The treatment of that complaint doesn't seem right - the (valid, from what I can see) complaint has nothing to do with a format change which hadn't been granted (or even applied for!) at the time of the complaint. The point of format changes is surely to do it before you change the format, not retrospectively.

Why do Ofcom even bother with these formats, when they're so widely ignored? Poor show.

In the US formats can be changed by owners as they please, so guess the UK is going the same way.
Global will respond to the complaint saying they have continued to provide more rock music on XFM Scotland on digital platforms in central Scotland and the complaint will be dismissed!

Isn't there a danger if Capital went wider that it and Gem would be going for the same audience? Remember 2003-2008 when Trent/RAM/Leicester Sound and Century/Heart were virtually after the same audience?

At least with Capital as it there is difference between it and Gem and there is choice musically and a younger targetted station the area missed out on through the regional licence awards.

However I understand the concerns about the news - personally I would like seperate news (and breakfast shows!) for all three counties back, not going to happen though.

On this point particularly, people need to stand up and submit evidence to OFCOM. They're actively looking at it...

Problem is the formats are so vague these days - Capital should be playing all genres of hits but some big songs don't get a look in as they don't meet their rhythmic policy. Agree about Gem/Capital should not be too close but the Capital format is way too narrow for a local radio station licence.

The East Mids stations are licenced for under 44 year olds and the Scottish change is effectively saying we don't want to serve people who are in their 30s any more! I don't think it is for radio groups to unilaterally decide who they aim a particular licence at to the detriment of the rest of the population.

Basically they are doing as they want and Ofcom is powerless to stop it!

Has there ever been a requirement for them to play all genres of hits though. Even the old style formats for these stations did not mention genres. Not to mention most hits being within rhythmic genres at the moment.

These stations have always been selective in the hits they play anyway - I never remember Trent playing Iron Maiden in main shows when they were Number 1 in early 1991 and RAM etc ignored a lot of the big hits in the mid 90s as they didn't meet their policy at the time.


It's not anything new - the East Mids stations now Capital concentrated on 25-34/25-44 year olds during daytimes for years. As for the Central Scotland licence - having heard Beat 106 in 2000 and 2004, Galaxy in 2009 I don't think aiming at listeners in their 30s has never been a major aim of this licence - it certainly never sounded like that.

Which songs are they exactly then??? I think pretty much all the big hits since the Capital rebrand happened to fit the rhythmic policy anyway. Tracks like Adele - Someone Like You and Take That - The Flood don't fit this policy, and they DID get a look in on Capital.


So are a lot of the Hearts, so why are Heart playing only a selection of the latest hits while Capital are playing all of them and they're 'supposedly' aiming at the same demographic???

Leicester was "older" than the rest of The Mix for a while under GWR, their argument being that there was no sister AM station (the original Gem having gone Asian in 1992.)

This is a really interesting development I get the impression that these applications are retrospective. That's wrong, in my eyes. Wrong.

I think in reviewing this change, OFCOM need to look at the rest of the Capital network's output, particularly the news provision. The East Midlands news output is garbage. Absolute garbage.

I say approve the changes, but on the trade-off that some sort of service-level agreement is drawn up in return in terms of the standard and delivery of local news.

If Ofcom really wants to prove that it is the "regulator" of radio in the UK, they need to issue a warning here.

It really is disgraceful behaviour to apply for a format change in retrospect - quite patronysing to Ofcom really, "Oh look, we've been doing this anyway, but evidence suggests listeners want it this way. We have RAJARs to back this up."

Allowing changes AFTER it's been going anyway is a really bad precedent to set! What next? The equally patronysing Johnny & Lisa doing breakfast on the network for 6 months and then an application for chang to format?

Heart and Capital have worked out for Global in hitting their RAJARs, but Ofcom need to make Global realise who is actually in charge here!

Otherwise, what's stopping somebody like a Bauer buying up loads of other stations and putting a Kiss in every regional market? Wait 6 months then apply for format change - Ofcom can't disapprove as the precedent was set!

Capital Scotland is clearly not in the spirit of what the licence was awarded for back in the 90s. But then, the radio (and media) landscape has changed dramatically since then.

Real Radio came in playing oldies, and Clyde 1, after going through a period of flux, has decided to go with mainly popular recurrents, the odd new tune and the odd classic. This leaves Capital to take the more new music route.

If you want challenging new music then you go to the BBC, either via national networks such as Radio 1 or 6 Music, or Radio Scotland. Commercial radio can't have it both ways - if they're going to pursue purely commercial aims without any PSB considerations then they have to stop complaining about the Beeb's efforts. But they are entitled to take that road if they wish.

It hurts to say it as someone who was obsessed with XFM Scotland at the time, but times change. The level of competition out there from other stations, as well as iPods and so forth, is huge, so trying to do a purely local service to compete with the big guns up here would be commercial suicide now.

As a footnote, I thought XFM got away with it on the basis it was playing a minimal amount of indie-dance, and Capital was getting away with it on the basis it played the odd Kings of Leon track. But evidently Global isn't sure of that itself given the request for a format change.

Good on them!!! We need more stations like Kiss and Capital in the UK. The lack of stations playing current music could be a threat to the music industry, and to me that's more important than station formats.

But in other threads you allege that certain Heart stations are in breach of their formats. In fact, you started a whole new thread up about how to complain to OFCOM about formats.

That's because the CHR format is priceless to the music industry. If OFCOM issued Heart a yellow card it would provide each area with a proper CHR service. As it is, the popularity of certain songs/artists is un-naturally biased on whether or not Heart have played them, that's not very fair.

Except OFCOM won't issue a yellow card to Heart as they aren't in breach of format - inconvenient to you I know, but you'll have to live with it.

Your argument about the popularity of songs is also wide of the mark. Heart, in the main, add tracks once they've become popular when they know they'll be familiar to their audience - they're not in the game to break new music and set the agenda, they merely reflect the agenda. It's rare for them to add tracks up front, so not entirely sure what you're banging on about - not entirely sure you know what you're banging on about either!

What I mean by this is that in areas without a CHR station, people wouldn't know charts song Heart don't play unless they discover new music through sources besides FM radio. So it affects a song's popularity as in less people know about certain songs and even artists.

Many of the Heart locals are licensed as contemporary and chart music stations for under 44s, it sounds to me as they aren't within this format, they sound to me like adult contemporary stations for the over 40s.

Er, what about Radio 1? From your posts anyone would think towns without a Capital or a Kiss have no radio stations playing chart music. Which is blatantly rubbish.

And Heart will be within their format. Sure, the chart and recurrent songs they play may be at the softer end of the spectrum but there's nothing in the rules preventing that.

Heart in the regions may not be operating within the spirit of their formats, but they're unlikely to be breaching them.

Radio 1 do play chart music, but they aren't a hit music staton the way Capital are.

In addition to the amount of talking in between each track, they play loads of obscure indie stuff in among the chart hits. It sounds at times as though they're aiming for Capital's audience and XFM's audience simultaneously, does this work????

Radio 1 don't really play the big hits on a frequent rotaton like Capital, so you probably wouldn't get familiar with the hits through R1 alone unless you were glued to the radio 24/7.

I still think in areas where the choice is R1 and Heart, young people would probably choose Heart and miss out on a lot of chart songs as a result.

And I've also seen first hand that young people generally have little or no interest in current music these days, and therefore probably aren't bothering with the likes of Radio 1.

Eh. Deja vu here. You've said this in another thread. Young people are interested in current music, they are the reason why JLS, Bruno Mars, The Wanted etc. have a big fan base and get played.

If young people aren't bothering "with the likes of Radio 1" then Radio 1 would be aiming at the audience Radio 2 / Heart aim for. Seriously, I swear you just talk crap!

Radio 1 play new and obscure tracks because otherwise there would be no public interest defence in retaining the station. Most areas have CHR stations, and if they don't they have access to music channels and other outlets to hear the hits. Radio 1 can make a real difference by giving bands and songs which are less commercially viable a chance.

I don't think the younger audience would choose a heavy rotation of Young Hearts Run Free or other housewife classics over Radio 1, but the older edge of the audience (25-35) may well do.

Beyond that though, there's a bigger issue in that we now have decades of quality music to get through, and there's no longer the generation gap between kids and parents that used to exist in the 60s-80s. Young kids love The Beatles, older women love Adele, there's more of a crossover. It's all a bit more complicated now.

So I guess there were no "young people" at the Summertime Ball then? And the only people attending a JLS gig are over the age of 21?

Radio 1 has nearly 12 million listeners a week - and that's just the over 15s. So yes, it works.

Almost the same number again listen to Kiss or Capital. So 20 million people a week are choosing to listen to hit music on the radio. They can't all be "old".

So your constant insistence that young people don't listen to CHR based, apparently, on your observations in a karaoke bar is wearing very thin now. All the facts state otherwise.

No you have not "seen it first hand". What you've seen is some young people sing some 80's songs at a karaoke. What people choose to sing has nothing at all to do with their radio listening habbits. I have sung at a karaoke and my station of choice is 5 live so where does that leave your theory.

I'm trying to be consturctive in the spirit of a forum but you keep posting the same thing in millions of different threads and the simple fact is you are wrong, end of.

Bad examples there. I'm talking here mainly about the current music that is ignored by Heart and Heart-esque stations, and you'll find that these type of stations will play JLS, Bruno Mars and The Wanted.


Most areas don't have CHR stations. I notice you're from Scotland, where there's Capital and no Heart, so you may be unaware of the fact that in England, the Capital network is pretty much the extent of CHR radio and that's not in every area. All the other CHR stations are re-branded as Heart, a station common as muck in England but may be unfamiliar to the Scots.

As for music TV channels and other outlets to hear the hits, it all depends if most young people can be arsed to use them or if they just put up with wha thteir local Heart palys.

I'm not sure about Scotland, but in England when I've been to karaokes, the amount of younger people who choose what you describe as 'housewife classics' such as Young Hearts Run Free hugely outweighs the amount that choose to sing current stuff, believe me. And that's probably why there's 'less of a generation gap' as you put it.


Yes there would have been young people at the Summertime Ball and a JLS gig, but I think only a minority of young people like that type of music. And because something is unpopular among young people, doesn't mean it IS popular among older people. Modern music is unpopular full stop among all generations, as I don't hear older people sing it at karaoke either. I say 'young people' because they're who you'd most expect to like current music,


No, you can't judge exactly what radio station someone listens to from their karaoke choices, but they do represent the type of music they're into. Karaokes seem to indicate most young people prefer oldies to chart hits, and if someone prefers oldies then chances are they aren't listeing to Capital.

Do you have any proof or evidence for this, or is this just an opinion?
Why on earth would Capital be providing a product for a "minority of young people" ?!

Cue georgemiller89 who was actually there for evidence.