Global's The Arrow drops live DJs

John Plunkett
guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 December 2007 14.08 GMT

Rock radio station The Arrow is to axe its DJs as part of a further retreat from digital by its new owner, Global Radio.

Three job losses are expected at the Birmingham-based station, which has a weekly reach of 146,000 listeners.

A spokesman for Global Radio said the company was committed to keeping The Arrow on air but without live DJs. Three staff members, understood to include two on-air presenters, are currently in consultation over redundancy.

The cutbacks come two months after Global, headed by chief executive Ashley Tabor and chairman Charles Allen, pulled out of a joint venture with Sky to launch Sky News Radio on Channel 4's new national digital multiplex and Global's AM frequency in London.

Although The Arrow's audience remains small, the station's listener base has nearly doubled over the past 12 months, from 86,000 in the third quarter of last year.

However, it has fallen short of breaking through into the top tier of digital radio stations such as Emap's The Hits and Smash Hits, with 1.49 million and 1.18 million listeners respectively.

The Arrow's rock rival Planet Rock, which is owned by GCap Media, is in third place in the digital-only market with 548,000 listeners, nearly four times its audience.

Chrysalis Radio, the former owner of The Arrow, failed with its repeated attempts to win an analogue FM licence for the rock format, despite bidding in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The station is available on digital audio broadcast - radio in London, the West Midlands, the north-west, Yorkshire, the north-east, central Scotland, south Wales and the West Country. It can also be heard online and on Sky Digital and Virgin Media.

Global bought Chrysalis Radio, including the Heart, LBC and Galaxy networks, for £170m earlier this year.

It is not the only major radio group to cut back on its digital spending. Capital and Classic FM parent GCap has announced it would cease investing in two of its digital brands, Core and Life.

Last month, Virgin Radio said it would axe digital spin-off Virgin Radio Groove and its plans to launch a new digital service on Channel 4 Radio, to concentrate on its key brands.

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