Business Radio Comes to the UK

My long-held belief that a local speech radio format can be achieved and sustained became a reality on 21st September with the launch of Britain's first dedicated radio station for business. Manchester Business Radio does exactly
what the name suggests; providing the city's business sector with a dedicated new media voice.

It became clear to me some time ago that, as radio evolves in the digital age, the proliferation of music formats will erode share to such a degree that the only route towards successful new brands lies in the delivery of unique content - unavailable elsewhere. In other words, speech.

Relevant, useful, entertaining and targeted speech. This isn't earth-shattering news, though. Speech has been a winning format around the world for years. Right now in London speech radio wins hands down: Radio 4 is the capital's overall market leader on share at 14.2%, well ahead of Radio 2 (12.3%) and Radio 1 (4.2%). In the commercial sector Kiss is market leader at 5.3% but LBC 97.3 comes a close second at 5.2% beating Heart (4.9%), Magic (4.7%) and Capital (4.2%).

The Future is Speech

So there's no doubting the capability of well-programmed speech-based radio to deliver strong, loyal audiences. If that's the case, then, why aren't more stations giving it a go?

The answer is simple. It's hard. It's also very expensive. And, if you get it wrong there's no coming back. Who remembers Edinburgh's talk107? Or the original City Talk? Spectacular and expensive failures both.

Radio has reached a major turning point. Something has to give because the points of difference between mainstream music stations have become increasingly blurred. Here in Manchester, for example, our research confirmed that people are hard pressed to explain the difference between Key 103, Capital and Heart. To the casual listener they're all doing the same thing and playing the same songs. 

Back in Manchester 37 Years On

This project takes  my career full circle with a return to the city where I started out as a 'rookie' presenter on the then mighty Piccadilly Radio. I'll never forget the feeling of euphoria after my first show, walking out into Piccadilly gardens and gazing up at the Piazza windows where giant pictures of radio legends like Roger Day, Phil Wood and Andy Peebles looked down on the passing traffic. Who would have imagined that 37 years later I'd be back in town at the start of another exciting new venture…

The Niocast Digital Vision

When fellow Niocast Director, David Duffy, and I first spoke about the multiplex opportunity we shared the belief that we should stay well clear of the  mainstream and, instead, bring together a diverse range of programme formats each focused on a well-defined target group. We felt that, collectively, they could achieve an awful lot in terms of driving awareness and sampling of DAB in central Manchester. Moreover, they would demonstrably enrich the range of radio services available to Manchester listeners.

Central to our vision throughout this process was the creation of a business radio station, aimed at professionals, managers and company owners. We'd looked at this previously as an online entity, but the prospect of launching the format on DAB in Manchester was tantalising. If ever this was going to work it was right here, right now. Manchester is in the ascendancy as a regional business hub and the 'Northern Powerhouse' initiative is set to further propel the city forward over the coming months and years. Manchester in 2015 is the natural birthplace for Britain's first dedicated business radio station.

Our challenge was to find a way of delivering original, high-quality speech programming with limited resources and on a tightly controlled budget. This is a nine-month trial and, whist we are planning to be around for a very long time, there are no guarantees beyond next May. Setting a station up on traditional lines, therefore, simply wasn’t an option so we set about finding new ways of gathering content and achieving a polished, professional sound.

Groundbreaking on Many Levels

Once we had been awarded the licence we undertook some extensive market research. Few of the findings came as a surprise:

• People don't like brash, egocentric presenters;
• Advertisements are a big 'turn off';
• Lengthy programmes and drawn out studio debates are considered 'boring'.

So, early on in our planning phase we made three important decisions:

1. We would have NO presenters. Instead, the voices heard on the station will be those of the city's business sector. Professionals, experts, managers and the people at the sharp end of business;
2. Instead of running 'spot' advertisements our business model is built around sponsorship and content marketing. Features showcasing expertise and allowing people to demonstrate their knowledge and skills by talking about what they do. Essentially we've taken the business 'networking' culture and transplanted it onto a broadcast media platform;
3. All our content elements will be 'short-form' (around the same length as the songs on music radio) and gathered on location at business venues around the city.

Ready for Day One?

People have been asking me whether we'd be ready for the launch…and we were. But Day One was never going to be the problem. I'm more concerned about Day 30 and Day 60… This station is a hungry beast and it needs to be constantly fed new material! Music radio is easy. You just define your target audience, research the songs, load them into the system and press 'Play'. With Manchester Business Radio, though, everything has had to be individually recorded and packaged up. It's a bit like a music radio programmer having to write the songs, recruit the singers and musicians, record the session, and then produce the finished recording! 

New Systems and Techniques

We have a small team of content gatherers out there meeting people on a daily basis but we're also pioneering the concept of 'User Generated Content' and see this as the natural way of sustaining fresh material once the station's on the air. Listeners are encouraged to upload their own content straight from a smartphone or tablet to our server. The response so far has been encouraging and the audio quality is, frankly, mind-bogglingly good! The station itself is entirely 'Cloud-based' and powered by P Squared's superb Myriad system. Being unshackled by traditional processes we've adopted a totally fresh approach to running radio. For example, the majority of output will be pre-recorded but, at any time, we can - and will - insert content direct from remote locations across the city.  In our first week alone we staged two full 'remote' broadcasts which provided us with great, timely and relevant content as well as helping raise station awareness amongst members of the business community.

Partnerships Galore!

One of the key factors in enabling the station to sound polished, fresh and rich in content is our success in securing partnership arrangements with all manner of organisations.

The first of these was with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce which agreed to provide us with office space and facilities in their impressive new HQ on Deansgate, right at the heart of the commercial district. Imaging 'Guru' Chris Stevens has produced all our station music and idents and our regional business news is supplied by thebusinessdesk.com. We also have a content sharing arrangement in place with Alan Coote who produces 'Let's Talk Business' down on the south coast.

Online Audio Resource

A vital element of the new station is its website which provides a non-linear support function to the live station stream. Minimalist in appearance but rich in content, the site and its multi-level audio archive will allow listeners to 'catch-up' on everything that's been broadcast and, as the months go by, it will undoubtedly become the biggest audio resource for business in the region.

In Business in Manchester? Let me know what you think...

Having operated stations of all shapes and sizes over the years this is unquestionably my most enjoyable and interesting challenge. There's a real sense from local business that we're fulfilling a genuine need and the level of interest via social media has been very encouraging. We'd set an initial target of 2,000 Twitter followers but we launched with some 5,500. 

Have a listen and let me know what you think. We've put a 30-second survey online to give us some early feedback. And, while you're at it, check out the other great stations broadcasting to the city alongside Manchester Business Radio on the Niocast Digital multiplex.