To be honest , Ofcom will sign this off as its allowed. What I would like to see is consortium of local business and media interests take the license of their hands. They won't want to sell it at first but as they have made such a hash up of this - I can see share and hours going down. But will they let it go?
The rot set in when they switched off local output at 7pm until 6am - with only 3 shows a day local. The weekends were a mess of voice tracked and networked sh1t. So people listened less. Still loved the station. So stuck with it. Just listened less.
The presenters who were left were great. The management was crap.
Let someone else who gives a damn have the license. The station has passionate listeners who will listen... Lets have passionate management.
Not going to happen but I would love to see it. Teesside will not forget this Cath Ellington ... Don't come asking for cash for kids in the Newcastle area. Why not spend some of the cash saved in close Tfm down on them. The brand is nothing without listeners.
Ps they have posted a promo on face book saying Steve and Karen to give away tickets for Justin beaver (sic). The response has been stick your tickets up your arse .. Give us or station back!. Love it.
Sorry if this has been mentioned but what’s been going out on TFM all weekend? Nonstop music or programming from Newcastle?
TFM sounded pretty good when I was up that way around a year and a half ago. Their golden hour type programme had some great tracks played (the year was 1997!!!).
Hello? Reality check? Of course they're in it to make money, that's what businesses do! :rolleyes:
Anyone in business would be doing the same to maximise return but the regulators have allowed them to do it. The regulation has now gone far too far in favour of centralising output vs serving local listeners. We all know the groups would drop all local programming at the drop of a hat if they could.
Anyone in business would be doing the same to maximise return but the regulators have allowed them to do it. The regulation has now gone far too far in favour of centralising output vs serving local listeners. We all know the groups would drop all local programming at the drop of a hat if they could.
True to a degree, but as John Myers has pointed out in his blog, in 2009 80% of all commercial radio stations were unprofitable.
Having said that, I'm pretty sure AM stations can drop all local programming, as long as so many hours are broadcast from inside the home nation, and Bauer haven't done that *yet* to the Magic stations (although starting to have regional breakfast)
We all know the groups would drop all local programming at the drop of a hat if they could.
No, just because Global would doesn't mean all the groups would, I highly doubt Bauer which has local networks and 13 hours local from the stations would, I doubt UKRD who brag about being local would and I doubt GMG would have as they were local 12 hours a day.
No, just because Global would doesn't mean all the groups would, I highly doubt Bauer which has local networks and 13 hours local from the stations would,
But Bauer have just wiped out an entire station and they're also binning off a load of AM presenters. What makes you think that they won't do the same in other areas?
But Bauer have just wiped out an entire station and they're also binning off a load of AM presenters. What makes you think that they won't do the same in other areas?
There will be some very interesting stuff on Star tommorow Morning with Robin Banks...if you can Record it or listen live because it won't be what you think it will be!
There will be some very interesting stuff on Star tommorow Morning with Robin Banks...if you can Record it or listen live because it won't be what you think it will be!
I have just installed the app. Quite impressive little app as well, I might add. Willbe listening.thans
But Bauer have just wiped out an entire station and they're also binning off a load of AM presenters. What makes you think that they won't do the same in other areas?
First the Magic AM network is on a dying platform (AM) and Magic has only an average of 84,000 listeners tuning into each station although one station has under 32,000 listeners, however this bring us to a total of 675,000 listeners tuning in across the TSA. So 675,000 listeners now that is a tiny number if your having to pay for expensive AM transmitters covering a large part of the UK, so in Magic's case it makes complete sense to network all hours, as if they didn't the Magic stations would all be loss making.
Secondly this is the first time that Bauer has merged stations, they aren't the first to merge stations and they won't be the last, TFM wasn't exactly doing great and if people did care about the station so much they should have stayed tuned in, I think Bauer would only merge stations if critical such as if they aren't making profit or are making next to nothing. While I completely disagree with merging stations Bauer offers 13 hours local on most of their station and somewhat local networking and so for me this makes up for the closing of one small station that should have never been licensed.
Which is the Magic station that has under 20,000 listeners, just out of interest? Is it 1170?
I wonder if Alan knew that they were going to merge breakfast with 1152 at Newcastle- and just decided that was time to go and call for early retirement.
First the Magic AM network is on a dying platform (AM) and Magic has only an average of 84,000 listeners tuning into each station although one station has under 32,000 listeners, however this bring us to a total of 675,000 listeners tuning in across the TSA. So 675,000 listeners now that is a tiny number if your having to pay for expensive AM transmitters covering a large part of the UK, so in Magic's case it makes complete sense to network all hours, as if they didn't the Magic stations would all be loss making.
Secondly this is the first time that Bauer has merged stations, they aren't the first to merge stations and they won't be the last, TFM wasn't exactly doing great and if people did care about the station so much they should have stayed tuned in, I think Bauer would only merge stations if critical such as if they aren't making profit or are making next to nothing. While I completely disagree with merging stations Bauer offers 13 hours local on most of their station and somewhat local networking and so for me this makes up for the closing of one small station that should have never been licensed.
If you read back you'll see that TFM wasn't exactly struggling, audience up, making a profit!
I realise that not everyone, including backbench MPs, can be fully conversant with all of Ofcom's rules.
However I think it would be a good idea if Mr Wharton did some research before making a complete prat of himself. What exactly are Ofcom meant to be investigating here? Bauer are fully compliant with their localness code (June 2010), as detailed on their website. Both stations are in the North East England approved area.
A bit aggressive there to say the local MP is "making a prat of himself" by being concerned about what is being allowed to happen to TFM, I understand myself why it is now legal to fully merge TFM with Metro but I'm fully behind that MP in making a condemnation of it.. The North East England approved area doesn't exactly allow for the fact that Newcastle has a significant cultural diversity from Middlesbrough, Teesside and Tyne & Wear being two areas that are very different, it's almost like Radio City being able to take over Signal 1 in Stoke or indeed a merger of Key 103 Manchester and Radio City Liverpool.
Maybe the MP is fully aware that the law allows the eradication of entire radio stations and local licences, after all that is the only way we got Heart all over the country! But he wants to see a change in the law to make radio broadcasting work in favour of the listeners again!
We listeners long for something that's in favour of all of us and something in favour of getting a diversity of output for a change, you now have to turn to the BBC for it in most cases if you haven't got a more enthusiastic community station near your doorstop.
When you think on a pop station they don't have to do much, get some interesting people in, to talk about interesting things and get some engagement with the local people on air so that they feel a part of it and get some company out of it, and play some great current and classic tunes, the hardest side of it really only being news and traffic bulletins, for being that simple station that is easy to put on and become the background of peoples lives it quickly becomes a well loved favourite. Out of all the people in the population they can't even pay a handful of people on a radio station to cover an area with hundreds of thousands in it without merging it with the operation in the nearest biggest city, it seems truly pathetic.
Once the connection local people have with the station is gone and it has become to spout an old cliche "faceless", it becomes irrelevant and they no longer use it in the more intimate way that they first did and it falls victim to other things that take attention in their lives instead.
It begins with networking, once they feel the station isn't really there at any time company is needed it chips away at support for the station, then when figures drop a justification can be something like "it wasn't doing very well anyway" and it can then be fully networked/merged and TFM joins the list of stations on this victim list. Swap the T with a C and we can probably do this whole thing again with CFM sometime in the next year, after all it's arguably in the "North West" along with Rock FM right, the Lake District is inherently related to the Blackpool culture by virtue of being in the same compass corner of a map, and Blackpool listeners can have a late show from the Mancunian part of the world that doesn't even sound like something that would authentically come out of Manchester! Whilst the last Rock FM late show before the Key 103 merged slot came in did sound very Lancastrian in style!
In the North they are much more likely to be sentimental about the local station that serves them, so perhaps like the protest about the GWR changes to Beacon in the 90's, this TFM scrapping will actually be one of the biggest.
A bit aggressive there to say the local MP is "making a prat of himself" by being concerned about what is being allowed to happen to TFM, I understand myself why it is now legal to fully merge TFM with Metro but I'm fully behind that MP in making a condemnation of it.. The North East England approved area doesn't exactly allow for the fact that Newcastle has a significant cultural diversity from Middlesbrough, Teesside and Tyne & Wear being two areas that are very different, it's almost like Radio City being able to take over Signal 1 in Stoke or indeed a merger of Key 103 Manchester and Radio City Liverpool.
Maybe the MP is fully aware that the law allows the eradication of entire radio stations and local licences, after all that is the only way we got Heart all over the country! But he wants to see a change in the law to make radio broadcasting work in favour of the listeners again!
We listeners long for something that's in favour of all of us and something in favour of getting a diversity of output for a change, you now have to turn to the BBC for it in most cases if you haven't got a more enthusiastic community station near your doorstop.
When you think on a pop station they don't have to do much, get some interesting people in, to talk about interesting things and get some engagement with the local people on air so that they feel a part of it and get some company out of it, and play some great current and classic tunes, the hardest side of it really only being news and traffic bulletins, for being that simple station that is easy to put on and become the background of peoples lives it quickly becomes a well loved favourite. Out of all the people in the population they can't even pay a handful of people on a radio station to cover an area with hundreds of thousands in it without merging it with the operation in the nearest biggest city, it seems truly pathetic.
Once the connection local people have with the station is gone and it has become to spout an old cliche "faceless", it becomes irrelevant and they no longer use it in the more intimate way that they first did and it falls victim to other things that take attention in their lives instead.
It begins with networking, once they feel the station isn't really there at any time company is needed it chips away at support for the station, then when figures drop a justification can be something like "it wasn't doing very well anyway" and it can then be fully networked/merged and TFM joins the list of stations on this victim list. Swap the T with a C and we can probably do this whole thing again with CFM sometime in the next year, after all it's arguably in the "North West" along with Rock FM right, the Lake District is inherently related to the Blackpool culture by virtue of being in the same compass corner of a map, and Blackpool listeners can have a late show from the Mancunian part of the world that doesn't even sound like something that would authentically come out of Manchester! Whilst the last Rock FM late show before the Key 103 merged slot came in did sound very Lancastrian in style!
In the North they are much more likely to be sentimental about the local station that serves them, so perhaps like the protest about the GWR changes to Beacon in the 90's, this TFM scrapping will actually be one of the biggest.
I enjoyed your post, right up to the last paragraph.
Why would Northerners being more precious about their local service than us in the south? Do we have no sense of identity south of Watford Gap?!
The truth is, most people don't care. Take the Anglican Radio stations in the East of England (Formerly Tindle). There are 5 small stations, 4 in the same OFCOM region and 1 that you could easily get special dispensation to network in. Would the audience go down if the board took the same decision that Global did with Heart and that Bauer are taking with TFM? No. Would the savings go up? Without doubt. I think, as proper business management, we'd all take that tough decision.
Get angry by all means, but you've got a Labour goverment to thank for this - and John Myers.
Looks like Steve and Karen are taking it back to the galaxy days start your text with SK to 63103 wonder if they will bring back take one for your town to be fair they sound pretty good
There will be some very interesting stuff on Star tommorow Morning with Robin Banks...if you can Record it or listen live because it won't be what you think it will be!
Actually it was exactly what I expected it would be. I listened in for a bit this morning and it was the same kind of industry-centric radio talk we mentioned earlier in the thread. It souned more like a radio industry podcast than a commercial breakfast show.
As someone who has worked in the industry for almost 20 years I found some of it interesting personally, although I wonder how much Debbie from Darlington understood about his references to "the old music, fun life package" and Alpha's days under TLRC while singing old jingles on the air.
Meanwhile, Steve & Karen were talking about relationships, ggiving away gig tickets and discussing showbiz stories, I think I have a feeling which would be more interesting to a general listener. Fair play to Robin for trying something different, but I think he may overestimate how much the general public know/care about the inner workings of the radio biz...
Comments
I think that's the point Steve was making...
Ah
The rot set in when they switched off local output at 7pm until 6am - with only 3 shows a day local. The weekends were a mess of voice tracked and networked sh1t. So people listened less. Still loved the station. So stuck with it. Just listened less.
The presenters who were left were great. The management was crap.
Let someone else who gives a damn have the license. The station has passionate listeners who will listen... Lets have passionate management.
Not going to happen but I would love to see it. Teesside will not forget this Cath Ellington ... Don't come asking for cash for kids in the Newcastle area. Why not spend some of the cash saved in close Tfm down on them. The brand is nothing without listeners.
Ps they have posted a promo on face book saying Steve and Karen to give away tickets for Justin beaver (sic). The response has been stick your tickets up your arse .. Give us or station back!. Love it.
TFM sounded pretty good when I was up that way around a year and a half ago. Their golden hour type programme had some great tracks played (the year was 1997!!!).
No chart either today
Anyone in business would be doing the same to maximise return but the regulators have allowed them to do it. The regulation has now gone far too far in favour of centralising output vs serving local listeners. We all know the groups would drop all local programming at the drop of a hat if they could.
True to a degree, but as John Myers has pointed out in his blog, in 2009 80% of all commercial radio stations were unprofitable.
Having said that, I'm pretty sure AM stations can drop all local programming, as long as so many hours are broadcast from inside the home nation, and Bauer haven't done that *yet* to the Magic stations (although starting to have regional breakfast)
Completely automated since 10am on Friday until 6am this Monday. Presumably from Newcastle, I'd imagine no one would be at Stockton(?)
TFM's now ex breakfast presenter Wayne Tunnicliffe under contract until Sep 2013. Hopefully he will pop on Heart North East afterwards.
No, just because Global would doesn't mean all the groups would, I highly doubt Bauer which has local networks and 13 hours local from the stations would, I doubt UKRD who brag about being local would and I doubt GMG would have as they were local 12 hours a day.
But Bauer have just wiped out an entire station and they're also binning off a load of AM presenters. What makes you think that they won't do the same in other areas?
Spot on. It's the start ......
I have just installed the app. Quite impressive little app as well, I might add. Willbe listening.thans
Thanks for the info guys.
First the Magic AM network is on a dying platform (AM) and Magic has only an average of 84,000 listeners tuning into each station although one station has under 32,000 listeners, however this bring us to a total of 675,000 listeners tuning in across the TSA. So 675,000 listeners now that is a tiny number if your having to pay for expensive AM transmitters covering a large part of the UK, so in Magic's case it makes complete sense to network all hours, as if they didn't the Magic stations would all be loss making.
Secondly this is the first time that Bauer has merged stations, they aren't the first to merge stations and they won't be the last, TFM wasn't exactly doing great and if people did care about the station so much they should have stayed tuned in, I think Bauer would only merge stations if critical such as if they aren't making profit or are making next to nothing. While I completely disagree with merging stations Bauer offers 13 hours local on most of their station and somewhat local networking and so for me this makes up for the closing of one small station that should have never been licensed.
I wonder if Alan knew that they were going to merge breakfast with 1152 at Newcastle- and just decided that was time to go and call for early retirement.
Sorry I meant 32,000 and Magic 999
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10338925.Calls_for_investigation_into_TFM_radio_studio_closure/?ref=twtrec
If you read back you'll see that TFM wasn't exactly struggling, audience up, making a profit!
A bit aggressive there to say the local MP is "making a prat of himself" by being concerned about what is being allowed to happen to TFM, I understand myself why it is now legal to fully merge TFM with Metro but I'm fully behind that MP in making a condemnation of it.. The North East England approved area doesn't exactly allow for the fact that Newcastle has a significant cultural diversity from Middlesbrough, Teesside and Tyne & Wear being two areas that are very different, it's almost like Radio City being able to take over Signal 1 in Stoke or indeed a merger of Key 103 Manchester and Radio City Liverpool.
Maybe the MP is fully aware that the law allows the eradication of entire radio stations and local licences, after all that is the only way we got Heart all over the country! But he wants to see a change in the law to make radio broadcasting work in favour of the listeners again!
We listeners long for something that's in favour of all of us and something in favour of getting a diversity of output for a change, you now have to turn to the BBC for it in most cases if you haven't got a more enthusiastic community station near your doorstop.
When you think on a pop station they don't have to do much, get some interesting people in, to talk about interesting things and get some engagement with the local people on air so that they feel a part of it and get some company out of it, and play some great current and classic tunes, the hardest side of it really only being news and traffic bulletins, for being that simple station that is easy to put on and become the background of peoples lives it quickly becomes a well loved favourite. Out of all the people in the population they can't even pay a handful of people on a radio station to cover an area with hundreds of thousands in it without merging it with the operation in the nearest biggest city, it seems truly pathetic.
Once the connection local people have with the station is gone and it has become to spout an old cliche "faceless", it becomes irrelevant and they no longer use it in the more intimate way that they first did and it falls victim to other things that take attention in their lives instead.
It begins with networking, once they feel the station isn't really there at any time company is needed it chips away at support for the station, then when figures drop a justification can be something like "it wasn't doing very well anyway" and it can then be fully networked/merged and TFM joins the list of stations on this victim list. Swap the T with a C and we can probably do this whole thing again with CFM sometime in the next year, after all it's arguably in the "North West" along with Rock FM right, the Lake District is inherently related to the Blackpool culture by virtue of being in the same compass corner of a map, and Blackpool listeners can have a late show from the Mancunian part of the world that doesn't even sound like something that would authentically come out of Manchester! Whilst the last Rock FM late show before the Key 103 merged slot came in did sound very Lancastrian in style!
In the North they are much more likely to be sentimental about the local station that serves them, so perhaps like the protest about the GWR changes to Beacon in the 90's, this TFM scrapping will actually be one of the biggest.
I enjoyed your post, right up to the last paragraph.
Why would Northerners being more precious about their local service than us in the south? Do we have no sense of identity south of Watford Gap?!
The truth is, most people don't care. Take the Anglican Radio stations in the East of England (Formerly Tindle). There are 5 small stations, 4 in the same OFCOM region and 1 that you could easily get special dispensation to network in. Would the audience go down if the board took the same decision that Global did with Heart and that Bauer are taking with TFM? No. Would the savings go up? Without doubt. I think, as proper business management, we'd all take that tough decision.
Get angry by all means, but you've got a Labour goverment to thank for this - and John Myers.
I generally agree with the argument that there's no place for rose-tinted sentiment in such matters, but on this one you've got it wrong.
The regional - and local - identity in the North East is perhaps the most pronounced and loyal in the whole of England.
Actually it was exactly what I expected it would be. I listened in for a bit this morning and it was the same kind of industry-centric radio talk we mentioned earlier in the thread. It souned more like a radio industry podcast than a commercial breakfast show.
As someone who has worked in the industry for almost 20 years I found some of it interesting personally, although I wonder how much Debbie from Darlington understood about his references to "the old music, fun life package" and Alpha's days under TLRC while singing old jingles on the air.
Meanwhile, Steve & Karen were talking about relationships, ggiving away gig tickets and discussing showbiz stories, I think I have a feeling which would be more interesting to a general listener. Fair play to Robin for trying something different, but I think he may overestimate how much the general public know/care about the inner workings of the radio biz...