LBC creeping back to to being a London station
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LBC made great play of being a national station when it launced across the UK in February, but the novelty appears to have worn off and they are fast losing any pretence of being a national station.
The London focus is increasingly obvious - whilst I appreciate that the core of their audience is in the capital, I just can't see how they can hope to grow nationally off the back of a diet of stories focused on the London mayor, London taxis, London house prices etc., with roving reporters who never rove more than 10 miles from Leicester Square. All of this is packaged around adverts for London restaurants, Galliard Homes etc.
LBC will never succeed by being a London station that happens to broadcast nationally, completely alienating anybody outside the capital and the home counties.
I just hope LBC decides what they want the station to be and sticks to it.
The London focus is increasingly obvious - whilst I appreciate that the core of their audience is in the capital, I just can't see how they can hope to grow nationally off the back of a diet of stories focused on the London mayor, London taxis, London house prices etc., with roving reporters who never rove more than 10 miles from Leicester Square. All of this is packaged around adverts for London restaurants, Galliard Homes etc.
LBC will never succeed by being a London station that happens to broadcast nationally, completely alienating anybody outside the capital and the home counties.
I just hope LBC decides what they want the station to be and sticks to it.
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"Essentially, the only change you will notice is that you can now listen to LBC anywhere around the country on your DAB digital radio. We will have a new tagline - Leading Britain's Conversation - but you won't see any change in the content of the shows."
It has never been a national station, like Talksport, Absolute or FiveLive. It's a local (London) station which has made itself available to a national audience. The only difference is that the travel and weather bulletins cover a wider area.
Any uplift in listeners and advertising revenue will be marginal.
Interesting that TalkSport, meanwhile, are developing localised content.
LBC's big moments since going national have all been universally relevant - the EU debate, Farage/O'Brien etc
Global are playing a good game with LBC - if it's successful nationally they can claim the credit, if not they can argue that it's just a London-station so there's no problem.
Of course the fact that they can now be heard nationwide gives them influence that perhaps they didn't have before. They've certainly stolen a march on Five Live since February.
I'd rather listen to it than Radio Manchester, which seems to play 60s and 70s music half the day, and Radio Merseyside, where most of the callers are still stuck in 1979 and drivel away about Thatcher and "the cuts" a lot of the time.
Then again, I did live in London for 27 years!
Interesting point - I heard the same story. My main criticism of LBC is not so much that it is London-centric but that is is parochial and repetitive.
Uber, interest rates, the property crisis all have a wider picture yet LBC repeats the same narrow arguments.
Maybe I really want NPR UK! As it is, I will be surprised if LBC is picking up many listeners on Digital 1.
As for LBC I find it total uncluttered with jingles,presenters and trailers unlike BBC 5 Live, they also never forget that they are talking to the listeners unlike 5 live which often forget the listeners and talk amongst themselves.
I dislike the way LBC presenters keep repeating over and over whats the subject matter is and then at the end of the show apologize to callers who never got on,Julia Hartley-Brewer is the worst for this.
My opinion on LBC from somebody who lives a long way outside London.:)
I often think they could do with a longer news programme in the evening; their morning news programme is superb.
-- posted from chilly jocko land
They are taking very little non- London advertising.
And are a welcome alternative to the almost non-stop sport station that 5live will be for the best part of the next three months!
Ian Dale at the weekends is one lol
Ah, the good old days of the Bob and Doug breakfast show, remember it well.
It is a good station but it is still London biased and I don't understand why they think that people in other parts of the UK are interested in what goes on in that crap hole! Certainly not where I live anyway!
EDIT: Oh, and that strapline "Leading Britain's Conversation" ... Desperate!!
The time spent talking about local London issues is small from my perspective. I like the Medical hour, Legal hour, Mystery hour, some days I listen to Steve Allen (I time shift it) and I used to like James Whale's drive, but I have stopped listening to that now that Iain it on it (although I like his evening show I don't like him on drive)
It's not my capital city, my capital city is Cardiff! I don't hear people talking about London's Taxis anywhere here!
Surely Uber will affect any city where there is demand for taxis, which could well include Cardiff.
I'm sure that LBC sounds London-centric to people who don't live here, but to those of us that do, it just sounds like a phone-in station where some of the topics are based in London. It doesn't sound like a local station and there's very little chance that any truly local stories will be discussed on air.
Thing is they are at their core supposed to be a London station, that's what they were originally licensed for, and have a stonking great signal across the capital on 97.3, far more people still have FM radio and no DAB in their cars (unfortunately) so even with more of a national focus it's naturally going to remain a mainly London station and its output on air will reflect that.
Oh grief yes! That was very irritating! I agree we can be thankful for the fact that they have stopped doing that now!
I agree with this. There was no particular need to change anything. All that listeners outside London wanted was some sort of reliable (DAB) continuity -we now seem to have that.
I listen to Iain Dale, Ken and David, several others, because it is quality Politics based talk radio. Extending the weather forecast and the travel nationwide was a nice touch. There is no need to change anything else.
I think it is pretty much still London orientated, whether they think they are leading Britain's conversation or not