Local Radio Support group to lobby PRS and PPL for better deals

Local Radio Support is ramping up its drive to provide help and support for independent and community radio stations across the UK.

Having already forged a partnership with the Global owned DAX and with RCS, allowing member stations to benefit from programmatic advertising revenue, the company is now looking at music licencing and seeking to engage with both PRS and PPL.

LRS believe that these two bodies provide an excellent service for both artists and radio stations but the model, which has been in place for many years, is seen by many as out-dated and unsuitable for the new generation of small-scale DAB and independent radio stations.

LRS believe that the current commercial model was originally built for heritage commercial brands, but really only works for stations with much larger turnover than a typical independent station operating on DAB or small-scale DAB.

Having made contact with both bodies through an open letter on behalf of over 100 radio stations who signed up to support the views of LRS, they are delighted to announce that Jez Bell, Chief Licensing Officer at PPL has agreed to meet with the LRS Directors to share some of their thoughts about how they would like to potentially develop PPL’s radio licensing.

In addition there has been an initial response from PRS promising further communication.

“This is a massive step forward for us and we are very pleased that Jez has responded so promptly and agreed to meet. We are undertaking this on behalf of the many, many stations who have told us that this is one of the most challenging areas they face when running their radio stations” commented Dominic Barker, LRS Director.

If your station would like to add support details can be found at localradiosupport.com.