ANOTHER rock station to start on dab..

1567911

Comments

  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Like, BL, my first proper opportunity to give Eklipse Sports Radio a listen on DAB digital radio was yesterday, Friday 9th May.

    After the first five days on-air, the presentation team seem to be finding their feet with the format which is fairly simple: 20/20 sports bulletins of around 3 minutes duration at 20 and 40 minutes past the hour, plus on the hour. The buletins would seem to be 3 packages which can be rotated and updated if required.

    The presenter then has a chat with the sports reporter on one of the items mentioned and that can keep the chat going for about 5 minutes.

    At first hearing, Chris Kane at breakfast is not greatly sports minded and less so the mid morning Chris Duke. Alex Horsburgh in the afternoon is completely different as he in in tune with sports and football.

    The music is good and Alex played some excellent 'classic' rock and pop tracks and then suddenly there is a head-banging obscure rock track which makes you hit for the off button!

    Caught the first 10 minutes of so of the Bill Young Football Phone-in which was typical fare and then I had to go Sportsound on BBC Radio Scotland where Dougie Vipond with Tom English and Billy Dodds were doing the stuff in Premier League fashion.

    No commercials on Eklipse yet, probably the strategy is to get the programming right and then then tackle the advertisers.

    Apart from the 20/20 sports bulletins, it does seem rather empty with the DJs playing music radio. It is early days and getting 'on-air' at all must be an achievement in its-self, considering the number of false starts.

    One thing that does need sorting are the mics. For most of the time they are just too loud and distorted. Somebody needs to go to Maplins and get a mic limiter! Also heard some 'bubling' on the audio, so the programme feed to the multiplex is probably via broadband.

    Early days after just a week. Lets hear how it goes in the weeks and months to come. More content is probably needed to fill out the air-time.
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭

    Apart from the 20/20 sports bulletins, it does seem rather empty with the DJs playing music radio. It is early days and getting 'on-air' at all must be an achievement in its-self, considering the number of false starts....................

    Early days after just a week. Lets hear how it goes in the weeks and months to come. More content is probably needed to fill out the air-time.

    I get the impression there is enough music on it for people to listen on that basis alone, as it's tightly formatted and the sports content isn't all that intrusive during the day. It's content in between the songs where content would be.

    For sports-heads who 'go there' for the content, the music is well chosen radio rock and pop that's difficult to dislike (aparrt from the odd heavy heidbanger track). Has an early Virgin 1215/ early Q96 feel to it.

    The station has an 'all hands to the pump RSL feel' and while that's easy to sustain for a month it's difficult to maintain that momentum, especially where people have other 'main' sources of income.

    Gonna be an interesting one to watch but a decent workmanlike start this week that is there to build on.
  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Scrolling text has been added to the DAB digital radio display.

    Text reads: Eklipse Sports Radio - Scotland's Sport and Rock Station.
  • hanssolohanssolo Posts: 22,554
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I have to agree. Eklipse could be like a scottish talksport with some music in between to break the conversation. Whenever I listen to Clyde1 superscoreboard, I dip into Central and Bbc Scot also like am sure others do. Its a bummer that they are all on around same time. With Eklipse, it will be goox to listen into sports talk during the day with a scottish flavour.... if it ever gets started lol.
    http://www.a516digital.com/2014/05/ofcom-approves-requests-to-add-local.html
    DAB multiplex operator Switchdigital has been given the green light to add the Scottish version of TalkSPORT on its Aberdeen and Central Scotland multiplexes.
    UTV have now decided to launch local DAB versions of Talksport in London and Scotland, wonder if this will help or hinder Eklipse in Scotland?
  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Depending on the amount of Scottish opt-out from network, it could be a hindrance to Eklipse and dare I say, TalkSport Scotland could Eklipse output!

    If TalkSport Scotland do a breakfast and drive programme plus a nightly TalkSport Scotland phone-in at 6.00pm, then Eklipse would be Eklipsed.

    Alex Horsburgh for TalkSport Scotland I wonder?!
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Depending on the amount of Scottish opt-out from network, it could be a hindrance to Eklipse and dare I say, TalkSport Scotland could Eklipse output!

    If TalkSport Scotland do a breakfast and drive programme plus a nightly TalkSport Scotland phone-in at 6.00pm, then Eklipse would be Eklipsed.

    Alex Horsburgh for TalkSport Scotland I wonder?!

    .........And Bill Young probably.

    A theory of mine was that UTV/Switch let 'Test' last such a long time because UTV were interested in the idea of local sports-talk Eklipse were proposing but were wary of regional ventures after the disaster of Talk 107. Put simply, they perhaps saw Eklipse as a 'stalking horse' format' to road-test the idea.

    But now, with Eklipse having such a long delay and launching almost a year later than proposed, it seems UTV are running with the idea now anyway, and launching a rival service a week after taking money off Eklipse for access to its multiplex and allowing it to launch!!!

    None of us knew UTV had a request in to OFCOM to do this otherwise we'd have flagged it up on here and I am guessing it is news to Spencer and his investors as well.

    The decent thing for UTV to do would be to 'make Spencer an offer' for his business, refund monies spent so far with a bit on top, establish TalkSport Scotland at 54 Admiral Street, and take over that DAB slot themselves.

    As you say, this will eclipse Eklipse!!!!
  • DiandalScotlandDiandalScotland Posts: 2,094
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Hmmm Interesting times ahead.

    Long gone are Clyde 1`s super scoreboard dominance.

    I can`t see how Eklipse will survive this unless with the classic rock music people may
    still wanna tune in.

    I still mainly listen to BBC Scotland and sometimes Central Fm.

    As been said if Talksport Scotland have a 6pm phone in then the battle has started and its Game on !

    I Know 6pm-8pm is primetime but if Talksport Scotland does do a 6-8pm phone in maybe Eklipse could/should change their phone in to either 5-6pm then 8-9pm or 8-10pm. but i do feel this could be the nail in the coffin for Eklipse.

    All we need now is Sky Sports News to launch on D2
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I Know 6pm-8pm is primetime but if Talksport Scotland does do a 6-8pm phone in maybe Eklipse could/should change their phone in to either 5-6pm then 8-9pm or 8-10pm. but i do feel this could be the nail in the coffin for Eklipse.

    It's not so much about the phone-in's. Eklipse's *rather good idea* was providing football/ sports content right throughout the day, as opposed to just set times like Clyde and the Beeb do, and 5 Live/Talksport focused on stories of English national interest.

    It seems UTV have taken a shine to this idea themselves and it's impossible to see a gap in the DAB/digital only market for two services suddenly offering this in Central Scotland.
  • RadiogramRadiogram Posts: 3,515
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It does seem rather naughty of UTV to pull a stunt like this but business is business. It will be interesting to see the offering Talksport serve up, hopefully not just a patronising 2 hours a night as was tried before.

    Good to see another service launching on the Aberdeen Mux too, still space for another service though.
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Radiogram wrote: »
    It does seem rather naughty of UTV to pull a stunt like this but business is business. It will be interesting to see the offering Talksport serve up, hopefully not just a patronising 2 hours a night as was tried before.

    Yes and it illustrates the dangers of a de-regulated system where stations can start up almost at will.

    As you say it will be interesting to see what the 'offering' is. Maybe similar to what Global do with breakfast and drive local, and 4 hours on weekend afternoons. For UTV, talk isn't cheap and it would probably have to be double-headed shows which doubles the costs, plus background producer/ phone-op people. A costly business!

    Eklipse aren't exactly having the rub of the green. The only crumb of comfort for them may be that any TalkSport Scotland may take many months to get off the ground. Being a large PLC, UTV will (especially after the Talk 107 debacle) have to make sure all the 'i's and 't's of the business plans are crossed before embarking on any more costly local talkie radio ventures. Meanwhile Eklipse get a head start of building audience for its unique mix of sport and music.
  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    A possibility is that UTV's TalkSport does a deal with STV at their PQ studio base in that STV provide a single radio studio/booth accommodation and also STV jurnos provide editorial support and presenters. It would be a joint venture between UTV/STV.

    The business plan has most likely been signed off at TalkSport before making an application to Ofcom for a TalkSport opt-out.

    Perhaps this will happen as quickly as July in time for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games?
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    A possibility is that UTV's TalkSport does a deal with STV at their PQ studio base in that STV provide a single radio studio/booth accommodation and also STV jurnos provide editorial support and presenters. It would be a joint venture between UTV/STV.

    They could also just run it from their London HQ. Plenty ex-pro Scottish footballer types who live down there and be suitable for shows i am sure.
  • seasiderseasider Posts: 801
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I am not actually sure that Eklipse has much to fear from a Scottish Talksport. Having listened to Eklipse on and off since it started I am not sure who will actually be attracted by the sports content. Way back in the seventies Clyde made sports coverage personality based and people tune in to hear Keevins etc as much as the sports itself. much of Eklipse sports is anonymous and I am surprised that they are not doing more to develop their own personalities.

    Now if Talksport were to sign a few well kent names (where have I heard that before) from Clyde then that really would put the cat amongst the pigeons and could actually bring the end of Clyde's commitment to sport.
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    A schedule change from a fortnight this weekend with Mateo Ventesei taking over the weekend breakfast show from Steve Delahaye (aka manager Spencer Sprior).

    Mateo's a good turn on air, and another one who was on Pulse 98.4 for a while.

    Looking forward to hearing!
  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    From the Eklipse Sports Radio FB page...

    Eklipse Sports Radio is proud to announce its coverage of The Scottish Junior Cup Final on Sunday 1st June in association with Barr, when Alex Horsburgh and Ronnie Davies will commentate LIVE from Rugby Park, Kilmarnock on Glenafton Athletic v Hurlford United from 4pm.

    Join Bill Young and the studio team at 2pm for match build-up and analysis then hear the whole final LIVE on Eklipse Sports Radio on DAB, Smartphone and Internet at www.Eklipse sportsradio.co.uk
  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    TalkSPORT Scotland has started transmission at 64 kbts mono on the Central Scotland Regional multiplex and the Ayrshire local mux.

    The national TalkSPORT service is being simulcast on the Central Scotland and Ayr mux with a slight delay of around 30 seconds.

    The DAB Label station name display is: "tlkSPTSc"

    Wonder when opt-out programmes for Scotland will start? Will Eklipse be concerned?
  • RadiogramRadiogram Posts: 3,515
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    TalkSport Scotland is also now on the Aberdeen mux.

    Back to Eklipse, I tuned in online at lunchtime and was surprised to hear Jimmy Nail and Savage Garden amongst the songs, is this normal? I thought it was going to be Rock mainly.
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Radiogram wrote: »

    Back to Eklipse, I tuned in online at lunchtime and was surprised to hear Jimmy Nail and Savage Garden amongst the songs, is this normal? I thought it was going to be Rock mainly.

    It's poppy radio rock they mainly play so these songs fit. Tunes are decent.

    A long week this week for PC Bill Young who is depping weekday breakfast as well as doing the phone-in from 6pm, and also now in on Saturday afternoons too. Looking forward to hearing Bill do a bit of music jocking again.

    We shall have to see what UTV's rival offering will be on Talksport Scotland. Will it come from Scotland or London? Will it be just one daily optout or more? The more it is the more life is difficult for Eklipse.

    Craig Kelly wondered above if UTV and STV might do a tie-up on this station. With STV Glasgow now launched, one option must be having the Peter and Roughie show properly live on STV Glasgow at 6pm, with Talksport Scotland taking the live audio, and maybe STV providing a studio cubby-hole for local breakfast.

    It's uncertain times at Eklipse for sure and we'll see where we are in a few weeks.
  • Craig KellyCraig Kelly Posts: 2,653
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    We shall have to see what UTV's rival offering will be on Talksport Scotland. Will it come from Scotland or London? Will it be just one daily optout or more? The more it is the more life is difficult for Eklipse.

    To take carriage on the Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire and Central Scotland muxes is costly, even if it is inter-company charges. The London mux opt-out has also started.

    To go to all this effort to transmission and infrastructure, it would be reasonable to assume TalkSport are going to make it worth their while.

    That would mean a minimum of a 'Scotland' Sports Breakfast 6-10am and 'Scotland' Drivetime 4-7.00pm with the last hour a phone-in.

    Talksport Scotland may also wants rights for live commentary of the Scottish Championship (old div 1) which will have Rangers, Hearts and Hibs next season.

    Expect weekends for Scotland would be 11am-7pm.

    This would be an entirely different service to Eklipse Sports Radio which is mainly music based with sports bulletins and headlines and some interviews.
  • DiandalScotlandDiandalScotland Posts: 2,094
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It's poppy radio rock they mainly play so these songs fit. Tunes are decent.

    With STV Glasgow now launched, one option must be having the Peter and Roughie show properly live on STV Glasgow at 6pm, with Talksport Scotland taking the live audio, and maybe STV providing a studio cubby-hole for local breakfast.

    It's uncertain times at Eklipse for sure and we'll see where we are in a few weeks.

    Most of Glasgow and beyond are covered by Your Radio and also Central Dab so the highlights show i think is fine tho am surprised there is no mention of Central or Your in the studio box room.

    Talksport Scotland dont think are here to jump into bed with anyone.Yep maybe if they got the rights for championship league next season would be worth a listen.

    With Central/Your only on an hour at mo and highlights on Stv Glasgow, i have been listening into Eklipse this week more. Still very few call ins is concerning.
  • AJ007AJ007 Posts: 138
    Forum Member
    Personally I'll be surprised if Eklipse survives until Christmas. I've heard rumblings already that all is not well within the station and there may be departures from the on-air staff within days/weeks.
  • DiandalScotlandDiandalScotland Posts: 2,094
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    If that comes to be it will be a shame. When i started this post i wasn`t a fan as I thought

    there was too many rock stations on dab already but with the sport content thrown in and

    it being Scottish, i thought id give it a chance. I feel it comes across a bit amateur.

    I do hope it lasts but if true to what i heard about costs on dab it will need more ads and

    more money pumped into the station to keep it alive. I recently emailed scotland69am

    and asked why they didn`t pursue dab and they replied regarding the hefty cost.
  • hanssolohanssolo Posts: 22,554
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I do hope it lasts but if true to what i heard about costs on dab it will need more ads and

    more money pumped into the station to keep it alive. I recently emailed scotland69am

    and asked why they didn`t pursue dab and they replied regarding the hefty cost.
    Scotland69am seems to be an internet "bedroom" station with no interest in investment.
    Been following this thread and from the start quoting radiotoday
    “It’s an opportunity we’ve been looking at for some time”, Spencer told RadioToday.

    “Initially we thought of purchasing one of the Scottish stations that are going to have to be divested from the Global/Real and Smooth combine to satisfy Competition Commission ownership criteria. However the sums involved made it a bit of a non-starter for a wee company such as ours. So we’ve done a deal with SwitchDigital and taken an option on some capacity being freed up by Bauer shifting their stations onto their own muxes”.
    In the end Global turned Real XS Scotland into XFM.

    Switchdigital are UTV and could have closed the regional DAB muxes in Scotland and London (as Global did with their regional DAB muxes), but decided to keep them going and launch local Talksport optouts.
    It is not known if Elkipse got a discount on DAB, but if UTV Talksport start promoting DAB, Elkipse could benefit providing it has some funds for promotion?
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    AJ007 wrote: »
    Personally I'll be surprised if Eklipse survives until Christmas. I've heard rumblings already that all is not well within the station and there may be departures from the on-air staff within days/weeks.

    Well......it was always likely that there might be a bit of what John Myers once euphemistically called 'staff churn' with this. As an experimental format with limited resources then 'creative tensions' are to be expected. The schedule is constructed in the old skool Q/Clan/ L107 way with a lot of off-peak programming but this can lead to people coming and going in Scottish radio.

    Bill Young sounding great on breakfast this week. He knows how to work the format perfectly. and sounds a natural playing the tunes and doing sporty links that sound natural and entertaining, like it's what he'd want to be talking about on the radio anyway- which it is! Alex in the afternoon is more sober minded/serious about it but again there's no denying he's what the station is all about either........loves the music and the content and that's why he's there in the first place.

    A lot of the rest of it sounds like what it is- reasonably competent presenters playing AOR and talking about sports because that's the format is. For a station that has 'your passion' as part of their strapline, passion is often not evident. In fact it sounds mechanical. Competent and functional. But mechanical.

    And hard hard work. Other than Bill and Alex it just doesn't always come naturally. The presenters sometimes seem happiest when they get to veer off sport and talk about something else for a link. Hard shifts.

    While I dislike singling presenters out for criticism as mine is a subjective opinion the most bored-of- it-all sounding is none other than Spencer 'Steve Delahaye' Prior. His shows are literally going through the motions. You may argue that he's worked his socks off to get the station on air and is still doing so and must be exhausted, so cut him a bit of slack, but the on-air indifference from the brainchild of this project is odd.

    So like I say it sounds like a lot of hard work in there and-for various reasons- it may not suit some people, so there may be a few more twists and turns on air before it settles down.
  • speculatorspeculator Posts: 2,423
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    With Andy Murray still involved in the French Open, prompted by this thread, yesterday breakfast I decided to listen to Eklipse expecting to hear a pre-QF report on Scotland's current sport success story. But all I heard was endless music broken every 20 minutes with a brief sports headlines. How can the station claim they are Scotland #1 sports station when sport is a low priority. The banter between the dj and the sportscaster was a comment about East Anglia windmills! :( Not sport - not Scotland!

    There is a active thread about the relaunch of Wirral's community radio station. They report that they have 5 broadcast studios and, as they are recognized by Ofcom, a FM frequency. So are set for a long-term life.

    Whilst Eklipse sounds like an amateurish "bedroom radio" operation. It may be modern to be available via APPs and DAB, but they will not gain enough listeners that way to earn advertisers. So I agree with the above, and Eklipse is only a short-term venture until the setup capital runs out.
Sign In or Register to comment.