What is, or was, the point of Xfm Manchester?
After launching with much fanfare just two years ago, GCap Media has announced that it is going to sell off its Xfm radio licence in Manchester. The reason is a cost cutting drive by GCap in order to fend off a takeover, exacerbated by rising costs associated with the increasingly despised DAB format. But if you look at what Xfm has achieved in Manchester in its relatively short life, the decision to cut and run isn’t that surprising.
An indie/rock station in the city of Joy Division, Oasis and the Smiths really should have been an open goal for GCap. And considering the explosion in guitar-driven Xfm-friendly pop-rock in the last five years, it was difficult to imagine how the station could go wrong. But the ratings haven’t been great. It managed a weekly audience share of 186,000 – or 1.7% of the total available listenership – in December, which was slightly up on the September 07 figure. Compare that with local rival Galaxy – purveyors of supposedly less fashionable dance and hip-hop – which racked up 442,000 weekly listeners in December.
I didn’t listen to Xfm much, anyway. It always felt like it was trying too hard and, with the possible exception of Clint Boon’s show, seemed neither willing nor able to break free from its corporate shackles in order to sound interesting. It was basically Key 103 with 20% more guitars (and the same pathetic adverts).
But I stopped altogether after they abandoned afternoon DJs in favour of back-to-back audience requests. Anyone can see within a fraction of a second that a DJ-free radio station is a completely stupid idea. What’s the point of radio without DJs? Isn’t that called an iPod? Throw Last.fm into the mix and it begins to look like commercial suicide.
So now Xfm must find a buyer for the licence – or hand it back to Ofcom. Although it’s purely a commercial decision, it can’t help but look a little bit embarrassing all round.
The Conversation {4 comments}
Listening to George Lamb every day on 6music the idea of DJ-less radio would soon appear more, um, appealing.
We were so excited when XFM announced they were coming to Manchester, but you’re right, all it’s been is lowest-common-denominator music stuck back in the early ’90’s with some radio friendly current stuff. It makes Virgin seem edgy. When you couple that with morning DJ’s who have the combined IQ of a pile of bricks making moronic jokes and shouting a lot, the station has been pretty much unlistenable during the hours when most people listen to the radio – who sits around on Friday or Saturday nights for a radio show?
There was actually a 10-day period when I woke up every day to the same Snow Patrol song and I haven’t listened to the station since. There was no championing of NEW Manchester bands outside of Clint Boon’s show, nothing that hadn’t already come and gone from the NME and way too much of manufactured pop crap like The Feeling. I’m sorry to say I don’t think we’re going to be worse off without XFM as they are increasingly obsolete in the face of sites like Last.FM and the growing number of indie bloggers doing podcasting.
I fear I may be the only person who hasn’t noticed the dumbing down of 6Music – possibly because the only shows I hear are Mark Riley, Tom Robinson and Steve Lamacq, and I can’t imagine any of those three dumbing anything down.
The dumbing down of 6Music is a disgrace and the sooner George Lamb is replaced the better.
Xfm Manchester has become xfm London between the hours of 10am-4pm when it broadcasts live from London.I have been a listener of xfm from the day it first broadcast from Manchester.This is sad sad news that xfm Manchester may disappear from our airwaves.Xfm is the only radio station that plays all of the music that I love without any snide chav tunes.
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