Back in April, OFCOM made the decision to deregulate commercial radio stations, allowing struggling brands to be rejuvenated whilst maintaining their statuary requirement for local-led content.
And in real person language: OFCOM are throwing the rule book out.
What is really means is that money-strapped radio stations are now allowed to merge with others to provide one larger service, as opposed to lots of smaller ones. So, say I own "Radio A", "Radio B" and "Radio C" which all operate across the county of "Madeupshire". Each stations has it's own staff, three presenters that broadcast all day long (Breakfast presenter 7-10, Midday presenter 10-2 and Afternoon presenter 2-7) and sales team and serve each area of Madeupshire. Thanks to OFCOM relaxing their laws and deregulating radio, I am now allowed to approach them to change my business practice. Once they agree it, I will shut down "Radio A" "Radio B" and "Radio C" and launch "Radio D" which serves the ENTIRE of Madeupshire as opposed to little, financially non-viable sectors of the county. As a business model, it does make sense: Radio D can be a much bigger product and service a larger area.
Of course, it means that I'm now overstaffed. With Radio A, B and C I needed separate news readers, sales teams, not to mention separate presenters. News readers are mostly safe, as OFCOM have said that even though they are relaxing these broadcast laws they still want local news. Sales team are mostly safe, after all you still need to flog advertising for this new Superstation - no need to lose peoples there.
That just leaves NINE presenters...SIX of which are now superfluous. Radio D needs to sound as good as it can, and only needs three presenters to tick along. What will follow is a cruel, Big Brother-esque evition of two thirds of the Jockey workforce, leaving only the strongest and most talented to continue broadcasting to the county of Madeupshire. The other six will join the thousands of has-beens, never-weres, wannabes and no-chancers in Radio Wilderness (which broadcasts on 666.6fm and long wave and plays "The Funeral Dirge" in between traffic and travel updates from Tim In The Truck)
This is a hypothetical situation, but is not inaccurate. This is a story that will be popping up on Digital Spy a lot in the next few weeks. Global, the body behind the Heart stations countrywide were the first as they quickly, neatly and quietly slashed 33 local stations into just 15 regional ones. Soon after, Smooth Radio wrung the chances by chopping down its 5 regional stations into one national broadcaster with sixty jobs being lost company-wide. This is only the beginning and other radio groups are sure to follow, simply because its such a BRILLIANT way to save money.
Many of my peers are panicking about the changes. It means that the rickety bridge that is radio has just become even more unstable and everybody's job could be compromised in the heartbeat. This isn't news, though. I've read stories of radio presenters losing their jobs in a heartbeat, going on air to talk between the songs unaware that once they do their last link before the end of the show they are already unemployed. It's a tough, cutthroat, ball-grabbing business. Everybody wants to get on and only a small number of people actually do...and now, there's even fewer job opportunities than before.
I honestly thought I would be scared by all that's happening, but I'm not. I've known for a long time that there has to be a price for simply talking between songs, and I guess that this is another example of that. I finally got my foot in the door in 2008 and have always managed to keep my foot in it. I promised this year that I would, quote "kick that door in" and in the last few months I've metaphorically given the door two short, sharp nudges and have just begun to step back for the final thrust.
Many people are saying this is "the End of Radio", and I don't believe that either. Whilst Radio is being taken apart, it's only so I can be built up once again. Something will happen that will put radio back in the marketplace. By the end of the year, we may very well have only a fraction of the existing radio stations still active, and there is no better a time for a little Broadcast Breakthough, a Radio Revolution if you will.
I don't know what that will BE yet...but let's just call it "Radio E" shall we?