Thought I’d start a topic on this, as it was announced yesterday that one of the most popular radio stations for my local area, Wave 105 (covering Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight), is to be amalgamated into Greatest Hits Radio
https://planetradio.co.uk/wave-105/station/on-air/wave-105-changes/
Wave 105 is changing
Most of my family members are regular listeners to Wave 105, so this will come as a surprise to them. While I used to listen to it regularly several years ago, my interest in it has faded in favour of more niche radio stations such as Radio 1 Dance, but I imagine this goes to show how audiences are changing in today's world of on-demand music playlists and Spotify. Most people of today will want to listen to a particular selection of music genres that they appreciate, rather than have to listen through a few songs that they don't like. It's even evident in my family as we tend to skip to a different radio station whenever a song that we don't particularly like comes on.
Even so, I don't think that discontinuing Wave 105 is the best idea since I think it is good to have an "all-rounder" radio station for a particular region, particularly if an audience can be built up around it. There can't be that many radio stations that play a whole range of genres spanning right from 60s rock and roll all the way to today's chart topping hits, with a bit of new wave, disco, house, indie and R&B in between. Narrowing down to the greatest hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s will just lead to the same songs being played on repeat at least once a week, if not more frequent, which will alienate those people looking for more variety. In my experience, as much as George Michael, Whitney Houston, Elton John and David Bowie are legendary singers, there's only so many times you can listen to all of their songs on repeat before you eventually get bored.
I guess the fundamental issue with local radio is that unless you want to appeal to absolutely everybody (which is impossible), you have to draw a line somewhere whether that be musical genres, periods, or local coverage. On the latter point, Wave 105 is good for local news and weather if your life mostly stays within Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight (like me for example, I frequent all three), but for someone living in those regions who regularly commutes to Surrey or Berkshire for example, you're going to want a radio station that covers those regions instead. It's a bit like with the BBC local news regions that put Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the South, despite some people feeling that they might be better suited to the Midlands or East. On another note, ever since the advent of online streaming, you don't even need to be in your home region to listen to your local radio station anymore, so one could argue what the point is of differentiating by region these days.
What are your thoughts on this decision, and local radio in general? Do you believe that more widespread coverage of the internet and better personalisation tools, such as a car touchscreen displaying travel and weather updates for all your frequented locations, will further diminish the case for local radio?
Speaking as someone (Gen Xer with a pretty broad musical taste, from rock to dance) who lives in the Wave area and listens to it (along with Radio 2 and formerly BBC local radio at certain times of day, but not since last autumn) it's somewhat unfortunate.
Greatest Hits Radio doesn't sound too bad, there are some presenters I recognise from R1 and R2, but I do like the "local" feel of local stations and I worry about the variety of the playlist.
Also Wave does have some good shows that I like, especially "Teenage Kicks" on Sunday night, also the dance/party show in Saturday night. Also Mark Collins in the morning, and the "Golden Hours" which can sometimes play some relatively rare stuff.
For a local radio station I do feel that they are a little more "experimental" with their choice of oldies than some others. You do hear some rarer 80s and 90s hits at times, OTOH examples that spring to mind include Furniture's "Brilliant Mind", Heaven 17's "(We Don't Need No) Fascist Groove Thang" or Classix Nouveaux "Is It A Dream". Even something like "Jack Your Body", which was a number one but rarely heard these days. Plenty of others too if I think about it. Will Greatest Hits play these sorts of tracks or will it stick to well-known hits? I don't know, I haven't really listened.
Round here the other radio stations seem to have rebranded to "national" names. Ocean FM is Heart (and seems to be targeting a much younger demographic than Ocean did; Heart seems very much like a 20s and early 30s oriented station while Ocean FM always seemed to be a "mature adult" station back in the day). Power FM (remember that from the late 80s and 90s?) is now Capital. Not sure about Isle of Wight Radio but its programming also seems to have changed compared to pre-Covid.
I get the impression the big groups are aiming more at minimising costs than growing listenership. It seems a slightly strange idea to mess with what works (shows like Teenage Kicks get a lot of positive feedback) and potentially turn off listeners, but perhaps like the railways, the aim is to cut costs, not attract/retain punters. Seems to be very much the business model of the 2020s in general.
I'll still listen to Greatest Hits at times (albeit less than Wave) and some of the presenters interest me, but I will miss things like "Teenage Kicks" and I do wonder whether those rarer 80s and early 90s tracks that Wave is very good at will still be heard.
Same goes with BBC local radio. There were some specialist shows in the evenings, like Alex Dyke at the weekends, which I used to enjoy. These also disappeared last autumn despite being very popular. So in perhaps a little over 6 months we'll have lost many more specialist and much loved shows in the South Hampshire area.
So in this area are there any independently-owned local radio stations left I wonder? Or even ones owned by a big group but allowed freedom to decide the playlist? Will the "gap in the market" that will result encourage enterprising locals to setup one?
It's all very well saying the internet can generate your ideal playlist but it's not just about that. Listening to radio is not just about the music, it's about the presenters.
You don't get that with something like Spotify. Indeed as I get older I seem to be valuing the presenters more and more, providing they play decent tracks.
Wow sad to hear this as I listen to Wave 105 quite often but I knew it was owned by Bauer so this was likely only a matter of time. They seem on a quest to destroy all local radio and I think one of the Wave 105 transmitters already became Greatest Hits radio. I certainly still listen to the radio but I think that is the last local radio station left in the area. Sadly I doubt anyone will take their place, it seems local radio is pretty much dead now. As an aside I'm pretty sure Greatest Hits Radio is already transmitted in the area so is this just going to be another frequency broadcasting the same very limited playlist?
What I don't get (see above) is that a lot of people seem to like local radio and like the idea of varied playlists. So why mess with something that works? Surely the aim must be to retain the listeners, isn't that the prime metric that radio uses to measure success?
Will there be any station where you can listen to the rarer 80s Top 40 hits, for example? You struggle to hear these on R2 these days (outside of specialist shows), which seems to be moving towards less 80s (with the 70s and 60s almost completely abandoned) and more 21st century stuff. The prospect of the R2 offshoot covering the late 20th century does sound interesting though, hope that comes off.
Incidentally, is there a date for Wave? The website is very vague about it, it says "spring" so presumably by the end of May.
If anyone does have any recommendations for alternative stations reachable from South Hampshire (either DAB or FM) it would be good to hear about it!