Return 96.2 the Revolution to its former glory

On it's website 96.2 The Revolution states that it is:

"A radio station that covers all of Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside and Greater Manchester. That's a potential audience of almost half a million people."

It has marketed itself as a station that:

"Only plays good records - not the commercial dribble you may hear on other stations."

Listeners have enjoyed good quality indie, rock, punk and alternative music and the station has championed unsigned local bands that have since secured record contracts. Many of the DJ's that have presented shows on the station have an excellent broad knowledge of music spanning decades, upto and including new artists - local and international. Some of the DJ's are famous acclaimed local musicians.

Recent listener figures show a large drop to only 19000 listeners in December 2007. Details taken from RAJAR figures and can be viewed in full at http://www.mediauk.com/radio/rajar/226/96.2-the-revolution

There is no publically available information to explain the drop in listener figures.

Over recent months the stations response to this situation appears to have been to dramatically reduce the number of presenters/DJs and more recently to introduce commercial artists onto the playlists which is exactly what the station still markets itself as not playing.

As a listener to 96.2 The Revolution I became increasingly frustrated with these changes and considered switching to another station or simply playing my own music. I concluded that I should channel my frustration into creating a 'myspace' page to express my frustration and to provide a forum for other listeners that may feel the same way. (Please see website link above.)

The page was created on Friday 18th January and three days later it had 400 'friends'. Even more unexpected than the popularity of the page was the number of people that took time to add their own thoughts and frustrations in the form of 'comments.' To date after less than two weeks the page has had over 1600 hits and is approaching 600 'friends'.

All of the people that have commented on this page except one person have expressed their frustration with these recent changes and many have stated that they will no longer listen to the station if it doesn't return to it's old music policy. Within the comments on this page and the two forums around this topic (links are available on the page) a number of people have expressed the opinion that the station does not market itself properly and that it's could target more appropriate advertisers.

These listeners feel that the station should reverse the recent changes, restore the station's past music policy and rare branding, and market is's unique selling point appropriately. They also feel that the station needs to reconsider how it sells to advertisers.

Unfortunately a number of these listeners, myself included, report that when they have written to the station manager to express their concerns they have had no response. This is the reason for this petition - to notify the owners of the station about the feelings and concerns of the listeners.