Radio Caroline ... Is it time for a change now?
LaurelandHardy
Posts: 3,806 Forum Member
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Don't get me wrong, although I have commented on the poor standards of presentation on Radio Caroline lately, I wouldn't be without the station and I am pleased it is still on the air.
I do enjoy the music played on the station as a lot of it just is not played anywhere else and I am literally pigged off with the narrow playlists of many of the UK radio stations and the extreme amounts of excellent music that is totally ignored by the radio bosses who think they know what we all want to hear.
However, the success of the Radio Caroline North RSL and the lack of a decent oldies station on the air in many areas of the UK now has prompted me to ask if anyone else thinks it is time for Radio Caroline to change it's format to an oldies station (by oldies I mean not the predictable rubbish played ad-infinitum on many stations)
I know that there are many internet radio stations playing a wide variety of oldies, including many dedicated decade stations. But I would rather it be Caroline playing the oldies than some faceless internet station.
It seems strange to me that throughout it's 50 years of being on (and off!) the air, Radio Caroline has only been a pop music station for about 3 years in the 1960s and 4 to 5 years in the 1980s, yet that is how many people remember the station and many of my friends who have listened to Radio Caroline North recently have enjoyed the oldies being played and when they have listened to the main output of Radio Caroline they have been disappointed.
So, is it time for Caroline to re-invent itself as a 1950s to 1980s wide variety of pop music station? I certainly think it would be better doing so, it would certainly re-attract the audience that used to listen to the station ... providing it made the public aware of it and not just sit there stagnating like it is doing right now.
I do enjoy the music played on the station as a lot of it just is not played anywhere else and I am literally pigged off with the narrow playlists of many of the UK radio stations and the extreme amounts of excellent music that is totally ignored by the radio bosses who think they know what we all want to hear.
However, the success of the Radio Caroline North RSL and the lack of a decent oldies station on the air in many areas of the UK now has prompted me to ask if anyone else thinks it is time for Radio Caroline to change it's format to an oldies station (by oldies I mean not the predictable rubbish played ad-infinitum on many stations)
I know that there are many internet radio stations playing a wide variety of oldies, including many dedicated decade stations. But I would rather it be Caroline playing the oldies than some faceless internet station.
It seems strange to me that throughout it's 50 years of being on (and off!) the air, Radio Caroline has only been a pop music station for about 3 years in the 1960s and 4 to 5 years in the 1980s, yet that is how many people remember the station and many of my friends who have listened to Radio Caroline North recently have enjoyed the oldies being played and when they have listened to the main output of Radio Caroline they have been disappointed.
So, is it time for Caroline to re-invent itself as a 1950s to 1980s wide variety of pop music station? I certainly think it would be better doing so, it would certainly re-attract the audience that used to listen to the station ... providing it made the public aware of it and not just sit there stagnating like it is doing right now.
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Same question as just asked then, and if there was one why.
I don't know of any either, but I wasn't asking that.
While we are on that subject, Caroline needs to stop relying on listener support also. It may be running comfortably for the moment, but the trouble with people is that they get older and eventually die. I can't see the next generation of people being willing to part with their money to help support a radio station that many of them will not have heard of.
Why is that Caroline seems to attract people who don't like it, but who want to change it, rather than move on.
There is so much choice out there, that only those, that like complaining, do so. Others exercise their choice and move on.
Like I said in my original post, I would rather it be Caroline than some other station.
If we all moved on, Caroline would have no listeners at all.
I fear for the future of the station if it carries on like it is doing.
But I was and I now don't understand why you've asked the question since as a supporter you've presumably seen article in Horizon last year saying the format will not be changing as the supporters are perfectly happy with the format as it is, as are the supporters of WFMU, a free form non commercial station in the US I listen to and hundreds of others. It's because of listener support that they continue on the air. They are all also run by volunteers so the cost base is very low so I don't understand your claim that they need to go commercial. So as you don't know any listener supported stations that have closed down how many have gone commercial and for what reasons? The format is less stagnant than a gold one as it includes new music, I'd assume the decades based album format + new music, and there's a wide range, would just continue.
I've no idea what will happen in 20 years time, nor I would suggest has anyone else.
Listening hours are increasing and the finances are fine. No extra donations were asked for during the Top 500 Easter weekend broadcasts.
I really can't understand why I and many other loyal listeners should be deprived of the music that Caroline plays just so that others can hear their style of music.
I don’t see why the guys at Caroline North can’t stay on the air permanently and offer the music format that many say is special in today’s radio scene. There is no need to use the Caroline name, its the music that people want so call the station by another name.
A "Caroline Extra" is definitely needed though. There is an audience for it.
Why ? So that you can listen to something that's tailor made for your personal taste ?
It isn't going to happen !
I and many others love what Caroline is doing.
OK-I don't like everything but that's going to be the case on any station you choose to listen to.
I would agree with an 'Extra' station as I have only listened to Caroline a few times and I didn't care much for some of the album tracks. An Extra type station could play anything from the 1950's and 60's up to say early 90's as not many station focus much with late 80's/early 90's music.
It could have any number of formats as could a second stream from any non commercial listener supported station, there's plenty of jazz ones in the US for example that could easily split as its such a wide genre, but for any listener supported station to launch a second stream needs extra volunteers and income to cover the licencing and other costs.
I think that's happening now !
As to more outlets - online is the future.
All the big stations are pumping their apps and tablet presence.
When 5 G comes along it will free up 4 and 3 G and in-car stereo systems are being produced now.
Why bother with AM and FM at all ?
Why? I have explained "why" several times, I am not about to do it again.
Me too. For those that are hard of thinking, I shall repeat what I said in my original post that "although I have commented on the poor standards of presentation on Radio Caroline lately, I wouldn't be without the station and I am pleased it is still on the air"
and
"I do enjoy the music played on the station as a lot of it just is not played anywhere else and I am literally pigged off with the narrow playlists of many of the UK radio stations and the extreme amounts of excellent music that is totally ignored by the radio bosses who think they know what we all want to hear"
and I was just asking ..
... the success of the Radio Caroline North RSL and the lack of a decent oldies station on the air in many areas of the UK now has prompted me to ask if anyone else thinks it is time for Radio Caroline to change it's format to an oldies station (by oldies I mean not the predictable rubbish played ad-infinitum on many stations)
I. like yourself Bob enjoy Radio Caroline, the music is excellent and some of the presentation is good, some of it is bloody atrocious and you can not deny that. If you think otherwise than can I have some of what you are on please?
Seek and ye shall find!
Please stop being so negative. I was only asking a question.
Quoting my original post YET again!
I know that there are many internet radio stations playing a wide variety of oldies, including many dedicated decade stations. But I would rather it be Caroline playing the oldies than some faceless internet station.
Comments are always welcome to my original post but please read it first.
But the station had decided on an album format and many people like it so your question is irrelevant.
Fair enough, but that was before the Radio Caroline North RSL came on and people who were in their teens and twenties during the 1960s (who thanks to Caroline' s lack of publicity didn't know the station was still on the air) have been re-introduced to the station. I was just wondering if the Caroline North format would work on the main Radio Caroline? Not just for MY entertainment but for the many others who listened in the 1960s and love the music being played on Caroline North.
I remember one day during one of Don's weekday shows, it went off the air for 15 minutes. Someone had plugged in a faulty kettle and fused the whole lot, but nobody minded too much.
We have to give allowance that whatever perceived faults that there may be, that that has always been the way Caroline has been. The delight that listeners have always had is that there is no pressure that there is with any other station. If someone wants to play a track and talk about it for 15 minutes, that's fine.
Perhaps to progress the thread, could the original poster quantify what for him are the areas that he feels need improving ? Then those of you who are regular listeners now can actually be talking about something concrete, rather than talking in conceptual terms ?
We did feel at the end of the 1960s that the station's ID or jingle set ( or whatever the correct technical term is ) needed refreshing. Talking to friends who work in radio, they tell me that this is a recognised regular feature, to freshen things up. This was our first experience of this progression, but it was one that we felt Caroline of the late 1960s needed to make.
I'm not convinced that automated playout systems are of any benefit to a station such as Caroline. Let's have people in total control of what tracks are broadcast. In particular, what is unnerving with automation is that there is no pause between one event finishing and another starting. It is just a continual wall of sound. By all means have a database of thousands of tracks on an automated selection system, but have a human getting them to play on Caroline, not a computer.
I also have concerns with internet-only stations. It is often possible to tell when it is daytime in the country that an internet station is aimed at. There may be hundreds or even low thousands of listeners. At night time, that drops to very low numbers or zero. We've already read the headlines a few weeks ago that the BBC is worried about the amount it costs them to stream to the internet. I hope that Caroline will think carefully about being an internet-only station.
But good luck to all concerned. I say this as a veteran fan, and someone who appreciated ( and still does ) the benefits that Caroline North brought to our lives in the 1960s, a time of such cultural revolution.
So the current Caroline is no longer to their taste .
So move along.
It's a bit like asking the BBC to revert to the Home Service and we all know where that led.