Business is booming for Britain’s fastest-growing radio station
Boom’s listenership has doubled in the past year as it taps the over-60s market. James Warrington tunes in
On a quiet Sunday in August, for the first time in more than half a century, pirate radio filled Britain’s airwaves. Johnnie Walker and Roger Day, who earned their stripes as DJs on Radio Caroline in the 1960s, led the line-up of presenters. Classics from the likes of the Beach Boys and the Kinks filled the schedule. But the tunes were not broadcast from boats. Instead, they were beamed into homes from the bedrooms, basements and sheds of the presenters on Boom Radio, a fledgling station catering for the over-60s.
The pirate special was the crowning glory in a whirlwind two years for Boom. Its nostalgic offering has tapped into a generation of listeners left behind by the BBC. Now, flush with cash from a fresh funding round, the baby boomer station is looking to grow.
Boom was launched two years ago by Phil Riley and David Lloyd, industry veterans behind brands including Heart and LBC. Spotting a gap in the market for older listeners, they decided to go it alone. “I don’t think there’s another radio station that’s ever attempted to do what we’re doing, which is launch a mainstream brand to try to attract a large audience on our own without anybody’s help or backing,” says Riley. “We’re just a bunch of old mates with a dream.”
Starting as a DAB offering in London, the station soon expanded nationwide. Now, more than half of its listeners are online, tuning in via smart speakers and mobile phones.
The station hauled a string of big names out of retirement to front its shows. David Hamilton, Judi Spiers and Graham Dene are among the stars to have relaunched their careers on Boom.
The DJs spin a range of records from the 50s, 60s and 70s, with classics from the likes of Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and Abba making regular appearances.
Boom is also bucking industry norms by operating remotely, with presenters broadcasting from their homes. An unavoidable consequence of launching during the pandemic, bosses now see it as an advantage, allowing them to lure in talent without the need to commute into London studios.
This is attractive given the average age of Boom presenters. Hamilton, 84, and Pete Murray, 97, recently teamed up to record a Christmas special. With a combined age of 181, they will be the oldest presenting duo in radio history.
The station’s audience has more than doubled over the past 12 months to 443,000 a week, according to data from industry body Rajar. That makes it Britain’s fastest growing radio station.
In turn, this has fed directly into the station’s financial performance. Monthly revenues have grown from roughly £60,000 earlier this year to £120,000 in October. Riley hopes to hit £150,000 this month, while the company’s low cost base means it has now turned a profit.
Boom’s success is in part down to its roster of DJs and the freedom they enjoy. The station has a catalogue of around 8,000 songs and, in contrast to the strict playlists implemented on other commercial stations, presenters have free rein to choose their tracks.
Fundamentally, though, Boom is tapping into an audience disenfranchised by the BBC. In its push for younger audiences, Radio 2 has been sliding down the age scale. The station has suffered a recent exodus of presenters, with Steve Wright, Graham Norton and Simon Mayo among a string of big names to part ways with the Beeb after years of service.
Riley says: “The most passionate response we get is from listeners who say: ‘It’s great I found you, I’ve fallen out of love or stopped listening to Radio 2 because it no longer completely satisfies my tastes.’”
Now, Boom is looking at the next stage of its development. It has just raised £1m from shareholders taking its total so far to £1.5m. It has set a target of reaching 1m listeners within 18 months.
Much of this fresh capital will be funnelled into a new marketing campaign, including a TV advert starring Hamilton. There are also areas of innovation. The company recently launched Boom Light, a spin-off station aimed at the older end of its demographic. There have also been internal discussions about a move into podcasting and launching a premium, ad-free version.
The station sells ads through both Bauer and Global – the UK’s two major commercial radio groups – but admits it can’t achieve the same level of revenue yield as the likes of Capital and Heart. It hopes, however, that brands will soon come around. David Elms, Boom’s chairman, says: “You have to believe that just as Boom has highlighted the opportunity to have a specific radio station for the baby boomers, the advertisers will see the opportunity.”
As Boom continues to sweep up older listeners, its major challenge will be convincing the advertising agencies of Soho that there is money to be made from boomers.
For Riley, however, the focus is on tapping into nostalgia and bringing alive the spirit of the pirates. “I think that’s probably the biggest innovation that we’ve done,” he says. “To go back to how it was before.”