Nottingham’s own independent national radio station has celebrated its first year on-air – by revealing its rapidly increasing audience figures are about to help push it into profit.
Boom Radio was launched in the middle of the pandemic from a spare room in the Nottingham home of former Radio Trent presenter David Lloyd.
It is Britain’s first national radio station aimed at baby boomers – the over-60s.
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Its presenters have an average age of 68 and include many household names, such as former BBC Radio One DJs Kid Jensen and David Hamilton.
Official audience figures show Boom – with its mix of 60s and 70s music, spiced with songs from the 50s – is already attracting more than 290,000 listeners every week.
Now co-founder David Lloyd has revealed the station – which has around ten investors, including the former chief executive of Chrysalis Radio Phil Riley – will hit its three-year profitability target before its second anniversary.
“Our financial backers and supporters are very happy indeed,” he said.
“Revenues are already well ahead of schedule. In the next 12 months Boom will turn a profit – which means we can sustain the station.
“Since we launched last year, we’ve had three sets of figures from RAJAR (the official body measuring radio audiences) and all three have shown big increases.
“They also indicate we have the most loyal audience of any commercial music radio station.”
Boom presenters all broadcast from their own homes around the country. They have included Bob Harris, who once fronted cult 1980s BBC TV music programme The Old Grey Whistle test, and Judy Spiers who was well-known as the voice of Radio Devon.
A 2021 Christmas Special appearance from legendary former BBC radio DJ 96-year-old Pete Murray was so popular a second Yuletide programme is being planned for 2022.
David added: “So many people tell us we’ve helped them fall in love with radio again.
“A few weeks ago, a listener contacted our breakfast presenter Graham Dene to say: ‘You rang my wife on our wedding day 40 years ago, when you were with Capital Radio. It’s our anniversary this week could you ring her again?’
“It’s remarkable. We’ve rebuilt friendships with a very engaged audience, all over the UK.”
Boom broadcasts nationally on DAB. But the station’s Nottingham base, and the number of former Radio Trent presenters on its books, means Boom has already picked up a loyal following in the East Midlands.
That local audience will grow further in the coming months as former BBC Radio Nottingham presenter Paul Robey launches a new Sunday evening request show.
Paul has been Boom’s station’s Content Director since the station was launched on Valentines’ Day 2021.
His new programme is expected to be of interest to listeners who followed the Sunday afternoon nostalgia show he hosted on BBC Radio Nottingham for more than a decade.
“People across Nottingham have missed him,” said David.
“He has an enviable knowledge of music from across the decades and has assembled Boom’s music library. Now he is back on air – on his own station.”
Later this year, Boom will also launch a sister station called Boom Light, that will be available online broadcasting music from the 1950s and ‘easy listening’, 24 hours a day.
David said: “My aim is to reach one million listeners. Everyone said it couldn’t be done. But I just knew we could build a sustainable, national commercial radio station, bang in the middle of Nottingham.
“For me, it will be a life’s ambition fulfilled.”
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