Kerrang! 105.2 sets launch date of 10th June 2004

Emap Performance has announced that Kerrang! 105.2 – Emap’s landmark first FM station launch – will hit the airwaves in the West Midlands on 10 June.

Kerrang! 105.2 is the culmination of more than two years work by Emap from conception to licence win in October 2003. Its launch will be backed by a ?1 million marketing campaign which will blitz the region with a combination of above and below the line creative, street teams and guerilla marketing.

Kerrang! 105.2 will operate on the same ethos as Emap’s London-based dance music station Kiss 100 with a policy of ratings by day and reputation by night. During the day Kerrang! 105.2 will primarily play guitar-driven music with artistes such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, The White Stripes, The Darkness, Foo Fighters and Franz Ferdinand.

Evenings will see a mixture of talk shows and specialist music shows ranging from classic rock to punk to hip hop. Breakfast will be a 75 per cent speech format led by Sony Award-winning Ugly Phil.

Kerrang! 105.2 will broadcast to a potential 3.5 million adults in the West Midlands on the FM frequency and digitally. Nationally Kerrang! Radio, available on Freeview, DAB, satellite and cable and online, will feature a similar line-up as the West Midlands output, but tailored for a national audience.

Kerrang! 105.2 will provide a whole new audience for advertisers who can already reach 722,000 listeners a week (rajar Q4 2003) nationally via the Kerrang! Radio digital services.

Andrew Jeffries, Kerrang! 105.2 programme director, said: “Kerrang! 105.2 is not just about the music: it’s about a lifestyle. Our presenters are going to be real and relevant to the audience but we won’t be threatening. Rock music is a much wider genre than some people may realise. Anyone who thinks they can dismiss Kerrang! 105.2 as just a “heavy rock” station is in for a huge surprise. We take our inspiration from Kerrang! magazine and TV but we can be much broader than them in terms of daytime artistes and we can go much deeper in the evenings. This is the fifth radio station I have helped launch and it is the most exciting and well prepared project I’ve ever had the luck to work on.”

Emap Performance, part of Emap plc, won the licence to launch Kerrang! 105.2 in the West Midlands in October 2003. It will cover the major conurbations of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry as well as surrounding areas including parts of Warwickshire and Staffordshire.

Kerrang! is one of three “hero brands”, alongside Kiss and Magic, which Emap plans to use to apply for a string of new FM licences due to be advertised by OFCOM. A series of RSLs (restricted service licences) are already planned across the country to pave the way for licence applications.

Emap owns Kiss 100 and Magic in London and has 16 analogue radio services across the UK. It also operates the biggest digital radio network in the UK.