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4.Is there a market for such a station?
The current national music stations tend to focus on different audiences than the one we are aiming at in terms. Stations such as Classic, BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3 aim at an older audience whilst BBC Radio 1 aims for a younger age group. Other national presences tend to be more specialist. For example Planet Rock and Absolute (formerly Virgin) both focus on guitar driven Rock.
This scenario exists because of the way the industry has been planned and regulated historically. As local independent radio has traditionally dealt with the 25-45 age group the BBC has avoided producing music services that serve that sector. Regulators have also sought to avoid duplication of provision by preventing new analogue stations (e.g. Talk Sport, Classic etc.) from stepping into that market.
The expectation has been that a new digital station might emerge to fill this gap nationally but with the current industry problems this has not happened. As digital radio finally emerges as a viable UK platform now is an opportune time to do this. With our unique, values-based, focus we think that there is a significant audience who either don’t listen or could be enticed away from local radio to our service.
