Capital FM has big plans for 2011 – and to kick off they have this morning expanded from London to become the first rival national pop station, and as such the first real national rival to Radio One. The station has a weekly reach of about 2 milion from London alone but they’re projecting to triple this as they role out nationally. A spokesman for the comany said “(t)he UK has never had a national commercial hits station before, this is game changing – another national brand, delivered locally, from Global Radio.”
So will this jump happen overnight? The answer is probably. Global Radio owns six large pop stations around the UK under the Galaxy stable, as well as the Red Dragon, Trent, RAM and Leicester Sound networks. Capital FM will just replace these existing stations as a part of the expansions. This will artificially show it to have a huge jump – and I imagine this will be played on for PR.
But while increases will be overplayed, there is bound to be a shift in UK radio. The real problem is that while many people had to listen to trainee commercial radio DJs in the morning if the were to go for the commercial option.. now many more will get Johnny Vaughn and Lisa Snowden, a couple that have proved they have rating appeal. A secondary problem is that there is now one major brand for Global Radio…and all its advertising might will be focussed on this.
I think its only a matter of time before they chip away at Radio One, and to a lesser extent Radio Two. The answer? Get some real talent in. Bring back Sara Cox, do whatever they can to get Adam and Joe on Radio One and allow them to go away from the playlist more often. Radio One should not compete in trying to attract the imaginary 18-30 audience, it should focus on doing quality. Just as BBC One does well by not trying to emulate ITV, so Radio One should do the same thing.
Picture Courtesy of Ben Sutherland
