must admit ive been pretty impressed with the music over the past 24 hours, its been much more varied - why cant they do this allll the time?

QUOTE]The audience for Club Classics is also a bit younger I'd imagine, and therefore one can get away with these songs there.[/quote]

Only very recently has that been true though. Up until about 3 weeks ago, it sounded cheesier than your aunt's wedding disco!!!!

Perhaps Heart could consider making Club Classics another show like the Big Top 40 Show, in that it attracts a totally different (younger) audience from the rest of the station. By this I mean, make Club Classics play basically the same as Kiss 100's daytime playlist????

Capital, Kiss and Radio 1 try and get young people in the mood for going clubbing every weekend by sounding like a pirate, playing specialist dance music that seldom few like, know or have heard of. However they've overlooked the fact that the majority of nightclubs do not actually play this stuff, they play chart hits anyway!!! And likewise, the majority of clubbers do not listen to or know this stuff.

Infact there is a big gap in the market for a show that gets young people in the mood for going out to commercial clubs, could Heart fill this gap by changing Club Classics the way I suggested above!!!!

Whatever else will hapen, you can't deny that Sister Sledge to Dizzee Rascal is quite a dramatic change already.


What about those in areas who can't pick up Capital then??? Or, those listening after 11pm at weekends when Capital goes into specialist programming????

Those people that don't have Capital will have other stations. Kiss in the HTV West and Anglia regions, Juice in Liverpool and Brighton, and there's always Radio 1.

Heart's never been interested in going after Capital's audience. It just doesn't make sense for Heart to suddenly target a totally different age range after 7pm. By all means, try and hit a younger crossover but don't become a totally different station.

Put simply, there's no commercial gain in Heart chasing the same audience that another Global band already does.

Also, bear in mind that if it was going to hit a bigger proportion of the audience, Global would have run Capital on the stations where that was clearly going to happen.

The days of a station trying to please everyone and in turn pleasing none are thankfully over.

Well what sort of choice have you got really?

Yes they are Heart but are they all playing the same thing at the same time, or are they all different?

But if you listen to Heart on a Sunday from 4pm/7pm, you'll find that they are attracting a completely different audience at that time and do sound like a different station, with a show playing chart songs that you'd never imagine hearing on Heart.


They all are, except London for some reason.

I think all the Hearts play exactly the same stuff at the same time, well they will in the networked shows, the only thing different will be the adverts, (local to your own area) and I am sure the local breakfast/drive shows share the same playlists but may be 1/2 mins either behind infront depending on how much the people talk on the varius stations.

Incorrect. There are different logs.

London & Birmingham have one log, everyone else has another.

Looking at the playlists for Heart's new 80s show, and I'm struck by how little New Romantics they seem to be playing on the show!!!!

It's meant to be an 80s show, and New Romantics was the main genre of the 1980s. However, they seem to almost pretend it never existed just because it doesn't fit in with their image of what an older woman would like.

Heart seem to be pretending that the 80s consisted exclusively of slow ballads, pop songs by female artists and disco songs that used to be heard on Club Classics, and that very little New Romantics existed, it's the other way round!!!!

I guess it's a bit like how the main genre of the 2010s so far seems to be R&B/Rap music, but anyone who listens exclusively to Heart would never guess this in a million years and think people today only ever make middle of the road stuff. They're basically doing the same as this but with a past decade.

And it seems they've only just realised that club music was still being made after the disco era in the 1970s.

No it wasn't New Romantics was not the main genre of the 80s. In fact the biggest female artist of the 80's was Madonna and the biggest male artist was MIchael Jackson, both of them i'm sure make a regular apearance on the Heart playlist.

As long as their 80's show is playing 80's songs does it matter. Iron Maiden were also big in the 80's but I don't think they'll feature on Heart anytime soon. It's their station and its up to them to decide what to play. I suppose you think Ofcom should regulate on that too.

Well, yes agree it's upto Heart what 80's they play on their 80's show. I listen to 80's Magic on Saturday afternoons sometimes (magic am) and they play more new romantic stuff and different stuff to Heart, because theur a different station, I notice Heart play the instantly recognisable pop from the 80's (mostly) but that's fine !

So I guess it's the same with those that listen exclusively to Absolute. I suppose they would never guess this in a million years either? Or those than listen exclusively to XFM?

Let's face it no matter what Heart do it will never be good enough for the Digital Spy Brigade.

I disagree.

I hear plenty of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Human League etc on Heart plus well-known 80s pop, 80s ballads, 80s rock and 80s disco.

That's...errr...more music variety. (Joey talks up the ramp into the sung ID)

Heart London had a much broader 80s show on Friday nights with Danny Pietroni and later Pat Sharp. It was later replaced with Club Classics with it's much more restrictive playlist.

Ah Mr Pietroni- I wish he could say more on mellow magic- but I know it's a more music. less talk station - he must hate being restricted to the minimum of speah as possible

Yes, I think that's what i kind of meant by saying they don't play enough New Romantics.


Yet more rap still was featured on tonight's show with the likes of Snoop Dogg (Signs), Busta Rhymes (I Know What You Want) and Nelly (Hot In Herre). Wouldn't have expected these on Heart. Heard Gangsta's Paradise yesterday afternoon too.

Then starts his next three links with

1 There you go...........

2 Yes indeedy.........


3 Hey all you lot out there.......

Just preparing us for the new signing...

Hey most DSer's say Westwood is to old for Radio 1. Westwood with Club Classics on a Friday maybe?

Gareth John seems to have disappeared from Heart - No longer listed on the website schedules. Vanessa Elms (ex KMFM/Breeze 107?) seems to be on Saturday and Sunday overnights.

I have to say Heart is sounding excellent recently with the new songs appearing on Club Classics; and the All 80s, All Night show. Also Heart Sussex had Tony Shepherd on Heart Breakfast last week with a more music breakfast show, which was a lot better than the usual breakfast show offering.

So much better than the usual Tom, Lynsey and Jack and their inane so called banter, and less songs.

Tony Shepherd in Crawley/Brighton was just a temporary thing I think.

On Saturday's Club Classics, they also played Steve Angello's version of Show Me Love instead of the original Robin S one. Makes a change

Much prefer to hear the Robin S one, I loathe the Steve Angello version

Didn't expect to hear the Steve Angello one on Club Classics. Infact I can't believe how much Club Classics has changed from when it used to be all 70s disco. I wonder what the reason behind these changes is?

Gareth John is now on Drivetime at Reading 107

Vanessa is very good - and still doing weekday breakfast on The Breeze.