WEBVTT

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Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,

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and this is my international radio trends newsletter,

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but in podcast form. For March the 23rd, 2025,

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it's called The End of Local Radio in the UK,

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brackets, almost, close brackets. In news that

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will surprise nobody really, it's emerged that

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Bauer, one of the big two commercial radio broadcasters

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in the UK, will close all its local radio breakfast

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shows in England and Wales in June, meaning an

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end to any local radio production. There are

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12 different local breakfast shows currently

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being broadcast. and those talented breakfast

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presenters will disappear, and one show, not

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yet announced, will be a national show. Listeners

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will get regional news and travel, as is mandated

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by law, and local ads as well. Back in 2010,

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more than 35 of Global's local radio stations

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were rebranded as Heart, with increasing networking

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happening, until in 2019 it shunted its local

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breakfast shows to the afternoon drive -time

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slot. So their equivalent removal of all local

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programming in January this year was less of

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a big deal for listeners, who'd been waking up

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to Jamie and Amanda for a long while. A well

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-executed strategy which has led to Heart being

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becoming the most listened to commercial radio

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network in the UK with 10 million listeners.

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Bauer, on the other hand, appeared to dither

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with no clear plan. In 2013, for example, TFM

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in Stockton was closed, taking Metro FM programming

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from Newcastle, but with station names recorded

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separately by each presenter. So if you were

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listening in Newcastle, you would have heard,

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It's Metro FM. Good morning, I'm such and such.

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Whereas in TFM you'd have heard, It's TFM. Good

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morning, I'm such and such. And that was basically

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how they ended up doing it. I think it was split

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cards. Anyway, in 2018, Key 103 in Manchester

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was rebranded as HITS Radio, merging with a national

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station called The HITS. In 2019, Bauer bought

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a number of local stations from Wireless, UKRD,

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Cellador and Lynx, and all of the company's heritage

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FM's broadcast a growing amount of networked

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programming from HITS, but all those stations

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retained their local branding on -air for a further

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five years. Just a year later, though, they've

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lost. their local breakfast personalities as

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well as their name. Hits Radio has 4 .6 million

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listeners, excluding stations in Scotland and

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Northern Ireland, which are true to Bauer's apparent

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dithering, yet to gain the Hits brand. And the

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big change of breakfast show will bring more

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uncertainty to those figures. Bauer also closes

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almost all of their station buildings. Over the

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past few years, Bauer has been closing station

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buildings all over the place, presumably coinciding

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with lease contracts, shifting local breakfast

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shows to neighbouring radio stations, some of

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which were 90 minutes' drive out of the transmission

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area that they purported to serve. Viking Radio's

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breakfast show, for example, came from Sheffield.

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Bradford's The Pulse was moved altogether to

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Leeds and then fully networked. And those changes

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meant the closure of a further eight radio station

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facilities. leaving Bauer with just four broadcasting

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hubs in the UK and three smaller production centres.

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Sheffield is one of those to close, which I spent

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seven years at. The station was once a Carlsberg

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-Tetley brewery distribution centre. And I've

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only now spotted the obvious place where the

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brewery sign was on the wall. Inside that building,

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by the way, a very large canteen and a very 1980s

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looking pub, both of which were just left to

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rot. The canteen was where all of the paperwork

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went. just to be stored. The pub itself you could

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just about see in through the windows but yeah

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it was a very old -fashioned thing but nobody

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had been in there for a long long time. Anyway,

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it's important, as I did in January, to highlight

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that listeners will still hear local information

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and local travel and local news, if more regional

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than local. Important, too, to highlight that

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these changes are happening in June, so broadcasters

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will have the opportunity to say goodbye. And

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some will stay with the company. Hits in Metro

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and TFM, Land, Newcastle and Teesside, their

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broadcaster Stephen Caron will be on Hits Radio

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90s as one example during the breakfast show

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there. Because of the way that UK radio is licensed,

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that's probably it for local radio in most cities

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in England. Community radio does exist, but it's

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hobbled in terms of legislation and transmitter

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power. Almost all radio licenses of interest

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are now part of a large group and mostly networked

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and automated. Even BBC local radio is networking

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too. Local isn't, as US radio consultants would

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have you believe, the most important thing of

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the future of radio. But relevance is, and something

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is lost when there won't be a local accent on

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the air, or a knowing mention of the M62 at this

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time of night, or slipping in a song for people

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coming back from the Steelers game. And that's

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all a shame. Next week, I'm talking in Ireland,

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where none of this has happened. Elsewhere, BBC

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Domestic Radio is to remain available to those

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of us overseas. It turns out it's just not from

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the BBC. A new paragraph was quietly added to

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the BBC's FAQ last week, saying that the BBC

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domestic stations will remain on the same third

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-party platforms as before outside the UK, which

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suggests that TuneIn, among others, will continue

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to carry all of the stations moving forward.

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So you might remember a couple of weeks ago I

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congratulated the BBC on having... a clear strategy.

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Yes, well, that age, didn't it? Anyway, the BBC

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hasn't responded to me asking for more details.

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And, you know, why should they? In Australia,

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switching problems meant that some radio stations,

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some ABC radio stations, were off for almost

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a day, which I find just astonishing. But there

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we are. Jacobs Media's tech survey is always

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an interesting read. 25 ,000 core listeners in

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the US asked questions about their radio listening.

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And one of the things I find particularly interesting

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is music is now not the number one reason to

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listen to radio anymore. The reason flipped in

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2019 to be more about the people on the radio,

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not the music. And that's, of course, not saying

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don't play music, but it is saying, I suggest,

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to focus more on the human connection and shared

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experience that we get from radio and not just

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to market your music mix. Also, just as importantly,

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people listen to the radio less because their

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favourite people are no longer on the air. I

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wonder if Bauer are aware of that. On my blog,

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I compare the definition of a podcast with the

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definition of radio and the big mistake they

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made in the US radio industry. And also on my

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blog, a list of some of the feeds from ABC News

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in Australia, the RSS feeds, I should say. Given

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that they don't publish any of them, I've worked

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out how to find them. Anyway, if you're in Dublin

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or in Chicago over the next few weeks, please

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get in touch. I would love to catch up. I'm speaking

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next at Radio Days in Ireland in Dublin, then

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Evolutions in Chicago, then Radio Days North

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America in Toronto in Canada in early May, the

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podcast show in late May in London, Podcast Movement

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in Dallas in Texas, August the 18th to the 21st,

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Radio Days Asia. I assume, September the 1st

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to the 3rd. And looking forward to Pennine Radio's

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50th birthday, which is even more poignant now

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in Bradford. I will be there, guaranteed now,

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because I've booked the flight. And I'm also

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speaking at PodSummit YYC, which is in Calgary

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in Canada, September the 19th to the 20th. I

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should thank my many supporters. Who shall I

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choose? Media Realm. Hello, Media Realm. Soma

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FM. Broadcast Radio and Brunn Radio Consulting

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Limited. Plus, I should thank Greg Strassel.

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Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn

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Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.

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Super appreciate that. It's very, very kind of

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you. It keeps me actually doing this, which is

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probably a good thing. If you would like to support

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my work in any way, you can. Buymeacoffee .com

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slash James Cridland is the easiest way. That's

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where you can become a member to give regularly

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or just give, you know, one -off coffee or five.

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I'm on Blue Sky as james .crit .land if you want

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to follow me there. Or on Mastodon, which is

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probably the best place to follow me, james at

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bne .social. That's Brisbane, bne .social. My

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website has more details about who I am and what

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I do and whether I can help you further. And

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thank you for listening. And keep listening.