A commentary on the need for content innovation and creativity within commercial radio broadcasting in the London market in the UK, written by Grant Goddard in September 2002 for The Radio Authority.

1. THE LONDON RADIO SCENE: A
PERSONAL VIEW
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
September 2002

2. Tune across the capital's FM radio dial and you hear a waveband crowded
with dozens of stations all shrieking for attention. In terms of quantity, the radio
market in London has become almost as crowded as in Paris, Rome, Moscow
or New York, where there are too many stations for newspapers to print all
their names, let alone their programme schedules. In sheer numbers, London
radio has grown immensely in the last twenty years. In terms of quality, radio in
London is far superior to other capital cities, and the BBC is rightly
acknowledged as producer of some of the finest quality programmes in the
world. But look for innovation in the London radio market and examples are
much harder to find. When was the last time you heard a programme or an
entire station that excited, stimulated and fired your imagination the way the
best radio can do? In this sense, radio in London pales in comparison with
some of the exciting local public stations, university outlets and progressive
commercial broadcasters found in Europe and North America. Why is it that
London radio succeeds in quality, but fails in artistic innovation?
Part of the problem arises from the way in which broadcasting in the UK has
always been treated as a special artistic endeavour for the privileged elite,
rather than as a straightforward business. Jobs in British broadcasting are still
coveted by Oxbridge types who see the BBC as a more exciting alternative to
an anonymous career in the Foreign Office. As a result, too many broadcasters
at all levels see their radio or TV station as a gallery for displaying their own
artistic aspirations, rather than as a business that is simply there to serve its
customers. The contrast could not be greater in the US, where graduates from
Princeton or Harvard would never consider a career in radio, any more than
they would take a job in their local hardware store. To get a job in American
radio, you have to look in the 'Entertainment' section between job
advertisements for Telephone Actresses and Exotic Dancers. Here in the UK,
even to apply for an £8,000 job serving customers in a provincial BBC shop,
candidates have to write a one-page essay about their life and list their higher
education qualifications. Winning a job in broadcasting in the UK requires you
to be 'special' in that horribly vague British way whereas, to get a radio job in
the US, you simply have to know what you are doing and possess the relevant
business skills.
Another problem is that the radio industry has never completely managed to
throw off the shackles of its earliest days, when the British government viewed
it as a potentially dangerous medium. The first experimental radio stations
were required to shut off their transmitter every four hours, and then listen in to
the same channel to ensure that they were not interfering with communication
between Navy ships. It was the radio equivalent of car drivers requiring a man
to walk in front of their vehicle, waving a flag. Ever since then, broadcasters
have spent too much time looking over their shoulder at what everybody else
is doing, rather than gazing into the deep blue yonder for divine inspiration.
Almost all the true innovation in radio has come from outside the established
radio industry. In the post-war period, it was the popularity of Radio
Luxembourg and Radio Normandy that forced the BBC to schedule
programmes of gramophone records. In the 1960s, it was the success of the
offshore pirate ships that forced the BBC to launch Radio One. In the 1980s, it
was the massive audience of US-backed illegal station Laser 558 that forced
The London Radio Scene: A Personal View
©2002 Grant Goddard
page 2

3. BBC and commercial radio to modernise their programming policies. And in
the 1990s, it was the sudden success of London ex-pirate station KISS FM
that forced Radio One and commercial radio to embrace dance music as a
ratings saviour, rather than the pariah they had viewed it as until then. None of
this innovation developed organically from within the radio industry itself.
Poor management and the lack of developed business skills within the radio
industry also bear a large part of the blame for this lack of innovation. If only
the radio industry could attract the calibre of entrepreneurial management that
has transformed the mobile phone industry into such a phenomenon. Making
successful and innovative radio is really no different than launching any other
new consumer product onto an unsuspecting public. One - ask the public what
they want. Two - give it to them. Three - make sure it exceeds their
expectations in quality, satisfaction and value (except that radio is free, so
price is not an issue). Four - innovate constantly to keep customers coming
back for more. It sounds simple, but too many radio owners lack this clarity of
vision and quickly become encumbered with poor advice, badly executed
research and their own prejudices about what makes 'good radio.' The failure
in the last fifteen years of newly launched London stations such as GLR,
Liberty, Country, the (pre-Capital) XFM and the original Jazz FM can be traced
back to their totally unrealistic business plans. These stations (GLR excepted)
commissioned market research which told them the answers they already
wanted to hear, and this helped them to win their broadcast licenses. But they
made the fatal mistake of believing their own flawed research and making it
the cornerstone of their business plan. It is one thing to be deceitful on an
application form. But when you lie to your own bottom line, it inevitably bites
you back. And so it did.
But innovation in radio does exist. If you can endure the often hideous music,
the untrained presenters and the technical irregularities, you can still find some
highly original ideas emerging on London's many unlicensed stations. And
that's because your average Harlesden pirate DJ hasn't read Asa Briggs,
doesn't listen to Chris Tarrant, and has no desire to work for Greg Dyke. At the
very opposite extreme of the business spectrum, we might see more
innovation if a media magnate such as Rupert Murdoch were allowed to enter
the London radio market. He would be as disinterested in making 'good radio'
as the Fox Network is in making 'good TV.' Murdoch craves high numbers and
would single-mindedly pursue radio programming that has huge mass appeal.
As Sky TV has demonstrated, he understands that to enter a crowded
marketplace requires innovation and the taking of calculated (but wellresearched) risks. It is these risks that the existing radio players, sadly, seem
unwilling to take.
Paradoxically, both Murdoch and Mr Pirate DJ are our best hopes to give the
stagnant London radio market the injection of innovation that it presently lacks.
Both men are considered 'pirates' by their peers. Both would need to be
'empowered' by new legislation. But only when the radio market is under threat
from such outsiders does creative innovation seem to replace dull
complacency. We certainly need something new in London to set the radio
waves alight once more.
The London Radio Scene: A Personal View
©2002 Grant Goddard
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4. [Commissioned by The Radio Authority, unpublished]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk
The London Radio Scene: A Personal View
©2002 Grant Goddard
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