Xfm are planning to take on Radio 1, or at least that's what the Guardian reckons. On a roll following OfCom's decision to award them the new analogue licence, GCap's alternative station say they are now seriously set on becoming a national radio station, and will look to steal the guitar rock fans among Radio 1's national audience.
The Manchester win is just one albeit high profile stage in Xfm's bid to become a national radio station. It has been slowly building a non-London audience via its online, Sky and Cable broadcasts for a while now, and has played a key role in promoting digital radio technology to the early adopters that form a natural part of its constituency - Xfm is available in most UK cities on digital. And Manchester isn't the only analogue licence the station has its eyes on.
The Guardian quote Xfm MD Graham Bryce as saying: "Our strategy is to build a national business, be that via analogue, digital or other means. The next big one is the north-east, Newcastle-Sunderland area, and there's every likelihood we'll go for that."
Bryce is bullish about his station's plans to challenge the nation's favourite: "Frankly, we're more creative and innovative than they are. They've been around a long time and they're quite stuck in their ways - I think we should shake the radio market up a little. People who love guitar rock, we know through research, often don't like pop or urban. They have to put up with the urban record to get to the one they actually want to listen to. It may take a while to match their audience levels, but as digital takes off they're going to come under a lot of pressure".
Of course Xfm constantly faces the challenge of using its 'cool status' to build the kind of ratings that enables it to hike up advertising rates, but without alienating that niche group of listeners whose loyalty gives the station its coolness in the first place - no easy task in the commercial sector, especially when you've got a radio ratings system which ignores the student population, who make up a sizable portion of Xfm's listeners.
Reaching out to natural listeners elsewhere in the UK is certainly preferable to watering down the music policy to appeal to a bigger London audience, though it remains to be seen if the commercial pressures of going national won't, in themselves, require a more mainstream approach which could further damage the Xfm brand for those core listeners. And of course, any battle to take on Radio 1 might be less realistic once the guitar rock genre ceases to be in vogue (which is currently due to happen in Apr 2006).
But anyway, let's hope they succeed, Xfm still being one of the few truly exciting forces in British radio.