Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

This is the key point I think. The stations are going to lose a lot of people straight off the bat with the change of music policy (which will ultimately have the biggest impact), it’s very difficult to see where new listeners to replace those they lose will come from.

I think what Bauer should have attempted is a different model, that uses technology for all the cost savings and building closures but allows a playlist in each area that reflects what ever the gap in the market is in that particular TSA.

Of course you can do all the national marketing for the brand you want, but the likes of Eagle or Yorkshire Coast aren’t going to win enough new listeners to maintain listening at the current levels.

Then again, I don’t suppose they’re that bothered if certain stations lose most their audience, as long as they can claim Greatest Hits Radio has ‘x million listeners’ nationally. But I think it’s a missed opportunity for a network which has much greater reach to offer advertisers.

In most cases yes, but not in all. Of course they might tune into Heart North West too, if they want a similar mix to what they had before.

It was poor planning, especially in the south of England. After a tiny boom in the early 00s when tinpot stations were being sold for silly money, there was no chance that stations that covered small areas such as Eastbourne and Hastings were ever going to be viable.

London was the first place where it was clear that small scale local radio as a commercial entity wasn't ever going to be viable. We saw the sale of Thames Radio to Radio Jackie for £1 and is now operated by a rich owner as a vanity project, Time 106.8 and Time 107.3 went into administration in 2009 and those frequencies were reallocated to community radio. The only other London small scale station Time 107.5 in Romford is owned by a company that sells international pre-paid phone cards as part of a deal to buy Asian AM stations that went into administration from Sunrise Radio.

As for the small scale stations that were owned by GWR, they were supported by stronger performing larger stations that allowed the stations to operate. Ten-17 in Harlow wouldn't have been viable without the support of the parent group.

UKRD was the exception to the rule where they ran their portfolio as local stations with no networking. The only thing visible to the ear was that the playlists were shared and programmed from Pirate FM in Cornwall.

Cornwall will continue to have Darren Proctor for drive, so I think all they're getting is some bespoke sweepers and travel news as London has on DAB.

I'd have thought they'd bundle it at part of GHR South West, have drivetime presented by Tony Wright, and have local travel and news provided by the Pirate FM team. Especially given that Pirate 80s has been shut down.

That’s what this article states. https://radiotoday.co.uk/2020/08/greatest-hits-radio-drivetime-presenters-revealed/

That's why I was confused by the suggestion that GHR Cornwall would be the same as GHR London, but with custom jingles and travel.

It's an odd situation, two of the three 'new' GHR stations are taking Darren Proctor, while GHR East Midlands has the regional drive programme from Birmingham.

So listeners in Grimsby for example will have the Yorkshire drive show from Leeds, Darren Proctor on DAB and overspill from the Nation owned GHR Hull and East Yorkshire. (It's not clear if 1161 AM and Humberside DAB are taking Nation programming).

Well, the RadioToday article says GHR Cornwall and GHR Lincolnshire are launching in November. What I think is happening is that GHR East Midlands are able to launch straight away, because they'll likely be getting local news and travel from GEM (which Bauer owned prior to the mass takeover). I'm guessing that there are changes underway at Pirate FM and Lincs FM in order to facilitate local news and travel on their versions of GHR. So I guess they're providing the UK-wide service in Cornwall and Lincolnshire whilst they get everything in place to launch a full 'local' service in November.

Inrix will be providing travel presenters. They did a test run on Eagle Radio on Saturday. Sunday was read out by the presenter on-air.

Is this new work for INRIX? The changes to their contract with BBC Local a few months ago meant a lot of on-air people were let go

As far as I can see, Eagle was in the very unusual and fortunate position of being one of the very few original ILR stations (if you count it as a continuation of the original County Sound) that actually still existed as a standalone local station. Nearly every other equivalent 'heritage' station across the south has, through a series of mergers and takeovers, ended up in the hands of Global and thus assimilated into the Heart network a decade ago or more, such as neighbouring Mercury, and even by that stage I don't know how long it had been since that had actually broadcast a full schedule of its own local programmes.

It's only through a quirk of ownership that Eagle lasted as long as it did, and I think it was a question of when not if, that it too ended up as part of a national network.