Last week, Ken Bruce began his new radio show on Greatest Hits after an acrimonious departure from BBC Radio 2. This represents a broader shift of talent moving away from Radio 1 and onto Radio 2, and from Radio 2 onto commercial stations like Greatest Hits Radio and Boom Radio.
Last year, Radio 1 veteran Scott Mills left after 24 years and moved to weekday afternoons on Radio 2, replacing Steve Wright in the afternoon. In isolation this is nothing new; Steve Wright, Tony Blackburn, Paul Gambaccini and others all made the move in the 90s, whilst Chris Evans took over from Terry Wogan’s infamous breakfast show back in 2010.
But Radio 2 is now facing a personality crisis. It is attempting to cater to those in their mid-thirties, who grew up with the likes of Scott Mills and are now dabbling in Radio 2 for the first time, but also those who listen to Sound Of The 60s with Tony Blackburn on Saturday mornings and still yearn for the Wogan breakfast years. That is an immensely broad audience when it comes to relatability but also in its music choices.
Back in the 90s when the first Radio 1 exodus to Radio 2 happened, the span of pop music was from the 60s, 70s and 80s with a sprinkle of the 90s. Fast forward thirty years, and the range of music now includes the all of the above as well as 90s, noughties, 2010s and a little bit of now. Additionally, Spotify is uploading 60,000 tracks a day, meaning there’s more music choices than ever before, but the radio schedule is still constrained by the same 24 hours in the day that it’s always had.
Not surprisingly, the commercial sector has identified this as an opportunity. Bauer’s Chief Content Officer (and ex-Radio 1 Controller) Ben Cooper has claimed that Hits Radio is aiming to be ‘Radio 1 and a half.’ Meanwhile, the media group has also syndicated a significant amount of its local radio brands into the older-skewing Greatest Hits Radio network (for those who find Radio 2 a bit too young these days), which alongside Ken Bruce also include ex-BBC DJs Mark Goodier and Simon Mayo presenting key programmes.
Meanwhile, Boom Radio launched as a new independent station in 2021. It has a clear remit unsurprisingly towards the boomer generation but has already proved highly successful with 530,000 listeners per week, and continues to grow. Plus, those who listen to Boom Radio, listen for a long time – on average 11 hours per week – meaning that loyalty is high for the station.
At a time when building relationships with young audiences continues to be challenging for the BBC, it makes sense for Radio 1 to double down on its core 15-29 year old audience. But what about those people left behind? Those who are more likely to be paying the license fee right now - where do they go for their audio fix at the BBC especially as BBC local radio is facing further cuts? There’s been huge investment in BBC Sounds, where there’s a plethora of choice for those willing to search for it.
However a lean-back, interactive experience like live radio is just as important, especially given that radio is the most trusted form of media in the UK. The relationship between a DJ and their audience is one of the most intimate across media. The daily interaction about the minutiae of each other's lives builds a community with the radio DJ at its epicentre. Greg James, Radio 1 Breakfast host recently said, ‘Radio talks to people, but TV talks at you.’ In February, Spotify announced DJ which uses AI not only to pick songs based on your previous listening history, but also uses it to create a DJ ‘voice’ between songs in a bid to emulate the feeling of radio. There’s been scepticism from the industry, but not because of fears AI will kill the radio star. But because it completely misses the point of the need state which radio - and the DJ of your choice - seeks to serve, that of community and intimacy.
Fundamentally, Radio 2 can no longer cater for absolutely everyone over the age of 35. It is becoming clear that it has chosen to be the landing slope for those who have moved away from Radio 1. Based on its new strategic direction, it will see a change in its audience make up over the next few years, becoming younger but also smaller. As commercial radio stations fine tune their audience targets further as a reaction to BBC’s schedule changes, their strategy will continue to pay dividends to the BBC’s detriment in the short term. However, the investment the BBC is making in podcasting and on-demand audio will likely future-proof its audio offering in the very long-term. But the question remains if other forms of audio can build the levels of trust and intimacy which have been fundamental to radio’s enduring success for a century.
So what does this mean for clients?
The belief in the 2010s that radio has had its day has been proved false – the industry is in good health, albeit more consolidated. It continues to be the most trusted type of media in the UK and across Europe, and for many audiences can drive trusted storytelling at both a national and local level. But given the changes, we need to continually reassess our assumptions of what the typical audience looks like for a lot of stations – the image of the classic Radio 2 listener in your head is likely to look quite different over the next few years. It’s also imperative to build relationships with new entrants, understand how they’re enticing listening away from established stations, and be mindful of what consolidation means for the reach of a campaign, especially at a local level.
Jaine Sykes is Senior Director of Media Strategy at Edelman