John Myers * East Midlands *Radio Judgement Day?

In an interesting post on Twitter on 2 February 'radio guru' John Myers asked:

"Is radio in the Midlands, better or worse without this station? Can you name the jocks?"

It led to an old (sharply produced) audio presentation made by Century 106 to sell the station to advertisers.

http://myersmedia.co.uk/2013/radio-like-it-used-to-be/

John was famous (notorious?) for his time 'sorting out' this station including the sacking of the Religious presenter which was filmed for a tv show. The resulting footage must have served the lady well as she was polite, and (fittingly) 'very Christian' in her response ~ though it was the PR equivalent of John drowning a fluffy puppy on camera.

My thoughts on the question John asked are that Midlands radio is FAR worse off without 'Century 106' (or the station that followed, Saga 106).

Why? Because after Smooth took over Saga 106 (when John was THE boss) and the others in the Saga group, they gradually cut back on local shows. Firstly they introduced regional ones, and now 100% of the shows come from...

.......... London.

Yet in London, Smooth continues to fail to even get in the Top 10 stations by either share or reach in Rajar surveys! So a station with poor results in its 'flagship' market is foisted undiluted onto an audience in a completely different cultural area 100 miles away (and further afield) ...

Now, ironically, Smooth is about to be 'swallowed' by Global Radio. Their quasi-national stations Capital and Heart peddle inane narrow playlists spiced with 'personality news', all aimed at under 30 year olds. So before long Smooth may be 'rippled' into an even lower common-denominator service... certainly not 'local' !

Therefore, I think it's fair to say that John asking if it was

"Better or worse", can only have ONE answer..

For Century 106, Saga 106 and Smooth.... 'radio history' will NOT be hard to write, as to WHICH served the East Midlands best?

The LOCAL ones......

I've asked John this question on his Blog:

"Of course you were there to turn Saga into Smooth, BUT forgetting branding and bankers, WHICH served the East Midlands best ?"

It will be interesting to read his thoughts..

____________________

Update 5 February

"In tests 10 out of 10 John Myers preferred Century 106 to Smooth 106" !


(John has answered the question in his blog)

"Century 106"

http://myersmedia.co.uk/2013/radio-like-it-used-to-be/

Do YOU agree ! ?

By co-incidence February is the 10th anniversary of the launch of Saga 106 in the East Midlands!