Earlier this week, we made a major announcement that Aiir has entered into a merger agreement with PlayoutONE.
Aiir has been around since 2003. At first a UK-based web company making websites for radio stations, now an international software and services business serving some of the biggest media brands in the world with their websites, mobile apps, listener interaction, in-car listening, contesting, content delivery, digital revenue... I could keep going on.
I wanted to just pause for a few minutes to take a look at our story - for those who may not be familiar with Aiir, and for those who know us well but are unfamiliar with our history.
Back in 2001, I was working in my first full time radio job at Mansfield 103.2, when a school student joined us for work experience. This is how Gav Richards and I first met.
Fast forward to 2003, I was now working my 'dream job' at Hallam FM when Gav and I were chatting on MSN Messenger about something he'd created called Airwave. A CMS system built for a radio station. That system is the foundation of what Aiir is today. It was really simple, easy to use - and I saw a great opportunity right there and then. I said to him; 'Can this work, like, really work for a real radio station?' 'Yes', he replied. 'In fact it's running right now for the hospital radio station I'm part of!' I replied: 'I've got an idea. If you carry on building this, I think I can try and sell this to radio stations'. Right there and then, we created our first company venture. Originally 'Airwave by Just One' (Just One was the name of my freelance production company I set up, making small production packages for DJs).
Of course I instantly tried to sell it to the radio group I was working for, but was swiftly told to go away and was laughed out of the room. That's fine! I expected that. Gav and I worked on building new features into Airwave and trying and trying to sell it into a station. The same answers came flying back: 'We do not want to be the first, you kids are just playing and this isn't a business'.
They were partly right, of course. So we set up a proper company, created our own website, email addresses and phone numbers. Airwave finally had a home: G Media.
In 2006, after three years of building and trying, we decided to mass-email a crazy offer to lots of UK independent radio stations. Talk about perfect timing! Brett Harley, at the time owner of Hertbeat FM (which later became BOB FM), sat down at his desk, turned on his PC and opened his email. As luck would have it, Brett had turned on his PC that afternoon to try to search for a website developer for his radio station. I remember vividly his response. 'Well this is really weird guys, I just got online to search for someone to do this and got your email. You're hired!'
Hertbeat FM became our first client back in 2006. We quickly learned that offering 'we'll transfer all of your pages, images and data' was a BAD idea. Glad we learned that one quickly. Brett, we owe you a lot!
As 2007 was approaching, Reading 107 knocked on our door. They were weeks away from launching their new website when the company they had hired went out of business. They found us via the Heartbeat FM website and quickly signed G Media to scramble, take another company's website design, make it work with our system and get it all online within 14 days!
Great, we had 2 paying clients! The company that had gone out of business, well... luck would have it for us, they also specialised in websites for radio stations. So our phone rang off the hook with people trying to do business with us. G Media was finally off the ground and growing fast.
In the blink of an eye, we had lots of indie radio stations in the UK on our books and we were approached by a new collective called UK Radioplayer. We saw the future. We were, and still are, big supporters of Radioplayer and the idea of what bringing an industry together can achieve. G Media created the first independent radio station UK Radioplayer for Juice in Brighton. We were later hired to build V3 of the web player for UK Radioplayer and we are very proud of that work.
I want to fast forward now to 2011. I was working for Tomahawk Radio as Programme Director of Star Radio. Celador Radio had just acquired the station and the time had come for me to step out of full time radio and run G Media full time.
We opened our first office in Sheffield, UK in mid-2011, hired some great people and progressed to win major radio group contracts: Wireless group, Celador Radio, Lincs FM Group and more.
G Media became a powerhouse and the 'go-to' brand for websites and now iOS and Android apps for radio stations.
As business was growing fast in the UK, it became very obvious to me that at some point in the not-too-distant future, we were going to hit a ceiling.
We were focused exclusively on the UK radio industry and we were running out of radio stations to work with. Great, right? Well, I saw the future coming: consolidation. For G Media, I saw that as a massive potential impact on our business model.
So, I pointed over the pond to North America. 'Let's put our flag in every English speaking nation,' were the words that came out of my mouth - and it was going to be my job to do that. In 2014, my proudest achievement was completing the in-flight entertainment system on Virgin Atlantic. It became very obvious for me that I couldn't grow our business in North America and still be based in the UK. So I started my journey of moving to the USA.
As we started thinking globally about our approach, we took the opportunity to hire a branding company to create a new logo for G Media.
After doing some client research we found that we had a massive problem. I would go and sell our products to clients, handing out my 'G Media' business cards. Management of radio groups would sign a 'G Media' contract and then their radio station staff would use a product called 'Airwave'.
Management had no idea what Airwave was and the radio station staff members had no clue what G Media was. Well, we weren't expecting that! It's really interesting what you find out about your own business when you ask a 3rd party agency to go speak to your clients.
After a long naming and rebranding exercise. G Media and Airwave were rebranded. Our new name was to be Aiir. Aiir the company, Aiir the product. We worked hard to secure social media accounts, Aiir.com and trademarks. We revealed our new brand and some new products at a keynote presentation in London on April 28, 2015.
In August 2015, I said goodbye to my family, so-long to the Aiir UK staff - and me, my wife and little dog left the UK for New York City.
Aiir has grown to become one of the world's leading media technology providers. We got there through hard work, determination and by hiring a bunch of amazingly talented people.
Like every business, we've had our setbacks and we've had our troubles. But Gav and I have always put our best foot forward, protected our clients, staff and reputation to ensure our survival.
Now on to PlayoutONE. I want to quickly tell you how I met Dave Brierley-Jones, Phil Johnson and Chris Oakley.
Dave and I first met in the mid-2000s through our geeky love of radio production. He posted on an online forum looking for a music bed used by Key 103! Well, (sorry to my former bosses) I had the keys to the castle and could easily log in to the Key 103 system from my Hallam FM workspace. 'Sure Dave, here you go!' A lovely little friendship was born.
Chris and Phil. This is a funny one. It wasn't the first time I met Phil, but he reminded me of this meeting we had back in 2012. Chris and Phil came to visit me in my office in London.
They had this automation system they were looking to try and sell to radio stations, they loved the success of our business and wanted some advice.
They showcased it to me. I thought it looked very similar to a product I was very fond of and had loyalty to. So I proceeded to tell them it was rubbish, a bad idea, and that I wouldn't want to be involved.
This is very funny to me for two reasons. Earlier you may recall I said that when I tried to sell Airwave to radio stations I was treated the same way. That's reason one. Reason two - you know what's coming.. That automation system was the building foundations of what is now called 'PlayoutONE'.
Go figure! I told two of my new business partners to give up ten years ago! I'm proud of them that they gave me the middle finger and didn't listen.
Aiir and PlayoutONE have been working together collectively since 2017. We've heavily integrated with their systems to better serve our mutual clients. We've been working on a joint venture for the past two years. We'll have news of this work in early December 2022.
It was through this work that Dave Brierley-Jones and I were having a catch up call and I uttered the sentence: 'You know - wild thought I've been having - I'm enjoying this project so much, could you imagine what we could achieve if we brought our teams together?' Dave replied: 'You're not the only person that's thought that a few times over the past few months!'
We just stopped, waited, and then said: 'Merging Aiir and PlayoutONE. Is that the smartest thing we've said out loud or is that stupid...?' We both agreed that it would be a pretty smart move.
Next came the task of talking to our respective business partners and seeing if everyone agreed. Dave and I have worked incredibly hard over the past almost year on this merger. It wasn't hard to get every partner's approval. No matter how long we discussed this move - It. Just. Made. Sense.
So on Nov 1, 2022 we announced to the world that Aiir and PlayoutONE were to merge and form the next chapter of our story. Aiir Group Inc.
You can read more about our merger here: Aiir.com/merger
We expect to complete our merger by the end of the year and we've already started work on integrating our teams, shared technology and the next phase will be the launch of a brand new, world-first product. We're excited, you should be too!!
I think this is where this blog post ends. There are, of course, plenty more stories from both Aiir and PlayoutONE about our journey. But this is mine, for now.
I'm incredibly proud to be the CEO of Aiir Group. I do not take this responsibility lightly. I've got a fantastic leadership team and our entire team of staff to support me. Plus I now get to call Dave, Phil, Chris and continue to call Gav my business partners. It really is a dream come true.
I cannot wait to get started and share with you the next chapter of Aiir.
Thanks for reading and thank you for your support
Ricki CEO | Aiir
