GWR improves summer events after centralising operations. (Marketing).

The increasingly crowded calendar for live summer outdoor events has prompted the commercial radio groups to unveil details of their branded concerts early this year as they compete for key artists.

GWR met pluggers in London last week to launch its programme of summer pop parties, which has been increased from three events to seven under the new umbrella brand Summer XS.

This year will be the first in which GWR has taken a coordinated approach to planning outdoor events so that clusters of its stations, such as Derby's Ram FM, Leicester Sound and 96 Trent FM, can jointly promote concerts rather than organise their own shows.

GWR has agreed production deals with Clear Channel Entertainment and Pure Energy Productions; the shows are expected to take place at Reading (June 9), Donnington (15), Milton Keynes (16), Basildon (23), Himley Park (July 15), Bristol (August 8) and Bournemouth (September 9).

"We hope to start confirming acts by the end of March and the artists we get will be heavily promoted across the GWR stations and within the external marketing campaigns for specific events," says GWR group enterprises director Robert O'Dowd.

Pluggers have welcomed GWR's move to centralise its live event strategy. Managing director Jo Hart says having a structured calendar should allow artists to play more ...