Steve Penk: It's time to rebrand Key 103 and start again

Concern that the station's listening figures are the result of programming-by-committee

The latest set of UK radio industry listening figures were released today, and one set of figures in particular makes me very sad.

In terms of total audience, it is the worst set of listening figures in Key 103's history.

I will always remain passionate about Key 103 Manchester. Most people in radio feel exactly the same way about the radio station where they started their career.

Piccadilly Radio launched on April 2nd 1974 and rebranded as Key 103 almost exactly 27 years ago.

Piccadilly Radio/Key 103 was built on character.

Many amazing broadcasters started their career at this radio station - Chris Evans, Timmy Mallett, Geoff Lloyd, Susie Mathis, Dave Ward, Mike Sweeney, Mark Radcliffe, Gary King, Scott Mills... the list of unique talented broadcasters that have worked for this great radio station is very impressive.

It always dominated the great City of Manchester, and for many many years was the number 1 choice for hit music radio listeners in Greater Manchester. There are many talented people who still work there, but in recent years the radio station has totally lost its way. The fall in recent years is not a blip, it's a spectacular depressing fall for this once great radio station. Commercially, Key 103 remains one of Bauer's cash cows, but with this huge audience decline, it won't stay that way for long. Urgent action is required.

Programming is where it's all gone wrong and without naming names, I believe it's currently the blind leading the partially sighted. Nobody can defend the Key 103 decline and if they do, they shouldn't be working in radio. There is a major crisis at Key and it urgently needs fixing.

To remain dominant in any industry you have to keep the product exciting for the consumer, but Key 103 has become stale and characterless. It's become the comfy pair of slippers radio station, the radio station that your Mum and Dad used to listen to. I now no longer know what Key 103 is and I work in the industry, so imagine how the listeners feel, whereas across the road, Key's main hit music competitor, Capital FM, sounds exciting, fresh, and connects brilliantly with its target audience in 2015.

In my opinion, Key's owners, Bauer Media, now face the single greatest crisis in the radio stations history. Major changes are needed urgently.

Key 103 listening figures Source: RAJAR / Ipsos MORI / RSMB

To start with, the name needs changing. The name is awful. Key 103 doesn't mean anything anymore, it never really did. When Piccadilly Radio launched, it launched in Piccadilly Manchester, next to Piccadilly Gardens, and so the name made sense. Key 103 is just a name: and in my opinion it's now a damaged brand.

If I was Bauer, I would rebrand all their hit music stations as Kiss FM. Kiss 103 Manchester would sound fresh, new, exciting and sexy. Kiss is a great name, and it would allow Bauer to take on Global's Capital brand, head to head. Advertising agencies would love it, they could sell the brand nationally and Kiss could also advertise on TV nationally, in the same way Capital does. The "Key 103", "Key 2", "Key 3" brands are confusing nonsense and whoever came up with the idea should be fired, they have no place working for the country's second biggest Commercial Radio operator. It was a stupid idea, with a name that no longer has any real connection with its target audience.

Key's entire programme schedule needs ripping up. Key needs a new Programme Director to put this right, someone who is creative, driven, ruthless and fearless, plus it needs to be someone currently outside of Bauer, so they come in with their own fresh ideas, not corporate brainwashed nonsense, and they need to be given total freedom.They should NOT appoint the next Key 103 Programme Director from within. This needs to be done immediately.

Part of Bauer's problem is the layer upon layer of programming management. Key 103 should be a stand alone station (it used to be) where the PD only answers to Bauer's MD, Dee Ford.

All programme decisions regarding Key should NOT be made by committee, they should be made by one person, the Programme Director of Key 103, period. Programming policy and decisions for Key should be stand alone. You can not run a successful radio station making decisions by committee, and that has been one of the major factors in Key's recent spectacular downfall, especially in the Manchester market. Manchester is unlike any other radio market in the UK, and unless you understand that and get the area, the public, and the humour, you will fail.

Too many presenters on the air these days think that if you talk a lot this equates to having a personality. Wrong. Humour, warmth, creativity and 'relate-ability' that's what makes great radio broadcasters. Just talking on the radio doesn't mean you have a personality that listeners want to listen to, and for me there are far to many characterless morons on the air talking rubbish, and Key 103 currently has its fair share. Get rid of them. Key should be the number 1, single best hit music radio station Bauer has. It used to be.

Manchester is the second most important market in the Bauer stable of stations, it is a crucial market for advertisers, and it needs to be right. Capital FM is now the clear hit music leader in Manchester, and if Dee Ford and Bauer don't act immediately, they may never get the crown back.

I wanted to write this today, after hearing the latest Rajar news, because I genuinely feel sad and concerned for this once great radio station.

I love this radio station for many reasons. Come on Bauer, sort it... NOW.