They Have To Hear It To Turn It Up

Michael Hedges May 15, 2015 Follow on Twitter

Technology continues to give media users joy with clever new tricks. Some people notice, some need reminding. Fans are necessary; they tune in, not to forget take the surveys. While programmers are fussy with music lists, DJs, jingles and promotions, the first - and oldest - rule is nothing matters if they can’t hear it.

Radio Impuls has been the leading national radio channel in the Czech Republic for more than 15 years. A technical shift made by Radio Impuls this past week might seem counter-intuitive. It’s FM transmitters have been switched from stereo to mono to improve overall coverage. Broadcasters everywhere pay particular attention to coverage issues, the most basic necessity, in the digital age.

“Radio is a source of entertainment and information,” said Radio Impuls technical director Roman Culek to digizone.cz (May 5). “Our listeners are not audio fans.” Tests were conducted with different transmitters earlier this year followed by internal listener surveys. Changing the exciter mode to mono will not affect the license fee charged to Radio Impuls by the media regulator.

Radio Impuls is owned by Londa which was acquired in November 2013 by Czech billionaire Andrej Babis through the agricultural chemicals company Agrofert from German broadcaster Eurocast, which exited the Czech Republic. Mr. Babis is also, curiously noted by democracy watchers, Finance Minister of the Czech Republic. The Londa stations have an aggregate market share of 12.1%, most from Radio Impuls, according to Q4 2014/Q1 2015 SKMO Stem/Mark Radio Projekt estimates released this month. Year on year daily reach for Radio Impuls fell 6%.

Czech public broadcaster Cesky Rozhlas (CRo) continues as the country’s biggest radio audience draw with a 23.1% aggregate market share. General interest national channel CRo Radiozurnál ranked 3rd in daily reach, up 2.4% one year on. Placing 6th nationally was entertainment channel Radio Dvojka (Praha), off 5.6% in daily reach. Culture channel Radio Vltava took a big spill, down 13.9% in daily reach. Regional general interest channel CRo Brno was down 6%.

Mostly digital news-talk channel CRo Plus was unchanged year on year with only a few thousand daily listeners. Created two years ago from news and talk channels CRo6 and Rádio Cesko and educational channel CRo Leonardo, the channel briefly had an FM frequency in Prague until private-sector broadcasters successfully lobbied for its closure and restrictions on ad sales. CRo Plus is available more or less nation-wide on digital platforms DVB-T and DAB, the web, satellite and via a mobile app. It also uses one of the few remaining AM/MW transmission systems operated by CR.

Evropa 2 and Frekvence 1, both owned by Lagardère Active CR, are ranked 2nd and 4th by daily reach, respectively, in the most recent audience estimates. Year on year both channels posted slightly lower daily reach. The aggregate market share of the Lagardére stations is 20.1%. Easy listening station Radio Bonton is unrated.

Lagardère Active’s new Radio Zet bumped up noticeably, though still rather far down the list. The news-talk station appeared in January as a name change from BBC CR, finally approved by media regulator RRTV. Lagardère Active acquired the station from BBC World Service and continued to offer many of the news programs in English and Czech to the vocal consternation of the Czech public broadcaster, a contributor to the BBC Czech services and in the midst of developing its news-talk channel CRo Plus.

Media Bohemia, operator of Radio Blanik, Fajn Radio, the Hit Radio network plus Prague stations Rock Radio and Radio City, also has an aggregate market share of 20.1% according to the recent audience estimates. Radio Blanik, a full service station offering Czech-language music, ranks 5th nationally in daily reach, 13.2% lower year on year. Both Fajn Radio and Rock Radio showed increased in daily reach year on year.

The other significant multi-station radio operator in the Czech Republic, Radio United, has an aggregate market share of 11.0%. Radio United owns Country Radio, Radio Beat, the Kiss network as well as Prague stations Radio 1, Signal Radio and Radio Spin. The rather eclectic Country Radio showed the biggest daily reach growth in the latest audience estimates, up 25.8% year on year, and placed 7th nationally. Country Radio is the only privately-owned radio station using AM/MW distribution in addition to FM and satellite.

See also in ftmKnowledge

Europe’s Radio – Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe’s radio writes new rules. In fact, most everything about radio in this region is new... and changes often. The ftm Knowledge file reports on Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. 159 pages PDF (April 2013)

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