Issue no. 12, a 'MIDEM Radio Special' dated 29 January 1993, of 'Radio News' weekly newsletter for the UK radio broadcasting industry, written and published by Grant Goddard in January 1993.

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THE WEEKLY UPDATE ON THE UK RADIO INDUSTRY
CAPITAL BUYS MIDLANDS
Cap-ital Radio has acquired Midlands
Radio plc in a purchase that values
the group at £17.7m. Takeover
discussions began last November when
Midlands' share price had fallen to a
low of 7Op, though it rose
dramatically to 112p before trading
was suspended last week. Capital's
offer of 130p per share values the
group at 38 times last year's
earnings.
Capital Radio Chairman Ian Irvine
said the acquisition was "a
significant step forward" in the
company's strategy to take a leading
role in the UK radio industry.
"Capital Radio will now be able to
bring its successful national
advertising sales and programming
expertise to Midlands," said lrvine,
'~t will ensure that Midlands
Radio's stations maintain their local
character."
Midlands Chairman John Parkinson
retains his title, though now in a
non-executive capacity, and joins the
Capital Radio Board in an identical
position. But although Capital's
statement says the acquisition "is
expected to result in a broadening of
opportunities for the enlarged
grOJl}' s st.aff", it also warns that
"operational cost savings are
anticipated."
Capital MD Richard Eyre told The
Independent that the buy-out meant
the group's hands were tied as far as
further OK expansion was concerned,
since Midlands takes Capital close t.o
the seventy point ownership limit
imposed by the Radio Authority.
Capital's statement asserts that it
is "committed to supporting [local
community] activities within Midlands
Radio's transmission areas" whilst
noting its own stations' track record
of producing "high quality
progranming appealing to a wide range
of the population."
Capital is expected to switch
Midlands' saleshouse inrnediately to
its own Media Sales & Marketing
operation and away from IRS. The loss
leaves the latter even more
unappetising for possible purchase
from ailing owner Crown
Corrmunications.
In the medium term, cost-cutting and
audience growth could both be
achieved by simulcasting the
nationally known DJs on Capital Gold
to the Midlands area. Both Capital
and Midlands have stakes in satellite
delivery service SMS and IRN, and
Midlands has a shareholding in Radio
Wyvern.
RADIO MUST SELL DAB BENEFITS
The radio industry has failed to sell
the benefits of Digital Audio
Broadcasting [DAB] to European
bureaucrats in the face of music
industry opposition, according to
Brian West, President of the
Association of European Radio
Stations.
"What have we, the broadcasters, done
to persuade Brussels that DAB is only
one more step down the line that took
us from AM to FM?" asked West. "1
think the answer is very little. Why
have we not pointed out forcefully at
every opportunity that DAB is
welcomed by the broadcasters, but
will cost them a great deal of money
while we have the inevitable period
of simulcasting for a number of
years?"
'~y are we not pointing out the huge
ultimate advances in spectral
[frequency] efficiency which DAB will
confer on all users of the airwaves?
Why are we not pointing out that the
record producers have it within their
own power to prevent the copying of
digital recordings that they say they
so fear? Why have we not pointed out
that if they are so worried about
copying of their software, why do
their hardware divisions churn out
the very equipment that makes it
possible? These are the points that
the broadcasters must make again and
again until the bureaucrats heed
them, if DAB is not to be strangled
at birth."
West advocated that the controversy
and conflict be removed from
relations between the record and
radio industries. "Let's stop
spending millions on litigations that
you [record companies] can clearly
afford, but we [radio] clearly
cannot," he said. "Let's agree that
broadcast royalties are no more than
the petty cash of your global
megabucks, but a burden to radio
stations. Let's agree that whatever
we do with your recordings does you
no harm at all and a mountain of
good."
RADIO NEWS PO BOX 514 HARROW MIDDLESEX HA1 4SP tel 081 427 6062 fax 081 861 2694
4 radio news 1993 page 1

2. GOLDSMITH BLAMES GOLD RADIO
Concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith has
bemoaned the lack of encouragement
given to new live music acts and
blames oldies radio stations and the
music industry's obsessions with hit
singles, dance music and new software
formats.
Addressing the MIDEM Radio
Conference, Goldsmith noted the
increasing popularity of radio "gold"
formats, which he said "makes little
sense to us [the music industry] but
a huge amount of sense to the
listening audience. " He said
broadcasters were reacting to a glut
of new single and album releases:
"Radio stations saw the answer. They
said 'We don't understand this. It's
too confusing. There's too mUCfr
coming at us. It doesn't make sense.
So let's go for a format that
executives like, media buyers like
and a vast listening audience like -
a gold format. '"
Goldsmith argued that dance music had
caused "the record industry to spend
the last four years investing in a
music form that sells no albums, has
no real face and therefore has no
longevity. Radio picked it up and the
kids danced. But do they do anything
else? No. Fast returns and the quest
for the hit single have financially
come home to roost."
But he warned that the radio industry
was "playing to an audience that is
getting older and older and, other
than the dance scene, has not put
enough money back into supporting and
making new acts have opportunities
for an airing."
Goldsmith criticised the industry's
obsession with singles and asked:
"Why can't radio look at a new record
[album] that's coming out and play
something a bit more than that one
single it repeats all the
time.••.•..Record companies seem to
concentrate most of their time on
working and manipulating the charts
and they make that work very quickly
in the singles chart, because of the
mythical belief that without that hit
single, nothing else will happen. 11
Stuart Watson, Senior Vice President
of MCA International, suggested that
the industry abolish its fixation
with singles: "Forget singles charts.
Let radio play album tracks,
whichever ones they want, and
concentrate on radio charts. If a
track from an album gets into a radio
chart, then that is the track that
will drive the album, as in America."
He was supported by Radio One's Head
of Music Department Chris Lycett, who
agreed: "I am broadly supportive of
the idea of only a titles chart or
songs chart or tracks chart, rather
than a singles chart. Anything that
breaks down pidgeon-holing and
'characterisation is all for the
good."
Goldsmith also agreed with another
MIDEM speaker, Maurice Oberstein,
that the new Digital Music Express
satellite/cable system would prove to
be "the death knell for all of us. If
that's the future, forget radio,
forget record sales because all you
need is a DCC that records and your
cable channel."
During a subsequent discussion of
points made in Goldsmith's speech,
Virgin Radio's Kathy Leppard spoke,
introducing herself only as "a
consultant here on radio business",
and argued the virtues of the new
station's music policy.
"In your guise as Virgin
Radio•..•.... ," Goldsmith responded.
"What you're going to present on
Virgin Radio is going to do
absolutely nothing to stimulate new
music. The difficulty is that for the
first and only time we have, albeit
it on AM, a network station that
isn't dedicated to charts of a
commercial nature. You're doing
exactly the same as what we've been
accusing the industry of - you're not
going to stimulate anything new. So
how does that help?"
Three years ago, Goldsrnith was a
partner with publisher EMAP in an
unsuccessful attempt to persuade the
Government to legislate for a
national rock radio station on FM.
DIGITAL RADIO IS ··ATOMIC CLOUD··
In his opening address to the MIDEM
Radio Conference, Polygram
International Vice President Maurice
Oberstein warned that new
multi-channel digital radio services
could spell the death of the radio
industry.
"Remember when television came along
and wiped out radio's evening
progranrnes?" asked Oberstein. "This
[Digital Music Express] may be the
next event that wipes out all
progranrnes."
Oberstein said that the 35-channel
satellite-delivered system, to be
launched in Europe in March, whose
progranrnes exclude talk and adverts,
will enable consumers to pre-select
tracks for compilation of their own
albums. "it's there for us to see as
the atomic cloud heading down upon
us," he warned.
Oberstein also criticised the new BBC
Director General John Birt's proposal
to make BBC Radio less competitive
with the commercial sector.
Addressing an audience of radio
managers, he said: "It's one of the
things that must hurt you people in
radio a lot, to be treated like
second or third class citizens."
He went on to argue that competition
amongst stations produced hetter
radio: "It is no bad thing that there
will be a BBC that endeavours to
produce quality programming that will
chase the audience, so that the
commercial stations will have that
competition to improve their
formats."
RADIO NEWS PO BOX 514 HARROW MIDDLESEX HAl 4SP tel 081 427 6062 fax 081 861 2694
~ radio news 1993 page 2

3. MIDEM RADIC> WAVES
Just when you thought you were safely
away from it all at MIDEM••...•from a
specially built studio in Cannes
sponsored by France Telecom, Tony
Blackburn presented his Capital
Gold/London breakfast show Monday
and Tuesday, then Simon Bates took,
over for his IFM morning show on
Wednesday. ms FM/Los Angeles DJ
Rick Dees was there, accompanied by
his sidekick Ellen K and sports
reporter Vic "The Brick" Jacobs,
presenting the breakfast show at 4pm
local time. And French network
R40's Philippe Manoeuvre presented
his weekly American Top 40 show,
interviewing The Pasadenas, Chaka
Khan, Galliano, Al Jarreau, Shai and
Nona Gaye ***** Polish station RMF
FM, broadcasting on MTV's Astra
audio channel, was at MIDEM for the
first time ***** American
communications group IDB, in a joint
deal with British Telecom, was
offering airtime on another of MTV's
audio channels for £150 for up to 15
minutes ***** American syndicator
Radio Express was pushing its new
weekly Hollywood Express movies show
and a Love Songs "concept" *****
Voice Of America was marketing its
satellite-delivered VOA Europe
service, produced in Washington, as
"the first broadcast ever transmitted
in stereo across the Atlantic". Its
evening DJ Eric Phillips has a
customised car number plate "LUVA
DJ". Yeuch! ***** American tipsheet
Black Radio Experience was selling a
Black Music Directory for $25 that
lists all US black music radio
stations ***** Having lost its bid
for the British RAJAR contract,
American research canpany Arbitron •
was now pitching its adverts in
French and Italian ***** French group
Europe 2, promoting itself as "the
radio which knows no frontiers",
lists the OK's Radio Mercury as
part of its empire, alongside Spain's
Cadena Top and Poland's Radio Zet
***** Monte Carlo-based English
language station Riviera Radio is
audible on 106.5 FM in Cannes, airing
lots of BBC World Service material
and frequent ads for The European
newspaper, its new owner. Its format
is determinedly non-Top 40 - where
else would you hear a track from the
Velvet Underground's Loaded album on
daytime radio ***** A survey in
French trade magazine Inf Radio
numbers 1400 stations in France, 2500
in Italy, 1700 in Spain, 600 in
Belgium and 420 in Greece. Of British
radio, it cOO1llE!nts "it doesn't make a
lot of money" ***** Having suffered
the OK's talk-obsessed UJs, it was a
delight to hear French FM stations'
minimal chat and uninterrupted music
***** NAB's Donna Leonard announced
that 58% of the USA's 10,000 radio
stations lost money last year *****
Reacting to information that Italian
radio stations pay only 3.5% of
revenue in music royalties, AIRC's
Brian West declared "I'll take that!"
Apparently Spanish stations pay 5.75%
***** Virgin Radio Joint PD John
Revell revealed that the station
spent £!m on research before he was
appointed ***** Larry Green, MD of
!BC Radio Internatiooal, objected
to his introduction by Unque's Tim
Blackmore that said he was
"inflicting" his company's
programming on the European market
***** American DJ Rick Bees was
awarded a medal by the Mayor of
Cannes in a ceremony at the Town
Hall. What exactly the medal was for
remains unclear ***** Interrupting
his own rambling opening address to
an unimpressed audience, Maurice
Oberstein railed: "This goes on and
on until 11.30, then I'll leave. I
will pay my dues." Shuffling his
notes later in the speech, he added:
"It's pretty dull. If you think what
I've said so far ain't so great, you
should read some of that crap" *****
Laurent Bouneau, PD of French network
Skyrock, said he had learnt two
things about radio in his life:
"First, do less, but do it better.
Second, position yourself in the
market" ***** Marketed with the
slogan "Shut Up And Dance!" (sound
familiar?), American syndicator
Westwood One's weekly show American
Dance Traxx is presented by ex-pat
Brit "Downtown" Julie Brown and has
just been signed up by nss
FM••.•••.•. in Istanbul ***** BBC
Transcription announced plans for a
non-stop half-hour dance music mix
show called OK Club Mix delivered to
stations on DAT with a script for
their own DJ. A new series The Story
Of Pop, comprising 52 one-hour shows,
is available early 1994 ***** Lebanon
station Radio 1 was at MIDEM. Is
this the same FM station that, during
the country's 80s civil war, was
using a pirated copy of our own
Radio l's jingle package? *****
Asked about the history of radio
consultants, Pierre Bouvard of
Coleman Research replied that "the
first consultant started work in
America in 1924 when radio's first
PrograrmJe Director was fired" *****
RCS, American manufacturer of
Selector, unveiled its new RCS Works,
a networked computer system that
completely does away with carts, CDs,
records and scripts! ***** Donna
Leonard of NAB said American
stations' share of advertising spend
is 7% and has not changed in twenty
years. Americans spend 3 hrs 17 mins
per day with their radio and use an
average 3.5 stations. Leonard said
that most US markets were
"over-radio-ed" ***** The BBC was
taking orders for the new CD-ROM
version of its Gramophone Library
index comprising 1.3m titles *****
MIDEM's star-studded tribute to
Marvin Gaye was broadcast live on
SER/Spain and SWF3/Germany via
Astra satellite ***** Unique
Broadcasting has sold an Andrew Lloyd
Webber series and a Jonatban King
show Music Music Music to the BBC
***** NAB was offering MIDEM
attendees three months' complimentary
trial membership ***** American black
radio tipsheet Jack The Rapper was at
MIDEM for the first time but ran out
of sample copies
EURC>1?LAY LA't.JNCHED
Five European radio stations have
launched a non-commercial
organisation called Europlay that
will select a specific new European
single each month for extensive
airplay within their output.
PrograrmJe Directors from Het
Station/Holland, M40/France, Cadena
SER/Spain, Radio Donna/Belgiurn and
SRi/Germany listen to a selection of
new releases each month and vote for
one Continental title that they hope
will help counter the predominance of
Anglo-American acts on European
radio.
"This is a completely ideological
thing," explained a Europlay
spokesman at the group's MIDEM
launch. "There is no money involved.
Europlay is definitely not for sale
[to record companies]."
The participating stations have Top
4O/adult contemporary formats and
each decides individually how heavily
the title is played over a four-week
period and whether it is signposted
as Europlay on-air.
,~ are not a part of the (record]
industry," said the Europlay
spokesman. ''We are making radio. We
pick records on their own merit - we
are broadcasting for our audience."
Other European stations, including
Rete 105/Italy, YLE2/Finland and
Radio- 24/Switzerland, are considering
participation in the scheme, whose
launch Europlay title for February is
No Limit by Dutch act 2 Unlimited.
RADIO NEWS PO BOX 514 HARROW MIDDLESEX HA1 4SP tel 081 427 6062 fax 081 861 2694
f radio news 1993 page 3

4. MOREMIDEM RADIO WAVES
Local FM music station Cannes
Radio's slogan translates as "if you
listen to it, you'll sing!" Er, come
again? ***** KIIS FM/Los Angeles
gave away or-shirts emblazoned "I woke
up in France with Rick Dees In the
Morning" ***** Canadian radio
tipsheet Radioactivite gave away
copies that included a seven-inch
single by Nelson Manville that turned
out to be blank on both sides *****
IFPI Director General Nic Garnett
said he was starting talks in London
with controversial satellite music
service Digital Music Express over
royalties, in the absence of
international law. Garnett said he
was keen to establish the principle
that music is paid for at its real
value ***** Veteran Dutch DJ Lex
Harding, now with Radio 538, argued
that "real radio stopped in the
Netherlands in 1974 when Veronica was
brought into the public system" *****
Japanese cable radio's expansion from
440 to 880 channels has seen
simultaneous live relays of
ZlOO/New York and Power 106/Los
Angeles by Radio Roode/Tokyo *****
Radio industry attendance at MIDEM
was up 10% on last year *****
Meanwhile, back in the UK, Peter
AIRMAIL PRINTED
Kerridge is the Station Manager of
Radio Essex's new Harlow opt-out,
due to open this Spring. Presenters
are being recruited now ***** At her
Manchester launch party for new
single Independence, Lulu met
Piccadilly Radio's Mark Story,
Sunset Radio's Mike Shaft and
Signal Cheshire's Neil Cossar.
Story last met Luly ten years ago
when he produced her Sunday morning
show on Capital Radio/London *****
What does Atlantic 252 make of The
Independent's description of its
format as "rock Rlusic"? *****
PAPER
• t
RADIO NEWS PO BOX 514 HARROW MIDDLESEX HAl 4SP tel 081 427 6062 fax 081 861 2694
1 radio news 1993 page 4