Wednesday, 1 October 2008
gloworm558 . <...> said:
I visited Winnipeg, Canada last week, a small city of only about 700,000
folks. What I couldn't get my head around was the enormous numbers of
radio stations there- serving predominantly the local area.
I'm guessing, but I'd offer the fact that radio station operators don't have to pay a fortune to operate radio stations compared to over here, and licensing is a lot more liberal. However, I betcha most of the stations, diverse as they might have been, were all owned and operated by one or maybe two main 'groups' and all coming out of a single building.
No! the area was always called Rainhill, the trials took place there,
Stephenson's Rocket, which became so famous took part in the trial, the
Radio Station choose the name due to the connection of The Rocket with
Rainhill.
Aha. I thought there was an area known as "the Rocket roundabout" or some such thing (flyover maybe?) next to a pub called "the Rocket", which I was guessing had all existed well before the radio station. Or is that a totally different area to Rainhill?
Stephen Sullivan <...> said:
41 Years old today is there still a need for Radio one. I still find it
difficult to understand that a station that is aimed at 16 to 25 year
olds has a presenter in his mid 30's on the breakfast show,
Would you also axe 62 year old Annie Nightingale?
Mike Barraclough <...> said:
I see you have been quoted on their blog:
Damn it. I never even invoiced them for the advice. :-)
On that note, I have been impressed by the whole 'openness' of the One Golden Square thing and the way they've scouted around the more credible radio fora and challenged what people are saying or explained what they are doing. That has got to be a first in radio, and it is truly worth giving those Absolute folk a round of applause for. They didn't have to do any of that. If they persist with their openness and apparent honesty with regard to 'involving' listeners in decisions, then I can see them building a tight-knit cult following which can only go on to reflect very positively in their RAJAR. As Simon Cowell would say, Good for them!
Eric Tesug <...> said:
If only there was a company reading that – C.E. might get offered a job
in radio again. Nice Ad C.E. ;-)
Ha ha. I couldn't afford the pay cut. Radio? Where's the money in radio? (Irony)
txeng1 <...> said:
There are some great programmes, like Zane Lowe, Nihal, etc, and some truly
awful ones courtesy of the "Eeeh bah gum" gang of Sarah Cox, Nick Grimshaw
and Vernon Kay.
Interesting. As someone who used to hate Sara Cox and really didn't like Vernon Kay, I'm not sure why, but nowadays I really like Vernon Kay and quite like Sara Cox. I have no idea why my taste changed, or if it was that their style changed and became more accepted by my brain. Mind you, I've even warmed more to Jo Whiley, so maybe I've got some kind of mental condition going on.
I've always loved Zane Lowe, just never sure what drugs I need to take to keep up with his programme's speed, but I don't get Nihal on mainstream. His late night specialist stuff is brilliant though.
Christopher England wrote:
: Aha. I thought there was an area known as "the Rocket roundabout" or
: some such thing (flyover maybe?) next to a pub called "the Rocket",
: which I was guessing had all existed well before the radio station.
Correct. The Rocket pub is near the start of the M62 to Manchester.
: Or is that a totally different area to Rainhill?
Approx 7 miles away to the East of the pub:
http://tinyurl.com/4cdym5
—
Steve Leyland
irc.exilenet.org/#anorak
Merseyland Alternative Radio:
http://mar.exilenet.org:9042/listen.pls
He who laughs last thinks slowest.
Eric Tesug <...> said:
So if commercial is to exist how does it do so without "ads"?
I believe a lot can be learned by the day one of Absolute Radio. They had just one ad (well, apart from the sponsored travel bumpers) which was on pre-recorded liners and was spoken by the DJs. Although this meant that one kept hearing about the bloody Sony Ericsson W980, it was far more tolerable than a load of squeaky conventional adverts all bunched together, and meant that there was more music (or appeared to be).
So, the trick is re-packaging the adverts. All this 40 minutes of 'non-stop' with no ads then loads of ads doesn't work. I think Capital had the beginnings of the right idea when it introduced no more than 2 ads in a row.
A variation of the Absolute day one idea and the Capital idea, sort of merged could be the way forward.
Who really wants to sit through 5 minutes of ads, trailers, positioning statements, and whatever waiting for the next song? Nobody! That's why as soon as the ads start people push the button to head off to another station.
Steve West <...> said:
Correct. The Rocket pub is near the start of the M62 to Manchester.: Or is that a totally different area to Rainhill?
Approx 7 miles away to the East of the pub:
http://tinyurl.com/4cdym5
Ok. So...errr...the radio station wasn't named after the Rocket pub then? And isn't based near there. But...it's not even based in Rainhill. It's in Huyton, not even in Knowsley. And yet calls itself 'Knowsley Community Radio'.
Blimey, I'm confused.
:-)
I think it only fair to launch this appeal for money for the Ross Revenge move.
As you probably know, the squatters on the good ship Ross Revenge, former home of an international radio station called Radio Caroline, are desperate to move it to a brand new mooring in Erith in Kent, strip it of its PCBs and asbestos and make it safe for the public to shuffle around.
The story goes that the Ross Revenge cannot be moved until a full survey has been carried out and paperwork is lodged that says she's not going to sink whilst under tow and then become a hazard to shipping somewhere in the Thames Estuary. At the moment of course, there's absolutely no guarantee that she'd do anything other than this.
I don't think the squatters have enough money to pay for a full survey, so I'm guessing they probably need your help, or the ship will be stuck where she is forever until she sinks.
I'm guessing they need it towed to Erith so that they can use it as the new studio base for 'Caroline Maidstone' (as they prefer to be called. It was, after all, so very childish of whoever it was to change this to 'Caroline Mattress', let's hope they hound him and get him blamed for the global recession) since they fell out with their current landlord and have to give up their cosy bedroom studio to the all new returning EKR.
So, please send as much as you can afford. Please be fair in their hour of need. Thank you for your attention.
Christopher England <...> said:
I think it only fair to launch this appeal for money for the Ross
Revenge move.As you probably know, the squatters on the good ship Ross Revenge,
former home of an international radio station called Radio Caroline, are
desperate to move it to a brand new mooring in Erith in Kent, strip it
of its PCBs and asbestos and make it safe for the public to shuffle
around.The story goes that the Ross Revenge cannot be moved until a full survey
has been carried out and paperwork is lodged that says she's not going
to sink whilst under tow and then become a hazard to shipping somewhere
in the Thames Estuary. At the moment of course, there's absolutely no
guarantee that she'd do anything other than this.I don't think the squatters have enough money to pay for a full survey,
so I'm guessing they probably need your help, or the ship will be stuck
where she is forever until she sinks.I'm guessing they need it towed to Erith so that they can use it as the
new studio base for 'Caroline Maidstone' (as they prefer to be called.
It was, after all, so very childish of whoever it was to change this to
'Caroline Mattress', let's hope they hound him and get him blamed for
the global recession) since they fell out with their current landlord
and have to give up their cosy bedroom studio to the all new returning
EKR.So, please send as much as you can afford. Please be fair in their hour
of need. Thank you for your attention.
Serious suggestion this. Could Peter moore talk to absolute radio and involve Caroline in the new station. Result, national caroline/absolute. Was this not mooted in the early days of Virgin?
In article <90ba54a6cb2ddef6a20ccc2b2ace6667@jiglu-wc>, ... (Christopher England) wrote:
So, the trick is re-packaging the adverts. All this 40 minutes of
'non-stop' with no ads then loads of ads doesn't work. I think
Capital had the beginnings of the right idea when it introduced no
more than 2 ads in a row.
If we agree that the ads are the thing that makes the average person run for the scan button, then surely if the content is strong enough people will wait for the next track. I guess the alternative is that 40 mins of non-stop music could suggest weak musical programming.
Who really wants to sit through 5 minutes of ads, trailers,
positioning statements, and whatever waiting for the next song?
Nobody! That's why as soon as the ads start people push the button
to head off to another station.
I once thought you could do this, but it clearly doesn't work on a mainstream station. 5 mins is SO LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG and not needed as you so rightly suggest.
Couple of minutes is a MUST for stations as they have to do something, but again if the content held the WOW-factor then people might manage a couple of minutes – more and button-time.
But I do think less than interesting programming has played a part in this 40 min segs of music and who do I blame, the guys/galls programming stations. A track should only be heard once a week (maybe twice). As I say to pluggers, look you make music and we promise not to. In exchange don't send us priority play lists because they just go in the bin.
Eric
In article <489f7d422756a3832e5f6cf42fd1bbb1@jiglu-wc>, ... (txeng1) wrote:
Serious suggestion this. Could Peter moore talk to absolute radio
and involve Caroline in the new station. Result, national
caroline/absolute. Was this not mooted in the early days of Virgin?
Wouldn't work for millions of reasons, not silly ones either.
And today if you were Absolute with all the resources at your finger tips wouldn't the name be Absolute Caroline? If it is they would even consider such a thing, which I seriously doubt.
Whilst I don't want to open old wounds, the notion that Virgin was to be Caroline was an anoraks dream, the same dream when CMR tried out a high-powered AM tx, people were actually calling saying this is 'Caroline Music Radio, right?'. Er no it wasn't although the man paying at the time thought it was funny. Then the IoM project came up and again Caroline, no it wasn't!
I loved Johnny Walker and his dream of Caroline sailing up the Thames........... It was a great dream, but not a reality.
The future for Caroline is in the hands of the internet and satellite with a hand held backwards to hold on to the past, but not live in it.
Totally upfront? If I were the boss of Absolute and someone came in with such a suggestion I would send them to a doctor first and then probably gardening leave.
And to someone walking in Caroline with such a suggestion I would say so that's it then we've sold out! Bye.
Sorry to burst the bubble, but I can't see any logical business or radio reason to go with the idea.
Respectfully
Eric
With all these Global owned stations being networked soon ,The ad breaks in many areas will all come at the same time so hitting the scan button at the start of a break will just find a different set of ads. After 25 years why has no big commercial radio outfit copied the simple idea that Lazer 558 had of only having one minute long ad breaks , usually two thirty second ads back to back! By the time people reach for the scan button the music has started again and the ads have been heard. Would short snappy ad slots be saleable today? I think they would if they kept listeners from channel hopping.
Hullo everyone,
Type 'Erith Radio Caroline' into Google and the planning application is first in the list. It states that they want the mooring for 6 months followed by a possible further 6 month extension.
Best
Ian
