Downtown Radio in Northern Ireland
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Apologies to alienate the rest of the UK but has DTR went down the tube or what, hi?
It used to be the best in the business but needs an urgent tweak to build it back up to its former glory.
Thoughts on its current state? Ideas on how to improve things? Maybe I'm wrong but I do think it has lost its magic. Sad.
It used to be the best in the business but needs an urgent tweak to build it back up to its former glory.
Thoughts on its current state? Ideas on how to improve things? Maybe I'm wrong but I do think it has lost its magic. Sad.
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Comments
I'd post a link but , frankly, i can't be arsed.
But it'll only be a couple of pages or two back.
edit Ach, what the hell, here it is: Jerry Lang.
There's some reading in it , mind.
Very Very Sad indeed. Must be being run down down as an excuse to close it.
It'll never change under current PD.
Scrapping the evening news was a mistake and I see these have now been restored (but still not even national news through the night).
A mistake to let Jerry Lang go. If Johnny Hero left it really would be a disaster. They need someone of the calibre of either Gene Wilson (what ever happened to Gene Wilson. Cool hasn't been the same since he left) or Joe Ferguson (is he still in the radio business ?) although presenting music rather than phone-ins (I'm not a big fan of phone-ins as a I find them boring and often embarrassing).
Maybe John Paul should start presenting radio shows again. One of the best DJs they ever had. Or what about bringing back Mark Wesley as well (anyone know what he's up to these days ?)
I think he's still DJing these days in clubs, but don't know for sure - The Coach in Banbridge anyone?
Gene Wilson was unique, but I always thought he waffled on a bit - he was different though, and I think that's what made him stand out for some people. He was there for years, and I met him once. Hopefully he's moved on to bigger and better things - he left not long after 2006. I always felt he didn't really fit the format though - but each to their own.
matt
The thread was started about Downtown Radio, nothing to do with Cool FM
It won't get FM in Belfast, the company already had an FM
frequency on 97.4, which it gave to Cool. It won't get
another one, it's already on DAB, and I think that is probably why Downtown
will be run down and closed on FM, and let Cool go Provincewide
on FM, with Downtown only on AM and DAB.
As for the other people you mention, not one of them or any other
decent presenter would go near the place under it's current PD,
they've got better jobs now.
.
Just responding to Peter's post about Mark Wesley and Gene Wilson. Although I admit it was taking it a bit off-topic - will try harder
I don't share mojo Loop's pessimism about the station though. I still think it has a future maybe under different management (possibly a project for JR ?).
I disagree with his views on FM as well. Given the fact that it's primarily a music station it needs to be on FM. Greater Belfast has so few stations on the band there's plenty of spare frequencies too. The main reason it'll not be on FM is that Ofcom have decided, in their infinite widom, to abandon the mode (in favour of DAB) in a few years time with no new stations on FM being licenced in the near future.
As an aside, I've had a play with a Pure Highway DAB adapter/receiver. Reception of the DAB commercial multiplex(Downtown, Magic etc.) was very good and better than the BBC. No burbling effect while driving. Instead, the stations just cut out (they were either there or not there). On FM they just become weaker. For this reason I'm not exactly convinced that DAB is the best medium for listening to radio in the car. AM and FM are far better, in my opinion. Also, the effects of digital compression could be clearly heard with FM sounding far more open and warmer.
On a negative note, the Pure highway is quite cumbersome (lots of trailing wires) and although simple to install it is awkward to use.
Personally, I feel Ofcom has jumped the gun somewhat on fazing out FM/AM in place of DAB
The problem is that under Downtown Radio's current ownership,
and PD Henry Owens, I doubt that anyone
would want to work for them.
If they changed ownership and had a local PD installed, then
maybe, but NOT JR.
My views on FM, are fact rather than my opinion, Downtown have
an FM frequency, they decided to give it to Cool when they started, and therefore
can't be given a second one.
Nothing to do with Ofcom or DAB.
What they should have done originally instead of Cool,
was start a new station or rebranded DTR provincewide, something similar to
Cool, and left Downtown as an AM Gold station, as Capital
here in London did.
That was their mistake, but one thing's for sure
they need to change, and fast.
.
bad to worse, they need big change and quick, problem is their
current PD doesn't know how.
Even their website is woefully out of date, with 2
different breakfast shows on at the same time!
Could it be due networking from Scotland by Bauer.
It would drastically improve their night-time output which is dire.
If Downtown was on FM from Black Mountain, AM could be used as a local version of Gold (With maybe additional transmitters for Derry and Enniskillen) or the AM North of England version of Magic (which I actually think is better).. Wouldn't be too hard to do.
There's no point in harping on about DAB replacing FM/AM radio in the province. DAB is dire here, choice wise (can't see that changing anytime soon) and 99% of all cars do not have DAB fitted. While the Pure highway is good and easy to fit, it's cumbersome and awkward to use.
I agree the station does need a bit of a revamp. Johnny Hero is good but for some odd reason he only plays up tempo 70's songs which is strange. To be honest, using ex-news readers as presenters/DJs doesn't really work either, in my opinion. Talking of news, the first thing they shoud do is restore it to it's former glory.
But they are not competing with Cool. DTR should be the gold station on AM and Cool the chart radio station on FM with both available on DAB.
Maybe, but they are now competing directly with U105 and to some extent Citybeat as well now. If they are going to compete with those stations in greater Belfast (the major population base in NI) then it meeds to be a level playing field. Why listen to AM when you can get much the same music on FM ?
There's no problem with frequencies either. As a major city in the UK, the number of stations in greater Belfast on FM is an absolute disgrace.
How things have changed from the 80's when John Rosborough had DTR at the cutting edge of radio in the UK and presided over the launch of Cool.
Difficult to imagine DTR back then with DTR's Lynda Jane driving the mid morning programme all on her own and getting 80 per cent of the audience not tuned to national or cross border stations, while the only other Northern Ireland only station, BBC Radio Ulster's Walter Love accounted for the remaining small minority, despite having producer, production assistants, etc., and all the resources of the BBC at his disposal.
How the mighty have indeed fallen - if that's progress, its sad!!
Walter Love to Stephen Nolan - is that progress?:eek:
The great thing about downtown Radio then Mike, was the hourly news. It really was cutting edge in the province, coming not that long after the UWC strike. Prior to Downtown, all we had for local radio was opt outs from Radio Four for a few hours per day. Pathetic considering England had BBC local radio since 1968 and ILR stations from quite a few years earlier than 1976. Given that situation, JR couldn't really fail, although I suppose he did an exemplary job considering local radio of any kind was new to the province.
We still lag far behind the UK when it comes to radio though. Most of the rest of the UK have regional commercial stations, sometimes even two per region. NI has none, despite being promised one at the very start when these stations were proposed. When I queried this with Ofcom a while ago, they told me that in effect, Dowtown was a regional commercial station for NI. If this is the case then it needs to be on FM in greater Belfast, not AM. AM (1026) could then be used as a local version of either Gold or Magic AM.
Still, the first thing that should be done with Downtown is to restore the news to it's former glory. U105 definitely has the edge in this department. No overnight news (even from national sources) is unacceptable.
I know what you mean about lagging behind but rest assured, you are not alone. Living on a Scottish island and in the lee of a hill to the east of me, my Scottish FM is restricted to the local mast which has 6 BBC services, West FM and Clyde 1. As this is a DAB free zone, apart from the local Argyll FM, my FM listening consists of Cool 97.4 Downtown 96.4, U 105, 2FM on 97 and Today on 105.5. No local BBC here either only the national and gaelic services although Rdio Ulster booms in on 94.5.
You're quite right in many respects, but the situation at Downtown will never change under the leadership, if you could call it that, of it's current PD/Head of Music Henry Owens (Condon).
This is a guy who only knows the Atlantic 252 style of broadcasting, one of the worst stations ever to grace to the airwaves,
if you ever have the unfortunate experience of hearing his Saturday Night 80's show you'll understand.
As he only knows this style of broadcasting, he therefore has no idea how to fix the problem,
and there isn't anyone else there that has a clue, because under Emap's stewardship, they culled all the decent talent and staff that they had.
The Atlantic 252 style of in your face, same 150 tunes over and over again, is totally alien to Downtown's target audience, no wonder Downtown and Cool FM are losing listeners at an alarming rate, but the PD doesn't know any other way of broadcasting, therefore dwindling audiences.
The point about Downtown's previously excellent news service is so true, especially when you consider news wasn't important at Atlantic 252,
therefore it's not important to the current PD.
A big mistake as far as N.Ireland is concerned, a community who thrive on news and opinions, but that's people in charge not knowing the
market they're supposed to be providing a service for.
When I lived in N.Ireland, Downtown was always the news service you tuned in to, if you wanted to know the latest you could be guaranteed an excellent news service, so sad to see what's happened to it.
The previous posters are quite right about how good Downtown Radio was in it's heyday, at the moment it is a complete and utter shambles compared to it's former glory.
Some of the presenters that are left at Downtown are not a patch on the line-up at U105, whose presenters sound fresh happy and confident, Downtown's all sound as depressing as their repetitive music, even Johnny Hero's show has lost most of it's sparkle, like Dougie
Marshall, it's just repeats and regurgitated interviews and features, not exactly good entertainment, and just lazy boring radio.
U105 have vastly improved since JR left, and are slowly but surely getting the music and programming right, bringing Jerry Lang and his Jukebox on board, was an excellent move, it was the only decent programme that Downtown had.
U105's latest set of figures were excellent compared to everyone else in the N.Ireland market, and with Lang adding
more that 10,000 listeners (9,000 in the last 3 months)since he moved proves how daft Downtown were to let him go,
In another post someone else got it spot on when they said Downtown's PD, was U105's best employee.
Downtown need to change fast, otherwise the only way for them and Cool FM is to continue to decline, a very sad case indeed.
.
The legendary," Eamonn Malley, Downtown Radio News."
If a story broke over here (& the 70s & 80s were busy times for breaking news) that wee bugger was guaranteed to be first to stick his microphone in the bake of some politician.
I think he might have been the target of the famous, "That man's a rebel from the south!!" rant live on TV from the steps of Stormont by that big mouthpiece Paisley.
I live in Northern Ireland and think it is sad the way the 2 stations have gone down so badly .
Does anybody know what happened to the motorshow with Ian Bessant it was always good craic and where did Bobby Hanvey Go ?
Thanks .
Got rid of by a PD who hasn't a clue, and who is responsible for
the destruction of DTR/Cool.
Interesting, entertaining programmes and speech are not the kind
of programmes he wants or understands. They also had good
listening figures, but that doesn't seem to matter there anymore.
The PD doesn't seem to like "good craic"
He got rid of the best show they had, Jerry Lang's Jukebox, and the fact that Lang
has gained over 10.000 listeners extra for the station he moved to, U105,
tells you a lot about how much their PD knows about radio, and N.Ireland......Zilch.
mojo, you say the same thing every post, not that im disagreein like but try movin it on a bit