Bauer Media’s Liverpool-based all-speech radio station City Talk has applied to Ofcom for a format change, as it claims that the current economic crisis “has reduced interest from advertisers in experimenting with this new on-air opportunity.”
City Talk is the only all-speech commercial station operating outside of London and, despite claiming listener success since its high profile launch last year, believes that the introduction of ‘soft pop led’ music at off peak times will help make it more attractive to further listeners and commercial opportunities.
As such it applied for a change in format yesterday, following on from a review of its commercial position.
Talk of the town, or rather City
If successful this would see it retaining its speech format at peak times – defined as weekday breakfast and afternoon drivetime, plus weekend mornings – and switching to a music and chat format for other time slots, potentially sharing output with sister stations Radio City and Magic 1548.
Bauer answered How-Do’s query about the format change with a statement in which Travis Baxter, the firm’s radio MD, commented: “We believe the proposed changes will keep a significant part of the original character of the station intact while maintaining the current competitive dynamic in Liverpool and increasing listener choice overall.
“Introducing music and other elements to the format which listeners have clearly said they would like added to the output will secure the future of the station and listener choice in the City for the future.”
The application for the change has been made following Ofcom’s recent decision to waive its two-year change of format rule.
The body has now initiated a four-week consultation on the proposed change, which will run until 5pm on 31 March.
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