A guest post from Radio Academy sponsor Radio News Hub about a journey from journalism to technology entrepreneurship, fuelled by a passion for radio and news. Nearly ten years on, founders Jamie Fletcher and Stephanie Otty share the story behind the global news distribution company.
27.5 million and counting. That is the number of bulletins dispatched by Radio News Hub to date. Quite an achievement for a company that at launch, some predicted would only last a matter of months.
From humble beginnings, we have grown our business into a global media organisation providing audio content ranging from hourly news, sport, showbiz and business updates to daily programmes, live shows and on location reporting. More than 400 radio stations around the world now subscribe to our services, which this year has already included coverage of King Charles III coronation anchored by Martin Kelner and saw us as an Official Broadcast Partner for The Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
What’s most exciting is that we have plans in place to at least double that in the next few years and for two people who are hugely passionate about radio, this is some achievement.
Radio News Hub was created out of a desire by two friends and former colleagues to produce quality news services for radio stations around the world and ultimately become an alternate to the main and incumbent UK news service provider.
Our story starts in Spain thanks to the personal passion of Jamie. Noticing that there was no real news provider to service a growing Spanish/UK radio market of 20+ stations, alongside a booming ex-pat population, he saw an opening in the market and that is where Radio News Hub was born.
Using our skillset as established journalists we began producing, recording and distributing content for these stations. Courtesy of the quality of the output being produced, we quickly experienced an increase in demand and soon after, the UK radio market was knocking on our door.
We utilised software and developed technology which made subscribing to our services a seamless process, something that proved popular with startup stations as well as the hospital and community radio sectors, which accelerated our growth even further.
Enthused by our success to date and passion for driving change in the radio industry, we set up our first home in a basement office in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire with a mic, laptop and basic mixing desk. It came with its issues, including losing all-natural daylight and TV signal when the traders set up their stalls on market day, but we love to laugh about it now!
Our biggest challenge for the business was balancing growth with the investment required. Our skillsets meant that producing and reading the bulletins wasn’t an issue, but what became apparent was the need for us to learn the art of selling, something that didn’t come naturally to either of us! So, armed with a stack of newspapers, we trawled through the classifieds gathering business names and contact details and sent out hundreds of emails offering companies the opportunity to advertise on Radio News Hub’s network of radio stations.
We spent the next few years working around the clock to build station numbers and raise awareness of who we were and the quality of our global offering. We attended radio conferences, advertised on social media, and utilised our industry contacts to obtain press coverage in industry publications.
Thanks to our efforts, demand grew, and time soon came to make the move from our basement office in Huddersfield to a much larger office in Leeds to accommodate a bigger team. In turn, this enabled us to produce multiple bulletins per hour.
It wasn’t long after the move that we secured our biggest contract to date, providing a bespoke news service for a commercial radio group. The deal was a gamechanger and we soon began offering local news bulletins to several different commercial stations across the UK.
As station numbers grew so too did the commercial potential that our network offered. Recognising the power of radio as a response mechanism, we partnered with brands seeking a call-to-action model. We further utilised these partnerships to track listening habits and build data of our own, something that continues to work successfully for us now. The additional income that came as a result allowed us to invest in more team members plus a bespoke dispatch programme which combined the ability to send bulletins to hundreds of stations with a more sophisticated commercial scheduling system to support the continued commercial growth.
We were making waves, demonstrating our commitment to the industry and seeing a very important change.
The financial investment we obtained at the back end of last year has helped establish further ambitions for Radio News Hub.
We’re only six months into 2023 and we’ve already upgraded our digital infrastructure, including new state-of-the-art equipment, launched new programmes, appointed radio heavyweight and four-time Sony Award winning radio presenter, David Prever, as Head of Programming to expand our proposition even further and, we have become an Official Broadcast Partner for The Wimbledon Championships. And, very excitingly, there’s lots more to come.
We often joke that we are the same person. We regularly finish each other’s sentences and we're pretty sure we'd do better on a Mr & Mrs style quiz show than most genuine couples we know! But, most importantly we share an undeniable passion for radio and will always have the drive and ambition to excel in our field and become the market leader.
We are so proud of how far we have come and can't wait for our stations, team and prospects to be part of what we know will be an exciting future.
Jamie & Stephanie
Radio News Hub is a global news distribution company which broadcasts to hyper local commercial radio stations in the UK as well as English speaking stations across Europe, USA, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Jakarta.
Using tailor made bespoke technology, its team of expert journalists write and produce hundreds of national news, sport, showbiz and business bulletins as well as weather updates, event-based news and current affairs programming.
Want to find out more, drop us an email on jamie@radionewshub.com / stephanie@radionewshub.com and we’ll be happy to chat!