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Bauer announces radio revamp, new stations in the regions

By | Published on Monday 29 September 2014

Bauer Media

Bauer Media has announced a revamp of its radio portfolio, with local outposts of the Magic network being phased out as the cheesy listening station gets added to the national Digital One network, making it available on DAB sets UK-wide on the channel spot currently used by Absolute 90s.

Though what Bauer will then do with the AM channels currently used by Magic in the regions is more interesting. In something of a rewind, ‘channel two’ services will be added for many of Bauer’s local FM stations, so Liverpool will get Radio City 2, Glasgow with get Clyde 2 and so on.

When radio firms first started splitting their AM and FM frequencies in the 1990s it was common to have a ‘one’ and ‘two’ service under the same name, though as radio companies consolidated, it was often on the AM frequencies where national brands were rolled out across the regions, hence the Magic network.

Interestingly Bauer’s return to using local station names on these frequencies is the opposite strategy to main rival Global Radio, which phased out all its local station IDs and rebranded them as either Capital or Heart stations. It’s seemingly a statement by Bauer that it still believes in local radio, even if plenty of programming and playlisting on the local stations still happens at a central HQ.

In fact on the local digital radio networks Bauer will take this one step further by rebranding its Hits Radio service as channel 3 of its local brands, so Radio City 3 in Liverpool, Clyde 3 in Glasgow and so on. The two-branded station will target older listeners, while the three-branded channels will aim for a younger audience.

Bauer also plans a renewed push for its national brands, with Magic, Kiss and Absolute seen as its core national stations on digital, alongside Planet Rock and Kerrang! Radio.



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