R&S Pride AUGUST 229.qxp 09/07/2021 08:06 Page 28
RUTLAND & STAMFORD SOUND
MAKING WAVES in
LOCAL RADIO It’s the six month anniversary of the area’s newest local radio station’s creation. This month we’re speaking with Rob Persani – synonymous with radio in the area – and fellow presenter Laura Ray to reflect on what happens next to broadcasting in Rutland & Stamford... Words: Rob Davis.
PLAY Rutland & Stamford Sound. That’s not an instruction to you, the reader, or rather it is – vicariously at least – but it’s more a request directed at my smart speaker. Sitting there innocently in the corner it’s revolutionising the way we listen to radio, now responsible for facilitating 40% of our new local radio station’s audience. And it’s not the only change to the airwaves of Rutland and Stamford right now. September will be somewhat of a watershed moment for the team behind Rutland’s newest sound. We met Rob Persani and fellow presenter Laura Ray in Stamford’s Cosy Club. Rob and I, especially, are kindred spirits in that we’re both married to our media, as well as our respective wives and families. Pride Magazines established Lincolnshire Pride in 2002 and Rutland Pride about 10 years ago, so I’ve been a magazine editor longer than I’ve been a husband or father. And so it was with a huge amount of empathy, for Rob and his team, that I followed the news that the Rutland Radio brand established in December 1998 by Rob and others was lost following the takeover of the station by Bauer Media’s Audio subsidiary and rebranded Greatest Hits Radio. “I was born in Staffordshire, rather than here in Rutland or Stamford,” he says. “I knew I wanted to be on the radio since the
age of about 14, and so I jumped at the chance to work for Radio Cracker. I was volunteering at the temporary station, which broadcast for three weeks prior to Christmas as a fundraising station to address third world poverty. Right from that experience I was hooked on the profession.” “I worked on Cracker in 1991 and 1992, and with that work experience I went off to pursue a Media Production degree in Farnborough. Then, after completing my studies, I spent a couple of years freelancing before I saw a job advertisement in June 1998 for positions in one of three new stations that the Lincs FM Group were due to launch in Worksop, Hinckley and Rutland.” “The job asked you to specify where you’d prefer to work. My father enjoyed sailing and model aircraft, so I was familiar with Rutland already. I moved to Rutland and began working for the station when it was granted its permanent license from December 1998.” Rob became synonymous with radio in Rutland and Stamford, right up until May 2020 when Bauer made a decision about the station’s future. The sale had been proposed in February 2019, but was subject to an investigation by the Competition & Markets Authority, keen to determine that the company’s acquisitions wouldn’t create a monopoly.
Alongside Rutland Radio, around 60 regional stations were subject to Bauer’s acquisitions, predominantly across the Wireless Group, UKRD Radioworks, Celador and the Lincs FM Group. “We were under embargo and we were all working remotely, so in addition to being apart from existing colleagues we were also just discovering what the changes would be, and I was working to offer support to those who were facing redundancy.” “It’s important to say that at this point that Bauer isn’t a bad company, it’s a big company. It made a business decision, and without emotion, there was a commercial justification. There was nothing wrong with the decision, it just wasn’t what I wanted.” “A number of staff from the stations were offered employment elsewhere in the company, at regional hubs, so I could have gone to work in London or Manchester for example. But it would have meant leaving Rutland, and I really didn’t want to do that.” “At the same time we were all desperate to be honest with the listeners and admit that we were grieving for what amounted to be the impending changes to the radio station that we knew and loved in its present form, but we were also required to promote the changes in the manner that Bauer as the station’s new owner wanted.” As Rob pauses, I recount a similar story
Main: Rob Persani and Laura Ray (local teacher and now radio presenter) of Rutland & Stamford Sound.
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