The Rajar Q3 figures are out, with almost 90% of the UK still regularly tuning into radio.The total average number of weekly hours spent listening to the radio is just over a billion.

National:
Heart is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand reaching 9.6m people every week. Despite presenter and schedule changes, Radio 4 maintains the biggest audience with 11m people tuning in every week.

London:
Capital radio leads the way closely followed by Kiss.

Digital listening has risen across the board, reiterating the importance of easy tuning in for listeners with digital listening rising to 63% for this quarter; whilst there has been an incline in weekly reach through apps and online connection.
As time moves forward, radio remains a loyal companion to the population of Britain. With such a huge variety of stations that broadcast throughout the day, target audiences are ensured to be met throughout a wide range of shows.

All this points to consistent growth across the medium, so there’s never been a better time to get involved and get your messages on the air to millions of listeners.
If you want to harness the power of radio for your brand, we can use our expertise and relationships forged over years of work to get your message to millions of people. Call us now to arrange a meeting, or get a free consultation.

The Rajar Q2 figures are out, with almost 50 million listeners weekly. The total average number of weekly hours spent listening to the radio is just over a billion.

National:
Heart is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand reaching 9.7m people every week, higher than last quarter. Capital, Kiss and Absolute Radio stats remain consistent when compared to the same time last year. Capital has 8.3 million listeners weekly, proving commercial stations do have the power to draw attention away from BBCs.
However, BBCs do still own the majority of listeners with BBC Radio 2 dominating the figures.

London:
With Capital and Heart consistently coming out on top, Kiss Radio shows a substantial rise in its reach when compared to the same quarter last year, which has secured the radio’s place as one of the most popular shows to tune in to.
Kiss London has proven a strong performer rising throughout the categories as the capital’s favourite breakfast show, just over Capital. Absolute Radio and Magic also enjoyed growth in the capital compared to last year; whilst BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 remain as London’s favourite breakfast shows with almost identical amounts of listeners.

Digital:
Digital listening has risen across the board, reiterating the importance of easy tuning in for listeners with digital listening over 60% this quarter; whilst there has been an increase in weekly reach through apps and online connection.
As time moves forward, radio remains a loyal companion to the population of Britain. With such a huge variety of stations that broadcast throughout the day, target audiences are ensured to be met throughout a wide range of shows.

All this points to consistent growth across the medium, so there’s never been a better time to get involved and get your messages on the air to millions of listeners.
If you want to harness the power of radio for your brand, we can use our expertise and relationships forged over years of work to get your message to millions of people. Call us now to arrange a meeting, or get a free consultation. ​

The Rajar Q1 figures are out, with 90% of the UK still regularly tuning into radio. In fact, 900,000 more adults are listening than at the same time last year, showing that radio is still growing. The total average number of weekly hours spent listening to the radio is just over a billion.

National:
Heart is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand reaching 9.2m people every week. Capital, Kiss and Absolute Radio stats remain consistent when compared to Q4 2017.
Q1 2018 has seen a substantial overall rise in reach, shifting from 35.4m listeners, to just under 36m people. For the BBC stations, each quarter sees a rise in listeners, with BBC Radio 6 seeing an impressive 8% increase in reach when comparing to the last quarter.

London:
With Capital and Heart consistently coming out on top, Kiss Radio shows a substantial rise in its reach when compared to 2017 (8.3%) which has secured the radio’s place as one of the most popular shows to tune in to.
Capital Radio proves as a strong performer throughout the categories; whilst Kiss Breakfast continues from last quarter, as the capital’s favourite breakfast show, to hold a significant place in people’s morning routines. Absolute Radio and Smooth Radio also enjoyed growth in the capital; whilst BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4 remain as London’s favourite breakfast shows.

Digital listening has risen across the board, reiterating the importance of easy tuning in for listeners with digital listening standing at 62.8% for this quarter; whilst there has been an incline in weekly reach through apps and online connection.
As time moves forward, radio remains a loyal companion to the population of Britain. With such a huge variety of stations that broadcast throughout the day, target audiences are ensured to be met throughout a wide range of shows.

All this points to consistent growth across the medium, so there’s never been a better time to get involved and get your messages on the air to millions of listeners.
If you want to harness the power of radio for your brand, we can use our expertise and relationships forged over years of work to get your message to millions of people. Call us now to arrange a meeting, or get a free consultation. 

The Rajar Q4 figures are out, with 90% of the UK still regularly tuning into radio. In fact 178,000 more of us are listening than at the same time last year. We spend on average a billion hours a week listening to the radio.

National:
Heart is the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand reaching 9.2m people every week. Capital is second on 8.3m, and Absolute Radio has risen to 2.6 million listeners nationally.
35.4m people tuned into commercial stations over the year, just slightly more than tuned into BBC stations, but overall listening for BBC’s was higher than last quarter.

London:
Capital and LBC have retained their places as the number one commercial stations in London.
The big commercial winners in the capital compared with the previous quarter are Capital Xtra (reach is up 22% to 777k), Premier Christian Radio (up 11% to 142k) and LBC 97.3 (up 9.5% to 1.2m).
Consistently strong performers Kiss, Absolute Radio and Radio X also enjoyed growth in the capital. Radio X has also hit 1.6 million listeners for the first time.
BBC Radio London has seen explosive growth of almost 60% in the last 12 months to 574,000.
Kiss Breakfast has overtaken Capital as London’s most popular breakfast show.
Digital listening is also up to 49%, meaning people are able to tune in easier than ever. While many were worried that smart home assistant like the Amazon Echo would replace radio, 70% of people are actually using them to listen to their favourite station.

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 70% of us admit to being concerned about false information being used as a weapon and so are turning to more traditional forms of media for their news, such as radio.
All this points to consistent growth across the medium, so there’s never been a better time to get involved.
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If you want to harness the power of radio for your brand, we can use our expertise and relationships forged over years of work to get your message to millions of people. Call us now to arrange a meeting, or get a free consultation. 

The Rajar Q3 figures are out, with 90% of the UK still regularly tuning into radio. In fact 900,000 more of us are listening than at the same time last year, showing that radio is still growing. The total average number of weekly hours spent listening to the radio is just over a billion.

National:
Heart remains the biggest commercial radio brand with 9.4 million weekly listeners, due to a 27.5% increase quarter on quarter for digital station Heart 80s, which now has 1 million listeners.
The Capital brand reaches 8.5m; the Kiss network 5.6m; Smooth 5.6m; Classic FM 5.4m and Magic 3.7m.
The biggest national commercial digital station is Kisstory, with a record-breaking 1.8 million listeners. 

London:
Radio titan Capital retained its position as the biggest commercial station in London, with over two million listeners.

LBC reached a record reach of 2.1 million listeners for the first time, with people engaging with interesting content, exemplifying that radio has the power to bring people together and get them talking. LBC enjoys the greatest share of the commercial stations in London, at 5.8%.

The top 5 stations in London based on reach in Q3/2017 are:
1. Capital 2.1 million
2. Kiss 1.8 million
3. Heart 1.5 million
4. Magic 1.5 million
5. LBC 1.1 million
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BBC Radio 4 remains London’s biggest radio station with 2.8m listeners, followed by Radio 2 on 2.3m, then Capital third on 2.125m. Radio 1 has an audience of 1.4m in London, Classic FM has 1.2m and 5 live has 1.1m.

Year on year, Capital Xtra is up 10.6% to a reach of 1.4m, while there was also strong growth for Kisstory (up 13.2% to 1.8m). Good growth for Mellow Magic and Magic Chilled helped to keep the overall Magic Network figure up year on year.

TalkSPORT 2’s reach is up more than a third over the 12 months – from 250k to 342k; while Virgin Radio has seen its audience increase by 61.2% year on year to a new record high of 556,000 weekly listeners (up from 345,000 in Q3/16).
Radio X is up to 1.5m across the UK, compared with 1.2m a year ago.

All this points to consistent growth across the medium, so there’s never been a better time to get involved.
If you want to harness the power of radio for your brand, we can use our expertise and relationships forged over years of work to get your message to millions of people. Call us now to arrange a meeting, or get a free consultation. 

​There seems to be no escape from fake news. Whether it’s outraged claims of fake or biased reporting, or genuinely fictitious stories being published and believed by the public, mainstream and niche outlets across all mediums have faced a massive drop in credibility across all levels of society. While a higher level of scrutiny is generally a good thing, it can result in a paranoid populace that refuses to trust anything it hears, which we can currently see happening in some parts of the UK and America. 

​The amount of fake news is directly linked to the specific media type reporting it. With online news and social media there are no barriers preventing stories from being made up and distributed without a single person checking them, so there is a vast amount of completely false information out there than anyone can access.
This all changes the moment you move into radio and TV due to the regulatory body OfCom. OfCom give radio stations and TV channels a license to broadcast and that license can be revoked if the station is found to be abused or disregarding broadcast rules. It only takes one complaint to launch an Ofcom investigation so radio and TV journalists alongside producers and editors will do whatever it takes to ensure that a story is accurate before reporting. Their reputations are at stake every single day, and a single mistake could bring it all crashing down.

​This is how radio remains the credible and trustworthy medium it has always been, one of the last forms of traditional media that is held accountable to the high standards that have all but disappeared from the rest of the news and entertainment landscape.
9 in 10 UK adults listen to the radio at least once a week, and the average listening time per person is 21 hours. In 2009 OfCom carried out a study showing that radio was the most trusted source of news, 66% of people considered radio to be reliable and accurate, compared with 58% for online, 54% for TV and just 34% for newspapers. These numbers have since fallen, with a constant stream of scandals and cover-ups undermining the concept of integrity that media relies on.

​Radio Relations was the first PR agency I created due to the fact that many clients specifically seek out radio PR due to a combination of huge audience levels and the credibility that comes from being on the most trusted form of media. Exposure does nothing is people don’t trust or like you. The essence of PR is not promotion: it’s building relationships, which can only be done by first generating trust. Radio is one of the best ways to do that, and why we’ve been specialists in the field for over a decade. We cannot simply push any story and get results, it has to be genuinely credible, interesting, and helpful to the UK public. This is why radio gets such a huge amount of respect from both the public and our clients, and why it continues to dominate the media landscape to this day. 

If you want to run a radio campaign, get in contact with us for free consultancy

The Rajar Q2 figures are out, with exciting news for anyone in the radio industry: commercial radio reached its biggest ever audience this quarter with 35.9 million people in the UK. This means commercial radio is actually more listened to than BBC radio stations, with a bigger audience of almost a million people.  And since last year, an additional 1.5 million people are listening digitally, making up a massive 61% of the population. 70% of those are listening on DAB digital radios, but apps and online listening are also on the rise. 

London and National Radio:
​
An impressive debut from new digital only station Heart 80’s with 852,000 listeners each week shows that new stations can succeed and thrive thanks to a purely digital audience. 
But established radio is still going strong, with Capital London remaining the most-listened to commercial station in the city with 2.1 million listeners. The power of presenters is still a magnet to listeners, with Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw gaining a larger audience. And LBC has hit 2 million listeners for the first time, meaning less traditional forms of radio are still capable of gaining massive followings.

The top 5 stations in London based on reach in Q2/2017 are:
1. Capital 2.3 million
2. Kiss 2 million
3. Heart 1.7 million
4. Magic 1.5 million
5. LBC 1.4 million

Across the country, Radio 1’s reach is up nearly half a million this quarter compared with Q1/17, to 9.5 million. What’s more, people are genuinely interested to engage with brand across all networks, with Radio 1 having a combined social media reach of 9 million followers. But the real leader is Radio 4, getting a record amount of listeners at 11.5 million across the entire country.
This means the industry is growing, bolstered by new technology which helps draw in a new audience. In a rapidly changing media landscape, radio remains consistent; a constant source of entertainment, news, and music. Radio holds more gravitas thanks to its long-standing position, cemented as not only an entertainment source, but also as a running commentary on life in a way that no other medium can quite capture or replicate. That’s why regular listeners stay, that’s why new listeners quickly find a station or presenter they enjoy, that’s why radio is still growing, with over a billion weekly hours listened to this quarter.

If you want to harness the power of radio for your brand, there’s no better time. We can use our expertise and relationships forged over years of work to get your message to millions of people. Call us now for a free consultation.

The first way is to create a feature around your brand. Creating a news hook can turn a commercial message into a newsworthy one, taking the aim of an advert and delivering it in the form of a news story. In radio, your story is always more important than your product, so if it can be delivered in an engaging, interesting, and justifiable way, you could get a huge boost to your brand recognition because people will remember the story. People remember stories far longer than adverts, they stay in the collective consciousness because we can identify with a narrative, if we can connect the story with ourselves, we’re far more likely to hold on to it. So this method is arguably one of the best ways to build brand recognition that works towards your goals.

The second way is to use a presenter as a brand ambassador. Giving a presenter a sample or prize is a way of gaining attention, while at the same time abiding by OFCOM rules. This immediately gains the public’s trust, as radio presenters are known to them. Even though they will not give brands a direct endorsement, just the fact that your brand is on the radio at all will validate it. Competitions are great for radio stations because they draw and keep attention by teasing the prize all through the length of a show, so for very low cost to you, you can ensure massive reach by simply giving your product to a station. People respond very positively to competitions, they’re also more likely to remember your product due to the fact that people listen more intently when there’s something in it for them. The added bonus is of course that by being offered as a prize, people attach significantly more value to your product, so even if they’ve never heard of it before, they’ll want to win it.

For more information on staging radio competitions and how to use broadcast PR to grow your brand, please contact us on 020 7158 0000, or email us. 

An ISDN Unit is a small device that can enable you to communicate directly with radio stations in the format they need for you to come across on-air as if you are in a studio in such good quality that the audience think that you are in the radio station's studio doing the interview live on-air.
The aim of an ISDN Unit is to be crisper and cleaner making sure that for larger radio stations, you can meet the right audio quality standard required to make you sound professional.
Generally, radio stations (particularly radio stations like the BBC: Radio 4, Radio 5 etc.) normally seek spokespeople who can do an interview with ISDN quality. ISDN is a digital format of transferring data that, in terms of quality, is as twice as good as a normal phone call.

The ISDN unit itself is a small box: you can plug in a microphone and headphones and link up to a radio station in the same format their studios use. On a standard phone line you communicate through a codec called G711. ISDN linkups to radio stations typically use different codecs, there are several codex typically used by commercial radio stations in the news rooms. One is called APTX while the BBC typically would use a codec called G722.

What are the top 5 benefits of having an ISDN Unit in your head office?

1. It gives you the ability to take advantage of ad-hoc media requests.This will allow your marketing or PR team to receive the call from a radio station with radio quality standard instead of doing something on Skype or on the phone. You can be use the ISDN unit when the media need to seek out leading brands to comment on a particular story and suddenly you become eligible and professional in a technical way to be able to do the interview.
2. It gives you the ability to react to breaking stories. Everyday stories break and quite often the media are looking to either find comments for that story or to evolve the story and take it in a different direction. Having an ISDN unit in your head office gives you the ability to react to the news agenda. You can do a broadcast release saying that as a result of the story your spokespeople are available for comment and if you say that you have the ability to do the interview with the quality of an ISDN line. Any journalist working in the broadcast news arena will see what differentiates you from anyone else: you are able to do quality radio interviews from your head office on whatever that story is. Thus, in addition to receiving ad-hoc media requests you can also react to the media agenda on your own initiative, allowing you to build contacts on your own merit.
3. It gives you the ability to save time. Many of our clients can’t always get to Central London, where we have our studios, or to other studios in major cities across the UK like in Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Cardiff. However, the spokespeople are quite often chief executives or highly knowledgeable people in a particular area or organisation. Time is a scarce resource and if they have to spend two or three hours travelling to one of our studios to prepare, sometimes it becomes prohibitive not from a cost perspective but from a time perspective. Having an ISDN outside broadcast unit in your office with people trained on how to use it means that some of our clients do not even need to come to our Central London studio to do interviews; they can actually do it from their own head office.
4. It gives you the chance to become pre-eminent in your industry. Quite often the media want to go to a particular expert in an industry if a story breaks. Having an ISDN unit in your office enables a consistent person to be that voice for your industry on a regular basis, which would build your reputation and credibility.
5. It gives you the ability to have multiple spokespeople. Any company needs to be able to have a backup spokesperson if their primary spokesperson isn’t available. What the GSGC5 does is to enable you to have a primary and secondary spokesperson no matter where they are. Many companies have different experts teamed with different spokespeople and a lead spokesperson who might also have different approaches on the topic (someone might be more keen on statistics and research and someone else on the theoretical background, for example). This allows you to have two benefits: the first is that it gives you the chance to be on air for a longer period of time and the second is that you have the chance to tell the same story from different perspectives thus making it more interesting and appealing to the audience. This will make it more likely that stations come to you for comment first. 

If you already have an ISDN broadcast unit:

1. What is the best way to maximise its potential? If you already have an ISDN unit and you can’t remember the last time you used it, get in contact with us at The Relations Group and we will come out with a refresher course on how you can use your ISDN unit by training you on the technical aspects of set-up and maintenance, and also how to be confident when the time comes to be on air with an interview.
2. What can you do if you have the technology but you are not getting many interviews? This usually happens because there is a lack of either relationships or know-how to communicate with the broadcast media to maximise the fact that you have the spokespeople and the technology to do a radio interview. Contact us so we can explain how to have a long term strategy to position yourself as a pre-eminent expert in your industry so that you become not only a sought-after spokesperson in your industry but also so that you can start to proactively forward plan campaigns around specific events to complement your marketing and PR strategy.

If you don’t have an ISDN Unit, what should you do?

1. You can simply go out and buy an ISDN Unit. If that is the case, I would recommend going to Glensound and purchasing a GSGC5 (get the DUAL codec option) - it costs just over £4,000.
2. At Radio Relations we have 10 of these Broadcast Units and we can install them free of charge so that you can work with us on a regular basis without you having to pay or lease these units. Thus, if you are actually doing a lot of interviews it will make sense for you to keep it until you have your own.

If you are interested in having an ISDN Unit in your head office gives us a call on 020 7158 0000 or fill out the form below. 

​The 26th of May was Local Radio Day, a day dedicated to the backbone of the radio industry. Almost a hundred local and community stations took part in the celebrations, reminding everyone that while radio can go worldwide, it starts at home, helping communities come together. 

A good local radio station is the voice of a town, giving them news that they care about, that impacts their lives. Local radio can become a fixture in someone’s day, a part of daily life in that community. Almost all of last year’s survey said if their local station was under threat, they’d campaign to save it.

With the internet, we’re more connected than ever. Global news is more visible than ever, pushing smaller local events to the side-lines. That’s one reason why local radio resonates with so many people, because it shifts the focus back onto their home, talking about things they can relate to.

With so much of local radio being focused around events and businesses in the area, it’s vital to helping continue communities grow by drawing much-needed attention to things that otherwise may not get noticed. It’s things like this that show how important local radio is to the communities that it supports, in a way that is far more personal than internet messages or emails. A radio host is someone to connect to, to listen to, and know as a unique person, even if you’ve never met them. A local radio host is a very special type of celebrity, often a complete unknown beyond the boundaries of where they live and work, but recognised immediately by their voice alone by listeners.
Local radio can be a very powerful tool for reaching a specific town or place, guaranteeing that people who hear your message will know you are interested in them specifically, and going to the effort of reaching out to them will show them they are important to you.
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You can see below our infographic detailing how important local radio is:

Because of the fragmented nature of local radio, many PR companies do not have the relationships to track down presenters of local shows. The Relations Group and Radio Relations have more than 15 years experience working with all levels of radio, and can help you harness local radio for your messages through interviews, competitions, and features while complying with Ofcom guidelines on commercial branding mentions and the BBC's own editorial guidelines. 
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For more information on the power of radio, check out our post on the latest Rajar figures to find out how radio can help your business through one of our broadcast PR campaigns. 

Call us on 020 7158 0000 or email us at hello@radiorelations.co.uk for more information.