Why I write on Viewpoint and on Twitter

Well, it seems that I have caused somewhat of a stir on Twitter with my coverage of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.  And quite frankly, that pleases me no end, because it means that I am doing my job on this blog, and on my twitter feed, which has in many ways become an extension of this blog.

My goal with this blog has always been to challenge the myths and misconceptions about the news stories and about life in general.  That can be done many ways.  One way is to present both sides, where both have strong cases, and there is no clear right or wrong answer.  But I prefer it when the facts are clear and unambiguous, and in those situations, when you still have people who argue that black is white, then you need to challenge them, with unvarnished, undiluted facts and truth, and watch as they try to spin their way out, and end up spinning out of control.

Now I know that half the world will not agree with any single opinion of mine, and I'm comfortable with that.  But, when your opinions are based on something easily disprovable, expect to called on it.  My friends have done it to me in the past, and I expect no less from them.

I know that some people just cannot handle being told the truth, upfront, straight and to the point.  But if I get people thinking about it, and responding to what I write, then frankly, I have done my job well.

PCC Elections: Time to make voting mandatory.

In the aftermath of the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections, we're hearing people say that they weren't interested, didn't know who to vote for, etc.

The translation of all this is quite simple. 85% of the UK electorate didn't want to bother to work something out for themselves, but rely on someone or something else to tell them what to do.

It seems that many people have forgotten what citizenship really means. It means you have both rights and responsibilities. Apparently many people just want the rights, not the responsibilities.

Crime affects everyone. Shoplifting is not a victimless crime, as it raises prices for all of us. Any of us could be victims of crime at any time.

I think it's time to consider making voting mandatory, like they do in Australia.

US Elections 2012: More international coverage

I've been scouring the internet for any information that I can find about coverage.  ABC in Australia is airing an extended Breakfast on ABC1 until 10am, with additional coverage of the election between midday and 1.30pm and between 3pm and 4pm, all times for Sydney.  Meanwhile ABC News 24 airs Breakfast until 10.30am and then rolling coverage until 6pm Sydney time.

CBC News Network is airing coverage from 5pm ET with a 3 hour long Power and Politics special, then Peter Mansbirdge takes over at 8pm until 6am with all night National special.

EuroNews has rolling coverage from 8pm UK, 2100 CET.  France 24 and RT are expected to have special coverage as well.  In RTs case, the likelihood of coverage coming from RT America in Washington would be quite high, but so far nothing has been explicitly advertised.

Politico have coverage online from 7pm, which is being simulcast on C-Span from 8pm ET.  Democracy Now also has online coverage from 7pm for 6 hours. 

In America itslef, there's lots of coverage.  Each of the main networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, have coverage beginning at 7pm ET, whilst CNN's main coverage begins at 4pm.  FOX News Channel's coverage begins at 6pm ET and MSnbc's coverage also begins at the same time.  Current has their "Politically Direct" coverage anchored by Al Gore, starting at 8pm ET.

Over on twitter, I'll be tweeting coverage during the night using the hashtag #vpus2012.  I will see you there.

US Election Analysis and Coverage.

This election cycle in the US has been the most divided and one of the closest in recent memory, certainly the closest since 2000.  But an improving economy and the most unwelcome of October surprises in Hurricane Sandy, handled brilliantly by President Obama, may have swung the election away from Mitt Romney.  Obama had the easier path to 270 anyway this year, and Mitt Romney looks like he has had just too much to do to turn it round.

However, don't expect the declaration of the winner to be made by 11pm ET / 4am GMT.  This will be a lot closer than the 365 to 173 electoral college votes that we saw in 2008.  Indeed, it's quite possible that Mitt Romney may get more votes overall, but lose the election due to the particular quirks of the US election system.  I am fully expecting the declaration of the winner, to come after Midnight ET, maybe closer to 1am ET.

However, just as interesting as the final result, is just how many people will vote for the third party candidates, as two debates featuring only the 3rd party candidates have aired or are about to air on RT America, one of those debates was actually produced by online TV operation Ora TV with Larry King, former CNN host moderating.  RT America can be seen by over 50 million people in the US, which is still far less than CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, who can all be seen by at least 200 million people, but still means that candidates that have not been seen on more mainstream media outlets, have gotten more exposure this time around than in previous years.

Also, likely to possibly change things around a bit this year, is the Occupy movement, which the right wing media have done their best to downplay or ignore, calling it a spent force or a dead movement.  Now, by contrast, nobody has refered to the Tea Party movement on the Republican side as a spent force, which says to me that the Republicans are genuinely scared of how the Occupy movement could have a major impact on the political scene, especially after the movement changed the discussion framework of the debate on government spending in the US in 2011. 

Another factor that could be an issue is Roseanne Barr.  Whilst the actress and comedienne was unsuccessful in getting nominated for the Green Party, she has used her twitter feed to actively campaign on Green Party issues, to her over 174,000 followers.  It does mean that we are in for a much more interesting time in this election cycle, rather than just who's gonna win.  With Ron Paul backing Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate, it will mean that there are more stories in this election than in 2008.  The only story in 2008, was how much Barack Obama would win by, it was that obvious. 

There will be a lot of coverage of course, on TV and radio, across the world, as this story has global impact.  In the UK, the BBC will have coverage on both radio and television.  Radio 5 Live will start the ball rolling at 10pm GMT / 5pm ET, with Richard Bacon hosting coverage for 8 hours, with 5 Live Breakfast taking over at 6am.  Radio 4 will also have coverage, anchored by James Naughtie and Bridget Kendall, until 6am when the Today programme will continue the coverage.  BBC1 and BBC News Channel will have coverage starting at 11.35pm, and continuing into Breakfast.  Outside of the BBC, ITV is anchoring its own coverage also starting at 11.35pm and going on into Daybreak.  Commercial radio however, doesn't seem to be covering it outside of news bulletins.  LBC, the UK's only news/talk station, has no speciall coverage planned as I write this, although I expect the overnight hosts will talk about it, with a full roundup expected in The Morning News with Susan Bookbinder at 6.30am.

Satellite viewers can expect to find a lot of coverage.  One of the more unexpected sources this time is PBS America, who are airing the live PBS NewsHour coverage from Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, starting at 11pm GMT and going on until at least 5am.  Sky News are starting their coverage at 10.30pm, and going on until 9am.  Bloomberg's coverage starts at Midnight and runs until 5am.  CNBC is providing their own coverage after the live NBC Nightly News at 11.30pm, and the coverage goes on until 7am.  Al Jazeera's coverage runs from 9pm to 7am, whilst FOX News Channel's coverage starts at 11pm and goes on until 10am.  But CNN International take the award for the most coverage, starting off at 11am, including a special hour long edition of Amanpour at 8pm, switching to a simulcast of CNN USA at 9pm until 7am, when they resume coverage until 3pm, when they switch to a modified normal schedule, with an additional hour of International Desk at 5pm.  Although Piers Morgan Tonight is scheduled for 11pm, I expect that to be replaced with an edition of World Report from Hong Kong.

Over in Ireland, TV coverage is the order of the night, as radio seems to be giving live overnight coverage a wide berth.  Neither RTE Radio 1 nor NewsTalk have any scheduled coverage outside of daytime and news bulletins.  NewsTalk's George Hook is presenting his drivetime programme, The Right Hook, from America all week, but there is no overnight coverage scheduled.  On television RTE 1 has their own anchored coverage from 11.35pm until 3am, then they join CBS News for their coverage at 3am, switch to EuroNews at 7am, before RTE return to their own anchored coverage at 8am until 9.40am.

TV3 on the other hand, are doing something weird.  Undoubtedly, the story will feature in the regularly scheduled Tonight with Vincent Brown at 11pm.  TV3 will join CNN's live coverage at 2am until Ireland AM starts at 7am.  However, betweem Midnight and 2am, TV3 are showing Psychic Readings Live.  I don't need to be psychic to know that TV3 will basically have given RTE the ratings victory in that timeslot.  Also, Ireland AM is not known for its news coverage, so that could be an interesting programme.

As we get closer to Election Day in the US, I will be finding out more about how other broadcasters around the world will be covering the story, and I will update the blog with those details as I find them.  Also, if I get any word on internet streams of coverage, and I expect there to be such streams from Politico and Democracy Now amongst others, then I'll bring that information to you as well.  On the night, I myself will be live tweeting on @cityprod.  It should be a fascinating night.

Danny Baker axed by BBC London.

So, it's been reported today that BBC London are axing Danny Baker's weekday afternoon show, as well as removing Gaby Roslin from the breakfast show.  But most attention has been on Danny Baker, who has often had an off and on relationship with BBC bosses.

He started on BBC GLR back in 1989, arrived on BBC Radio 5 with SportsCall on a Saturday lunchtime, and by February 1992, he had taken over the station's breakfast show, Morning Edition.  He did shows on Radio 1, Radio 5 Live, Talk Radio, Virgin Radio, before returning to BBC London in 2001, and taking over the weekday afternoon show in 2005, the show which has now been axed.  He continues to broadcast a show on BBC Radio 5 Live every weekend.

Danny Baker is one of those talents, rather like Chris Moyles and Chris Evans, who have never really sat totally comfortably, within the BBC.  In the past, pre-2002, they would have easily found a home within commercial radio.  These days, commercial radio has gone ultra-safe, timid, generic, and bean-counting to the Nth degree.  So it's harder now to see Danny Baker finding a home on commercial radio these days.

Some people have compared Danny Baker to Kenny Everett, but that is an unfair comparison, as they are two very different types of radio personality.  Kenny Everett had personality and a lot of creativity.  Danny Baker has attitude, and that's about it.  But the thing they both shared was that they knew exactly what they wanted to produce and how they wanted to produce it, and there are very few like them currently, across the world, people like Steve Wright, Danny Baker, Chris Evans, Keith Olbermann and Gay Byrne, and they are an essential part of the mix, yes, they are all difficult to manage, but at the end of the day, the passion they have for the product they produce comes through and they connect with listeners and viewers.  At the end of the day, that connection is what every station needs, not only to survive, but to grow.

Q3 2012 RAJARs: The troubles deepen

Since Midnight, the RAJAR figures for the thirdf quarter of 2012 have been made public, and it has to be said, at first impressions, the figures don't look good for the health of radio.  None of the sectors saw any gain in hours on the last quarter, and local commercial radio has continued a steady downward trend that has been ongoing, since 1999.  In terms of reach, BBC radio saw a very minor gain, whilst commercial radio saw a very minor loss.

Both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 saw drops in reach terms on the quarter, whilst Radio 3 and Radio 4 both saw reach gains.  Radio 3's is it's traditional summer bump from the Proms, which always brings listeners to the station who may not normally listen at other times. 

Interestingly, both 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra saw no Olympic bounce at all.  In fact, both saw slight declines. 

Of the BBC's DAB stations, only Asian Network was below 1 million.  Both Radio 4 Extra and Radio 6 Music saw gains, whilst World Service held steady and 1Xtra saw a small decline. 

On the national commercial radio side, Talksport saw it's reach climb above 3 million, Classic FM saw a slight decline, whilst Absolute Radio saw a major decline overall, down over 200,000 listeners on reach to just above 1.5 million listeners.  However, Absolute 80's the group flagship digital station, saw an increase, as did Absolute 90s.

Global Radio can't be too happy with their brands overall.  Only Xfm saw gains in both reach and hours, LBC saw a gain in reach, but as with a lot of stations that see gains in reach, LBC saw a drop in both hours and share.  All the other brands, Heart, Gold, Capital, Choice, Real and Smooth, all of them saw drops in both reach and hours overall.  Within those general figures there are some incredible strange variations, some of which this time are more unusual than normal.

Looking deeper, into the individual stations, there are some interesting stories, but the one that stands out, and for very much the wrong reason, is Gold Devon.  If you were to look at the year to year figures, you'd ask what the issue was.  In the past year has gained 3,000 listeners, 30,000 hours and 0.2% share.  Unfortunately those figures do not reveal the whole story about Gold Devon.  In early 2012, the Exeter and Torbay local DAB multiplex arrived in North Devon, which increased the availability of Gold Devon into an area where it had never been available on AM before.  Between Q3 2011 and Q1 2012, Gold Devon's reach almost doubled from 28,000 to 52,000.  Their hours more than doubled from 271k to 605K, and their share more than doubled from 1.1% to 2.6%.  Things were looking quite good for Gold Devon at this point.

However, that changed in April with the arrival on DAB of North Devon based community radio station, The Voice.  The Voice had long lobbied to be allowed to broadcast to North Devon after the almagamation of Lantern FM, into what eventually became Heart Devon.  They had been broadcasting a 28 day FM RSL and during that RSL, they agreed a deal with NOW Digital, to broadcast on DAB as well full time on the multiplex that had not long arrived in North Devon.  They launched on DAB in April, broadcasting not just to North Devon, but also to Exeter and Torbay.  The net result: Gold Devon got hammered.  They lost about 40% of their reach, dropping from 52,000 to 31,000.  Their hours have dropped by a little more than half, down from 605k to 301k, and their share halved from 2.6% to 1.3%

In the past year, Gold Devon has been on a huge rollercoaster, and we still don't yet know where this rollercoaster will end.  There is still a possibility that Gold Devon could drop even more listeners.  At one time, Gold Plymouth had just 7,000 listeners, and the Plymouth area is the only area in Devon now where Gold broadcasts on both AM and DAB.  The fact that Gold's local advertising has to be sold together with Heart in Devon, rather than separately, suggests that Gold Devon may not be profitable on its own, even with the fact that there is no local programming, and limited local content, sometimes as little as a 20 second weather forecast per hour. 

Every station's figures fluctuate to some degree, but Gold Devon's figures are amongst some of the wildest swings I've ever witnessed.

In Devon and Cornwall, few stations are performing well.  BBC Radio Cornwall is down 7,000 reach on the quarter, but is up 2,000 reach on the year.  Over the year, Radio Cornwall has gained 42,000 hours, but the share has dropped 0.4%, mainly because the TSA figure is 4,000 more now than it was in Q3 2011.  On the quarter, Radio Cornwall has gained 84,000 hours and 0.3% share, mainly due to the fact people are listening longer.  12.4 hours per week this quarter, compared with 11.3 last quarter. 

BBC Radio Devon's reach was stable at 203,000, still down 56,000 listeners on the year, but the station saw a massive drop in listener hours.  9.5 hours per week this quarter compared with 11.4 hours last quarter and 10.7 hours a year ago.  As a result of this, the total hours figure dropped below 2 million for the first time in a long time, if ever.  I cannot recall nor can I find currently evidence that it has ever been that low.  The share of listening dropped below 10% for the first time in a long time, if ever, in fact it dropped below 9%.  Something has clearly gone awry at Radio Devon, and frankly without some in-depth investigation, I'm not sure what the answer is.  It maybe that the cancellation of the separate Plymouth breakfast show has significantly hurt the station. 

Whatever the problems are at BBC Radio Devon, Heart Devon has definitely benefited from them.  Although down in the reach by 19,000 on last year, the station is up 17,000 on the previous quarter.  Share is up by 1.2% on the previous quarter as well, and total hours was also up by 241,000, though that's still down 96,000 hours on last year.  Sister station Heart Cornwall is also performing well, well above my own expectations.  69,000 listeners is up 1,000 on the quarter, down 1,000 on the year, so definitely holding steady there.  However, Heart Cornwall is outperforming its predecessor, Atlantic FM in terms of holding on to listeners.  Average Hours per week in up to 7.4 hours, a new high for the licence, beating Atlantic FM's previous best of 7.1 hours per week in Q1 2011.  Both Heart Devon and Heart Cornwall are outperforming the network as a whole on Average Hours per week, with Heart Devon's 8.1 and Heart Cornwall's 7.4 beating the network's 7,2.  However, all these figures are still on the low side of what I consider to be the mark to aim for, which is 10 hours a week and higher.  However, none of these figures are remotely anywhere near the worst.  Absolute 70's scores 3.1 hours per week, then The Hits scores 3.0 hours per week.  Pulse 2 scores a paltry 2.8 hours per week, but that is beaten by Q, the worst performer of them all at just 2.7 hours per week.  In terms of keeping them listening, Heart do okay.

The other story that I've been following with interest is Celador Radio, and more particularly, their soft AC brand, The Breeze.  Figures for The Breeze have never been great, and even though the Hampshire version has increased their reach by 7,000 to 42,000; the South West version has slipped from 29,000 to 26,000.  Even the recently rebranded Midwest Radio, which is now The Breeze, but still reports under the Midwest Radio name, has slipped from 37,000 to 35,000 listeners.  Given the fact that The Breeze has been removed from the Bristol and Hampshire local multiplexes, the viability of the brand as a whole, as an FM only brand, is seriously called into question.  Given that two other FM only stations in Devon have either lost listeners in the past quarter or not gained any listeners, the idea that any station only needs to be on FM these days, is starting to smell like a busted myth.  Radio Exe did not gain any listeners in the last quarter, holding at just 25,000 reach.  However, it did keep listeners for a bit longer, so hours and share were up.  Palm FM on the other hand lost 3,000 listeners in the last quarter, and both hours and share were maginally lower.  Back with Celador, until recently, Jack FM was the better performer.  However, in the last quarter,, Jack Bristol saw a sharp decline in reach, from 116,000 to 92,000.  However, hours and share both saw an increase on the previous quarter, but are still way down on last year.  Jack Oxfordshire is seeing declines in reach, hours and share on the previous quarter.  However, Jack South Coast is performing better on reach, hours and share.

Another story worth mentioning is Free Radio 80s, which replaced Gold in the West Midlands.  In the Birmingham area, Free Radio 80's is outperforming what Gold used to achieve.  93,000 compared to 71,000.  Even around the Coverntry area, performance is the same at 21,000.  So right now, I'd call Free Radio 80s a success story so far.

So overall, what do the figures tell us?  Well, non-music radio held itself together, better than music radio in the last quarter, and digital radio only stations seemed to perform better than FM only stations.  Brand radio seemed to do poorly, but other stations also suffered.  The Olympics were great for TV audiences, but those increased TV audiences meant radio lost out.  Local commercial radio continued to trend downward, with little or no sign that stations are actively trying to reverse the trend.  Radio needs to do something pretty drastic if they are going to attract the attention of younger listeners these days, and just being aural wallpaper, is not going to cut it any longer.

Who's On Heart breaches broadcasting code, and listener trust

Do you remember the competition that Heart ran for about 6 months during their daytime shows between 10am and 4pm?  It caused a lot of controversy on some radio forums, and apparently, OFCOM also recieved a complaint about it.

The complaint from a listener to Heart's Devon station, now mostly merged with Heart Cornwall, formerly Atlantic FM, to form Heart South West.  There were three incidents that the complainant reported where the presenter, in this case Toby Anstis, host of the Mid Morning slot from 10am to 1pm across the whole Heart Network, did not make clear that the competition was across the whole Heart Network, not merely the station that the listener was listening to.

OFCOM found that the station had been in breach of Rule 2.15, which states that...

“Broadcasters must draw up rules for a broadcast competition or vote. These rules must be clear and appropriately made known. In particular, significant conditions that may affect a viewer's or listener's decision to participate must be stated at the time an invitation to participate is broadcast.”

 Now, it has to be said, this I think is something of a harsh decision, as I believe the top prize on the competition was around £50,000, or maybe it had gone up to £60,000, but either way, that would be enough motivation for any listener to want to call in.  Also, as OFCOM noted in the decision, only the person who got through to the studio was charged for the call, and others would not be.

But there are a couple of interesting points that are worth remembering here.

The first is the issue of listener trust.  Now this is something that some people in the broadcasting industry either don't understand, or forget about, or think that it doesn't matter.  Yet, listener trust is one of the most important commodities that any station can have, as it helps to build ratings and credibility, two of a radio station's results.  It's very easy to destory listener trust, and once that trust has gone, it's very difficult to get it back.

And Heart, in its very construction, is a station that actively avoids being upfront with listeners.  The fact that 35 stations have become 17 all under a single brand, with 17 hours a day of network programming on weekdays, and 20 hours a day on weekends, yet tries to say with a straight face that it prides itself on it's localness, just doesn't ring true.  A listener to Heart South West in Penzance, wouldn't feel that a station based in Exter and London, is very local to them.  After all, Exeter is 110 miles away, and London is 289 miles away.  Not exactly local, especially when compared to Pirate FM, that is based in Pool, near Redruth, which is only 15.7 miles away, and does locally originated programming for all except 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon

Heart's words and actions are not congruent, and as such, to me as a listener, it does not make me want to trust them as a radio station.

The second point I'd like to make is one that would annoy a lot of the fans of Heart on the various radio forums and sites, but is a very pertinent point.

Heart's parent company, Global Radio, have set themselves up as the big guns in the industry, and with their intended purchase of the entity formerly known as GMG being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading, this breach of the broadcasting code doesn't help matters for them, even if it doesn't hinder them.  And even if this breach is counted against them in that process, which is unlikely, it's not exactly a big minus.  But when you set yourself up as the biggest company in the industry, there will be people who will not like what you do, just as there will be people who do like what you do.

However, some of the reactions that I have seen from Heart's fans, or as I usually call them, the Heartophiles, have been definitely derogatory towards the complainant.  Some of the thoughts about who the complainant might be, are logical and believable.  After all, in creating Heart Devon, Global took 5 different breakfast shows, 4 different daytime shows and 5 different drivetime shows, and replaced them with 1 countywide breakfast show and 1 countywide drivetime show, with network daytimes.  They basically fired a lot of people and  it's not inconcievable that some of them might have an agenda against Heart.  However, it has to be said that a number of those who used to work for those stations that became Heart Devon, still have some very strong friendships with those who still work at Heart.

But it is worrying that the attitude is that the person invloved is somehow either a professional complainer, or someone at a rival station, that's a very damaging attitude to hold.  When you are working at a radio station, you are busy doing so much, that you don't have time to dissect the opposition's output, much as you'd might like to.  I find the whole idea of a rival station getting a complaint submitted to OFCOM to be totally ludicrous.  The other idea of a professional complainer, whilst being more plausible, considering the past actions of organisations like MediaWatch UK, also seems unlikely in this situation.  The professional complainers, such as MediaWatch UK, go after the BBC, or Channel 4, or Sky.  The groups that are anti-Global and anti-Heart, are rag-tag Facebook groups of individuals, many of whom don't even have the time to actively monitor Heart's output all day.

The idea that "normal listeners" don't complain is something that broadcasters have been trying to use for years to discredit anybody who did complain about their output.  It's a dangerous attitude to hold, and is very insulting to listeners, who are the most important people for any radio station.  If you don't value the feedback you get from your listeners, then why should they listen to your station?

All in all, this is small fry, this is a minor infraction.  In the NFL, you'd call this a 5 yard penalty.  It's nothing.  But the reaction of the Heartophiles online, is very disconcerting.  They're treating it, like they've given up a 15 yard penalty, a major infraction, and they've basically attacked the motivation of the complainer, without having any proof, or any eveidence, or even anything slightly circumstancial.  Rather than accept that Heart made a few mistakes, they throw some quite wild unprovable accusations, just so they can feel better.  Such behaviour is unjustified, unwarranted and does not help Heart from a public relations standpoint. 

It's a shame that these so called fans cannot just accept the fact that Heart go caught out on some minor infractions of the broadcasting code and let things be.  But any big company can be regarded as a target, as the BBC, ITV, Sky and NewsCorp have all found out.  And now Global are starting to realise that as the biggest commercial radio company, you are there to be shot at, and some people will take potshots at you, and some will hit the target.  The measure of a company is how you react and recover from those hits and do you make your product better as a result.

Osbourne: Part-Time, Work Experience, Chancellor

On the day when GB's Women Footballers kicked off the sporting action in an Olympics that is supposed to lift our spirits, we got word from the Office of National Statistics that showed the UK suffered a 3rd quarter of economic contraction, down a worse than expected 0.7%.

When publications such as The Daily Telegraph, and The New Statesman have such damning stories about a "part-time"... "work experience" Chancellor of The Exchequer, in other words, George Osbourne, you know you're in trouble.

But also, if you were a shareholder of a company that had seen three consecutive quarters of losses, 4 quarters of losses in 5, and 5 quarters of losses in 7,  you'd demand a change at the top level.  Both the CEO and CFO would be unquestionably under threat.  David Cameron and George Osbourne should be very seriously thinking about their positions, and George Osbourne should definitely resign.

Austerity Doesn't Work!

That should now be clear to every human being and your more discerning domesticated animals.

From my weekly show: Rangers Football Club

Earlier on, on my regular weekly web radio show on Spreaker, I asked whther you felt Rangers, in the wake of going into administration, should have been relegated to Division 3 of the Scottish Football League, or should they have only been relegated to Division 1, or Division 2.

Please leave your comments below.

Chris Moyles leaves Radio 1 Breakfast Show

Chris Moyles announced his departure from the Radio 1 Breakfast Show today, his final show will be around the beginning of September.  He is still contracted to the station until the end of 2014, so it's a sure fire bet that he'll have another show soon. 

Radio 1 has always been aimed for a younger audience.  Back in the late 1980s, it was regarded as a 15-34 station, a traditional Contemporary Hit Radio station.  But since those days, they seem to be aiming even younger.  Apparently, Radio 1's average listener is aged 30, and that's too old according to some in the industry. 

I find this whole idea of average listener age frankly ridiculous.  I find the idea of local stations going after specific demographics to be seriously flawed.  Local stations should be about serving local areas, rather than specific age groups.  Getting as many people tuned in to your station as possible, that should be the measure of success, along with revenue, and hopefully, profits.  National stations, like Radio 1, yes, you can do that, and still be successful, but for a local station to do that, and hope to gain enough listeners, I feel that as a strategy, it cannot win well enough to defeat a broad appeal station.

Global to buy GMG Radio: Competition issues.

So, it's being reported today that Global Radio is to buy GMG Radio for £50million.  It's being reported that UTV Media, Absolute Radio and Bauer Radio are expected to lodge complaints to the Competition Commission.

It's strange to watch this happen, knowing that this has happened already in two broadcasting related industries, and in both of them, they are significantly weaker now, than they were before the whole merging process began.  Instead of becoming more than the sum of the parts, in both cases, the industries have become singiificantly less than the sum of the parts that made it, and it's already been happening in radio and it seems to be getting worse.

When radio stations first started being sold in the UK, back in the early 1990s, the usual valuation for a station was around £10million each.  Accounting for inflation, which doubles every 15 years roughly, that would make each station today worth somewhere between £20-25million.  Except, that Global has just bought 10 stations for £50million.  That's £5 million per radio station.  Accounting for inflation, that valuation of radio station back in the early 1990s would be somewhere near £2million.  In other words, the value of an individual radio station has fallen 80% in the last 20 or so years.

That's some pretty massive depreciation.  It's a damning indictment of an industry that seems to be doing what both Virgin Media in cable and ITV in terrestrial broadcasting.  Merging themselves, not into oblivion, but into irrelevance.  And as this trend continues, listeners will slowly continue to desert those stations that are part of this massive conglomerate, and seek other alternatives, from overseas if necessary. 

And there is a bigger issue than merely the massive depreciation in the value of the radio industry over the last 20 years.  This is the biggest radio company in the UK, buying the third biggest, when it is already way more than double the size and reach of the second biggest.  And all this does is make Global bigger and make radio a less attractive industry for people and other business to come into.  Radio was a better industry and a stronger industry, when there were more players in constant competition.

What's often refered to as consolidation is in fact nothing more than seeking to eliminate competition.  And Charles Allen, who was the man responsible for the assimiliation of many of the ITV regional companies into Granada, and the eventual merger with Carlton to form ITV plc in 2004, knows all about that.  And with GMG willing to sell, Global basically, being the biggest, could offer the most money, and yet, they still undervalued the group by at least half, according to GMG's own valuation in it's last annual report.

Global want to basically consolidate all of commercial radio under one company, much like Charles Allen tried to do at ITV, and almost succeeded.  This deal is not designed to increase competition or preserve it, it is designed to reduce it.  For that very reason alone, the Competition Commission should refuse this deal. 

Busting Media Myths #1: 'How real people consume media'.

One thing that really makes me feel disappointed about the state of radio and broadcasting in general.  The attitude that was summed up in an article in March 2012 on the Radio Today website written by Stuart Clarkson.

"Stop and think for a second about your own radio listening habits. And then think about how a friend or family member who doesn’t work in radio (or have an unhealthy interest in the medium) consumes it."

There is so much wrong with that statement, that I couldn't deal in detail with all the various problems with it in my rebuttal to him.  But in this article, I can deal with all those problems and show why stations should not fall into the trap of believing that "real people consume media differently" from anybody else.

The first problem with that is the idea that there is a distinction between 'real people' and 'people who have an unhealthy interest'.  This idea that there is a distinction between these two groups and that the more knowledgeable group should be negatively regarded is exclusive to the media.  It does not exist in any other industry.

Imagine if I was a shop worker, and another shop worker from a different store came into my store with a complaint about a product I sold.  Which would be the correct response?

A)  "I'm sorry, but you have an unhealthy interest in retail.  I will do nothing about your complaint."

B)  "I do apologise.   Would you like a replacement or refund?"

Generally, the correct answer would be B.  If I had ever come out with anything remotely like A, I would have expected the shop manager to have hauled me over the coals in his office, and rightfully so.

So why do broadcasters regard complaints from some viewers and listeners in the same way by claiming the person has an 'unhealthy interest' in the medium?  It's not good customer service, and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the viewer or listener.

There's another problem with this distinction.  It shows up an attitude problem within the broadcaster.  It says that the broadcaster looks at viewers or listeners, and does not consider them to be the most important people for the station.  Probably they think their advertisers are more important than their listeners or viewers.  But this shows they have forgotten or not understood one key fact.

Advertisers follow where the viewers or listeners go, rather than the other way round.

We have seen repeated examples of stations losing lots of listeners for one reason or another, and the advertisers desert the station.  Plymouth Sound saw that in 1999 when their AM service was replaced by Classic Gold and the station lost 2/3rds of their listeners.  Advertisers started to go to Pirate FM in order to get the reach they used to get with Plymouth Sound AM.

Without listeners or viewers, advertisers do not have anybody to advertise to.

It's a simple as that.  Anytime you prioritise advertisers over viewers or listeners, you are putting the cart before the horse.  The most important people to the success of any station is your viewers or listeners.

Now after all that, let's talk about 'consuming media'.

The first question there really is do we consume media?  Well in a sense, we do, because the media is mostly a consumer product.  We buy newspapers, magazines, radios, televisions, computers, games consoles, computer and console games, DVD's and Blu-Ray's, so in a sense, media is a consumer product.  However, the idea that we really consume media implies that we do not make a conscious choice about which media we consume. 

Far too often when we go shopping for food, we aren't really making conscious choices.  We are merely picking up the same things we have always picked up, because we have got used to their texture and taste.  In that situation, exercising real choice would be to decide to buy a different product, or to decide to not buy any other product, or after thinking about it, deciding to buy it anyway. 

However, with most media, it is a conscious choice.  It is a choice whether we go to the cinema or stay at home.  It is a choice whether or not we switch on the radio or the television.  It is a conscious choice when we decide which channel we are going to watch, or which radio station we are going to listen to.  It is a conscious choice which game we play, or which movie we watch on DVD or Blu-Ray.  So I would not call it consuming media.  We interact with it, consciously making choices.  Those who refer to it as consuming media are again basically forgetting that the viewer or listener is the most important person to that station.  Without them, the station cannot survive.

If your radio station needs more audience to attract more advertisers and make more money, then does it make sense to keep doing the same thing you've always done?  No, you have to make changes.  By hiring me as a consultant, I can guide you how to improve your product, and maximise your reach by precise use of new and old media techniques.  Email me to find out more.

What's wrong with the media #1: Lazy continuity.

I've been watching Challenge most of the day, watching a Takeshi's Castle marathon.  I love the show, it's wonderfully silly.  But in doing so, I've spotted a horrible example of what's wrong today with the media. 

Broadcasters today seem to have forgotten that not only are they part of the Entertainment industry, but that it is also a Service industry.  There seems to be very little in the way of service and the continuity announcements on Challenge today have been no exception.  Most announcements over closing credits have been simply voiced promos for regular programmes, no mention of what's coming up next.  The announcements into a programme have been nothing more than station promotion liners, no mention of what programme was actually about to air.

Quite frankly, if you're going to have some pre-recorded continuity, then at least make it about the shows you are showing now and next, rather than general promotion of other shows.  For all the good that those announcements would actually do, they may as well not have had them airing in the first place.  They were neither entertaining nor providing much of a service. 

Olympic Torch Relay: Day 1: Truro

A selection of photos from the events that took place today in Truro surrounding the Olympic Torch Relay.

My thoughts on the Q1 2012 RAJARs

There are a few notable things in this new report, which was released at Midnight. 

The Cornish local radio stations, all down compared to last quarter.  Very unusual.  Usually one will be up even if the others are down.  Best performer out of the three was BBC Radio Cornwall, which was only down 2,000 in reach and 0.2% in terms of share.  The station maintained its average hours at 11.3 hrs per listener. 

Atlantic FM though, is already showing signs that the move by Global to buy it out might have been a mistake.  The announcement was made on 19th March, right towards the end of Q1.  And if these figures are anything to go by, then Atlantic's listenership might well had already started to desert by the end of the quarter.  The figures are down 5,000 on reach, average hours dropped to 5.4 and share dropped from 3.6 to 3.4%.  And this was before any of the Heart branding got added into the mix.

But surprisingly, the worst performer of the three was Pirate FM.  Down 8,000 in reach, down 0.3 hours in average hours, and down 0.8% in share.  Pirate FM did replace their evening presenter at the beginning of the quarter with an extension of their automated programming.  That maybe the reason why they're down.

In South East Cornwall, you might have expected Heart or Gold to be the beneficiaries of such a drop.  Well if Heart Devon did benefit, though it is unlikely, they lost out elsewhere in Devon.  Heart Devon saw their own audience drop 11,000 on reach, down 0.2 on average hours and down 0.1% on share.  But Gold did gain, but it might not have been entirely due to the reduction in audience in the other stations.  Gold Devon got carraige on DAB in North Devon and maybe that had as much to do with it, as anything else.  Gold gained 13,000 listeners in reach, saw their average hours increase by 4 hours, and as a result, their share more than doubled, from 1.2% to 2.6%.  I will need to pay a little more attention to Gold, to see if I can discern why their audience is growing that significantly.

You might have expected BBC Radio Devon to have picked up significantly from Heart Devon, but they did not.  In fact, they lost 22,000 listeners on reach.  However, average hours went up from 12.5 to 13.2 and as a result, share increased 0.2% on the previous quarter. 

In other news, BBC Radios Guernsey, Jersey and Cornwall continue to be the best performing of the BBC local radio stations, although Cornwall (37%) has moved into second place on that list, putting Jersey (35%) into 3rd place.  BBC Radio Norfolk is 4th on 30% reach, the only other station to achieve 30%+ in terms of reach in the BBC Local Radio stable.  Worst perfomer there is BBC London, in the ultra competitive London market only achieving a 5% reach.  Next was BBC Sussex and Surrey with 9% reach, and equal third, BBC WM and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, both with 11% reach.

In national commercial radio, Absolute Radio is down 32,000 listeners, whilst Absolute 80s gained 29,000 and Absolute 90s gained 32,000 listeners, Classic FM gained 80,000 listeners, Talk Sport gained 36,000 listeners, Smooth Radio UK gained 2,000 listeners, Jazz FM gained 52,000 listeners and Planet Rock gained 50,000 listeners.

BBC Radio 2 gaining 293,000 listeners, and 5 Live saw an icrease of 137,000 listeners but other BBC nationals did not perform so well.  Radio 1 saw a drop of 524,000 listeners, Radio 4 saw a drop of 527,000 listeners, Radio 3 lost 195,000 listeners.  The BBC national digital stations were also a mixed bag.  Whilst 5 Live Sports Extra saw a massive 336,000 listener increase, Asian Network increased by 68,000 and 6 Music gained 11,000 listeners, on the flip side, 1Xtra lost 99,000 listeners, World Service lost 85,000 and Radio 4 Extra lost 52,000 listeners. 

Overall, it's difficult to determine any distinct pattern or trend, although national commercial radio seemed to be the greater beneficiary, with a few exceptions.  Although Heart Devon lost listeners and Gold Devon gained, the reverse was true across the networks.  Heart gained slightly across the UK, whilst Gold lost listeners.  The Breeze South West continued to lose ground, losing another 5,000 listeners, and dropping below 1% in share, whilst sister station Jack FM gained 10,000 listeners in Bristol, but they average hours went down by 2 hours.  Local commmercial radio doesn't seem to gaining much ground, if any.  Without significant improvement to the local commercial radio product, listeners will continue to desert stations.  The BBC needs to be wary that any cuts made to BBC local radio, especially the replacing of regional evening shows with an England-wide evening show, may send listeners away from the radio entirely in the evening, especially with local commercial radio moving away from live evening shows themselves.  And once they disappear, it will be hard to get them back.

Rajar's released at Midnight.

All the radio stations that subscribe to RAJAR will have recieved their Q1 2012 figures today, and the public figures get released at Midnight tonight.

For me here at Viewpoint, this means that I will be paying especially close attention to the figures for Atlantic FM.  And no, I do not mean Heart Cornwall, as that did not start until May 7th, so well into Q2.  These figures will be the last set of figures for Atlantic FM, as it was.  The figures in Q2 will be transitional between Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall, so we won't get an idea how Heart Cornwall is really doing until Q3.  Even then, because RAJAR use a year's worth of listening figures to determine the final numbers for Atlantic FM / Heart Cornwall, it won't be until the Q2 2013 figures are released before we get a clear set of Heart Cornwall figures as opposed to a combination of Atlantic FM and Heart Cornwall.

There are three sets of figures that you should pay close attention to. 

Average Hours Per Listener: This is quite simple.  The average number of hours that a listener listens to the station per week.  The lower the number, the less time is spent listening to the station.  For example, 7 hours per listener would indicate an average of an hour per day.  Less than this is considered bad performance.  Above 10 hours a week would be considered good performance.

Listening Share in TSA: This requires a little bit of explanation.  TSA means Total Survey Area, the area which is used to measure the audience.  The population figure on the results give you the size of the population in that TSA aged 15 or older.  The total number of hours that the station accrues, is divided by the total number of hours spent by listeners listening to the radio as a whole, and that gives you your share of listening.  The higher the number, the better the performance.  Below 5% share in considered bad performance, whilst above 10% is regarded as good performance.  Very few stations achieve over a 20% share.

Weekly Reach: This is quite simple.  It's how many people listen to a station for at least 5 minutes a week.  This is measured against the 15+ population (people aged 15 or older) and a percentage is taken.  Generally the higher the percentage, the better the performance, but there are many more factors in here when it comes to judging this.  In London, there are a large number of local radio stations broadcasting on AM, FM and DAB, as well as the national ones.  Whilst in somewhere like Cornwall, there is only the BBC local radio station and 2 ILRs to go with the nationals.  Guernsey and Jersey have only the local BBC station and one commercial station against the nationals.  And now with DAB, there are over 20 national radio stations, not the 8 we've been used to on AM and FM.  It does mean that making sense of the reach figures in a bit trickier.  However, for a local station, a reach below 10% is not good.  And even up to 15% probably indicates some improvement needed.

Basically to improve your overall performance, you need to reach as many people as possible, and once they're listening, get them to listen for longer.  It's not easy, but there are ways to be more successful at it.  I'll get into those methods in a future post.

I'll be ready at Midnight tonight to get the data release and analyse it myself to see what can be determined. 

 

Goodbye Atlantic FM...

So the last live presenter on Atlantic FM signed off today at noon.  The station formerly known as Atlantic FM, but currently known as "Heart is coming", has been playing back to back music since.

Heart Cornwall officially launches at 8am with Victoria Leigh, ex of Atlantic FM's Full Cornish Breakfast, doing the first and only live breakfast show exclusively for Cornwall on Heart.  As it currently stands, there will not be another one in the foreseeable future.  Heart Devon have the excrusiating Emma Scott.  Heart Cornwall will usually just have to put up with her on Saturday Mornings as she will host Saturday Breakfast from 8am to Noon.  Dave Luck hosts Sunday Breakfast between the same times.

Normally, Victoria Leigh will do the drivetime show exclusively for Cornwall from 4pm to 7pm Weekdays, whilst Heart Devon will have Emma Scott.

We won't get our new regular breakfast show until Tuesday morning with Matt and Caroline.  And you can bet that in the 26 hours from Monday 8am to Tuesday 10am, most of the links will be promoting the new Heart Cornwall, even on network programmes.  They have the ability to voicetrack separate links for individual transmitters if they need to, and they'll be taking full advantage of that during that 26 hour period and probably at least once per hour for the rest of the week, except of course during Victoria Leigh's shows.

So, farewell Atlantic FM.  0730 06/07/2006 - 1200 06/05/2012

And farewell as well to Heart Plymouth on the NOW Cornwall DAB multiplex.  That has been replaced already by Heart Cornwall, same output as FM.  Well at least, we're getting the right version of Heart right now, which is still more than can be said for listeners to DAB in North Devon.  I understand they are still getting the Exeter ads on their version of Heart on local DAB.

But although Heart Cornwall may be coming in the morning, I will probably be saying goodbye to it soon afterwards, as I will almost inevitably return to the better products that exist on the radio.  Pirate FM, BBC Radio Cornwall, Smooth Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC World Service, WNYC, WETA, WGBH and the many other superior choices that are available online. 

But I do have something to look forward to.  CHBN Radio, formerly known as Truro Hospital Radio, will be launching soon on FM, and I will be awaiting their launch with a lot of interest. 

Leveson Inquiry, Murdoch and Jeremy Hunt

We have had an explosive day at the Leveson Inquiry, and quite frankly, this one damages not just James Murdoch, who continues to sound like an executive trying to get round claims of dodgy dealings by claiming incompetence, in which case he shouldn't have been in the role in the first place; it not only damages the Con-Dem government, by showing that Jeremy Hunt and his office and advisers had had contacts with BSkyB, News International and James Murdoch, and thus also damages the credibility and position of Jeremy Hunt to the point where he has no option but to resign; but also damages the whole newspaper industry and the Conservative Party.

Not surprisingly, Conservative Central Office have sent out the party loyalists to both BBC and Sky to defend Jeremy Hunt, but quite frankly, what we are talking about is indefensible.  Before he went into DCMS, he was pro-BSkyB, aggressively so, and his actions during the NewsCorp bid to gain full control of BSkyB do absolutely nothing to change the perception that he was a Murdoch puppet, and as such, he was the wrong person to rule on the takeover.

JEREMY HUNT MUST RESIGN!

Guernsey Elections 2012

Well, last night in Guernsey saw one of the more interesting and unpredictable elections we've had in a long time.  No political parties, 78 candidates vieing for 45 seats in 7 parishes in the States of Deliberation, Guernsey's political assembly.

Of the 45 previous deputies who had been in the States, 10 decided not to run again, so we were guaranteed 10 new deputies.  We got 22.  Almost half the seats went to new deputies.  And there were some high profile casualties including the Deputy Chief Minister and the Father of the House.

The fact that 6 of the 7 top polling candidates in this election were new deputies, also adds to the perception that the people of Guernsey, voted for change.

In fact, since the 2004 States, only 13 of those deputies remain.  Such radical voting patterns have not been seen before.  It's leaving even seasoned political observers somewhat surprised and baffled. 

Even the current Chief Minister, Lynden Trott, came close to losing his seat in the parish of St Sampson, as he came 6th out of the 11 candidates in the 6 seat parish, beating Jane Stephens by just 73 votes.

Can he claim a mandate to remain as Chief Minister?  You might think so when you consider the fact the Deputy Chief Minister did not retain his seat.  But coming in as the final elected deputy in St Sampson in 6th place?  Hardly a ringing endorsement from the voters.

May 1st is when we will find out who will become Chief Minister in the new States of Deliberation.  And there are two recounts happening Friday.

In the parish of Vale, the margin between success and failure was 42 votes, and the losing candidate there, James Symons, has asked for and been granted a recount.  But in St Peter Port North, the margin there between success and failure was just 3 votes.  Rhoderick Matthews could be the beneficiary there challenging Lester Queripel, although I imagine that Elis Bebb, who is just 7 votes ahead of Queripel, will also be watching with interest.

Hopefully we'll find out the results of the recount Friday afternoon.

Trayvon Martin case goes sub-judice

My "Countdown" of today's top stories.

In homage to Keith Olbermann, who has filed a lawsuit against Current TV for wrongful termination, I present to you my "Countdown" of the top stories.  So I suppose I ought to begin with the immortal words...

...Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?

5: George Zimmerman's lawyers and a forensic audio expert, both claim that Zimmerman used the word "punks" on that now infamous cellphone call.  CNN aired the "cleaned-up" audio, which if I'm honest, as an audio man myself, didn't sound that different to the original, but on listening back to it myself, I can't hear the word punk.  What I do distinctly detect is an "ooo" sound, that might come from a particular racial slur, and that "ooo" sound definitely is not present when you pronounce the word "punk".  Listen to it yourself, and see if you agree.



4: Sky News has become the latest part of the NewsCorp clan to have been caught up in hacking.  Now we know why James Murdoch resigned this week.  Sky News today confirmed that two email accounts, one belonging to a suspected paedophile,and one belonging to 'canoe man' John Darwin were hacked.  Both resulted in information that was passed onto the police.  Sky News claimed the hacking was done in the public interest, but hacking emails is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act, and that act does NOT have a public interest defence attached to it.

With Ofcom investigating British Sky Broadcasting, there is a number of possibilities now rearing their heads, and I'll talk about them in a future post.

3: Rick Santorum obviously doesn't know when to quit, or indeed how to lose with good grace.  The Republican Party establishment has been telling him to leave the race, but Santorum, much like Newt Gingrich, has stuck two fingers up to the establishment.  And he met with supporters to discuss the way forward. 

Mathematically, it's getting beyond the realms of possibility, especially given that the only remaining state with a winner takes all race, California, looks like a certainty for Mitt Romney.  But it does appear right now that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both in line for a fairly major Republican Party smackdown, before we get to Tampa, maybe even before we get to the end of the primary process. 

2: Is it ethical for a journalist to express their own political viewpoints through signing a petition?  Apparently, some TV stations in Milwaukee don't think it is.  WTMJ, WISN and WITI have confirmed that journalists on their payrolls have signed the recall petition against controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.  WTMJ went as far as to say that they took this matter seriously and would be dealing with it internally.  Apparently, one of the people who signed the petition was an on-air anchor at WTMJ.

One thing is for certain, Scott Walker has done incredible damage to Wisconsin.  Any attempt by these stations to censure their staff for signing the petition would be a direct contravention of the First Amendment.  And no news station, no matter how good their checks and balances are, could ever claim to be totally unbiased.

1: Current maybe now being sued by Keith Olbermann, but they may soon have bigger problems.  A report from Reuters indicates that Current needs to hit ratings benchmarks every quarter.  Should they miss those benchmarks two quarters in a row, they could be dropped by Time Warner Cable.  So far they have not missed those benchmarks, thanks to Keith Olbermann, but with his sudden departure last week, Current's ability to hit those benchmarks consitently maybe in doubt.

James Murdoch resigns as Chairman of BSkyB

When this broke in the 1pm BST hour today, I was stunned.  I was not expecting this to have happened today.  In fact, I wasn't expecting it at all.  James wil stay on as a member of the board, but he's no longer Chairman.

Ofcom is investigating whether NewsCorp is a fit and proper company to hold a broadcasting licence.  There are many investigations in the UK, the USA and Australia right now.  But I cannot honestly see how NewsCorp can continue to own assets like British Sky Broadcasting, Foxtel and Fox Broadcasting Company.

I also think the FCC should take this as an opportunity to finally regulate the cable broadcasting market in the US. 

Of course, James's resignation is another line of firewall, designed to protect Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp's investments across the world. Just last week, Panorama on BBC1 reported how NewsCorp subsidiary company NDS had been invloved in breaking the Canal Plus encryption system that On/ITV Digital was using.  Then the Australian Financial Review released emails detailing NDS's involvement in breaking other encryption systems of competitors.  Currently, Cisco Systems is seeking to acquire NDS Group.

No matter how many levels of firewalls Rupert Murdoch puts in, everything goes back to him, one way or another.  Murdoch is well known for handling things himself and being very hands on.  Because of that reputation, he will not be able to wash his hands of all the controversies that now dog him.

Current TV fires Keith Olbermann

I seriously wonder what's been going on between Current TV and Keith Olbermann.

Back in January there was a lot of stories appearing about problems between the two parties.  It seemed to me that the information was being leaked out by someone within Current TV itself, and the slant being given by the stories was very anti-Keith Olbermann.  How much of it was true and how much was spin was quite frankly open for discussion.

But today, came official word from Current that they had indeed fired Keith Olbermann, in an open letter written by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt.

"To the Viewers of Current:

We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet.  We are more committed to those goals today than ever before.
Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.

We are moving ahead by honoring Current's values. Current has a fundamental obligation to deliver news programming with a progressive perspective that our viewers can count on being available daily -- especially now, during the presidential election campaign. Current exists because our audience desires the kind of perspective, insight and commentary that is not easily found elsewhere in this time of big media consolidation. 
As we move toward this summer's political conventions and the general election in the fall, Current is making significant new additions to our broadcasts. We have just debuted six hours of new programming each weekday with Bill Press ("Full Court Press" at 6 am ET/3 am PT) and Stephanie Miller ("Talking Liberally" at 9 am ET/6 pm PT).    

We’re very excited to announce that beginning tonight, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will host “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,” at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. Eliot is a veteran public servant and an astute observer of the issues of the day. He has important opinions and insights and he relishes the kind of constructive discourse that our viewers will appreciate this election year. We are confident that our viewers will be able to count on Gov. Spitzer to deliver critical information on a daily basis.

All of these additions to Current's lineup are aimed at achieving one simple goal -- the goal that has always been central to Current's mission: To tell stories no one else will tell, to speak truth to power, and to influence the conversation of democracy on behalf of those whose voices are too seldom heard. We, and everyone at Current, want to thank our viewers for their continued steadfast support.

Sincerely,
Al Gore & Joel Hyatt
Current's Founders"

Keith Olbermann responded to this via his twitter account.

"My full statement:

I'd like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I've been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current's statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa

In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.  "


I imagine this story will continue to play out for a while yet.  I especially wonder if Current will be able to maintain the audience levels they had at around 50,000 during Keith's tenure.  Neither The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur nor The War Room with Jennifer Granholm got  anywhere close to Olbermann's numbers and it's very unlikely that their new show with Eliot Spitzer will match the Olbermann numbers.


Current have been trying to position themselves as the new news network with progressive leanings.  Now they've fired Keith Olbermann, have they got the firepower to be successful?  Time will tell, but I will not hold my breath waiting for them to spring up the ratings charts, because I don't see it happening.

Galloway wins Bradford East: Lessons for all parties

So, George Galloway from the Respect party won the Bradford West by-election.  He won it on a 50.8% turnout, which is pretty high for a by-election, with a majority of 10,100.  That's a pretty impressive performance, no question about it.  In fact, George Galloway's 18,341 votes is just 60 less than Marsha Singh got for Labour in 2010, when the turnout was 64.9%, 14% higher.

So, what does this result tell us?

Well, it shows that George Galloway definitely got his vote out.  His Respect team in Bradford worked their socks off and proved that in a contest invloving the major parties, a minor party can still win.  And it also proved that the other parties didn't really try, including Labour, as they assumed it would be a safe Labour seat.  I remember a work colleague once telling me that when you 'assume' you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.  The major parties assumed it was going to go to Labour and the voters made asses of them all.

But it also shows the value of getting your message out there in any number of different ways. He's had a show on talkSPORT for a number of years, but that show has come to an end, not because of the election result, but because talkSPORT is totally removing the remaining non-sport programming from its schedule. 

In New York, George does a 1-hour show on WBAI, on a Wednesday morning.  The show is produced out of London, like all of George Galloway's shows.

But the shows that are most controversial are the ones that are aired on the Iranian international news channel, Press TV.  One is a Press TV original show, called Comment, where viewers phone in to speak to George and his guests.  The other is a show that originally aired on Raj TV before being transfered over to Press TV, George's own news commentary TV show, The Real Deal. 

The shows are now only available online in the UK after Ofcom revoked Press TV's licence. 

Without a doubt, these shows have helped keep George Galloway in the public eye, and kept his viewpoint in people's minds.

But in a sense, this victory also confirms that George Galloway is a political opportunist.  In 1987, George Galloway unseated Roy Jenkins, who had been with Labour before becoming one of the gang of 4 that formed the Social Democratic Party back in 1981.  In the 1997 General Election, the constituencies had changed, and George had to fight to be nominated for the Glasgow Kelvin seat.  But he won that nomination and served another two terms, firstly with Labour, then when he was expelled from the party in late 2003, he joined a newly formed party, known only as Respect.  But he was not going to be able to contest Glasgow Kelvin again, as the constituency was split amongst three new constituencies for the 2005 General Election; Glasgow Central, Glasgow North and Glasgow North West.

And it was then he began his run as a 'parliamentarian of fortune'.  He would challenge and defeat Labour's Oona King in the Bethnal Green and Bow constitiuency.  He chose not to contest the seat again, and instead contested a newly created seat of Poplar and Limehouse in 2010, but came in 3rd. 

It does leave me feeling that George Galloway is a political opportunist, looking for seats that he feels he can make a strong challenge in, because either the sitting MP is seen as weak, or maybe because it is not felt that there will be any strong challengers so the main parties don't spend a lot of money on the campaign, and then Galloway comes in and organises a grass roots campaign that wins out.

And George Galloway does make a reasonable point in saying that was disenfranchisement with the 3 major parties, and he was able to capitalise on that.  But then so should any minor party, or indeed independent candidate.

Overall, there is a lot for all parties and candidates to learn from this.  I hope this makes other elections in future much more unpredictable.

And so, the homogonisation begins...

Yes, the dreaded process of assimilating Atlantic FM into the Heart network has begun.  By comparing the output of Heart Plymouth on DAB and Atlantic FM on FM, I can tell that they are playing excatly the same songs, in exactly the same order.

I am reminded of Star Trek's The Borg in all this.  "We are Heart.  Resistence is futile.  You will be assimilated."  Central playlists, one of the scourges of great radio, going back to days of GWR Group.  Yeuch!!!

Still, this is the reality we have right now, but to know that commercial radio can do so much better, but they seem to only want to do just about adequate, which doesn't cut it with lots of listeners.  There is an old joke that rings so true here.  "Good enough?  Good enough is not good enough, Goodenough!"

Why should listeners put up with good enough, when they can do so much better, and we can hear so much better on the internet.  Content is still king, despite what the big commercial radio groups think.

A Rebuttal to Radio Today's Stuart Clarkson

Radio Today is supposed to be a radio news site.  But last week's commentary from Stuart Clarkson about brands, which although spoke a lot of truth, asked one really stupid question.  Was anybody missing Plymouth Sound?

Yes, people are missing Plymouth Sound, and Gemini FM, and Lantern FM, and South Hams Radio, and Orchard FM and Westward Radio and all the other local names.  Listeners miss that feeling of a local friend they can turn to.  Because of the lack of localness, there are implications for things like flood warnings and weather warnings.  Local radio stations would be able to give detailed warnings of flooding risk, the kind that are released by the Environment Agency.  A network operation even with split links, cannot provide that same degree of localness.  The reason for this is simple, it's impossible to talk about any area like you have a local knowledge, if you are not from that area.  You can't buy the local knowledge that comes from having lived for a while in that area.  That kind of local knowledge cannot be duplicated from a network hub.

But, this week, Stuart Clarkson exposed his own lack of local knowledge when writing a commentary on the aftermath of Global buying Atlantic.  Time to debunk some myths, and translate the rest of it back into actuality.

But first, an actual piece of truth.

"In many cases, small stations are struggling to make ends meet, and for some the only option is to consider whether there’s a better option than handing back the licence and depriving local advertisers of a marketing outlet that’s needed more than ever in these tough economic times."

Yes, this is true, small stations are struggling to make ends meet, and they don't make it any easier for themselves when they do things wrong, like trying to promote a station with a marketing budget of exactly £0.  Social media is helpful as part of a marketing strategy, but it cannot be the entireity of the marketing strategy.
And for a small station that is struggling, asking presenters to help the sales team in selling advertising is a trick that needs to be done.  Even if it's only for an hour or so a day, every little thing that can be done to help a station, should be done.  Unfortunately, far too many stations don't do everything they can to make things work.

"So-called radio fans and industry folk took to social media sites and our own comments box to demonstrate their outrage at the ‘big bad Heart’ and wish bad things to happen to Global."

When listeners realise that the station they used to like is gone, there is a backlash and a drop off in listenership.  Global is basically nothing than GWR version 3.0, combined with the worst of the attitudes that ITV exhibited between about 1993 and 2005.  That's a hell of a lot of negative baggage to be carrying around.  The only way Global could shift that excess baggage is to totally reverse course and it is impossible to see that happening in the current conditions, but it is still extremely unlikely to happen even if the economy improves, because it does not seem to be in Global's heart, pardon the pun, to produce radio that makes people sit up and listen.  They're not making radio that would enthuse people, they are creating aural wallpaper.  Is it any wonder that listeners actually don't like what Global and Heart represent?  Bland maybe safe, but it's not a winner, it's merely a way to avoid losing badly.  Unfortunately, this means that people who are looking for more interesting radio are having to look around for something better.  Hence why the BBC does so well.  BBC Radio right now is just a better worked product.  If commercial radio was more prepared to put more content into their product, they might find it better liked by listeners, and by advertisers.

"Which got me thinking. Isn’t it time we stopped the whinging, and just accepted that the state of the economy and the legacy of licensing decisions down the years means we are where we are? And that we should focus on the future of our industry instead of harping back to a ‘golden era’ that will never return? Just a thought."

No, because factually that does not hold true.  Whilst it may be true that regulatory approval was required to create GWR from the combination of Radio West and Wiltshire Radio, the attitude that became prevalent in that company was a product of greed and ambition.  The fact that so many stations have been bought up to create these networks that we see now, is also partially a fault of the radio stations themselves.  The inability to adapt to changing situations is ultimately what allowed a lot of these stations to be bought out.  Also, newer stations that came on stream didn't actually plan things out properly, with non-existent marketing budgets and no back-up plans in case of problems.  If you can't respond to change, expect to not be around for long.

And by the way, all this talk of harping back to a golden era that will never return, just came from you, Stuart Clarkson.  Nobody is harping back to any so called golden era, which in fact didn't exist.  What we are looking for is for stations to have an attitude towards providing a service that people truly want, something that will enthuse them, rather than providing something bland and uninspiring that they just accept because it's about as good as it currently gets.

"Stop and think for a second about your own radio listening habits. And then think about how a friend or family member who doesn’t work in radio (or have an unhealthy interest in the medium) consumes it. "

Oh, now this is just a humungous insult to radio listeners.  For far too long, anybody who had an interest and expressed a point of view about television was denigrated in the same way.  It is just an insult to people's intelligence, and demonstrates that the only view you're interested in, is the one that agrees with you.  I've heard opinions from a lot of people over the years who would not fit that description, and they have expressed the exact same concerns, the exact same worries, the exact same issues.  Unfortunately it seems that most radio stations seem to be chasing a C2DE audience exclusively, which leaves the ABC1 audience looking elsewhere.  Far too often, you get the sense that your intelligence is being insulted by what you're listening to, that the station is not trying to appeal to a broader market, say BC1C2D, and you're left feeling like they're not speaking to you, and since radio's main benefit is it's ability to speak to people on a 1 to 1 basis, you feel that radio stations are disobeying the first commandment of radio.  Thou shalt always make a connection with your audience.  So not only is this whole idea of someone who has an unhealthy interest in the medium not only an insult, but a deliberate lie.  It says "you'll get what we give you and like it, and if you don't, we're not going to listen to you."  Surely no bigger cardinal sin exists in broadcasting.

"In an age of the internet, smartphones and multi-channel TV, listeners are far less bothered about where their favourite radio station is based than they were in the 70s, 80s or even the 90s."

There is a grain of truth here, but the reason for it is a direct result of the GWR/GCap/Global slow erosion of local radio and radio content.  Over the years, radio companies, primarily led by GWR and Capital, fought against all the regulations that the IBA, Radio Authority and Ofcom have been required to enforce, and it's a battle they've been slowly winning.  Now, if they'd put as much effort into winning listeners over, as they had into fighting the regulator, it's very likely, they wouldn't be fighting for survival, they'd be doing bloody well, making plenty of profits and the BBC would probably be struggling to justify its existence.  If commercial radio was a much better product than it is now, the BBC would not be as successful.

In other words, they're not so bothered about where they get their radio content from, because they've been disenfranchised by commercial radio in this country, which has forced them to look further afield.

Ironically one of the few stations that has bucked the downmarket trend is one that was originally set up to compete with the highbrow BBC Radio 3.  Classic FM had to go slightly down from the Radio 3 level, but could not afford to go too far downmarket, as the audience for classical music, was at a higher demographic level than popular music.  And Classic FM is the most popular national commercial radio station in the country.  It just goes to show that if you go for higher demographics with content, you can win.

Now do that at a local level, and promote and market your station effectively, and anything is possible.

"In many markets, Radios 1, 2 and 4 still knock the local commercial competition into oblivion. Which tells me this: big name DJs (yes I know that contradicts my point above, thanks), a professional sound, and content that has no local relevance are all still a massive hit with listeners."

I'm afraid that that is purely a reflection of how bad the local commercial stations, and in some cases, the local BBC stations, are in those markets.  Any good national product, will defeat any local product that is mediocre or worse, but a good local product beats a good national product every time.  Just ask listeners in Cornwall and Devon.

"So will Atlantic’s change to Heart lose audience for the frequency? I very much doubt it. If anything it’ll go up. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. A core audience of listeners love it – and that’s good for business, and good for the survival of our industry."

This segment is doubly wrong.  I'll take the second one first.  "A core audience of listeners love (Heart) - and that's good for business, and good for the survival of our industry."  Whilst a core audience may like it, and I have seen first hand evidence that that is actually true, just maintaining your core audience, is not good for your station, in neither the present, nor the future.  Every CEO of any major company the world over, will tell you that you need to grow your business, and for radio, the only way is to increase the listenership, and the only way to do that, is to provide a product that is less aural wallpaper, and more attention seeker.

Now, for his prediction that Heart's audience will rise from Atlantic's levels.  Evidently, he has never spent time in Cornwall or Devon, or actually spoken to anybody round here about radio.  So clearly he doesn't understand the market.  I'll give him an idea just how wrong he is.  There are still major intertown and intercity rivalries, across both Devon and Cornwall.  Plymouth vs Exeter, Truro vs Falmouth, St Austell vs Bodmin, Camborne vs Redruth, and that is not just restricted to the sporting fields.  There is a local saying that comes to mind.  'Redruth is Redruth, Camborne is Camborne, and never the twain shall meet, except at Pool Market on Sundays.'  The whole of the South West, is very much locally driven, locally focused.  When Plymouth Sound and DevonAir back in 1990, said they were going to air joint evening and overnight output, there was hell up from listeners around Plymouth, saying how dare you give us programming from Exeter.  My prediction is to expect a major drop off in listenership, from the current 71,000 down to around 17,000 or even 7,000 within about a year or so.  You already have the Heart Plymouth signal relayed in Cornwall on DAB, along with Capital, XFM and Kiss 100 all relayed from London, and I guarantee you none of the stations have very significant listenerships, not merely because of only being transmitted down here on DAB, but also because they don't connect with listeners down here.  If you expect Heart to connect with listeners, in a market which is strongly local, when they shown no interest in anything strongly local to anywhere, then I'm afraid your logic is very flawed, and your expectations are far too high.

"We must not forget that commercial radio is a business. Yes, in the early days it was about ensuring local democracy, doing ‘lost pets’ features and promoting the bring-and-buy sale at your local town hall. But times have changed. All around the UK, small local stations – whether part of groups or stand-alones – are struggling. And why should those owners carry on throwing money at something that’s showing no signs of returning to the heyday of the 90s when single town stations were changing hands for upwards of three or four million pounds a pop?"

Yes, Commercial Radio is a business, and yet, that is exactly why they need to do more to get back to profitability.  The lower you set your targets, the harder it is to get there.  I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but how often have we seen in sports, teams set a low target and they can't get there, and yet the same team gets set a much higher target in a different game, and they make it with ease.  There is a saying.  'Aim for the moon.  Even if you miss, you will still be among the stars.'  Yes, times are difficult, the money is tight, but if you aim high and truly believe you can get there, then  even if you miss by a little bit, you'll still be doing much better than you are now. 

"I’ve heard comments before along the lines of “Ofcom should just give Heart and Capital a national frequency and let local groups have the local frequencies back to do proper local radio.” If that thought has entered your head then you need to sell your house and move into the real world – and fast. Global don’t want a national licence for Heart or Capital. They might want to share all programming 24/7 on the stations one day, but they don’t want to give up the ability to sell local ads in local markets. That’s their business model and it seems to be doing pretty well for them right now. Programmes of a standard worthy of national radio with a mix of national, regional and local sponsors and advertisers – plus the ability to do just the right amount of local news, sport, travel, weather and what’s ons that the listeners say they want. What’s not to like?"

Quite a lot really.  First of all, they are blocking other competition from getting into the market, and that's enough of a reason.  If they want to do national radio, let then do it on a second national multiplex, which by the way, there's enough demand out there from both sides, from both listeners and from other stations.  Put Heart on there, put Capital on there, put Kiss on there, put XFM on there, and that will free up space on many local multiplexes for other local stations, including those that are still currently FM only, to join the digital revolution, ready for the switch off of analogue radio, a switch off that frankly I don't believe should be happening, but realistically, it looks like it is going to be happening, so the industry needs to get on board, because the train is leaving the station and it seems there will be no delaying it.

And how can you say their business model is working for them, when they haven't made a profit in the last 2 years?

"We’re in the middle of a defining period in our industry and I expect the next few weeks will bring more change too. So let’s try to embrace that change, look for the positives and pull together as an industry to ensure a secure future for radio in the UK."

A defining period???  What we are seeing here is the same thing we have been seeing for the past 20+ years, a slow painful decline in an industry that has forgotten how to go on the offensive, and only play defensive.  If you truly want to secure a future for commercial radio that has the degree of loyalty that we have seen recently from listeners of BBC Local Radio with the cuts that were threatened, then the commercial radio industry needs to buck its ideas up, offer a better product than just aural wallpaper, and get people interested again.