The Drum Radio Authority

It has been four years since the last FM licence was put up for grabs in central Scotland, with Beat 106 winning the elusive golden ticket. This time around, the license, which will broadcast on 105.2 FM, will broadcast to the west of Central Scotland – and with a potential audience of around 1.6 million, it is undoubtedly going to be a fiercely contested battle, with a total of thirteen bids being submitted by the 1 July closing date.

Although the ultimate decision lies in the lap of the Gods at the Radio Authority, The Drum is putting together its own panel, which will assess the 13 bids that have been submitted.

The Drum Radio Authority will look at all bids and will assess each of them in the four different areas set out by the Radio Authority itself:

ïWill the bid be financially stable for the duration

of the license?

ïWill the station offer something new to its listeners?

ïDoes the station cater for the needs of the local

environment it will serve?

ïDoes the station have significant support from the

local community?

Our panel is made up of some of the best known names in the Scottish media, people who have worked in Scottish media for many years and who have a full grasp of what the media landscape needs and doesn’t need. They will toil over the applications in the forthcoming weeks to determine which bid they would like to be the eventual winner. Our panel will then meet later this month to discuss their views on each of the 13 bids and, after what we are sure will be a heated debate, The Drum Radio Authority will identify the bidder it feels meets all the criteria set down and would be the best bid for Scotland.

To this end, a letter of support for the preferred bid will be sent to the Radio Authority outlining the panel’s findings before the end of the public consultation period on 29 September.

Along with the announcement of our panel, we are also launching our Web poll, which will give you, the reader, the opportunity to vote for the bid that you would like to see win the race. The poll, can be found on www.thedrum.com.

The findings will be published in the 26 September issue of The Drum, and will also be submitted to the Radio Authority as part of the public consultation period that is currently ongoing.

Over the page are detailed the 13 individual bids, so why not have a look through them and see which bid you feel should win and then visit our web poll.

The Drum Radio Authority

Brian Crook – managing director, The Bridge Advertising Agency

Brian began his career in 1980, when he started as a graduate trainee at DMB&B. In 1983, he moved to the then fledgling GGT, where he stayed for six years and rose to join the board. In 1988, he returned to Scotland to become managing director of The Bridge. After a brief period on the client side, as marketing director of Cigna Healthcare, Brian was asked to return to be part of the management buyout team when The Bridge bought itself out from its parent company. One of the first to develop the principles of account planning in Scotland, Brian is seen as a strong strategic thinker.

Stuart Bell – media director, Feather Brooksbank

After graduating from Strathclyde University in 1987, Stuart joined Hall Advertising as a media trainee, giving him the opportunity to work with many of the leading lights of Scottish advertising. After serving his apprenticeship, he was lured to join a small but expanding agency called Faulds Advertising. This was a really exciting time as Faulds challenged the "old guard" and expanded rapidly during the three years he was there. The opportunity to run his own department proved irresistible and he moved along the M8 to become media director of The Bridge. After the Bridge, he jumped ship to the client side as advertising controller of Bank of Scotland. However, it wasn't long before he was back on the agency side, joining Feather Brooksbank in 1996. Stuart is presently The Drum’s "Media Buyer of the Year".

Morven Gow – associate director, The Media Shop

Clutching an HND in Communication Studies from Napa, Morven began her career in the unique post of PR exec/media buyer at Tait & McLay. After four years, enticed by Baillie Marshall Advertising in Edinburgh, she became senior media planner/buyer at the Edinburgh agency. Key accounts were: TSB Scotland, British Midland, the Dairy Council for Northern Ireland, Scottish & Newcastle – Pilsner Urquell, The Herald and the Sunday Post. Tempted back to Glasgow after three years, she joined The Media Shop in 1991. Morven’s responsibilities are planning and buying for the SECC (events), SMG Publishing, Behar Carpets, Malmaison Hotel Group and the National Galleries of Scotland.

Ken Garner, journalism coordinator,

Glasgow Caledonian University

Ken Garner is one of Scotland’s leading authorities on the radio industry. As a senior lecturer within the Department of Language and Media at Glasgow Caledonian, Ken also currently publishes The Radio Journal. As a freelance journalist he authored the book In Session Tonight, which charted the first 25 years of the Peel Sessions on Radio 1. He has also been the radio critic for the Scotland on Sunday and the Sunday Express.

Steven Walker – managing director,

The Scotsman Publications Ltd

Steven Walker joined The Scotsman Publications as a display sales executive on the Evening News in 1986. In 1988, he joined Thomson Regional Newspapers Head Office working in publishing centres throughout the Group, including Cardiff, Middlesborough, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Chester and Edinburgh. He then moved on to the Aberdeen P&J in 1990. In 1991, he joined the Daily Record and Sunday Mail and was later promoted to general sales manager in 1992. He returned to The Scotsman Publications in 1995 as ad director before his promotion to assistant MD. Steven was promoted to MD of The Scotsman Publications in June 1999.

Lillian Foote, media director, The Guy Robertson Partnership

Lillian has been in the Scottish media marketing industry since 1977 when she joined MCS Robertson Scott, where she helped establish the agency’s media department. She spent most of the 80s at Rex Stewart and the next decade at Riley Advertising. Lillian has handled the media for one of Scotland’s biggest radio advertisers, Toyota, for the last eight years, so she knows what Scottish advertisers want from a radio station.

Andy Jones – director of advertising, Barkers Advertising

Andrew has spent his entire career working in media, planning, negotiating, and buying media space on behalf of clients. Although this job function was originally incorporated within “full service” advertising agency structures, market demands and costs meant that this process was increasingly farmed out to “media independents”. Recognising this trend, Andrew left The Bridge in July 1993 and set up FB Media Direction, a joint venture with Feather Brooksbank, as a media independent. In November 1999, the agencies were subsequently merged and bought by the largest media independent in Europe, Carat Group UK Ltd, who added Carat’s Manchester office to the group. Subsequently, the directors of the group were subject to a three-year earn-out period. In 2003, Barkers Scotland approached Andrew and he joined them as a director.

Maurice Smith – managing director, TVI

Maurice Smith heads The Value Innovators (TVI), a Glasgow-based consultancy specialising in business intelligence, research and PR. He is also co-director of the media services company Gemini Vision. Prior to setting up in business in 1999, he spent 20 years in journalism, with the Herald and as business editor of BBC Scotland. He was twice Scottish Business Journalist of the Year, and was latterly in charge of the BBC’s Pacific Quay project. Maurice writes for several European business publications, and is the author of two books on the Scottish media and the family business sector. He lives and works in Glasgow.

The Glasgow Radio bidders

The Arrow – national radio group Chrysalis are behind this bid, which aims to be a Glasgow adult rock station, combining classic songs with more contemporary acts. The Arrow also aims to showcase Glasgow’s music scene and hopes to be influential in discovering Glasgow bands of the future.

Base FM – headed up by Charles Gray and Brian Murphy. The station will cater for the tastes of 18- to 44-year-olds and aims to reflect their urban tastes with a broad mix of both soul and r’n’b. It will also provide local and regional news.

Clyde Asia Radio – this bid comes from Alpine Media Ltd, and will provide a professional and mainstream broadcasting service targeting the Asian community in the west of Scotland area.

Glasgow Gold – this bid by Capital Radio aims to provide listeners with a Glasgow slant on their Capital Gold network – with all types of music from the past five decades being showcased. It will provide a distinct Glasgow sound, through promoting their Glasgow Gold Community Trust, which is committed to giving hourly support for its community partners and activities.

Glasgow’s Magic FM – this station is from the EMAP stable and is being headed up by Jim Faulds (of Faulds fame) and Emap’s Gus Mackenzie . Magic aims to be a “more music, less talk” station, featuring news and information for Glasgow, and targeting women aged 35 and over. The music will be classic and contemporary songs, and will also showcase classic soul and rock in the evenings, along with a football-free zone at the weekend.

Go-FM (Glasgow FM) - this station aims to be the provider of dynamic music and speech for those who live and work in Glasgow. It is being backed by Alan Clements, the founder of the successful Scottish commercial production company Wark Clements.

105.2 MY-FM – this is a bid from Absolute Radio Scotland Ltd. The application aims to provide an adult alternative for the over-35s who love music. The station will also provide local news and information about the area and is billed as a station for people who love music and Glasgow.

SAGA 105.2 FM – this will be a full service format of familiar music mixed with news and lifestyle features that cater for the tastes and interests of the over-50s. Saga has already produced this station for other areas nationally.

Smooth FM - backed by the might of GMG Radio, the owners of Real Radio and Jazz FM, Smooth FM will be a music, news and information station for Greater Glasgow adults in the ‘middle youth’ age group of 45-64.

The Storm – backed by radio group GWR, the station aims to play rock music and promote local rock talent. It will also provide information about entertainment, live music and a plentiful dose of sport.

Sunrise Radio – is headed up by Shammy Batra and Avtar Lit and will bring choice to the Glasgow Asian population, aimed at 15- to 54-year-olds, through a mix of news, music, Asian views and local community information. It will be modelled on the already established Sunshine brand that is broadcasting nationally.

3C – this is Scottish Radio Holdings’ bid, which aims to give listeners a continuous mix of today’s contemporary country and western music with relevant information and a 24-hour news service.

Virgin 105.2 FM – from SMG comes the Glasgow Virgin bid, which will give the Virgin sound a more local feel. Bobby Hain, head of Virgin Radio describes the bid as simply “Glasgow’s rock station”.