There's nothing to say a breakfast show must be live. There are plenty of stations in America, big and small, that have voicetracked breakfast shows.

But my point was because all their competitors ARE live, and thus able to respond to the news and sound like they're "on it", Nation are at a disadvantage. They seem to think their presenters and their playlist are enough of a USP to attract an audience for Thames. That may be the case in rural Wales but in London they're offering nothing that would pull listeners across from the big names and big budgets of Heart, Smooth, Magic or Radio 2.

True in theory - but I'm not sure how often this actually happens nowadays.

Capital won a Sony Award for their breaking news coverage of the 7/7 bombings in 2005 - but that was when they were a London-only station with a bigger news operation. I'm not sure they'd be able to cover a major incident in London in the same way now.

Thinking back to big things that have happened in London in recent years and how I heard them covered on air outside of news bulletins...

- London riots of 2011: brief mention by Lisa Snowdon on Capital of how unusual it all was, then back to the music and your chance to win £500 (or whatever).

- St Jude storm of 2013: Emma Bunton on Heart briefly asking what time it was due to hit London (it already had), then back to the music and your chance to win a week in Marbella (or whatever).

- 2012 Olympics: business as usual on Capital, with little to celebrate the fact that the Games were in town.

The only exception I can think of is when there's a Tube strike. During the last one, Capital laid on extra travel updates and created quite a nice sense of commuter solidarity with various callers on air. Not sure how much Heart or anyone else did, though.

Depends how much of an audience they want. Will they be number 1 in London? Of course not - but with a modest budget and marketing plus some decent programming it should be able to attract a modest audience. Forgetting the 'live' v 'voicetrack' discussions for a moment, it is still a London radio station with Neil Fox, Pat Sharp, Tony Blackburn and Dean Martin on the schedule - has some potential I think.

It does have potential, I'm hoping that gradually over time things will change and we will get live shows. Hopefully it's like a start up business and when they get a bit of money they can invest in some live shows.

I've heard a bit of Foxy this week, it's very much how a lot guessed 'hello, how are you toady, I hope you are well' but there's no disputing they do play a great deal of great songs.

Loving the Jive Bunny its what friday nights are for

Correct. This is a type of station we will increasingly see more of as DAB uptake rises and also local DAB proliferates in years ahead.

I can understand the "in an ideal world" wish for this to be live and have physical studios in London but we do not live in such a world so have to make o with this one. What would people rather have? Thames Radio VTd by star names? Or a series of unknown names doing shows live from somewhere, e.g Like Radio in Wolverhampton?

These stations simply aim to operate on a different scale, rather in the manner football clubs of various sizes and fanbases co-exist. Audiences for Thames Radio DAB will doubtless be far lower than the major FM competition but then so too are the costs. Ad and sponsorship packages can then be sold at much lower rates to smaller businesses who cannot afford Bauer, Global et al

Even when you look at DAB in its trial phase we are also already seeing 'startup' services appear, and it is hardely surprising in general that DAB flexibility allows for the dusting down and making 'real' ambitions and ideas for new radio stations perhaps long held.

Some may suceed, some may prove to have been the dinner bell rung for dreamers, charlatans and Walter Mittys to burn through their own or (more likely) other folks' money.

Maybe in time OFCOM will introduce entry bar measures to prevent DAB becoming a free-for-all. But radio done this way is most likely here to stay.

Weekend output sounds okay to be fair; Foxy and Buchanan in the day yesterday and Blackburn in the evening. Pat Sharp this morning and Dean Martin tonight should sound good.

As wonderful as it is to have all these big name presenters on the station. The station doesn't sound like or shout London at all.

I don't really see why the usual rules of business can't continue to apply... free access to marked if you've got the dough, chance of success if you've a good idea.

Unnecessary bars to entry may get rid of a bunch of crap stations (ones that nobody has ever forced you to listen to, by the way), but with them you'd most likely kill off Chris Country, CNDX, RedTrain. Then there's the stations that target a national or ethnic group under served by the main media companies (like PRL, etc)... not to mention hundreds of format ideas that haven't even been thought up.

To be fair, I don't think it sounds any less 'London' than Capital, Heart or Magic do nowadays. Thames has the same (or more) local news, weather and travel - and I've heard the presenters name-check local places and mention upcoming local gigs and events.

Clearly it's not on a par with the Capital of old, with OBs from local events and nightclubs etc - but no-one is.

And let's not forget that 'London' to the average London listener is Walthamstow, Croydon, Ealing, Watford etc - not the London Eye or Picadilly Circus.

The orginal Thames could not afford a plane and made do with a bike!
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/loca...on-air-4861463

Hopefully they will put Dean Martin's evening request show on Mon - Friday?

Also having Pat, Tony and Dean they could some live gigs, Thames festivals and cruises maybe?

I saw something on social media a month or so ago which was some banter between Mick Brown and former Flying Eye reported Russ Kane about bringing back Junior Best Disco In Town.

If Thames could get on board with that it'll be a step in the right direction.

what did Russ Kane do after his Capital days

He went into management of a girl band called Vanquish and he still does a lot of radio, mainly guest slots on Talk Radio and BBC London.

So Dean Martin sounding good on Thames Radio (and the show is on Dragon Radio also).

Weird humming noise in the background whenever he talks, a little weird but the choice of music is good.

Yep, could be the desk or studio he's using.

Show sounds well put together I must say. Thread readers will already know that I've hated the generic voice links used by Foxy on drive and Pat during the day - so hearing Dean do his stuff does show that Nation know about what makes good radio. Now Foxy is on breakfast with proper bespoke links I would hope that they can do the same with Pat.

Dean Martin's show on Thames Radio sounding great, well done to all at Nation, I have a feeling they will offer him an evening request show like he did on Gold? Watch this space!

Perhaps Gold should have shut the 95kw AM transmitter and gone mono on DAB rather than get rid of presenters. Maybe they are tied to a transmitter contract?.

Hope Thames now gets enough ad revenue to survive and promote itself?
Can see it going DAB+ stereo at sometime.

Yep - they've come on leaps and bounds, but this is the one part of their weekday schedule that continues to be misleading and disrespectful to listeners, and generally sounds rubbish. They need to either sign Pat up for proper shows or put someone else on from 11-1.

By contrast, I have no issue with 8-10pm Monday-Thursday being automated because they're not claiming it to be something it's not. Although I did wonder whether it might be a smart idea to go down the 'Best Disco in Town' route for this slot and schedule specialist music blocks (either genres or decades) on different days.

When you're offering something different from a mainstream playlist, jukebox output is absolutely fine - hence why I have no beef with The Best Disco In Town, London's Love Songs or stations like Chris Country.

You seem to forget that as far as Welsh listeners are concerned, aside from Tony Blackburn, the "big name" presenters mean nothing to a Welsh audience so they bring no heritage.

Foxy may be familiar from those who remember the Sunday chart show but even Pat Sharp has no radio history in Wales. Dean Martin, Martin Buchanan et al are totally unfamiliar.

Of course radio anoraks assume listeners drool over "big names" when, certainly in Wales, they have had a history of apathy time and time again. When Tony Blackburn was on the networked Capital Gold drivetime the Welsh audience couldn't care less and it showed in the swathes of Touch Radio listeners who left the station in double-quick time.

Real went for ex-Radio 1 jocks regularly (Gary Davies, Mark Goodier, Paul Gambaccini among others) and none of them pulled up trees. Chris Tarrant was an absolute disaster when his show was put out on Saturday mornings for a year or so.

Listeners want music they like and a presenter who talks to them not at them, whether it's Neil Fox or Tom Smith (made up name) makes no difference.

Dean has some exciting news about his shows on Thames to announce this Wednesday.
Hoping he will be completing the weekday line up 8-10pm with his request show.

However Dean always best at live radio and engaging listeners on the phones so live would be the way to go, if possible.

Soundprocessing on the Thames stream is still awful. Fix that!

You only had to listen to the Manx Radio / Radio Caroline North collaboration at the week end to see just how true that is .
Regards