Some of the Real stations had "Sport" added to the formats, when Ofcom carried out the change of control reviews following the Global takeover. They'll have to try and meet this requirement somehow..
In their change of control review Ofcom say they don't require live sports commentary, but they require the ex-Reals to do the sports bulletins during breakfast and drive that Real were doing before the stations changed hands. News and sport have been added as "important ingredients" in the format, rather than just being an addition to the format.
I think breakfast & drive on the ex-Reals will sound very different to the other Hearts. Somehow they have to meet the 30% daytime (6am-7pm) speech requirement so breakfast and drive will have to be speech heavy (the 10am-4pm networked daypart is currently only 9% speech). The original plan for Wales & Scotland was to have a 20 minute news show (The Way It Is) at 6.40pm which would have helped the daytime speech quota.
But you have to take your hat off to Global. It's only recently become blatantly obvious what they're up to. In the west of Scotland alone they now can present advertisers with 15-35 (Capital), 25-45 mums (Heart), 35-55 including many who wouldn't normally listen to commercial radio (Smooth), and another station to cover indie-loving blokes (mainly) who aren't interested in any of this (XFM). When we reach the point when FM is on the way down and people listen more through TV, apps, DAB and so forth, people will easily find these brands wherever they are. Right now they've got a massive pincer movement in most of the UK, and the business have been futureproofed. Nice work.
And yet none of those stations appeals to blokes in their early 40s like me (whereas JACK and Absolute more tend to). If ever I needed proof that heart is heavily female focused (I don't, for the record, but just say I did), I saw it on their website over the weekend:
Heart is heavily female-focused. It's supposed to be. Mums aged 25-45 are who advertisers want - they're the ones who are the spenders, predominantly because when you've got kids you're going to spend a ton of money, and despite the fact we're in the 21st century women are mainly doing the shopping and mainly making the purchasing decisions.
Advertisers don't really know what to sell to men, hence the constant loop of betting beer and cars you get when TV stations are showing football.
Heart is heavily female-focused. It's supposed to be. Mums aged 25-45 are who advertisers want - they're the ones who are the spenders, predominantly because when you've got kids you're going to spend a ton of money, and despite the fact we're in the 21st century women are mainly doing the shopping and mainly making the purchasing decisions.
Advertisers don't really know what to sell to men, hence the constant loop of betting beer and cars you get when TV stations are showing football.
Based on a non-scientific study of the likes/conversations of the guys who I work with (we're an all male company, 6 programmers in one office, 1 sales guy, 1 marketing guy and the owner, the phrase "men behaving sadly" doesn't quite cut it sometimes! ), I can conclusively report that advertisers would need to advertise the following to appeal to us:
Biscuits
Porn
Cars
Women (but only those "who would get it")
Biscuits
Pot Noodle
Latest cinema/movie releases (esp. if they contain females "who would get it")
Earl Grey tea (we have a couple of very manly guys who have no problem with their sexuality who however seem to love what is dubbed "Earl Gay" tea by the rest of us)
Coffee (the posh stuff in capsules that you use in those special machines and not that instant stuff, yuk)
Prostitutes
Anything mobile phone/computer tech related, especially if it's better/faster/sleeker than anything the rest of us already has.
Biscuits
Games consoles
You'd think that would be enough to get advertisers thinking of something to pitch to us eh?
'Really think for balance Absolute or one of the JACKs should do a spoof male alternative'
In France, long established NRJ Group, near equivalent of Global but better,
include 'Rire et Chansons' for just that audience, for real - no pun intended.
'Laughter and Songs'.
Classic rock tracks intersperst with comedy sketches and stand-up stuff.
Global seriously needs to change the web sites now as there still showing co presenters on Real north west and yorkshire who is no longer there i.e Dixie and Gail!! Gail as gone ,or on the north west station Lorna and graham he as now gone and surely by now they need to feature stuff that's on the heart sites surely keeping it looking like Real radio must be miss leading ?
Global seriously needs to change the web sites now as there still showing co presenters on Real north west and yorkshire who is no longer there i.e Dixie and Gail!! Gail as gone ,or on the north west station Lorna and graham he as now gone and surely by now they need to feature stuff that's on the heart sites surely keeping it looking like Real radio must be miss leading ?
just listening to Real breakfast Yorkshire it looks like Gail as gone all ready,No time tunnel yet however on The Flash back there playing the time tunnel music bed and have no sweeper on the end
With gayle gone whos presenting with dixie this week
Global seriously needs to change the web sites now as there still showing co presenters on Real north west and yorkshire who is no longer there i.e Dixie and Gail!! Gail as gone ,or on the north west station Lorna and graham he as now gone and surely by now they need to feature stuff that's on the heart sites surely keeping it looking like Real radio must be miss leading ?
Graeme Smith is still very much there, well at least he was this morning, I tuned in briefly just after 7am, Lorna was excitedly telling him that she's been followed by Jedwood and it was amazing etc. etc. blah blah... I tuned out again.
Looking at the various Facebook pages again there's a few comments like "whats all this heart stuff!!!! ive retuned to city fm!!!!". At the moment it's still Real in all but name, with the same presenters and music. These must be the kind of people who would (for no logical reason) stop shopping in ASDA if it changed its name to Walmart.
I think we've been here before with Heart re-brands so we know how it will pan out. Its usually a bit messy leading up to D Day then the listener thinks this is new, I'll give it a go.
Heart is already (in the case of Yorkshire) on the Regional MUX anyway so its no secret what it will sound like. The same as now with Dixie and this new girl at Breakfast and Rich Williams from Radio Aire on Drive, apart from that - the same as Heart London on weekdays.
As for 24 hour news - I predict a quick 60 seconds (like Smooth do) during the top of the hour ad break - we'll see. No point in being too excited about it all though!!!
Anyone noticed how the Real North East facebook page no longer allows people to make new postings, all you can do now is reply to postings they make. They've deleted the other postings entirely, too many negative comments perhaps?
"The Heart of the North East... This is Real Radio". One pound in the swear jar Debbie Mac.
Sadly I missed that, been hearing lots of "Heart is coming" though, rather too much actually, they must be exhausted/dehydrated by now they've been "coming" so much!
Sadly I missed that, been hearing lots of "Heart is coming" though, rather too much actually, they must be exhausted/dehydrated by now they've been "coming" so much!
If Debbie is networked at the moment then that would have had to be pre-recorded...
Comments
In their change of control review Ofcom say they don't require live sports commentary, but they require the ex-Reals to do the sports bulletins during breakfast and drive that Real were doing before the stations changed hands. News and sport have been added as "important ingredients" in the format, rather than just being an addition to the format.
I think breakfast & drive on the ex-Reals will sound very different to the other Hearts. Somehow they have to meet the 30% daytime (6am-7pm) speech requirement so breakfast and drive will have to be speech heavy (the 10am-4pm networked daypart is currently only 9% speech). The original plan for Wales & Scotland was to have a 20 minute news show (The Way It Is) at 6.40pm which would have helped the daytime speech quota.
Once heard a competition winner shout that out on FORTH
Priceless.
Wot, not 7-second-delay then, chaps?
'Breakfast shows are normally speech-heavy on most radio stations'
Speech, or just drivel?
And yet none of those stations appeals to blokes in their early 40s like me (whereas JACK and Absolute more tend to). If ever I needed proof that heart is heavily female focused (I don't, for the record, but just say I did), I saw it on their website over the weekend:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BlqwCVJCQAAW9rt.png
Really think for balance Absolute or one of the JACKs should do a spoof male alternative - "niceknob - because only your jokes should be cheesy"
Advertisers don't really know what to sell to men, hence the constant loop of betting beer and cars you get when TV stations are showing football.
Based on a non-scientific study of the likes/conversations of the guys who I work with (we're an all male company, 6 programmers in one office, 1 sales guy, 1 marketing guy and the owner, the phrase "men behaving sadly" doesn't quite cut it sometimes!
Biscuits
Porn
Cars
Women (but only those "who would get it")
Biscuits
Pot Noodle
Latest cinema/movie releases (esp. if they contain females "who would get it")
Earl Grey tea (we have a couple of very manly guys who have no problem with their sexuality who however seem to love what is dubbed "Earl Gay" tea by the rest of us)
Coffee (the posh stuff in capsules that you use in those special machines and not that instant stuff, yuk)
Prostitutes
Anything mobile phone/computer tech related, especially if it's better/faster/sleeker than anything the rest of us already has.
Biscuits
Games consoles
You'd think that would be enough to get advertisers thinking of something to pitch to us eh?
In France, long established NRJ Group, near equivalent of Global but better,
include 'Rire et Chansons' for just that audience, for real - no pun intended.
'Laughter and Songs'.
Classic rock tracks intersperst with comedy sketches and stand-up stuff.
I wonder if The Arrow will replace Real XS in Manchester?? The Real name lives on... on 106.1 in Manchester, for now anyway!!!
I can see people complaining to Ofcom about this.
An ofcom complaint about a website?
As long as the public file is up to date then it's fine.
With gayle gone whos presenting with dixie this week
His ego.
Graeme Smith is still very much there, well at least he was this morning, I tuned in briefly just after 7am, Lorna was excitedly telling him that she's been followed by Jedwood and it was amazing etc. etc. blah blah... I tuned out again.
(what was that again about "relatable content"?)
Heart is already (in the case of Yorkshire) on the Regional MUX anyway so its no secret what it will sound like. The same as now with Dixie and this new girl at Breakfast and Rich Williams from Radio Aire on Drive, apart from that - the same as Heart London on weekdays.
As for 24 hour news - I predict a quick 60 seconds (like Smooth do) during the top of the hour ad break - we'll see. No point in being too excited about it all though!!!
No sign of James Cusack who has left Capital or Elisa Hilton from Real Yorkshire weekends which is a shame.
Sadly I missed that, been hearing lots of "Heart is coming" though, rather too much actually, they must be exhausted/dehydrated by now they've been "coming" so much!
If Debbie is networked at the moment then that would have had to be pre-recorded...
You sure you're not hearing things? ;-)
www.radiofeeds.co.uk/dabtable.html
if this had been the case and she did say real radio I imagine she will be getting a nice e mail from global giving her a ticking of for it lol