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Reproduced from Marketing Week 22 May, 1997
Pop guru in bid for FM licenses
by Jon Rees
Pop impresario Pete Waterman is to launch a bid for two new FM
radio stations in the North of England - one in the North-west
and one in the North-east.
Waterman, who has master-minded a string of hits since the
Eighties with producing partners Mike Stock and Matt Aitkin, will
be chairman of Virus Radio, the company put together for the bid.
The Virus consortium includes EMAP Radio, which owns stations
across the country - including Kiss FM and Piccadilly - and will
have a maximum 20 per cent stake. The other partner is Apollo
Leisure, which operates 80 venues in the UK and employs more than
6,000 staff.
Waterman says he plans to offer "the cutting edge of new music"
if his proposals are accepted.
"My play-list will never consist of more than 20 per cent of top
40 material. We will have a unique play-list format," he says.
"I have been approached to back different stations but I have
always said no, because I didn't want to become a narrow-caster.
But there's a new optimism at the Radio Authority and it seems to
have changed its views on who it licenses."
Waterman says he will draw on the experience of EMAP Radio to
avoid pitfalls in the company's plans.
As well as producing records, Waterman also owns the London &
North West Railway Company, which carries out stock maintenance
for privatised rail companies.
The deadline for applications for the North-west licence is
August 1997, while for the North-east it is January 1998.
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