Originally Posted by Mapperley Ridge:
“What your post demonstrates is what I've been saying for quite some time. There is simply not enough local advertising revenue to successfully sustain two competing commercial radio stations in Cornwall. The relatively short history of Atlantic proves that. And Plymouth's the same. The original company awarded the city licence never took it up. Why do you think that was?”
Who knows why Diamond FM didn't launch. I suspect only the people actually involved in the process of making that decision. And as for your claim about not enough local advertising revenue, we don't actually know that that was the case. It can take a new station up to 10 years to actually become known enough to be accepted by the audience at large. It can be done in no less than 5 years, but that requires major marketing and Atlantic, whilst they were not as bad as other stations in other areas which did absolutely no marketting at all, didn't do a hell of a lot of marketing. So we don't really known whether two stations could have survived. And by the way, here's another myth I'm going to bust. Nobody has ever insisted that local advertising should be the only advertising on local stations. And another myth, that quite frankly has been busted millions of times over, and that is nobody has ever actually said that local stations should only do local content. There's no reason why relevant national and international stories and sports should not get decent coverage on a local station.
Quote:
“In fact, let's look at localness and what really matters to people. Last winter we saw a horrific crash on the M5 motorway. Which station gave the most comprehensive coverage on the evening itself? Well, it wasn't Quaywest, The Breeze or Community Radio Taunton. Or even BBC Somerset. It was Heart westcountry.”
Sorry, but that is actually wrong. BBC Somerset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire were sharing output, but that shared output from Bristol started to cover the story within minutes of it being first reported, and they didn't let up on the coverage until 3am, the late show which was supposed to finish at 1am, stayed on the air until 3am, and they then picked it up in the morning at 6am on Bristol and Somerset.
Heart was in a network programme until 10pm, then Heart WestCountry broke away at 10pm, covered the story until 2am, went back to network and instead of coming on early at 6am, they waited until 8am.
On the night, the better coverage was the BBC. It's probably one of the few things BBC Local Radio does really well still. That doesn't mean Heart didn't do a good job, they just didn't do as well as the BBC did.
But just because something is local, doesn't always mean that it's relevant, and just because something isn't local, doesn't mean it's not relevant.
Quote:
“Peak time local news is important. That's why its enshrined in OFCOMs guidelines. Regional Heart stations have also had to keep local news throughout the day. Sure, they're not the four or five minute bulletins you get from the BBC, but the Localness Guidelines were revised and strengthened last year to make sure stations included meaniningful local stories. On that basis alone, Capital tripled the length of its bulletins : something Ashley Tabor would not have done lightly.”
Erm, Capital's bulletins are only 60 seconds long, plus 10 seconds of sponsor tag for the Weather. What were they before? 20 seconds? Usually, I'd recommend that 3 minute bulletins are the perfect length. Not in all cases, but most. Global treats news as a chore, because to their minds, it takes time away from other things that bring in listeners and revenue. But when a station does news well, it brings to that station a credibility that helps the audience grow in other areas. After all, if a radio station isn't seen as having any form of credibility, how likely is it that it's going attract or keep listeners.
Quote:
“But ultimately commercial radio is not about public service. You well know that the BBC more than makes up for this in almost every part of England. Surely the conclusion is let the BBC do what it does well, and let the listeners make the choice. In fact, I stick by the point that riled you in the first place. Nobody is forcing you to listen.”
Will you quit it with that dismissive phrase? You've just taken every reasonable point you made, and devalued them all to worthless, Because that is nothing more than an excuse for poor programming and not listening to the only people who really matter. The listeners.
Global and their supporters can claim whatever they like, within reason of it actually being factual, and I will defend their right to say it. Heck, I can actually forgive them merging stations, as that probably should have been done with South Hams, either with Plymouth or Torbay. Heck, Palm FM serves both Torbay and South Hams areas from a single transmitter.
But every time somebody argues for them, or for anybody else, and they basically say 'nobody is forcing you...' or '...rose tinted specs...' or '...unhealthy interest...', then any valuable points that might have been made, lose all their value instantly. If you cannot argue for Global, without using such dismissive phrases, then maybe you should think about just how real and valuable your points really are.