I suppose London would be the classic example. Stations with tight rotations:

Magic: 6.1%
Heart: 5.1%
Capital: 4.8%

Then at the other end of the scale, the FM stations with the slackest rotations:

Absolute London (FM): 2.3%
Smooth: 1.2%

I can fully understand the terms and conditions of the original licence...but choice fm didn't work and the reggae shows were soon axed due to being so specialiased. I cannot see Capital introducing a reggae show, and judging by the amount of constant advertising on TV...I am led to believe they are not doing quite so well as expected operating under the 'capital' brand as it is without changing the format.

Huh? Reach, average hours and share are all up at Capital Birmingham.

I'm surprised you didn't get in a mention of how better Buzz FM was

The TV advertising campaign is likely to have been planned in advance and figures have no influence on that. At any rate as Steve said figures are up in Birmingham - highest ever for "Birmingham FM2" I believe.

So by that logic, Tesco, Coca Cola and McDonalds are all failing because they advertise heavily on TV?

Er, no.

Thanks for those and I've had a look at them. Here's what I can see from the latest Rajar figures and the variety gauge from Compare My Radio.

Magic
Reach: 20%
Hours: 6.1
Share: 6.1%
Variety: 9%

Heart
Reach: 18%
Hours: 6.0
Share: 5.1%
Variety: 11%

Capital
Reach: 19%
Hours: 5.3
Share: 4.8%
Variety: 3%

Absolute
Reach: 6%
Hours: 7.6
Share: 2.3%
Variety: 17%

Smooth
Reach: 4%
Hours: 5.6
Share: 1.2%
Variety: 27%

Whilst it's fair to say the last two play a greater music variety than the other three, I wouldn't say it's the only reason they at the bottom. As we both know it's a far more complex scenario than simply the breadth of the music rotations. If it were BBC Radio's One and Two would be doing very badly.

Interestingly Smooth, with the biggest variety of music in this snapshot, has poor listening hours.

Looking at the other three, it could be said Capital, playing the narrowest range of music, is under performing compared to the others.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the rest of the new Capital Network settles down and beds in during the months to come, at the moment it's at 6.6 hours per week listened, I believe.

Being "tight" or "slack" needn't just refer to the number of songs in a playlist, but how well those songs match each other.

If the playlist were longer but still homogeneous, and retained the top 20 "now" songs at their existing super-high rotation, wouldn't that please everybody?

Sure, that's a fair point.


Well, I chose to exclude the BBC networks because they invest huge amounts in content and talent, and therefore offer much more than just music. I'd argue that rotations are irrelevant in their case, so comparing only commercial brands gives a more realistic idea of the merits of tight rotations. (In fact, Radio 1 has phenomenal reach but mediocre hours with its 15-24 core, which I believe is probably caused by people dipping in only for certain specialist shows. So, oddly, you could claim that Radio 1's massive music variety actually drives reach not hours, the exact opposite of what occurs with commercial radio!).


Not really. It's delivering a higher reach but lower average hours than Heart, which is exactly what you'd expect. Capital is even more reach-driven than Heart, but has higher music repetition which could explain the lower hours.


I can't imagine it'll ever have average hours in double figures but, like I say, the strategy with CHR is normally to maximise market share through strong reach.

I wonder how many people use Capital as a P2 or P3 station as I do? If there's not a personality presenter I want to hear on the BBC networks or if it's wall-to-wall specialist shows, I'll go straight to Capital every time. I know I'll get some big mainstream tunes pretty much as soon as I turn on, and won't have to endure two-minute long links from desperately unfunny local radio presenters who like the sound of their own voice. (And, yes, I appreciate the irony that I used to be a desperately unfunny local radio presenter who likes the sound of my own voice!)

That's exactly the point of Capital, it's a quick fix of the biggest current and new music for a short car journey or while eating your dinner etc, it's not made to be listened to for hours on end.

Of course, but what I'm wondering is: how many people like me, who also enjoy speech and personality radio, also now have Capital in their listening repertoire as a P2 or P3 station? It sounds less parochial, more mainstream and more upmarket than Galaxy, plus it's more music-intensive. I'd guess that gives it broader appeal across more age and socio-economic groups.

..........balls, sorry wrong thread, ignore!

I think Radio One is also something of an exception at the moment, it's badly in need of direction. Happens with them every decade or so.

I dunno. It's maintained a very healthy 23% reach, although hours are down. Perhaps the reason they're attracting a large number of people but for less time is that a higher proportion are going to Radio 1 purely for specialist shows or a particular personality presenter. If that's the case you could argue they're fulfilling their public service responsibilities better, because they're broadening appeal through more challenging programming you won't find on commercial radio. However, these listeners aren't the kind that'll be listening all day, because they may not like the more mainstream daytime music or might dislike other personalities.

This says Luke is on untill 4
That's a mistake right? That's 5 hours!

http://www.capitalfm.com/southcoast/on-air/schedule/

It might be, but what's wrong with that?

He used to do 7-12 on a Sunday after the chart show, pre-national Capital.

Somethings broken there. It says James on at 11pm tonight, then Luke from midnight tomorrow.

I don't know why they bother putting the full schedule online. Most American and Australian music stations don't - they just feature the key shows.

It really doesn't matter who's playing The Wanted at 10pm and 3am. The only people who care are reading this forum.

I love that there are still local newspapers dutifully printing their local stations' "schedule" every day:

ALFA FM:
6AM Pete and Sal in the Morning
10AM Martika
2PM Danny Dennision
6PM Simon Tungsten
10PM Tony Wint
2AM Nightbeat

BETA 106
6AM Steve and Julie @ Breakfast
10AM Claire Bean
2PM Jon Rogers
6PM Harry V
!0PM Mark Wood (including The Love Hour)
2AM Night Tracks

While on holiday earlier is year I could only get The Express, which was still printing schedules for Heart etc complete with old Sky channel numbers which changed in February 2006

I could enjoy my holiday knowing that Toby Anstis was still on at 9am.

Capital have altered their proposed format for Birmingham to

A RHYTHMIC-BASED MUSIC-LED SERVICE FOR 15-29 YEAR-OLDS SUPPLEMENTED WITH NEWS, INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT. THE SERVICE SHOULD HAVE PARTICULAR APPEAL FOR LISTENERS IN THEIR 20s AND AT LEAST 12 HOURS A WEEK OF IDENTIFIABLE SPECIALIST MUSIC PROGRAMMES AND INCLUDE PROGRAMMES OF SPECIFIC APPEAL TO LISTENERS OF AFRICAN OR AFRO-CARIBBEAN ORIGIN.

in response to the objections submitted.

As a result Ofcom has reopened the consultation until 12th Oct. This is the link to the form http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/con...torespond/form

So then, who's excited for about 2 months of every link being about the Jingle Bell Ball! yayyyyyy! it can't be long now can it? I've only just got over the summertime ball!

and apparently Keith Lemon is filling in for Roberto on Friday next week for this charity event. This should be a permenant move! Smash hits back doors in?

The High at the home of the Jingle Bell Ball, is 10 degrees. That is good but I am in Yorkshire.

I'm thinking the Capital stations outside London and news reports outside London won't do that. All I can say on the JBB, thank goodness I don't listen to Capital. At least when KISS promote their DPW in Yarmouth, Norfolk they don't mention it every link but have relevant promos that don't get annoying.

Capital is such an old man's station really even though it's aimed at the younger generation.

Bangtidy!

South Wales is local tomorrow 4-7pm, to cover to Michael Jackson trubute consert in Cardiff