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UBC loses patience with Oneword

11.01.08 Tom Tivnan

Spoken word digital radio station Oneword will cease operations this week. Owner UBC Media is blaming the closure on a lower-than-expected public take-up of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) radios.

UBC will pull the plug on the station today (11th January), after buying back Channel 4's 51% majority share for a nominal £1. The station employed five full-time members of staff and five freelancers. UBC said in December that it was looking to get out of the business, after losing about £1m a year since starting the venture in 2000.

Despite the closure, Oneword m.d. Simon Blackmore believes there is a future for a commercial spoken word digital station. He added: "We were perhaps ahead of our time. We're seeing a take-up of DAB radios now that we thought would happen five years ago. The public appetite is now there, and I think there is a place for a Oneword-type station."

Oneword had seen a slight growth in audience figures, with six-month listening figures to September 2007 from Radio Joint Audience Research showing an audience reach of 151,000, up from 138,000 in the previous period. However, rival BBC7 had 795,000 listeners over the same period.

Oneword was touted as an alternative to BBC Radio 4 when it launched seven years ago. In addition to original programming, Oneword had a book-heavy format and sold audiobooks through its website in association with Amazon.

C4 will continue with plans for its own 10-station 4 Digital radio consortium, with a spokesperson for C4 saying it was "on target" for a mid-2009 launch of a spoken word station.

 

Media tom tivnan digital oneword UBC

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