Local radio stations

[PTR 444]

Thought I’d start a topic on this, as it was announced yesterday that one of the most popular radio stations for my local area, Wave 105 (covering Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight), is to be amalgamated into Greatest Hits Radio

https://planetradio.co.uk/wave-105/station/on-air/wave-105-changes/

Wave 105 is changing

Here’s everything you need to know


This Spring, Wave 105 will transform to Greatest Hits Radio. Much loved Wave 105 presenters, Rick Jackson and Mark Collins, will be joining radio legends including Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo playing the biggest songs of the 70s, 80s and 90s on Greatest Hits Radio.

You will still be able to access all your local news and information, including traffic and travel, and Rick Jackson will still be presenting the breakfast show each morning, before handing over to Ken Bruce at 10am, complete with PopMaster. Ken will be followed by Mark Collins who will present a brand-new afternoon show 1-4pm ahead of Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show at 4pm.


As well as what you hear on-air, we remain connected to the community across the south coast with our vital fundraising for disadvantaged young people through our Cash for Kids charity.

Greatest Hits Radio plays the biggest songs of the 70s, 80s and 90s – the songs you know and love from artists including Elton John, Blondie, Queen, George Michael, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Elton John and Whitney Houston. All these Greatest Hits are played by radio legends including Ken Bruce, Simon Mayo, Jackie Brambles, Martin Kemp, Kate Thornton and Jenny Powell.

Why is the name of the station changing?​

This name change means that we’ll be a part of this bigger national brand, which brings more opportunities for us in the long-term. We’ll still continue to have all the local elements on the station we know is important to you, including local news and traffic and travel available on DAB, online and in the app. Bringing Greatest Hits Radio to FM is something that we know listeners want and this change also gives us the opportunity to bring Ken Bruce, Simon Mayo, Jackie Brambles and the other brilliant broadcasters on the station to FM.

Are you making any changes to the schedule?​

Alongside the station name changes there will be some changes to the schedules. Rick Jackson will continue to present his regular breakfast show and Mark Collins will be on from 1pm – they will both join Greatest Hits Radio’s presenting team which includes Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo.

Will you be changing the music that you play?​

On Greatest Hits Radio South Coast you’ll be able to hear all of the biggest songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s, playing music from iconic artists such as Blondie, Queen, George Michael, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Elton John and Whitney Houston.

For any listeners that would like to enjoy a playlist of the biggest hits and throwbacks from the 90s to now, as well as shows from Gemma Atkinson and Mike Toolan, Sam Thompson, Fleur East and more, you can do so by choosing Hits Radio South Coast on DAB, online or smart speaker. The station also contains local news and information for the area.

Does this mean that it will no longer be a local station?​

You’ll still be able to find all the same local elements including local news and information, traffic and travel and the weekday Breakfast show with Rick as well as Mark Collins in the mid-afternoons. We’ll still be supporting fundraising for disadvantaged young people within the community through our Cash for Kids charity and will also continue to provide advertising opportunities for local commercial partners.

How will I be able to listen to the station after the change?​

You’ll be able to find us in all the usual places, but just under a new name. We’ll update automatically on the current FM frequency to Greatest Hits Radio, and on DAB digital radio you may just need to retune your radio to make sure we come up as Greatest Hits Radio South Coast, but you won’t need to do anything just yet.

To listen on your smart speaker you’ll need to just to ask it to “Play Greatest Hits Radio’, and to listen on the app download from your app store. New websites will be available at greatesthitsradio.co.uk and from this site you’ll just need to select the South Coast as your local region to make sure you’re getting the localised version of the station.

Will I still be able to enter Make Me A Winner when Wave 105 becomes Greatest Hits Radio?​

Yes! Our life-changing cash competitions will continue be a big part of both stations and you’ll still be able to enter in all the usual ways.

I have a prize / offer voucher with the station – will that expire?​

No don’t worry! Nothing changes with regards to our prizes; the validity period will remain the same.

What will happen to the Wave 105 building?​

The address remains the same and we’ll continue to broadcast from the site as usual.

What will happen to the Wave 105 social media pages?​

If you already follow the pages you won’t need to do anything as they’ll be renamed in due course.

Will I still receive regular emails from Wave 105?​

As we change our name to Greatest Hits Radio South Coast, you’ll need to opt into our new emails to make sure you receive information ongoing. We’ll share details for how you can do this in due course.

How will I be able to contact the station after the change?​

Our address remains the same, you’ll just need to address any post to Greatest Hits Radio South Coast. The phone number also remains the same and we’ll share new email details in due course.

Will you still be supporting Cash for Kids?​

Yes absolutely! We’ll still be supporting fundraising for disadvantaged young people in the community through our Cash for Kids charity.

I’m a local business and want to understand more about the changes, who do I speak to?​

If you already have a contact at the business, please feel free to reach out to them as normal or you can contact the following:

[email protected] or [email protected].

Most of my family members are regular listeners to Wave 105, so this will come as a surprise to them. While I used to listen to it regularly several years ago, my interest in it has faded in favour of more niche radio stations such as Radio 1 Dance, but I imagine this goes to show how audiences are changing in today's world of on-demand music playlists and Spotify. Most people of today will want to listen to a particular selection of music genres that they appreciate, rather than have to listen through a few songs that they don't like. It's even evident in my family as we tend to skip to a different radio station whenever a song that we don't particularly like comes on.

Even so, I don't think that discontinuing Wave 105 is the best idea since I think it is good to have an "all-rounder" radio station for a particular region, particularly if an audience can be built up around it. There can't be that many radio stations that play a whole range of genres spanning right from 60s rock and roll all the way to today's chart topping hits, with a bit of new wave, disco, house, indie and R&B in between. Narrowing down to the greatest hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s will just lead to the same songs being played on repeat at least once a week, if not more frequent, which will alienate those people looking for more variety. In my experience, as much as George Michael, Whitney Houston, Elton John and David Bowie are legendary singers, there's only so many times you can listen to all of their songs on repeat before you eventually get bored.

I guess the fundamental issue with local radio is that unless you want to appeal to absolutely everybody (which is impossible), you have to draw a line somewhere whether that be musical genres, periods, or local coverage. On the latter point, Wave 105 is good for local news and weather if your life mostly stays within Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight (like me for example, I frequent all three), but for someone living in those regions who regularly commutes to Surrey or Berkshire for example, you're going to want a radio station that covers those regions instead. It's a bit like with the BBC local news regions that put Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the South, despite some people feeling that they might be better suited to the Midlands or East. On another note, ever since the advent of online streaming, you don't even need to be in your home region to listen to your local radio station anymore, so one could argue what the point is of differentiating by region these days.

What are your thoughts on this decision, and local radio in general? Do you believe that more widespread coverage of the internet and better personalisation tools, such as a car touchscreen displaying travel and weather updates for all your frequented locations, will further diminish the case for local radio?

 

[Lewisham2221]

Bauer Media's quest to eradicate local radio continues... (they're not the only ones though, the BBC are doing just about the same thing)

I imagine just about the only consistent audience left for radio these days is workplaces and car based commuters.

In the past 20 years my local station has gone from having 24/7 locally based shows with presenters, to having spells overnight etc with no presenter, shows clearly shared amongst and broadcast simultaneously across multiple stations (noted by the sudden absence of the presenter ever mentioning the area or station name), to "national" presenters pretending to be local by recording multiple local intros (you're listening to <presenter> on <station>) which were clearly dubbed in for each local area over the intro for an otherwise national show. Now we've fully gone down the Hits/Greatest Hits line, with a "local" breakfast show (the existing local presenters, but now produced elsewhere and with the presenters probably either working from home or having to commute elsewhere), "local" news/travel (clearly read by somebody in another city who has no local knowledge, made apparent by mispronounced locations etc) and otherwise fully national content.

 

[skyhigh]

Most of my family members are regular listeners to Wave 105, so this will come as a surprise to them.

The writing has been on the wall for years. The UKRD group was purchased by Bauer in March 2019. All except Wave and Pirate have already been absorbed into their national brands. In the last year or two Wave/Pirate have transitioned to follow the national Hits/Greatest Hits playlists so it was clearly only a matter of time before Wave and Pirate followed the rest.

 

[Blindtraveler]

It's all about money. The quality he has been gone for years, I grew up listening to some tremendous local radio and now I look back on it with the rosiest of rose tinted spectacles because now it's just bland and generic and no longer worth listening to. The sort of digital service that plays non-stop I'm interrupted music is probably the way forward unless of course a new breed of local stations with local identities emerges big time, some areas this has happened with local online and digital services or community radio but the problem with community radio is that it's volunteer LED and badly funded and struggles as a result, as someone who was involved in community radio for years I have a real affection for it but can also see it's downsides.

 

[PTR 444]

Bauer Media's quest to eradicate local radio continues... (they're not the only ones though, the BBC are doing just about the same thing)

To be honest, I think the rise of online streaming and touchscreen devices is playing more of a part than anything.

I imagine just about the only consistent audience left for radio these days is workplaces and car based commuters.

Although I can imagine in the case of car commuters, an ever increasing amount will be listening digitally or streaming on demand through smart devices.

 

[skyhigh]

The quality he has been gone for years, I grew up listening to some tremendous local radio and now I look back on it with the rosiest of rose tinted spectacles because now it's just bland and generic and no longer worth listening to.

That's quite a sweeping statement that I don't think is true.

The independent 'replacements' for the North Yorks/Scarborough UKRD stations (Your Harrogate, YorkMix and This is The Coast) are generally very high quality, have a good buy-in from local communities and are run on a commercial basis.

 

[renegademaster]

Just be happy it didnt get brought up by Global

 

[dosxuk]

Just be happy it didnt get brought up by Global

Bauer / Global, both much the same.

 

[dgl]

"but people want national stations" they claim, which is BS, notably as our local radio station, Wessex FM, had the most listeners in the area. I for one don't want a celebrity presenter I want one from the local area that crucially knows the local area.
I hate to think how much money was thrown down the drain when Wessex FM closed as they had just moved into new studios with all new kit.

It seems that community radio is now filling the commercial radio space, which wasn't really the point of them, two in my local area even have ex-Wessex FM presenters doing shows on them!

 

[Busaholic]

Pirate Radio in Pool, Cornwall is going the same way.

 

[Mogster]

Same in Lancashire. Preston’s Red Rose Radio, more recently Rock FM, is now amalgamated with Liverpool’s Radio City. Writing was on the wall when Bauer closed the Preston studios a couple of years ago and moved the one non syndicated morning show to Manchester.

 

[joncombe]

Wow sad to hear this as I listen to Wave 105 quite often but I knew it was owned by Bauer so this was likely only a matter of time. They seem on a quest to destroy all local radio and I think one of the Wave 105 transmitters already became Greatest Hits radio. I certainly still listen to the radio but I think that is the last local radio station left in the area. Sadly I doubt anyone will take their place, it seems local radio is pretty much dead now. As an aside I'm pretty sure Greatest Hits Radio is already transmitted in the area so is this just going to be another frequency broadcasting the same very limited playlist?

 

[Trackman]

Bauer Media's quest to eradicate local radio continues... (they're not the only ones though, the BBC are doing just about the same thing)

Bauer Media… less said the better.
As for the BBC, The legend Allan Beswick at BBC Manchester said he was first sacked and then said it was a joke, and then said he was retiring.
Basically, it was because of the demise of regional radio by the BBC. His show would be national and not regional as sort of promised... something on those lines.

 

[Mikw]

It's not just to do with the rise of streaming as this has been going on for decades when GWR kept buying local stations and networking them back in the 90's.
As for the BBC the commercial lobby who frequently lobby for curs, and a current government that doesn't like PSB broadcasting are a combination which was never going to lead to an expansion of local services. It's a shame as the only truly local radio now is provided by volunteers on community radio stations, which often have poor coverage and meagre budgets.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Torbay lost Breeze FM to GHR a year or two ago. Breeze itself had replaced the previous Palm FM and South Hams Radio stations both of which were superior. At least we still have East Devon Radio and the independent Phonic FM for decent entertainment. Radio Devon went downhill rapidly following changes in the BBC. Many of its popular presenters have left to be replaced by corporate drones who also cover neighbouring countries too.

 

[Travelmonkey]

As a radio graduate it pains me to see the death of so many local stations in the last few years, Bauer & Global are vultures you just have to see how they've poached the talented djs from the beeb unfortunately it makes life difficult for the next generation there was literally just 3 of us in my class learning how to do radioey things with the presence of stuff like Spotify it will only strangle the market more. True local assets are a dwindling commodity,

 

[Magdalia]

It's all about money.

This is the nearest any of you have got to understanding what is happening here.

For commercial radio the key factor is advertising revenue. If a commercial radio station can't sell advertising air time at appropriate rates then it is not financially viable. Much of what used to advertise on commercial radio, especially local stations, has now migrated to the internet.

I don't listen to much commercial radio, a bit of Greatest Hits and Gold. One thing I notice is the indirect government subsidy via buying up advertising time. This was huge during Covid but continues now with advertisements on, for example, how to use the NHS 111 helpline.

 

[Blindtraveler]

This is the nearest any of you have got to understanding what is happening here.

For commercial radio the key factor is advertising revenue. If a commercial radio station can't sell advertising air time at appropriate rates then it is not financially viable. Much of what used to advertise on commercial radio, especially local stations, has now migrated to the internet.

I don't listen to much commercial radio, a bit of Greatest Hits and Gold. One thing I notice is the indirect government subsidy via buying up advertising time. This was huge during Covid but continues now with advertisements on, for example, how to use the NHS 111 helpline.

When I was growing up and preparing to leave school I wanted to work in radio. I would still give various body parts to do so but not in one of these positions where all you do is sit and record multiple generic links for different stations whilst symbol casting the same show over hundreds and hundreds of miles of United Kingdom. The reality is that quite a few local stations were viable but once the big groups got a taste for what they could do they got hungry and greedy and we're making ridiculous offers, I know this because I have a friend who used to work at one of the stations that was absolved not all that long ago into a big network and gave me a lot of inside knowledge for stop furthermore I used to work voluntarily in community radio and yes we did struggle at times to sell advertising but we found that this was more due to the lack of area reach that community radio is allowed to cover which in an ideal world is something that we would restructure to bring back truly local radio again

As an asside, it was the radio industry that wanted governments and local councils to start paying for advertising slots, for many years all stations were sent a regular flow of public service messages ranging from put your bins out on this day at Christmas to the usual stop smoking lose weight test your smoke alarms type things, the terms of the license meant that we were obliged to fire these every now and again, but just about the time I was exiting community radio back in 2015 the rules changed and stations started offering blocks of advertising for such messaging and in many cases at a heavily discounted rate for stop there seemed little hope for getting these to become revenue generating until as you say during the pandemic when we did the whole stay home campaigns and get vaccinated later on, radio stations initially offered these for free but later on put the prices up and they have stayed a little higher which has helped a lot over small local outfits that remain as well as community radio become far more viable

 

[Jimini]

This thread got me thinking back to fond memories of Chris Tarrant on Capital Radio back in the ‘90s growing up, then I realised it’s been about 20 years since he left and Jonny Vaughan took over from him. Time does go by! RIP to the Flying Eye chopper sponsored by Cellnet eh

 

[Mogster]

Bauer Media… less said the better.
As for the BBC, The legend Allan Beswick at BBC Manchester said he was first sacked and then said it was a joke, and then said he was retiring.
Basically, it was because of the demise of regional radio by the BBC. His show would be national and not regional as sort of promised... something on those lines.

Aye, still remember the stir Allan’s late night phone in show on Red Rose caused in the 80s. As I remember he started at 21:00 with first callers at 21:30. I had school the next day so couldn’t listen to much but would record the next 90 minutes on cassette. Kids were talking about it each morning and sharing recordings. Allan is a local radio legend however at 75 maybe it’s the right time for him to hang up the mic.

I do feel sorry for younger people wanting to start a radio career now. It’s always been cut throat from what I’ve gleaned but now it’s just seems impossible. What Bauer has done in the last 10 years or so is nothing short of vandalism in my opinion. However I do wonder if younger people are listening to radio, there are just so many alternatives now, and if no one’s listening then what’s the point?

 

[Ediswan]

This thread got me thinking back to fond memories of Chris Tarrant on Capital Radio back in the ‘90s growing up, then I realised it’s been about 20 years since he left and Jonny Vaughan took over from him. Time does go by! RIP to the Flying Eye chopper sponsored by Cellnet eh

The Flying Eye was a twin engined fixed wing aircraft.

 

[londonbridge]

This thread got me thinking back to fond memories of Chris Tarrant on Capital Radio back in the ‘90s growing up, then I realised it’s been about 20 years since he left and Jonny Vaughan took over from him. Time does go by! RIP to the Flying Eye chopper sponsored by Cellnet eh

You’re only a few weeks out, Johnny Vaughan took over in April 2004

 

[Jimini]

The Flying Eye was a twin engined fixed wing aircraft.

I bow to your superior knowledge, sir

You’re only a few weeks out, Johnny Vaughan took over in April 2004

I remember walking to Shepherd’s Bush station shortly before 6am that morning on the day he took over, and recall the first thing he did was balls up the time check by saying it was 7am when he went live after the news had finished!

 

[lachlan]

In my previous job the radio was tuned into our local station Northsound and it's the same set of songs played on all the Bauer stations with perhaps the odd Scottish song thrown in. I think it's only the breakfast show that is local now. For anyone in the Aberdeen area, Original 106 still has the "local" chat that Northsound is missing and "Mearns fm" was our community station broadcast from Stonehaven.

In my experience local stations (Northsound, Heart) offer so little localisation and so many adverts they're not worth bothering with any more. BBC Radio Bristol had some good local programming but sounds like the local BBC stations are being cut back too and so we tend to stick with Radio 1/2 and Absolute 80s/90s.

 

[gswindale]

Back when Heart first launched, it offered a nice change from the likes of Beacon Radio and BRMB, but that changed not that long after they setup a bizarre London station.

What's really depressing is that even some of the national stations are moving away from having presenters and are now going to play music "non-stop".

 

[Kite159]

Another local radio station name soon to be added to the list of many other names which has ceased to exist in recent years due to Heart/Bauer rebranding them to national brand names. RIP Wave 105.

Will need to find another station to fill the gap on my car radio as I tend to flick through the channels when driving to minimise adverts/DJ Chit Chat/rubbish songs.

 

[Typhoon]

Scala are dumping some of their more well known presenters:

Mark Forrest, Mark Kermode, Luci Holland, Richard Allinson and Sam Hughes are leaving Scala Radio as the station introduces more presenter-free programmes.

The station says it is evolving its schedule by having a more music afternoon from 2pm till 6pm, after the Mindfulness Hour at 1pm.

Weekday evenings will also offer more music for listeners.

Almost certainly that means more of the very music everyone else is playing (they will be dropping music from the movies, I guess). Unfortunately 'All the music you love' or whatever the slogan of the station is is far the case for me, I want to hear the stuff from way back (or fairly recently) which I've forgotten all about.

Regarding Wave 105, does that mean Alex Dyke will be a casualty just after the end of his Radio Solent programme. I know someone who will be disappointed. All sorts of fringe music programmes are being junked right across the spectrum

 

[Kite159]

Instead of having DJs chatting away it will probably be more advertising.

 

[Typhoon]

Instead of having DJs chatting away it will probably be more advertising.

Do they not realise that some people actually like DJs chatting (witness what happened when Ken Bruce left the BBC and when Steve Wright died)?

The mistake they make is thinking they can put anybody on to chatter.

 

[Ashley Hill]

On digital radio there is DevonAir Gold which has minimal presenters.