First Radio sales (FRS), an autonomous radio sales house jointly owned by UTV and The Local Radio Company, is creating a new trading division to sell ads on radio station web sites.
FRS, with offices in London and Manchester currently has over 130 radio stations in its portfolio. It has sales of almost £15m and employs 23 staff of whom eight are based in Manchester.
Neil Webster, managing director of FRS said the “move is a logical step as many of our clients (radio stations) have substantial local market share – over 20% in a patch such as Tower FM’s – and ad agencies are keen to ensure their offer encompasses digital media as well as broadcast. Plus radio stations are actively trying to drive their listeners to their web sites and as broadband takes hold across the country, we are only going to see growth one way in digital radio.
“It’s also a co-incidence, but true, that our largest concentration of stations is in the North West. The main driving force behind the Manchester rationale is that there are a number of major agencies up here and their demands are growing. In turn that demand requires an appropriate and attentive level of service and we’ve got to recognise that.”
One example of that attention is the recruitment of a sponsorship executive for Manchester to replicate a similar position in London.
Andy Jones
The new initiative is likely to formally take shape over the summer once Webster has researched all his options and initial testing is completed. However, he is today up in Manchester discussing future plans with Andy Jones, FRS’ regional sales director, and on the agenda is a move to new offices to accommodate for expansion in several areas of FRS’ operations.
In an intriguing related development, Webster claims the company has been approached by at least one regional newspaper group - which has existing radio interests – to see if FRS would be interested in exploring taking on a national sales role for their local newspaper web sites.
In addition to national radio groups, FRS newspaper clients including CN (Cumbrian Newspapers) Group and KM (Kent Messenger) Group.
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