Talk Radio

Richard Maddock, station director of Radio City, Liverpool’s biggest commercial radio station, discusses the past two years that he has been working on the launch of City Talk 105.9, Liverpool’s first speech only station, which launched at the end of January…

The prospect of launching any kind of new radio station in a tough local market is a daunting prospect, especially when you dare to introduce something as unique as a talk only station. Before taking on such a challenge it is imperative to understand the listeners’ needs and be sure of the potential for market share.

It can be very risky to try something new in the entertainment world and you have to be sure of what the listener is interested in and wants. Music plays such an important role for most radio stations now, so we knew we had to find other ways to really connect emotionally with our audience and win them over!

In a saturated market, connecting to people about issues that interest and affect them is the number one priority in terms of content. If you want to connect at a deeper level, it’s important to have interaction with your audience. Listeners have to have an opinion on the subjects under discussion, as well as tuning in to relax to their favourite programmes, sports coverage and news etc. You have to get the balance just right so as not to exclude any part of your target demographic.

I have worked with some incredible broadcasters over the past sixteen years, leaving me a great launch pad from which to explore other opportunities within the market. It takes an enormous about of preparation, research, planning and teamwork to put initial ideas into practise.

When preparing to launch City Talk our research included focus groups, quantitative research and trips all over the world. A particularly useful trip was a few weeks spent in America. While we only have a few commercial talk stations over here, in the States there are over 2,000 of them – many of them are market leaders despite being on AM. We saw the extreme breadth in talk formats over there from Sirius and XM through to the more traditional stations like WOR in New York. We also sent people to Australia and New Zealand to see how they do things.

Obviously we needed to look at existing speech services in the UK. Pure speech radio is considered a notoriously difficult nut for commercial radio to crack in the UK.

The commercial talk stations that already air in the UK have been brilliant with sharing their advice and learnings with us – from how to integrate journalists, producers and presenters into one team, through to what makes a really good phone in guest. It sounds simple, but it really isn’t. David Lloyd and Scott Solder (formerly LBC) invited us down to London to have a look around their studios and really helped us fully understand what it takes to make “talk” work on the radio.

We also spent the day with some of the original management who set up Talk 107. They too gave us great insight into some of the challenges they faced and what they learned from setting up. There are obviously significant differences between Edinburgh and Liverpool, both physically and culturally, but the basics of running a radio station are fundamentally the same, so hearing about the challenges they faced creating a team with enough radio expertise but also enough new talent was wonderfully helpful.

To really connect with the listeners it is important to get the best presenters; ensuring they are all engaging, entertaining, interesting and friendly. You have to know that they will work well with each other. Chemistry between presenters is something listeners quite often take for granted, but when it’s not there, it becomes very apparent!

Aside from engaging the listeners with relevant presenters, content and integration, you have to have the basics of the business in place. The production team is fundamental to making it all happen smoothly and the commercial team has to know how to deliver real value to the advertisers. You have much more credibility as a platform if you can show yourself to be the expert in terms of understanding and knowing your audience.

Setting up any radio station in a such a competitive market is never going to be easy, but as long as you have a enough experience and understand what the consumer wants you are half way there. Most importantly, I think it imperative to keep things fun – this is entertainment at the end of the day!