Maybe Andi used to crank the bass control up on the mixer

It doesn't. The only difference is that Andi plays his own pre-recorded mixes he records at home, rather than the songs loaded onto Genesys.

It's likely he just has the bass a bit higher in the mix on his DJ mixer when recording the sets.

That, and his music is generally more bass-heavy. No changes happen at the local transmitter sites late on Friday nights though.

I wouldn't have thought processing isn't done at transmitter sites? It makes more sense to be pre-processed before getting to the transmitter back at the studios I would have thought?

They don't use Genesys to do on air mixes, its Serato and CDJ 1000's, or just CDJ 1000s. Got that fact out of Dave Kelly a while back (plus a video of him on the decks at Capital)

That's what I said in the part you quoted, Andi isn't playing the tracks of Genesys like the rest of the output is, he records them as mp3 using dj mixer and CDJs at home in the week I believe, so he may add more bass EQ on his mixes.

Processing is done at local sites yes (a copy of the blueprint for the group, and duplicated for each local station), and they are not changing the settings on them all on a Friday night, they were set up back in December and have been left the same since.

The processing settings in London only affects 95.8, so for the whole network to change they'd have to individually change all the processors at all the sites in the country. The local sites do have a copy of the same settings/kit though.

To change the processing for Andi's show alone would mean they'd have to reprogram the processing settings at local sites in Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Southampton, Scotland, London, Cardiff etc. It could be done remotely, but it's a lot of hassle and risky to change remotely when it cannot be heard.

But it's all elementary, they do not change the processing for individual shows.

I thought I'd sample Capital South Wales last night for the first time in a while.

7pm.... ad finishes.... then a gap of what seemed like about a minute, then sound came back mid-link.

Are there many problems like this?

I appreciate Andi does his at home, I was on about James Barr in my reply.

I'll put my hands up and accept maybe they don't change it, but how hard is it to setup a script that pushes settings to all units at one go? We're in the modern ages of the internet and technology, it can be done without the requirement of checking

It's not just as easy as setting up a script and changing the settings, you would need to listen to the output before changing the sound. If you're remotely changing the Yorkshire processor, for all you know, it could be worse than what was set previous.

Not seen much comment about the Rajar but I imagine the chiefs at Global will have been happy with the latest audience results for Capital not only in London but across the UK where Galaxy stations have been rebranded. (Still a bit early but the signs of acceptance of the branding change look quite positive).

South Coast didn't do too well!

- Lowest weekly reach since Q2/2009 - Down 5% Y-on-Y, and 3% Q-on-Q.
- Lowest audience share since Q1/2009.
- Also lost 76000 listening hours since last quarter, and average listen per listener is down from 7.1 to 6.5.

They clearly didn't listen to the processor when they changed the settings.

Good RAJAR or not - nobody in their right mind sets a processor up the way Capital's are. Sorry.

They might be doing well now - but that processing is going to screw them on hours long-term.

I think you industry folk are getting too wrapped up in the processing issue.

Anyone who could put up with the incessant effluent Capital plays isn't going to be worried if it's a bit tinny.

Suffering a bit of an identity crisis maybe ?

Interestingly I notice that Capital South Coast is measuring the same size TSA as Heart Solent and Gold Solent - which means that the audience is being measured outside its FM area and maybe even places where 103.2 does not reach - that could go someway to explain the drop in weekly reach percentage and audience share.

It would appear that Scott Hughes (and retweeted by Dave Kelly) agree with the rotation policy being a bunch of tosh... http://twitter.com/#!/ScottHughesUK/...14397166698496

I've always really liked Radio 1 but used to listen to Capital when Radio 1 went to the specialist shows in the evening. Since it changed to Capital I just don't bother any more. Seems to me like they have the same 15 songs on rotation and they don't play enough new music.

I too find it amazing Capital's figures have gone up but maybe I'm just outside their target audience or prefer more eclectic tastes rather than the same 20 songs on rotation ??

Well, we've been round this one so many times. I do find it profoundly depressing that such a humungously monotonous scope of "music" so tightly rotated appeals to as many kids as it does. Such tiny horizons. It's obviously what they want, as the Global crowd endlessly remind us, but as a youngster I was exposed to a much wider variety of music and this was represented in the charts of the day.

I've described it as a vortex, which is exactly what it is. They less variety of music they play, the less people hear, the less they buy and so on. Suits the drab programmers just fine. The comparison with McDonalds is also well used, but a perfect description. Very unhealthy to eat nothing else.

It's become impossible for any other genre of music to break through to mainstream.

I think this is more an issue with how music is signed, marketed and disseminated. People are exposed to new music via many sources nowadays - not just radio - and it's the major labels who are best at working this system and saturating all media with a new act. You also have to factor in that major-label A&R is very risk-adverse because of plummeting sales and the tough economic climate, so new signings are often similar to what has been popular/profitable recently.

It's a nonsense to blame radio for people's narrow tastes. That's wrongly assuming that radio has the same power in shaping musical tastes as it did 30 years ago. Commercial radio programmers only reflect what the largest proportion of the potential audience wants to hear, and its tastes are shaped by this multi-platform, major-label marketing machine.

I notice that, as previously mentioned, Capital are playing a lot more dance music now- sounding alot slicker!

James Barr "in the mix" tonight as well- should be good!

All these "in the mix" affairs don't quite qualify under Manchester, Newcastle and Yorkshire's licence format as "identifiable specialist output". Whilst it's better than the usual daytime output of a Saturday evening they should, at least on these stations, be broadcasting specialist Dance music from 1900 onwards if it's to count towards their specialist hours.

Trevgo: you make some very valid points, it's a pity there's no specialisation in music radio these days unless your lucky enough to hear a well run Community Station, only pirate stations seem to offer real alternative to the mainstream.

I can't see why not, it's something Galaxy did for ~10 years years on Saturday evenings. It's better than the normal playlist anyway Granted it's mainly pop remixes but it's more than we got a few weeks ago,

I'm really enjoing the return of some specialist shows at the weekend and the dance based weekday late show.

Oops, Dave Berry coming through on 103.2 and DAB across the South Coast..?

Aaaaand, Adam Inker is back!

I agree, originally Andi Durrant was on 1700-1900 before they moved him back two hours and put the "in the mix" stuff on. It was always on 1900-2100 on a Fri for about 8-10yrs.

The difference being, Galaxy was a dance/rnb station, Capital is not, it's a top 40 CHR station, it's more like Key 103 or Radio City than Galaxy/Kiss.

The only reason they do these shows is to fulfil the bare minimum of the old dance licences, but Ofcom are very week and will allow this for now, and probably do away with the requirements all together soon, meaning they can be a true pop station 24/7.

If you want to be pissed at anyone, blame Ofcom for allowing a service to replace one which was originally set up to be an alternative to what they're currently broadcasting. Basically we have two Key 103s/Metro FMs/Aire/Hallams now and no specialist station across these areas.