Analysis of Bauer Radio's on/off use of the DAB digital radio platform for its 'Magic' brand in the UK, written by Grant Goddard in January 2011 for Grant Goddard: Radio Blog.

1. BAUER RADIO TALKS THE DAB
TALK, BUT WALKS ITS 'MAGIC'
BRAND OFF DAB
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
January 2011

2. Bauer Radio is the second largest commercial radio group in the UK. It publicly supports the
government’s plans for DAB radio switchover. Only this month, Paul Keenan, chief executive
of Bauer Media, told 'The Guardian': “What part if any is the BBC going to play on the local
DAB level?” He went on to ask:
“Will there be some form of seismic content innovation or intervention that really pulls
listeners across [to DAB]?”
Keenan need have looked no further than his own company’s DAB radio strategy to discover a
form of “seismic content intervention” that might well result in pushing existing listeners away
from DAB, rather than pulling them in. While Keenan was talking to 'The Guardian', Bauer was
busy pulling the plugs on its ‘Magic’ brand from the DAB platform in the following areas:
 Aberdeen
 Ayr
 Birmingham
 Bradford & Huddersfield
 Cambridge
 Dundee & Perth
 Edinburgh
 Glasgow
 Kent
 Northern Ireland
 Norwich
 Peterborough
 Stoke
 Sussex Coast
 Swansea
If you were a loyal listener to Magic in one of these areas, your favourite station simply
disappeared from the DAB menu in January 2011 ('Magic' had 1m out-of-analogue-area
listeners per week, contributing 24% of the brand’s total hours listened, according to RAJAR).
This change is surprising given that, as recently as May 2008, Bauer Radio decided to add its
'Magic' brand to the DAB platform in the following areas:
 Aberdeen
 Ayr
 Birmingham
 Bradford & Huddersfield
 Cambridge
 Dundee & Perth
 Edinburgh
 Glasgow
 Kent
 Northern Ireland
 Norwich
 Peterborough
 Stoke
 Sussex Coast
 Swansea
In 2008, in most of these areas, 'Magic' had replaced another Bauer brand, ‘Kiss’, which could
not have pleased existing 'Kiss' listeners. Now, in 2011, it is the 'Kiss' brand that is replacing
the 'Magic' brand in all but three of these areas. Musical chairs, anyone?
In 2009, Bauer had said that it was investing in the “right long-term platforms for the right
stations at the right time.” So, in 2008, 'Kiss' was right for DAB whereas, in 2011, now 'Magic'
is right?
Bauer Radio Talks The DAB Talk, But Walks Its 'Magic' Brand Off DAB page 2
©2011 Grant Goddard

3. It is hard to believe that such precipitous content changes inspire consumer confidence in the
DAB platform. But, sadly, the DAB platform has never really been about ‘radio’ and ‘listeners’.
Loyalty to DAB radio? What’s that? For commercial radio, its pursuit of the DAB platform had
been about the exercise of power, the expectation of profit and the promise of automatic
renewals for the industry’s most valuable analogue radio licences.
It was also about a much coveted transfer of the power to determine which stations are
broadcast to a cartel of commercial DAB multiplex owners, and away from the regulator. This
is why station changes on DAB, such as Bauer’s ('Kiss' to 'Magic' to 'Kiss') can be executed
without a public consultation or impact assessment.* The regulator merely nods its head and
makes a quick note in a file. So what role does Ofcom play in ensuring that the DAB radio
platform “furthers the interests of citizens and of consumers” as mandated by law? The answer
is: absolutely none. We might as well have a scarecrow in charge of digital radio at Ofcom.
The reason that Bauer Radio (with a 25% listening share of commercial radio) made these
latest changes to DAB is that it is locked in a war with archrival Global Radio (38%). Neither
company has a track record of developing its own successful radio stations from the ground
up. Both companies are piled high with acquisitions and mergers of other radio businesses. As
a result, the two compete with each other by moving their radio pieces around the chess
board, rather than by innovation
In January 2011, Global Radio extended its ‘Capital’ brand outside London, replacing the
former ‘Galaxy’ brand and some local FM stations. Global describes the brand:
“Capital’s target audience of 15-34 year olds are big fans of popular music, they are
media savvy and are on trend.”
To compete, Bauer Radio extended its 'Kiss' brand to every available local DAB multiplex
(replacing 'Magic'). Bauer describes the brand:
“Kiss evolves around ever changing lifestyles and trends of the UK’s young 15-34
market … Every part of their day revolves around music.”
If, like me, you think that these two brands sound almost identical, understand that this
phenomenon is the outcome of long understood business practice in the radio sector. In 1951,
American economist Peter Steiner wrote:
“If, as is often suspected, [radio] broadcasters exaggerate the homogeneity of
audiences and their preferences for certain program stereotypes, the tendencies
towards [programme] duplication will be increased. … The problem, of course, is that a
series of competing firms, each striving to maximize its number of listeners, will fail to
Bauer Radio Talks The DAB Talk, But Walks Its 'Magic' Brand Off DAB page 3
©2011 Grant Goddard

4. Bauer Radio Talks The DAB Talk, But Walks Its 'Magic' Brand Off DAB page 4
©2011 Grant Goddard
achieve either the industry or the social good. Here, then, competition is providing a
less than desirable result.”
In the UK, this is precisely why we have a regulator for radio broadcasting – to ensure that
consumers benefit from a wider choice of content than a free market would provide. However,
with its hands tied in DAB policy by the Broadcasting Act 1996, and its laissez-faire ‘do nothing
until someone complains about it’ strategy, Ofcom has had no more impact on the DAB station
menu than having no regulator at all.
DAB is the Wild West of radio where anything can, and often does, happen. Seemingly, it often
happens with little concern for listeners or for those who paid good money for a DAB receiver.
Without a sheriff in sight, or a cavalry about to ride over the horizon, the danger is that the
public might come to view DAB radio as nothing more than a bunch of cowboys locked in a
private war of one-upmanship.
Yet the radio industry wonders why the DAB platform is not stimulating more listening or more
receiver sales.
[*NB: There was an Ofcom consultation in November 2010 about a change of format for the
'Kiss' brand, but this did not touch upon 'Magic' being dropped from DAB. 'Magic' continues to
be simulcast on DAB in nine areas where it is already available on FM or AM, as a contractual
condition of its automatic analogue licence renewals.]
[First published by Grant Goddard: Radio Blog as 'Bauer Radio Talks The DAB Talk, But Walks Its Magic Brand Off
DAB', 29 January 2011.]
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