Monster Media 1993 #2/Image.iso/ham/amfm14.zip/AMFM14.TXT

Text File | 1993-08-18 | 14KB | 302 lines

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    *    ------- ******* -------
   * *   **   ** *       **   **    AM/FM #14 FOR AUGUST 1993
   * *   * * * * *       * * * *
  *   *  *  *  * *****   *  *  *    NEWS FROM THE UK RADIO INDUSTRY
  *****  *     * *       *     *
 *     * *     * *       *     *    EDITED BY STEPHEN HEBDITCH
 *     * ------- *       -------

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*** NEW CONTROLLER FOR RADIO ONE

The BBC has announced the new Controller of Radio One. From October
Matthew Bannister will take over the job from Johnny Beerling.
Bannister was previously Deputy Head of Talks at Capital Radio and
Managing Editor at GLR. He drew some criticism there for his 'year
zero' approach to transforming the mixed-format Radio London into the
new adult-oriented GLR. More recently he has worked with BBC Director
General John Birt on the future direction of the Corporation. He is
seen as closely allied with Mr Birt's vision.

At 36, Matthew Bannister is the youngest BBC Network Radio controller
in recent times. Under his control, Radio One is expected to try and
aim for a younger audience. John Birt has said that he would like the
station to become "more witty, more alternative, more fun". A number of
changes are expected to be made to the deejay line-up following his
arrival, including the departure of some of the older names at the
station.


*** BRANSON 'FINDS' NEW FREQUENCIES

In Richard Branson's latest bid for an FM frequency, he has told MPs
that his engineers have found additional space on the FM band for
Virgin. Speaking to the National Heritage Committee he said that
through better frequency allocation space could be made on the FM band
for an additional national broadcaster. This would, he said, require
some areas to lose fill-in relays for BBC services. This problem could
be overcome, he believed, by giving listeners in those areas satellite
dishes on which to receive BBC stations. Although more efficient
frequency allocation could release space for some new transmitters,
there would not be enough room for another national network without
considerable practical difficulties.


*** BOOBY-TRAPPED BARRACADE FOR PIRATE

DTI investigators faced one of their toughest jobs yet when they found
the pirate station they were attempting to raid barracaded behind a
wall of concrete. Rush FM had installed its transmission equipment in a
disused flat on the 21st floor of a council tower block in Hackney,
East London. To prevent access, the entrance to the flat had been
sealed up with three tons of concrete. Programmes came from a studio
some distance away, connected over a radio link.

Contractors called in by the council to enable them to gain access to
the flat hit a scaffolding pole wired up to the mains while attempting
to drill through the concrete, causing a small explosion. Phials of
ammonia and CS gas were also reported to have been found embedded in
the concrete. A Police guard was needed to prevent the contractors
being attacked while the flat was secured. Hackney Council are
currently carrying out work to secure their tower blocks from use by
unlicensed stations.

Police have suggested that for the station to go to such lengths to
protect itself there must be a drugs link. They say they believe a
number of unlicenced stations are part of a network of pay party
operators and drug dealers. This has been denied by deejays at Rush FM
who say they aren't making any money out of the hardcore techno
station. They also denied that they had installed booby-traps, saying
they were simply trying to protect their equipment after facing 10
raids already this year.


*** BRIGHT FUTURE FOR RADIO

A new report from the Henley Centre predicts a bright future for radio
in the UK. The increase in the number of specialist stations and more
people listening in cars and living alone is leading to a rise in
radio's popularity.

Amongst the findings in the survey:-

  - 16 percent of people found radio programmes dull.
  - 6 percent thought that their favourite station had got worse over the
    last year.
  - 85 percent of radio listeners choose the station they want to
    listen to, rather than having to put up with someone else's choice.
  - 20 percent of listeners don't pay attention to the radio whilst it
    is on.
  - 36 percent don't enjoy radio advertising.
  - 29 percent say they have never been annoyed by radio advertising.


*** LOCAL LICENCES

The Radio Authority has announced details of the second stage of ILR
licence re-advertisements. These include Capital Radio, whose licence
will be re-advertised in March 1994, and the AM and FM licences for
Birmingham, Bradford, Bury St Edmunds, Glasgow, Guildford, Hereford,
Ipswich, Preston and Swindon.

A new licence has been advertised for Inverurie and Gordon in the
Grampians. The deadline for applications for the station to serve
60,000 adults is the 21st of September.

After a brief delay, the Radio Authority has awarded the licence for
Derry in Northern Ireland to Maiden City FM.

Bucks Broadcasting has won the new local licence for Aylesbury in
Buckinghamshire.

13 groups have applied for the West Midlands Independent Regional Radio
licence.

Two groups have applied for the AM and FM licences for Exeter and
Torbay in Devon: present broadcaster Devon Air and newcomer Wild West.

GWR West has retained its licence for Bristol in Avon. Two Counties
Radio has retained its licence for Bournemouth in Dorset. Mid Anglia
Radio has retained the licence for Peterborough in Northamptonshire.


*** SATELLITE RADIO

Virgin 1215 have begun broadcasting on satellite. The station can now
be found on a stereo sub-carrier pair of Sky News.

World Radio Network is to launch a new service on Astra in September
carrying the best of public radio around the world.


*** RESTRICTED SERVICE STATIONS

Festival FM, the annual restricted service station for the Edinburgh
Festival, will be on the air for 4 weeks from the 8th of August. The
station can be found on 100.4 FM.

Jive FM was on the air for four weeks in June and July, broadcasting
dance music to Luton.


*** PEOPLE AND PROGRAMMING

James Naughtie, presenter of The World at One, is to move to Radio
Four's flagship news programme Today following the departure of Brian
Redhead in the autumn.

LBC is to sue its former Managing Director following his employment by
a rival bidder for its London radio licence. Charlie Cox has been taken
on as MD by the London Radio Company for its planned news and talk
operation.

Virgin 1215 has denied complaints that it is too oriented towards music
made by white males. It has admitted that it did perhaps play too much
'boys' music' during its early days but says it is now programming more
female artists and ballads.

Birmingham's BRMB have been inundated with complaints from listeners to
their Xtra-AM service following the replacement of its breakfast
presenter. As part of changes introduced by new owners Capital Radio,
Tony Prince has taken over from popular local broadcaster Les Ross.
Group Programme Director Richard Park says changes were necessary to
boost BRMB's flagging ratings.

The Radio Authority has apologised to Virgin presenter Tommy Vance
after wrongly censuring him instead of Nick Abbott for making comments
about spiking coffee at the station with LSD.

21 ILR stations are to broadcast a new dance jazz programme presented
by Gilles Peterson. The programme has been put together by Somethin'
Else Sound Directions and will be sponsored by TAG lager.

Jazz FM are to begin a series of live concert broadcasts from Ronnie
Scott's in London.

Jonathan Miles, a DJ on GWR in Bath, recently broadcast for nearly
four hours before discovering that due to a technical problem no-one
was able to hear him.


*** BITS

The Radio Authority has warned Independent stations about the rules on
sponsored broadcasts following a Tina Turner programme carried last
month on 30 stations. The programme contained no mention that it was
paid for by EMI, Tina Turner's record company, a breach of Radio
Authority rules.

A majority of people responding to the Government's Green Paper on the
future of the BBC want the Corporation to continue to be funded by the
licence fee and to carry a broad range of quality programmes as at
present. 330 responses were against the plans to replace Radio Four on
Long Wave with a new rolling news service.

Liz Forgan, boss of BBC Radio, has said that she thinks the BBC should
not be concerned with filling the gap between younger Radio 1 listeners
and older Radio 2 listeners.

The BBC has lost an appeal to Peter Brooke, National Heritage
Secretary, to keep two frequencies used by BBC Radio WM in the West
Midlands for Asian programming. They will now go to new ILR stations.

Radio Two is to take 350 hours of Independent programming over the next
year. Amongst the programmes being put out to tender are two live music
shows on Saturday mornings and a religious insert, 'Pause for Thought'
carried on weekday mornings.

HTV is to provide the news service for new Welsh ILR station Coast FM,
due to take to the air this summer.

The BBC have announced plans for an expansion of their Gaelic radio
service. From September, Radio nan Gaidheal will no longer operate as
an opt-out from Radio Scotland and will instead broadcast on its own
frequencies between 103 and 105 FM.

Staff at BBC Radio Five had produced and distributed a brochure arguing
the case for keeping the station. There have been suggestions that
Radio Five could be replaced by the BBC's proposed new Rolling News
service. 180 MPs have signed a commons motion backing the station.

Swansea Sound has paid undisclosed damages to a police inspector in
West Glamorgan after a caller on a phone-in accused him of corruption.

Jazz FM more than doubled its national advertising revenue in the first
half of 1993. This followed a decision to pull national advertising
sales in-house. The station has just signed new sponsorship deals with
Invergordon Whisky and American Express.

Television research company BARB are to look into the problem of
satellite radio stations artificially inflating the figures of some
satellite TV stations. The problem is particularly significant for UK
Gold which carries Radio 1, Radio 4, Radio 5 and the BBC World Service
on four of its sub-carriers.

Classic FM has almost completed the second phase of its five million
pound transmitter network. This will add an extra three million
potential listeners.

Golden Wonder are sponsoring the video screens at this summer's Radio
One Roadshow.

Virgin 1215, Atlantic 252 and Classic FM are lobbying audience research
company RAJAR for the national stations to be allowed a representative
on its board. Currently the board is made up only of people from the
BBC and ILR.

Brian West, Chief Executive of the Association of Independent Radio
Companies, has told the National Heritage Committee that the BBC's
Board of Govenors has a conflict of interests. The Board was expected
to both promote the BBC and regulate it, a power which he believed
should be dropped.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee has said that any reduction in the
budget of the BBC World Service would be "deeply misguided and
shortsighted". A cut of between 2.5 and 5 percent has been slated for
the World Service in the Treasury's autumn statement.

The National Association of Head Teachers is to ask the BBC to
reschedule events on next year's Radio One Roadshow. Teachers have
complained that attendance is down by fifty percent when the Roadshow
is in town.

A radio station in Picardy, just north of Paris, has begun transmitting
a high-pitched screech inaudible to humans but supposedly terrifying to
mosquitoes.


*** AM/FM 'THE PAPER EDITION'

To satisfy a growing number of requests we shall be producing a print
version of AM/FM from September. This will be published monthly in
newsletter form and is expected to contain some extra editorial that
will not be in the Online Edition. If you would like more details,
please write to [e-mail].

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             [e-mail]   fax: [phone]
              AM/FM, BCM Box 225, London, WC1N 3XX, England

   This is a monthly summary of stories carried by AM/FM Newsline, the
weekly UK radio industry news round-up on 0336 404550. (Calls charged at
 36p per minute cheap rate, 48p per minute other times, available within
     the UK only, TQM Communications, PO Box 2306, London, E17 4TU.)

 The AM/FM Online Edition can be obtained on the Usenet rec.radio.info
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       Copyright (C) 1993 TQM Communications. All rights reserved.
  This publication may be freely distributed provided it is done so in
whole, no alterations are made and only basic online charges are levied.

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