Yet the irony is that Radio City has some fairly decent special weekend programming which out does Capital and Kiss if that kind of music is what you like!!

Total cop out Steve.

Trying to blame major label A&R is just nonsense. There is shed loads of new music out there that just never gets a glimpse of daylight on commercial radio.

Explain how R1 manages to programme Bruno Mars followed by Foo Fighters yet still manages a mass audience (and a very respectable RAJAR last quarter)? It's nothing to do with labels and everything to do with risk averse, paranoid dullard management of commercial radio. I wore a broad smile when Tony Stoller admitted that even back when punk/new wave was at it's height, selling, and certainly the contemporary hits of the day, ILR stuck it's head in the sand and hoped it would go away. And it's got worse.

Radio listening is up, so to suggest it has little influence over what music people buy is just not true. How can it be? Of course the net, and downloading offers limitless scope for discovering music, but how many Capital listeners spend hours seeking out new stuff in that manner?

It's a business with profit as it's only motive, yadda yadda yadda. I'm a businessman and need no lectures about maximising profit, but the amount of researching and testing is so regressive. If other industries did it, no new design of anything from cars to recipes would ever happen. In most markets, the successful companies prosper by improving and offering new and challenging product, With commercial radio, and Global in particular, it's just same old, same old.

A completely corrosive cultural influence.

How many punk/new wave tracks were being played on the Noel Edmonds (later DLT) breakfast show, the Simon Bates morning show or the Tony Blackburn afternoon show in the late 1970s? Virtually none - it was left to the evening shows, plus the Sunday chart show. If it wasn't palatable for daytime Radio 1 how could you expect ILR to play it?

The Absolute Radio & XFM playlists have plenty of new music, including the new one from Foo Fighters:

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/music.../newemail.html

http://www.xfm.co.uk/onair/playlist

At least it was heard on R1 - it was nowhere on ILR. I only used the quote as an example of the timidity of commercial radio. It goes back before punk - Nicky Horne as Capital's answer to Peel. "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It" his show was called. An appropriate title, because if Mum had a modicum of taste, she'd have been bored shitless.

Yes, of course Foo Fighters is on Xfm, because Xfm is Global's little pidgeonhole for people who like "guitar music", and it's as dull as ditchwater because, as in every other sphere it operates, it believes people can only cope with the narrowest of spectrums.

Yes it is Ofcom's fault but, I don't know what it, is but Ofcom seem to get a bit worried when big radio groups think they can wrap them around their little finger, Ofcom that is! With Global I do really think the tail is wagging the dog and in a properly regulated medium this should not be the case!

There's no need for two duplicate 'Top 40' stations to operate in the same marketplace as all it does is erode listener choice, then again Ofcom don't seem to give a stuff about that!!!

To be honest, as others have noticed Capital is sounding just like Galaxy did now with the upbeat/rhythic playlist and the return of the weekend evening shows, quite a bit different to how it sounded back in January
.
Only 48% of tracks are shared with Bauer's Hit Music stations since Capital are mainly avoiding rockier/slower tunes: http://comparemyradio.com/compare/Ca...hester/Key_103

Yep, your right there, I think the general consensus is that Ofcom have put a word in to Global's ears about their licence format. I never really listen to the station now except on maybe a Friday or Saturday eve (can't personally stand the dire processing) but are they still playing Adelle and Take That?

What about Capital Birmingham? Isn't that supposed to have a more hip hop/R&B bias than the other stations?

Not heard Take That in ages, but Adele's someone like you is still in quite high rotation.

Yeah, Adele is still being played. That seems to be the only track which wouldn't fit the 'rhythmic' descrption, though.

With no connection to Global Radio the social enterprise company Trent Sound Ltd, www.trentsound.com has announced plans to start broadcasting over the internet on June 1st 2011. The company aim to "re-create the magic, spirit of community, fun and civic pride engendered by Radio Trent back in the 1980s and early 1990s."

Apparently unconnected, Radio Trent, www.radiotrent.co.uk, plans to launch online on 3rd July 2011. Again there is no connection with Global Radio. The station is currently testing online with music from 1975/6 and retro Trent jingles and idents.

Now this is getting interesting..

In what way?

Why are they trying to pass themself off as Radio Trent?

Listened last night:
DJ 5 links in a an hour.
Link 1... About the summer ball
Link 2 ... summer ball
Link 3 ... summer ball
Link 4 ... no not what you think, he was very excited about an event they had coming up soon... never guess what it was... lets find out in ....
Link 5... summer ball!

Capital employ some of the countries best presenters and squeeze the fun out of them, turning them into QVC presenters.

Actually while I'm in the mood for moaning, how can I get that excited while listening to south Wales Capital about a gig in London, hardly local!

... oh and I love this:
How do you promote the Summer Ball during a weather forcast?

'And temperature now in Wembley , home of the summer ball is 12c'.... love it!

Keep it Capital!

Alllllll the hits!

The irony is you've called it Summer ball each time, and yet it's Summertime Ball. I'm not being pedantic, but if you've heard it so many times, you'd think you would get that right

Teflon Joey, eh?

How any self respecting human being could suffer such dross baffles me.

And DON'T say "that's why you don't work in radio"

That's my exact reaction to 6 Music, Trev!

"All the hits!"

How any CHR station can resist playing the new Friendly Fires song I just don't understand. Uplifting, catchy, radio friendly - but I guess they sing in an English accent without a vocoder, so no chance on Capital.

It's got a guitar-led theme, it isn't r'n'b/hip-hop/dance or a cross-over of those and as such doesn't fit in with the old Galaxy licences so unfortunately Capital won't play it. Oh, and I do very much like their new track.

I think Capital has sounded better recently and they are bringing in the listeners since the change - I hope for their sakes they don't change it again...if it works and it's dull, then as much as I don't like dull radio...don't go changing things again.

Capital's idea of what is 'hit music' is that if it is popular and fits in with the urban restrictions of the Galaxy licences, then it is 'hit music'.

I hate it, but when it's clearly working, who am I to argue?

A) You can just hear a guitar occasionally. I would not call it guitar-led at all.

B) Not "dance"? I'd challenge anyone to stand still. It is, at the very least, rythmic pop. I just don't buy the "doesn't fit the format". There are two reasons alone why Capital wouldn't play it - they're not a household name and it sounds like it was made by human beings, not a machine. Oh, and they tend to be lumped in with "indie" - a genre that would give anyone at Capital a fever.

It ought to be a huge hit, but as usually, it's down to the BBC and BBC only. Glad you like it though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArfRdgi8BlE

Out of curiosity, if Ofcom eventually allow the ex-Galaxy stations to relax their licensing restrictions do you think Capital will start to playlist some stuff that is less dance/r n b?
By the way, the new Take That track has been playlisted by Capital and I heard it during breakfast yesterday.

Live Those Days Tonight by Friendly Fires is on the XFM playlist. They weren't a BBC station the last time I looked.

http://www.xfm.co.uk/onair/playlist