The axe is falling on local radio and television. Cuts have been announced at the BBC last week, as a result of the Government freeze in the licence fee until 2016. Local radio is one of the areas that will take a significant hit, its budget will be cut by just over 4%, or £5.3 million.
It means output will probably syndicate with neighbouring stations during the daytime, whilst listeners will have to get used to national programmes in the evenings, going against the very notion of local radio. Local newsrooms will no doubt be trimmed down to operate on a shoestring as fewer and shorter local bulletins will result in less resources making original local news.
But what does this mean for PR and communications? Local radio is a powerful medium for the communication of targeted local information. We can remind the local listener of our messages on the hour, over and over, many times a day, whether they’re at home or on the move.
Ultimately, fewer and shorter local bulletins will mean a bigger struggle to get our messages out there, but we must adapt. Our local listener will soon have less time to hear us even though they seek ever increasing amounts of information specific to them. So that means tailoring our messages and making them more relevant than ever to ensure we make the local cut.
