Analysis of the failure of the UK commercial radio sector to offer compelling content on the DAB digital radio platform of which it is the content 'gatekeeper,' written by Grant Goddard in November 2004.

1. HEY HEY, YOU YOU, GET OFF OF
MY [DAB RADIO] MULTIPLEX
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
November 2004

2. When the technical specifications for Digital Audio Broadcasting were first
published more than a decade ago, it seemed like manna from heaven. DAB
appeared to offer a much-needed solution to the problem of our overcrowded
AM and FM wavebands, which had severely limited the scope for new
commercial radio services. Here, at last, was an opportunity to license a new
tier of radio stations through a mix of small-scale and large-scale multiplexes
across the country. In the future, it seemed possible that everybody would be
able to listen to a wider choice of radio stations that offered new, different
formats.
So what happened? Well, the BBC took up the challenge offered by DAB and
created a range of new radio services that are genuinely innovative and target
specific audiences for black music, Asian programming, sport and speech.
Admittedly, these are significant parts of the UK radio population that the BBC
should have served more diligently many years earlier, but remember that it
took Radio One eighteen years to introduce a weekly reggae show.
Meanwhile, what has the commercial sector done? It has invested huge
amounts in DAB transmission equipment and very little developing innovative
digital content. The result – ours cannot be the only household where DAB is
much used for the new BBC services, but rarely used for commercial radio.
The latest RAJAR data tells the whole story. Listening to BBC 1Xtra, BBC 6,
BBC 7 and the Asian Network is above 1.5 million hours per week, and even
part-time station Five Live Sports Extra achieves over 1 million hours. These
BBC stations launched in 2002, two years later than the commercial sector’s
national digital stations, of which Planet Rock, Core, Life and Oneword each
attract less than 1 million hours per week [I am guessing Life’s audience
because owner Capital Radio chooses not to publish data]. PrimeTime is the
one national commercial DAB-only station to register more than 1 million hours
per week. And why? Because the Saga-owned station is offering genuinely
different programming from existing stations, something that the others do not.
So what happened to the diversity we were promised for DAB? This is the
question asked by many local, community and student radio groups up and
down the country. At the Radio Authority, I regularly received phone calls from
these groups asking how they could apply for a licence to be carried on their
local DAB multiplex. I had to explain that the decision on which specific
services were carried on a multiplex was made by the multiplex owner and not
by the Radio Authority, which provided only an overall policy for each
multiplex. Then they asked me who owned the multiplexes. Well, I answered,
multiplexes are owned by a combination of Capital, Chrysalis, EMAP, GWR,
Wireless Group and Scottish Radio Holdings. Caller: “Are they obliged to carry
my local community station?” Me: “No.” Caller: “How much will it cost?” Me:
“You have to negotiate the terms with the multiplex owner, who set their own
fees.” Caller: “So I have to convince these large radio groups to carry my little
local station instead of one of their own services on my local multiplex?” Me:
“Yes.” Caller: “And the Radio Authority does not get involved?” Me: “If the
multiplex owner agrees to carry your station, then a digital content licence from
us is a simple formality.” Caller: “So the realistic chance of getting my little
station on DAB is almost zero.” Me: “Sorry.”
Hey Hey, You You, Get Off Of My [DAB Radio] Multiplex
©2004 Grant Goddard
page 2

3. The UK must be the only developed country in the world where the existing
radio companies have been made gatekeepers to a new technology that could
have embraced new entrants and significantly improved programming
diversity. It would be unthinkable for, say, the Post Office to be given the
power to licence internet cafes, or McDonalds the power to licence new
takeaway shops. How we arrived at this preposterous situation is a story in
itself. Because the Radio Authority lacked a proper policy or strategy
department, most media policy was instead determined by the CRCA, the
commercial radio industry’s trade organisation. And where has that led us
now?
Many of the DAB-only commercial radio services are no more than “squatters”.
Their radio group owners invented them merely to prevent future competitors
from gaining space on their DAB multiplexes and those of their “competitors”.
These services are not real radio stations but the simplest audio jukeboxes run
entirely from a single computer in the corner of an office. Their overheads are
almost zero. Their audiences are almost zero. Revenues are unimportant to
their owners. These squatters serve a purely strategic purpose – they stop
potential legitimate tenants finding a home on DAB. And the result is less
genuine choice for listeners.
For example, in London, I have listened to the “Virgin Radio Groove” DAB
service sufficient hours to understand that this entire station is the result of an
office junior having been dispatched from owner SMG’s office to HMV Oxford
Street one Friday afternoon to buy 20 soul CD compilations. For several years
now, SMG’s computer has played these same 200 songs again and again
without any human intervention. Two years ago, I wrote to the station, politely
pointing out that The Rascals’ “Groovin’” never was and never will be a soul
record, and that several of the “soul classics” the station plays are horrible rerecordings rather than the original hits. So much for listener input! SMG
continues to play these songs as regularly as they have always done.
Meanwhile, a genuine London soul radio station such as Solar Radio, which
had attracted a huge audience in the 1980s as a pirate and has since
transferred its broadcasts to the internet and satellite, is unavailable on a DAB
multiplex. Solar employs real presenters with excellent knowledge and
passion, playing a diverse range of soul music, whereas the Virgin Groove
computer becomes boring and repetitious after only a few hours' listening.
If Ofcom wants to help the commercial radio industry attract audiences on DAB
comparable in size to those already achieved by the BBC, it needs to lean on
groups such as SMG and “persuade” them that their low-cost one-computer
DAB stations are never going to develop a loyal listenership. The ultimatum
should be - either invest now in proper content for these services and convert
them to real radio stations, or Ofcom will kick these lazy squatters off the
multiplex and insist on carriage for radio stations that improve content diversity
and genuine choice. This is merely what most citizens thought they were
getting when they paid £100 for their DAB receiver. The BBC delivered their
part of the contract. To date, the commercial radio groups have only mugged
them.
Hey Hey, You You, Get Off Of My [DAB Radio] Multiplex
©2004 Grant Goddard
page 3

4. [Submitted to 'The Radio Magazine', November 2004, unpublished]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk
Hey Hey, You You, Get Off Of My [DAB Radio] Multiplex
©2004 Grant Goddard
page 4