This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Media
Planet Rock hits back at VIP Club critics
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 2 July 2012
The boss of digital rock station Planet Rock has hit out at critics of his company’s recently announced premiere subscription service, which will given listeners who pay a monthly subscription fee to access extra content online. The radio company was pretty honest when launching the Planet Rock VIP Club that it needed to find new revenue options to secure its future.
A number of listeners to the station have seemingly complained about the new scheme via the Planet Rock website, leading to Malcolm Bluemel, the man who led a consortium to buy the station when then owners GCap threatened to shut it down in 2008, to respond.
In an open letter, he wrote: “For the last four years I have worked my backside off to keep this station going. It has, during that time, cost me personally £1,000 a day (yes, I have spent every penny I’ve worked all my life for), to get up at 5.45 in the morning and travel to London, to agonise over playlists and deal with all the compliance and contractual issues that go with running a small business these days”.
He continued: “I’m told that we have a passionate audience who love the station, but as soon as I try anything to ease the tremendous losses, I get abused by a minority of that said audience. NOBODY HAS TO JOIN THE CLUB, YOU STILL GET PLANET ROCK FREE 24 HOURS A DAY. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? I have invested thousands of pounds in getting you the additional content which you can purchase or not as you choose, there is no obligation”.
Concluding he wrote: “I am not a fat cat. If I was I would have kept my money in my pocket, stayed at home with my wife and children and been three million pounds better off. The team at Planet Rock remain dedicated to providing our listeners the highest quality service possible both on and off air and will continue to do so”.
