It was announced yesterday by the UK’s Global Radio (owner of Capital FM, Classic FM and Heart) that they were finally, and some would say ‘expectedly’, to make the change within their CHR brands, by networking the remaining stations left over from the Hit Music Network and Galaxy by expanding the Capital FM brand.

Now, although I will put my hands up to not understanding why they didn’t extend the “Galaxy” brand rather than dirtying the London heritage brand of Capital FM, I do think this is the right thing to do..

For all those who be-moan then death of “ILR”, the point of Commercial Radio is just that – it’s commercial. It is there as a business, just like Starbucks, HSBC and Ford.

Commercial Radio is not there to: (a) pander to the presenters it employs, (b) automatically give airtime to sub-standard broadcasters in the name of “local radio”, (c) owe a living to anyone, just because they are there or (d) provide inane features.

Gone are the days of “Tradio – no firearms, pets or livestock”... unless, of course, it has a sponsor. You see – it’s all about making money. And it’s not going to change. So we need to get over this.

All radio stations are the same, from the big boys of Global, Bauer and GMG (and don’t forget, they’re just about to network their Smooth Radio brand to an even greater extent than the Capital FM networkification) to the small market stations – they need to make money to exist.

So, if big star names, networked content or programming bought in from companies like Blue Revolution is the only way forward for stations to make the money to keep them on air (which includes keeping the owners happy), then that’s what it has to do.

It’s no longer a train-set industry, and the sooner we can get our heads around it, the better.