Planet Rock.(THE INSIDER)

Six years on from launch, GCap-owned digital radio station Planet Rock has developed from something of an experiment on the then widely unexplored digital radio platform into a fully functional radio station with the recent addition of well-known personalities such as Rick Wakeman and Nicky Horne.

The station's executive producer Trevor White says GCap's confidence in the station has grown considerably over the past year, sentiments echoed by the station's move from prerecorded voice tracks to "real people" in April. "We've become one of the stations that GCap feels confident enough to invest in," says White. "The presenters give us the chance to interact with the audience directly, and the response to it has been great." Wakeman, former keyboardist for Yes, hosts the Saturday morning shift while veteran radio presenter Horne hosts the morning shift through the week.

The digital station is also soon to gain a PR and marketing executive and White believes that come March the station will go "live" 12 hours a day. "Every element of Planet Rock is geared up for growth," he says.

Adhering to a classic rock format, Planet Rock targets the niche 34- to 54-year-old male audience and currently reaches an average cumulative audience of 300,000 listeners. White cites much of the station's success so far to a strict guideline on what they will and will not play. "We are a rock station in the purest sense, and don't pretend to be anything else," he says. "It's for people who want to leave the mainstream and lose themselves in loud ...