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West of Scotland RAJAR
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With all the changes to schedules, ownership, branding etc, it has been an interesting to view the RAJAR's June 2014 figures for the main stations in the West of Scotland. Worryingly, particularly for Bauer, is the gradual demise of their heritage stations. However I believe this is not surprising.
I used to listen to the radio a lot (particularly Clyde2, Real and Smooth), however today I hardly listen at all - mainly because of the standards of DJ's today, networking and dumbed down celebrity content.
Looking at notable stats:
Clyde 1 down from 584 last June to 533 now
Clyde 2 down from 168 last June to 135 now
Heart (Real) down from 488 last June to 421 now
XFM (Real XS) down from 56 last June to 51 now
The only real gain has been from Smooth who are up from 268 last June to 284 now.
Looking across the rest of Scotland, other Bauer stations are holding up ok with the exception of Northsound Two which has dropped by nearly 50% in a year.
It will be interesting to see how Heart performs in the next quarter, but their relaunch from Real and a heavy marketing campaign does not appear to be captivating audiences yet. Mind you maybe it is seen as too much of a London based station?
What now for radio in the West of Scotland? I believe Bauer and Global do not understand their audiences at all - in fact for me they have ruined radio.
I used to listen to the radio a lot (particularly Clyde2, Real and Smooth), however today I hardly listen at all - mainly because of the standards of DJ's today, networking and dumbed down celebrity content.
Looking at notable stats:
Clyde 1 down from 584 last June to 533 now
Clyde 2 down from 168 last June to 135 now
Heart (Real) down from 488 last June to 421 now
XFM (Real XS) down from 56 last June to 51 now
The only real gain has been from Smooth who are up from 268 last June to 284 now.
Looking across the rest of Scotland, other Bauer stations are holding up ok with the exception of Northsound Two which has dropped by nearly 50% in a year.
It will be interesting to see how Heart performs in the next quarter, but their relaunch from Real and a heavy marketing campaign does not appear to be captivating audiences yet. Mind you maybe it is seen as too much of a London based station?
What now for radio in the West of Scotland? I believe Bauer and Global do not understand their audiences at all - in fact for me they have ruined radio.
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Comments
Of course, digital means more competition, especially from national brands - how many have switched from Real/Heart to Absolute 80s, Kisstory or Radio 2? How many went from Real XS to Planet Rock instead of XFM Scotland?
Clyde 2 being down is understandable but if most or all of the mainstream stations are down then most of the diaries probably went to non.listening houdeholds.
I remember a few years ago radio listening had dropped by about 30% in Liverpool and nearly every station was down. Things bounced back next survey.
As a previous poster said a number of listeners would have gone to national stations which is not easy to allocate figures on an original basis (not BBC Radio Scotland - not much change there), but and vested interest here, Eklipse Sports Radio was on air for 7 weeks of this quarter. Now I'm not conceited enough to suggest all 150,000 have come to Eklipse but our independent research shows a good number have, and from these RAJAR figures it might be even better than we thought. Eklipse's target was 50,000 listeners per week across our TSA and this is without plastering every bus shelter from Ayr to St Andrews with a Heart six sheet poster! We are now in RAJAR and being counted from July 1st, although we won't get results until the beginning of 2015.
I'm actually looking forward to it and once our marketing campaign gets under way this month for the new Scottish football season, I fancy our figures will go 'onwards and upwards'!
I'm sure someone with better access to RAJAR than the public could break down the Clyde 1/Forth 1 TSA (including national stations). Paul Easton did this a few years ago with interesting results. Notice how high R2 was in both cities! Eklipse should be recorded under 'others' I suppose - I doubt its contribution to the overall picture is significant (sorry Spencer!). http://pauleaston.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/north-of-border.html
Yes, to me the USP of Eklipse is Scottish footy content so the station should come into its own once actual Scottish football is back for the new season. There are good numbers there to be had for this although it needs an awareness boost just now.
Not in the least bit surprised as they sacked all of the old popular local DJs and the station is basically a national central belt dominated station. Unfortunately for them Original 106 seized the opportunity and hired all the DJs they sacked and you can listen to what is effectively the old Northsound 2 in FM stereo on 106.2.
As a rule your average Aberdonian doesn't give a f*** about Glasgow and doesn't want a Glaswegian station occupying the slot of a local station.