Vision that's wired for sound

IF he’d followed his original career plan, he could have been ordering troops into battle in Iraq.

Instead, he’s sitting in the boardroom of Radio Forth wondering if he can cram all the staff into it next Tuesday, or whether he’ll need a bigger room.

"I suppose I could have been somewhere a lot more unpleasant," Adam Findlay says, mindful of what the place at Sandhurst he’d secured might have brought.

However, almost by accident, radio became his battleground, following a summer stint of work experience. And next week he takes up the role as managing director of Radio Forth, continuing the Findlay "dynasty" at the Edinburgh-based station, where his father Richard was Forth’s first programme controller and the first voice heard on the station upon its launch in 1975.

"This is my biggest challenge yet," the 31-year-old says of the post that has brought him back to his home town following a stint as MD at Aberdeen-based Northsound, Forth’s stablemate in the Scottish Radio Holdings group.

Mr Findlay will spend Monday familiarising himself with the labyrinthine Forth Street studios before he announces the station’s three-year vision to the core 45 members of staff on Tuesday.

The finer details will only be disclosed to the workers, but generally Mr Findlay wants "more of the same", building on the station’s strengths.

At Northsound, he helped steer the station to third spot, out of 270, in the UK’s most-listened to stations - on a market share basis. And that triumph underlines his theory that good local radio has to focus on the daily needs and aspirations of its listeners.

"Apart from the music, what’s equally important is what we do between the music," states Mr Findlay. "Lots of stations play good music, but what makes us strong is what we deliver between songs: the travel and traffic, the weather, stuff like that.

"We affect people’s lives before they get out of bed. They make choices for the day based on the information they hear on Forth, such as the weather forecast.

"It’s about playing good music and being really relevant to our listeners - giving them accurate, local information that will affect their daily lives."

The latest figures from Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR) indicate Forth’s two stations - Forth One and Forth 2 - command 391,000 listeners. By contrast, main rival Real Radio boasts 314,000 listeners in the Forth catchment area.That translates to Forth having an 18.6 per cent share of local listener hours - equal to 4,030,000 hours, with Real having 15.3 per cent.

While Forth lies mid-table in the overall market share league, Mr Findlay says that’s not what’s important. "I’d like to replicate what we did at Northsound, get Forth higher up the chart. But in terms of the local east central Scotland market, we’re number one and that’s the measurement that matters."

One of the first tasks Mr Findlay will be involved in is finding a new programme controller to replace the recently departed Nik Goodman, who has been largely credited with shaking up the station to meet the challenge of increasing competition. Mr Goodman was responsible for ushering in the popular Forth One breakfast hosts Boogie and Vicky Pitchers, who went on to win an NTL Radio Presenters of the Year award earlier this year.

"Nik Goodman - and [Mr Findlay’s predecessor] Sandy Wilkie - put in place fantastic foundations for the station going forward. Forth is very much in a position of strength."

He says it will be a "very hard role" to fill and as such the station will not rush into an appointment.

"The person taking on that role will be responsible for every nanosecond of airplay that leaves the studios. We’ll take a long hard look at the candidates. We’re currently undergoing a selection process, but have yet to make an appointment," Mr Findlay says.

Asked if he’ll rule the roost over programming, Mr Findlay says it will be a "collective" decision. "The programming and the other needs of the business have to dovetail and as I’m the managing director, the buck stops with me.

"But at the end of the day, you employ people to do a job and need to let them get on with it. You need to have faith and trust in them. I need to have my finger on the pulse, but the day-to-day running will be with the programme controller."

As a boss, Mr Findlay describes himself as "fair", with a track record of "strong, assertive leadership". That may explain why he’s probably the youngest MD in Scottish, if not British, commercial radio.

But he’s quick to highlight he’s no ogre, breathing down necks. Rather, one who embraces and encourages the fun-loving, creative types that fill radio’s ranks.

"I’m someone who takes enormous pleasure from what I do and I hope that’s contagious. While we have our shareholders and listeners to answer to, radio is about fun."

However, whether the staff at Forth Street will ever get the eight-person balcony hot-tub their Northsound counterparts enjoyed is another thing.

Following a couple of years restructuring the ad income set-up at Northsound, Mr Findlay was handed control, becoming managing director. At the time, the station needed to move from its then home. Mr Findlay was left with the relocation challenge, which allowed him to introduce the hot-tub at the new premises, which, as well as being used for fun, became a popular launch gimmick.

"It was good experience having a relocation programme thrown in," Mr Findlay says. It could also prove to be experience he may need to draw on should SRH ever decide to cash in the chips on its valuable Forth Street property and head for new ground.

Like the finances of a business, Mr Findlay is a believer in the year-on-year comparator being the most useful guide to performance. But a longer-term strategy needs to underpin and benchmark any progress - or otherwise.

"Three years gives people an opportunity to deliver," he says. And, of his three-year plan, he adds: "We’re going to be doing what we have been doing, only much better."

He says that the crucial performance test lies in boosting listening hours.

"You need to be excelling in that field, but hours take time to build," he says. "One-off promotions can give you a flick of the needle, but we need to have in place a package that makes us the must-listen-to station in east central Scotland."

Forth is among the bidders for the new FM licence - to broadcast on the 107FM frequency - that will soon be available in the Edinburgh area. It will be the first of 16 new UK FM licences being created by the industry regulator Ofcom. Applications for the Capital licence close later this month. The competition is formidable, including bids from Celador - maker of Who Wants to be a Millionaire; GWR; Virgin and Castle FM - a consortium including Scotsman Publications’ editor-in-chief Andrew Neil.

Mr Findlay insists Forth’s bid delivers on Ofcom’s requirements to produce a station that offers something different to what’s already available.

The battle for the new FM licence, he says, will be a "hotly contested" one.

But a lot less hostile than some he might have faced.