Commerial Radio

Commercial Radios play mostly chart music; they also have shown to keep the audience entertained and want to keep listening. They make their money through advertising. Most commercial stations serve a local or regional area and are owned by one of three big groups which dominate the sector. There are over 300 in the UK, mostly using FM frequencies and DAB. In an hour of broadcast time on a commercial broadcasting station, 10 to 20 minutes are normally devoted to advertising. Advertisers pay a certain amount of money to air their commercials, usually based upon program ratings or the audience measurement of a station or network. 

Commercial Radio is the youngest member of the UK’s ‘traditional’ commercial media cannon, having only started broadcasting in October 1973. Across the next two years, sixteen new stations were launched before the development of ILR was halted in 1976 by a new Labour government cautious about commercial organisations running radio stations.

Ofcom set rules for broadcasting in the UK. So they must license every radio and television station, and they must operate to agreed terms and aims.

Key 103 is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the city of Manchester and the north west of England. It plays a variety of music but just focuses on pop and dance music, the target audience is teen’s to young adults. Formerly owned by Trans World Communications, EMAP and now by Bauer Radio, Key 103 is part of Bauer's Place Network of stations. The station is based in Castle field, Manchester. Originally named Piccadilly Radio, from its set up in 1974, the station was renamed in August 1988 when it was decided to re-brand Piccadilly Radio's FM frequency to the new name, with a younger target audience in mind. The station broadcasts on the analogue frequency 103FM, from a 4 KW transmitter on Saddleworth Moor and broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio from City Tower (formerly Sunley Tower) on the CE Manchester multiplex.