This week two commercial radio stations were warned by Media regulator Ofcom for not broadcasting enough local content – both Bath FM and Swindon based Brunel FM (both owned by independent broadcaster South West Radio) were told off for neglecting local content and told to resolve this.

Ofcom monitored the stations, reporting that the vast majority of Bath FM’s output was made up of music on loop and repetitive commercials, and its news bulletins were all national provided by an external supplier leaving out all local stories….it seems the presenters were not even on air between 10am and 2pm! Brunel FM was the same – no presenters between 11am and 2pm or local material and a "general lack of non-music content".

Following the warning from Ofcom and further monitoring, they said of the findings "We considered that the overall editorial quality of local news bulletins we heard on both stations during the [January] monitoring period was poor, particularly in the sense that the local bulletins were all pre-recorded and constantly repeated," the watchdog stated.

Ofcom went on to say "This is inconsistent with Ofcom's published localness guidelines and, on that basis, the requirement in Bath FM's format for the station to have 'a strong commitment to local news' or Brunel FM's format requirement to be a 'friendly, locally involved radio station…focusing on local news.'"

More worryingly, the examination brought to light the stations use of old content and their "..failure to deliver other local material satisfactorily was exacerbated by automation problems, which meant out-of-date material was sometimes broadcast," Ofcom said.

In response to being told off, South West Radio acknowledged this was "not acceptable" and plan to redeem themselves by introducing a local lunch time show on both stations and devoting more air time to local shows and content.

Ofcom continue to monitor stations and support for local content and news, so perhaps a reminder to other stations and brands of course, of the importance of local information.

(Click here for a free map covering all commercial radio stations across the UK or for advice on localising your next campaign).

Today The Sun will reveal details of its plans to launch a new online radio station – a first for The Sun, and UK newspapers.

Publishers such as the Telegraph Media Group have invested in launching Telegraph TV, and Guardian News and Guardian Media also produce well-received podcasts and video.

However, to date no newspaper has launched an audio-only, online radio station – so a first and perhaps model for the future?

‘Sun Talk’ goes live in a month’s time, April 20 and is set to run from their new purpose-built £1million multimedia studios from its Wapping headquarters.

Former TalkSPORT host Jon Gaunt, The Sun columnist will be hosting their first programme, a three hour morning show set to feature Conservative leader David Cameron MP as its first guest (a bold statement in itself). According to a Wapping source, the new station aims to reach 150,000 listeners in year one, but it is not clear whether The Sun’s three million readers will take the time out of their day to tune in….

The sunonline.co.uk reached 21.9 million unique users to its site during January 2009, according to ABCE. So will its new radio station and audience loyalty transfer to online radio also?

Journalists will be able to use the studios for all of its titles (The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and News of the World), and is part of the bigger picture for News International’s vision to expand its audio and video content – and step up its media/digital activity.

markettiers4dc are already ahead of the game – having embraced the concept of convergence for a long time now with our onsite TV and Radio studios, enabling us to produce content via live or pre-recorded items, WebTV online (live, interactive or on-demand), podcasts, vodcasts and more as and when we wish. So now the big boys are also branching out into integrating mediums, does this mean The Sun will pave the way for more?

Certainly, if a force as strong as News International Corporation is moving into convergence then surely this is a sign of things to come? And unless companies keep up with this, and use these modern channels to communicate with their audiences – then are they in danger of getting left behind?

Learn more about convergence come to one of our workshops here in our studios.

As the fascination with Twitter goes on, markettiers4dc looked into this to find out about the use of twitter in PR.

Last week, markettiers4dc did a PRWeek podcast special with Marshall Manson from Edelman, Simon Collister of Weber Shandwick, and Helen Nowicka from Red /Shiny Red.

From a microblogging idea which began in March 2006, a research and development project by a Compete.com blog entry in Feb 2009, found that Twitter is now ranked the third largest social network (Facebook the largest in the world and MySpace second), and so putting the number of users at roughly 6 million and the number of monthly visitors at 55 million.

Twitter define themselves as a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

But with celebrity tweeting taking over with Stephen Fry as one of its most famed users helping to raise its profile, what is the impact of Twitter upon PR?

Helen Nowicka, Red/Shiny Red kicked off the discussion with a word of advice when starting Twitter – to “persevere with it”, start following and get used it. Marshall Manson of Edelman continued with more tips to “listen and participate”. He said he enjoyed hearing other peoples’ perspectives and the opportunity to be proactive in choosing who you talk to – and to also be aware if and how people are talking about your brand, and the ability to engage with them, if you choose.

On the matter of other people commenting on your brand or company (particularly with reputation being so key to the PR industry), Simon Collister, Weber Shandwick and renowned blogger, recommended www.search.twitter.com as a useful way to track these comments. He suggests it can be used for PRs to communicate with journalists, brands to engage with customers, events updates/announcements – and is fundamentally a great tool for real time communication. However, Collister said it is also important to listen to what people are saying about your brand, and not just use Twitter as a broadcast tool.

So even with Twitter featuring heavily in the press and online as “flavour of the month” as Helen puts it, she further advises to step back from it and “do what’s right for your clients’ social media strategy”, as Twitter is obviously growing in popularity but still very small base.

Marshall agrees “Don’t lose perspective” and commented that facebook still dominates and there are also many other media platforms to use. He concluded saying he likes Twitter at the moment as it gives him and other followers the “opportunity to put a little bit of humanity back into how we communicate.”

So despite being number three of the largest social networking sites to date, the leader Facebook, is still trying to mimic the new kid on the block – Twitter, with some recent radical changes to its format starting by removing the friends limit which means brands can now truly reach the masses on Facebook, just like Twitter. Another change or replication – its Real-Time updates. Status updates used to be updated every 10 minutes or so. But, due to Twitters unique real-time access this gave it the edge over Facebook in terms of actual engagement. Facebook has now done the same.

And of course status updates – the whole concept of Twitter, but now Facebook has got rid of the status update and instead asks 'what's on your mind', and allows you to communicate your thoughts through photos, videos and links – not just text – offering yet another way for brands to raise their Facebook presence whilst providing the customer with more engaging content.

So with all this tweeting and facebooking what will the future hold? Who will win the race or will they continue to compete and therefore, compliment each other and progress technology and social networking even further for us. Must dash I have to go tweet…..