Radio success is all about tuning in to your audience.

Andy Miles is head of music for UTV Radio, which owns 18 stations, including 107.6 Juice FM, Signal One and 96.4 FM The Wave in Swansea. In his viewpoint piece he explains why radio stations should listen to their local audiences, rather than relying on central programming.

"The Top 10 airplay songs should be the Top 10 most-played songs on any radio station's playlist, shouldn't they? In years gone by this would have been the case for a head of music at many stations across the UK.

Over the course of a week, my diary would have been filled with visits from record-company pluggers, coffee with retail reps on their way to the next independent record store and, of course, trips to London for yet another showcase, some posh nosh and the milk train home.

Now all that has changed. When I became head of music for UTV Radio's many stations across England, Scotland and Wales, there came the opportunity to build a strong music brand.

Outside of London there are fewer pluggers from fewer labels, but there are more artists than ever before and more stations to compete with. Then there's the way people consume their music, via iPods and the internet, as well as increasingly easy access to the artists themselves via YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. It's all very different. Or is it?

Our success at UTV Radio so far has been due to a huge inward investment guided by our group programme director John Dash. While more and more ...