The Insider: Rock Radio.

GMG brand Real Radio's recently launched classic rock station is targeting an audience in excess of 100,000 as it bids to attract 30- something males currently not tuning into commercial radio.

96.3 Rock Radio - the UK's first regional analogue classic rock station - began broadcasting across Renfrewshire and central Scotland on FM and DAB on January 8, offering a diet of rock hits from the past four decades.

The launch followed Real Radio buying Q96 from UTV last year and transforming it into a rock station after discovering it was under- represented on the region's radio dial.

Real Radio managing director Billy Anderson notes the re-launched station has been deliberately configured to stand out from other stations in the region. "As a station, Q96 was going nowhere. It hadn't made a dent in audience figures or revenues," he says.

"BBC Scotland is good, but it's very generic and tries to cover all tastes," says Anderson. "We could see that there was an opportunity to improve on that. We noticed that the rock genre wasn't being served to any degree, so we went in that direction."

Following GMG Radio's purchase of the station, industry regulator Ofcom granted permission to co-house Q96 within Real Radio's building in Glasgow last September, while agreeing to maintain the defunct station's local format but with a new rock emphasis.

Rod Stewart became the first voice heard on the station last month, while rock band Nazareth also figured in the launch ...