What makes Radio 5 Live thrive?

Radio 5 has learnt a lot about marketing. So after a triumphant first year, what lies ahead?

It has confounded expectations. Before its relaunch last year, Radio 5 Live seemed to many a pipe dream – a rolling news and sports station aimed beyond BBC network radio’s traditional heartland: namely a more downmarket listenership living outside London and the South-east.

But latest Rajar listening figures released earlier this month revealed that in the past quarter its reach rose by 360,000, giving it a weekly audience of 5.13 million. The BBC quickly reminded industry observers and its critics that this figure is greater than Classic FM (4.47 million), Atlantic 252 (4.42 million) and Virgin 1215 (3.83 million).

Even so, Sue Farr, the BBC’s head of marketing and publicity for network radio, issued a warning. “It would be unrealistic in the competitive environment to expect this growth to continue ad infinitum. With the end of the football season looming it is quite likely that growth will slow in the next quarter.” Which illustrates the challenge now facing Radio 5 Live as it enters its second year.

Radio 5 Live station controller Jenny Abramsky, who three weeks ago received a Radio Academy Award for the launch of her station last year, readily acknowledges it’s a problem. “Two months of the year there is very little happening in the sporting calendar which makes us very vulnerable unless we get a strong news audience,” she says.

The emphasis now must be to encourage listeners to stay with the station longer. And Radio 5 Live is working closely with its agency, SP Lintas, and in-house marketing department to make sure it understands exactly what its audience wants.

“We were complete innocents at launch,” Abramsky admits. “We thought marketing was simply a matter of a few posters and some publicity.” But detailed audience research conducted from a marketers’ perspective was critical. “A lot of people don’t realise how difficult a combination news and sport is,” she says. The balance in output had to be right and branded accordingly.

This might appear obvious stuff, but as Abramsky points out: “In the news world you just don’t do that. Radio 1 and Radio 2 had their road shows and Radio 4 such a strong brand that just to say the name was enough. But we were completely new. We had to create a different kind of news service to set us apart from Radio 4.”

Sport continues to drive the station’s audience. Radio 5 Live’s sports proposition is live and comprehensive. It offers the only live national access to weekly Premier League matches. “We now have a very loyal sports audience; I want them to listen to the news more,” Abramsky says. The news agenda is based on an emphasis on UK local and regional stories covered live.

In its first year, total listening hours have increased by 54 per cent. Proportionally, this growth has come from women (up 70 per cent), C1s (up 95 per cent) and children (up 250 per cent) as well as a significant increase in Wales, Scotland and Ireland (84 per cent). The increase in children is a direct result of football coverage, Abramsky believes. “The myth of the old Radio 5 was that children tuned in for the schools output, they did not – it was for the football.”

In terms of audience levels at specific times of the day, sports coverage on weekday evenings has enjoyed the greatest growth. The average weekly evening and weekend sports audience is now younger and less southern-biased. A similar trend is evident for daytime news listening.

Radio 5 Live has the highest proportion of under-15 listeners of all BBC radio networks, Abramsky adds. And she is working closely with Radio 1 controller Matthew Bannister to cross-promote in order to move listeners between the two stations.

Abramsky is also implementing further programme changes that have been developed by focus groups made up of existing and potential listeners. The weekend schedule is next in line. Last week, she introduced a listener’s feedback programme; earlier in the month new series Entertainment Superhighway was launched. And from mid-June a thrice-daily entertainment news service will be launched along with a month-long crime season.

Further tie-ups between Radio 5 Live and BBC TV are planned, she adds. Already agreed is a live link with Panorama – Radio 5 Live will host a live phone-in after the TV programme goes off air. And a BBC TV series of Europe specials in June will also get a Radio 5 Live spin. A renewed emphasis will also be placed on promoting the station. “Last year, we missed the boat with the start of the Premier League season, this year we’re making sure we don’t,” Abramsky says. A Rugby World Cup advertising offensive breaks this week.

“We are very much a second or third-choice station, which is understandable as many of our listeners also like music. But a longer term aim is to get more listeners who see us as their first choice,” Abramsky says, with the emphasis on the “long term”.

Growth in the number of commercial stations continues and competition for listening can

only increase. Despite the troubled launch of Talk Radio UK, programming improvements are already being final-ised. No station – commercial or BBC-run – can afford to rest on its laurels.

Abramsky harbours no illusions about the tasks that lie ahead for Radio 5 Live: “The second year of a network is more difficult than the first.”

We have been asked to point out that the headline “Will Murdoch’s double dealing pay?” (Media analysis, MW, last week) in no way intended to suggest impropriety on Mr Murdoch’s part.