Dozens of local radio stations to vanish across England

Dozens of towns and cities across England will lose their own distinctive local radio stations later this year, after the commercial group Bauer announced plans to fold almost 50 regional outlets into a national radio network.

Stations such as York’s Minster FM and the West Midlands’ Signal 107 will lose their identities and be rebranded under the Greatest Hits Radio name from September.

Rather than producing their own shows, the stations will largely carry syndicated programmes made in London featuring national presenters playing classic pop music.

The stations will still be obliged to broadcast some regional content in order to meet the requirements of their licences. However, this quota will be fulfilled by producing a small number of a regionally produced programmes covering large areas such as the whole of the nort-west of England, rather than on a local station-by-station basis.

Bauer would not comment on the number of jobs that would be affected by the decision, although the industry news site Radio Today estimated about 160 of the 200 on-air presenters across the stations were facing redundancy, without taking into account off-air support staff and producers.

The current state of the media industry means it could be difficult for staff to find jobs elsewhere, with many of the affected stations located in mid-sized settlements where there are no other stations.

Local journalist and travel reporter roles on the stations are likely to be largely unaffected by the decision, with the national programmes cutting away to offer local news bulletins. This is in the line with the industry belief that local news updates are what is really valued by listeners, rather than knowing that a presenter on a music station lives near them and can talk about local events in between songs.

Bauer said the decision would provide the “optimum mix of local content that listeners highly value alongside content from nationally known presenters, while also providing significant scale for advertisers”.

The industry-wide move towards consolidating local stations into de facto national outlets has been under way for years, with the move exacerbated as Britons increasingly listen to the radio via DAB radio and smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echo rather than FM radio.

The consolidation approach was pioneered by Bauer’s rival Global, which turned Capital and Heart into national brands by buying up regional stations and slowly reducing the amount of local content.

Combining stations into national outlets has generally been a success when it comes to boosting listenership, although it usually comes at the expense of hearing regional accents on air and substantially reduces the number of media jobs outside London.

Most of the stations affected by Wednesday’s announcement were bought by Bauer last year and were often founded in the commercial radio boom years of the 80s and 90s.

The company said a small number of stations with particularly strong local followings – such as Cornwall’s Pirate FM and Lincolnshire’s Lincs FM – will keep their existing line-ups.

Other outlets such as Bradford’s Pulse 1 and Swansea’s The Wave will be allowed to keep their branding and local breakfast shows before becoming part of Hits Radio for the rest of the day.

BBC local radio stations are seizing on this consolidation in the commercial radio market to reposition themselves around personality-led local programmes, with the corporation’s 40 local outlets across England increasingly presenters from former commercial rivals.

Bauer-owned stations rebranding as Greatest Hits Radio
The Beach (Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft)
The Breeze (Alton, Petersfield, Haslemere & Bordon)
The Breeze (Andover)
The Breeze (Basingstoke)
The Breeze (Bath)
The Breeze (Bridgwater & West Somerset)
The Breeze (Bristol)
The Breeze (Cheltenham)
The Breeze (Newbury)
The Breeze (Reading)
The Breeze (Shaftesbury)
The Breeze (Torbay)
The Breeze (Warminster)
The Breeze (Weston super Mare)
The Breeze (Yeovil)
Compass FM (Grimsby)
Dearne FM (Barnsley)
Dream 100 (Tendring)
Eagle Radio (Guildford)
KLFM (Kings Lynn)
Minster FM (Northallerton)
Minster FM (York)
Mix 96 (Aylesbury)
North Norfolk Radio (North Norfolk)
Peak FM (Chesterfield)
Pulse 2 (Bradford & Huddersfield)
Radio Norwich (Norwich)
Ridings FM (Wakefield)
Rother FM (Rotherham)
Rutland Radio (Rutland)
Sam FM (Swindon)
Signal 107 (Kidderminster)
Signal 107 (Shrewsbury & Oswestry)
Signal 107 (Telford)
Signal 107 (Wolverhampton)
Signal 2 (Stoke-on-Trent)
Spirit FM (Chichester)
Stray FM (Harrogate)
Swansea Sound (Swansea)
Tower FM (Bolton & Bury)
Trax FM (Bassetlaw)
Trax FM (Doncaster)
Wave 96.5 (Blackpool)
Wessex FM (Weymouth)
Wire FM (Warrington)
Wish FM (Wigan)
Yorkshire Coast Radio (Bridlington)
Yorkshire Coast Radio (Scarborough)

Bauer-owned stations retaining their name and own breakfast shows but broadcasting Hits Radio during the rest of the day:
Pulse 1 (Bradford & Huddersfield)
Signal 1 (Stoke-on-Trent)
96.4 The Wave (Swansea)
Fire Radio (Bournemouth)

Bauer-owned stations remaining as standalone outlets:
Lincs FM (Lincolnshire)
Pirate FM (Cornwall)
Sam FM (Bristol)