SEAN BOLGER

This morning listeners across Sussex woke up to a new name on the radio dial. After almost 26 years on the Sussex airwaves, Southern FM joined 32 other stations under Global Radio’s ubiquitous Heart brand and in the process, a significant piece of my own broadcast history has disappeared into thin air.

Back in 1983, I was lucky enough to be a part of the launch team at Southern Sound Radio (as it was then known) and although the hours were long and the money was truly lousy, I wouldn’t have missed those years in Franklin Road, Portslade for the world.

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News this week that commercial radio could be prepared to throw a lifebelt to the good ship DAB - last seen listing and in real danger of sinking altogether amid stormy financial seas. However, unlike most normal buoyancy aids, there appears to be more than one string attached to this one.

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These are indeed curious times, for as über radio group Global prepares to roll out another clutch of stations under the Heart brand, its smaller cousin The Local Radio Company has just announced plans to scrap networked shows across its group of stations. Of course, radioheads across the land are thrilled at the prospect and have already been quick to trumpet TLRC as the true saviours of local radio. But hold your horses - I’m not sure it’s quite as simple as that.

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Having more than a passing interest in talk radio myself, it’s particularly sad to see a commercial speech station go to the wall but on Christmas Eve, Edinburgh’s Talk107 will shut up shop and hand its licence back to Ofcom after less than 3 years on air. Now without wanting to pick over the bones and second guess as to precisely what went wrong, I think it’s safe to assume that in the end the sums just didn’t add up. And in commercial radio ultimately, only money talks.

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