Originally Posted by Funk You:
“I do get commercial radio but what I'm saying is Heart tagline says it plays a variety of music when really they do not. They play pop music and have a rather poultry few hours of club classics which again is the same old tunes, they do not connect to everyone because not everyone listens to it. I think if they opened up their resources more they would certainly find that people would listen a hell of a lot more. I have been asked to do a dance music show on a local station that is community and I won't be playing club classics like the old DJ they had I shall be playing upfront dance music from many styles ranging from house to hardcore to trance to drum n bass so that it caters for more listeners.
Its a shame heart does not expand and I know what the replies will be "its not that sort of station" but what Im highlighting is the fact that after all these years Heart still is crap and plays crap.”
The problem with trying to cater for more listeners in the way you describe is that actually, you'll often alienate more listeners and subsequently end up with less. To use the example of your dance music show - I'm a fan of funky/progressive house, but have little or no interest in hardcore and drum n bass. If you presented a show dedicated to house I may well listen to all of it, but if you followed a couple of great house tracks with 10 minutes of hardcore or drum n bass, I'd probably tune away. You'd lose me, and probably many other listeners by trying to be too diverse. You'd give me a bit of what I like, followed by a bit of something I dislike.
This is why, in increasingly competitive markets, commercial radio operators have discovered that the key to success is a focused, consistent offering. Capital play rhythmic hit music, Smooth play laid-back, relaxing, familiar tracks, and Heart simply play the big songs from the last 3 decades or so that they know their listeners want to hear. You don't need to be too clever, you don't need to educate your audience, and you
do need to understand that those behind these big quasi-national brands understand the market and know what they're doing.
You are wanting Heart to be something it was never designed to be. It's like going into Lidl and being disappointed that they don't have a champagne and oyster bar, or heading to Fortnum and Mason and moaning because they don't do 20p 'value' cans of beans.
Out of interest, will your community radio show feature music that you know your target audience want to hear, or music you like that you think they want to hear? In the real world of commercial radio, it needs to be the former, in community radio you can probably get away with the latter.