<snip>
As for the website...good on them. Anything that hilights to ordinary people the disgraceful actions of Heart & Ofcom has to applauded. Personally, i would have gone further & named the stations that were no longer local<snip>
Not sure about naming and shaming - stations openly criticising others openly can get embarrassing sometimes and usually says more about the station dishing out the criticism in my opinion.
I think the website is the wrong place to do this anyway. It’s only anoraks and existing listeners who would see it – preaching to the converted.
I don’t know if Midwest Radio are doing anything else but in their position I would be sending a short press release of sorts to local groups of interests – schools, parish councils, charities etc. The main emphasis of the release would be that my station was committed to serving the area and to invite people to communicate with the station – that they should let us know their news, their charity events, current talking points etc and if the station in turn could get involved even better.
A station such as Midwest needs to raise its profile - it may not have the marketing spend that Global has but I think my idea especially if sent out via e-mail could be a cheap way of doing this. Whether of course such an idea would work in beating Heart etc is another question and of course having the programming right for when new listeners get there is the most important part.
Personally I think the Midwest page is half way to doing that but the irony that it used to be two localised stations itself is not lost on me.
Now remind me, which out of Midwest and Heart, were the first station to merge 2 stations together 18 months ago...oh yes, Midwest - Formally Ivel FM and Vale FM.
Not sure what I think of Midwest's revised logo either.
Now remind me, are we once again comparing apples with razor blades for the purposes of defending Heart?
It would seem pretty obvious to me that running two stations in very small TSAs like Ivel and Vale would never be commercially viable in the long run.
But - did they merge to create a national brand with greater appeal to national advertisers? No.
Were they stretching every OFCOM rule on local output to the limit? No.
Having said that, the dig does seem somewhat "for its own sake", and the website wouldn't get me returning there again and again.
But guess what - Midwest are a very small operation. They don't necessarily have the web or marketing expertise or resources to do things that slickly. Having seen some of the Midwest bashing on here, some might argue the same about the playlist.
Not sure about naming and shaming - stations openly criticising others openly can get embarrassing sometimes and usually says more about the station dishing out the criticism in my opinion.
If you are doing it just to score points, i would agree.
However, in this case i think it is different. IF all Heart listeners know that Heart is no longer local & choose to continue listening to Heart, then fine.
What is wrong is that many listeners probably don't know that Heart has moved out, so i see nothing wrong with Midwest group informing people.
I think the website is the wrong place to do this anyway. It’s only anoraks and existing listeners who would see it – preaching to the converted.
As those "converted" may also not be aware of what Heart is doing, i think it's all fair game. Word of mouth may reach friends who listen to Heart & they can then make an informed choice, which may benefit Midwest
I don’t know if Midwest Radio are doing anything else but in their position I would be sending a short press release of sorts to local groups of interests – schools, parish councils, charities etc. The main emphasis of the release would be that my station was committed to serving the area and to invite people to communicate with the station – that they should let us know their news, their charity events, current talking points etc and if the station in turn could get involved even better.
A station such as Midwest needs to raise its profile - it may not have the marketing spend that Global has but I think my idea especially if sent out via e-mail could be a cheap way of doing this. Whether of course such an idea would work in beating Heart etc is another question and of course having the programming right for when new listeners get there is the most important part.
Totally agree, that should also be part of a campaign to inform local people that they are now the ONLY local station.
If Heart don't like these kind of things, well tough, they should have stayed local
IF all Heart listeners know that Heart is no longer local & choose to continue listening to Heart, then fine.
Honestly, the majority of Heart listeners don't care if it's coming from London, Derby or Glasgow. They may say they WANT 'local' but many have retuned from BBC local to Heart. As long as the station is seen to be playing the music they want to hear, the majority of listeners WILL stick with it. 450 or so people on a 'Bring Back Mercury' page on FB is very small fry and is of no concern whatsoever.
My sister doesn't give a toss that it comes from London. She currently lives in Redditch and works in Birmingham. Last week she said "if it means better DJs then who cares as DJs in Birmingham are rubbish". Her exact words. Her CD collection includes Pink Floyd, Robbie Williams, Duffy and the Pet Shop Boys to name a few. She works as a barrister on Newton Street and doesn't listen to anything else. She hates WM and doesn't like Galaxy, BRMB, Radio 1 or Radio 2.
Ask any Heart listener why they tune in. They will tell you its because "they play all of my favourite songs". Its not difficult. Research your audience and play the songs they tell you they know and like. Don't take a chance and start throwing in oddballs like 'Dead Ringer for Love' followed by 'One Vison' as you can kiss a large chunk of your female audience goodbye and allow the big boys to scoop us the punters.
I totally understand that small operations like Midwest don't have the budget to carry out music research but there are many other ways to find out exactly what songs your audience wants to hear. If you ARE going to play a mix of oldies and currents, at least play the right ones. Ensure EVERY song is a killer. Listeners DO tune out when they hear bad songs. One they can put up with but follow it up with another and they are gone.
I am not prepared to say who I am and what my title is but I have been doing this for many years and know what I am talking about. I deal with this day in day out. Like I have said before, even McDonalds carry out research on a burger before it goes onto the menu.
Ask any Heart listener why they tune in. They will tell you its because "they play all of my favourite songs". Its not difficult. Research your audience and play the songs they tell you they know and like. Don't take a chance and start throwing in oddballs like 'Dead Ringer for Love' followed by 'One Vison' as you can kiss a large chunk of your female audience goodbye and allow the big boys to scoop us the punters
....
I am not prepared to say who I am and what my title is but I have been doing this for many years and know what I am talking about. I deal with this day in day out. Like I have said before, even McDonalds carry out research on a burger before it goes onto the menu.
Mcdonalds is an apt metaphor when discussing the homogenisation of commercial radio. Thank God for BBC Local radio where you can discover music, new and old.
Welol, the split links on Heart home counties Sunday morning really took the biscuit!
Just before 1100, on 103.3 mk we said hello to Jennifer in Bletchley who is walking the dog.
At the same time on 96.9 Bedford we said hello to Jennifer in St Neots who is walking the dog.
Didnt hear Northants or luton, but suspect she was walking the dog in towcester and Dunstable as well.
This is radio of the worst, most cynical kind, treating the listeners as idiots....
It's nothing new, many stations say, "the temperature in <random locations A, B, and C> is <met office prediction +/- 2C>.
Most commercial radio stations are aimed at impressionable people that are quite happy with 'aural wallpaper' and the same 30 tunes, try Radio 4 if you want anything intelligent, compelling, or challenging to listen to.
Honestly, the majority of Heart listeners don't care if it's coming from London, Derby or Glasgow. They may say they WANT 'local' but many have retuned from BBC local to Heart. As long as the station is seen to be playing the music they want to hear, the majority of listeners WILL stick with it. 450 or so people on a 'Bring Back Mercury' page on FB is very small fry and is of no concern whatsoever.
My sister doesn't give a toss that it comes from London. She currently lives in Redditch and works in Birmingham. Last week she said "if it means better DJs then who cares as DJs in Birmingham are rubbish". Her exact words. Her CD collection includes Pink Floyd, Robbie Williams, Duffy and the Pet Shop Boys to name a few. She works as a barrister on Newton Street and doesn't listen to anything else. She hates WM and doesn't like Galaxy, BRMB, Radio 1 or Radio 2.
Personally, i think that is really unfair to the Birmingham DJ's. I would expect though her opinions are colored by you.
Don't make the mistake of assuming that everyone shares here view. Need i remind you that Heart Birmingham has lost 121,000 listeners in 12 months.
Some people will choose a radio station for it's music only, others won't.
Ask any Heart listener why they tune in. They will tell you its because "they play all of my favourite songs". Its not difficult. Research your audience and play the songs they tell you they know and like. Don't take a chance and start throwing in oddballs like 'Dead Ringer for Love' followed by 'One Vison' as you can kiss a large chunk of your female audience goodbye and allow the big boys to scoop us the punters.
I totally understand that small operations like Midwest don't have the budget to carry out music research but there are many other ways to find out exactly what songs your audience wants to hear. If you ARE going to play a mix of oldies and currents, at least play the right ones. Ensure EVERY song is a killer. Listeners DO tune out when they hear bad songs. One they can put up with but follow it up with another and they are gone.
There is zero evidence that listeners tune out of radio stations when "unfamilier" songs are played (Meat loaf & Queen are hardly unfamiler in any case), but there is plenty of evidence that people tune out because they keep hearing the same tired boring songs.
Not EVERY song has to be a "killer", that's just a crap group theory. People like more than just a few hundred songs over & over and this is where smaller stations can win out.
I am not prepared to say who I am and what my title is but I have been doing this for many years and know what I am talking about. I deal with this day in day out. Like I have said before, even McDonalds carry out research on a burger before it goes onto the menu.
Radio is not like Burgers. Listeners don't want the same thing day in & day out.
Radio is showbiz, it's supposed to be entertaining.
There is zero evidence that listeners tune out of radio stations when "unfamilier" songs are played (Meat loaf & Queen are hardly unfamiler in any case), but there is plenty of evidence that people tune out because they keep hearing the same tired boring songs.
You are totally wrong on this. I'd like to see this evidence that you have because i'd say that the opposite is true.
There is plenty of evidence that shows the continiued success of radio stations with a tight playlist and that evidence shows their growth over time from launch and often they end up being one of the top rated stations in their market.
There is also plenty of evidence that stations with a wide playlist full of unfamilliar and not as popular songs fails.
The key to the success of a tight playlist is playing the RIGHT songs. Its not just a small number of songs, many a station have tried this and it hasn't worked. Choose the right small number of songs and if you get the other elements right too you'll have a very successfull radio station.
Jack FM could be one station that bucks this trend but that is a male skewed station and even that is debatable about its long term success, Radio will no doubt be thrown into the mix as well but that station has built its success on having some of the countrys best known broadcasters and entertainers together with substantial amount of specialist output which attracts a different kind of listener and contributes a substantial amount of listening hours to the station. Radio 2 is also a male leaning radio station.
i notice the "three musketeers" have failed to respond to this post:rolleyes:
They've probably given up/not have time to read every single thread about heart fm posted here, I know I don't have time to read 50-odd threads that appear per week.
Where I live, the old 2CR has merged with Ocean and become Heart South Coast on 102.3 in the West and 97.5 and 96.7 in the East.
The only localness will be the ads right? Travel, news etc will all be regional? So us lot in Bournemouth will hear about the roadworks in Gosport now as well as Poole...
But, during Monday's breakfast show at least with Jules and Bunker, they seemed to opt out on 102.3 for 5 seconds after every song with "Hi, this is the new breakfast show for Dorset and the New Forest with Jules and Bunker..." before merging back with the other side. This surely isn't a permanent thing, just a sweetener to us lot in the West for the time being?
But will they have plans to use the opt out facility at all... for instance, when schools close down in the winter? 2CR for years was been first port of call for parents who wanted to find out what was going on in terms of closures... but now, I can't imagine that will be the case.
Similarly, will RAJAR figures from now on be merged??
But, during Monday's breakfast show at least with Jules and Bunker, they seemed to opt out on 102.3 for 5 seconds after every song with "Hi, this is the new breakfast show for Dorset and the New Forest with Jules and Bunker..." before merging back with the other side. This surely isn't a permanent thing, just a sweetener to us lot in the West for the time being?
But will they have plans to use the opt out facility at all... for instance, when schools close down in the winter? 2CR for years was been first port of call for parents who wanted to find out what was going on in terms of closures... but now, I can't imagine that will be the case.
I suspect they have the capability, but whether group policy allows them to do so remains to be seen.
Each ex-station (and each transmitter, in some cases) has a separate Genesys instance running which allows them to play audio to that specific frequency. This is ordinarily used for split ads, but they're perfectly capable of loading custom audio in the same fashion. It's the same principle that London use to distribute split links during their shows.
One would have hoped that if group policy was to split some links and the necessary on-screen buttons to fire these commands were available to the presenters locally, they would be splitting traffic and travel already. As you quite rightly point out, the new regional areas are big enough to mean that a large amount of the detail in travel bulletins is irrelevant to most now.
I suspect they have the capability, but whether group policy allows them to do so remains to be seen.
Each ex-station (and each transmitter, in some cases) has a separate Genesys instance running which allows them to play audio to that specific frequency. This is ordinarily used for split ads, but they're perfectly capable of loading custom audio in the same fashion. It's the same principle that London use to distribute split links during their shows.
One would have hoped that if group policy was to split some links and the necessary on-screen buttons to fire these commands were available to the presenters locally, they would be splitting traffic and travel already. As you quite rightly point out, the new regional areas are big enough to mean that a large amount of the detail in travel bulletins is irrelevant to most now.
All these split links etc. No wonder the presenters say they haven't heard a song in ages...they don't actually hear the repeatative output...lucky things.
But, during Monday's breakfast show at least with Jules and Bunker, they seemed to opt out on 102.3 for 5 seconds after every song with "Hi, this is the new breakfast show for Dorset and the New Forest with Jules and Bunker..." before merging back with the other side. This surely isn't a permanent thing, just a sweetener to us lot in the West for the time being?
But will they have plans to use the opt out facility at all
Ah, that makes sense. I heard them on the 96.7/97.5 frequencies, and it sounded a bit odd, they had some generic sounding line at the start of some of their links and I couldn't quite work out why it sounded weird.
In terms of splitting audio, the facility is there and it would be good for them to use it. I noticed that they were able to retain split travel intros and beds as the sponsor on 102.3 is different to 96.7 and 97.5, even though the travel bulletin was the same on all frequencies. Breakfast on 102.3 is sponsored by Dorset Teas, and these tags still appeared in the breaks.
To the average listener, the main difference is the presenters, but of course the 'regional' news and travel will now begin to stand out.
There is zero evidence that listeners tune out of radio stations when "unfamilier" songs are played (Meat loaf & Queen are hardly unfamiler in any case), but there is plenty of evidence that people tune out because they keep hearing the same tired boring songs.
Read my post again. I said "BAD" songs. Dead Ringer for Love and One Vision are bad songs where females are concerned.
You are totally wrong on this. I'd like to see this evidence that you have because i'd say that the opposite is true.
There is plenty of evidence that shows the continiued success of radio stations with a tight playlist and that evidence shows their growth over time from launch and often they end up being one of the top rated stations in their market.
There IS plenty of evidence that people are hacked off by the same songs over & over. Many factories & offices i know of are resigned to switching stations every few weeks or every week just to hear something different.
It is the #1 complaint amongst listeners.
I suggest you visit some factories/workplaces in your area & talk to the workers or start conversations in pubs with ordinary people, not your radio mates & you'll son discover how fed up people are with hearing the same songs over & over.
Just because someone says in music testing that they like a song, it doesn't mean that they want to hear it day in & day out for next 5 years.
There is also plenty of evidence that stations with a wide playlist full of unfamilliar and not as popular songs fails.
Nobody is talking about a playlist full of unfamiliar songs. That will also fail.
What is true is that there is evidence that people get hacked off by hearing the same few songs over & over, while there is zero evidence that playing other more minor hits sometimes reduces audiences.
The key to the success of a tight playlist is playing the RIGHT songs. Its not just a small number of songs, many a station have tried this and it hasn't worked. Choose the right small number of songs and if you get the other elements right too you'll have a very successfull radio station.
It entirely depends on the station & how large it is.
Heart has big areas & powerful transmitters, it can afford to try to target women only.
Smaller stations cannot. They have to try & provide a mix of hits & oldies that will appeal to a large number of listeners and advertisers. They don't have big enough areas to be either male or female friendly only. There is also little point in trying to ape Heart, that will also fail
Some of those songs will be more female friendly, some will be more male friendly....although you do have to careful with this. Despite what research says in the real world, i know many women who love Meat Loaf & Queen, but hate Gloria Gaynor & the Pointer Sisters.
It's a total myth that every song has to be a "killer" song. People like all kinds of songs. Just because they like Wham & rate their songs highly, doesn't mean they also don't like one hit wonders from the same decade from Strawberry Switchblade or The Hooters. Those songs were also a part of their life & if they still sound good on the radio, play 'em sometimes.
We all know they are not as good as Wham, but that is totally irrelevant. Commercial radio won't do it of course, because of this unproved & irrational fear that someone will tune out....while totally ignoring that fact that playing Wham yet again will probably cause someone to tune out.
Read my post again. I said "BAD" songs. Dead Ringer for Love and One Vision are bad songs where females are concerned.
Hilarious...I'll tell some of the women i know who love Queen & Meat Loaf you said that. Shows how rubbbish your music testing philosphy is really. You can't generalise like that, despite what the Global bible says.
In the real world, i know loads of women who hate disco, but love rock music. Many are in their 30's with kids.
Not every station has to target women anyway & Mid-West stations are too small to target just women or men. They need to provide a mix of hits that appeals to a large number of men, women & advertisers, while not trying to sound like Heart.
Hilarious...I'll tell some of the women i know who love Queen & Meat Loaf you said that. Shows how rubbbish your music testing philosphy is really. You can't generalise like that, despite what the Global bible says.
You have female friends? Wow. They will ALSO tell you that there are plenty of Meatloaf and Queen songs that are better than others. Even diehard fans will tell you some songs are crap.
Comments
Not sure about naming and shaming - stations openly criticising others openly can get embarrassing sometimes and usually says more about the station dishing out the criticism in my opinion.
I think the website is the wrong place to do this anyway. It’s only anoraks and existing listeners who would see it – preaching to the converted.
I don’t know if Midwest Radio are doing anything else but in their position I would be sending a short press release of sorts to local groups of interests – schools, parish councils, charities etc. The main emphasis of the release would be that my station was committed to serving the area and to invite people to communicate with the station – that they should let us know their news, their charity events, current talking points etc and if the station in turn could get involved even better.
A station such as Midwest needs to raise its profile - it may not have the marketing spend that Global has but I think my idea especially if sent out via e-mail could be a cheap way of doing this. Whether of course such an idea would work in beating Heart etc is another question and of course having the programming right for when new listeners get there is the most important part.
Personally I think the Midwest page is half way to doing that but the irony that it used to be two localised stations itself is not lost on me.
Now remind me, are we once again comparing apples with razor blades for the purposes of defending Heart?
It would seem pretty obvious to me that running two stations in very small TSAs like Ivel and Vale would never be commercially viable in the long run.
But - did they merge to create a national brand with greater appeal to national advertisers? No.
Were they stretching every OFCOM rule on local output to the limit? No.
Having said that, the dig does seem somewhat "for its own sake", and the website wouldn't get me returning there again and again.
But guess what - Midwest are a very small operation. They don't necessarily have the web or marketing expertise or resources to do things that slickly. Having seen some of the Midwest bashing on here, some might argue the same about the playlist.
But some people actually like it that way.
Hahaha.
All for one, one for all!
If you are doing it just to score points, i would agree.
However, in this case i think it is different. IF all Heart listeners know that Heart is no longer local & choose to continue listening to Heart, then fine.
What is wrong is that many listeners probably don't know that Heart has moved out, so i see nothing wrong with Midwest group informing people.
As those "converted" may also not be aware of what Heart is doing, i think it's all fair game. Word of mouth may reach friends who listen to Heart & they can then make an informed choice, which may benefit Midwest
Totally agree, that should also be part of a campaign to inform local people that they are now the ONLY local station.
If Heart don't like these kind of things, well tough, they should have stayed local
But after Heart delaying Howard Taylor taking over the TotalStar Breakfast Show we cant be sure they are not bothered about other stations.
Sorry, not been following that bit of the story - I'm assuming he can't go on air on another station for a fixed period because of his contract?
1. More fool Howard Taylor for signing such a clause.
though also
2. Standard practice right across the industry. I'd imagine even Midwest have that in their presenter contracts.
My sister doesn't give a toss that it comes from London. She currently lives in Redditch and works in Birmingham. Last week she said "if it means better DJs then who cares as DJs in Birmingham are rubbish". Her exact words. Her CD collection includes Pink Floyd, Robbie Williams, Duffy and the Pet Shop Boys to name a few. She works as a barrister on Newton Street and doesn't listen to anything else. She hates WM and doesn't like Galaxy, BRMB, Radio 1 or Radio 2.
Ask any Heart listener why they tune in. They will tell you its because "they play all of my favourite songs". Its not difficult. Research your audience and play the songs they tell you they know and like. Don't take a chance and start throwing in oddballs like 'Dead Ringer for Love' followed by 'One Vison' as you can kiss a large chunk of your female audience goodbye and allow the big boys to scoop us the punters.
I totally understand that small operations like Midwest don't have the budget to carry out music research but there are many other ways to find out exactly what songs your audience wants to hear. If you ARE going to play a mix of oldies and currents, at least play the right ones. Ensure EVERY song is a killer. Listeners DO tune out when they hear bad songs. One they can put up with but follow it up with another and they are gone.
I am not prepared to say who I am and what my title is but I have been doing this for many years and know what I am talking about. I deal with this day in day out. Like I have said before, even McDonalds carry out research on a burger before it goes onto the menu.
That's a big can of worms you're opening there ohglobbits!
There's a furious row about BBC Local Radio playlists going on in another thread.
Back on topic, I don't think the chums at Heart HQ give two hoots about Midwest or whatever they're called.
It's nothing new, many stations say, "the temperature in <random locations A, B, and C> is <met office prediction +/- 2C>.
Most commercial radio stations are aimed at impressionable people that are quite happy with 'aural wallpaper' and the same 30 tunes, try Radio 4 if you want anything intelligent, compelling, or challenging to listen to.
Personally, i think that is really unfair to the Birmingham DJ's. I would expect though her opinions are colored by you.
Don't make the mistake of assuming that everyone shares here view. Need i remind you that Heart Birmingham has lost 121,000 listeners in 12 months.
Some people will choose a radio station for it's music only, others won't.
There is zero evidence that listeners tune out of radio stations when "unfamilier" songs are played (Meat loaf & Queen are hardly unfamiler in any case), but there is plenty of evidence that people tune out because they keep hearing the same tired boring songs.
Not EVERY song has to be a "killer", that's just a crap group theory. People like more than just a few hundred songs over & over and this is where smaller stations can win out.
Radio is not like Burgers. Listeners don't want the same thing day in & day out.
Radio is showbiz, it's supposed to be entertaining.
You are totally wrong on this. I'd like to see this evidence that you have because i'd say that the opposite is true.
There is plenty of evidence that shows the continiued success of radio stations with a tight playlist and that evidence shows their growth over time from launch and often they end up being one of the top rated stations in their market.
There is also plenty of evidence that stations with a wide playlist full of unfamilliar and not as popular songs fails.
The key to the success of a tight playlist is playing the RIGHT songs. Its not just a small number of songs, many a station have tried this and it hasn't worked. Choose the right small number of songs and if you get the other elements right too you'll have a very successfull radio station.
Jack FM could be one station that bucks this trend but that is a male skewed station and even that is debatable about its long term success, Radio will no doubt be thrown into the mix as well but that station has built its success on having some of the countrys best known broadcasters and entertainers together with substantial amount of specialist output which attracts a different kind of listener and contributes a substantial amount of listening hours to the station. Radio 2 is also a male leaning radio station.
They've probably given up/not have time to read every single thread about heart fm posted here, I know I don't have time to read 50-odd threads that appear per week.
Yes - two people are simply furious! Tis comical....
Where I live, the old 2CR has merged with Ocean and become Heart South Coast on 102.3 in the West and 97.5 and 96.7 in the East.
The only localness will be the ads right? Travel, news etc will all be regional? So us lot in Bournemouth will hear about the roadworks in Gosport now as well as Poole...
But, during Monday's breakfast show at least with Jules and Bunker, they seemed to opt out on 102.3 for 5 seconds after every song with "Hi, this is the new breakfast show for Dorset and the New Forest with Jules and Bunker..." before merging back with the other side. This surely isn't a permanent thing, just a sweetener to us lot in the West for the time being?
But will they have plans to use the opt out facility at all... for instance, when schools close down in the winter? 2CR for years was been first port of call for parents who wanted to find out what was going on in terms of closures... but now, I can't imagine that will be the case.
Similarly, will RAJAR figures from now on be merged??
I suspect they have the capability, but whether group policy allows them to do so remains to be seen.
Each ex-station (and each transmitter, in some cases) has a separate Genesys instance running which allows them to play audio to that specific frequency. This is ordinarily used for split ads, but they're perfectly capable of loading custom audio in the same fashion. It's the same principle that London use to distribute split links during their shows.
One would have hoped that if group policy was to split some links and the necessary on-screen buttons to fire these commands were available to the presenters locally, they would be splitting traffic and travel already. As you quite rightly point out, the new regional areas are big enough to mean that a large amount of the detail in travel bulletins is irrelevant to most now.
All these split links etc. No wonder the presenters say they haven't heard a song in ages...they don't actually hear the repeatative output...lucky things.
http://www.heart.co.uk/westmids/shows/last-10-songs/?day=0&hour=8&minute=0&find_song=%3CSPAN+class%3Dtxt%3E%3CSPAN+class%3Dtl%3E%3CSPAN+class%3Dbl%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3EFind+that+song+%3CSPAN+class%3Dtr%3E%3CSPAN+class%3Dbr%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3CSPAN+class%3Dbe%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E
Ah, that makes sense. I heard them on the 96.7/97.5 frequencies, and it sounded a bit odd, they had some generic sounding line at the start of some of their links and I couldn't quite work out why it sounded weird.
In terms of splitting audio, the facility is there and it would be good for them to use it. I noticed that they were able to retain split travel intros and beds as the sponsor on 102.3 is different to 96.7 and 97.5, even though the travel bulletin was the same on all frequencies. Breakfast on 102.3 is sponsored by Dorset Teas, and these tags still appeared in the breaks.
To the average listener, the main difference is the presenters, but of course the 'regional' news and travel will now begin to stand out.
Read my post again. I said "BAD" songs. Dead Ringer for Love and One Vision are bad songs where females are concerned.
"Rubbish DJs" are her words. I don't necessarily agree though as there are some bloody good jocks in Birmingham like Dan Kelly and Dan Morrissey.
There IS plenty of evidence that people are hacked off by the same songs over & over. Many factories & offices i know of are resigned to switching stations every few weeks or every week just to hear something different.
It is the #1 complaint amongst listeners.
I suggest you visit some factories/workplaces in your area & talk to the workers or start conversations in pubs with ordinary people, not your radio mates & you'll son discover how fed up people are with hearing the same songs over & over.
Just because someone says in music testing that they like a song, it doesn't mean that they want to hear it day in & day out for next 5 years.
Nobody is talking about a playlist full of unfamiliar songs. That will also fail.
What is true is that there is evidence that people get hacked off by hearing the same few songs over & over, while there is zero evidence that playing other more minor hits sometimes reduces audiences.
It entirely depends on the station & how large it is.
Heart has big areas & powerful transmitters, it can afford to try to target women only.
Smaller stations cannot. They have to try & provide a mix of hits & oldies that will appeal to a large number of listeners and advertisers. They don't have big enough areas to be either male or female friendly only. There is also little point in trying to ape Heart, that will also fail
Some of those songs will be more female friendly, some will be more male friendly....although you do have to careful with this. Despite what research says in the real world, i know many women who love Meat Loaf & Queen, but hate Gloria Gaynor & the Pointer Sisters.
It's a total myth that every song has to be a "killer" song. People like all kinds of songs. Just because they like Wham & rate their songs highly, doesn't mean they also don't like one hit wonders from the same decade from Strawberry Switchblade or The Hooters. Those songs were also a part of their life & if they still sound good on the radio, play 'em sometimes.
We all know they are not as good as Wham, but that is totally irrelevant. Commercial radio won't do it of course, because of this unproved & irrational fear that someone will tune out....while totally ignoring that fact that playing Wham yet again will probably cause someone to tune out.
Hilarious...I'll tell some of the women i know who love Queen & Meat Loaf you said that. Shows how rubbbish your music testing philosphy is really. You can't generalise like that, despite what the Global bible says.
In the real world, i know loads of women who hate disco, but love rock music. Many are in their 30's with kids.
Not every station has to target women anyway & Mid-West stations are too small to target just women or men. They need to provide a mix of hits that appeals to a large number of men, women & advertisers, while not trying to sound like Heart.