At 9am Capital FM Birmingham's news was just about Bin Laden, no showbiz or celebrity mentions. Seemed to be longer than usual although maybe that was because it was just the one story.

Most Capital FM shows are listen again on the Radioplayer if anyone wants to check them.

Are they finally listening?

No, there has finally been a completely dominant serious news story.

James Barr's show is so much dancier! Kiss should probably be doing this sort of show instead of so much hip-hop/rnb, but Kiss are doing just fine at the moment so I doubt they are concerned. However, I like it a lot. Capital need to set themselves apart. At the moment during the day they are just a more repetitive version/non-local version of the heritage stations (this mainly applies in the North of the country as the South has been robbed of heritage stations mostly!). So, stuff like this definitley helps.

Sounding great. I'm massively confused by all this. Surely can't last.

It's been said before, and sorry for repeating it, but I don't understand why they are bringing back dance mixes on Saturday night when Dave Kelly has now left. Dave was in the mix on New Years Eve after not doing it for a few months and that was great, but they seem to be bringing this type of thing back after he left which is a shame.

James Barr is doing a great job at the moment. Although, I do miss the callers and banter of Dave's show a lot. I'm interested in Capital's next RAJAR.

What are they at the moment? CHR? Dance?

Juice FM - 107..6FM - in Liverpool is how Capital should sound in London. It shouldn't, in my view, be aligned with stations of a dance/r'n'b format as Kiss is already there. Juice has really hot imaging, is fast-paced, tight playlist but with stuff like The Killers and The Strokes in there. Capital FM London would be a roaring success if it offered a true hit format alternative and not just Kiss LITE. I understand why Capital sounds like it does now, because it has to allow for all of the formats of the stations it has networked with, but it must be a nightmare for Global. They are constantly looking over their back for Ofcom and doing shows just to make up specialist hours, etc. I think they will learn in time that Capital in London is going to be damaged, even if the other licences show improvements.

You describe this as if it was OFCOM that mandated Capital network and hence caused this "nightmare" for Global. However let's remember it was Global's choice and decision to network Capital. They didn't need to - nor do they still need to continue it !! --especially given the split output of "live London" versus "voicetracked Network". 18 months ago Capital was sounding great with "true hit music" including artists such as the Killers / Kings of Leon etc. It screamed of London with the audience interaction. Personally I hope Capital in London fails massively in this RAJAR if only to give a few individuals a good kick up the backside they need. I also hope Bauer do tremendously well as they really are standing out in comparison to Global in producing and providing "high quality output" in comparison to the rather lazy "ipod shuffle" effect heard recently on (in particular) Capital.

I think Ofcom have gave them a nudge about the music policy and lack of specialist hours ahead of any formal action. I can't see Global doing it out of their own choice (unless they're running scared of Kiss). James Barr's new show is far more dancier than Dave Kelly's was and Olly Murs/Take That etc have all vanished from the daytime playlist.

Whatever the reason, it's great to have Galaxy back in all but name.

Re: Local news bulletins.

Ofcom has just released revised news guidelines ( http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/bro...ess-guidelines ) which will impact on Capital's news bulletins, especially in the East Mids.

Rather liking James in his new slot, heard him a few times on Galaxy and it's nice to have him back in a (decent) regular slot.

Very interesting, good spot.

One suspects the following was written with Global in mind - although it'll affect other groups too.


So, in a nutshell, bulletins entirely made up of one or two-line copy stories aren't acceptable, off-peak bulletins must be as comprehensive as peak-time ones, and where stations have merged into one regional service, like many of the Hearts and Capital East Midlands, each bulletin must contain a story from each local patch.

Global are guilty on all counts - but will anything change?

Dunno if I'd go that far, it's only a few hours when most of us are bed.

Instead of making the news longer to fit in a local story from each area. I can just see the newsreaders recording a different builiten for each TX and then them being all fired at the same time.

News was done on RAM at the weekends very much like this for many months/years before Capital.

The whole playlist is sounding like Galaxy did, not just overnight (i.e. rhythmic again, no Take That, Olly Murs etc)

To be fair, neither Take That or Olly Murs have had a track out lately, have they?

I was thinking of this - also their last tracks didn't chart too high either.

We'll just have to see if slower tracks return to the playlist. Right now, there's only one track (Adele - Someone Like You) which wouldn't meet the 'rhythmic' definition, far less then a few months ago. Looking at what Bauer are playing on Radio City/Rock FM, there's a few tracks (Take That/McFly/Jeniffer Hudson/The Script) which aren't on Capital's playlist.

But even if we say it's purely a coincidence that the current Capital playlist is so dance/rnb based, something has definitely happened to lead to the return of specialist shows/mixes on weekend evenings and a more dance based late show.

I welcome these new guidelines massively as news is getting overlooked. I agree it is expensive but between more local shows and less local news, or less local shows and more local news - the latter every time, I'm afraid.

I'd welcome this massively. Each license in a merged station should be made to do its own news bulletin, or at least a recorded optout within (like what happens on some regional TV news shows.)

....that certainly sounds like something Capital and to some extent Heart should be reading!

Pretty sure that I read the bulletins should be done live and not recorded, somewhere on the ofcom pages but a recorded local would be better than a live regional in my book.

Not sure if it was one off, or what, but I think the networked bulletins are always pre-recorded. Even if only by a few minutes before transmission. I remember hearing the same 4pm news go out twice. Not possible if it was live, surely.

For those who are unaware, Summertime Ball is back.............

So for the next month, some mention of the Summertime Ball will be shoehorned into every DJ link.

James Barr show sounding excellent though. I thought that with Dave Kelly gone the late night show would be a bit bland; but the remixes and new music is a really good replacement. I hope it continues.

It *IS* acceptable to pre-rec news "shortly before transmission."

The smaller stations who are clagging local tags onto the back of Sky need a look at too. For example, at 5pm and 6pm today - drive time - I heard the same local tag go out off the back of a national bulletin. The local content consisted of two stories

One was a professor at a local University saying that the death of Osama Bin Laden did not mean the War On Terror was over. (A sentiment every leading politician was running with 36 hours ago, anyway!)

The other story was that the Police had fined several people in a "day of action" for using mobile phones at the wheel. This "day of action" was however some time ago.

Another station on Monday was shown up very embarrassingly when a major fire broke out in the most important part of their TSA. With the tags recorded probably on Friday, that didn't help matters much.

That, to me, is not local news, nor is it local radio.

In my opinion, the use of Sky and Tags should be banned anyway. It makes otherwise respectable stations look very Mickey Mouse.

Really, local news broadcasts need to be accompanied by a degree of journalistic cover, whether that be on or off site.

I'd say the opposite.
Handing over to Sky adds to the cred of the news.