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Melody Radio
Clare B
Posts: 136 Forum Member
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I remember when Melody Radio started on 104.9 & then 105.4fm. V cool station. I'd live this thread to be about everything Melody: info, audio, pics etc.
Wish it was still around. Great station way ahead of it's time.
Wish it was still around. Great station way ahead of it's time.
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Looking back, I'd rather have Melody back than Magic 105.4, although the latter end of the Hanson era Melody was creeping towards the Magic (London) format we have now.
Melody FM sounded very different on the dial...
http://www.aircheckdownloads.com/melody_MalcolmBrown_050498.mp3
http://www.aircheckdownloads.com/melody_DaveGilby_0695.mp3
And for the people who want Graham Dene back now- I have noticed a big change since he was on drive, and since Angie has taken over she says a lot more that he ever did, it's almost as though she doesn't know when to shut up sometimes- but I love her voice! It is a wonder the management don't tell he to hammer out the speed links though instead of proper chatter!
I notice as well Matrin Collins has been on drive again making mistakes with jingles and stumbled speach!!
Elements of Melody's format are still part of Magic 105.4's presentation today and I'll credit Emap for the most subtle change of format and branding I've ever heard on radio.
"The Magic of London, Melody 105.4"
Indeed it was - I was one of the original music programmers/producers at Melody and Lord Hanson, who owned the station, wanted it to be similar to the main Easy-Listening station in Palm Springs (where he had one of his homes). Melody also mirrored his music tastes - plenty of Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Ray Conniff and Mantovani.
So the original incarnation of Melody had long (20-30 minute) music sweeps - presenters might just do a short ID at the halfway mark and then a brief back-announce of the last track in the sweep. After a few days presenters started to give more music info "by popular demand" (we had hundreds of calls each day).
The station was on the 2nd floor of 180 Brompton Road - handy for Harrods - and was quite a compact operation compared to many of the original ILR stations, and probably had more in common with the way stations are today.
You have to remember, though, that those airchecks have telescoped the show right down to the absolute basics - the presenter would usually only speak every 3-4 tracks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_105.4_FM
Am I right in thinking the 104.9 signal was a lot weaker than the now 105.4?
Something they repeat later when re-branding Red Rose 9-99 - "This is Lancashire's Magic - Red Rose 9-99 AM" which slowly became "This is Lancashire's Magic 9-99AM" before relaunching as "Magic 999".
104.9 was OK until the BBC opened a long planned transmitter for Southern Counties Radio in West Sussex (Burton Down 104.8)
That disrupted reception in South West and South London for Melody. The then Radio Authority re allocated Melody 105.4. There was a month's overlap with 104.9 and a very neat RDS trick. 104.9 carried 105.4 as an alternative freq, but nothing the other way round.
The RA then re-advertised 104.9 as a restricted coverage licence for London, which of course XFM won, and went on air in Sept 1997.
104.9 was originally a BBC allocation to be used in High Wycombe for BBC Berks. BBC Berks launched but without the HW Tx. So the IBA grabbed the allocation for Melody (aka ILR London 5). Years later HW did get a BBC LR relay, but for 3CR on 98.0.
Not what I'd call "hits" but yes, minimalist as you describe plus time checks. And ads of course.
As Mark C said, Melody moved to 105.4 because of BBC SCR, but it was also due to the co-channel interference from the Copt Oak transmitter of R Leicester.
Here's a recording I made of the test transmission on 104.9 - sorry about the audio quality but it was recorded on a ropey old cassette recorder.
Peter Dickson presented the breakfast show on Melody FM.
He's the big voice used on The X Factor.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p005fnvm/randoms_the_x_husband/
It will do, XFM is no more immune to R. Leicester, than Melody was, it's just that XFM's licence has that as limitation to reception.
It's an easy format to operate. Easy to voicetrack too.
XFM is only 2.9 kW and Absolute is 3.73 kW from Crystal Palace - the others from Croydon are 4 kW, Radio Leicester on the other hand runs 8 kW.
I see on the map that the Copt Oak transmitter is North West of Leicester, so unfortunately it would not be possible to null the signal towards London.
got to say though i only listen to magic now when martin collins is on because i love his fighting with the magic computer!
Hehe. At least he's always "well and happy" - so that's fine.
If you listen to those two Melody FM airchecks I posted earlier, there are in fact a large number of songs which are still played today on Magic 105.4 which were played on Melody 15+ years ago.
David Hamilton did it for quite a while too.The Coast 106 used to play a lot of stuff like Melody-Gordon Lightfoot,Jim Croce and American soft rock but now that's gone to louder rock Music and will soon be Jack-nothing i like seems to last!.