The Art In Appealing To Millennials

Michael Hedges January 25, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Classical music has long been a mainstay of radio broadcasting. The earliest radio programs featured classical music. The genre has been “found” by Millennials and that makes it a strong commercial contender in every media space, including video games. Across the globe, radio stations featuring classical music are attracting new listeners.

Bauer Media (UK) announced this week the launch of a new digital classical music radio channel. Scala Radio will appear in the first week of March, replacing pop-celebrity Heat Radio on the DAB multiplex. Heat Radio first appeared in 2003 as an extension of Bauer Media’s Heat celebrity-gossip magazine.

A description of Scala Radio provided in the Bauer Media press release (January 21) makes clear this will not be a pop-up all-music channel. Indeed, the the channel “promises to provide the listener with the modern experience.” That means old masters mixed with new compositions, film scores and conversational show hosts “with an informal ‘come as you are’ attitude.” Within the radio broadcasting community Bauer Media is well-known for serious market research and strategic planning. Scala Radio will also be available online and through a mobile app.

The UK radio market is reasonably diverse - more so since broadcaster’s access to the DAB platform was simplified - and extremely professional. It is also quite mature. Classical music has been represented for decades by BBC Radio 3 and Global Radio’s Classic FM, both national channels. In the last available RAJAR radio audience estimates (Q3 2018) BBC Radio 3 ranked 18th nationally with 1.2% audience share, quite stable over the last decade or so. Like most public broadcasters, Radio 3 includes rather broad arts and cultural programming to the classical music.

Classic FM launched in 1992 as a national commercial radio channel, one of three to receive that license so designated. Borrowing an easy listening approach from US forerunners, offering shortened best-known excerpts of classical works, Classic FM was roundly dismissed by music purists at the time. The channel, rather quickly, rose into the top 10 in national radio audience estimates. Listeners clearly liked it, and still do. In the most recent RAJAR measurement, Classic FM placed 8th overall. Global Media owns Classic FM plus talk station LBC the pop-music entertainment Capital franchise and the Heart brand franchise. The company is wildly successful.

Bauer Media is also large and successful, both in broadcasting and publishing. In the UK the company operates, among others, the Kiss, Magic and the Absolute Radio franchises. The company also operates the RMF and Radio Maxx brands in Poland and Radio Expres in Slovakia. Radio stations in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark were acquired from Discovery Communications in 2015. Bauer Media is a minority shareholder - with RTL Group - in German radio station Radio Hamburg. Classical music is not part of the programming on any of these stations except for RMF Chopin, an online-only station.

Scala Radio is being presented to sponsors, advertisers and media buyers, reported The Drum (January 21), for its potential appeal to those with interest in “artistic, cultural and musical events.” Millennials - people coming of age with the 21st Century - have been identified in various marketing studies as “preferring experiences to ‘stuff’.” Those “of means” flock to art museums (and collecting) as well as opera, ballet and symphony performances. Millennials are notoriously resistant to the formalities of “auditorium culture.” The Scala name could be a reference to La Scala, famous Italian opera house. Or, it might come from Radio Scalla, an “orchestral music” radio station in São Paulo, Brazil.

Radio stations offering classical music, with notable exceptions, have leaned toward the stuffy, arcane and uninspiring. WQXR in New York and Classic FM in the UK broke that mold. Many others followed, including public broadcasters steeped in a traditional arts and culture ethos. Belgian public broadcaster VRTs Klara and Russian state broadcaster Orpheus Radio are among the more inspiring. Of course, being surrounded by Old Masters helps.

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