Goodbye Broadcast, Hello Bottom Line

It's the beginning of the end for local commercial radio as we know it! And its already having a big economic effect on me. Eh? Let me explain.

For years, commercial radio has been subject to regulatory controls. OWNERSHIP has been the subject of regulation. If you wanted to own a radio station in the UK, one of the conditions for holding the license was your commitment to the local scene, whether that be speech, music or community. And it followed, therefore, that you needed to be a company with your roots in that community. Or at the very least the country the community was based in - i.e. the UK. Not any more. The government or whoever it is that has final word on these things, did away with the ownership rules just last year. Anyone from anywhere in the world can now own your local commercial radio station. Let the Market Decide. (Didn't we go there with fairly disastrous consequences in the 1980's?)

Already the (I would argue) catastrophic effects of this seemingly logical legislation is being felt. The big regional stations throughout the UK are now dropping programme makers, d.j's, producers and journalists with a haste that can only be described as ferocious. It's nothing to do with quality or even broadcasting, actually, but with the bottom line. It's obviously far cheaper to have 1 production team based in London broadcasting a network programme to the dozens of their other radio stations throughout the UK than to have to pay dozens of local production teams. Listen to a radio station in the day anywhere in the UK and more and more the chances are you are listening to a programme originated and presented from London. With local commercials of course. And surely with all the controversy we've seen recently about misleading the public, is this not another form of gentle deceit?

The reason for all this, I hear from commercial operators, is that "we've got to compete with the BBC." This, I think, is complete bollocks. (Technical term.) For years commercial radio has done a very good job of competing with the BBC and indeed, generally trouncing them in the listening figures - particularly when local stations fight against the BBC networks.

This cull of creative talent is simply about the bottom line. Now that big overseas companies can move into our lucrative UK radio market, you can bet your Dow Jones they certainly will. And indeed they are. And although there are some monopoly rules, the current radio groups can see what is coming and so are preparing for the takeovers that will and are happening, hostile and otherwise. The more profitable they can make their companies appear, the more attractive they will be to potential buyers. So get rid of many overheads as possible, especially people. The regulation is now so light it's proving easy.

I fear in a few short years what's left of our radio industry will be as globally corporate as all the other bland, soulless, money making brands in the world and Commercial FM UK will be owned by one or two massive international groups, probably based in America or Japan. And as elsewhere it will be the bottom line that matters. Sad days indeed. And of course national commercial radio will become a pale imitation of the BBC networks. Instead of something vibrant, with its own local - and I certainly don't mean parochial - identity. It is possible to have a popular contemporary station with a local slant as has been proved time and again. It means radio will all but disappear as an industry and we shall return to the dark days pre- 1974 when radio was a small, London-based enclave. And the days when commercial radio was introduced to offer the listener a choice will be virtually over.

I'm not against anyone making a profit, by the way. Far from it. But is this not just another case of a unique British industry being decimated to protect fat cat shareholders? Bugger the quality, feel the profit.

And how has it affected me? I just took in a lodger who works on the breakfast show of a major West Midlands radio station. And the Private Equity company that now owns the lodgers radio station have just made him and dozens of others he works with redundant. They are now going to network most of the programmes from London. Just like the other big radio group in the Midlands... !

My Wireless life

When I started this blog it was supposed to be about how the Maverick Theatre Company progressed, but one of the progressions of the MTC is that it now has its own website and blog. When I started this, it hadn't. So I think I may make this more personal, perhaps. Or at least as personal as you can on the www.

I've had lots of emails about me on the radio, so I thought I might give a quick run down here about the start of my occasional, much loved career. With occasional pictures!

This pic, above, is me outside the studios of what was Radio Thamesmead, in about 1977 ish. I've obviously not changed much...!

Left school with CSE's - on my estate you had two choices of career - British Leyland (Rover) or, if you were tall, the Police who were fairly desperate and badly paid in the 70's. I was tall. I lasted about a year.

Worked as a dispatch rider/tea boy/junior copywriter for Moore Associates in Hall Green.

Aged 17 I met and lived with a woman who was 39 and had two kids, the eldest 15! An interesting time that lasted a couple of years. Then, for emotional reasons, I had to get out of Birmingham!

Secured a job as a residential social worker in South London.

Looking for a hobby, I offered to help the local scouts (they never got back to me) or start a band (difficult because I worked shifts) before I finally, on the advice of a colleague, went to Radio Thamesmead as a volunteer.

In a month I ended up doing the breakfast shows under the name Nick Mobbs - because I'd have mobs of people around. I'd leave the doors open and see who came in. Characters included The Pub Singer (later used in a similar incarnation on a national station!) and Morph The Thing, someone who used to grunt poetry for kids. I think you had to be there...

There you go. That's how things started. Fascinating innit! Or maybe not...

Off down the dole now. See if they've got any radio jobs.