?.
6. The Big Top 40/Commercial Radio's Chart Show becomes known as the Official Chart?.
7. A former Radio 1 presenter takes over as presenter of The Big Top 40?.
8. More cuts are made to BBC Radio - Radio 1 cuts one or two shows and extends others while BBC Local announce a brand new networked 10pm-1am show presented by Mark Dennison?.
9. Alan Robson presents his last ever full-time Night Owls on Metro Radio at the end of December 2015?.
10. DAB/DAB+ really starts to take off what with the launch of Digital 2 and TPS?.
5. BBC Radio 1 then decide that more people actually purchase albums than singles and what with singles being sold at very few outlets up and down the country, they decide to launch an album chart show?.
Nothing new, Simon Mayo presented a Album Chart show on Radio One years ago. I think Gary Davis also on his lunch time show.
Tony Blackburn takes over a week day show on one of the local radio stations he works at now and take over from Mark Forrest and keep all the other shows he has at the weekend.
Communicorp finally rebrands Real Radio XS
Gold to be replaced by Smooth Extra - in the same way as Capital Xtra replaced choice.
Global drops all specialist requirements for the former Galaxy FM stations through a format change (via ofcom)
Wave 105 becomes Magic FM relay.
Tony Blackburn takes over a week day show on one of the local radio stations he works at now and take over from Mark Forrest and keep all the other shows he has at the weekend.
So you predict Tony will do a daily show on say BBC Berkshire or 3 Counties plus a daily evening show across the BBC local network plus all his weekend shows on the BBC and commercial radio.
So you predict Tony will do a daily show on say BBC Berkshire or 3 Counties plus a daily evening show across the BBC local network plus all his weekend shows on the BBC and commercial radio.
Sorry but I disagree.
BBC 3CR: Monday - Friday - 2pm - 4pm & Sunday 9pm - 11pm
BBC Berkshire: Monday - Sunday - 9am - 11am
BBC Kent: Saturday 6am - 8am
BBC in Midlands: Sunday 6pm - 8pm
BBC Local Radio: Monday - Friday - 7pm - 10pm
BBC Radio 2: Saturday - 1pm - 4pm
BBC London: Saturday 6pm - 8pm & Sunday 12pm - 3pm
Bauer or UTV to buy the Orion Stations as others have said Bauer could give them back their old names and Gem to be renamed as Magic and Free 80s given a local name
Bauer & UTV might consider buying a few smaller stations with Bauer turning if they did turn them into absolute Radio
UTV could given them their old name back or rebranded them as Signal along with Gem and free radio 80s
Gold EM & Manchester to switch format to talk and make them LBC or sell to UTV or just rename them as Heart xtra or Smooth XTRA
UTV will Expand down south if they can't get Orion Stations could along with UKRD or Global possibly try and but the Lincs Group and/ or buy Adventure Radio Stations
UKRD group & Celedor will battle it out to buy Qudem(sp) Stations o
Quite a lot of predictions (some of them lol) but I think some could come true next year:o
Can see quiden sold & touch Staffordshire rebranded & launched on to DAB derby multiplex giving coverage of Lichfield Tamworth & burton .
Stafford fm goes fm & is massive succes across Staffordshire.
Nothing new, Simon Mayo presented a Album Chart show on Radio One years ago. I think Gary Davis also on his lunch time show.
Right except Mayo's album chart show was on Radio 2 and that remains the better bet for an album chart show.
There will come a time when Brian Matthew retires and it may be 2015. When that happens Radio 2 to surprise many by moving Tony Blackburn to Saturday breakfast but not a sixties only format. POTP in the final hour after 9.00. Johnnie Walker to present a combined 60s and 70s show on Sunday afternoons.
More BBC local radio stations to lose their AM transmitters; and more of those stations to be carried on Freeview.
With DAB coverage improving there not going to be the need for AM transmitters .
I would think AM wlll end up with a few religious stations with even community stations going DAB .
Bauer will catch up with the times and give their "big city" network a uniform name.
And hopefully tidy up the messy bits of their network. Say bye bye Wave and Citytalk.
Don't think the extremely popular Wave 105 will go anywhere
Comments
I would not be surprised if ofcom alow local multiplex to offer DAB+ say 24kbs for community radio use ?.
- UTV launches localised versions of Juice on DAB in Bradford and Staffordshire (with most content fed from Liverpool) to serve as young siblings to Pulse/Signal, in the manner of Bauer City 3/Capital
- Global acquires some of the DTT capacity released by BT Sport and adds Classic FM, LBC, Gold, Capital XTRA, Smooth Extra and Xfm London to Freeview (for those baffled, you can get several audio streams into the capacity of one TV service)
- Bauer acquires Orion Media and relaunches Gem 106 as a new version of heat radio; this is also launched nationally on D1, with Absolute 80s going into the current local heat slots. Free Radio takes certain network shows e.g. InDemand. Free 80s becomes Free 2, and a Free 3 launches
- In the event Bauer doesn't win control of Orion, Wave 105 will be used to launch the new heat.
- Bauer launches a rock/alternative City 4 format, with networked content as per City 3, on its owned local DAB muxes, taking Absolute Classic Rock's slots here; ACR continues in non-City Network areas. City 4 shows will be sourced from Kerrang! which, like The Hits, would continue as a station on Freeview.
- With Kiss now run largely as a national service from London, Global attempts to buy the FM frequencies in East Anglia and Severn for Capital, but this raises competition concerns, not least with the Communicorp-owned Capital in Cardiff...
- UTV buys some of the mid-sized stations around and about the place, such as Eagle in Surrey, to boost their competitive clout, though in Eagle-land the contract to have Premier on AM remains; Eagle3 becomes Juice Surrey. UTV also buys Jack/Jack 2 in Oxfordshire; Jack 2 becomes Signal Oxford and Jack is rolled out as a male-leaning rock/alternative option in UTV DAB areas and potentially elsewhere.
- To reflect its differing licence requirements from the rest of the network, Capital Birmingham on FM flips to carrying Capital XTRA network shows, retaining local split breakfast and drive. On DAB, the shows outside local hours continue to be fed from Capital 95.8 as XTRA is on D1 and Capital isn't
- Global attempts to compete with Bauer's Absolute/Planet Rock dominance of the adult rock market by launching older-skewing rock station Xfm Xtra - this starts off by replacing The Arrow in London with a view to subsequently rollout nationally subject to capacity on D1/D2 becoming available.
- Adventure buy the Anglian stations. Building on the Heart Watford deal, Adventure discuss franchise options with Global with a view to potentially bringing Capital to the Essex frequencies, though this would only be taken forward by Global if they couldn't get their hands on the eastern Kiss FM slot.
- EG Digital dissolved (in the manner of ITV buying Granada Plus, or BP-Safeway petrol stations being split up post-Morrisons): this removes duplication of Kiss in these areas and D1 and enables Kisstory to be made available on DAB in these areas e.g. Essex
- Kerrang! re-added to local DAB in the Midlands, either by removing an existing station or by reaching agreements to reduce bitrates of other services slightly to free up space
- Northsound 3 launches following a social media campaign by short-changed young listeners in Aberdeenshire (well, actually after a thorough cost-benefit analysis, but claiming the campaign swayed their minds makes for the more flattering media story...)
If Bauer does succeed they'll probably decide to bring back the heritages names (BRMB, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern).
Or Communicorp comes to an agreement with Global to franchise the brand The Arrow or XFM Extra in Manchester with Communicorp providing 7 hours local output on Breakfast and Drive and 4 hours on Weekend with the rest of the output coming from Leicester Square in London. In London Global would hire presenters to present on The Arrow (or if The Arrow is renamed XFM Extra) network output and local output for London. The station would be available on local DAB only in London and FM only in Manchester.
Global is keen to launch a classic rock station on national DAB with some local FM coverage so Communicorp and Global agree to swap ownership of Capital Manchester and Real XS. Communicorp acquire Capital Manchester which remains on FM and Local DAB and Global acquire Real XS to rename The Arrow or XFM Extra.
The swap of the ownership removes the headache of providing local output on the FM frequency in Manchester at certain times and listeners are not confused in the Manchester area by having one presenter on national DAB and another presenter on FM at certain times like Breakfast. As Global own the whole station in Manchester and the station being on Digital One enables the station to share the same output from London at all times like Bauer's Kiss network and when GMG owned Smooth. With Communicorp now owning Capital there will be less confusion as the station is not available nationally and the same output will be available on Local DAB and FM. Communicorp would provide 7 hours of local output as normal on Breakfast and Drive on weekdays and 4 hours on Saturdays and Sundays with the rest of the output as normal coming Leicester Square in London.
Global owned Planet Rock at one time never showed any interest in it and disposed of it, when they took over GMG they couldn't wait to get rid of the XS stations replacing the Scottish station with XFM and selling the Manchester station to Communicorp, The Arrow is only kept to allow automatic renewal of certain FM licenses. Not going to happen.
What will probably happen in 2015 is that Bauer will sort out what they intend to do with their Rock stations, Planet and ACR will probably be merged into one, Kerrang will eventually be closed.
Planet Rock was sold by Gcap, very shortly before Global took over
Juice FM will lose even more Liverpool based programming.
Radio City will also lose even more Liverpool based programming.
Just been looking at the wiki pages and yes you are correct but Global were in discussion about taking over GCap and did nothing to try and stop the sale, they treated the XS stations with complete indifference when they took over GMG, I find it very hard to believe they are keen to have a classic rock station at this moment in time.
Bauer & UTV might consider buying a few smaller stations with Bauer turning if they did turn them into absolute Radio
UTV could given them their old name back or rebranded them as Signal along with Gem and free radio 80s
Gold EM & Manchester to switch format to talk and make them LBC or sell to UTV or just rename them as Heart xtra or Smooth XTRA
UTV will Expand down south if they can't get Orion Stations could along with UKRD or Global possibly try and but the Lincs Group and/ or buy Adventure Radio Stations
UKRD group & Celedor will battle it out to buy Qudem(sp) Stations
Quite a lot of predictions (some of them lol) but I think some could come true next year:o
2. Pick of the Pops with Tony Blackburn is extended to a three hour show and Dermot O' Leary is reduced to two hours?.
3. Scott Mills sits in for Steve Wright on Radio 2?.
4. After ratings plummet as a result of Cara Amfo taking over BBC Radio 1's Chart Show, Radio 1 decide to axe the show altogether?.
5. BBC Radio 1 then decide that more people actually purchase albums than singles and what with singles being sold at very few outlets up and down the country, they decide to launch an album chart show?.
6. The Big Top 40/Commercial Radio's Chart Show becomes known as the Official Chart?.
7. A former Radio 1 presenter takes over as presenter of The Big Top 40?.
8. More cuts are made to BBC Radio - Radio 1 cuts one or two shows and extends others while BBC Local announce a brand new networked 10pm-1am show presented by Mark Dennison?.
9. Alan Robson presents his last ever full-time Night Owls on Metro Radio at the end of December 2015?.
10. DAB/DAB+ really starts to take off what with the launch of Digital 2 and TPS?.
Nothing new, Simon Mayo presented a Album Chart show on Radio One years ago. I think Gary Davis also on his lunch time show.
Gold to be replaced by Smooth Extra - in the same way as Capital Xtra replaced choice.
Global drops all specialist requirements for the former Galaxy FM stations through a format change (via ofcom)
Wave 105 becomes Magic FM relay.
So you predict Tony will do a daily show on say BBC Berkshire or 3 Counties plus a daily evening show across the BBC local network plus all his weekend shows on the BBC and commercial radio.
Sorry but I disagree.
BBC Berkshire: Monday - Sunday - 9am - 11am
BBC Kent: Saturday 6am - 8am
BBC in Midlands: Sunday 6pm - 8pm
BBC Local Radio: Monday - Friday - 7pm - 10pm
BBC Radio 2: Saturday - 1pm - 4pm
BBC London: Saturday 6pm - 8pm & Sunday 12pm - 3pm
Can see quiden sold & touch Staffordshire rebranded & launched on to DAB derby multiplex giving coverage of Lichfield Tamworth & burton .
Stafford fm goes fm & is massive succes across Staffordshire.
Good luck with that one.
Right except Mayo's album chart show was on Radio 2 and that remains the better bet for an album chart show.
There will come a time when Brian Matthew retires and it may be 2015. When that happens Radio 2 to surprise many by moving Tony Blackburn to Saturday breakfast but not a sixties only format. POTP in the final hour after 9.00. Johnnie Walker to present a combined 60s and 70s show on Sunday afternoons.
With DAB coverage improving there not going to be the need for AM transmitters .
I would think AM wlll end up with a few religious stations with even community stations going DAB .
Don't think the extremely popular Wave 105 will go anywhere
Wave 105 will keep its independence within Bauer, or maybe a management buyout at Wave if Bauer threatens to change it.