The usual Heart technical standards then

This mornings Time Tunnel.- Madonna Dress You Up seemed to cut shorter on Londons Heart compared to Heart Sussex And Surrey.

Must have been 1985,then. Madonna had eight top ten hits that year. After Into The Groove hit No1,they re-released Holiday and it got to No2 at the same time as I recall.

But some of her very early hits (ie pre-True Blue album) are now largely forgotten,like Angel and Gambler.

Crazy For You and Lucky Star get an airing every now and then.

As we know Heart plays very little post 1990 Madonna stuff. Which is a pity.

I think Don't Tell Me from the Music album in 2000 is one of her best singles.

Can you contact ofcom every time a song you don't like gets played?

And no matter how many times you point this out, it don't make it any more useful. This debate is more repetitive than Heart's playlist. Variety within tunes not variety of tunes - ie. they play a variety of genres (not as many genres as a BBC national, I'd grant you) but don't play a variety of tunes.

I haven't trotted out the Harvester analogy for a little while so why not give it a spin. The Harvester chain is kind of the gastro equivalent of Heart: no-one would go to a Harvester expecting the greatest meal ever and true "foodies" would be disappointed with what they got, but for a quick dose of something you know you will like it serves its purpose. No-one would deny that Harvester serve a variety of meals - you'd struggle to not find something you'd like - but that doesn't mean they're going to shake the menu up every week to keep that variety. You visit again in a month, they'll have the same selection. You visit again in two months and they might have swapped a few items in and out but they have mostly the same selection.

People know what to expect when they go to a Harvester, and people know what to expect when they tune into Heart. Yes, you're probably no more than 30 minutes away from John Legend or Sam Smith or whoever, but this seems to be what people want. The only difference is, you don't seem to see people going back and back again to Harvester despite knowing it isn't their cup of tea and then moaning about it in numerous threads...

You admit that Heart's playllst is repetitive,indeed I don't think any objective listener who tuned in regularly could say otherwise. That's what makes their More Music Variety slogan just silly.

I know what you're getting at,they play a variety of genres of music - well,maybe they do,but as it's always the same records that they play from each style,I fail to see how this qualifies as real variety. I mean if I draw up a playlist that's got,say,twenty current hits,and ten each from the 80s,90s and 00s,that's fifty records covering 35 years. hey,more music variety! Now load that playlist into an iPod on shuffle and set it to play for five hours solid. That's what Heart's like,at least that what it sounds like if you listen to it for any length of time more than one day a week. There are just so few "spice" tracks,ie ones that you don't normally hear,you get a few on the Time Tunnel,but that's about it.

But as you say,I'm wasting my time complaining about it because it's not going to change.

Plus Prince, Feargal Sharkey, Simple Minds, Whitney 1985

Heart's playlist is definitely repetitive, but again this seems to be what people want. The slogan is just a catchy slogan and I don't know why people get so het up about it. Do people honestly believe the Carlsberg is "probably the best lager in the world"? Or that everyone who uses L'Oreal is "worth it", or for that matter that everyone who signs up for Bupa is "amazing"? Of course not. It's just a strapline, there's an interpretation of it (as discussed) that's correct, there's an interpretation of it (as repeatedly discussed) that's incorrect, but the level to which people seem to get themselves worked up over it is almost literally incredible.

Well,I've drunk Carlsberg Lager,it's OK,and I've met L'Oreal "ambassador" Cheryl Cole. Met her at a Girls Aloud album signing in Glasgow in 2005. Of course she was Cheryl Tweedy then. And she was really nice. All the Girls were.

Not signed up to Bupa so can't comment on that.

What a wasted opportunity earlier when Emma Willis was on Toby's show.
She is presenting two of the biggest and talked about entertainment shows of the moment yet Heart can only manage a rushed 30 seconds or so with her ? Why ?

Because their policy is minimal speech outside of breakfast. Speak for too long and listeners will retune.

If you want speech and music try Radio 1 or 2.

I'm sure many heart listeners are interested in big brother and the voice I hardly think if they would of spoke for a couple of minutes listeners would of switched off, probably the opposite, it actually made me pay attention as before it was just background noise. And I'm not saying they should become like the bbc stations but it wouldn't hurt once in a while to have a guest or some entertainment news.

On subject of Emma, what do DSers think of her sunday radio show she does with Stephen

That is a fabulous analogy!

Unfortunately a lot of people on the forums remain bitter and twisted and just want to hark back to the past. They should face reality, the ILR model in the 70s and 80s was never going to be financially viable, and the 90s expansion was just doomed (though may have been fun for a bit for those involved).

It seems the Harvester approach is at least financially viable, though not the high quality Sony winning format some people would like. Radio companies need to be financially viable, unless somebody is willing to fuel loss-making listener-less radio stations with their own cash - so rather than being commercially viable, they are just a rich person's hobby!

In other words "it's my way or no way".

Big group apologists are up early for a weekend.

Certainly not. Anybody is welcome to try another way - what way would you suggest? i worked at one point for a large radio company who pleaded poverty, and when they couldn't afford the milk delivery for the radio station I knew their time was up! 3 weeks later it was. A shame, as what came out of the speakers was award winning local radio.

Plenty of people including experienced radio programmers have thought like this in the past. They have tried to prove us all wrong and spent vast amounts (of someone elses money) proving this. No one has managed to find another way that's commercially viable.

Original wasted millions trying to prove it.

Can you think of anyone who's making a commercial sucess of it. By that I mean actually in profit.

Agreed. Original was a dfferent kind of station, unlike any other. It had a radical approach, played a real alternative mix of music and sounded nothing like Heart does now. So in many ways, it was great. Of course the problems was nobody listened!

The Time Tunnel at 2am is easily the best bit of the Heart overnight show. You get to hear a few records off the normal playlist,and it's half an hour where you will be spared having to listen to George Ezra,Ed Sheeran,Sam Smith or John Legend.

Last night it was 1984. They played some good tunes but felt the need to trot out Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want To Have Fun,a Heart standard that gets plenty of airplay anyway.

The presenter mentioned that one of the big films that year was Ghostbusters,with the theme tune by Ray Parker Jnr,a great record and very well known that was a massive hit at the time.

Why couldn't they have played that instead?

They also spent over a million pounds on marketing it I believe. That marketing was totally crap but the station never really recovered.

Jack is a good example of a station making a more male eclectic mix of music work but they do it by having next to no presenters.

No one that I can think of has made that style of radio work commercially.

Maybe she was in a rush to leave/go to another studio? From how it has been described it does sound like it was a missed opportunity though but can't judge properly having not heard it.


I'm not an avid listener but listen two or three times a month and quite enjoy it. If they did decide to change London breakfast Stephen and Emma would be the obvious choice but I doubt their schedules would allow it.

How would you do it differently then Mall? You're happy to deride the so-called "apologists" so what's your solution?

Is the 01:00-06:00 show on a Sunday automated?

This morning at around 05:40 on Heart Yorkshire, the presenter did a link, then a few seconds in, the same link was playing over the top of it.

Not sure what you mean by "automated",but I'm pretty sure there's a live presenter because at 3am she does that "text in and tell me what you're doing" thing. Real Radio used to do it as well,they called it the "3am club". I have always thought it's completely pointless,I mean,who cares?

But some people like to text in and get their name mentioned on the radio.

But as it's Heart,there will obviously be no mention of what part of the country they're in.

It could have been a pre-recorded split link in a live show that went a bit wrong - they often do a London link and 'rest of network' link.