As for a strategy! -
R1: There are some issues around the R1 retargeting. 29 year olds today would have been 15 in 1997. I see that as the year that represents the end of Britpop. That significant music phenomenon could not easily be accommodated in today's version of youth. The main culture of pop music has remained comparatively static since. You could see the target moving to 15-32 or 15-34 if that position doesn't change radically. As many people aged 35-44 listen to R1 as they do to R2. Now I know that this is the opposite to how they want things to be. They want to make it younger but this ignores the ageing population, the fact that many people stay very young indeed culturally until their 30s and the impossibility economically of producing two stations from one.
R2: This in turn places R2 firmly in the poppier middle aged bracket with "middle age" defined as 35-75. While Titchmarsh and O'Grady hold on for the time being, frankly it is not now the station of new Pete Murrays. Bear in mind that those who saw Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival are now around age 60 while the fans of Bill Haley are over 70. Those in their 60s are not so much the new 40s as the older 20s. They are though currently quite distinct from, say, the over 75s, of which there are many, and who predate modern pop culture. Ultimately, R2 might need to be a pop music station that could appeal to the 35s-100s - but not yet.
The rest: I think then you are left with three groups. One will want radio to be more stimulating. Here think R3, R4 and R6. All age groups. The BBC standard must be seen to be upheld here, more content-driven, fewer top-down decisions. One will want mainly talk rather than music. Here think R4, R4X and R5. Again all age groups. And one will want life quieter. Here think R3, R4 and R4X. Probably mainly over 44. It sounds complicated, particularly when you factor in commercial radio. But is it? Some will orientate to these. Surely it is the job of R1 to give the radio bug to 15 year olds who can't choose their own ways. Same as it ever was etc.
Local radio: And then BBC local radio. London is different - a unique service appealing to a very wide range of people - but in most parts of the country it is probably failing in its job to pick up the Wogan fanatics. I don't see why 3 should do it. In fact, I think what I would do is close 75% of the local stations and replace them with a service that is essentially family light entertainment, appealing mainly to the elderly and children. Whatever the pop culture going into old age, there will always be a place for this type of broadcasting as some people choose to slow down in older age. By appealing to children, it would also offer some an earlier route into radio than that provided by R1 and the commercial stations. And it would help enable R3, R4 etc to be what they are.
Content of a new R2X: Light, MOR, music. A few X-factor things. Maybe the googlie being a big emphasis on computers and media interaction of that kind. Join the surfers with the silver surfers in a very innovative way. Community interests, wherever they are across the country, as a theme. Hobbies. A bit of comedy. Some sport. The remaining 25% of local stations would become regional and provide regular feeds at key times on specific regional and local events. And they would also ideally be more "local" than local radio is now with regional accents and much greater emphasis on live performance and culture from their regions.
R1: There are some issues around the R1 retargeting. 29 year olds today would have been 15 in 1997. I see that as the year that represents the end of Britpop. That significant music phenomenon could not easily be accommodated in today's version of youth. The main culture of pop music has remained comparatively static since. You could see the target moving to 15-32 or 15-34 if that position doesn't change radically. As many people aged 35-44 listen to R1 as they do to R2. Now I know that this is the opposite to how they want things to be. They want to make it younger but this ignores the ageing population, the fact that many people stay very young indeed culturally until their 30s and the impossibility economically of producing two stations from one.
R2: This in turn places R2 firmly in the poppier middle aged bracket with "middle age" defined as 35-75. While Titchmarsh and O'Grady hold on for the time being, frankly it is not now the station of new Pete Murrays. Bear in mind that those who saw Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival are now around age 60 while the fans of Bill Haley are over 70. Those in their 60s are not so much the new 40s as the older 20s. They are though currently quite distinct from, say, the over 75s, of which there are many, and who predate modern pop culture. Ultimately, R2 might need to be a pop music station that could appeal to the 35s-100s - but not yet.
The rest: I think then you are left with three groups. One will want radio to be more stimulating. Here think R3, R4 and R6. All age groups. The BBC standard must be seen to be upheld here, more content-driven, fewer top-down decisions. One will want mainly talk rather than music. Here think R4, R4X and R5. Again all age groups. And one will want life quieter. Here think R3, R4 and R4X. Probably mainly over 44. It sounds complicated, particularly when you factor in commercial radio. But is it? Some will orientate to these. Surely it is the job of R1 to give the radio bug to 15 year olds who can't choose their own ways. Same as it ever was etc.
Local radio: And then BBC local radio. London is different - a unique service appealing to a very wide range of people - but in most parts of the country it is probably failing in its job to pick up the Wogan fanatics. I don't see why 3 should do it. In fact, I think what I would do is close 75% of the local stations and replace them with a service that is essentially family light entertainment, appealing mainly to the elderly and children. Whatever the pop culture going into old age, there will always be a place for this type of broadcasting as some people choose to slow down in older age. By appealing to children, it would also offer some an earlier route into radio than that provided by R1 and the commercial stations. And it would help enable R3, R4 etc to be what they are.
Content of a new R2X: Light, MOR, music. A few X-factor things. Maybe the googlie being a big emphasis on computers and media interaction of that kind. Join the surfers with the silver surfers in a very innovative way. Community interests, wherever they are across the country, as a theme. Hobbies. A bit of comedy. Some sport. The remaining 25% of local stations would become regional and provide regular feeds at key times on specific regional and local events. And they would also ideally be more "local" than local radio is now with regional accents and much greater emphasis on live performance and culture from their regions.
....couldn't resist
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