As someone who has done community radio, it gives me an insight into what's going on.

If you listen to all the Breeze stations on an internet radio for example, you'll hear exactly the same tunes on The Breeze Bath, the Breeze Portsmouth, the Breeze Newberry, etc, even though the presenters are different. So all they're doing is sitting in front of a touchscreen computer using a play out system e.g Myriad. All they really need to do is push a few buttons and talk a bit. There's not that much skill involved, other than needing to have a good radio voice.

It must be really boring and frustrating for radio presenters.

I feel sorry for the seasoned pro's such as Pat Sharp and Simon Bates.

Some anonymous producer has put that playlist together. He or she has decided what the listeners want to hear, not the listeners themselves (or indeed the presenters).

Original and creative it definitely ain't

The same thing happens on the Q Radio network in NI.

I suppose these days it's all about advertisers and R.A.J.A.R. figures.

Gina Mellotte.

So you've done some community radio and think you know what happens in commercial radio ?


Firstly it wouldn't be a producer it would be a Music team with a Head of Music that has put the playlist together working with the brand PD to fit the criteria of the brand as set out by the Group PD (Richard Park). Targeting the music at the brands target lister.

The presenters i agree probably don't want to hear the songs as they have to listen to them day in day out for 3 + hours in most cases but who cares? Radio is to entertain the lister not the presenter.

Listeners do want to hear the songs, while in community radio you just pick what you want to hear commercial playlist undergo a lot of research. Songs are tested on focus groups with people of the target audience day in day out to find what listeners want to hear more of, less of or what they think of new songs coming out.

Now heres your biggest mistake, there is a lot more skill in presenting tight format radio. You can just go that was this is but as you say thats boring. This is where good presenters come into a world of their own cramming in oozes of personality in a 20 second speed link, listen to the likes of Steve Denyer on Heart WM for a great example. Another great one was James Barr, his links oozed personality is tight quick links. Just because there not waffling for 2 minutes doesn't mean the link doesn't have personality, it's called word economy.Long links are usually repetitive and bits are added that are not needed, you can do a 20 second link that says exactly the same with as a 2 minute one but its better because it gets rid of the waffle.

Lastly of course it's about the advertisers, its a business and it's there to make money.

Yes you can do personality style links in a tight format but very few presenters seem capable of pulling it off.
As for the jingles funnily enough as a listener since Smooth came on DAB here under GMG yes I was aware that they previously had both sung jingles and sweepers.

very innovative start to the three from one at three by Fleetwood mac this afternoon with pat sharp....McFadden and whitehead's 'aint no stopping us now!! ...different!

This is Smooth may become This is Capital Gold, I can predict the Capital Gold format too:

1 min news
Music
Hello how you all doing?
Website Plug
Music again
Tweet readout/Website plug
Adverts
Another we love Capital Gold readout from Twitter
Website plug
Same music as earlier

Well, I've an idea what's going on since I've seen the Myriad play out system in action and can listen to several different Q network radio stations.

To me it just sounds totally bland.

and all done on a touchscreen computer with a playlist.

This is exactly what I mean.

Nice safe radio with no tunes or chat that the target listeners will not like, they can have safely have on as background music. Seems to work with rajar listening figures and some key advertisers.

At least with community radio risks and creativity can still exist.

I don't know about the Q network so that could well be crap in the same way GMG's version of Smooth was crap. I don't get what relevance Myriad has to do with the argument ? For the listener it is exactly the same as the jock using CD's.

You may have an idea of what goes on in the studio (although i doubt you even know that on a network scale) but you certainly don't on the production side both in terms of producing content and the production of the log. It may sound bland to you and to be fair Smooth is far from perfect at the moment but the likes of Sharp and Carlos are sounding a lot better. As i say listen around the local Hearts and Capitals and hear what some jocks can do with a 20 second speed link. Steve Denyer as i say is fantastic at this on Heart WM and on Club Classics on the network.

Who's on next week?

Call Carlos. Great one caller an hour what's the bloody point in that.

So many technical problems listening tonight, no 8pm news, David played 2 songs over each other earlier, (Sweet Freedom & The Stylistics), ad breaks cut short, silence then a track played (with no station ident). You would think the technical issues would have been ironed out by now!

Things could be changing. Carlos is on song 5 no ads yet in the 9pm hour. I for one am excited where global are going to take smooth.

To all of those who think Smooth will be turned into Capital Gold - you could not be more wrong. Global will want to position Smooth as a soft leaning adult hits station to compete with Magic 105.4 and to bring that format to other markets.

To Hertz: What has "having a touchscreen playout" and "having seen Myriad" got anything to do with anything? All major radio stations, including Radio 2, have digital playout systems - it has nothing to do with the lack or not of perceived personality from the presenter

If they lower the adds it would be a good thing but sadly too many repeat tracks for me to enjoy it and no I'm not an anorak I just like more variety. As for 5 songs maybe the technical fault had stuffed the adds up. It will soon go back to 3 songs then loads of adds no doubt.

Ads are a good thing in commercial radio, no? It will allow them to invest in things like presenters, photocopier paper and the coffee machine...

And contribute towards the £70 million apparently Global paid for Smooth and Real,
However GMG before the recession paid even more for the Jazz, Saga, Century, Scot etc FM licences that became Smooth and Real, and had to write most of it off!

Plainly nobody,let alone Jensen. minding the output.Heard that hour.It was a complete mess. And was Jensen giving out the text number too in that hour? Obviously for Carlos' benefit later. obviously.

Nothing wrong with Myriad per say. It's a great tool, and the one we had contained some very rare tracks indeed.

However, when a group of radio stations such as the Breeze are playing all the same songs when they're not being networked, it really does make you wonder.

All the presenter is doing is sitting before a touch screen computer and pressing buttons. That's just boring and bland.

Why can't the different versions of the Breeze not play different songs when they're not being networked ?????????? Likewise the Q radio network (actually, not that dissimilar to the Breeze in it's target audience).

It's not really that difficult to pick tracks for a two or three hour radio show, considering all the ads, announcements, and promos that happen during a show. That's my point.

There must be tracks that come up that the presenters really detest and yet, they have absolutely no input into what get's played on the show.

The play out system is just the soft wear, what tracks go on it are up to the station. Yours may well have had a lot of obscure tracks but i can guarantee any of Globals thankfully won't.

Here we go again for the 100th time, who cares weather the presenters are playing off carts or a pc its the output that maters and if anything a PC Playout system helps this as presenters don't have to worry about the technical side as much and can instead prep links. The reason they play the same log is to keep on brand, why would you want different songs for each station, 99% of listeners won't flick around the dial they will have 2 maybe 3 presets they listen to. Its not for the presenter to do a show for fun, this is there job. They get paid for it just like bus driver gets paid to drive a bus, doesn't mean he enjoys it but its allows him to live.

No it's not difficult to pick tracks but as i say what you find is good music another people will probably hate. This is why we now have playlist meetings and focus groups so that the music that is played is bang on to the audience. Even the likes of Radio 2 have these meetings.

Again who cares if a presenter hates a song ? Its not for the presenter to like it's for the listener.

Smooth seems to be hammering the song by America A Horse With No Name. That's 4 times over the course of this week. The presenters must be sick of hearing it.

Indeed, but it still shouldn't be difficult to pick tracks that are different and yet maintain the same genre for each station so that it doesn't appear as if the songs were chosen for the presenter.

The Myriad play out system really is excellent but I always feel it (or whatever database the commercial stations are using) really is being under utilised. It really should be a powerful and creative tool indeed, instead of the same old.

I think that's why Smooth Radio 70's was so good. It sounded as if the tracks and playlists were being chosen by enthusiasts, rather than anonymous producers who hadn't a clue what was being played in the 70's. I always heard songs I hadn't heard on the radio in a long, long, time, and there was a certain amount of listener input as well.
.

OH SMOOTH DO NOT INSULT MY INELLIGENCE AND MAKE ME BELIEVE THAT DAVE BROWN IS THERE.LET ALONE A TECH OP. THERE HAS JUST BEEN ONE HELL OF ALMIGHTY MESS ..THERE WAS A LINK BY DAVE BROWN SAYING HELLO TO SOMEONE IN ACRINGTON
APPERENTLY LISTENING. THEN ADS..HIS WEATHER ADS AND THE NEWS WERE ALL GOING OUT ON TOP OF EACH OTHER>
THEN SILENCE AND A DENIECE WILLIAMS RECORD STARTS.
THIS IS A QUASI NATIONAL STATION SOUNDING MOST UNPROFESSIONAL. ITS A TOTAL. UTTER> MESS

Much as I like Dave Brown... I'm afraid this is a shambles! I think he spoke twice in the first hour! The news at 1 AM and the lead up to it was a shambles! Sorry, but this is just not good enough Smooth!!!!!