What Happened To XFM?
SAM EASTERBROOK looks at the rise and demise of the station that looked so promising...
On the 29th November last year, XFM South Wales emerged kicking and screaming for the bowels of the Red Dragon Centre bringing alternative rock to the airwaves from Monmouth to Swansea. Tuning in on the 1st June, listeners were confronted with Nation Radio. So where had XFM gone?
The decision to launch XFM South Wales was not taken lightly. GCap, its parent company who also own Red Dragon and Classic FM among others, had to enter an expensive process of attaining the license from Ofcom, the Government body that regulates media and communications in the UK, after battling against ten other applicants. The customer research that GCap conducted provided evidence to Ofcom that there was a gap in the market and that their proposed target audience was underserved. So there was an audience, there were the funds to support the station and there was the studio space in the Red Dragon Centre, so what went wrong?
XFM’s application banged on about its commitment to supporting Welsh bands and helping new talent up the ladder, but whenever I tuned in, the only Welsh music I heard was the sodding Automatic. During the daytime, they went into automation, playing music and links off computer rather than have a live DJ, missing the opportunity to stamp its localness and sounding like an identikit station. In these ‘media saturated’ times, radio stations need to work hard to build a bond with an increasingly flighty audience, and it won’t do that with automation during an important part of the day. You could also argue that the station was not launched with a big enough bang, although what more besides the free gigs, poster and sticker campaigns could they have realistically done. Maybe GCap and Ofcom just got their sums wrong, there wasn’t enough people interested in alternative music in South Wales, although that seems hard to swallow. What is more likely is that the potential audience discovers and consumes new music through other means than analogue radio.
There were other factors that conspired against the success of XFM South Wales before it even started broadcasting that were outside its direct control. These aren’t the best of times for commercial radio in the UK. Although figures for people tuning into radio are increasing, these extra listeners are turning to the BBC and subsequently less people are tuning into commercial radio. With smaller audiences to sell to advertisers come smaller amounts that radio stations can charge to advertise on-air. Add to this that companies are spending less on advertising due to the Big Bad Credit Crunch (which is responsible for everything that has gone wrong since pretty much ever) as the first thing to go when tightening the belt are the shiny new commercials. While commercial stations state publicly their passion for music and their commitment to the audience, it is money that drives these services, and when it starts drying up detrimental changes to the output of the station is usually the result. And to pile even more dollops of difficulty on top of this, XFM South Wales’ target audience, young male ABC1’s (media blurb for middle class chaps with a disposable income) are a notoriously unpredictable bunch, spending that disposable income on i-Pods, broadband and Sky+ thereby dodging the appetizing advertisements and being ever so media savvy.
XFM South Wales was not given a fair crack of the whip as within three months of its launch GCap had put it up for sale, along with the more established XFM Scotland and XFM Manchester stations in a round of cost cutting measures. A change of management and rumours of, then an eventual take over by Global Radio meant it was always going to be difficult for a new station and while they decided to retain the other XFM stations, it was decided to cut their losses in South Wales.
The licence was sold to Town and Country Broadcasting, who also operate Scarlet FM in Llanelli and Bridge FM in Bridgend. Due to the nuances of Ofcom licences, the new station, Nation Radio which broadcasts out of Neath has to operate a similar service, appealing to a young male ABC1 audience. Unfortunately how they are going to serve this audience is not enshrined, with the alternative music dropped in favour of sounding like a “younger Virgin Radio" and that it will not be "a marginal station this is going to be mainstream" while supporting Welsh music. Which basically means it’s gonna be The Stereophonics three times an hour, with a little bit of plodding late 90s Manics to mix it up. If this understandably does not appeal, listeners can still pick up the London feed of XFM on DAB Radio.
Whether Nation Radio can succeed where XFM South Wales failed remains to be seen, but what is certain is that alternative music fans in South Wales will continue to be short changed by the wireless.
Information on Nation Radio is HERE while XFM can be found HERE
