www.musicweek.com
25.05.12 MusicWeek 29
TANGO its presenters break new records
FROM LEFT Record reach: Radio 2 presenters Ken Bruce, Jeremy Vine, Steve Wright and Dermot O’Leary
listeners from Radio 1 in areas as well.” Fellow Global service Classic FM had a
disappointing set of figures in London, dropping 18.2% in reach across the year, and this fed into a 10.5% fall nationally to 5.44 million. Park notes “everything has changed” across the station’s schedule but listeners are “gradually coming back on board”. One of those changes was at breakfast with Mark
Forrest coming in for Simon Bates who is now in the same slot at GMG Radio’s Smooth. The Smooth brand’s UK station posted a 7.6% year-on-year rise to 3.32 million and, although it was down 2.6% over 12 months, the London service grew a staggering 37.3% across three months to 626,000 listeners. GMG group programme director John Simons
said: “Simon Bates is delivering not only our national proposition, where we’ve had quite a definite improvement year-on-year for Smooth, but in London as well because he’s such a well-known personality.” Simons also points to the contributions of
presenters such as Mark Goodier, David Jensen, Pat Sharp, Lynn Parsons, Emma B and Andy Peebles. “It’s a very strong line-up and a lot of them are musically credible; Mark Goodier was the first presenter of the Evening Session,” says Simons who notes around 10-15% of Smooth’s output is new music. GMG’s Real Radio UK grew 1.1% across the year to 2.51 million with its adult contemporary
whose 4.4% share is also behind Kiss’s (5.1%) and LBC 97.3’s (4.6%), while reach dropped 8.0% year-on- year to 19.4 million. “We haven’t scored as
highly as we’re used to scoring, but I feel very confident about the product,” says Park who suggests “relatively tight targeting” of its output stopped it scoring higher. Kiss group programme
director Andy Roberts followed a double gold Sonys win for the station’s breakfast show and himself as Station Programmer of the Year with the Bauer brand’s London audience
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Weekly reach 46.68 million in Q1, almost identical to three months earlier, but down from 47.27 million 12 months earlier 89.8% of UK population listened to radio, down from 91.6% 12 months ago, but average hours per listener constant at 20.5 hours Digital’s share of listening up year-on-year from 26.5% to 29.2% with Radio 2 biggest station digitally (5.41 million listeners) Radio 2’s audience grows 0.2% year-on-year to 14.56 million, but Radio 1 down 5.8% to 11.14 million 95.8 Capital FM remains London’s top commercial station with reach (2.27 million) but Magic now has highest share (6.1%)
ALL ILR COMMERCIAL RADIO 1
RADIO 2 RADIO 4
HEART NETWORK BBC LOCAL
CAPITAL NETWORK CLASSIC FM
RADIO 5 LIVE
KISS UK MAGIC
0 26.53m (51%) 14.56m (28%)
11.14m (21%) 10.31m (20%) 9.90m (19%)
7.48m (14%) 7.05m (14%) 6.36m (12%) 5.44m (10%) 4.36m (8%) 3.61m (7%)
5 10 15 20 25 NATIONAL REACH AND SHARE 30
separate stations with non-networked output in the regions under its Bauer Place Portfolio. “It has to be hats off to Forth One in Edinburgh [which grew by 18.4% year-on-year]. The focus on the local market has paid off, while in Manchester Key 103 has had a 14% increase in reach year-on-year,” says Bauer London managing director Steve Parkinson. Kiss UK’s audience rose 7.2% year-on-year and
4.5% over the quarter to 4.36 million, although sister Bauer network Magic UK’s numbers slipped 5.6% on the year and 6.7% on the quarter to 3.61 million. Digital service The Hits was back above 1 million at 1.08 million and Heat was up 14.4% on the year to 716,000. Parkinson explains for Magic and Kiss Bauer has
really focused on listener engagement. “I know that’s rather obvious, but in this world of
fragmentation and distraction Pete [Simmons, Magic programme director] and Andy Roberts [Kiss group programme director] have concentrated on the music, but also the order of the playlist. We’ve spent more human hours than what a computer churns out,” he says. “An awful lot of music is sounding similar; there are more producers and artists featuring on other artists’ tracks, so what the presenters say and do between the tracks is more important.” Absolute Radio grew its total audience above 3
million, which included a 15.6% year-on-year rise for the main Absolute station to 1.61 million. That is a rise of more than 200,000 listeners compared to Q1 2011. “Three million is a real milestone for the
ALL LOCAL COMMERCIAL 30.3% RADIO 2 16.8% RADIO 4 11.9% BBC LOCAL/REGIONAL 9.4% RADIO 1 8.2% HEART NETWORK 5.0%
RADIO 5 LIVE 4.4% CAPITAL NETWORK 4.2% CLASSIC FM 3.5% SMOOTH RADIO UK 2.4% MAGIC UK 2.3% OTHERS 4.0%
format now featuring seemingly unlikely artists such as Flo Rida, Rizzle Kicks and Carly Rae Jepsen, reflecting what Simons deems a shift in what adult contemporary is now. “Adult contemporary isn’t quite what it used to be, which is why Heart is suffering as it sticks to the tried-and-tested formula,” he argues. As a point of difference to some of its
commercial competitors, Bauer continues to operate
rising 7.5% year-on-year to 1.96 million. Rickie, Melvin and
Charlie’s award-winning breakfast programme is a good example of how Roberts is expanding Kiss’s reach beyond traditional radio with a video version of the show now produced daily. “It’s about how you can have content on traditional radio and you can take content in other directions,” says Roberts. “Part of the success of Kiss is understanding how the audience uses content. We’re redefining what traditional radio is. It’s about content.”
Kiss’s London audience is
now just 5,000 behind fellow Bauer service Magic, albeit with a smaller share, and has overtaken Heart, having been nearly 300,000 listeners behind a year ago. Global’s specialist London
stations had mixed fortunes with Choice growing 36.4% year-on-year to 577,000 but XFM down 32.3% to 409,000, meaning it has lost nearly 200,000 listeners in 12 months. Given everyone but John Kennedy has been changed in the schedule, Park says he “completely understands the drop”, adding: “I’m right behind everybody in the team.”
LONDON REACH AND SHARE RADIO 4
2.62m
CAPITAL RADIO 2
MAGIC KISS
RADIO 5 LIVE HEART
RADIO 1 1.31m
CLASSIC FM LBC 97.3
TALKSPORT ABSOLUTE
BBC LONDON LBC NEWS
XFM
SUNRISE GOLD
0.0
RADIO 3 SMOOTH
CHOICE 1.17m
0.87m 0.80m 0.74m
0.63m 0.58m 0.50m 0.49m 0.41m 0.41m
0.29m 0.27m
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
RADIO 4 16.2% RADIO 2 12.1% MAGIC 6.1% CAPITAL 5.3% KISS 5.1% RADIO 1 5.0% LBC 97.3 4.6% RADIO 5 LIVE 4.5%
HEART 4.4% CLASSIC FM 3.5% TALKSPORT 2.4% ABSOLUTE 2.2% RADIO 3 1.6% SMOOTH 1.4% BBC LONDON 1.3% OTHERS 24.3%
2.27m 2.18m
1.96m 1.96m 1.94m
1.72m
“Three million is a real
milestone for
the company. That’s the highest
audience in almost 10 years”
CLIVE DICKENS, ABSOLUTE
company. That’s the highest audience in almost 10 years for the company,” says Absolute COO Clive Dickens, adding: “It’s obviously being helped partly by new services people are enjoying and partly by growing our core service. The important thing is the new services don’t cannibalise the existing ones too much.” Some of Absolute’s digital-only services posted
jaw-dropping yearly rises with Absolute 80s up 37.3% to 857,000 and Absolute Radio 90s improving 19.9% to 380,000, all helping to make Absolute’s overall audience 77% digital. The industry average is 29%. One blot was Absolute Radio 00s, whose reach plummeted 50.6% to just 84,000. Other quarterly highlights include Planet Rock
up 8.0% to 861,000, while Jazz FM rose 13.9% on the year to 564,000.
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