Wednesday 4th June 2008

PLANET ROCK has been SAVED !!!!

 

An email has been sent from Planet Rock HQ, as follows:

It's the news we've all been waiting for...

We're pleased to bring you the news we have all been waiting for....

At long last we're delighted to be able to announce that Planet Rock's
future is now secure. We have been purchased by life long rock and radio
fan Malcolm Bluemel and his consortium supported by our very own Tony
Iommi,  Ian Anderson, Gary Moore, and Fish, saving Planet Rock from
certain closure.

In a deal finalised today Malcolm takes control of the station with
immediate effect, there will be no break in transmission or changes in
programming.

Everyone at the station is over the moon and more than a little relieved
that we've got the outcome we hoped for and that the wait is over. Now we
can get back to normal.

Thanks to everyone of you for your amazing support it really has been
overwhelming, the individual email messages, the petitions to the Prime
Minister and Ofcom, the incredible tenacity of the Save Planet Rock web
site and to those groups who tried unsuccessfully to buy the station, you
have all been an inspiration to all of us here at Planet Rock. You are all
very special.

We are all looking forward to working with Malcolm. His passion for rock
music and his love for the station can only help us in our aim to make
Planet Rock the best rock station in the world....ever.

Thanks for listening and keep rockin'
Planet Rock HQ

Further news has also been forthcoming about the consortium, called "Rock Show", behind the purchase, which can be found on various news websites as follows:

Guardian Online

Marketing News

BlabberMouth

Waveguide

 

We are grateful to everyone concerned with the SPR campaign who has pledged to support THIS petition, signed the petition on the UK PM's website, bought car stickers, even printed out paper petitions to send in to the station - all showing their support.

Likewise, we recognise everyone below who has left positive comments about the campaign, as well as visitors to the SPR website, both from UK as well as overseas: from USA to Brazil, from Iceland to South Africa, from Russia to India and from Japan to Australia.......TO ALL OF YOU....THANK YOU....your support has, I am sure, been a fundamental reason as to WHY Planet Rock has been saved....The sheer numbers of people getting involved has proven to us all that Rock music needs a dedicated 24/7 outlet allowing the music to be broadcast.

 

So, a BIG THANK YOU for everything !

 

We are optimistic that now that the station has been saved, that under the new ownership, it will be allowed to grow and prosper, whilst continuing to provide fantastic music via DAB, online and via satellite.

 

The back-story:

It was announced on 11th Feb 2008, that GCap Media, (the owners of Planet Rock) were to CLOSE this radio station by the end of March 2008. This had been extended until the end of April, and subsequently, until the end of May 2008, pending negotiations to sell Planet Rock.

(Update: They have now closed theJazz and will be handing back various local XFM licenses they hold, or selling them off).

More info here (their Press Release, on their website) and here's some background stuff, regarding their reasons (not making enough profit), here (PDF):

So, please SUPPORT this petition to show OUR support for this station, in the hope that we can impress upon someone to BUY it and keep it going.

Feel free to cut and paste this exact code, to add a SAVE Planet Rock "banner advert" to your website:

<a href="http://www.saveplanetrock.co.uk"><img src="http://www.saveplanetrock.co.uk/savePR.gif" alt="Save Planet Rock" />/a>

You'll also find loads of stuff at our website: SAVE Planet Rock

There is also a petition on the UK Prime Minister's website, where UK residents can pledge their support - over 1,000 have already - so please sign up over there as well !!

 

 

Thursday 29th May 2008

According to Brian May's blog, it would appear that a third party has now come forward and has secured a deal to buy Planet Rock.

This automatically means that Brian May's consortium is no longer in the running to buy Planet Rock.

We sincerely hope that something can be confirmed soon, as the deadline when Planet Rock is to close is tomorrow...........

Saturday 24th May 2008
The month long extension, granted at end of April 2008, for Planet Rock, comes to an end on 30th May 2008, by which time we HOPE that a successful buy-out would have been agreed. These final few days are going to be quite stressful for all concerned, so let us hope that a great announcement is just days away....!
Keep those fingers tightly crossed, and thanks for all your support.

Timbo - Petition sponsor

Wednesday 14th May 2008

A further short message from Brian May has been posted on his "soapbox":

[quote]

"PROGRESS IN SAVING PLANET ROCK ...."

Just a quiet update.

My partners and I, in the "Save Planet Rock" adventure, are getting close to an agreement with GCAP, and relations are cordial !!!

It has been a much bigger set of variables to sort out than any of us realised - and even now I can't tell you that it's certain there will be a deal struck ... but the will is there.

Thanks so much for your supportive messages ... I feel we may be about to enter the heart of a very passionate and thriving Rock Family. This is fascinating and challenging. Onwards !!

cheers
Bri

© brianmay.com

[/quote]

So, for now, we must remain patient and committed to supporting this, in the hope that a deal can be done. We're all with you on this Brian...!

 

Monday 12th May 2008

Sony Digital Station of the Year 2008

Planet Rock wins THREE Awards at the Sony Radio Awards ceremony !!

The prestigious Gold Award for Digital Station of the Year 2008 was awarded to Planet Rock at Londons' Grosvenor House Hotel. The award was presented by Ron and Russell Mael ("Sparks") to Trevor White (and many of the Planet Rock staffers) who accepted the award most graciously.

A Silver Award was won by Planet Rock presenter and musician FISH, in the category of "Music Broadcaster Award" while a Bronze Award went to Planet Rock in the category of Multiplatform Radio.

So, THREE nominations and THREE awards.....!

 

Saturday 3rd May 2008

The following has been put on Brian May's website today..... (see here for original posting)

[quote]

MISSION TO SAVE PLANET ROCK

In response to many of your kind enquiries .... yes, those few words on the Soapbox about Planet Rock DID lead to me getting involved in mounting a rescue operation to save the station. I can't tell you who I am 'in league' with, but I am part of a small group of people who have great hopes that we will succeed in taking over the station, and putting it on a firm footing, for the benefit of its growing audience.

I regard Planet Rock as rather more than just a radio station - it is a symbol of free radio ... radio which is not run by large corporate organisations for the purpose of making tons of money, and has a free choice of what it plays. I'm not going to run down any particular radio station - this country has some talented and dedicated people working in music radio ...

But I do feel that, for a healthy climate for music in this country, we need to allow small independent stations to exist alongside the huge FM giants. I listen to radio in my car, one of the few times I am 'in my own space' - and, for me, who grew up with Zeppelin, the Who, Hendrix, Traffic, AC/DC, Van Halen ... THE BEATLES ..... tell me, where can you hear music from these kinds of artists these days ? You'll have a hard job finding "Kashmir" flicking through the channels in the UK.

DAB Radio has had a brave start, and can provide freedom from domination by commercially minded programming, but it might, at this point, slip between the cracks. I believe this cause is worth supporting ... and will be doing my best to put my money and expertise) where my mouth is ! We hope to be able to make an announcement soon. In the meantime, of you agree with me ... Demand your Planet Rock !! Demand your DAB !!!!

Cheers
Bri

© brianmay.com

[/quote]

So there you have it......! Let's keep our fingers crossed that Brian and his fellow investors can take over Planet Rock.

 

Friday 25th April 2008

OFFICIAL PLANET ROCK NEWS UPDATE

We'd love to be able to announce that the deal to buy Planet Rock is all one and dusted but I'm afraid that we have to keep holding our breath for yet another month. The deadline for the sale completion has been extended until 30th May, while the interested parties continue their negotiations with GCap Media.

Thank you all for your continued messages of support, your passion for Planet Rock has been an inspiration. We should have more news very soon. In the mean time we hope you'll enjoy at least one more month of Planet Rock.

Keep Rockin'

 

Thursday 10th April 2008

Planet Rock has scooped THREE nominations in the recently announced Sony Radio Academy Awards for 2008.

More news from: Sony Radio Awards website

More news from Planet Rock here

Hopefully, this great news will help to ensure the continuance of Planet Rock, despite GCap's planned withdrawal from the digital radio business and the subsequent takeover of GCap by Global radio.....

 

Monday 31st March 2008

Global Radio offer to buy GCap Media for £375m has been unanimously accepted. What this means for Planet Rock is unclear at present - some say Planet Rock is excluded from the sale....so, we have to wait for clarification as to what will happen to Planet Rock, theJazz and the various XFM licences that GCap owns currently. Likewise, we'll see whether Global Radio will retain GCap Medias' stake in Digital One - the national commercial DAB network operator.

More news here

(GCap had planned to sell off it's stake in Digital One (to Arqiva) and to close down Planet Rock and theJazz).

We'll now have wait and see what happens next....

 

Tuesday 25th March 2008

OFFICIAL PLANET ROCK NEWS UPDATE

As I’m sure you are all aware, Planet Rock has been under the shadow of closure since GCap announced their strategy statement on Feb 11. We were given the deadline of March 28th to find a buyer or be switched off permanently.

Since that time, several parties have come forward and expressed an interest in buying the station, and negotiations are under way. Because of this development GCap have extended the deadline until the end of April to allow these talks to continue.

We’re not out of the woods yet, nor will we be until someone completes the purchase of the station. The good news is that there is hope, and at the very least, an extra month of Planet rock.

Thanks to each and every one of you who have sent messages of support, they have meant a great deal to all of us here at Planet Rock. When we have some more news you will be the first to know.

 

Saturday 22nd March 2008

It has been announced that Planet Rock will continue for a further month, (beyond the previously announced deadline of 28th March) to allow time for discussions to take place with a potential buyer.

This is just the news we all wanted to hear, as it allows more time for further campaigning to support the station, while allowing for "due diligence" to be completed.....

We still need to be focused....and no deal has been done yet.....but the signs are that someone has come forward and is interested in keeping Planet Rock on air.

So, please continue to register your support....and let's show any potential new owner(s) that the listeners want Planet Rock to survive...

 

Thursday 20th March 2008

More Rock Stars are now supporting the campaign....now includes:

Ian Gillan

Gary Moore

 

Friday 14th March 2008

A nice plug for the SAVE Planet Rock campaign has now come from the blog of one "David Gilmour". Thank you David !!

 

Tuesday 11th March 2008

News that GCap might have to delay selling it's stake in Digital One, while Global Radio is looking at GCap's accounts - there is a comment that talks have been ongoing with "a number of parties" interested in buying Planet Rock !! (link to Times Online website)

 

Monday 10th March 2008

You have GOT to see this: Fish in a Save Planet Rock t-shirt at a gig....(new window will open to display a large JPG - approx 680kb)

 

Friday 7th March 2008

More bands are now supporting the SAVE Planet Rock campaign, including:

Marillion

Magnum and Bob Catley

The Answer

Thunder

If supporters of this petition can contact (by email, post or SMS) their favourite rock band with news about the campaign to SAVE Planet Rock, then we would be glad to give them a plug in return for them displaying one of our banner ads on their website....

 

Tuesday 4th March 2008

The part of the campaign to PLEDGE funds to enable a listener-backed buy-out of Planet Rock has now closed. The idea was launched on the Planet Rock forum on 22nd Feb (following many comments from people suggesting such a buy-out), but after 10 days, unfortunately, only 117 people came forward to pledge funds, which, as of last night, totalled a mere £22,270 (and we really needed something like £2 million !!)

This clearly isn't enough to make a listener buy-out viable. It was worth a try, but without far more significant support in terms of pledgers and money, it has failed in it's objective. To those who did pledge your support, THANK YOU.

 

Monday 25th February 2008

Sign the petition that has now been accepted and published on the UK Prime Ministers website

 

Tuesday 19th February 2008

The SAVE Planet Rock website has been set up to act as a further reminder to people to SAVE Planet Rock and to act as a focus for all activity relating to the campaign, where you can get all sorts of additional info, such as petitions, web banners, animated GIF's, flyers, wallpapers, etc

More support information will be available soon...!

 

Thursday 14th February 2008

Fish has kindly lent his support

Rick Wakeman (legendary keyboard maestro and Planet Rock jock) has also made his opinions known here

Brian May (Queen guitarist, in case you didn't know) has also come out in favour of Planet Rock here - he even asks if HE can buy it !!:

 

Tuesday 12th February 2008

More links for you to consider, the MOST important of which is the Planet Rock forum, where you can register to lodge YOUR opinion that Planet Rock is the BEST ROCK radio station in the world - see here:

Or you can email Planet Rock directly with your messages of support here

 

Monday 11th February 2008

Fish (of Marillion fame) has posted this on his forum !!:

best regards,

Tim

PS - I suggest we also involve as many rock musicians and fan clubs with this news and get them to support this petition - we also need to involve as many rock music fans on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace as we can....let's SHOW these people we want Planet Rock to continue.

Furthermore, an idea that was suggested on the Planet Rock forum, is to get the audience at every rock gig to sign a written petition, which can then be posted to Planet Rock. So, if you are a promoter or your building is used to stage rock gigs, or even if you are just a punter, standing in a queue going to a gig, please see that the audience are aware of the plans to shut down Planet Rock - and get them to sign the petition

PPS Please bookmark this page and tell ALL your friends - and let's SAVE this great radio station.