A Commercial Future?

What will radio look like in the year 2020? It was a contentious issue in Tuesday's talk by Andy Duncan and Mark Browning, but how will BBC Local Radio, Commercial Radio and Community Radio be used in 10 years time and will they survive?

During Mark's presentation and the Commercial Radio stream that followed, he made it clear that although many may not agree, that there is no place in commercial radio for Christian broadcasting. He said research he did before this conference shows that listeners to Heart 106.2 don't rate faith as one of the most important things they want from their radio station.

Mark praised community radio saying "Our future could end up with lots of niche communities, my concern is we leave behind the disenfranchised in our culture who don't have access to this new technology" He suggested using the old AM and FM frequencies to house 'real local radio'

He also pointed out that in this age of digital awareness and consumers being able to pick and choose what they listen to that if they want to listen to Christian music they can tune in to a Christian radio station.

Christian Radio

Although this may indicate a decline in religious content on secular radio stations maybe it does give hope for an expansion of Christian radio stations in the future. Currently there are two Christian radio stations with local DAB licences, Premier Radio in London (who are currently bidding for the national DAB license) and UCB Radio in Staffordshire, Cheshire and Greater London.

In terms of the potential for expansion in Community Radio, Cross Rhythms City Radio were the first radio station to be awarded an FM license for Stoke-on-Trent and have recently also won a license for a community Radio station in Plymouth, as well as smaller community Radio stations such as Flame FM, Day One Radio and Revival Radio as Mark Browning suggested maybe this is the way forward for Religious broadcasting in the future.


Heart 106.2
Premier Radio
United Christian Broadcasters
Community Media Association