Radio Panel
And so the battle, once more, begins for control of the airwaves in the east of the country. Last year, the Radio Authority was disbanded, only after the announcement that Saga Radio would be taking up residence at 105.2 FM in Glasgow. Now, Ofcom has announced the first raft of licences since it took control of the Radio Authority, and among the licences proposed was one for Edinburgh. In light of this announcement, The Drum is putting together a panel of esteemed industry experts to deliberate, cogitate and digest the tasty morsels that will be presented to Ofcom later this year by the bidders.
Bidders for the licence currently include 4Life FM (a consortium led by Jim Faulds), Virgin Radio, Saga, Guardian Media Group, Emap, Red FM, Scottish Radio Holdings and GWR. However, it is anticipated that more radio groups will throw their hats into the ring before the 23 September deadline that has been set by Ofcom.
The Drum’s Ofcom panel will look at all bids in detail and will assess each of them in the four different areas set out by Ofcom, which include:
A) the ability of each of the applicants for the licence to maintain, throughout the period for which the licence would be in force, the service that they propose to provide;
B) the extent to which any such proposed service would cater for the tastes and interests of persons living in the area or locality for which the service would be provided, and, where it is proposed to cater for any particular tastes and interests of such persons, the extent to which the service would cater for those tastes and interests;
C) the extent to which any such proposed service would broaden the range of programmes available by way of local services to persons living in the area or locality for which it would be provided, and, in particular, the extent to which the service would cater for tastes and interests different from those already catered for by local services provided for that area or locality; and
D) the extent to which there is evidence that, amongst persons living in that area or locality, there is a demand for, or support for, the provision of the proposed service.
The Drum’s Ofcom Panel is made up of some of the best known names from all areas of the marketing mix, from client to advertising agency director, media buyer to media sales director, ensuring that all bases have been covered when it comes to researching the Edinburgh market and determining what the public want. Once all the bids are lodged with Ofcom by 23 September our panel of media experts will toil over the applications to determine which bid they would like to be the eventual winner of the covetted licence.
Our panel will then meet in November to discuss their views on each of the bids and, after what we are sure will be a heated debate, The Drum’s Ofcom panel will identify the bidder it feels best meets all the criteria set down and would ultmately be the best bid for the East of Scotland.
Finally, a letter of support for the preferred bid will be sent to Ofcom outlining the panel’s findings before the end of the public consultation period, which will last for 10 weeks following the 23 September deadline.
Last year The Drum’s panel found SAGA Radio in the top three stations, with 3C winning only by a whisker. Will this year’s panel be as accurate in predicting what station Ofcom will pick? Only time, it seems, will tell.
Martin Raymond,
Head of Public Affairs,
NHS Health Scotland
Martin has now been working in and around the world of health and marketing for nearly 20 years. He worked for the Scottish Health Education Group, the Health Education Board for Scotland, and NHS Health Scotland, where he is head of Public Affairs.
The task of encouraging Scots away from the deep-fat fryer and strong drink is more rewarding than it might first appear; there are some small but significant signs that Scotland is beginning to stagger away from the bottom of all health league tables.
Grappling with these challenges has led to consistently award-winning advertising and a determination to work positively with the Scottish media to encourage change.
Paul Genasi,
Advertising Director,
Newsquest
Paul Genasi has worked as the advertising director for Newsquest (Herald and Times) Ltd for the past eight years. Prior to his appointment, Paul worked at News International, starting his time there as a field sales executive and finishing as display advertisement manager. He has also had experience of working on the agency side, with a stint early in his career at Craig Advertising in Glasgow. Popular within the newspaper industry Paul is responsible for all newspaper sales budgets within the organisation, keeping staff motivated and ensuring that the Newsquest sales team runs as smoothly as possible.
Gill Eatwell,
Associate Director,
Spirit Media Scotland
Gill started her career with Ash Gupta Communications Group in 1984. She worked with Hall Advertising and Barkers Scotland before joining Faulds as head of media research in 1992. Gill spent 11 years with Faulds, joining their board as media director in 2000, and in October 2003 worked with Spiritmedia to integrate the media business of Fauldsmedia into Spiritmedia Scotland.
Gill’s experience includes major national advertisers like British Midland, Kwik Fit, AutoTrader and numerous public sector accounts. Gill is a graduate from Edinburgh University, where she studied Mental Philosophy and Mathematics.
Ian Wright,
Managing Director
Family Advertising
Ian is one of the founding partners of Family. The Family mantra of “make a noise” could have been written for Ian, for, as anyone who has ever met him will know, he is enthusiastic, energetic and passionate.
He loves advertising and is passionate about great creative ideas. For the last 10 years he has worked in Scotland and has been fortunate to work on many of the country’s most famous brands. Before that he worked in London, where he ran international business for clients based throughout Europe.
Today all his energies are focused on Family and ensuring that they continue to “make a noise” for their clients.
Ken Garner,
Media Commentator
and Radio Expert
Ken Garner’s main research interests are in radio, journalism, and broadcast and film music. Current research activities include a project on radio listening in the workplace, and a historical analysis of arts broadcasting. He is editor of the new scholarly periodical, The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, launched successfully by Intellect in 2003, published in association with the Radio Studies Network, of which Ken is a founder member.
In 2001 he had chapters on the use of music in Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino’s films published in two collections of essays on film music. His book “In Session Tonight: The Complete Radio 1 Recordings” was published in 1993 by the BBC. He is treasurer of the Scottish Journalism Training Forum. He has worked full-time in London and Scotland as a business and financial journalist, reporter and editor, and has been freelance since 1986. From 1997–2002 he was radio critic of the Sunday Express.