Article published Blue Revolution e-zine, August 2007
HAVE I GOT 'ALLEGED' NEWS FOR YOU?!
Comedians Paul Merton and Ian Hislop have a lot to answer for when it comes to the legality of what can and can't be said on the radio.
Their use of the word 'allegedly' on Have I Got News For You became a running joke - and lulled a generation of radio presenters into believing that if they used it too, they could say what they liked about anyone.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, using the word allegedly before a potentially dodgy remark about someone gives the impression you realise what you're about to say is dangerous. It's perceived as admittance that you're not sure whether what you're saying is true.
There are a number of reasons why the Have I Got News For You team - and other satirical radio and TV comedy shows - get away without being sued. Context is everything. If things are presented in a light-hearted way on a comedy show, there's far less chance of being sued than if allegations are presented on a news bulletin or even a breakfast show which contains music and information as well as comedy.
The crunch is that the listener must be aware of the type of show. Merton and Hislop have built a solid reputation for comedy and satire over the years - and they also have a team of lawyers who sit through the recording and editing process.
The truth is it's never enough to use the word 'allegedly'. For example, if you were to hear someone was an 'alleged prostitute' or an 'alleged conman', what would you think?
And to say you didn't know isn't a valid argument when it comes to the law - lack of knowledge is no defence.
There are two main areas of the law which concern radio presenters - libel and contempt.
The gist of the law of libel is that it's there to protect people's reputation. The law says everyone has a right to a good name unless there's evidence to the contrary. Anything 'published' which damages a person's reputation is defamatory - literally 'de-faming'. Usually spoken defamations are called slander but because broadcasting is 'publishing' words, radio is actually covered by libel.
The legal definition of defamation says something is libellous if it:-
 Exposes anyone to hatred, ridicule or contempt
Causes anyone to be shunned or avoided
Lowers anyone in the estimation of reasonable people
Disparages anyone in their business, trade or profession.
This takes into account inference, implication or innuendo. It doesn't matter whether the person hearing the libel believes it or not. You can say something intending it to be a joke, but it can still be libellous.
It's often thought that not using someone's name is a way of avoiding libel. This is not true. A person only has to be identifiable, not named.
Everything broadcast on your radio station is your responsibility. The onus of proof is on you, even when you're reading something out of The Sun or The Mirror or from a website. By repeating the offending words, you're repeating the libel. The person libelled could take both you and the newspaper to court.
You have to be particularly careful about interviewees and phone-in callers - even those calling to take part in competitions. One presenter I know was talking to a little boy who'd rung to take part in a contest and asked him about his school. At first things were fine - until the presenter asked what his least favourite subject was and then who was the worst teacher in the school. The child innocently named the teacher - who then promptly threatened to sue the radio station for libel.
There's a useful legal defence against libel known as innocent dissemination, or the 'live defence'. This protects a broadcaster on live radio when they have no effective control over the maker of the defamatory remark. But you have to prove you took reasonable care and had no prior knowledge that the remark was going to be made.
A person or organisation can sue for libel damages. A libel action is usually settled by the payment of damages and the broadcast of a formal apology.
Although radio stations are covered by insurance for this, premiums go up if there is a successful legal action - and the paperwork involved in dealing wth a formal legal complaint is immense and time-consuming.
The other major legal problem area for presenters is Contempt. If you get things wrong here, you and your boss could actually end up going to jail!
The Contempt of Court Act is designed to ensure that everyone gets a fair trial. Nobody is allowed to prejudice - or pre-judge - a current or forthcoming court case or speculate on the outcome.
It's contempt to suggest someone is guilty before the jury has reached its verdict. It doesn't matter whether you intended to pre-judge the case, you're in trouble just by doing it.
Legal proceedings become 'active' from the moment an arrest is made or a summons is issued - and the laws of contempt apply from this point onwards up to and including the trial itself.
During the trial of Dr Harold Shipman, Preston's Rock FM presenter Mark Kaye and travel girl Judith Vause suggested on air that Dr Shipman was "guilty as sin" and that he should "admit to it" while the case was being held at the city's court. The presenters and their boss were arrested and taken to court where they appeared before a fully-robed and bewigged judge who told them it was only the prompt action of management that had prevented them being sent to prison.
Legally, the danger was clear. Because the trial was being held in the same area where the radio station could be heard, a juror driving home from court might have heard the comments on the radio and been influenced. This could have led to the abandonment of the trial at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The laws of libel and contempt are complex and change from time to time. There are also a number of exceptions to the general rules. The best advice to presenters is: If in doubt, leave it out. Learn more by going to one of the legal and regulatory seminars held by United Radio.
Failure to understand your legal responsibilities as a presenter can cause your radio station lots of money, lose you your job and possibly land you in a prison cell.
That's not so funny now, eh, Paul and Ian?
taken from Blue Revolution e-zine, August 2007
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Article published in Broadcast magazine, November 2008
IS SMALL THE NEW BIG?
Many of the most famous names in commercial radio are due to disappear over the next few months with a fond farewell and adieu to 'heritage' stations such as Chiltern, Invicta, Essex, Fox, GWR and others.
They're being re-named Heart - part of a massive re-brand of many of the local stations owned by Global Radio.
There's likely to be a short-term backlash from local listeners upset by the loss of their favourite station name - and probably some confusion in areas like Kent and Essex where the newly-named county-wide Hearts are overshadowed by Heart in London which can he heard there - but there'll be long-term revenue advantages.
This is because it's always been difficult to convince young, spotty advertising agency buyers who live life within Soho of the merits of placing their clients' ads on stations out in the sticks with names like Hereward, Horizon and Gemini.
So, the thinking goes, build a brand - the McDonalds of radio - which agencies and advertisers can understand and the cash will flow. And of course this is a good thing for commercial radio as a whole.
Isn't it?
Trouble is that in this time of economic recession, it's the big brands in the wider world and their young buyers - always following fashion and trends - who are the ones cutting back their spending on 'old fashioned' radio and being wooed instead by the 'sexy' temptations of online advertising.
News emerged last week of a possible new marriage between radio companies - UTV Radio are in exploratory takeover talks with The Local Radio Company (TLRC) to combine their various small radio stations up and down the country.
If these talks are successful, it will mean the emergence of another big radio group, owning nearly 40 local radio stations.
Of course there will be cost savings (and likely job losses) by the sharing of backroom office resources and networking of programmes during off-peak hours - and also probably the creation of another radio brand alongside Heart, Galaxy, Smooth, Real et al.
The long-predicted consolidation of the radio industry is well under way. Hurrah say many. But some still sound a note of caution in private. Is big still better, especially in these tough economic times?
When it comes to listeners, do they really care whether their programming comes from Leicester or Leicester Square? Ofcom research highlighted in its Future of Radio document shows many listeners are "surprised and concerned" at the prospect of reduced local output from their local station.
So while the McDonald's of radio still serves up the tasty Big Macs of programming, there's still a good market for the individually-made burger too with examples of small radio stations doing well right now despite the credit crunch.
I'm a non-executive director of KCFM, the station broadcasting to 420,000 adults in Hull and East Yorkshire which went on air 15 months ago and is owned by a private group of individuals. It's of the traditional "old ILR" style with middle-of-the-road music, lots of local news and information, football and rugby commentaries, phone-ins and specialist music shows in the evening. Audiences have responded with the station delivering nearly half a million listening hours in its first year.
It's been tough generating revenue - but the station has performed well with £1 million of sales in its first year, almost all of it local money. And things are continuing with targets being hit every month since the summer.
The sales team there have to knock on more doors and use all their powers of persuasion to drag money into the station - but it still can be done.
It all just goes to show that while big may be beautiful, small could actually be the new big.
taken from Broadcast magazine, November 2008
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Article published in Broadcast magazine, September 2008
THE NEW RADIO REVENUE REVOLUTION?
A radio station in Austin, Texas, is at the forefront of what some say is a new community-orientated revolution among American commercial stations which is beginning to generate additional airtime revenue - and could take off in the UK too.
Many UK stations already undertake annual charity appeals for worthy local causes - such as Radio Forth's recent Radiothon raising money for Cash for Kids - and some breakfast shows do 'rescue' features where listeners help people who have fallen on hard times. However there is rarely direct commercial support for these ventures.
Now in the States, socially significant features are being actively sought by clients and advertising agencies wanting to place their commercials with broadcasters who have community values and 'stand for something'.
The JB and Sandy Morning Show on Mix 94.7 runs a simple feature called 'Fixing Austin' taking calls to report things that are broken in the city such as park benches and school playgrounds. Other listeners ring in offering to fix them.
Speaking to the recent annual NAB/R&R Radio Convention held in Austin, former Yahoo chief solutions officer and author Tim Sanders told delegates research shows advertising agencies are actually prepared to pay premium prices for output linking them with a local cause.
"Making a difference is the new difference," he says, "Morning shows should be placing the funny stuff alongside significant stuff. This means local personalities become figures of importance in the community. We need to build credibility and ad dollars will follow."
The fix-up initiative helped Mix increase audience share over the last year and made it Austin's second highest-billing station for revenue.
Other examples include the Gene and Julie show on KVIL in Dallas where a feature reuniting long lost lovers turned into a crusade highlighting the plight of the city's homeless.
On KZOK in Seattle, long-time morning show DJ Bob Rivers encouraged his listeners to adopt children in an African village. Over four years, money raised built a school and fixed the water supply.
So called 'do-good' initiatives like these, says Tim Sanders, tie into the agenda of today's international ethically-aware brands such as Coca Cola that seek social synergy and want their radio ads next to something positive to garner respect from consumers eager to make a contribution to the community.
"It's good for business to make a difference," he says, "This type of thing could save local radio."
His comments came as the rest of the convention highlighted the gradual switch back in favour of local programming from widespread national syndication - in contrast to what is happening in the UK with groups such as Global, Bauer and GMG introducing more networking. Many US stations are having new life and soul infused into them as the industry emerges from an era of bland 'cookie-cutter' formats.
Other hot topics during the convention include the never-ending quest to discover and develop new on-air talent as well as putting FM radios in mobile phones (virtually no US mobiles have radios incorporated unlike in Europe) together with ways in which radio can capitalise on digital technology - especially video - to enhance its online offerings.
Indeed one speaker remarked that a dedicated young team doing nothing but making and editing website videos was effectively turning his radio studio into a television station.
The negativity surrounding radio in the US in the past is starting to disappear with constant reminders from speakers about the strengths of the medium - it's free, portable and available everywhere.
Delegates were reminded that a station such as Lite FM in New York has more people listening than the combined readership of all of the city's newspapers and that radio's deep personal connection with its audience is the envy of most other media and advertisers.
It will be interesting to see whether US radio can tap into the dollars waiting to be spent by advertisers wanting to reach a new ethically and community aware generation of listeners - and whether that approach will cross the Atlantic to the likes of the big UK groups.
taken from Broadcast magazine, September 2008
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Article published in Broadcast magazine, September 2007
PAUL CHANTLER'S NORTH CAROLINA BLOG
There's a heatwave in Charlotte, North Carolina - and things have been getting even hotter at the annual NAB Radio Show with the unveiling of major new consumer research into perceptions of radio.
American radio listeners are getting wise to what's described as the creeping 'corporatisation' of US stations by big groups.
The research - a wide-ranging brand study commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters among 5,540 listeners across all demographics aged from 15-64 and involving 12 focus groups - says listeners really don't want radio to move away from live programming by local DJs.
The survey shows live and local DJs are hugely appealing, creating a personal bond with listeners and interaction making radio more dynamic and entertaining, leading to listening loyalty. One focus group respondent commented: "It's like they're having a party and you're part of it". Eliminating live and local in favour of syndicated programming - as many stations have been doing to save money - means the texture and feel of radio goes. And this elicits extremely negative reactions from listeners.
According to unprompted responses, the single most important issue facing American radio is the move away from stations playing a broad variety of songs to music repetition. Listeners just hate repetition, saying it leads to boring, stale radio. Many, especially the young, feel playing the same old songs force them to turn to other sources for music.
Both issues are seen as emblems of the growing influence of corporate radio owners. The message from listeners is just give power back to the stations to choose the songs they play.
The research confirms radio is very important in people's lives because it's free, portable, convenient - and available everywhere. No other medium is as cheap and easy to use as radio, allowing people to multi task and makes good use of their time.
Technologically, radio is also perceived as keeping up with the times as it integrates well with new delivery platforms. Older people appreciate they don't have to be tech savvy to use it.
The problem is that people take radio for granted. The fact it's ubiquitous means it's often forgotten. Like water and electricity, it's become a utility.
So the good folks at the NAB plan to re-awaken the national interest in radio. The problem is they need also to tackle music repetition as well as the perception of stations becoming less local and less live.
Through the evidence of my own ears, these are not just issues faced by our friends across the Atlantic. In the UK, the most common complaint from listeners in focus groups is the high level of music repetition.
And Ofcom will soon to publish its long-awaited Future of Radio plan after months of consultation which, among other things, will rule on how much in UK radio must remain live and local.
So perhaps the heat of North Carolina might do a lot to warm the chilly winter in the UK radio business and make radio groups think where their priorities lie.
taken from Broadcast magazine, September 2007
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Article published in the Radio Magazine, July 2009
NEIL HENDERSON INTERVIEW WITH PAUL CHANTLER
1. Basic Radio Journalism has been released to the market again. How well was the previous book received?
The book was originally written and published under the title Local Radio Journalism while I was at Chiltern ten years ago. I updated it in 1997 when a second edition was published while I was at Essex. Both books sold out and were reprinted several times. I was amazed to learn that it's the standard textbook on radio journalism courses in some colleges in the US, Australia and New Zealand. It was even translated into Spanish! Basic Radio Radio Journalism is a re-write and expansion of the original book. Of course there are updated technical and legal sections and this time my co-author is Radio magazine columnist Peter Stewart, a former colleague from Essex FM and talkSPORT. It was published on the same day as the new Harry Potter book and we hope it will be just as successful!
2. Do you think many college journalism courses should adopt some of your methods?
The book provides a thorough grounding in the rudiments of practical, hands-on radio journalism. I'm always worried that many college courses don't focus enough on the practicalities and concentrate too much on the theory. That's fine in some ways as students need to know why they're doing things as well as how to do them. However one cause of frustration that I had as a news editor is the number of radio journalism college graduates who have poor voices or who have never had any voice training. It really is the basic tool of the trade! I have high hopes for the new National Broadcasting School being set up by my old boss at Southern FM Rory McLeod and launching this autumn at Sussex University in Brighton. I'm going to be a guest lecturer there as often as I can.
3. You were part of Network News. Do you think with adequate funding and support it would have still been around now?
I was MD of Network News in the early 1990s when it was set up by Chiltern as a small-scale alternative to IRN. The idea was to keep costs low by repackaging Sky TV audio for radio. It was a brave experiment which failed because it was ahead of its time. Our biggest success was winning the contract to supply news to the then newly-launched Virgin Radio which we did live from Dunstable - yes, Dunstable - for two years. We had some good people working for us including some well known news names and faces like Howard Hughes and Paul Brennan, the Sky TV reporter. Angus Moorat, now at BBC Radio Sheffield, Tim Page and Jon Davies were the mainstays of the operation. It was a crazy time with people working crazy hours. I used to dread my bleeper going off at 4.30am saying someone couldn't turn up for the 6am shift and having to turn out to do it myself! But the industry was too small then and the big groups saw no reason to break away from IRN which was effectively "free" through the Newslink system and pay cash for news from us. Now in Sky News Radio under Andy Ivy we see a genuine alternative to IRN which is credible and growing. I think the biggest legacy from Network News is that it gave IRN a kick up the bum and made them less complacent. I'm really impressed at the quality of service IRN offers today - two differently formatted bulletins and enormous amounts of material for stations to choose from.
4. You are involved in licence applications now and giving stations advice on how to improve their news output. What are your insider tips?
The main advice for existing or new licensees is to take news provision seriously. I'm a great admirer of John Myers and the way he's built the Real Radio network of stations. In his licence applications and on air, John is always careful to include well-resourced local newsrooms and many applicants could learn a lesson from that. I've just been involved in helping to write and put together Emap's Glasgow licence application, Glasgow's Magic FM, and of all the applicants, we've made the biggest commitment to local news. It's absolutely vital even on a music station. In terms of insider tips, there are some great new ways of repackaging news which I've been helping some of the Emap Magic stations introduce, such as the US style multi-versions of stories (see my book for details!). I do "copy clinics" for journalists on the stations I work with where I conduct a coaching session for a journalist like a snoop session for a DJ. I critique their cues and copy. The best advice I give them is to write is simple, conversational English as they'd tell their mates down the pub. The main problem is many still have bad writing habits like newspaper journalists and over-complicate things making it difficult for the listener to understand.
5. You've had a successful career as a programmer. Out of all the stations you've worked for like Essex, Chiltern and Talk, which job has given you the most pleasure?
Setting up and launching Galaxy 101 in Bristol as one of the first regional stations in 1994 was a memorable time. It was hard work with a small team and little money. But we broke new ground and got great audience figures in our first year with a new format of dance music that now would be called Rhythmic Adult Contemporary. But the best time of all was at Essex Radio Group in the late 90s. Essex FM was having great audience success, we were involved in successful projects like our schools anti-drugs roadshows, we were on national TV every week in a docusoap called Lakesiders which got 10 million viewers (never again!), we had won the East of England regional licence and were launching Vibe FM, and we were winning awards and making money. And the Essex team under Rob van Pooss, now at UKRD, were a great bunch who knew how to have fun and enjoy themselves.
6. You recently visited the Radio Festival. Do you think there's not enough effort made in radio to embrace new ideas and new formats? Would you like to see more risk taking rather than formatting and syndication?
I think digital radio is a fantastic way to try out new ideas and formats. Stations like Oneword could never exist on analogue but there's a natural place for them on digital. I believe we're going to see much more experimentation in the format of digital stations. It was sad to see so many stations having the stuffing knocked out of them in the mid to late 90s where they adopted a bland, liner-card, three-links an hour mentality. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say this wiped out a whole generation of young talented personality presenters who had nowhere to learn their craft - and we're paying the price now as groups cry out for talent. Happily, the groups that adopted this approach have seen the error of their ways and the industry now has an appetite to learn how to identify, nurture and grow talent. Consultants like me can help teach the coaching skills necessary to pull through the talent of tomorrow. These guys need to be told that trying out new ideas, making mistakes and taking risks is a good thing. Yes we need formats but the format should be the skeleton of the station around which the talent needs to have freedom to grow.
7. During your period at talkSPORT you had the chance to help the station grow into a ratings winner. Did it disappoint you that a station listened to largely for live sport is now hardly broadcasting commentaries or major events and you had little control over the cost cutting?
My own view is that talkSPORT is at its best when it does what its name implies - talking about sport. I've always thought that buying sports rights was misguided. They were too expensive and the BBC had all the best ones. Even when we did buy and broadcast commentaries, our research showed listeners thought they were listening to the Beeb! So I believed, and still believe, that having shows like Alan Brazil and Mike Parry at breakfast and Hawksbee and Jacobs (who I brought onto the mainstream output from off peak weekends) are the station's unique selling point. I think Brazil and Parry have brilliant chemistry together and they've successfully expanded their show into talking not just about sport but also other male-related things. They have a well-deserved growing audience. One of the main reasons the show has worked is that it's been left in place for two years and has become a part of people's routines. In the days I was there, too much was tried out for a few weeks or days and then scrapped which was a legacy from Kelvin MacKenzie's newspaper days when a good front page could mean the difference between high and low sales. I think Kelvin's learned that In radio, things need time - a good year or 18 months - to work. Having said all that about commentaries, I think talkSPORT'S golf commentary is brilliant, not because I'm a golf fan but because of the banter between the commentators.
8. If you had to assemble a list of top broadcasters you have worked with who would be in it and why?
I'll mention my two favourites - one in speech radio and the other in music radio. James Whale on talkSPORT is a brilliantly instinctive broadcaster who's entertaining and infuriating at the same time. His main skill is his unpredictability - you just have to keep listening to see what's he'll do next and I find it exciting and impossible to turn off once I've started listening. He knows just how far to push things to the edge without going over it. And despite his aggressive image, he's a real pussy cat to work with! I really don't think James has received the credit he deserves in the industry for all his years of late night talk broadcasting with fantastic audience figures. My other choice is Martin Day, the breakfast show presenter on Essex FM. For the life of me, I can't understand why this guy is not a national - or even a London - star. It says something about radio managements in the UK that they can't spot a real talent when they hear it. I gave him his break and helped nurture him. Martin is funny, fluent and popular - a real man of the people. He's imaginative and conscientious and is a real natural on air. People really relate to him and he comes up with the most imaginative top-of-the-mind stuff I've ever heard. Like all the best talents, he's sometimes difficult to work with but he's also great fun. He's the man Capital should have succeed Tarrant. It frustrates me to see how the industry ignores guys like Martin in favour of so-called TV stars who don't have an ounce of his radio skills or natural broadcasting talent.
9. When you attended the Radio Festival, you were treated to presentations from all the Midlands licence applicants. Which of the groups do you think will triumph?
I'd love to see Emap get it with their Kerrang format. I think the time is ripe for a commercial station which plays young rock music. There's a proven demand for it in the West Midlands, Kerrang is a fantastic brand and Emap are smart operators with the right balance between centralisation and localisation.
10. You've been a consultant for two years. How is it going and will you ever work for a company as a full-time employee again?
Consultants have a bad name which is a shame. We can be useful in helping with specific problems and projects. I set up my business to offer advice and help to both music and speech stations and it's been really successful. I've worked for a wide variety of stations doing a wide variety of projects from launching a newstalk station in Dublin to doing presenter coaching on stations in Central Europe. This year I've helped Emap revamp their Magic stations outside London (Richard Park's been doing the London Magic), coached and critiqued Emap journalists, done training courses for the CRCA and now I'm off to the Isle of Man to help Manx Radio train some new recruits. I've been lucky enough to be offered several MD and PD jobs in the industry but I've turned them down. Right now there are only one or two jobs that would tempt me back into full-time employment as I'm enjoying the freedom and variety that the life of a consultant has to offer.
taken from Radio Magazine, July 2009
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Article published in Xchange4Media magazine, India, September 2009
WOOING RADIO AUDIENCES WITH NEWS
Radio listening in the UK has never been more popular with latest official figures published last month showing nine out of ten people tuning in to BBC and privately-owned commercial stations each week.
Listeners are more in love with traditional radio than ever, despite the increasing choice made possible by the internet and the i-pod.
Research in the United States among young people shows they like radio because it is free, easy to use and great for music. Research in the UK shows that one of the biggest factors in listeners deciding which radio station to choose is its output of news.
As India prepares to allow news to be included on privately-owned radio stations, it is interesting to see the extent to which news is regarded as such a vital part of growing and keeping loyal audiences in the UK.
Research from MORI commissioned by the regulator Ofcom shows 60% of people choose their radio station based on its output of news, local news in particular. Older listeners are especially interested in news with 92% describing it as important. Often news from 'around the corner' is just as important to listeners as news from around the world - if not more so in many cases.
People listen to radio news when they need to know what is going on quickly. They realise that because radio news is so short, it is up to date and has to focus on simply reporting the facts.
News is an essential ingredient of UK radio. Like newspapers and television, there is no one correct way to "do news" on radio. There are many styles and sounds to suit each station.
Listeners want to know a little about a lot of things. British radio journalists have become experts in assessing what kind of stories people want to hear. Many argue that stories should have a real effect on listeners' lives. This can be directly by, say, a tax increase or indirectly by something which triggers emotion through sympathy or empathy.
Many stations conduct detailed market research into what news stories their target audience wants to hear. As a result, some have adjusted their news agendas and moved away from traditional news values to concentrate on what they describe as 'news you can use' focusing on health, consumer and environmental issues.
Relevance is the key decider in radio news content. The philosophy of one big UK radio group is summed up in quotes from the target audience: "Give me the news and information I need to know. Make sure I don't miss anything when I listen to you!"
In the end, it is all about balance and judgement. Journalists have to weigh the important against the interesting many times a day. It comes down to a matter of opinion based on the style and target audience of the station.
Radio is trusted by listeners. A study among 10,000 people undertaken two years ago by the UK radio industry's trade organisation showed that nearly three quarters of the sample described radio as trustworthy - double the number trusting TV and three times that of the internet.
Despite the advent of 24-hour TV news channels, television is thought of as a complex medium needing a great many people to make it work, with its ability to react fast to a breaking news story sometimes hampered by technicalities. It is no surprise that, when a big story breaks, TV channels revert to 'radio mode' and broadcast telephone interviews with eyewitnesses and reporters while the necessary satellite equipment takes hours to get to the scene for live pictures and good sound quality. Radio can simply be one person and a telephone.
The fact there is so much choice available online means that people with less and less time available crave a 'trusted friend' to wade through what is on offer and make a selection for them based on an objective view of what is important, offering them effectively an hourly news 'digest'. Radio is perfect for this.
As I argue in my book Essential Radio Journalism, the increase in online blogging and so-called citizen journalism - with the inherent danger of unreliability and inaccuracy - means there has actually never been a greater need for the professional reporter and editor.
News is therefore an intrinsic part of the seduction of radio listeners. However, it is not enough merely to broadcast news - although that is a challenge in itself, especially in places like India. News has to be relevant, thoughtful and well produced and presented. News read formally sounds 'dry', out of date and out of touch.
All radio stations have to compete for attention. Long gone are the days when listening to the radio was a solemn rite, marked by the family dropping all other activities to gather round the radio. Radio can no longer 'command' an audience; it has to woo it.
Make no mistake, the job of radio stations is not only to entertain but to inform. To inform, we must interest. News must be both listened to and understood. And that is the biggest challenge of all.
taken from Xchange4Media magazine, India, September 2009
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LOCALNESS
'Local' has become a dirty word, especially among London's media elite. There's a sense that the industry's chattering classes are patronising to anything local - newspapers, TV, but particularly local commercial radio.
Latest audience figures show radio in general is more popular than ever. The BBC accounts for the majority of listening to national radio, while commercial radio dominates locally.
The trend in some parts of commercial radio is to cut 'localness' in favour of a one-size-fits-all brand - the 'McDonalds-isation' of radio. There is an argument for creating big brands to make stations easier for national advertisers to buy. Some groups are impatiently awaiting the day they can cover the country with networked programming made centrally, using as little local input as possible.
In his visionary report as part of Lord Carter's Digital Britain review, John Myers, former chief executive of GMG Radio, advocates a radical overhaul of the way commercial radio is regulated, with localness at the heart of it.
Market research demonstrates that real people love local radio. Operators tempted to improve margins by cutting local content in these difficult times will find localness is their one saving grace when they compete in the bigger pond of digital worldwide content. The real audience and revenue winners will be those who provide a realistic and cost-effective balance between localness and networking.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the provision of local news; Myers says all stations should provide local news at least hourly during daytime. This means some stations will need to increase the number of bulletins they broadcast.
Of all his recommendations, this is the most important for the credibility of local radio in the future. The industry ignores it at its peril.
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Article published on RadioJam's website, April 2006
Watching the consultants
They're responsible for the industry we work in today, and chances are they used to be your boss. Who are the consultants, and what have they done to radio? Radiojam asks and finds out...
If all of commercial radio worked in the same building, there's no doubt that the management floor would have revolving doors fitted either end to deal with the volume of resignations and firings. A week rarely passes without a senior member of staff vanishing, no doubt off to "pursue other interests".
It's rare such people disappear forever, and for many the shadowy and altogether mysterious career of consultancy awaits. Operating outside the industry but with considerable say over the long term strategies of many stations, consultants have had as much say in shaping the current radio industry as those managing our business.
Mark Briggs has been an industry consultant for over five years, and is about to launch a new consultancy group, United Radio. In 1995, Mark was hired by Capital Radio MD Richard Eyre: "Back in the 90s Capital Radio was unquestionably the most vibrant and dynamic radio company in the industry - both in terms of its London stations and also its growing portfolio across the UK. Richard realised that I had limited experience, but he wanted enthusiastic young people at the heart of Capital's expansion. I was lucky to get the break, but I was pretty wet behind the ears and I hadn't a clue about politics. So I just hunkered down and got on with developing new programme outlets for the Capital brand."
When Mark left Capital, as with any freelance role, it meant no regular income and no support structure, so it was about realising the other benefits such a role can bring: "Being a consultant has the best of everything. For me, it means taking on unique challenges and working independently - but at the same time being able to draw help from the client and also from colleagues in the industry. The challenge is to maintain the right balance and to recognise that, as a consultant, you are often privy to very sensitive information from several clients."
For former Talk Radio MD Paul Robinson, becoming a media consultant was simply about trying something different: "I wanted to do something that would give me some new challenges, build up additional contacts and find out whether I could survive on my own without the luxury of all the corporate structure."
Understanding the point of a consultant isn't always easy for staff. It was Robert Townsend who said: "Consultants are people who borrow your watch and tell you what time it is, and then walk off with the watch." So what possible expertise can a consultant bring to an already established radio group? "I'm not fond of the term 'helicopter view'," says Mark Briggs, "but in truth sometimes this is what's needed and it's sometimes hard for employees to detach themselves from existing perspectives or even political agendas."
So how are consultants shaping our industry? For a very recent example, look no further than the controversial award of the new Plymouth FM licence to Macquarie. The public villain of the piece (if you believe the incandescent local protestors) may have been the moustache twirling former Emap boss Tim Schoonmaker, but in fact it was well known industry consultant Paul Chantler who provided the winning format: "Macquarie own and operate about 85 stations in Australia and wanted to break into the UK radio market. I was responsible for creating the format after analysing some pretty extensive audience research in each of our areas consisting of consumer research, focus groups and advertiser surveys."
Of course, because a radio group pays for a consultant's services, it doesn't neccessarily follow that they'll adhere to the advice given. After Tony Mackenzie left Metro Radio in 2003, the search for a new PD took nearly a year, during which time Paul Chantler was temporary PD, "a part babysitting, part troubleshooter role". When Trevor James took over as full-time PD in August 2004, Chantler's work in creating a personality-led station was effectively replaced by James with no-talk triple plays:
"My personal view is that commercial radio in the UK does best in the long term when it is personality rather than music led. What radio offers that iPods can't is a live, real-time person to provide that personal, local connection with an audience. It was on this basis that we created an all star line-up using tried-and-tested personalities like Tony Horne, Goffy, Ingrid and Alan Robson to create differentiation in the market."
"Since I left Metro last summer, the new programme boss has used some pretty detailed research techniques to discover what the audience say they want, test the music and refine the station sound. Hence Metro's move once again to highlight the music. Tony Horne's breakfast show, though, is fairly speech intensive and certainly doesn't rely on the no-talk triple play technique made famous in the UK by GWR in the mid 1990s."
Consultancy is big business, and alongside the smaller consultancies operated by faces already familiar to us, there are big corporations responsible for the radio landscape we work in. "McKinsey worked with me at the BBC to formulate the BBC 10 year strategy and I learned a lot from them," says Paul Robinson, "including how to present arguments and rationale on paper and face to face, which is key if you want to be successful in influencing people's thinking. The McKinsey guys are also incredibly bright so I found that both stimulating and scary at times - but it raises your game and I benefited from that."
So if consultants are so useful to the industry, why do so many colleagues react so negatively to mention of them? "I think many of the international consultants used by UK radio groups suffer from reputations as giving poor value for money," offers Paul Chantler. "One particular US consultant charged a fortune for producing a series of badly-presented and poorly-written reports critiquing a station and, frankly, stating the obvious. I really don't understand why some international consultants get used by UK companies so much and particularly the BBC. Some of their advice is out of date and takes little account of British radio sensitivities. I guess it must be the lure of a foreign accent."
Paul Easton is a radio consutlant, having spent over 30 years in the industry, including a stint in programming at Capital Radio. He sees faults on both sides regarding the poor image of consultantcy; "Some consultants don't really understand the station, its place in the market and often fail to identify the real problem. Some simply try to install a one-size-fits-all solution everywhere they go while others don't ask the right questions. Similarly some radio station management haven't really thought through why they are using a consultant and what they expect them to do.
With the launch of United Radio, Mark Briggs is hoping for his team of consultants to play a significant part in the future of UK radio: "I'm looking forward to the point where we all stop talking about digital radio. It's not about platforms, but content. Greater investment in programme content that is actually in demand (such as niche music brands like reggae) is needed. It should not just be about mainstream music brands which are just extensions of tired, broad base themes found on analogue. It is happening slowly, but I think the catalyst may be external influence, whether that comes from consultants or production companies - or both."
taken from the RadioJam website, April 2006
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Article published on MediaTel's website, 14 February 2006
Will Podcasts Kill The Radio Star?
Podcasts have grabbed public attention in recent months, from conventional broadcasters offering 'catch-up' editions, to Channel 4 launching its own assault on the radio world, fronted by news reader John Snow. Programming consultant Paul Chantler looks at the threat posed by these radio 'alternatives,' asking if they could really spell the end for traditional broadcasting...
Like hundreds of thousands of others a few weeks ago, I hungrily signed up to download the weekly Ricky Gervais Podcast from the Guardian Unlimited website. Since then I have been listening to Ricky, Steve Merchant and sidekick Karl shoot the breeze for 30 minutes or so about whatever takes their fancy.
Unfortunately it's not been laughs all the way. The quality of comedy and chat is pretty inconsistent - just like listening to three guys in a pub sometime. The popularity of this podcast has more to do with the brand that is Ricky Gervais and the ceaseless quest for more and more from the great man aside from the TV shows, theatre performances and DVDs.
It's been the number one podcast on the iTunes website since it started, having been downloaded more than two million times, consistently beating the best of Radio One's Chris Moyles breakfast show. Many say radio has a lot to fear from podcasting - but I'm not so sure.
This is essentially because I believe podcasts aren't really radio. Sure, they can be a way of listening to your favourite Radio Four programme when it suits you, or for listening to a compilation of best bits from your favourite DJ or shock jock. But real radio they are not.
Firstly podcasting can never replicate what a lot of people tune into radio for - live, real-time information. This is especially so in the mornings when service information is to the fore. Radio is best when it is live and reporting real events, be they traffic jams on the M25 or breaking news of the London bombings.
Secondly, podcasts don't yet have music, because of rights issues with the record companies, so the best-of radio shows only have the speech bits. Music agreements will come but that will take time.
Finally, those downloading numbers aren't necessarily what they seem. My Gervais podcast downloads regularly - but, after the novelty wore off, I found myself listening to less and less of it and sometimes not at all. But the download still happened whether I listened or not, much like a magazine ordered on subscription but then unread. I was counted among the two million, even though I was not listening. So how many of those proudly quoted downloads are, in fact, listeners?
What podcasts actually are, and where they will ultimately score, is the audio equivalent of newspaper columns and instant audiobooks marketed in short chapters. When you understand this, you begin to see the real future of the podcast.
I can hear in my head thousands of podcasts covering all sorts of diverse subjects - the electronic equivalent of magazine part-works, maybe no more than ten minutes a week or five minutes a day. Maybe there's a gossip podcast, a motoring podcast or even a model railway podcast.
Maybe there are also podcast columnists where every star from Robbie Williams to Chantelle from Big Brother has his or her own daily or weekly soap box to speak directly to fans.
And these bits of audio may well use radio techniques in terms of scripting and production to encourage people to listen but they wont necessarily be radio "shows".
Think of the old style Home Service "talks" of the 1950s and 1960s. Just a man or woman and a microphone. That's the key. It's what Ricky Gervais has done. No gimmicks - just three guys chatting away.
The killer is that I don't think radio will necessarily suffer from people listening to these things. Cynics are assuming people will abandon some of their radio listening in order to make time to listen to these audio nuggets. I'm not so sure.
I think its much more likely that podcast listening will be deducted from the time spent listening to music on i-Pods. Real live radio has always had a place in people's hearts and that wont change, podcast or no podcast.
So will "podcasts kill the radio star?" to adapt the words of that 1980's band The Buggles? Never!
taken from MediaTel website, 14 February 2006
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Article published on MediaTel's website, 2nd November 2005
Watch out Chris - Jack could be coming to get you!
Good news for the BBC in the latest RAJAR audience figures - its highest-ever share of audience in the UK radio market, opening up a whopping 11% gap over commercial stations.
While much of this can be put down to high-profile BBC TV promotional campaigns to encourage radio listening (which commercial radio rightly complains amounts to free national advertising), perhaps commercial radio needs to shake itself out of tired old 'cookie cutter' formats that rotate 250 or so songs.
As US researcher Larry Rosin said at the National Association of Broadcasters' Philadelphia conference in September, perhaps we ought to start believing people in focus groups when they say music repetition gets on their nerves. Many broadcasters, he says, simply misinterpret this as, "well, they don't actually mean that..."
Leading the way for the BBC is Radio One's breakfast show DJ Chris Moyles with an audience of more than 10 million. But perhaps Chris needs to look out for Jack who could be coming here soon.
Jack is not a DJ. In fact it is a format - the latest phenomenon taking American radio by storm. There are variations of the format called Bob, Ben, Mike, Sam, Ernie and even a country music version called Hank. They're aimed at 25 to 54 year olds and break a lot of the well-established rules of American radio.
For a start, there's the music - 3000 songs instead of the small library beloved of most stations - with no repetition throughout the day.
But the most amazing thing about the Jack format is that there are no DJs. The stations are production-led rather than presenter-led with an enormous effort put into writing clever, witty, offbeat and irreverent 'sweepers' voiced by one station production voice. Typically a station can get through 75 to 100 of these a week and they're all constantly refreshed to avoid listener fatigue. Jack is that it's bringing the art of good copywriting back into radio.
The sweepers characterise the "arrogant" attitude of these stations, based around the slogan "We Play What We Want". There are no news bulletins, no competitions and no travel updates. At another NAB conference last week in Athens, we heard travel news, Jack-style: "Here's the traffic news on Jack FM - there are a lot of cars on the road!"
Jack - or to give it its official name of Adult Hits or Variety Hits - started in Canada three years ago and quickly spread to the US. Audience figures show how well it's doing in many markets, especially Dallas and Los Angeles.
Of course it's a reaction to what a colleague of mine describes as the "constipation" of American radio. Americans have grown up on a diet of narrow, niche radio stations and to have such a massive variety of music on one station - and no annoying DJs - is somewhat akin to radio heaven.
We Brits have a more eclectic and wide ranging musical taste, having grown up listening to the old-style 'Radio One-derful' on 247 metres and watching Top of the Pops every Thursday night on the telly and being exposed to hard rock next to country and love songs.
Therefore Jack might find it a struggle to work on existing analogue stations - to say nothing of the licensing difficulties Ofcom would have trying to make sense of a station without news, travel and presenter.
By the looks of the dozens of European attendees at the Athens conference, busily scrawling note after note during the Jack session, we're likely to see Jacques, Juan, Fritz and Pierres sprouting up all over continental radio stations soon.
And here in the UK, perhaps Jack could be on a new digital station. After all, there was some good news for commercial radio in the RAJARs as well - record numbers of listeners are tuning into digital-only radio stations, more than 4 million of them.
But something tells me millions will miss Chris Moyles and his ilk - and it's likely to be many years before Morrissey's sung refrain of "Hang the DJ" rings true, Jack or no Jack.
taken from MediaTel website, 2nd November 2005
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Article published on MediaTel's website, 10th May 2005
Getting A Bigger Bite Of Breakfast
The battle for supremacy amongst London's radio stations is closer than ever, with high-profile TV personalities being brought in by broadcasters to bolster competing schedules. Paul Chantler, programming consultant and former group programme director of The Wireless Group, Essex Radio Group and Chiltern Radio Network explains how, despite their household names, the current slew of telly favourites could yet be toppled...
Newly departed Heart FM breakfast show host Jono Coleman is having the last laugh at the expense of his former Chrysalis Radio colleagues.
The latest Rajar figures show he increased his audience by a massive 28% or 224,000 listeners to a reach of 972,000. His valedictory performance was one of the main factors in Heart overtaking Capital to become London's most listened to station.
With only a 1% share of listening between the top three stations, getting a bigger bite of breakfast is now vital to London's radio programmers.
Now Jono's gone with a bravura display of his ear-catching skills, Chrysalis bosses could be forgiven for wondering if they made the right decision to replace him with TV pretty boy Jamie Theakston, the latest TV face to become a radio DJ thanks to a high public profile.
Capital has Johnny Vaughan at breakfast and now former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon on its afternoon show. Indeed, Heart has another children's TV favourite Toby Anstis on its daytime roster.
So does the TV magic of these guys work for radio? So far, the signs are mixed. To state the obvious, radio ain't TV and different skills are needed. Johnny Vaughan is starting to find his feet, increasing his audience by 108,000 for his fourth quarter hosting the show. But he has 140,000 fewer listeners year-on-year from when he took over from Chris Tarrant, himself a TV presenter turned radio jock.
Vaughan still seems to lack that certain something on radio which made him such a worthy successor to Chris Evans on Channel Four's Big Breakfast, surely the closest thing to breakfast radio on TV.
The reality is that the key to success for the breakfast boys is chemistry with a co-presenter. When you get it right, it's a powerful, potent and indestructible listener magnet. It's all about banter, and getting a better bit of banter is the secret of success.
Banter is what made viewers turn onto the Big Breakfast with Vaughan and Denise van Outen. And banter between Jono and his co-presenter Harriet Scott is what made Heart's breakfast show.
Early evidence shows the on-air chemistry is something you cannot manufacture. Theakston and Harriet just don't seem to fit properly yet. And Vaughan and Zoe on Capital sometimes struggle.
Creating chemistry between presenters is the issue which exercises most radio programmers in the UK.
In the mid 90s, this literally became a science with formulae used to "cast" a breakfast show team, sitcom-style. The main presenter would be "the brother" - a young man who loves parties, drinking, sports and gadgets; the travel presenter played "the sister" - outwardly a ladette but sensitive at heart; and the newsreader was cast as the "older brother", sensible but liking a laugh.
So if Heart and Capital are slogging it out with TV talent and chemistry experiments, what of the third contender for the top spot in London radio?
Magic has benefited from the consistency of its more-music-less-talk approach, just behind Capital in market share. The breakfast show is fronted, at the moment, by veteran radio DJ Graham Dene whose career didn't start in front of a TV camera.
Will a little TV magic be sprinkled on Magic? There have already been rumours of a move to Magic by Neil Fox (who has a TV profile thanks to Pop Idol). With Theakston and Vaughan battling it out, the temptation of a big name breakfast star must be irresistible.
The ideal of course is the ultimate combination that would destroy Messrs Theakston and Vaughan (as well as Messrs Wogan and Moyles). It's the radio equivalent of an atomic bomb - a duo who combine high profile, fun and perfect chemistry.
Ant and Dec have a successful TV career at the moment. But their manager, former Radio One DJ Peter Powell, knows and loves radio. One day you can be sure they will turn up on a radio set near you.
And I suspect they will have the last laugh on everyone.
taken from MediaTel website, 10th May 2005
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Taken from Paul's inteview in
Media Week, 10 May 2005
My Media Week
My working week currently begins at 5.30am on Monday morning with a sleepy finger bringing to life my bedside DAB radio and the sound of Tony Horne In The Morning.
As a radio programmer, I'm always working when I listen to the radio.
With music radio, I'm always trying to figure out song rotations and constantly critique the DJ.
The only time when radio listening is not work is on the long Friday-night drive down to my home in London, when the car radio is tuned constantly to Radio Four with The Archers, Front Row and Any Questions.
Newspapers mean the Daily Express - the free paper delivered to my hotel room door.
I'd never buy it - but over the past few months, I've come to enjoy its view of the world. On Sundays, I love The Sunday Times of course.
My TV life has been revolutionised by Sky+. I now have no excuse for missing anything - Friday and Saturday mornings are spent catching up with the week's viewing.
I'll never miss an episode of the West Wing on Channel 4 and E4 and I'm currently addicted to Sir Alan Sugar and The Apprentice on BBC2.
I've also developed a fascination for some offbeat things on channels like MTV and Living.
Online, I'm a great fan of the Media Guardian website and when on the move, catch up with the ITN news headlines via Vodafone Live on my mobile.
At the moment, my evenings end with the great Alan Robson on Metro Radio doing the phone-in he's been doing for the past 23 years.
Paul Chantler is a radio programming consultant for Emap
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Paul Chantler was interviewed by Neil Henderson of The Radio Magazine. The full text of the interview, published on 14th August 2003,
is below:
1. Basic Radio Journalism has been released to the market again. How well
was the previous book received?
The book was originally written and published under the title Local Radio Journalism while I was at Chiltern ten years ago. I updated it
in 1997 when a second edition was published while I was at Essex. Both books sold out and were reprinted several times. I was amazed to
learn that it's the standard textbook on radio journalism courses in some colleges in the US, Australia and New Zealand. It was even
translated into Spanish! Basic Radio Journalism is a re-write and expansion of the original book. Of course there are updated
technical and legal sections and this time my co-author is Radio Magazine columnist Peter Stewart, a former colleague from Essex FM and
talkSPORT. It was published on the same day as the new Harry Potter book and we hope it will be just as successful!
2. Do you think many college journalism courses should adopt some of your methods?
The book provides a thorough grounding in the rudiments of practical, hands-on radio journalism. I'm always worried that many college
courses don't focus enough on the practicalities and concentrate too much on the theory. That's fine in some ways as students need to
know why they're doing things as well as how to do them. However one cause of frustration that I had as a news editor is the number of
radio journalism college graduates who have poor voices or who have never had any voice training. It really is the basic tool of the
trade! I have high hopes for the new National Broadcasting School being set up by my old boss at Southern FM Rory McLeod and launching
this autumn at Sussex University in Brighton. I'm going to be a guest lecturer there as often as I can.
3. You were part of Network News. Do you think with adequate funding and support it would have still been around now?
I was MD of Network News in the early 1990s when it was set up by Chiltern as a small-scale alternative to IRN. The idea was to keep
costs low by repackaging Sky TV audio for radio. It was a brave experiment which failed because it was ahead of its time. Our biggest
success was winning the contract to supply news to the then newly-launched Virgin Radio which we did live from Dunstable - yes,
Dunstable - for two years. We had some good people working for us including some well known news names and faces like Howard Hughes and
Paul Brennan, the Sky TV reporter. Angus Moorat, now at BBC Radio Sheffield, Tim Page and Jon Davies were the mainstays of the operation.
It was a crazy time with people working crazy hours. I used to dread my bleeper going off at 4.30am saying someone couldn't turn up for
the 6am shift and having to turn out to do it myself! But the industry was too small then and the big groups saw no reason to break away
from IRN which was effectively "free" through the Newslink system and pay cash for news from us. Now in Sky News Radio under Andy Ivy we
see a genuine alternative to IRN which is credible and growing. I think the biggest legacy from Network News is that it gave IRN a kick
up the bum and made them less complacent. I'm really impressed at the quality of service IRN offers today - two differently formatted
bulletins and enormous amounts of material for stations to choose from.
4. You are involved in licence applications now and giving stations advice on how to improve their news output. What are your insider
tips?
The main advice for existing or new licensees is to take news provision seriously. I'm a great admirer of John Myers and the way he's
built the Real Radio network of stations. In his licence applications and on air, John is always careful to include well-resourced local
newsrooms and many applicants could learn a lesson from that. I've just been involved in helping to write and put together Emap's Glasgow
licence application, Glasgow's Magic FM, and of all the applicants, we've made the biggest commitment to local news. It's absolutely
vital even on a music station. In terms of insider tips, there are some great new ways of repackaging news which I've been helping some
of the Emap Magic stations introduce, such as the US style multi-versions of stories (see my book for details!). I do "copy clinics" for
journalists on the stations I work with where I conduct a coaching session for a journalist like a snoop session for a DJ. I critique
their cues and copy. The best advice I give them is to write is simple, conversational English as they'd tell their mates down the pub.
The main problem is many still have bad writing habits like newspaper journalists and over-complicate things making it difficult for the
listener to understand.
5. You've had a successful career as a programmer. Out of all the stations you've worked for like Essex, Chiltern and Talk, which job
has given you the most pleasure?
Setting up and launching Galaxy 101 in Bristol as one of the first regional stations in 1994 was a memorable time. It was hard work with
a small team and little money. But we broke new ground and got great audience figures in our first year with a new format of dance music
that now would be called Rhythmic Adult Contemporary. But the best time of all was at Essex Radio Group in the late 90s. Essex FM was
having great audience success, we were involved in successful projects like our schools anti-drugs roadshows, we were on national TV
every week in a docusoap called Lakesiders which got 10 million viewers (never again!), we had won the East of England regional licence
and were launching Vibe FM, and we were winning awards and making money. And the Essex team under Rob van Pooss, now at UKRD, were a
great bunch who knew how to have fun and enjoy themselves.
6. You recently visited the Radio Festival. Do you think there's not enough effort made in radio to embrace new ideas and new
formats? Would you like to see more risk taking rather than formatting and syndication?
I think digital radio is a fantastic way to try out new ideas and formats. Stations like Oneword could never exist on analogue but
there's a natural place for them on digital. I believe we're going to see much more experimentation in the format of digital stations.
It was sad to see so many stations having the stuffing knocked out of them in the mid to late 90s where they adopted a bland, liner-card,
three-links an hour mentality. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say this wiped out a whole generation of young talented
personality presenters who had nowhere to learn their craft - and we're paying the price now as groups cry out for talent. Happily, the
groups that adopted this approach have seen the error of their ways and the industry now has an appetite to learn how to identify,
nurture and grow talent. Consultants like me can help teach the coaching skills necessary to pull through the talent of tomorrow. These
guys need to be told that trying out new ideas, making mistakes and taking risks is a good thing. Yes we need formats but the format
should be the skeleton of the station around which the talent needs to have freedom to grow.
7. During your period at talkSPORT you had the chance to help the station grow into a ratings winner. Did it disappoint you that a
station listened to largely for live sport is now hardly broadcasting commentaries or major events and you had little control over the
cost cutting?
My own view is that talkSPORT is at its best when it does what its name implies - talking about sport. I've always thought that buying
sports rights was misguided. They were too expensive and the BBC had all the best ones. Even when we did buy and broadcast commentaries,
our research showed listeners thought they were listening to the Beeb! So I believed, and still believe, that having shows like Alan
Brazil and Mike Parry at breakfast and Hawksbee and Jacobs (who I brought onto the mainstream output from off peak weekends) are the
station's unique selling point. I think Brazil and Parry have brilliant chemistry together and they've successfully expanded their show
into talking not just about sport but also other male-related things. They have a well-deserved growing audience. One of the main reasons
the show has worked is that it's been left in place for two years and has become a part of people's routines. In the days I was there,
too much was tried out for a few weeks or days and then scrapped which was a legacy from Kelvin MacKenzie's newspaper days when a good
front page could mean the difference between high and low sales. I think Kelvin's learned that in radio, things need time - a good year
or 18 months - to work. Having said all that about commentaries, I think talkSPORT's golf commentary is brilliant, not because I'm a golf
fan but because of the banter between the commentators.
8. If you had to assemble a list of top broadcasters you have worked with who would be in it and why?
I'll mention my two favourites - one in speech radio and the other in music radio. James Whale on talkSPORT is a brilliantly instinctive
broadcaster who's entertaining and infuriating at the same time. His main skill is his unpredictability - you just have to keep listening
to see what's he'll do next and I find it exciting and impossible to turn off once I've started listening. He knows just how far to push
things to the edge without going over it. And despite his aggressive image, he's a real pussy cat to work with! I really don't think
James has received the credit he deserves in the industry for all his years of late night talk broadcasting with fantastic audience
figures. My other choice is Martin Day, the breakfast show presenter on Essex FM. For the life of me, I can't understand why this guy is
not a national - or even a London - star. It says something about radio managements in the UK that they can't spot a real talent when
they hear it. I gave him his break and helped nurture him. Martin is funny, fluent and popular - a real man of the people. He's
imaginative and conscientious and is a real natural on air. People really relate to him and he comes up with the most imaginative
top-of-the-mind stuff I've ever heard. Like all the best talents, he's sometimes difficult to work with but he's also great fun. He's
the man Capital should have succeed Tarrant. It frustrates me to see how the industry ignores guys like Martin in favour of so-called
TV stars who don't have an ounce of his radio skills or natural broadcasting talent.
9. When you attended the Radio Festival, you were treated to presentations from all the Midlands licence applicants. Which of the
groups do you think will triumph?
I'd love to see Emap get it with their Kerrang format. I think the time is ripe for a commercial station which plays young rock music.
There's a proven demand for it in the West Midlands, Kerrang is a fantastic brand and Emap are smart operators with the right balance
between centralisation and localisation.
10. You've been a consultant for two years. How is it going and will you ever work for a company as a full-time employee again?
Consultants have a bad name which is a shame. We can be useful in helping with specific problems and projects. I set up my business to
offer advice and help to both music and speech stations and it's been really successful. I've worked for a wide variety of stations doing
a wide variety of projects from launching a newstalk station in Dublin to doing presenter coaching on stations in Central Europe. This
year I've helped Emap revamp their Magic stations outside London (Richard Park's been doing the London Magic), coached and critiqued
Emap journalists, done training courses for the CRCA and now I'm off to the Isle of Man to help Manx Radio train some new recruits. I've
been lucky enough to be offered several MD and PD jobs in the industry but I've turned them down. Right now there are only one or two
jobs that would tempt me back into full-time employment as I'm enjoying the freedom and variety that the life of a consultant has to
offer.
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