Capital FM Network (Part 2)

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 216
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    I'd say there's definitely more pissed-off ex-Galaxy listeners, than there is pissed off ex-Hit Music Network listeners.

    Totally agree and as a result the several hours of listening to Galaxy since 2009 have gradually moved over to Kiss - a station which is to all intents and purposes what Tabor has taken away from us in Yorkshire.
  • bluesdiamondbluesdiamond Posts: 11,360
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    You can't be rotating classics like current CHR. You destroy people's favourites.It's just silly buggers. And almost as if one person in particular is throwing his inexperienced weight around and forcing stuff onto the playlist.

    .

    You refer to the North East in your post. If you are from that area, welcome to the world of Global Radio.
    Capitals sister station is Heart Radio.
    Between Respect and I Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin, Aretha got over 40 plays in the last 30 days on Heart. A lot of time on stations which were re branded CHR stations.
    Can Capital play an oldie to death? If Heart is anything to go by and if the test audience (whom I suspect are all in London) like the song, then they will keep playing it.
    You will get used to it soon and either love the constant repeating of music or tune out.
    Sadly, the bottom line figures on RAJAR have shown that even though listeners listen less in some ares, they have gained more listeners to keep the audience share similar.
    If you are looking for a station for the 'work day' at work, you may find after a while that you seek other options.
  • t0264t0264 Posts: 893
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    Processing seems to have changed over here as well now, the bass is sounding a lot better now, however the treble feels a bit lost now, I dont see why they can't just put it on the old Galaxy presets, I'm sure Omnia 6 can do the job just as well as Optimod
  • Joey DeaconJoey Deacon Posts: 3,926
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    You can't be rotating classics like current CHR. You destroy people's favourites.It's just silly buggers. And almost as if one person in particular is throwing his inexperienced weight around and forcing stuff onto the playli...

    Oh.

    Hahaha, that made me chuckle. :D

    You're right though.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 301
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    I noticed that Scott London and Luke Smith earlier kept using the phrase 'Its the Capital Weekend' and 'This is Weekend Capital' which I hadn't heard them say before.

    I believe that Galaxy used to have the 'Galaxy Weekend'

    I am enjoying the older music additions which have been added, definately makes the output more varied.
  • M60M60 Posts: 5,578
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    t0264 wrote: »
    Processing seems to have changed over here as well now, the bass is sounding a lot better now, however the treble feels a bit lost now, I dont see why they can't just put it on the old Galaxy presets, I'm sure Omnia 6 can do the job just as well as Optimod

    The processing sounds exactly the same to me on all services, I doubt this is something Taber will change without serious RAJAR dips as he takes his processing very personally, especially in London!

    Personally, it sounds awful and will cost them in hours, especially females who are more accute to sibilance and excessive HF (and that is a proven fact in the processing community).
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 248
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    I noticed that Scott London and Luke Smith earlier kept using the phrase 'Its the Capital Weekend' and 'This is Weekend Capital' which I hadn't heard them say before.

    I believe that Galaxy used to have the 'Galaxy Weekend'

    Indeed we did. The "Galaxy Weekend" was SUCH a strong brand within a brand. People talked about that output by name. Was so cool to see people asking about it and by name on the Capital FB group back in Jan.

    We used to joke it was either "the weekend", "warming up for the weekend" or "what did you do on the weekend". Good times.

    But it will take more than the jocks on Capital saying the words "Capital Weekend" to recreate it, of course. Granted, they've Andi Durant - but the Galaxy Weekend's specialist output was varied and phenomenal.

    By the way, going back to the older thread (sorry, been away for a week) on Capital that for whatever reason has discontinued - I can confirm that yes, Dave Kelly's remixes late at night ARE to do with format requirement.
  • James Martin 2James Martin 2 Posts: 4,388
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    RE: the older tracks starting to filter through. Some bits of info you might be interested in, having looked briefly over the music for the last couple of weeks on the North East version.

    As far as I can see, a smallish number of "gold" tracks (Ghetto Superstar etc) were put into rotation - mostly but not exclusively between 9am and 3pm (ie for workday listening) - about ten days ago.

    The rotation for the "gold" tracks is unusually high and weird, too - City High two days running in the same day part.

    You can't be rotating classics like current CHR. You destroy people's favourites.It's just silly buggers.
    Someone might want to tell that to Orion Media - Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" comes round daily, without fail, on Gem 106 drivetime. Notwithstanding the fact the song is over two years old, or that such a downbeat song of Titanic proportions should have a "No Drives" daypart restriction on it, I thought it was commonplace to force any "non-current" card to play in any other daypart than the last one it played in when the Scheduler is picking cards to schedule.

    I know I go on about it, but it highlights a major flaw Orion have with their regional license since ending their agreement with Global. I don't think even the likes of Buble turn up on the same daypart two days in a row on Heart?
    It made me laugh when Tabor started suggesting Global shouldn't pay royalties for the music they play because they are promoting the artist. He really does not have a clue.
    He really is the Michael O' Leary of radio. No wonder he has security, I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that there's a very long line of people who'd happily put him in hospital. Unfortunately for him, Michael O' Leary has built a successful airline out of him publicly being a c*nt - by making ludicrous quotes to the press (such as doing away with First Officers, a situation which I can tell you cannot happen, ever) he is effectively getting airtime that money cannot buy.

    That marketing model doesn't work in radio. Has anyone gained awareness of Heart and Capital after Ashley Tabor said that half of his presenters were shit?

    It really, REALLY bothers me that the biggest player in the industry can be this arrogant. Especially when their actions are, in turn, killing every other aspect of it.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 248
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    I know I go on about it, but it highlights a major flaw Orion have with their regional license since ending their agreement with Global. I don't think even the likes of Buble turn up on the same daypart two days in a row on Heart?

    No, you don't. Rotation can be high, but dayparting - with average listener hours in mind - is quite clinical.

    It's one for the Gem thread really geezer, but you're right - and if that song really is coming up every day on drivetime, there are multiple things wrong there.

    As for Dame Tabor saying "controversial" things to get press...I very much doubt that's why he does it. It's just his default setting to say those kinds of things. He doesn't mean ill. He's not a bad lad. He's just dim and, as multiple former and present employees have noted on here, not somebody who's ever lived in the real world. You could ask him tomorrow and he'd still not properly understand why that comment on presenters was not cool - which is why he's been ushered away from the frontline and given a made-up job title to keep him happy. Look at how he reacted when there was the yellow card incident with Heart Bristol, too - the public response from was 100% toys out of pram even though there was clear breach. They had to reign that in.

    He does own most of the company still, though, so - expect a few more pearls of wisdom before Global sell up.
  • James Martin 2James Martin 2 Posts: 4,388
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    No, you don't. Rotation can be high, but dayparting - with average listener hours in mind - is quite clinical. (Dame Tabor doesn't stick her oar in on Heart's music, though)

    It's one for the Gem thread really geezer, but you're right - and if that song really is coming up every day on drivetime, there are multiple things wrong there.

    When I was taught Selector at my student radio station (RCS entitles student stations to a free copy of Selector, IMO a brilliant and criminally under-used move on their part) one thing I was always advised to do was to set it up to force any "non-current" card NOT to play in the same daypart two days in a row. Indeed, at Source in Coventry, we set our recurrents and core cards to HAVE to schedule in a different daypart every time.

    In layman's terms, if a song is picked for Drive on Tuesday, not only is it excluded from Drive on Wednesday, it has to be picked for a different daypart, before it's picked for another drive show. You might be surprised to learn that we only got about 10 Unscheduled Positions in 7 days of scheduling.

    A very good way of making your library seem bigger than it actually is, especially on CHR.
  • James Martin 2James Martin 2 Posts: 4,388
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    As for Dame Tabor saying "controversial" things to get press...I very much doubt that's why he does it. It's just his default setting to say those kinds of things. He doesn't mean ill. He's not a bad lad. He's just a tad dim. You could ask him tomorrow and he'd still not properly understand why that comment on presenters was not cool - which is why he's been ushered away from the frontline and given a made-up job title to keep him happy.

    He does own most of the company still, though, so - expect a few more pearls of wisdom before Global sell up.

    No, I don't think he's trying the Michael O' Leary strategy at all. MOL is a very clever man, as I've said - when he suggests a Flight Attendant can land the plane if the Captain pegs it in-flight (there is a manual in the flight deck to guide any Cabin Crew or passenger to do it, by the way - albeit with a LOT of help from the ground) he doesn't really want to make his First Officers redundant - but by publishing the stories, the newspapers are basically giving Ryanair a free advert. I actually admire the guy. His is the model to follow if you want to become famous by being known for being a See You Next Tuesday.

    I think Global will sell up soon though. Not this year, but I can see it happening in 2012. Question is - to who? Have ClearChannel definitely said they're not interested? NRG in France? The owners of SkyRadio (a very similar station to Heart) in the Netherlands?

    Talking of Sky - surely Murdoch's out of the question? Dirty Des could buy them though I reckon....
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 248
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    y I think Global will sell up soon though.

    Me too. The work's pretty much done, they can't cut back much further either...

    Wonder if they'd split it up to multiple buyers, ie Capital went over there, Heart here, etc. Probably so if that was the most lucrative way.
  • James Martin 2James Martin 2 Posts: 4,388
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    Capital went over there, Heart here, etc. Probably so if that was the most lucrative way.
    Not inconceivable. Providing a complete setup of the networking technology (the ex-GWR system, basically) was part of the sale, I don't see why not. Actually, they'd probably get more money that way (like how buying a big package of things is cheaper than buying everything in the package separately.)

    I'd actually be all for seeing the two networks sold off to different companies. And by being national networks, the opportunity to creep the two London stations too close together again (as happened FAR too often when Heart and Capital were true rivals) will be less tempting.

    I could imagine the owners of the Spanish & Portugese network M80 Radio could be interested in Heart - used to be the station of choice in the cars of the older employees in resort last Summer - over and above the English stations Spectrum and Central. Basically, it's like Heart but without the newer songs. Tunes are English, links/imaging/ads in Spanish.

    Out of interest, how much do we all think Heart or Capital are worth? No sarcastic "5p" comments please... I'm serious. Considering the existing audience, the potential audience, the assets, the clientèle (advertisers) and other goodwill, how much?

    Another hypothetical musing - if Global were to put a proposal to Ofcom to remove local drive shows, it would probably be put to consultation. And let me tell you, for us digital East Midlands listeners - change of DJ aside, it sounds the same as it did when it was coming from Nottingham as it does now from London. And Global didn't even OWN Nottingham. Says it all, I guess. But, what I want to know is - would the rest of the industry go all-out to do everything in their power to block it, or encourage a "Yes" response?
  • Joey DeaconJoey Deacon Posts: 3,926
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    When I was taught Selector at my student radio station (RCS entitles student stations to a free copy of Selector, IMO a brilliant and criminally under-used move on their part) one thing I was always advised to do was to set it up to force any "non-current" card NOT to play in the same daypart two days in a row. Indeed, at Source in Coventry, we set our recurrents and core cards to HAVE to schedule in a different daypart every time.

    In layman's terms, if a song is picked for Drive on Tuesday, not only is it excluded from Drive on Wednesday, it has to be picked for a different daypart, before it's picked for another drive show. You might be surprised to learn that we only got about 10 Unscheduled Positions in 7 days of scheduling.

    A very good way of making your library seem bigger than it actually is, especially on CHR.

    Interesting points you make here mate regarding Selector.

    I have no problem in playing a current or a huge song like Haven't Met You Yet in Drive five times a week, for example:

    Monday 1600-1700
    Tuesday 1800-1900
    Wednesday 1700-1800
    Thursday 1600-1700
    Friday 1800-1900

    I'd only do that for the bigggg songs though.

    As for Make You Feel My Love, I don't think using the No Drives restriction at the moment is a good idea.

    It's a huge song, popular with the target, and there's nothing wrong with slipping in some ballads at Breakfast and Drive on an AC format station.
  • bluesdiamondbluesdiamond Posts: 11,360
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    I could imagine the owners of the Spanish & Portugese network M80 Radio could be interested in Heart - used to be the station of choice in the cars of the older employees in resort last Summer - over and above the English stations Spectrum and Central. Basically, it's like Heart but without the newer songs. Tunes are English, links/imaging/ads in Spanish.

    Please NO!

    It is already painful enough that some of us live in areas without an FM (or DAB) CHR Radio station (thanks Ash). But to have Heart play less current songs would make it sound like an upbeat Gold on FM. Could sort of see, Gold AM home to the more rock 'n' roll/guitar music 60'-s - 80's. Heart playing 70's to 00's bit more rhythmic (no new stuff)...a nightmare situation to me, who hears the station already. I am almost grateful they dumped Club Classic Mon-Thurs evening for More Music Variety, at least you occasionally hear the same Queen song, or the same two or three Bon Jovi songs. So glad I don't do night shift with the overnight non stop (no presenter?) club classics. Still cannot believe that a quasi national station has no presenter...another issue i guess.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 488
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    OFCOM wouldn't let them drop the new songs, its part of the format of some of the old One Network stations.

    The jockless overnight is nothing compared to Capital's fully voicetracked daytime shows!
  • wckartistwckartist Posts: 1,682
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    when he suggests a Flight Attendant can land the plane if the Captain pegs it in-flight (there is a manual in the flight deck to guide any Cabin Crew or passenger to do it, by the way - albeit with a LOT of help from the ground)

    It was used successfully by the Foo Fighters in the "learning to fly" video!!;):D:D
  • t0264t0264 Posts: 893
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    M60 wrote: »
    The processing sounds exactly the same to me on all services, I doubt this is something Taber will change without serious RAJAR dips as he takes his processing very personally, especially in London!

    Personally, it sounds awful and will cost them in hours, especially females who are more accute to sibilance and excessive HF (and that is a proven fact in the processing community).

    Just had a listen through FM on my portable DAB, I see what you mean! If they maybe left the treble but boosted the bass a bit it could actually sound quite good
  • Marcus BradshawMarcus Bradshaw Posts: 4,153
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    t0264 wrote: »
    Just had a listen through FM on my portable DAB, I see what you mean! If they maybe left the treble but boosted the bass a bit it could actually sound quite good

    Turning down the treble would sort it out.
  • James Martin 2James Martin 2 Posts: 4,388
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    Please NO!

    It is already painful enough that some of us live in areas without an FM (or DAB) CHR Radio station (thanks Ash). But to have Heart play less current songs would make it sound like an upbeat Gold on FM. Could sort of see, Gold AM home to the more rock 'n' roll/guitar music 60'-s - 80's. Heart playing 70's to 00's bit more rhythmic (no new stuff)...a nightmare situation to me, who hears the station already. I am almost grateful they dumped Club Classic Mon-Thurs evening for More Music Variety, at least you occasionally hear the same Queen song, or the same two or three Bon Jovi songs. So glad I don't do night shift with the overnight non stop (no presenter?) club classics. Still cannot believe that a quasi national station has no presenter...another issue i guess.

    Yeah, they should have a jock overnight really. I think though they only have 2 breaks in those hours, at :30 and :00, instead of :25, :40 and :57.

    Am I the only person who liked Club Classics in the evening?
  • Richard O'HaganRichard O'Hagan Posts: 291
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    Turning down the treble would sort it out.
    As would bypassing the processor altogether.

    Speech certainly needs compressing, so go for some snazzy processors on the studio/news mics, but the output of a pop station playing modern professional recordings just needs a bit of levelling to help the presenter - nothing aggressive to change the sound of the music.

    Beautiful girls look better naked.

    The music is already heavily processed at the record companies and the eq has been set by recording/mastering engineers who are far better qualified to do so than any ILR sparky.

    No need to Photoshop the Mona Lisa.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 110
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    Yeah, they should have a jock overnight really. I think though they only have 2 breaks in those hours, at :30 and :00, instead of :25, :40 and :57.

    Am I the only person who liked Club Classics in the evening?
    No I liked it too!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 53
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    As would bypassing the processor altogether.

    Speech certainly needs compressing, so go for some snazzy processors on the studio/news mics, but the output of a pop station playing modern professional recordings just needs a bit of levelling to help the presenter - nothing aggressive to change the sound of the music.

    Beautiful girls look better naked.

    The music is already heavily processed at the record companies and the eq has been set by recording/mastering engineers who are far better qualified to do so than any ILR sparky.

    No need to Photoshop the Mona Lisa.

    Interesting comparisons in there, nice :)

    There has been NO processing changes (I'll guarantee you that from first hand experience) to the output of the Capital stations. Well, actually there wa... no, never mind, can of worms!
  • Marcus BradshawMarcus Bradshaw Posts: 4,153
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    Interesting comparisons in there, nice :)

    There has been NO processing changes (I'll guarantee you that from first hand experience) to the output of the Capital stations. Well, actually there wa... no, never mind, can of worms!

    Ha ha. I pity anyone working for Global.

    How can you sleep at night with all that HF ringing in your ears?

    ;)
  • djgeezadjgeeza Posts: 1,890
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    Hmm... Ghetto Superstar again... do they only have 2 gold tracks - this and Bodyrockers?
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