Harrison: Commercial radio will 'fight back'

The commercial radio industry is preparing to win listeners back from the BBC with a series of cross-network programming initiatives.

Speaking at the RadioCentre's first conference, its chief executive Andrew Harrison said it plans to "tackle the BBC head on" to gain audience share and raise advertising revenues.

Harrison said: "The heart of our schedules will always be local – but with the national scale and the integrated opportunity that digital experience will bring we have to re-set the rules of the game beyond a Sunday chart show alone."

He added the RadioCentre was looking at a "couple of major sub-network initiatives" within the next six months.

Harrison said he wanted to see radio ad revenue rise to 7% of total media spend in 2007, having recently stalled at 6.1%.

A new Radio Advertising Bureau will also be launched to help "remind advertisers of the importance of embracing radio", with financial guidance to be provided for all radio stations to prepare for the digital switchover.