Commercial Radio

Commercial Radio

Commercial Radio is the youngest member of the UK’s ‘traditional’ commercial media cannon, having only started broadcasting in October 1973. Commercial broadcasting is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. Commercial broadcasting is primarily based on the practice of airing radio advertisements and television advertisements for profit. This is in contrast to public broadcasting, which receives government subsidies and avoids most (or all) paid advertising. Radio broadcasting originally began without paid commercials. As time went on, however, advertisements seemed less objectionable to government regulators and became more common. While commercial broadcasting was unexpected in television it was planned due to commercial radio's success. There are two types of commercial radio stations: regional and national. Regional means a large area such as the north west and includes radio stations such as key 103 and real radio. An example of a national commercial radio station can be seen below (Absolute and Capital).

A brief history of UK commercial radio stations:

 The first ILR (Independent Local Radio) station on-air was LBC in 1973, followed a week later by Capital Radio, both in London. Across the next two years, sixteen new stations were launched before the development of ILR was halted in 1976 by a new Labour government cautious about commercial organisations running radio stations. With the return of the Conservative government in 1979, the ILR network was given permission to expand again, and across the early 80s many new stations were launched, gradually filling in gaps in coverage across the UK. The Radio Authority introduced many new local radio licences during the 1990's filling any remaining gaps in coverage, as well as creating new ‘Regional’ licences. However, the biggest change came with the introduction of ‘National’ licences, leading to the launch of Classic FM in September 1992. Virgin Radio (later Absolute Radio) followed in 1993 and Talk Radio in 1995. The Radio Advertising Bureau was also launched on May 18th, 1992. By the late 1990's the number of AM or FM frequencies remaining for further large-scale expansion of the radio market was limited. Digital One, the national commercial DAB multiplex was launched in 1999 carrying the existing national analogue station brands in addition to some new digital only station brands.

Absolute Radio

Branding: Absolute

Slogan: “Discover real music” “The home of the no-repeat guarantee”

Frequency: 1215 kHz,

105.8 MHz0 (G.London)

 DAB – Digital One

Television channels: Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview, Freesat, TalkTalk TV, Smallworld, Orbit Network, Usen (Japan)

Formant: Modern Adult contemporary

Audience share: 1.2% (National) 2.3% (London) – December 2012

Absolute radio is one of the UK’S three independent local radio stations. The 1990 broadcasting act allowed for this, with the other two stations being classic FM and talk radio (later to become talksport). The license for the independent station would be sold to the highest bidder and the station would occupy the medium wave previously occupied by BBC radio 3. The owners of absolute radio are TIML radio limited, which also owns its sister stations Absolute 80’s, Absolute 90’s and Absolute classic rock among other absolute stations. Absolute radio originally began as Virgin radio under Richard Branson’s Virgin brand. The station officially launched on the 30^th April 1993, with a cover version of ‘born to be wild’ being played. The station was originally on AM but after a campaign and winning an FM license advertised, it began broadcasting on FM on the 10^th April 1995. In 1997, Chris Evans’ ‘The Ginger Media Group’ bought the station. Evans' ownership of Virgin Radio started well, with a breakfast show audience increase of 660,000 to 2.2m in his first three months. The ginger media group were considering acquiring the Daily Star but the shareholders got cold feet and the management eventually sold the business three years ahead of schedule. From 2000-2008 the company was owned by the SMG group, who bought it for £225 million. Chris Evans who made £75 million from the sale was eventually sacked in 2001 for missing five days of work. In 2006 virgin radio became available on freeview for the first time. In 2008 the station was bought by TIML (a part of the times of India) and there was a complete rebrand of the station. It was renamed Absolute Radio and many of its former presenters left. It is due to be sold to the Bauer Media Group for around £25 million pending regulatory approval of the sale.

Classic FM

DAB: 11D

FM: 99.9 -101.9 MHz

Television Channels: Freesat, Sky, TalkTalk TV, Virgin Media, UPC Ireland.

Format: Classical Music

Audience: 3.6% (December 2012)

Classic FM broadcasts nationally on FM, DAB digital radio, satellite and cable television and is available internationally by streaming audio over the internet. As well as playing older music, the station plays several modern film scores. The idea for a national, commercial FM network devoted to classical music originated with the management at GWR group, an entrepreneurial who were themselves owned by daily mail and general trust plc. The station launched on the 7^th September 1992 and is one of three independent national radio stations in the UK, the other two being absolute radio and talksport. It had been operating a trial program on its AM frequencies in Wiltshire and Bristol, testing audience reaction to a regular drive-time program of popular classical music. It proved very successful and the company's CEO, Ralph Bernard, and program director, Michael Bukht, drew up the plans for a national station. Today Global Radio, the UK's largest radio station ownership group, owns the station. Classic FM has broadcast from its current studios in Central London since March 2006. Global radio also owns capital, heart and XFM among many others. A benefit of being part of a wider group means things such as news can be more smoothly accessed because, instead of separate small teams of journalists there are bigger groups who then pass information onto to each station.

Classic FM also runs on several other media platforms, including magazines, online and through CD's.