Planet Rock on the block

Planet Rock - which I think is the only surviving original DAB commercial channel - is up for sale, although owner Malcolm Bluemel might want to stress a little less how he's burned through three million quid propping the station up.

Currently Planet Rock has a million listeners - which is good news - but each one of those represents a 33p loss. It doesn't sound like it would be impossible to shift that towards a break-even point; the question is if anyone would care as passionately as Bluemel did to try.

Sony Awards honour 6Music, shames self with nominations

First, the encouraging news: 6Music has received seven nominations in this year's Sony Radio Awards. Amongst the shortlisted names are Jarvis Cocker, Lauren Laverne, Adam & Joe, Huey Morgan and Steve Lamacq.

It's a nice acknowledgment of the high regard in which the station is held. And only slightly undermined by Nick Ferrari getting five nominations for his rotten show. And - oh, sweet jesus - even nominated that toe-curling Bono poem about Elvis for something.

The recently downsized Radcliffe and Maconie show has been nominated for best music programme.

Here are the nominations in full - deep breath:

Breakfast Show of the Year (10 million plus)

5live Breakfast
BBC Radio 5live News for BBC Radio 5live

Kiss Breakfast with Rickie, Melvin & Charlie
Kiss 100

Nick Ferrari at Breakfast
LBC 97.3

The 1Xtra Breakfast Show with Trevor Nelson & Gemma
BBC Radio 1Xtra

Today
BBC Radio News for BBC Radio 4

========


Breakfast Show of the Year (under 10 million)

Breakfast with John & Jules
BBC Radio Kent

Dixie & Gayle, The Real Breakfast Show
Real Radio Yorkshire

Heart Breakfast With Tom, Lynsey & Jack
Heart Sussex

Steve & Karen at Breakfast
Galaxy Network Imaging for Galaxy North East

The Andrew Peach Show
BBC Radio Berkshire

========

Best Music Programme

Dermot O'Leary Show
Ora Et Labora for BBC Radio 2

In Tune
BBC Radio 3

Lauren Laverne
BBC 6 Music/BBC Audio & Music for BBC 6 Music

The A-Z of Classic FM Music
Classic FM

The Radcliffe and Maconie Show
Smooth Operations (Productions) for BBC Radio 2

=========

Best Specialist Music Programme

Huw Stephens
BBC Radio 1

Jools Holland
BBC Radio 2 Live Music for BBC Radio 2

Sounds Of The Sixties
BBC Radio 2

World Routes
BBC Radio 3

Zane Lowe
BBC Radio 1

=======

Best Entertainment Programme

Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio
Absolute Radio

Heart Breakfast with Jamie & Harriet
Heart 106.2

Steve & Karen at Breakfast
Galaxy Network Imaging for Galaxy North East

The Capital Breakfast Show
95.8 Capital FM

The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show
Absolute Radio

=======

Best Speech Programme

Behind Bars
Prison Radio Association for Electric Radio Brixton

Nick Ferrari at Breakfast
LBC 97.3

Nihal on BBC Asian Network
BBC News for BBC Asian Network

Witness
BBC News & Current Affairs for BBC World Service

Woman's Hour
BBC General Factual for BBC Radio 4

=======

Best Sports Programme

Blue Remembered Thrills - Everton at Wembley
BBC Radio Merseyside

Sportsound
BBC Radio Scotland Sports for BBC Radio Scotland

Sportsweek
Front Page Media for BBC Radio 5live

The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast
talkSPORT

World Football
BBC World Service Sport for BBC World Service

========

Best News & Current Affairs Programme

Newshour
BBC World Service News & Current Affairs for BBC World Service

PM
BBC Radio 4

The Andrew Peach Show
BBC Radio Berkshire

Today
BBC Radio News for BBC Radio 4

Victoria Derbyshire
BBC Radio 5live News for BBC Radio 5live


===========

Best Breaking News Coverage

Alzheimers' Tragedy
BBC Radio Current Affairs for BBC Radio Ulster

Corus Teesside Mothballing
BBC Tees

Cumbria Floods
BBC Radio Cumbria

The Peckham Fire
BBC London 94.9

The Release of the Lockerbie Bomber
BBC Radio Scotland News & Current Affairs for BBC Radio Scotland

=========

Best Live Event Coverage

Absolute Blur
TBI Media with Absolute Radio for Absolute Radio

Comic Relief: The Kilimanjaro Climb
BBC Radio 1

London Jazz Festival
BBC Radio 3, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, Unique Production Co & Somethin' Else for BBC Radio 3

Test Match Special: The Ashes
BBC Radio Sport for BBC Radio 5live Sports Extra, BBC Radio 5live & BBC Radio 4

The Funeral of Harry Patch
BBC Somerset & BBC Radio Bristol

======

Best Community Programming

Ali Booker's Cancer Diaries
Oxfordshire's 106 JACK fm

BBC Academy Great Ormond Street Hospital Audio Podcasts
BBC Connect & Create for Children First for Health

Behind Bars
Prison Radio Association for Electric Radio Brixton

The New Ballads of Reading Gaol
BBC Radio Berkshire

Yvette's Early Christmas
Beacon Radio for Beacon Radio (Black Country)

=========

Best Internet Programme

Answer Me This!
answermethispodcast.com

Hackney Podcast: Water
Hackney Podcast.co.uk

Media Talk
Guardian News & Media for guardian.co.uk

Remembering Hillsborough
Real Radio North West for Real Radio.co.uk

Richard Herring: As It Occurs To Me
Sky Potato, Avalon & Ben Walker for The British Comedy Guide Podcast

=======

Music Radio Personality of the Year

Chris Moyles
BBC Radio 1

Christian O'Connell
Absolute Radio for Absolute Radio & Absolute Classic Rock

Lauren Laverne
BBC 6 Music/BBC Audio & Music for BBC 6 Music

Mike Toolan & Chelsea Norris (Mike & Chelsea in the Morning)
Key 103 Manchester for Key 103

Scott Mills
BBC Radio 1


=======

Music Broadcaster of the Year

Huey Morgan
Wise Buddah Creative for BBC 6 Music & BBC Radio 2

Loz Guest
Kerrang! Radio

Mark Lamarr
BBC Radio 2

Steve Lamacq
BBC 6 Music/BBC Audio & Music for BBC 6 Music

Zane Lowe
BBC Radio 1

========

Speech Radio Personality of the Year

Adrian Durham
talkSPORT

Eddie Mair
BBC Radio 4

Frances Finn
BBC Radio Nottingham

Jon Gaunt
SunTalk

Nick Ferrari
LBC 97.3

=========

Speech Broadcaster of the Year

Andrew Peach
BBC Radio Berkshire

Melvyn Bragg
BBC General Factual for BBC Radio 4

Nick Ferrari
LBC 97.3

Sir David Attenborough
BBC Natural History Unit Radio for BBC Radio 4

Victoria Derbyshire
BBC Radio 5live

========

News Journalist of the Year

Andover Sound News Team
Andover Sound

Ian Pannell
BBC Newsgathering for BBC Radio 4

Lyse Doucet
BBC World Service News & Current Affairs for BBC World Service

Nick Ferrari
LBC 97.3

Real Radio North West News Team
Real Radio North West for Real Radio

========

Best Specialist Contributor

Alan Dedicoat
BBC Radio 2

Chris Skinner
BBC Radio Norfolk

Mark Kermode
BBC Radio 5live

Maxwell Hutchinson
BBC London 94.9

Steve Levine
Magnum Opus Broadcasting Ltd for BBC Radio 2 & BBC 6 Music

=======

Best Interview

Eddie Mair interviews John Hutton
PM Programme for BBC Radio 4

James O'Brien speaks to Frank Lampard
LBC 97.3

Jenni Murray interviews Sharon Shoesmith
Woman's Hour, BBC General Factual for BBC Radio 4

Toby Foster interviews the Mayor of Doncaster
BBC Radio Sheffield

Victoria Derbyshire interviews Peter Bacon
BBC Radio 5live News for BBC Radio 5live

======

Station Programmer of the Year

Ed Baxter
Resonance FM

Euan McMorrow
Radio City 96.7

Paul Jackson
95.8 Capital FM

========

Best Use of Branded Content

Coca Cola - The Gift of Giving
95.8 Capital FM

NME Radio for Skins Radio
NME Radio

NME Radio Topman Takeover Show
Carat Sponsorship for NME Radio

One Last Dream with Guitar Hero
Absolute Radio for Absolute Radio & Absolute Classic Rock

The Southern Comfort 'Big Easy'
Jazz FM Productions for Jazz FM

=========

Best Single Promo/Commercial

Bristol's Big Give
Heart Bristol

Capital's Summer Time Ball - Boris Johnson
95.8 Capital FM

Dear Stan
talkSPORT Creative for talkSPORT

James Neale (for The Stop Smoking Service)
Maximum Productions for Pirate FM

Tourism Ireland: Apology for Apology for Jedward
750mph for Heart 106.2 fm, Magic 105.4 fm and Capital 95.8 fm

=========

Best Promotional/Advertising Campaign

BBC Radio 3: Composers of the Year
BBC Radio Cross Trails and Pure Tonic Media for BBC Radio 2 & BBC Radio 4

Capital's Jingle Bell Ball - I can't get tickets
95.8 Capital FM

MI6: A Century in the Shadows
BBC World Service Promotions for BBC World Service

Save JACK
Oxfordshire's 106 JACK fm

Vote Joe
Real Radio Programmes for Real Radio North East

=========

Best Competition

Battle Of The Boroughs
Heart 106.2

Beacon Radio's Midnight Drop
Beacon Radio for Beacon Radio (Black Country)

Chain Gang: Paper, Scissors, Stone.
BBC Radio 7

Sunday Sinners on Absolute Radio
Absolute Radio

Who's Calling Christian?
Absolute Radio

==========

Best Station Imaging

Absolute Radio
Absolute Radio

BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music

Gold Network
Gold Network

Kiss 100
Kiss 100

Oxfordshire's 106 JACK fm
Oxfordshire's 106 JACK fm

=======

Best Music Special

Angel of Harlem: The Billie Holiday Story
Document Productions for BBC Radio 2

Elvis By Bono
White Pebble Media / Ten Alps for BBC Radio 4

Liquid Assets: Tracing Handel's Thousands
BBC Radio 3

The Elbow Story
TBI Media with Absolute Radio for Absolute Radio

The Woodstock 40th Anniversary
Ten Alps Radio for BBC Radio 2

=========

Best News Special

Crossing Continents: Chechnya
BBC Radio Current Affairs for BBC Radio 4

Hacked To Pieces
BBC Bristol for BBC Radio 4

Passport To Murder
BBC Birmingham for BBC Asian Network

The Afghan Diaries - On The Front Line
Radio City 96.7

The Return to Hillsborough
Real Radio North West News Team for Real Radio North West

==========

Best Feature

Archive on 4: Working for Margaret
Brook Lapping Productions for BBC Radio 4

Child of the State
Above the Title Productions for BBC Radio 4

Kegworth 20 Years on
Trent FM Programming for Trent FM

Now Wash Your Hands
Loftus Audio for BBC Radio 4

Six Minutes Past Three: Hillsborough Remembered
BBC Radio Merseyside

=========

Best Comedy

Adam and Joe
BBC 6 Music/BBC Audio & Music for BBC 6 Music

Bleak Expectations
BBC Radio Comedy for BBC Radio 4

Down The Line - Credit Crunch Special
Down The Line Productions for BBC Radio 4

Mark Steel's In Town
BBC Radio Comedy for BBC Radio 4

News Quiz
BBC Radio Comedy for BBC Radio 4

========

Best Drama

Daniel and Mary
BBC Radio Scotland Drama for BBC Radio Scotland

People Snogging in Public Places
BBC Radio Drama for BBC Radio 3

Restless
BBC Radio Drama for BBC Radio 4

The Day that Lehman Died
BBC World Service Drama & Goldhawk Essential Production for BBC World Service

The Loop
BBC Radio Drama for BBC Radio 4

===========

Station of the Year (up to 300,000)

Andover Sound
Andover Sound

BBC Guernsey
BBC Guernsey

Moray Firth Radio
Moray Firth Radio


=========

Station of the Year (300,000 - 1 million)

BBC Hereford & Worcester
BBC Hereford & Worcester

BBC Radio Derby
BBC Radio Derby

Oxfordshire's 106 JACKfm
Oxfordshire's 106 JACKfm

=========

Station of the Year (1 Million plus)

BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales

Kiss 100
Kiss 100

Real Radio Scotland
Real Radio Scotland

========

Digital Station of the Year

Absolute Classic Rock
Absolute Classic Rock

BBC Radio 5live Sports Extra
BBC Radio 5live Sports Extra

Planet Rock
Planet Rock

========

UK Station of the Year

Absolute Radio
Absolute Radio

BBC Radio 5live
BBC Radio 5live

talkSPORT
talkSPORT

6Music: Planet Rock offers berth to Bruce Dickinson

I mentioned in the comments how the decision to axe Bruce Dickinson's rock show from 6Music looks a little fishy. In terms of the 6Music playlist, it's an outlier, and presumably brings in a different audience. So, if you were looking for a way to reduce a station's reach figures, in order to help justify closing the network, axing such a programme would make sense.

There's good news for the fans of the show, though: Mark Bluemel is hoping to bring Dickinson to Planet Rock.

So, does this at least prove the two Thompson's claims that closing 6Music is a good thing for the commercial radio sector?

Erm... no:

Bluemel, who rescued Planet Rock after its former owner GCap Media said it was going to close the station, said he was "disappointed" at the prospect of 6 Music's demise.

"It's not a good thing for digital radio to have it close," said Bluemel, whose station has an average weekly reach of 698,000 listeners, marginally ahead of 6 Music, which had 695,000 in the last three months of 2009.

He does complain about the costs of the station:

[H]e described the station's annual budget of £9m in 2008-2009, including £6.5m on content, as "ridiculous".

"We could run the station on a quarter of that budget. There is no reason to kill 6 Music. They should just kill some of the cost. It is a ridiculous amount of money to run a station that size," Bluemel said.

Well, yes. If you're primarily playing records and have a few presenters, you could run the station for a lot less. But a couple of sessions every day, presenters operating out of at least two cities, a dedicated news operation... if you cut the 6Music budget to the level of Planet Rock, you'd wind up with a totally different station.

Brian May loses Planet Rock

Putting aside his worries about Wikipedia ("anyone is free to lie"), Brian May has posted a confirmation that his consortium has lost its bid to buy Planet Rock off GCap:

Our chaps have been pressing on with GCAP's lawyers, finalising the arrangements, the principles having been agreed a few weeks ago, but, out of the blue, we heard a rumour that someone else was involved, and this morning someone 'unofficially' confirmed that rumour.

MediaGuardian reckons that an official announcement is due. May worries that the buyer might not keep the station on-air, although it's hard to imagine what they'd be buying it for if they weren't going to - it's not for the slot on DAB, that's for certain.

No sauce for Lamb: Sony Radio Awards

Last night the Sony Radio Awards - the radio industry's chance to claim "they're a bit like the Oscars" - were handed out at a glittering occasion that was only nearly entirely overshadowed by the Sex And The City premiere.

The good news - having somehow got onto the shortlist (why, yes, controller of 6Music Lesley Douglas did help choose the names), George Lamb didn't win anything.

Chris Moyles won the best breakfast show prize, a recognition he accepted with his trademark good grace:

Moyles was presented with his prize by his parents, Vera and Chris, who said: "Eight million listeners know he deserves it."

Despite winning, the DJ dismissed the Sony awards as "rubbish" and "boring".

Accepting his prize, he said: "Radio 1 won nothing until now. I should get a pay rise.

"Before all of us got together the Radio 1 breakfast show... oh, it was dreadful."

Was it? Was Sara Cox's programme really so much worse? Or is it just that when the competition is now Johnny Vaughan and Dr Fox, it's a bit easier to get the audience in, even with a honking narcissist in charge.

Station of the year went to Radio 4; in what we're choosing to interpret as a bitchslap, GCap Global's threatened Planet Rock was handed the Digital Station title. That won't save it; only someone with money can do that.

The winners in a list which doesn't look quite full:

Breakfast show Chris Moyles, Radio 1
Music programme Dermot O'Leary, Radio 2
Specialist music programme Friday Night Floorfillers with Krystle, 97.3 Forth One
News & current affairs Newshour, BBC World Service
Speech Saturday Live, Radio 4
Entertainment Russell Brand, Radio 2
Music broadcaster Andi Durrant, Galaxy
Music radio personality Jonathan Ross, Radio 2
Speech broadcaster Simon Mayo, Radio 5 Live
Comedy Down the Line, Radio 4
Digital station Planet Rock
Station of the year Radio 4

Update: Thanks to Simon T for pointing out that, actually, Lamb did win - it's just neither the Guardian nor the BBC reports mentioned his "rising star" award.

May to rescue Rock?

The threatened-but-healthy digital radio station Planet Rock might yet have a future - apparently Brian May is pulling together some sort of rescue package to buy the network from GCap:

"I can't tell you who I am 'in league' with, but I am part of a small group of people who have great hopes that we will succeed in taking over the station, and putting it on a firm footing, for the benefit of its growing audience," May wrote on his website, www.brianmay.com.

"I regard Planet Rock as rather more than just a radio station - it is a symbol of free radio ... radio which is not run by large corporate organisations for the purpose of making tons of money, and has a free choice of what it plays."

That's how you see Planet Rock, is it, Brian? Despite it being run by a large corporate organisation and talking openly about its playlist on its website?

Planet Rock may have a future

The death of Planet Rock - GCap's classic digital station - may not be quite so imminent; tucked in The Times coverage of the radio company's 'freezing' plans to flog its share of Digital One is news that they're talking with "a number of parties" who can see a future for the station.

GCap axes DAB, most of XFM

Tough times at GCap, and they've just announced some tough action: the company is closing its remaining DAB-only stations, TheJazz and Planet Rock, and is going to sell its share in DigitalOne (although why it thinks it'll find a buyer for a DAB transmission network it's effectively scuttled isn't clear).

More interestingly, it's going to flog off the XFM analogue licences outside London - the Welsh, Mancunian and Scottish operations - there's little in the current reports about if the idea is to flog them as a going concern to be run as a franchise, or if the plan is for the stations to change into something else.

The statement:

"Today we are announcing a radical but realistic set of measures with the aim of delivering significant improvements to profits and operating margins and positioning GCap Media for long-term sustainable growth," said Hazlitt.

"GCap Media will become a leaner and more dynamic company focused on maximising the revenue and profit potential of five key brands on FM and broadband, the platforms that we believe consumers want and which offer the greatest growth opportunities."

A once mighty beast tamed and hunkering down for hard times ahead, in other words. Let's hope its FM brands aren't, you know, in some sort of terminal decline.

It's not good news for DAB as a commercial innovation, but since nobody listens to anything other than the BBC stations on DAB that might not matter overmuch.