Blog Post

Commercial Local Radio Revolution

Opportunities for radio PR

Putting their money where their mouth is

Such is local support for the development that one new online station, called This Is The Yorkshire Coast, raised £10, 000 in donations in just two days. It launches on 1st October, covering Scarborough, Filey, Whitby and Bridlington.

According to the publication RadioToday, most of the new stations have hired presenters once employed by the stations taken over by Bauer. It quotes RB1’s programme director Stewart Nicholson as saying: “We promise to be part of the local community and deliver a truly local radio station with great music – and presenters that live and breathe our local area”.

From a broadcast PR perspective, this means really drilling down to make a story relevant – research specific to a town or city rather than a region could work; alternatively have a selection of local spokespeople and/or case studies.

What happened to the original stations

Of the 56 radio station that Bauer bought last year only 7 kept their names – meaning Bauer considered their brand strong enough to merit at least some of their own content. Pulse 1 in Bradford, Signal 1 in Stoke, The Wave 96.4 in Swansea and Fire Radio in Bournemouth each have their own local breakfast show and The Wave has its own daytime and drivetime programmes too. Only Lincs FM in Lincoln, Pirate FM in Cornwall and Sam FM in Bristol remain as stand alone stations.

What this means for broadcast PR

BBC regional radio

Radio relations happiness

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