Radio Ownership and Other Important Things Conglomerates The

Radio Ownership and Other Important Things

Conglomerates • The owner of the largest commercial radio company in Europe is Global (AKA Global Media and Entertainment) formed in 2007. It expanded through many acquisitions including Chrysalis Radio, Gcap Media and GMG Radio and now owns and operates 7 core radio brands. • Radio stations it owns are: • Capital – A group of 12 stations that play hit music. • Capital XTRA – A London based station. • Heart – A network of 21 adult-contemporary pop stations which broadcast across the country. • Classic FM – A classical music station. • Smooth – A soulful, easy listening channel aimed at the over-50 s. • LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation) – A news/Talk radio station that tackles major stories and issues from across the UK via phone-in discussion programs. • Radio X – An Alternative-rock and independent music station. • Gold – A network of stations dedicated to music from the 1950 s to 80 s. • Their revenuer from March 2017 was £ 302 million and the Operating income was £ 51. 5 million in the same time.

Independent Radio • An independent radio producer is a supplier of radio programs who is not affiliated with the commissioning broadcaster or company. They can be people working in a sole-traders and partnerships, as well as limited companies. There are very low budgets for this industry. For many of these people, the BBC are the main, and in some cases, only commissioner of their programs – though only 10% of the BBC’s hours are given to independent radio production. • In the UK, independent radio has had a history of playing and promoting music that the mainstream channels would never – most famously in the 1960’s when Pirate Radio stations would illegally broadcast from boats just outside British territorial waters. Now however, many independent radio stations exist in order to make up for the decline in live music venues. • As well as this the Radio Independents Group (RIG) is a trade body that represents the interests of independent radio producers in the UK. They represent about 95% of industry turnover.

Synergy/Cross – Media Companies • The BBC are an example of a cross-media company, as not only do they own BBC Radio 1, 1 XTRA, 2, 3, 4, 4 Extra, 5, 5 Extra, 6, Asian Network, World Service, Scotland, NAN GÀIDHEAL, Ulster, Foyle, Wales, Cymru as well as multiple local radio stations, it also does TV and web portals.

Job Roles • Presenter – the voice of a station/program • Producer – creator of content and manage the whole process for live and recorded programs. • Broadcast Assistant – offer support to producers and presenters, perform admin tasks to ensure smooth running of a program and do research. • Commercials producer – creates radio advertisements and station promotions for radio stations

Critical/Financial successes and Failures • Successes: • Talk Sport • BBC Radio 2 (15. 1 m listeners every • DAB Radio is famous for bad quality. week) • BBC Radio 4 (11. 2 m) • These are all also financial successes • BBC Radio 1 (9. 9 m) and failures – many conventional stations are loosing out to the surge • Heart (9. 6 m) in internet streaming and digital • Capital FM (8. 7 m) radio, so this trend may pick up in future generations and lead to • BBC Radio 5 live (5. 5 m) further decline in radio listeners. • Failure: