Capital FM Network (Part 2)

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  • smurfs5smurfs5 Posts: 580
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    Heard a bit of Max last week. Never again, she's terrible.

    I also can't believe that James Barr is being sidelined. He is the best at the station and his Friday and Saturday night shows were brilliant. His energy is so infectious and he really captured the "going out" atmosphere perfectly. Can't understand why they moved him and Will Cozens is unbearable in that slot. I find him quite boring and unimaginative.

    The schedule now says that James is doing the 3am slot this Saturday to cover Christian Williams who is doing Saturday 4pm and Friday night. Seriously? They didn't just let James cover Pandora and save the messing around with the schedule.
  • NewbieBen12NewbieBen12 Posts: 455
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    Capital has some dire presenters, I had thought they were shaking things up when old timers Roberto and Margherita Taylor left, but nothing appears to have taken off. We're stuck with more Will Cozens, less James Barr which is odd, Bassman hanging on by a thread and 'new girl' Max dying on her arse 'interviewing' artists.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 184
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    Capital are never satisfied with the schedule. How come there are fresh radio talent on global's other brands but not capital. The only new presenter to the network is Max.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 65
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    Maybe James is busy DJ'ing in clubs on Friday/Saturday nights now? He's a club DJ.
  • chipmanchipman Posts: 253
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    I don't understand why Capital would be worried. If you look at the graphs Paul Easton produces (which are great by the way!), Capital are ahead of Kiss most of the day unlike the previous quarter. Additionally, nearly every station in London suffered a loss of listeners.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZyZl1vfI720/UQlc6phEwzI/AAAAAAAABAg/LBaJs-yQNSA/s1600/London+Weekdays+Q412.jpg is Q4 2012 Rajar

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VjGlRBy6-Vw/UIgxkb1SPsI/AAAAAAAAA-A/0r23VNDOwgM/s1600/London+Weekday+Q312.jpg is Q3 2012 Rajar [Kiss are ahead most of the day here]

    Capital sounds pretty good to me at the moment, and I love Friday and Saturday nights again. Straight-forward mixed-up CHR. I have to agree with others though that James Barr is superb at that and why he has been moved, if not by his own accord, baffles me...
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
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    Nosiness and spare time got the better of me the other afternoon so I decided to put on Capital Scotland and Capital London via Sky at the same time to see how they compared.

    First I heard 'The Bassman' do a link on Capital Scotland mentioning audience response, and only giving names, not locations.

    Then, a couple of minutes later on Capital London, I heard the exact same link and responses but this time their locations were mentioned....and lo and behold they were all in the London area!!!!!! The whole thing seemed so fake.

    Haven't heard how on air comps work yet but I assume and hope that they feature callers form all over the UK!!!???

    Keep an eye on this guys.
  • The Magic MonkeyThe Magic Monkey Posts: 1,986
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    Nosiness and spare time got the better of me the other afternoon so I decided to put on Capital Scotland and Capital London via Sky at the same time to see how they compared.

    First I heard 'The Bassman' do a link on Capital Scotland mentioning audience response, and only giving names, not locations.

    Then, a couple of minutes later on Capital London, I heard the exact same link and responses but this time their locations were mentioned....and lo and behold they were all in the London area!!!!!! The whole thing seemed so fake.

    Haven't heard how on air comps work yet but I assume and hope that they feature callers form all over the UK!!!???

    Keep an eye on this guys.

    It is interesting how it works, but that's the product. Live in London, with the same(ish) links recorded and 'smart networked' to the other stations.

    Fake or not, that's what it is.
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
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    It is interesting how it works, but that's the product. Live in London, with the same(ish) links recorded and 'smart networked' to the other stations.

    Fake or not, that's what it is.

    Are you sure London is live?

    The whole thing sounds to me as if the presenters never set foot in a studio as we know it and instead spend the day slaving away knocking out mechanical links into workstations, rather in the manner of battery chickens producing eggs.

    The whole thing is uberslick to be sure, but when I hear the Bassman tell me every day at 3pm 'I've saved the best hour for last', I cringe.

    It just, I dunno....lacks 'soul'.
  • p_c_u_kp_c_u_k Posts: 8,806
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    It just, I dunno....lacks 'soul'.

    I had that concern with Capital on another thread. It is without doubt an incredibly slick, well-oiled, put everything into boxes and it all adds up to 10 operation. But it comes across as the sausage factory equivalent of radio - the focus groups tell us to do exactly this so we'll do exactly this.

    Now I should quickly add this is not necessarily a criticism. Us complaining about a radio station lacking soul is like a trainspotter complaining that the new class of electric trains lacks the charm of steam trains. Bottom line, the vast majority of people don't care, get us to work please.

    It's only if the listeners care that it becomes an issue, and by the sound of things the station has a core audience that doesn't want inane, prolonged chatter from a DJ who has nothing to say, they just want a quick burst of the hits. That's fine, nothing wrong with that. It does mean however that if Capital really thought they would be in a position to gain from Radio 1 ditching Moyles and going through an evolution then they had another thing coming.

    There's a way this can work for everyone. Capital sticks to its path and picks up a very clear-cut audience on the (relative) cheap. But there is now that gap in the market commercial radio insisted on for those who are too young for Radio 2 and too old for Radio 1. Thing is, to stick to the thread, it's not an easy audience to attract, as it's averse to adverts and used to listening to the best DJs on air, which is why it makes sense for Capital to stick to its path.
  • trevgotrevgo Posts: 28,241
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    p_c_u_k wrote: »
    It's only if the listeners care that it becomes an issue

    If you can catch them young enough, and feed them enough crap, they never will care.
  • p_c_u_kp_c_u_k Posts: 8,806
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    trevgo wrote: »
    If you can catch them young enough, and feed them enough crap, they never will care.

    Patronising and wrong, in my opinion.

    Things are different now. In the days of one heritage licence there was no internet and the radio was king in determining what young people listened to. That's why John Peel, Radio 1 and the odd local radio new music show (let's not pretend local radio was ever a hotbed of new talent) were so important. Back then the only outlet was magazines and fanzines which, with the exception of the odd cover CD, you couldn't hear.

    Nowadays kids have a huge variety of choices and catch new music from their friends on Facebook, Twitter, recommendations on YouTube. When they go to school their mates can immediately play something off their phones and they can come to an immediate reaction as to whether they like it. And if they want the traditional means then they now have the likes of 6 Music, XFM and, yes, Radio 1, which I would argue does the most to push new music by giving people a listen among familiar stuff so as not to immediately put them off.

    Yes, a lot of Capital listeners will just want the same few songs repeated on a loop. What's actually wrong with that anyway, unless you're convinced pop is the devil's work? (That in itself is a huge generalisation - I like indie as much as the next man but give me Lady Gaga over some generic band trying to be Ed Sheeran any day) But many people who listen to the station are on their way to work and just want a quick burst of the familiar to get them on their way. It doesn't mean they're braindead and it doesn't mean they're not going to listen to new music elsewhere.
  • trevgotrevgo Posts: 28,241
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    p_c_u_k wrote: »
    Patronising and wrong, in my opinion.

    I don't agree, surprise, surprise.

    Sure, ILR was never a conduit for new cutting edge music (my favourite line in Tony Stoller's book was when he said ILR just ignored punk/new wave and just hoped it would go away!), and whilst it was always conservative in it's music policy, it's playlist was always predominantly "new". My other half worked for Severn Sound when he left school, and he dug out some old music logs from the very early 80s the other day and I was surprised just how eclectic was the mixture. In those days, every presenter had a record-of-the-week, which were usually pre-release. That's revolutionary compared to the contemporary Groundhog Day FM model of commercial radio.

    And yes, I know "those days are gone" yadda yadda yadda.

    Global actively want an audience as undemanding as possible, musically. Of course they do. A big explosion like BritPop would be a disaster for them, as if it filled the charts they'd look pretty daft if they ignored it totally (though they did a pretty good job of it last time). It is run by middle aged people completely in their comfort zone, and they want nothing more than a comfort zone audience. Perish the thought should they ever get a taste for something new.

    Nobody will ever convince me it is anything else but corrosive and unhealthy.
  • p_c_u_kp_c_u_k Posts: 8,806
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    trevgo wrote: »
    My other half worked for Severn Sound when he left school, and he dug out some old music logs from the very early 80s the other day and I was surprised just how eclectic was the mixture.

    Thing is, in those days if someone didn't like the song being played they had a choice of that or Radio 1. Nowadays they just press another preset button on their car radio and they're lost, perhaps forever. Under those circumstances, you can see why commercial radio plays it safe.

    In theory, there's a big opportunity for a commercial operator who can crack how to introduce an audience to more engaging music and talk, given Radio 1's current period of change. However, even given the fact Radio 1 is no longer aimed at me and I'm too young for Radio 2, I still enjoy those services. It's a world-leader. How do you compete? (and still make money)

    I have some sympathy with your response, as you can possibly tell. I may rarely agree with you trevgo but I like how you frame most of your points. In comparison to the debate on some of the other threads around here it's a breath of fresh air.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 184
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    I like Christian Williams better than Pandora on Friday nights. Not sure about James being on at 3AM though...
  • -ajm--ajm- Posts: 5,767
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    When the network started James was weekends at 2AM.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,606
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    never mind
  • -ajm--ajm- Posts: 5,767
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    Will Global ever put the bitrate back to 128 on South Hampshire mux? I can't enjoy Andi Durrant on DAB.
  • -ajm--ajm- Posts: 5,767
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    Has Andi finished early again?
  • Black LabelBlack Label Posts: 4,722
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    p_c_u_k wrote: »
    Now I should quickly add this is not necessarily a criticism. Us complaining about a radio station lacking soul is like a trainspotter complaining that the new class of electric trains lacks the charm of steam trains. Bottom line, the vast majority of people don't care, get us to work please.

    Yeah, but looked at another way, people most certainly DO have opinions on their train journeys. They may not care about the model of engine etc, but they DO care about the cleanliness of the service, overcrowding, punctuality, helpfulness of staff and so on.

    Remember also the public outcry when Virgin had seemingly lost the West Coast Franchise to First.

    I believe Capital's lack of 'soul' raises concerns beyond the anorak community, though I readily accept your point that we can't place ourselves in the mindset of the 'ordinary' listener.

    My concern is that Capital's product is so one dinensional and superficial that it will be very difficult for it to gain any kind of widespread emotional engagement or loyalty from its audience. This could mean the impact of ads on the station is relatively low.

    It also means the audience is easy pickings for stations that make more of an effort to engage and entertain.

    We are seeing this in Scotland where Capital's reach has tapered off quite a bit despite heavy TV advertising. With Capital and Real just souped up slick jukeboxes, Bauer is KIng. Capital's market share never broke through in the first place and is also sluggish. As you say, it is a 'dip in dip out' type station and I'm not sure how viable such a proposition is.

    Jocks excited by talking up 'that massive Bruno Mars song on soon" with little if anything else of substance to get your teeth into might have worked 20 years ago but how far it flies in 2013 is, well, we'll see.

    The huge irony in all of this is that Capital Scotland's MD is Paul Cooney, the man who when he took over as MD of Clyde, changed Clyde 1 from a slick 90s 'say little but say it well' FMer to a more personality led station, embodied by Suzie McGuire.

    Quite what he must make of what comes out his current office speakers I dread to think but this time around there is naff all he can do about it.
  • jon craigjon craig Posts: 1,391
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    For me the problem with Capital is that a hit-music station, targetting a predominantly young demographic, needs to be exciting - a bit edgy, a bit ballsy, a bit cool. It's not that - it's become a bit stale. The argument with rotating 200-odd songs is that on a CHR station, they are constantly refreshed and updated. This hasn't been happening on Capital - they are still rotating many of the same songs they were playing 6 months ago. There has been no refresh and as a result it is sounding tired and stale and ultra-safe. If you look at some their most played songs over the last week:

    Swedish House Mafia 73 plays - released Sep 2012
    Bruno Mars 69 plays - released Nov 2012
    Olly Murs 63 plays - released Oct 2012
    Pink (Blow Me) 61 plays - released July 2012
    Rihanna (Diamonds) 63 plays - released Sep 2012
    Rudimental 49 plays - released May 2012

    As a result the station sounds pretty much the same as it did 6 months ago - the only songs that are anywhere near 'new' in their most played list are Will.I.Am/Britney, Calvin Harris/Tinie Tempah, and Macklemore.

    Put simply - the figures aren't great, because Capital ain't great!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 416
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    I believe Capital's lack of 'soul' raises concerns beyond the anorak community.
    Just have a look at the Capital FM facebook page and you'll know it's not just the anorak community complaining about this "slick" programming.
    Here's some quotes from the page and these are just some of the many complaints posted everyday.
    Any chance of playing at least 1 half decent song ever,instead of having everyone looking for the closest razor blade every time you play Rihanna or Taylor swift for the 3rd time in the same hour
    you do realize there are more than just 10 songs in the world, right?
    Is it your objective to take any half-decent song and overplay it to the point where I feel like smashing the radio whenever it comes on?
  • HitmusicHitmusic Posts: 2,094
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    jon craig wrote: »
    For me the problem with Capital is that a hit-music station, targetting a predominantly young demographic, needs to be exciting - a bit edgy, a bit ballsy, a bit cool. It's not that - it's become a bit stale. The argument with rotating 200-odd songs is that on a CHR station, they are constantly refreshed and updated. This hasn't been happening on Capital - they are still rotating many of the same songs they were playing 6 months ago. There has been no refresh and as a result it is sounding tired and stale and ultra-safe. If you look at some their most played songs over the last week:

    Swedish House Mafia 73 plays - released Sep 2012
    Bruno Mars 69 plays - released Nov 2012
    Olly Murs 63 plays - released Oct 2012
    Pink (Blow Me) 61 plays - released July 2012
    Rihanna (Diamonds) 63 plays - released Sep 2012
    Rudimental 49 plays - released May 2012

    As a result the station sounds pretty much the same as it did 6 months ago - the only songs that are anywhere near 'new' in their most played list are Will.I.Am/Britney, Calvin Harris/Tinie Tempah, and Macklemore.

    Put simply - the figures aren't great, because Capital ain't great!

    Capital fm is a hit music station.....therefor plays music that is/was a HIT. simple as.
  • smurfs5smurfs5 Posts: 580
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    Capital needs to invest in content to bring the listeners back. Why would anyone want to listen to Capital if the presenters sound the same and they play the same artists and the same songs on rotation every hour if listeners could just listen to their iPods and hear the music they like.

    Capital Breakfast has remained solid in terms of listenership because at least there is something to listen for.

    Take, for example, SPIN 1038 in Ireland. The breakfast show has the perfect balance between music and talk and features to keep the show engaging. They have a chart show in the evening which has personality presenters and features and there is a request show in the evening which is based around audience interaction and playing the most music.

    Capital need to recognise that it is fine being a hit music station and playing as many songs as they can per hour at off-peak times. e.g. 10am-4pm but variety and SOME content is required to keep the listeners intrigued. It could be as simple as calling a texter back who has an interesting story and making a joke out of it on-air but the format is lame and Capital is lacking substance right now.
  • MusicmasterproxMusicmasterprox Posts: 959
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    smurfs5 wrote: »
    Capital needs to invest in content to bring the listeners back. Why would anyone want to listen to Capital if the presenters sound the same and they play the same artists and the same songs on rotation every hour if listeners could just listen to their iPods and hear the music they like.

    Capital Breakfast has remained solid in terms of listenership because at least there is something to listen for.

    Take, for example, SPIN 1038 in Ireland. The breakfast show has the perfect balance between music and talk and features to keep the show engaging. They have a chart show in the evening which has personality presenters and features and there is a request show in the evening which is based around audience interaction and playing the most music.

    Capital need to recognise that it is fine being a hit music station and playing as many songs as they can per hour at off-peak times. e.g. 10am-4pm but variety and SOME content is required to keep the listeners intrigued. It could be as simple as calling a texter back who has an interesting story and making a joke out of it on-air but the format is lame and Capital is lacking substance right now.
    Think they did a show which was all about that, Chris Moyles did it years ago on Saturday night. I think it's worth them trying to bring back the 48 hours feature they had on Galaxy, could you imagine the amount of support they'd get from having that? Ministry, Gate Crasher, Maybe Ibiza Live again (but live sets from huge stars who get regular plays on the station.)
    Andi Durrant's show proves to be a huge hit with the weekend listeners and it's what the majority of teenagers (their target audience) are into right now.
  • smurfs5smurfs5 Posts: 580
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    Andi Durrant's show proves to be a huge hit with the weekend listeners and it's what the majority of teenagers (their target audience) are into right now.

    I love Andi's show but due to its time slot, I don't get to listen to that much of it.
    You're right that the music on Andi's show is exactly what its target demographic want to hear right now. Capital should recognise that Andi's show could be an even bigger ratings winner for them.
    Capital wouldn't have the balls to do it but it would be great if they moved his show to 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights to compete with Mac/Tong on Radio 1 and take the listeners which R1 might lose on a Saturday night due to their RnB-focused shows.
    I'd have Andi on from 7-10 with Pandora on at 10pm on Fridays and Will on at 10pm on Saturdays, bringing it in line with the time of his other shows on Sunday-Thursday. Obviously, James Barr would be preferable but Will and Pandora aren't capable of carrying Capital's weekend night shows IMO.
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