Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is my international radio trends newsletter,
but in podcast form. For March the 23rd, 2025,
it's called The End of Local Radio in the UK,
brackets, almost, close brackets. In news that
will surprise nobody really, it's emerged that
Bauer, one of the big two commercial radio broadcasters
in the UK, will close all its local radio breakfast
shows in England and Wales in June, meaning an
end to any local radio production. There are
12 different local breakfast shows currently
being broadcast. and those talented breakfast
presenters will disappear, and one show, not
yet announced, will be a national show. Listeners
will get regional news and travel, as is mandated
by law, and local ads as well. Back in 2010,
more than 35 of Global's local radio stations
were rebranded as Heart, with increasing networking
happening, until in 2019 it shunted its local
breakfast shows to the afternoon drive -time
slot. So their equivalent removal of all local
programming in January this year was less of
a big deal for listeners, who'd been waking up
to Jamie and Amanda for a long while. A well
-executed strategy which has led to Heart being
becoming the most listened to commercial radio
network in the UK with 10 million listeners.
Bauer, on the other hand, appeared to dither
with no clear plan. In 2013, for example, TFM
in Stockton was closed, taking Metro FM programming
from Newcastle, but with station names recorded
separately by each presenter. So if you were
listening in Newcastle, you would have heard,
It's Metro FM. Good morning, I'm such and such.
Whereas in TFM you'd have heard, It's TFM. Good
morning, I'm such and such. And that was basically
how they ended up doing it. I think it was split
cards. Anyway, in 2018, Key 103 in Manchester
was rebranded as HITS Radio, merging with a national
station called The HITS. In 2019, Bauer bought
a number of local stations from Wireless, UKRD,
Cellador and Lynx, and all of the company's heritage
FM's broadcast a growing amount of networked
programming from HITS, but all those stations
retained their local branding on -air for a further
five years. Just a year later, though, they've
lost. their local breakfast personalities as
well as their name. Hits Radio has 4 .6 million
listeners, excluding stations in Scotland and
Northern Ireland, which are true to Bauer's apparent
dithering, yet to gain the Hits brand. And the
big change of breakfast show will bring more
uncertainty to those figures. Bauer also closes
almost all of their station buildings. Over the
past few years, Bauer has been closing station
buildings all over the place, presumably coinciding
with lease contracts, shifting local breakfast
shows to neighbouring radio stations, some of
which were 90 minutes' drive out of the transmission
area that they purported to serve. Viking Radio's
breakfast show, for example, came from Sheffield.
Bradford's The Pulse was moved altogether to
Leeds and then fully networked. And those changes
meant the closure of a further eight radio station
facilities. leaving Bauer with just four broadcasting
hubs in the UK and three smaller production centres.
Sheffield is one of those to close, which I spent
seven years at. The station was once a Carlsberg
-Tetley brewery distribution centre. And I've
only now spotted the obvious place where the
brewery sign was on the wall. Inside that building,
by the way, a very large canteen and a very 1980s
looking pub, both of which were just left to
rot. The canteen was where all of the paperwork
went. just to be stored. The pub itself you could
just about see in through the windows but yeah
it was a very old -fashioned thing but nobody
had been in there for a long long time. Anyway,
it's important, as I did in January, to highlight
that listeners will still hear local information
and local travel and local news, if more regional
than local. Important, too, to highlight that
these changes are happening in June, so broadcasters
will have the opportunity to say goodbye. And
some will stay with the company. Hits in Metro
and TFM, Land, Newcastle and Teesside, their
broadcaster Stephen Caron will be on Hits Radio
90s as one example during the breakfast show
there. Because of the way that UK radio is licensed,
that's probably it for local radio in most cities
in England. Community radio does exist, but it's
hobbled in terms of legislation and transmitter
power. Almost all radio licenses of interest
are now part of a large group and mostly networked
and automated. Even BBC local radio is networking
too. Local isn't, as US radio consultants would
have you believe, the most important thing of
the future of radio. But relevance is, and something
is lost when there won't be a local accent on
the air, or a knowing mention of the M62 at this
time of night, or slipping in a song for people
coming back from the Steelers game. And that's
all a shame. Next week, I'm talking in Ireland,
where none of this has happened. Elsewhere, BBC
Domestic Radio is to remain available to those
of us overseas. It turns out it's just not from
the BBC. A new paragraph was quietly added to
the BBC's FAQ last week, saying that the BBC
domestic stations will remain on the same third
-party platforms as before outside the UK, which
suggests that TuneIn, among others, will continue
to carry all of the stations moving forward.
So you might remember a couple of weeks ago I
congratulated the BBC on having... a clear strategy.
Yes, well, that age, didn't it? Anyway, the BBC
hasn't responded to me asking for more details.
And, you know, why should they? In Australia,
switching problems meant that some radio stations,
some ABC radio stations, were off for almost
a day, which I find just astonishing. But there
we are. Jacobs Media's tech survey is always
an interesting read. 25 ,000 core listeners in
the US asked questions about their radio listening.
And one of the things I find particularly interesting
is music is now not the number one reason to
listen to radio anymore. The reason flipped in
2019 to be more about the people on the radio,
not the music. And that's, of course, not saying
don't play music, but it is saying, I suggest,
to focus more on the human connection and shared
experience that we get from radio and not just
to market your music mix. Also, just as importantly,
people listen to the radio less because their
favourite people are no longer on the air. I
wonder if Bauer are aware of that. On my blog,
I compare the definition of a podcast with the
definition of radio and the big mistake they
made in the US radio industry. And also on my
blog, a list of some of the feeds from ABC News
in Australia, the RSS feeds, I should say. Given
that they don't publish any of them, I've worked
out how to find them. Anyway, if you're in Dublin
or in Chicago over the next few weeks, please
get in touch. I would love to catch up. I'm speaking
next at Radio Days in Ireland in Dublin, then
Evolutions in Chicago, then Radio Days North
America in Toronto in Canada in early May, the
podcast show in late May in London, Podcast Movement
in Dallas in Texas, August the 18th to the 21st,
Radio Days Asia. I assume, September the 1st
to the 3rd. And looking forward to Pennine Radio's
50th birthday, which is even more poignant now
in Bradford. I will be there, guaranteed now,
because I've booked the flight. And I'm also
speaking at PodSummit YYC, which is in Calgary
in Canada, September the 19th to the 20th. I
should thank my many supporters. Who shall I
choose? Media Realm. Hello, Media Realm. Soma
FM. Broadcast Radio and Brunn Radio Consulting
Limited. Plus, I should thank Greg Strassel.
Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn
Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.
Super appreciate that. It's very, very kind of
you. It keeps me actually doing this, which is
probably a good thing. If you would like to support
my work in any way, you can. Buymeacoffee .com
slash James Cridland is the easiest way. That's
where you can become a member to give regularly
or just give, you know, one -off coffee or five.
I'm on Blue Sky as james .crit .land if you want
to follow me there. Or on Mastodon, which is
probably the best place to follow me, james at
bne .social. That's Brisbane, bne .social. My
website has more details about who I am and what
I do and whether I can help you further. And
thank you for listening. And keep listening.