NEWS: LONDON'S EASY 1035 AM RADIO FLIPS FORMAT FROM COUNTRY TO ASIAN TALK by GRANT GODDARD

www.grantgoddard.co.uk December 2004

London country music station 'Easy 1035' will change format to Asian talk, following the Ofcom Radio Licensing Committees approval of owner Sunrise Radios request. In the New Year, the AM station, which has changed owners and names regularly in its ten-year history, will become 'Kismat Asian Talk Radio', Londons third Asian AM radio station. Sunrises application for a format change is the first to be considered by Ofcom under new criteria within the 2003 Communications Act, which require a licensee to demonstrate either that there is demand for the proposed format change, or that it will not narrow the range of programming available to listeners, or that it will not be detrimental to fair competition. On receipt of Sunrises application, Ofcom launched a month-long public consultation exercise in September, receiving 135 objections, the most significant from 'Club Asia' whose AM station has offered a 'cutting edge music' format for Londons Asian youth since 2003. Ofcoms decision to allow the format change took into account several factors: the policy of former regulator Radio Authority to look sympathetically upon such requests from AM stations; the success of other Asian stations on AM; the AM bands better suitability for speech than music; the widening of listener choice the new format would bring to London; and the failure of the country station to attract a significant audience during the last decade. This latter criterion is a milestone in radio regulation since it acknowledges for the first time that a stations failure to attract sufficient listeners can be reason to allow a format change, an argument that Easy 1035s previous owners had used but failed to persuade the Radio Authority. The new format description Ofcom has offered Sunrise Radio makes clear that Kismats programming must differentiate it from 'Club Asia' and music-led Sunrise Radio by targeting an audience over-35 with speech-dominated shows. Music content will focus on ghazlas, qawaalis, folk and religious songs, rather than the popular music played by the other two stations. The news of a new commercial Asian talk station came in the same week that the BBC Asian Network announced that it is strengthening its own speech programming through the expansion of its news-gathering operation and a new team to make documentaries. In their response to Tim Gardams review of its digital services, BBC Governors accepted criticisms that the Asian Network should be less a news processor and more a news breaker and that its programming should do more to report the Asian communities throughout the UK. The Governors insistence that the Asian Network should accentuate the difference and diversity of its programmes and programme formats from those of its [commercial] competitors puts the station in a dilemma. Sunrise Radio is the channels main competitor and, in addition to its London stations, Sunrise rents DAB transponders covering Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Bradford and Huddersfield, all with significant Asian populations. Sunrise now owns three brands music-led Sunrise Radio launched in 1989, celebrity-led 'YARR' aimed at young people, and the new talk-formatted 'Kismat' aimed at
News: London's Easy 1035 AM Radio Flips Format From Country To Asian Talk 2004 Grant Goddard page 2

older audiences. The BBC Governors now want Asian Network to navigate a format that is complementary to all three, an almost impossible task. In its London stronghold, Sunrise Radio attracts 1.3% of radio listening, compared to 0.3% for the BBC Asian Network, which is only available on digital platforms. Club Asia does not yet participate in RAJAR. Last year, Sunrise bought three small local FM stations in the London boroughs of Bexley, Romford and Greenwich, which it continues to operate under the 'Time' brand with English-language programming. Now that Ofcom has granted it one significant format change, it could only be a matter of time before Sunrise seeks permission to put a more lucrative Asian-orientated brand on these FM stations, invoking the criterion that they have failed to attract significant audiences with their existing formats. Such a move would stymie the London ambitions of both Club Asia and the BBC Asian Network, who broke the monopoly on London Asian radio that Sunrise enjoyed for fourteen years.

[First published in 'The Radio Magazine' as 'Easy London Flips To Asian Talk', #662, 18 December 2004]

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

News: London's Easy 1035 AM Radio Flips Format From Country To Asian Talk 2004 Grant Goddard

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