The UK radio industry consists of national stations that serve the whole country, regional stations that cover multi-county areas, and local stations that serve town-sized communities. There are also community radio stations and digital radio stations. On the Isle of Wight, the main radio competitors are the national BBC, the regional commercial station Wave 105, and local non-profit community stations.

1. Ownership of the UK radio
industry.

2. The different type of radio you will need
to know about.
• National Radio: Serving the whole of the UK, national stations include BBC Radios 1-5,
Absolute Radio, Classic FM and talkSPORT.
• Regional Stations: There are currently 17 of these in the UK, covering multi-county areas,
including BBC Scotland, BBC Radio Wales, Capital and Kiss (East Anglia)
• Local Radio: There are 40 BBC local radio stations, and over 250 commercial stations
(known as ILR – Independent Local Radio stations). This number includes town-sized stations
(once known as Incremental stations).
• Community Radio: A growing number of “Not for profit” radio stations (Over 100 in 2008),
that started following the Government’s Access radio pilot scheme.
• DAB Digital Radio: Digital Audio Broadcasting, is the new type of radio service available in
the UK. DAB offers a range of extra channels not available on FM. You’ll need a special DAB
radio to receive Digital Radio – there are a range of DAB radios now available, including
kitchen radios, hi-fi tuners, in-car radios and battery-powered portable devices. For more on
DAB radio.
• Internet Radio: There are several Internet radio stations out there, and a high number of UK
stations broadcast on the Internet… the Internet has worldwide coverage. You can also run
your own.
• Satellite Radio: Stations broadcasting on satellite, including Sky.

3. Some of the main radio competitors on
the Isle of Wight.
The BBC, this was the first radio
station to ever exist in the UK and is
known as a national radio. Unlike
their competitors Capital which is
know as a regional radio station as it
has different station for different parts
of the country (e.g. capital south
coast).
Another well known and widely
played radio station that people listen
to on the island is Wave105, this is a
regional commercial radio station
which is different to the BBC as
Wave105 not only has music, talking
shows, etc. but also has adverts in
order to get the funding to stay on air.

4. BBC Radio
The BBC is officially publically
owned, and was given a ten-year
royal charter in 2006 that defines its
purposes and allows it to act
somewhat autonomously, free from
commercial and government
influence. With the day-to-day
management is handled by the
board of management, headed by
the director general; its members are
appointed by the board of governors.

5. Local radios owned by
national companies
Many radios that you would
consider to be ‘local’ radio
stations are sometimes
actually owned by big
‘national’ companies.
An example of this would be
local stations such as capital
south coast and capital
London are owned by the
same national corporation.

6. Non-profit radio stations
Non profitable radio, which are also
known as community radio stations,
make no profit from the shows they
broadcast (hence the name ‘non-
profit’).
They are usually small stations that
broadcast over a city or town and
broadcast information, news, etc…
that is relevant to the people that live
or work in the places they’re
broadcasting.
One example of this on the Island

7. Global Radio
Who are they?
Global Radio are a British media company who formed in 2007,
they are the owners of many of the commercial, regional radio
stations in the UK.
Some of the stations they own:
• Capital FM (previously known as Galaxy FM)
• Heart (which consists of 21 regional stations across the UK)
• Classic FM
• Juice FM
• Smooth FM

8. What has changed?
• There are a lot more stations to chose from that all have
different content, giving the public a choice in what they listen
to on the radio.
• The listeners now play a larger part in the day-to-day shows
due to things such as call-in/debate segments , song request
segments and many others.
• There is a lot more advertisement now played on the radio.
(This is how the commercial stations are able to stay
running.)
• Most local stations are run/are part of a nations station or
organizations. An example of this would be Capital South
Coast which is part of Capital FM, which is ran by Global

9. How has new technology
change radio?
New technology such as mobile phones, the
internet, tablets, and many other technological
devices have allowed the radio to be listened
to not only in your home or cars, but any where
you go, it has allowed the radio to become
more accessible for everyone.
With this new technology has also come new
radio stations that broadcast solely over the
internet, meaning the we are now being
constantly given new station that play different
music to cater for different target audiences.