Planet Rock (radio station)

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Planet Rock

Broadcast area	United Kingdom
Frequency	DAB Channel 0110 (Sky) Channel 924 (Virgin Media)
First air date	15 November 1999
Format	Classic Rock
Audience share	0.4% (March 2008, [1])
Owner	Rock Show Consortium led by Malcolm Bluemel
Website	www.planetrock.com

Planet Rock is a Sony Award winning digital radio station in the United Kingdom. The station broadcasts classic rock music. it is available nationally via the Digital One DAB network, and on Virgin Media cable television and Sky Digital, as well as via the website.

1 Shows and presenters
2 Awards and achievements
3 Potential closure
4 Sale
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Shows and presenters

Nicky Horne, also a presenter on Capital Gold and previously on Jazz FM (now called Smooth FM) and Capital Radio, presents the 7pm-11pm show, and Nick Abbot, controversial phone-in presenter, presents the 2pm-6pm show on Saturday and Sunday.

Planet Rock also has had rock stars such as Ian Anderson, Tony Iommi, Fish, Gary Moore, Phil Manzanera and Rick Wakeman doing their own weekly radio shows. From July 2006, Planet Rock also broadcast the syndicated Alice Cooper breakfast show.

[edit] Awards and achievements

In 2006, the station received the Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Digital Terrestrial Radio Station of the Year,^[1] and in 2007, the Gold Award for Station Imaging.^[2]

In January 2008, Planet Rock reached a new height of 563,000 weekly listeners putting it further ahead of BBC 6 Music. In addition to Planet Rock's success, the PlanetRock forum also reached 4,000 members.^[3]

On 12 May 2008, Planet Rock won three Sony awards, Bronze in the Multi-Platform radio category, Silver for Fish's "Fish on Friday" show, and (for the second time) the Gold Award for Digital Terrestrial Radio Station of the Year.^[4]

[edit] Potential closure

On 11 February 2008, previous owner GCap Media (now Global Radio), announced that the station would be closing by 31st March 2008 along with sister station theJazz, unless a buyer is found. According to a statement by former presenter Fish, this is not due to Planet Rock itself, which has been reported to make gains, but rather to GCap's overall financial state. The station's relative popularity on digital radio has brought controversy to the closure threat.^[3]^[5]

On 22 March 2008, Planet Rock announced live on air that Planet Rock will stay on air until the end of April as previous owners GCap are in takeover talks. These takeover talks are now complete and Planet Rock is now owned by Global Radio, but the future of the station is still not certain.

On 25 April 2008, Planet Rock announced that the station would remain on air for another month, until 30 May 2008, pending further negotiations with interested parties, relating to a potential sale. Queen guitarist Brian May announced on May 8 2008 that he was part of a group interested in taking over the station^[6].

[edit] Sale

On 29 May 2008, GCap sold Planet Rock to an unnamed party, to be announced soon. Brian May stated that he was "shocked and hugely disappointed" about the sale of the station and also said that the station was out of his reach.^[7]^[8]

On 4 June 2008, Planet Rock announced that it had been sold to a consortium lead by Malcolm Bluemel and supported by Tony Iommi, Ian Anderson, Gary Moore, and Fish. There is to be no break in transmission and the programming will remain unchanged. ^[9]