Radio Plymouth - Ofcom Licensing

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RADIO PLYMOUTH Our research shows that they don’t hear the music they like – so they tune elsewhere and don’t hear the news they need. Conclusions for Radio Plymouth We will make sure that our national and regional coverage is comprehensive and that editorial decisions are made in light of what is important to our listeners. Local for its own sake isn’t good enough. But as our focus groups suggested, a local angle on a national story is attractive. Music policy “Good music” is the single most important reason for people to choose a new service (61%). But what defines music as “good”? It’s a subjective question and not one that we believe is usefully answered by standard reference to the decade in which a track is released. Even anecdotally, very few people define their musical tastes by decade. Genres are more prevalent. But there’s something about “good music” which is harder to define. Nevertheless, we set out to do so! Firstly, we asked which radio station played the music people prefer. Although BBC Radio 2 came out top, there are significant differences between age groups. Plymouth Sound is the music station of choice for people under 24, though it falls out of favour fast at this point, particularly for men. But by and large, together with Radio 1, it performs well for under 35s. Classic FM topped the list for just a handful of respondents. Our conclusion is that people want mainstream music and, as they get older, a wider choice. As listening to Plymouth Sound falls away, Radio 2 benefits but so does Pirate FM. What is it that makes someone in Plymouth think Plymouth Sound isn’t for them, but that Pirate FM will fill the gap? Clearly, it’s not an aversion to commercial radio. We decided to delve further into musical tastes, but not adopt an approach of defining music by decades. To us, this is a somewhat narrow methodology leading to predictable music programming. It was also contrary to our developing philosophy that a new station should define itself not by age but by feel. So we asked respondents their view about artists in categories that were a combination of genres and chronology. For example, we asked about Classic Rock, a genre, but also about “Artists that span the decades” – those stars such as Elton John, the Rolling Stones, U2 or Paul McCartney that have had popular success in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and in this millennium. The decade doesn’t matter; the artist, or the spirit of enduring music, does. Most of our categories, but not all, were of interest to more than 50% of respondents, with higher appreciation among 35-54 year olds. Those that were are shown in the next table. 52
80 70 60 50 % 40 30 20 10 0 Artists that span the decades: RADIO PLYMOUTH Music preferences Classic Rock Contemporary music: 53 Pop music: Soul: Survey 35-54 Ballads, new wave and local artists scored lower – once again proving the point that local for its own sake isn’t good enough. Even contemporary music scores higher among 35-54 year olds – indicating that even more mature listeners enjoy current music, providing it suits their tastes (we suggested artists like Keane, KT Tunstell and Coldplay, rather than “youth” artists like Dr. Dre, Black Eyed Peas or Test Icicles). We explored the issue of “good music” too in our qualitative focus groups and it is worth highlighting some of the points here. There was much agreement that existing services were repetitive and, by and large, too caught up with the charts. “They all play safe; it’s lowest common denominator,” said one (male, C1, forties). Another thought existing available music was too melodic: “I don’t like the music on the locals, it’s too soft, I like a bit of rock, and the presenters are better [on Radio 2 and Virgin]” (male, C1, fifties). As our monitoring highlights, concern about repetitiveness isn’t always borne out by the reality, but it is an enduring issue, as one respondent complains: ”Pirate seems to have the same set of records which go on for about a month and then they change and they have another set of records which go on for about a month.” There’s a lesson here about rotation, not just within a single day, or even a week, but in the longer term. A station never wants to be stale, so there is much to be said for changing playlists. The lesson is to draw upon the breadth of suitable music and not get into frequent repetitions in the first place.
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Page 5 and 6: RADIO PLYMOUTH PAUL HUSSELL - Compa
Page 7 and 8: RADIO PLYMOUTH RICHARD BATH - Non-E
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Page 11 and 12: RADIO PLYMOUTH (b) Proposed Investi
Page 13 and 14: RADIO PLYMOUTH SUNRISE GROUP UK BRO
Page 15 and 16: RADIO PLYMOUTH 2. Financial and bus
Page 17 and 18: RADIO PLYMOUTH We intend to stream
Page 19 and 20: RADIO PLYMOUTH All this combined wi
Page 21 and 22: RADIO PLYMOUTH Having looked at sev
Page 23 and 24: RADIO PLYMOUTH Our research shows t
Page 25 and 26: 3. Transmission Proposals RADIO PLY
Page 27 and 28: RADIO PLYMOUTH SECTION 105(B) AND (
Page 29 and 30: (a) Range & Variety of Music RADIO
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Page 33 and 34: RADIO PLYMOUTH (a) Existing Local C
Page 35 and 36: RADIO PLYMOUTH We have also had the
Page 37 and 38: MID-MORNING 10.00 - 13.00 RADIO PLY
Page 39 and 40: CUT LOOSE 15.00 - 18.00 RADIO PLYMO
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Page 43 and 44: RADIO PLYMOUTH Specific questions a
Page 45 and 46: RADIO PLYMOUTH Census data for Radi
Page 47 and 48: RADIO PLYMOUTH The share of listeni
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Page 51: Station format RADIO PLYMOUTH When
Page 55 and 56: Conclusions for Radio Plymouth RADI
Page 57 and 58: Conclusions for Radio Plymouth RADI
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Page 61 and 62: RADIO PLYMOUTH Even in the wider br
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Page 65 and 66: RADIO PLYMOUTH On Pirate FM commerc
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Radio Plymouth - Ofcom Licensing

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