Nik Goodman Media Consulting

Tease Me!

2012-01-27T14:41:00.002Z

There's nothing like a good tease. Teasing stuff appeals to one of our most basic instincts. We just want to know stuff... and hate not knowing!

Here's the latest 'tease' that's gone viral.

If, like me, you're of a certain age, and the words Ferris and Bueller excite you more than they should, then you'll delight in the following 10 seconds of video...

Now, I'd be slightly more than delighted if there was going to be a sequel to 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' however, I don't think there will be.

This tease will be revealed during the Superbowl in the US on February 5th, and is likely to be the launch of a new product. Your guess is as good as mine as to what, but it's probably not going to be an ad for a re-released Ferrari 250 GT Spider California, as featured in the aforementioned film!

So, I guess we'll all have to wait and wonder.

But in the meantime... when was the last time you teased something really well on your radio station? And I'm not talking about saying "Tune in on Monday at 8:10am to find out blah blah blah". Be creative with your teasing!

It's a great technique, and when executed well can really result in much more talk-ability about the particular subject than just another announcement.

In the meantime, if anyone reading is keen to start a campaign to get a Ferris sequel made, let me know!

The Creative Spark

2012-01-23T12:46:00.001Z

I've often talked about how we should keep our eyes open and look for great creative ideas. They are all around us, and thanks to the web, we are exposed to more than ever before.

There are some fantastic things that we come across everyday that can inspire us, or spark off another idea, or allow us to find a creative solution to a problem.

I saw this today, and thought I'd share it. It certainly sparked off some new ideas in my mind...

2011 from hey_rabbit on Vimeo.

Capital FM - New TV Advert

2012-01-05T15:53:00.000Z

It's time for another new shiny TV ad from the team at Capital FM. It's kept the same format as the one from last year, but seeing as that was pretty well 'universally liked', I guess there was no need to change it. It it ain't broke... and all that...

And to coincide with the launch of the new Breakfast show in London, here's a version which incorporates some promotion of the show.

Welcome to 2012!

2012-01-01T11:59:00.000Z

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012. Here's to an exciting year ahead...

Wonderful Christmastime...

2011-12-20T11:00:00.001Z

So as another year draws tantalisingly close to an end, it’s time to get the chestnuts roasting on an open fire, get stuck in to that bottle of Port, and recline in my armchair reflecting on 2011.

What a momentous year, with the global political and economic reverberations still echoing around the planet for some time to come. Radio continues to play its part in the media mix, and is standing up well compared to some of the other ‘traditional media’, like press, who are having to face some difficult decisions about their businesses. But the coming year will no doubt bring its fair share of challenges for radio.

In the UK, radio listening remains phenomenally strong with over 90% of the population tuning into radio every week – still a remarkable statistic. And in June this year, we found out what people working in the industry have known for some time... that radio officially makes you happy! They did some science to prove it too, so it must be true!!

The debate about digital seems to have moved to a new level too with many seeing that a mixed ecology of listening platforms is a viable proposition (if distribution costs find a new equilibrium). It works for TV in the UK, and no-one seems to complain too much.

In 2011 we had some great radio conferences to feed our continuous thirst for insight; Radiodays Europe in Copenhagen was excellent, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in Barcelona in a few months time. I took some time out to study the market in LA while I was at the Worldwide Radio Summit at the end of April, and found the differences between Europe and US more stark than ever. And we welcomed a new kid on the block, Next Radio debuted in London in September and was a refreshing change in format, focusing on creativity and content. We look forward to its return in 2012.

This year, we also welcomed Radioplayer and since its launch, it’s nearly doubled the number of services on it, and launched apps on Google and Facebook. Continuing to make radio ‘easy to listen to’ is essential for the medium to retain relevance, and it’s something that the team at Radioplayer will continue to ensure moving forward.

Content and programming-wise, the battle for the number 1 commercial station in London continued with Capital and Magic being the main protagonists, and Capital had its fair share of industry headlines... first with networking, which caused much discussion at the time, but less than 12 months on, is seen as an accepted norm. They also dispensed of the services of one Mr J Vaughan of the Borough of Chelsea, and will replace him in January with a Mr D Berry of the Borough of “Really... Are You Sure?” I expect some churn in the market!

Absolute 80s became the biggest commercial digital only station, and I even dusted off the headphones and had some fun in the studio for a few months. Unfortunately, there’s not really time to continue with Cafe 80s in 2012 as I’m launching a new company in the New Year... but more on that in January!

As the sweet aromas of Frankincense, Myrrh and Waitrose’s rather excellent ‘Mulled Wine’ recipe drift across the office, and the sound of Christmas carols echo from the village Church, it’s time to put away the passport for a few weeks, and indulge in a little festive break.... which mainly involves sitting by the fire.

I continue to get the chance to work with brilliant clients all around the world, who are fantastic radio professionals. Thank you for the opportunity to work together, and I look forward to a creative and successful 2012 with you. I will find myself engaging with new markets and new stations in the New Year, which is always something I relish. But if we haven’t worked together yet, do get in touch if you think there’s a project we might collaborate on in 2012.

So, may I wish all readers of the blog, a very Happy Christmas and see you all again in 2012.

Radiodays Europe 2012 - 'The Hitman' in Barcelona!

2011-12-12T08:59:00.006Z

Radiodays Europe takes place in Barcelona on 15th / 16th March 2012, and I was pleased to be asked to produce a session for the conference, which has rapidly become the meeting place for those working in radio in Europe.

Rather than put together a very traditional 'radio' session, I wanted to look at the changing nature of the relationship between radio and the music industry. For decades, the music industry relied on radio as one of its main sources of promotion. Those days are gone. So how is the new relationship between radio and the music industry being forged, and what can we learn from the past?

One person who has 'been there' and 'done it' and understands how the music industry works, and how it interacts with radio is Pete Waterman.

Pete Waterman is a pop music icon. As the force behind the ‘Stock Aitken Waterman’ team, Pete had massive success during the 1980s and 90s launching the careers of artists like Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, and he shaped the sound of a generation. Stock Aitken Waterman are considered to be one of the most successful song-writing and producing partnerships of all time, scoring more than 100 UK top 40 hits, and selling over 40 million records worldwide.

Pete Waterman has a unique perspective on the record and radio industries. In the late 80s, at the height of his success he even had his own radio show on Radio City in Liverpool, where he debuted all his latest songs exclusively every week, plus he still presents a weekly radio show on Smooth Radio. In this session at Radiodays Europe I'll be 'in conversation' with him. He’ll share his thoughts on where he thinks the radio industry is going, what the future is for the record industry, and how to two industries can move forward together.

And of course, I'll be asking him about all those great hit record he produced! Never shy to give an opinion, this session will be a ‘must see’ for those attending Radiodays Europe, and I'm delighted Pete has accepted the invitation.

Espero verte en Barcelona!

The New Capital FM Breakfast Show... with Dave Berry

2011-12-01T16:15:00.006Z

Congratulations to Dave Berry who has today been announced as the new host of the Capital Breakfast Show, to work alongside Lisa Snowdon who’ll continue in her role as co-host.

This isn’t really a great surprise, as he’s been hosting the weekend breakfast show for some time, and the fact that Capital were ready to announce someone only weeks after Johnny “left”, always pointed to the fact that it was going to be an internal appointment.

Is it a good move? Well... there’s no doubt that he has some traction with the younger end of the market through his TV work on E4, MTV etc... but as one of my late ’30-something’ friends tweeted to me today... “I’ve never heard of Dave Berry”.

Capital’s total audience has always been propped up by a chunk of older listeners that were almost there by default. This was good for overall reach. Increasingly, as the station has moved a lot younger, the output has become less appealing to those listeners. For some, Johnny Vaughan may have been the last reason they had to listen to Capital FM. Dave Berry may not interest them, as they have no reference points for him. He just isn’t on their radar... at all.

And this may well be a deliberate strategic attempt by Capital to move those listeners on... ideally for Global, to Heart.

It’s interesting that Capital didn’t take their time and try and secure someone with more media equity. E.g. someone off the TV... a comedian... someone from Radio 1 etc. There were rumours about Scott Mills being approached, but I’m guessing he’s becoming more and more ‘embedded’ with the BBC (with additional TV work etc), so perhaps he didn’t want to upset Auntie too much. I can understand that, although I think he would have been fantastic at it, and done a ‘real breakfast show’... if you know what I mean!

Will it matter that Capital doesn’t have a particularly high profile male host? Probably not, although it will certainly be harder to drive new listeners to the station based on the personalities. I wonder if they'll market the breakfast show, or just the station now? Lisa Snowdon is certainly the highest profile host on the station now... and she’s sounding great in the role too. I’m glad she’s sticking around.

It feels like Capital have taken another step in becoming a pure music-driven brand, with little more to offer other than a slick format, occasional big (and excellently done) events and a contemporary sound. They don’t even feel particularly connected to London when I listen to be honest with you. In a world where music (and easy access to it) is now ubiquitous, will "the Capital brand" be enough to drive younger audiences long-term, or will listeners find substitutes that are as good at providing music content as Capital are? Or perhaps even better?

I still believe that the ‘stuff in between the records’ is becoming more important than a well-packaged, tight rotation of current songs, particularly at breakfast time. Will Dave Berry provide standout content that will make Capital Breakfast a must-listen with ‘decade defining’ cultural moments, such as Chris Evans did on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in the 90s? Or will he simply blend into the background noise of an exceptionally well-produced CHR music format?

We shall see. I wish him and Lisa the very best of luck.

The Amazing Everyday

2011-11-30T12:21:00.006Z

Creativity is at the heart of what we do in radio. We’re always looking for great ideas, fresh thinking, a different way of doing things. We want to do 'The Amazing Everyday'. How can we appeal to our target audience, and attract their attention? In the over-communicated world, just getting people to notice you is becoming increasingly harder.

But great ideas are all around us. Here’s an example...

Nokia have recently launched their first Windows phone – the Nokia Lumia 800. It’s a rather lovely device and signals Nokia’s first serious attempt to reclaim some of the lost ground in the smartphone market. To celebrate the launch, the team at Nokia wanted to stage an event that would get noticed, and appeal to the target audience, as well as saying something about the brand and product.

And they came up with a great creative idea. What if a building ‘came to life?’. What would it look like? How would it sound? To make this happen, they staged a massive sound and light show on Monday night in London... using the most sophisticated projection system ever built, all beamed onto Millbank building on the bank of the River Thames... all synced with an amazing soundtrack put together by Deadmau5.

The outcome was pretty spectacular (as you’ll see from the video below) and thousands of people witnessed it as it happened, and many more are sharing it on social networks around the world.

Creativity is everywhere, and we can all be inspired by the great ideas around us every single day.

**Disclosure: I was a guest of Nokia’s for the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 and am currently working on projects with them

"Goodbye Johnny!" - Johnny Vaughan leaves Capital FM

2011-11-20T14:07:00.006Z

The big news from the world of UK radio this week is the announcement of the departure of Johnny Vaughan as host of the Capital FM Breakfast Show.

The official version of events goes as follows:

Johnny did his last breakfast show on Friday 18th November and then Capital issued a statement in the afternoon, announcing his departure from Capital which included the obligatory slightly made-up quotes. Johnny said...

"I have just loved doing this job, but after all these years of getting up in the middle of the night, I really think the time is right to hand over the microphone to someone else. It's been a joy waking up London every morning and a thrill to have been part of the broadcasting tapestry of this great city."

And Richard Park, Global’s Director of Broadcasting said...

“Johnny has done a fantastic job over the years, particularly recently, building the programme with Lisa Snowdon, into London’s most popular commercial radio breakfast show. Johnny is a skilled broadcaster on radio and television, and we thank him for his time with 95.8 Capital FM, while wishing him every success for the future.”

To any observer with a mild interest in the radio industry, this all seems a bit odd. Sure, Johnny may have decided that he’s done it for long enough and wanted to go out on a high, but really like this? As I understand it there’s a little more to this than meets the eye.

The “he’s already done his last show” routine is always an odd thing, suggesting that the parting between the 2 parties is less than amicable. Plus the “we wish him every success in for the future” line is something you trot out to someone you’re quite glad to see the back of, not someone who has presided over one of the biggest radio shows in London for many years.

There are a several stories that I’ve heard in the last few days relating to this, which upon legal advice (no... seriously!) I’m not at liberty to write here!! These may explain the rather sudden departure of Johnny, and may come out in due course. We shall see!

I worked with Johnny during the early years of his tenure at Capital, and I found him to be very passionate about his job, always wanting to improve, quick to learn, and somewhat impatient of others whom he perceived held him back. He was part of the new wave of “people from the TV who were doing radio” and as a result I think he always felt a bit of an outsider, and more at home in the world of TV.

It irked him that his show never really got the recognition he felt it deserved and I'm not sure the radio industry ever really took Johnny to their hearts. I remember one year after the Sony’s when he picked up a Bronze, he duly went on the air the next morning announcing with deep disdain, the start of another “bronze award winning programme”.

There’s no doubt that after a tough start, plus the burden of taking over from Tarrant, Johnny got better over time. He grew to understand the importance of compacting the material into ‘short form’, and he really showed his skill especially when he was allowed a bit more freedom to ad-lib around topics and ‘go off on one’ occasionally. His style still retained a slight edge of aggression and danger, which was appealing to some, but also quite divisive. Getting him to sound warm was always a challenge. But he showed off his knowledge about almost everything on a daily basis. He really is one of the most intelligent and well-read people I've ever met, and it's a shame that he never really found an outlet for that on the show.

The string of co-hosts he had never really worked that well until Lisa Snowdon arrived. She was able to ‘deal’ with him and it will be interesting to see if she sticks around or not. Which leads us to the big question. What next?

This is a tricky one, as it’s a tough gig that needs someone with a certain ‘media equity’ but also with the staying power to have a good run at it. Will Capital opt for ‘someone off the TV’ again, or will they take a ‘radio presenter’ and go for the slightly less profile option? Greg Burns will be filling in for the time being, and the he’s a real pro and won’t rock the boat too much. The show is in good hands in the inter-regnum.

I wouldn’t put it past our friends at Global to “serve up a curve ball” as our American cousins would say. They have the clout and nous to pull something rather special out of the bag. I have a few thoughts, but will save those for another day!

In the meantime, let’s enjoy probably the best radio ad this country has seen for many years, overseen by the then Marketing Director, Carl Lyons.

Goodbye Johnny...

PS – If you want to read about the creative process behind the making of that ad, click here to read Carl Lyon’s excellent blog

'Mix Radio' on the Nokia Lumia

2011-10-27T12:31:00.007Z

I think it's widely accepted that increasingly radio stations need to offer more than just a music service with a nice brand behind it, if they are to continue to engage with listeners.

More and more streaming music services are available to consumers every single month, and this extends to handset manufactuers getting in on the action.

So to ensure they are keeping up with the pace, Nokia yesterday announced that as part of the new Windows phone... Nokia Lumia, you'll get something called 'Mix Radio'. It's a bit like a cross between iTunes, Spotify and Pandora... and a radio station!

It's nice that Nokia have chosen to use the word 'radio' as part of the offer... even if it's not how I'd traditionally define radio i.e. there's no human involved from the 'other side'. But let's leave that debate for now!!

So, now there's a little bit more competition for 'share of ear' and and even more choice for the consumer, which has got to be seen as a good thing. Whether this is a success for Nokia... we will see!

RAJAR - Q3 2011; "Here are the votes from the UK radio listeners..."

2011-10-27T00:12:00.008Z

The latest UK listening figures are out, (RAJAR Q3:2011) and again we find out which stations are a little more 'tasty' than others. There are some nice headlines to be read, including the fact that listening via a digital platform is up again with 22.8 million people now tuning in to radio via a digitally enabled receiver; so that could be on DAB, on Digital Television or over the Internet. The growth of digital inevitably continues. If you want to read some posts about the changing nature of radio in the UK and the growth of digital businesses, you'd be hard pressed to find better analysis than that provided by two people who look forward to this day with an unbridled and somewhat unnatural enthusiasm, for which we are all grateful... Matt Deegan and Adam Bowie.

Meanwhile, the market I get asked about most whilst on my travels, London, sees another game of musical chairs. Last time Magic had the best of it in the commercial world, holding top spot in both Reach and Share, but nothing stays the same for long in this market. Capital have jumped back up to Number 1 in Reach, and Heart have leapfrogged the contenders to become Number 1 in Share.

'Reach' (or Cume for our American readers) always seems to be the most quoted of figures, so here are the Top 10 Commercial Stations in London based on Weekly Reach for Q3:2011

1. Capital London 2.17 Million

2. Heart London 2.02 Million

3. Magic 105.4 1.99 Million

4. Kiss 100 FM 1.70 Million

5. Classic FM 1.40 Million

6. LBC 97.3 841,000

7. Absolute Radio 771,000

8. talkSPORT 717,000

9. Smooth Radio 612,000

10. Choice FM London 562,000

If you add in the BBC, things look a little different...

1. BBC Radio 4 2.77 Million

2. BBC Radio 2 2.29 Million

3. Capital London 2.17 Million

4. Heart London 2.02 Million

5. Magic 105.4 1.99 Million

6. BBC Radio 1 1.80 Million

7. Kiss 100 FM 1.70 Million

8. Classic FM 1.40 Million

9. BBC Radio 5 Live 1.31 Million

10. LBC 97.3 841,000

Capital no doubt benefited from the exposure that the Summertime Ball gave them, proving once again that visibility is a key ingredient in the mix... a theme I'll return to in the not too distant future. And the BBC once again show that they still produce quality radio, all be it with a rather expensive price tag.

It would be rude of me not to mention 'in dispatches' Absolute 80s. First, because it gives me another blatant opportunity to mention my weekly show on a Sunday morning from 9am-12pm that I present along with Dan McGrath, called 'Cafe 80s'. Subtle plug huh? However, that's not why I mention them on this occasion. It's because they have become the Number 1 commercial digital-only station in the UK, with 1.01 Million listeners a week. That's a rather healthy increase of just over 80% year on year. A rather 'peachy' result... so well done to all the team there.

Finally, if you're that way inclined, you can look at some pretty graphs for all stations on Media UK.

Right - that's enough 'numbers stuff' until February 1st 2012!

"The Magic Behind Magic"

2011-10-12T08:12:00.006Z

Ask a listener what the main reasons are they to listen their favourite any radio station, and they’ll usually give you a variety of answers.

Often the answers they give say a lot about how successful that station is about communicating their core message.

Clarity is key when communicating any message, and if an audience can gravitate around one main theme, then you probably doing something very right.

I recently did a session at 'Radiodays Denmark' with Magic 105.4 PD, Pete Simmons. We discussed the ‘magic behind magic’, and why it was such a successful radio station.

When Magic listeners were asked “What are the main reasons you listen to Magic 105.4?”... these were the top 5 reasons they gave...

1. It’s relaxing to listen to

2. It plays music I know and love

3. It plays music to put me in a good mood

4. It plays the best songs for my taste

5. It plays the most music, with least talk

Here’s a radio station which is clear in its purpose, focused in its strategy, and executing it continuously well with a quality product.

Listeners know what the brand does and it’s reliable in delivering that. The music quantity, lack of clutter and the mood enhancing qualities of the station have lifted it to the Number 1 Commercial Station in London, and the station currently has more listeners than any other music station in London including the BBC! No mean feat.

So if you asked your listeners what are the main reasons they listen to your station, would there be a few clear themes that their answers cluster around?

In the over-communicated world, stand for something; then clearly communicate what that is. And if you stand for something that consumers want, then you’re on the right road.

RiP

2011-10-06T08:16:00.002Z

What Makes A Good Radio Conference?

2011-10-03T21:26:00.007Z

What makes a good radio conference?

Over the last few weeks I’ve been ‘conferenced up’ attending and speaking at a good variety of events. So what are the things to look out for?

Do It Differently

nextrad.io was an attempt to redefine the genre somewhat. Short, snappy presentations on a whole range of topics worked really well. It meant that as a delegate, you never had the time to get bored with anyone, plus you got a vast range of information that you could draw from take away with you. And it also meant that as a speaker, you focused more on exactly what you had to say, always aiming for that radio mantra... “Less is More!”. I’m certain nextrad.io will be back next year, even better then the debut event.... which was actually pretty damn good to start with. So ‘doing it differently’ is one angle that certainly works

Do It Well

I spoke an event in Cyprus on Friday morning called ‘The Radio Breakfast Show’ organised by Dias Media Group, a big Cypriot media company. It was a simple idea executed well;

• Get media agencies, clients, PR firms and other interested parties all in one room in a nice hotel... about 300 of them.

• Make the room look fantastic

• Give them a really nice breakfast

• Put on a short ‘morning only’ session with 4 interesting speakers

• Let everyone go back to work at 11am

I spoke about the changing nature of radio and advertising and was pleased that what I had to say struck a chord with many delegates. But it was just all very well put together, making the experience a good one for delegates (and speakers)! So getting the conference right and ‘doing it well’ may seem simple stuff, but you’d be surprised at many who don’t.

Speakers Who Share

I remember back in the days of the old 'NAB Europe', many a time I would turn up at a session where I thought I’d learn something... often to find that someone was trying to sell me something instead. #FAIL. A conference session should not be sales session. They should be about sharing knowledge and insight. Do your sales pitch in the bar afterwards!

Getting speakers who share is crucial. I was lucky to have 2 speakers who were fantastic at sharing during my two sessions at Radiodays Denmark over the weekend. First Pete Simmons, the PD of Magic 105.4 took everyone through the strategy behind Magic, and why it’s number 1 in London. He was open, honest and shared everything. The delegates really got some fantastic insight thanks to Pete, and I enjoyed chatting with him on stage about the format and how he overcomes challenges.

Likewise Andy Parfitt, in his first real ‘event’ after stepping down as Controller of BBC Radio 1 was equally candid. I created a session where Andy would take us through the Radio 1 strategy, how it functions as a station, and along the way telling the importance of everything from Live Music to Online. And he didn’t disappoint. He was brutally honest, perhaps being able to talk more openly than ever before, as he is now free from the responsibilities that heading the network brings with it. My only regret is that the session was not recorded so a wider audience could share in some of the insight that Andy shared. Mind you, maybe if it had been, he might not have been so candid! So ‘speakers who share’ is vital to the success of any event.

With all that in mind, it’s only about 4 weeks to go until the Radio Festival in Manchester. Much more on that to follow no doubt!

"Never Knowingly Undercreative"

2011-09-19T15:41:00.006Z

Once again, the retailer John Lewis have come up with a fantastic ad using great music and 'the power of retro' to place their flag in the sand. They have been, and continue to be the retailer when it comes to buying electrical goods. A great idea, well executed.

And we like those!

9/11 - 10 Years On...

2011-09-10T11:29:00.005Z

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is naturally getting enormous coverage on TV and radio around the world. The numerous documentaries bring back the true horror of the day, and the sights and sounds still shock me, even 10 years on. In fact, I doubt they'll ever fail to shock me.

Radio stations all over the world are reflecting the anniversary of a day that undoubtedly changed the world.

Matt Deegan alerted his Facebook friends to a particular piece of audio that he'd discovered, which has been posted on the 98.5 KLUC website. They're a CHR station based in Las Vegas. (Big hat-tip to Matt)

10 years ago there was a version released of Heaven by DJ Sammy featuring the words of a 5 year old girl who lost her father in the 9/11 attacks. This new version marks the 10th anniversary and is the updated story of a girl from aged 5, right the way through to today, and her high school years.

The power of emotion is one of radio's greatest tools, and when meaningful words loaded with feeling, and an evocative piece of music are blended... the result is breathtaking.

As the KLUC guys say, we bet you can't keep a dry eye through it. I certainly couldn't.

Heaven 9-11 The 2011 Remix (mp3)

Audio of Quality and Distinction

2011-09-04T21:41:00.001Z

Here’s a self-evident truth; audio generallyhas to be interesting to grab the attention of the listener. Whether it’s aradio commercial, a DJ talking or even a sonic logo... it needs to cut throughfairly quickly to make me want to give it some of my ‘ear time’.

This should also be true of podcasts.

The reason I mention this is I’m currentlyworking on a project with my colleague Dan McGrath, advising a company wishing to develop an audio podcaststrategy. They work in the technology sector, and as part of my research Ithought I’d listen to some of the other ‘techy’ podcasts that are out there andseemingly doing well at the moment. And boy was I surprised.

The vast majority of them are really badlyproduced, badly presented and just badly thought out. Sorry – but it’s true.

Now, I know that I’m applying radioproduction standards to what are (mostly) plainly not radio shows, but I don’tthink that’s a genuine excuse for badly produced audio. The same principleshould still apply. It should interest the listener and grab their attention,and make them want to listen more, or subscribe or come back for more at alater date. Many of them had me hitting the stop button. And, for the record,it’s not that I wasn’t interested in the subject either. I’m as geeky abouttechnology as the next geeky guy with glasses!

So do the listeners of these podcastsmerely ‘put up’ with the poor quality, as that’s the price to pay for gettingniche content? I guess so. Or is it the case that the very ‘DIY’ nature of somepodcasts are intrinsic to their appeal? Has the democratisation of the means ofproduction meant that now anyone with a laptop and a £9.99 mic from Maplin canbe an ‘audio content producer’, and therein lies the appeal? Is the allure for listenersto these that the media is no longer controlled by the elite, but by themasses? Possibly... but if the masses could make it sound a bit better and trya bit harder, then that would be lovely thank you very much.

I’mlooking forward to the session at the forthcoming nextrad.io conference called “Top5 Reasons Why Podcasts Are Different To Radio” presented by FrancescaPanetta, who is Head of Audio at The Guardian. She should know, as sheused to work for BBC Radios 3 and 4, and is now heading up the Guardian's audio offerings,which are on the whole pretty good. I hope she’ll point out the positivedifferences that podcasts have with radio, but still at least want to maintaina minimum quality threshold.

I really like podcasts. Theon-demand world of speech content is now a very rich and varied one, with everyconceivable topic covered, and the fact that more and more people are consumingaudio content is a great thing.

And although podcasts do havedifferences to radio, isn’t it funny how some of the most popular podcasts withconsumers are just re-packaged radio shows, and if they’re not... they havesome really solid radio production techniques behind them.

So – a plea to larger FMCG brandswho have podcasts, and other corporate or semi-corporate entities who have branded audio contentin this arena. Please do think about how the quality of these reflect on yourbrand, and don’t settle for something that’s sub-standard just because “it’s only apodcast”. Produce quality and they will return, and return again.

And then therelationship with your consumers can really begin.

Back To School...

2011-09-01T22:41:00.005Z

September always feels like the 'back to school' month after the long, hot, balmy summer that we had here in the UK. Well... not really, but anyway...

And with that comes a glut of conferences to attend, clients to see and projects to develop.

At the tail end of August, it was great to hook up with all the guys from P5 in Norway at their summer conference. It was an opportunity for all the team to be updated on the current state of the market, new initiatives moving forward and what lies ahead for 2012. But even more than that, it was a great ‘team’ event. It’s easy to be cynical about these kind of get togethers, but I witnessed first-hand the great effect that making members of your station ‘walk the plank’ can have!! If your station doesn’t do events like this every now again, start doing them!!

There’s a good buzz about the nextradio.io conference in London in a couple of weeks time. There’s a fantastic line-up of speakers and I also have my allotted ‘9 minutes’ to deliver some sage words to the assembled crowd. I hope this event proves to be an annual get together, offering a forum for new, fresh and innovative ideas in radio.

Cyprus is a country I’ve not been to before, and I’m really looking forward to speaking at the ‘Radio Breakfast’ at the end of September organised by Dias Media, who are one of the big media players on the island. Any opportunity to drive home the benefits of using radio as a great medium for advertising is one that I can’t resist, and they tell me the sun always shines in Nicosia this time of year!!

Denmark’s annual get together of the good, bad, and erm... ‘damn good looking’ of Danish radio takes place at the start of October. Radiodays Denmark (from which Radiodays Europe sprung from) is always a great day, and the fact it’s combined with the Danish Radio Awards on the same night ensures it’s a hell of a party. I’m doing a session with the PD of London’s Number 1 Commercial station – Magic 105.4, Pete Simmons. We’re looking at “The Magic Behind Magic” (the title was too easy I know) and we’ll be dissecting the factors that have made that station consistently perform well in a tough market.

So, in between all that, I think some visits to client stations in Austria and Slovakia are in order, as everyone is now ‘back to school’. Plus **plug alert** my Saturday morning show on Absolute 80s (‘Cafe 80s’) which I present along with Dan McGrath, is going great guns and keeping us busy... so I guess that it’ll be a pretty busy month ahead.

Plus there’s another very exciting project in development... but more about that when the time is right!

Welcome ‘Back to School’ everyone!!

Why Music Matters

2011-08-17T10:23:00.004Z

Ever wondered why music matters?

If you work in music radio, then here's a nice reminder of the power of music, courtesy of the greatest band to ever record together...

Big Mistake?

2011-08-16T18:02:00.005Z

When is an idea burnt out and when does it just need a new twist, or a little tweaking to reignite interest in it?

This week in the UK, Big Brother returns and it’s over a decade since it first hit our screens on Channel 4. After the ratings started to flag and the idea wore a bit thin, they dumped the show, for it then to be picked up by Channel 5.

They’re debuting with a series of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, and of course with different hosts and a different team working on the show, we can expect the show to have a somewhat ‘new’ feel.

But is the format worth hanging on to, or is it just a turn off?

In radio we face similar dilemmas on a regular basis. It may be related to a particular benchmark, or perhaps a Morning Show that has seen better days, or even the format for the whole radio station.

So, when is it best to add a twist or something different... and when is it best to just say goodbye?

Fans of Big Brother in the UK will no doubt remember that producers always liked to add a twist to each series to refresh audience interest. Viewers were treated to Live Tasks, Big Brother going ‘evil’, Secret Missions, an All Female House, Fake evictions, and even the public choosing the final housemate to enter the house.

Over time, our attention was kept by this simple process of keeping the basis of the format, but adding something fresh to it.

This can work in radio too. Take your biggest benchmark. Is it time for a twist to be added to it? How could an extra element be added to make it more entertaining? What could that twist be?

Think about the big station promotion that you’ve done for the last 5 years in exactly the same way. Sure... it works, but would the audience be more interested in it if you added a new surprise element to it? What would that be?

If we’re thinking about a programme, the twist may be something more permanent. Is the Morning Show getting a bit too ‘set in its ways’? Would a new character or person on the team add a different dynamic? Could it be a younger female added in to make an impact? Maybe a new travel person? Again, you don’t always need to throw the basics away if it’s not quite working. Adding or even taking away an element may do the trick.

But there are some occasions when something’s run its course. If your brand thrives from always bringing fresh ideas to the audience, hanging on to something ‘past its sell-by-date’ can do your brand image some serious damage.

It might be that old promotional idea you trot out every summer, or that benchmark you’ve had on air now for 4 years without it really making an impact. Be brave. Cast aside dead wood. Don’t carry a 'corpse' of an idea around with you.

There are plenty more great new ideas, formats, and promotions out there... so never feel like you’re committing a sin if you get rid of something. Even if the Sales team tell you that they can still get a sponsor for it!

The trick is, of course, to get rid of it before it becomes an ‘infected toe’ and starts to spread its rot through the body of your brand.

I think that's what Channel 4 did when they axed Big Brother in 2010. Yes, it was still pulling in 3 Million viewers and had a lucrative sponsor, but it had become a tired format that was symptomatic of a channel that was in danger of losing its way. They jettisoned it; just in time in my view.

So, as the new series debuts this week on a new channel, it will no doubt get some 'half-decent' viewing figures, and generate some sponsorship revenue for the broadcaster, but I’d rather be in Channel 4’s place... of working on the next new idea, the next creative moment that can shape the brand for the decade to come.

So – remember to regularly add a twist to keep your ideas fresh. But also know when you should move on.

"You Spin Me Round..." - RAJAR Spin

2011-08-03T11:58:00.004Z

With the publication tonight of the latest RAJAR results for Q2 2011, there will no doubt be a flurry of activity and the ‘in house’ radio station Alastair Campbell’s will be doing their best to spin the results one way or another. If your results are great, that’s perfect... you can let your figures do the talking and can quite rightly shout out loud. All power to you and your message.

If however, you get a tricky book, (as we all do from time to time) then here are some firmly ‘tongue in cheek’ methods you can use when putting your press release together to send off to the local paper.

If you’re not Number 1 overall, just find a demo you’re number 1 in...

E.g. “We’re the Number 1 station for in our area (Men 50-59)” And be a bit generic about it all too. Paint the impression of success without quantifying it too much.

Confuse people with terminology...

Some journalists at local newspapers aren’t that clear on the difference between reach and share, so use the words ‘listeners’ and ‘listening’ quite liberally over your press release just to confuse them a little, and again create that sense of ‘victory’! E.g. “Listening at key times has increased once again, with even more listeners tuning in every week too.”

Find an increase that sounds better when expressed as a percentage...

For example, if you’re share in a particular demo has gone up from 5% to 8%, then you can quite rightly claim that “We’ve increased listening by 60% with women aged 30-39”. Sounds impressive, though in reality it may mean very little, and your overall share may gone down.

Change the range...

If you’re down quarter on quarter, then take a look at the year on year figures, and see if there’s an increase there. Then talk about the important long term growth of the brand. Or just mix it up a little! E.g. “More people are tuning in to XYZ-FM than this time last year, with an impressive increase in listening over the last 3 months to Freddie and Barbara in the Morning”.

Compare Apples with Apples...

If you’re a commercial station, make your station sound even better by just forgetting the BBC! After all, they’re a “different animal” aren’t they? In some markets, the BBC are clear market leaders with BBC Radio 2, or in London with BBC Radio 4. If that’s the case, just use the phrase “We’re the Number 1 commercial station in the area”, which for many will be perfectly true.

Star comparisons...

If your station has more listeners at breakfast time than say Chris Moyles, or Chris Evans... stick that in your press release, as comparisons with national personalities always make great copy for local newspapers. Plus, the local papers don’t really get stuck in to TSA size that much. You’re judged by the company you keep! E.g. “Debbie and Dave at Breakfast now bigger than Chris Evans”.

Include a quote...

Detract attention from generally bad figures by making up an anodyne quote from the breakfast show team. E.g. “Phil from Phil and Morning Crew said ‘I love getting up at 3am every day to entertain the people of Scunthorpe. It’s the best job in the world. We’re delighted that even more people are hearing about our show and we’re making it more successful every day. And don’t forget, the Mystery Word jackpot is at £63 tomorrow morning!’... etc...”

Ultimately, these kind of press releases are really designed for non-industry types, with the hope that people outside the sector will get the impression that your station is successful. What is it they say about perception being reality? And why not. All brands need to paint the picture of success to a certain degree. Consumers like to be associated with winning brands that are going somewhere. It confirms they are making the right choices in life.

Those in the radio industry know the tricks, so can spot them when a rival station uses them. We all know if a station is doing well or not. And as long as everything written is within the rules, and you’re not making stuff up... that’s kind of OK in my book. It’s the game we all play and will continue to play. Spin is nothing new.

If you spot any great examples, do let me know by posting a comment below!

So good luck to all UK stations today. I look forward to reading later that “more people than ever before are tuning in!”

"And You Can Tell Everybody..."

2011-07-26T13:28:00.004Z

We all love a good ‘list’. Lists help us to define and order the world we live in, giving us a sense of what's good or bad. In an over-communicated world, lists are a kind of a cultural shorthand.

So I always enjoy it when any radio station does a list of any kind. Sometimes, a classic idea just keeps on working.

And when you can tie in a TV partner too, it works that much better by providing additional marketing and promotion for the radio station along the way.

With all that in mind, Absolute 80s and VH1 are teaming up to bring you “Your Song of the 80s”. Pick your favourite from a pre-determined list of 60, and then on the pre-determined bank holiday (Monday 29th August), both radio and TV will “count ‘em down”.

I mention this not only because I like ‘lists’ on the radio, but when I hear the promo, it reminded me of the classic ‘montage technique’; get as many songs as you can in to represent what you’re trying to communicate – in this case, great 80s songs.

So take a listen to the promo, and see how many great 80s songs you can spot. I counted 13, but there may be more!!

Your Song of the 80s (mp3)

Disclosure: I produce and present a weekly show, with Dan McGrath, on a Saturday morning from 9am on Absolute 80s called 'Cafe 80s'. You can listen here

Listeners Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows

2011-07-14T09:47:00.004Z

What are the Top 10 things listeners don’t like about Morning / Breakfast shows?

I’m sure we could all come up with a pretty decent list of our own, but the good news is we don’t have to! Last week I was invited to attend the ‘Lokalrundfunktage’ 2011 in Nuremberg. It’s a gathering of the great and good of German radio, particularly hosted for the radio industry in the state of Bavaria, which has around 12.5 Million inhabitants.

The conference is a fantastic opportunity to get under the skin of what’s happening in German radio, and there’s loads going on... including the exciting launch of national DAB+ multiplexes.

There were the requisite speeches from politicians and industry leaders, and of course a sprinkling of interesting sessions.

One which caught my eye was a session on ‘personality radio’, and the importance of it / what it means to the German market etc. The session was kicked off with a great contextual presentation from Christoph Pöschl, from the German media research and consulting company, Brand Support. They’ve done lots of analysis of Morning Shows, and have a great research perspective on what works and what doesn’t.

So, here’s the Listeners Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows in Germany. (I’ve added some thoughts below each one)

1. Uninteresting Topics

Nothing annoys listeners more than topics and themes that are just plain boring! If you’re going to do topic, please make it interesting for the listener!!

2. Uninteresting Conversations

We’ve all heard those ‘talky bits’ that don’t go anywhere, and the hosts are just chatting for the sake of it. Feel free to do them, but the listeners are going to go elsewhere!

3. Hosts that talk too much

We all can think of hosts that can’t ‘put a sock in it’ from time to time. Give the listeners a break. Don’t keep going on and on, and on and on....

4. Promotions and competition that aren’t entertaining

Next time you’re sitting in that S&P meeting and the idea seems a bit dull, don’t agree to it. Give it another 10 minutes of creativity. If your competition is boring and flat, listeners will tune away.

5. Too many commercials

Not a problem in public radio, but in commercial radio PD’s need to just keep an eye on the total durations of ads. Different markets have different tolerance levels, but we all know when we’ve reached “too many”!

6. Too much self-promotion

Promoting your own station is fine, but don’t do too much of it so it starts to annoy your listeners, particularly in the morning show. The primary job there is to entertain listeners, not to continuously cross-promote all your other stuff.

7. Non-relevant content that doesn’t touch the listener

We know that creating relevant content that really connects emotionally with listeners is the most powerful way of getting people to listen. Audiences can quickly detect when something is there just for the sake of it. Do stuff that matters to you, and matters to your listeners, and that they can connect with.

8. Too little music variety

Listeners continuously tell us they like a bit of variety in the morning. If you have the right personality on the air, it’s probably the one place you can push the boat out a bit. Don’t be afraid... listeners like variety!!

9. Too little music

I always think that more time, money, resources and effort have gone into producing a brilliant 3 minute pop song, than have gone into producing any link... so don’t skimp on the music. Listeners love the songs. Some hosts think they “get in the way of the content”. Wrong. They’re part of the content of the show.

10. Too much repetition of the same songs

Morning shows are probably the most habitual listen for any radio consumer. So ensuring that the rotations are correct, and that the ‘mix’ is right in the morning is vital.

So there we have it... Listeners Top 10 Criticisms of Morning Shows in Germany. But I think it’s a pretty universal list, and is shows listeners around the world are remarkably similar. The same issues crop up in every market I have worked in.

The good news is we can do something about it. If we know what listeners don’t like, we try to ensure that we do the opposite... right?

If you work in radio station, think of your own morning show. Does it do any of these things on the list? Once you know what listeners don’t like, it’s far easier to do stuff they do like!

**Thanks to Christoph Pöschl from Brand Support for sharing his presentation. If you want more info from him direct, I’m sure he’d be happy to talk to you.

"Happy Radio!"

2011-06-29T15:58:00.007Z

Radio makes you happy. It’s official.

I think it’s something that if you work in radio, you subconsciously know... ‘what you do’ connects with people, and puts them in a good mood. But now, the research has been done to prove it. You can read it all here. And you can't argue with science!

The RAB in the UK commissioned this study to see how media improved people’s moods, with the hope that radio would do well, and to measure the emotional influence of radio relative to other media. The aim then was to ‘promote radio’ as a place for advertisers to spend their money persuading us to buy different goods and services etc.

Radio did very well. In fact, radio generated the highest Happiness and Energy levels of the 3 media measured (TV and online being the others).

When I think of my own radio consumption, I think this ‘happiness’ concept really spans formats too.

I was driving back home from an evening meeting in central London the other night and Magic 105.4 had a fantastic sweep of 10 songs that relaxed me in the traffic and ‘made me happy’.

I was cleaning up the kitchen the other night (I like to make a mess when I cook) and stuck on Absolute 80s for my regular retro fix, and that ‘made me happy’ as I turned up Madness ‘Night Boat to Cairo’ really loud!

A few weeks ago, listening to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Just a Minute’ (via Radioplayer) made me laugh out loud a-plenty, and that ‘made me happy’.

Last Friday night, I nipped out to collect the regular ‘Friday Night Curry’ and Friday Night Kiss was playing out some top tunes, and that ‘made me happy’ (or was it the thought of the curry that was awaiting my arrival?)

And listening to BBC Radio 5 Live’s excellent Wimbledon coverage today has ‘made me happy’. (Who would have though tennis on the radio could be so entertaining?).

So it’s not just the wacky, zany morning shows that have the power to make listeners happy. The whole spectrum of content that’s broadcast on the radio can do so. And it’s worth thinking about the mood altering effect that radio has, and ensuring your on-air talent fully appreciates the role they have in shaping “the mood of the nation”.

Finally – a word about the research. Well done to the team at RAB and Sparkler who put this together. When there are stories of war in Libya, riots in Greece and strikes in the UK, it’s the perfect antidote to all the bad news that’s around... and a fun story for other media to report on. (Like here and here) Great work and good timing!

Right - I’m off to get another ‘fix of happiness’.

The Next Big Thing In Radio?

2011-06-22T11:40:00.003Z

I spend a lot of time with radio people of all types; Owners, CEO’s, Managing Directors, Sales Directors, Programme Directors and yes... sometimes even Engineers too.

I always enjoy spending time with practitioners though – people who actually make radio; people who are at the ‘coal face’ doing it day in / day out. If you have a background in programme making (as I do), and have spent many thousands of hours in a studio, I think regardless of where you progress to in the radio industry, you always have a secret soft spot for the process of ‘making radio’ and the people who do it.

So when I was asked to be a part of a brand new UK radio conference that was perhaps more for people involved in the job of making radio, and people who just like new radio ideas, regardless of what department they work in, I didn’t hesitate to get involved.

NEXTRAD.IO was launched this morning, and as the organisers say...

“At last – a radio conference for radio people. It’s not designed for the suits. It’s not something that will just appeal to you if you work in a particular part of the radio industry. It’s designed for people who like radio, who want to be inspired by new ideas, who recognise that technology will help it to change and adapt and for those who want to meet like minded people.”

It’s being put together by “professional conference attendees” James Cridland and Matt Deegan, who have set out to design a very different type of radio conference. It’s a pretty good starting point, as many conference can be a bit ‘samey’, and lack a real ‘inspirational vibe’. I’m confident that this will have a different feel, and as the model is the TED conferences, that’s a great reference point to work from.

It takes place in London on 15th September 2011, and tickets are only £99... and I’m really confident it will be a fantastic event (and real value for money too). Being Year 1, the guys have limited it to 120 people, and honestly... without trying to create an artificial demand for tickets, I’m pretty sure they’re going to sell out fast.

So, I look forward to hanging out with some like-minded people, who love radio and want to share and discuss ideas.

And if you’re one of them... maybe I’ll see you there.

"Today is going to be the day..."

2011-06-21T23:06:00.005Z

This happens today on BBC Radio 2. A great idea developed to showcase the range and quality of the output of this network...

The Best Radio Commercial Ever?

2011-06-14T13:08:00.004Z

The RAB in the UK recently published its Top 10 scoring radio ads during Q1 2011, based on their rather clever 'RadioGauge' system, which measures the effectiveness of commercials.

There are some good ads on the list, and it prompted me to revisit some of my favourite radio commercials in my archive. And every time I go through them, I'd always drawn to this one.

Listen!

Simple. Powerful. Effective.

Radio commercials can be beautiful.

"Dear Sophie..."

2011-06-07T21:48:00.003Z

Here's the US version of the same ad for Google Chrome...

Content that stimulates an emotional response always works best.

Now think of the last opportunity you had to do that on the radio with a promo? Did you use the "power of emotion"?

"Dear Hollie..."

2011-06-05T23:57:00.002Z

I love this...

That's all :-)

"Dearly beloved... Please welcome on stage..."

2011-06-05T20:17:00.006Z

The radio station 'intimate gig' with some competition winners and a selected invited audience is nothing new. It works really well; reinforces a music image or association with a particular artist; and adds some sparkle to a station, whatever the format.

But to add that special something, the choice of venue if often the factor that can really make the difference.

Last week, Absolute Radio launched their 'Summer of Live' with an intimate gig with one of the most sought after live bands in the country, Elbow.

And the venue? A crypt in a church! Oh... and not any old church. It just happened to be St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Tonight, Absolute Radio broadcast the entire gig on the radio (which sounded great by the way)... but of course, being the digital brand that they are, they filmed it all and you can watch it in super HD quality here.

So... intimate gigs for your station? Yes please - they work well. Venue that captures the imagination? Go for it! Once you open the box of creative possibilities, the project takes on a whole new and exciting dimension.

If a radio station can manage to stage a gig in the venue that hosted the funeral of Winston Churchill as well as the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales... then anything is possible!!

Do Stunts Still Work?

2011-06-05T20:05:00.013Z

Do stunts still work?

In a mediascape where there is more content than ever before, all vying for some of our headspace, does the good old fashioned 'radio station stunt' still cut through?

Here’s one from the station I work with in Austria, Kronehit.

In April, they decided to hold a “Naked Wedding”. The concept - 2 people get married with no clothes on. Simple really! Quite a few stations have done this worldwide, and if you’re one of them, you’ll know how successful it can be. But in conservative, Catholic Austria... doing something like this takes quite some balls... so to speak.

Here’s a short highlights package of how it looked on the day. Caution: there may be some nudity. Mind you, I guess the clue’s in the title...

In any diary based or CATI system of methodology as they have in Austria, it’s difficult to measure the cut through for these type of events. Do the audience register what you’re doing? Do the wider public notice your radio station stunt?

Google trends is a nice way of seeing what people are searching for at any one time.

If you take Kronehit’s biggest competitor, Ö3 (from the Austrian Public Service Broadcaster) they have more weekly audience and also are consistently a more ‘searched for’ term on Google in Austria. Except in one particular week...

As you can see, for the first time ever, Kronehit (the blue line) overtook Ö3 (the red line) in terms of search, which is a great moment for the station. It shows that stunts, if executed and PR’d correctly, can still cut through to a much wider audience than just a station P1’s.

If you're attending the 'Local Rundfunktage' in Germany at the start of July, you must go and see Kronehit PD, Rüdiger Landgraf's presentation on 'Radio and Social Media', where he'll talk more about the stations' strategy to connect with its youth audience.

In terms of Kronehit growing its awareness and building its image as a station for a fun, young Austrian... another step up the ladder has been completed, and the 'stunt' played its part well.

"The Hills Are Alive..."

2011-06-05T19:32:00.005Z

I had a bit of a ‘half term break’ in Austria with the family last week. Nothing like a good bit of “mountain air” to cleanse the mind!

While I was away, I tried not to think too much about radio and media related stuff, as everyone should have a little bit of ‘downtime’ to recharge the batteries.

So on Day 1, in the local tourist information office, I thought I’d pick up the bus timetable to check on the times of buses to Salzburg.

(A regular and delightfully punctual service between Bad Reichenhall and Salzburg you’ll be pleased to know!)

And there on the back of the timetable...

... and advert for ORF’s local offering in Salzburg... Radio Salzburg.

(ORF is the Austrian Public Service Broadcaster)

There’s 2 things I liked about this ad.

First, the placement. What better place to reinforce your local credentials other than on the back of the local bus timetable. It says “connected” and “unpretentious” to me.

Second, the strapline. “Wo ich daheim bin”... translates as “Where I’m at home”. It’s a really good piece of communication that shows the radio station is close to the listener in terms of ‘emotion’ as well as geography in a simple yet effective way.

So, despite my best efforts to not think about radio and the media for at least a week, I’m afraid I failed miserably! But I’m kinda happy I did, as I like radio station marketing like this.

Is your station being marketed in the right places? Remember – sometimes ‘context’ is everything.

Sony Radio Academy Awards - 2011

2011-05-11T11:05:00.005Z

Every year, I’m amazed at the quality and range of programmes in UK radio, celebrated and rewarded at the ‘Sony Radio Academy Awards’... the UK’s “Radio Oscars”.

The news from the night has already been pretty well covered. You can see the full list of winners here, and read some good reviews online.

The one thing I always leave the Sony’s with (apart from a large dent in my wallet. 'How much for a round of drinks?!!') is a renewed sense of optimism that in the UK, we have a radio industry that thrives on creativity and innovation, and is home to so many passionate industry professionals that want to keep creating brilliant programmes and formats.

From Ronnie Wood through to BBC 5 Live Breakfast, the range is just superb. So, if you don’t live in the UK, and want to experience the 'Best of British Radio'... take a look down the winners list, and track down some of their shows. You can hear a lot of live and previously broadcast shows here on the Radioplayer.

So... as Dan McGrath and I (pictured) prepare for our new radio show ‘Cafe 80s’ on Absolute 80s, which starts this Saturday at 9am... we have something to aim for next year!

Worldwide Radio Summit 2011 - Los Angeles

2011-05-02T19:18:00.008Z

This update is brought to you with “Valley View Casino & Hotel and their all you can eat Lobster Buffet”.

OK – it isn’t... but the new morning show from Rick Dees starting this week on LA's Hot 92.3 actually is!!

You’ve guessed it. I’m in Los Angeles where I was speaking at the Worldwide Radio Summit that’s just taken place in Hollywood. So, what did we glean from this newest of conferences and what’s the current vibe in US radio?

It would be fair to say that a few themes and topics dominated the conference and also the chatter in the halls and lobbies of the hotel.

They were;

1. Social media, mobile and radio
2. The threat of streaming music services
3. The lack of personality in US radio
4. The economics of radio business

A lot has been said and written about Social Media and its intersect with radio over the last few years. If you thought that traditional UK or European media is obsessed with it, then spend a day here! It’s fair to say that it is THE topic that everyone discusses and everyone has an opinion on. There were plenty of sessions where a variety of angles were looked at, from how you develop a deeper relationship with your audience via Social Media platforms... through to building and sustaining your numbers.

There were some great quotes from the panel sessions, such as “Facebook is the new Elvis” so it’s easy to see how the importance of having a decent Social Media strategy is now essential. There were lots of ideas and suggestions that all had value, but let me point you to one person who I thought made the most sense and had a great understanding of the key issues. Lori Lewis is Jacobs Media ‘Digital and Social Strategist’ and she also writes a column for All Access. Here you’ll see some great tips on having a brand conversation with your consumers / listeners. If you’re looking for a specialist to help you develop your radio brand conversation, Lori would be a great starting point.

Regarding the threat of streaming music services, there is no doubt that the US radio industry is in a bit of a spin about Pandora, and what to do about it. There was the now pre-requisite debate on whether Pandora is actually ‘radio’ or not, which had a new and very ‘market driven’ argument applied to it; “If it takes ad revenues from radio... it’s radio”. Not sure I agree with that one, and my opinion on what Pandora / Spotify etc are remains. Streaming music services are great... but they’re not radio. The human element is what defines radio for me, and I while listening to Pandora last night in my hotel room, it did not inform me or discuss the death of Bin Laden.

There was the suggestion that engagement with ‘jukebox services’ diminishes over time but on the other hand, no-one can deny their growth and increasing significance, especially in the mobile arena. Fred Jacobs did a great presentation about the influence that mobile has on the lives of the US consumer Mobile is where it’s at... radio just needs to work out how we now fit in with this.

There was a great session on ‘personality radio’ and the organisers put together a fantastic panel of talent and agents including Rick Dees, Big Boy from Power 106, Dr Drew, Phil Hendrie and Tony Novia from Ryan Seacreast Productions amongst others. It was superbly hosted by former Xfm PD, Andrew Phillips, who now works from the ABC Network in Australia. The messages? Personality should be allowed to flourish. Don’t over research everything... allow your instinct as a programmer to have a say. Talent needs time to develop and if you’re fired from somewhere, that means you’re probably really good!!

The session reminded me of the ‘power of the personality’ and I written before here about the need to make sure we’re not diluting this on our stations, but encouraging it and nurturing it. The answer in trying to combat services like Pandora is not behaving just like them.

On talent development, the old philosophy still holds true: “It’s far easier to teach someone with a personality, radio skills... than to teach someone with radio skills to have a personality!”

Lastly, we had regular reminders of the fact that radio is still a business, and often the desire for ratings success forces stations to take the obvious path, and that which will receive least resistance. The problem is that this often is not the most creative path, and rarely differentiates your station. US radio is for some only about money, and the art and magic of radio has disappeared. I hope that the rise of Social Media and the perceived threats that now exist to the radio business will act as a catalyst to force groups to have a re-assessment of the role of creativity in radio.

In a great discussion over lunch, the aforementioned Andrew Phillips reminded me that if the fear of ‘losing’ is greater than the desire to win, then this leads to a proliferation of mediocrity. That’s what we have with SOME radio stations and groups both in Europe and the US. Those that are willing to be brave, will reap the benefits!

So all in all, an excellent conference and congratulations should go to Joel Denver and Sat Bisla whose companies combined to put this together. Radio needs events like this to ‘stop and chat’ and share some best practise and opinions. We won’t always agree, but it’s important to have the dialogue.

And on the differences between radio in the US and the rest of the world. Yes- there are some... but there more that unites us that divides us.

Now, remind me of where can I get an “All you can eat Lobster buffet” in this town?

"This Ain't No Disco... It Ain't No Country Club Either..."

2011-04-25T16:03:00.005Z

So with Easter almost over, it’s time to get back on the road!

I’m looking forward to going to LA this week. I’m speaking at the Worldwide Radio Summit, which a new conference that is jointly put together by A&R Worldwide and the great US radio / music information portal that is ‘All Access’.

I’m taking part in a session with entitled “Around The World – Radio Across All Continents” which, as you’ll have guessed by now, is looking at both the differences and similarities between different markets, giving delegates a snapshot of each different territory. I’m focusing on the UK and highlighting what makes the market here so interesting. During my research I’ve uncovered some nice facts, which I’ll share here after the session. (Don’t want to spoil the ‘big reveals’!)

There’s a good few Brits heading out to LA, so I’ll be in good company, along with some great US speakers, including the ubiquitous Mark Ramsey, Jeff Pollack, Fred Jacobs, Ken Benson, Alan Burns, Valerie Geller, and Rick Dees. Yes... that one, who’s taking part in a session about on-air talent development. Should be good!

You can be sure I’ll post a review of the conference here once it’s all done and dusted, and bring you some of the best bits. Plus I’ll no doubt be tweeting during the session. (You can follow me @nikgoodman)

Meanwhile, if you’re coming along to the conference... come and say hello! and of course if you're holidaying anywhere near the ‘W Hollywood’ later this week... do stop by!

The DJ as 'Curator'

2011-04-24T19:44:00.005Z

Listening to music radio is a great way of indulging your passion for a particular genre of music, whilst perhaps learning something about it along the way.

The best music radio presenters are ones who share their passion with you, and take you on a musical journey every time they take to the airwaves.

In the UK, the über-daddy of this was the late, great John Peel, who guided many a ‘new music’ fan through the exciting new sounds and movements he discovered along the many years of broadcasting.

There has always been a split in terms of the types of radio presenters there are. There are the ones who love music, like Peel, and draw together a merry band of listeners who they want to share their love of music with.

Then there are “personalities” whose sole aim is to entertain – they care very little about the music really. And that’s fine... that’s not their job.

Then there are the ones who just like to be on the radio... they don’t care much for music either, nor are they particularly entertaining – they just like being on the radio. Not that inspiring really, but there’s still a role for them!

I’ve found myself drawn to the first kind again recently; the DJ as curator... a trusted guide... someone I can allow to play me music I know and love, and to surprise me with the occasional song I wasn’t familiar with.

And the person whose re-ignited this in me? Dance music stalwart, Dave Pearce.

BBC Radio 2, a brand not closely associated with dance or club music, has commissioned a 13-part series where Dave is taking us on a journey through the history of dance music. From the early days of disco, through to the birth of house music in Chicago, right the way on to the UK rave scene and Ibiza. Each show is a veritable potpourri of rhythmic styles!

First thing to say is that this is exactly the kind of thing the BBC should be doing, so hats off to them for that. Second thing – they’ve got exactly the right person to do it. Dave has been there and done it and witnessed most incarnations of dance music during the last 30 years. So he’s the perfect “trusted guide” to take me through an hour of “choons” every week.

But it’s not only playing the records that counts. Any old monkey (or playout system) can do that. It’s the knowledge and context the DJ can bring to the show that really makes it enjoyable. So the little stories, anecdotes and bits of info that are peppered across the show make it a great listen to an unashamed fan of dance music, like me.

So if you’re a radio station that has room in your schedule for a late night show that allows a DJ to be the curator, the trusted guide... why not do something similar? The old expression of “Ratings by day, reputation by night” still applies, and your station may gain some new found respect and even generate some more listening off the back of doing something like this. There are loads of ‘listener friendly’ versions you could do, regardless of the format you’re in. And something like this really breaks the monotony of “the format” especially if you have the feeling (or evidence) your listeners are searching for something a bit deeper from your radio station.

And in an on-demand world, this is the perfect ‘listen again’ opportunity. (By the way, you can listen to Dave’s fantastic show by typing Dave Pearce into the Radioplayer search engine).

I know the ‘DJ as curator’ has never really gone away as a phenomenon, but a show like Dave’s Pearce’s on Radio 2 has reminded me of how great that concept is.

New Weekend Show for Absolute 80s - Cafe 80s

2011-04-19T12:49:00.006Z

They say that the ‘radio presenting bug’ never quite leaves you, and dwells deep within your bloodstream, before eventually breaking out years later, in a virulent case of ‘on-air activity’.

Well, I can confirm... that is very true!

This morning, Absolute Radio issued the following press release:

New Weekend Show for Absolute 80s – Cafe 80s
Absolute 80s is launching a brand new weekend morning show, presented by Dan McGrath and Nik Goodman – Cafe 80s.

Cafe 80s will air Saturdays from 9am – 12pm and will be an entertaining and light-hearted show with fun features and the best music that made Absolute 80s famous – this is the land of Human League, U2, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Simple Minds, Duran Duran, Prince, ABC, Depeche Mode, Blondie and Bon Jovi, with a sprinkle of timeless tunes from artists such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and Culture Club.

The show will also feature guests from all walks of life who found fame in the 80s – be they from the world of music, film, TV or sport all with a 2011 take on the 80s. Dan and Nik have over 40 years of radio experience between them – they grew up in the halcyon days of the 1980s and share the same memories, experiences and growing pains, as the station’s audience of reluctant adults.

Cafe 80s is Absolute 80s first regular commission and will launch on Saturday 14th May. The commission demonstrates Absolute Radio’s commitment to personality and entertaining, unique content on its family of decade brands.

Dan McGrath was part of Chris Evans’ on air team throughout The Big Breakfast, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, TFI Friday, Radio 1 and Virgin Radio days. In 2001 he set up his own company (Cannon Studios) to supply music, audio production and presentation for all aspects of media, which (among other things) lead to him writing the theme tunes to a raft of high profile TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the ‘Lloyd Webber, BBC Star Search’ series.

Nik Goodman started his career in radio working alongside the legendary record producer, Pete Waterman, at Radio City in his native Liverpool during the late 1980’s. He has had a successful career in radio which has included drivetime show on Power FM, programme director at Virgin Radio (where he first met Dan), Kiss FM and Capital Radio. In 2006, he founded a creative media consultancy focusing on music, programming, and content development for radio stations and now has clients in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and India.

Cafe 80s set to be a show our Absolute 80s nostalgic audience will love!

So, the headphones are being dusted off as we speak and I'm really looking forward to presenting this new show. Dan and I will get to play some fantastic 80s music on a Saturday morning, speak to some fun people from that era, and have a bit of a laugh on the radio. What could be better?

I'm already getting through lots of song suggestions and ideas for the show from my 30-50 year old friends! And the more people I introduce the station to, the more people tell me they love it.

I'd like to say "Saturday mornings will never be the same again"... but that's not true. They will be. They'll just have 2 guys who love playing songs from the 80s on the radio.

So stop by and have a coffee! Cafe 80s starts on Saturday 14th May at 09:00.

Radioplayer: The Verdict So Far...

2011-04-04T10:46:00.011Z

UK Radio in one place? "So what?" you may say...

The UK’s new Radioplayer launched last week with a good deal of media attention, and an instant user base of anywhere up to 4 Million in the first week.

Why is it an important development? Well, for a number of reasons;

The UK has a lot of untapped potential with online listening, which currently stands at 3.1% of the total share of digital listening, and 8.8% reach. It could be a lot more, and certainly needs to play its part in increasing the overall share of digital listening in the UK.

One of the barriers to developing more online listening has been the difficulty of getting consumers to listen when (or if) they finally arrive at your stations website, and then allowing listeners to then move around from station to station. Frankly, to the average consumer who is used to just pushing a button to change a digital TV channel or a preset on a car radio, it was fairly difficult.

Consumers like consistency wherever possible, and up to now, there’s been frankly nothing consistent about the online listening experience. So anything that makes this easier has to be seen as a step in the right direction.

Consumers also like simplicity. And having played with Radioplayer for a few days now, it’s pretty simple to use. Search for a station, click on it and you’re listening to it. Search for another station, click on it, and there you are again. The search function is at an early stage, and it will no doubt be developed further, but it’s not a bad start to be honest.

I like the ability to search across live, and on-demand content... and if all partner stations are making their on-demand content searchable, then this will make it a very powerful tool for people to find great radio that they perhaps didn’t know existed. I’ve already come across some nice on-demand content by accident, just by playing with the search function. This will no doubt increase the total TSL to radio, both live and on-demand, over time. The search isn’t perfect yet, but I’m sure it will develop over time. I wonder if the secrets of the algorithm will be revealed... and will be there be a new SEO consultant role... “How to get your station on the 1st page of Radioplayer search results”!!

The presets function is a really nice touch with ‘iPhone style’ movement of the presets, and although it took me a minute or 2 to actually work out how to add a station. I didn’t quite grasp you have to click on the ‘to my stations’ button after you hover over ‘add’, as I was furiously clicking the ‘+’ to no avail!. It took me no time at all to fill up my 15 presets. OK – I’m quite a heavy consumer as you’d expect!

As I own a few different laptops / desktops, it’s a little frustrating I can’t ‘port’ my presets from one device to another and had to go about recreating them all again on 3 computers. Admittedly, I may use a few more devices than the average consumer, but ‘Radioplayer Tech People’ – (I hope you're taking notes!)... you should take a look at how you could do that without having to create a registration function, which would obviously take away from the pure simplicity of it all.

It’s nice to see how different broadcasters are using the ‘space’ below the player part for their own ends. All have a slightly different approach, but 'tips of the hat' go to GMG for having some nice sponsor links and an easy to navigate splash box, the BBC for allowing me to dig deeper in to the BBC’s content with ‘More Episodes’, and a smart move by Absolute for allowing me to select any station within their portfolio without seemingly having to ‘switch’ station via the Radioplayer dashboard. Therefore I can just have one Absolute Radio preset, and navigate to say ‘Absolute 80s’ with veritable ease.

The potential of the broadcaster ‘space’ below the dashboard is something quite exciting, and I’m certain we’ll see some neat innovation in the months ahead.

There are a few minor bugs which I guess will be sorted out soon... for example in Chrome, when I go to a BBC station, the window resizes itself slightly too small so scroll bars appear, and I have to manually resize it to make it look lovely again... but hey... that’s not the end of the world is it, and easily fixed I’m sure.

On launch day and over the weekend, I was watching the #radioplayer Twitter feed, and there was lots of positive comments and quite a few negative ones too, which you’d expect.

One of the reoccurring negative ones was from a body of (probably quite geeky) people who were suitably underwhelmed by it all, claiming it was nothing new, and bemoaning its simplicity. I think they’re missing the point. It’s meant to be simple. Listening to the radio online shouldn’t be complicated, so let’s not put in a load of fancy features unnecessarily. Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD do it. I applaud the development team led by the newly Christened “Radio Ninja”, Mike Hill, for not getting carried away.

The beauty of something lies in its simplicity... and simplicity is pretty hard to do well!

And to those critics who argue that you can already do what Radioplayer does already with a load of other radio aggregator websites - sure you can, but they’re not the default player for the majority of the UK’s radio stations, not controlled by the broadcasters who are creating the content (therefore not particularly interested in enhancing the listener experience with visuals or click-throughs), and having tried a fair few of them in my time, they’re not particularly easy to use either. Plus they don’t allow a listener an easy way to tap into the rich vein of non-linear content that is available via ‘listen again’.

The UK radio industry has taken a grown up step by getting the BBC and Commercial Radio to collaborate on this project. Without the BBC, Radioplayer would have still been good, but far less potent. Commercial radio has more to gain from being on the same online listening technology as the BBC, and this is a smart move by the BBC's audio supremo, Tim Davie, showing that they're not on some philsophically driven mission to crush all competition from the commercial sector. A BBC working with, and helping a commercial sector to flourish thus providing strong competition, is a healthy, modern BBC... and this will certainly not go unnoticed in corridors of Westminster.

Getting the public and private sectors to work together for the greater good of the industry, setting aside any sort of entrenched rivalries, is a moment to savour, and one that other countries can hopefully draw inspiration from.

If you want to see the radio sector continue to thrive in the future in your marketplace, innovations like Radioplayer are essential, and Public / Private partnerships are crucial.

So... UK Radio in one place = Good Work!

Radioplayer is here!

2011-03-30T20:29:00.005Z

It's here!

Go have a play here

Radiodays Europe 2011; "Change Is In The Air"

2011-03-20T21:46:00.004Z

As Radio conferences, last week’s Radiodays Europe in Copenhagen has to be seen as one of the best for quite some time; not only because it was in a city I know and love; not only because the conference venue was still shiny, new and well laid out; and not only because it was exceptionally well attended with over 700 delegates from all over the world.

All these things helped... but more importantly, its programme addressed some of the key issues our industry faces and combined it with some really fascinating insights into the whole spectrum of radio related topics. From positioning to measurement to sales etc.. etc..

There were of course the obligatory sessions on distribution, platforms and the move to digital. The keynote session at the start of the conference set the tone really... and in case of any doubt, here’s where we are: All of Europe’s radio markets are at different points on the ‘evolution of radio’ curve. Some are embracing the digital future and ‘diving on in’ and swimming around the ‘pool of digital fun’! Some are splashing around in the shallow end with the full intention of having a swim, once the water gets a bit warmer. And some are still in changing room, fully clothed, with no intention of going swimming at all... even if it’s 35 degrees outside and the sky is blue!

Europe’s radio industry is at a crossroads. Until now, we’ve all been heading roughly in the same direction with broadly had the same distribution on AM and FM, and a few country specific things at the periphery. Now with the ‘infinite dial’ upon us and digital technologies offering solutions that would have had their inventors burnt at the stake if they’d come up with them 50 years ago, different countries have choices as to which direction they want to go in and why. And here’s the thing... We ain’t all going in the same direction anymore folks! Change is in the air!!

Does it matter? Possibly not, and certainly consumers will just want to get the content they want, in the way they want it, and not worry too much about distribution in future. But I fear for those countries who are seemingly doing nothing about the change to the digital economy. What will their radio markets look like in 10 or 20 years time? This topic seem to occupy these conferences quite a bit, with different sides of the argument all lining up to say why they’re doing their thing, or why they’re not doing the thing other people are doing.

For the record, I tend to agree with the majority of the received wisdom about these things in the UK. It will be suicide for radio not to embrace a digital future, and a digital broadcast backbone with plenty of other options alongside that, seems to be the smartest way of going right now.

But enough of distribution! What else did we all learn in Copenhagen, apart from that it still snows there in Spring, and everything is still way over-priced?

We learnt that Z100 is just like any other hits radio station, just with a larger population to serve than most, and a decent budget for talent. The have exactly the same positioning issues as any other major market station, and apply some classic positioning strategy to differentiate themselves from the competition. And they just play the hits!

We learnt that Ryan Seacrest is the “Mayor of Hollywood” and delivers a great morning show every day, by following some of the tried and tested ‘rules’ of production that Dennis Clarke drills into him on a regular basis! Dennis always talks sense in a very ‘un-frilly’ way, and communicates his points fantastically well. And he’s one of the few speakers who gets a cheer as he’s going UP to talk!

We also learnt that the UK Radioplayer is a fantastic collaborative effort between the BBC and the commercial sector which will see online listening becoming easier for consumers, and hopefully increase its share of digital listening, adding to the overall pot of digital listening that will see the digital radio switchover in the UK become a reality. I’m proud the UK is leading the way in this area, and will be interesting to see how it goes when the service goes live at the end of the month. It’s a major change and will of course have a few teething problems. But nothing’s perfect to start with is it?

We learnt that some in Europe are worried about the threat of streaming music services like Spotify and WIMP, as they fear it will replace listening to traditional radio. I love these kind of streaming services, but they’re not ‘radio’ as we know it, and as long as we in the programming sector invest in the bits in between the records, as well as the music format, then I think we’ll probably be OK!

There was plenty more on offer; too much to list here really. And aside from the sessions, we saw that there is still as much passion for the medium as ever before, with some fantastically bright and creative people all contributing to the growth of the sector in their market and beyond.

Yes, we’re going through change as an industry... but change is exciting; change is thrilling; change is about the future, not the past; change is what defines our own progress as a species. Without change, we’d be nowhere and still swinging from the trees.

So embrace change... within your market, and within your station.

And with that suitably positive and forward-looking message, I’m off to Athens to talk the Greek radio industry about the creative changes that technology can bring to programming, and how to make the most of the opportunities that change brings.

Spring Is In the Air...

2011-03-14T18:58:00.007Z

It must be Spring, as the radio conference season is in full swing again!

This week, I’ll be joining the assembled masses of the worldwide radio industry at the RadioDays Europe conference. It’s the 2nd year of this particular conference, and the organisers have done a great job at assembling all some really good speakers and interesting sessions. And with over 400 delegates coming from all over the world, it's bound be be fun too! Don’t worry if you can’t go... I’ll bring you some of the highlights reviewed here. And if you are going... look forward to catching up with you in Copenhagen. Come and say hi or email me if you're in town and fancy a beer and a chat! (And while you’re there, take a listen to client station Radio 100 on 97.2FM!)

And next week, it’s off to Athens for the Marketing Week Radio Conference where I’ll be presenting a session on “Creative Programming For The Facebook Generation”. I’ll be looking at how radio stations should respond creatively to the possibilities that the digital era now brings them as well as the creative innovations that will build audience loyalty. I very much look forward to catching up with some top representatives of the Greek radio industry while I’m there. (Plus the Greek hospitality is always pretty good!)

In the meantime, I'm doing a lot of work at the moment on getting the best out of guests and interviews, particularly on Morning / Breakfast Shows. So here's someone who always gets the best out of their guests...

"We Are The Future"

2011-02-26T17:50:00.004Z

I’m at a meeting of World DMB in Paris next week. World DMB? What’s that I hear you say?

According to their website, they are “...responsible for defining the standards of the Eureka-147 family which includes DAB and DAB+ for digital radio and DMB for radio and mobile TV."

They also promote “...the awareness, adoption and implementation of these services around the world. We work with sound and data broadcasters, network providers, manufacturers, governments and official bodies to encourage international co-operation and a smooth, coordinated roll-out of services.”

So basically, it’s their job to spread the word about the benefits of DAB / DAB+ digital radio to markets around the world. And they have regular meetings with their members and non-members to discuss the broad topic ‘digital radio’ rollout.

I’ve been kindly invited and talk to them about some success stories in commercial radio in Europe, and am looking forward to discussing a few case studies showing what I belive are the simple principles behind audience growth. Do these certain things, and your station will grow!

I was mentioning my forthcoming trip to someone who is still quite skeptical of a the need for radio to enter into the digital world or be part of a multi-platform future with a strong digital backbone. “Isn’t FM good enough for the future?” he said.

“Not really, if commercial radio wants to still have a viable business model in 10-20 years time” I said.

He gave me a puzzled look.

“It’s about what the advertisers will want from radio in the future” I carried on... “And if radio doesn’t offer it, they’ll simply go elsewhere”.

I then played him this...

And he smiled, and said. “Ahh. I see what you mean now”

"Turn Up The Bass!"

2011-02-07T11:05:00.002Z

“Can you make us sound the loudest on the dial?”

This is a common question that programmers often ask radio engineers when it comes to processing. But is ‘loudness’ important or is that just a very crude way of looking at it?

And do audiences notice or even care, as long as they can hear the station, and it doesn’t sound rubbish?

The issue of ‘processing’ has been tackled by this week’s Radio Academy podcast, ‘RadioTalk’, which is available to listen to right now.

Why am I telling you this? Well... I was asked to contribute to the debate and so last week while I was in Denmark, I jumped in a studio and discussed it ‘down the line’ with RadioTalk host Trevor Dann.

You can listen to the whole programme here, and even if you’re only mildly interested in this sort of thing, it’s a fascinating listen. There are great contributors, much more technically qualified than myself, discussing the pros and cons of the world of processing and if you want to get an insight into the thoughts of the top engineers from the BBC and commercial sector in the UK, now’s your chance!

RAJAR Qtr 4 2010; "The numbers are in..."

2011-02-04T17:58:00.002Z

So it was listening figures time again in the UK this week... and what did we learn?

Well, there are some nice headlines about 90% of the population listening to the radio every week and of course every group or station puts a shine on their particular figures, so no-one seems to be real loser (although of course they can’t all be right!)

A few things caught my eye.

First, I was disappointed at the rate of growth for Digital Listening with a rather modest 0.2% rise in the quarter to a 25% share of all listening via platform. As part of that, DAB was up 0.5% quarter on quarter, and still remains the most popular way of consuming digital radio (15.8% share), but I can’t help feeling that the momentum has slowed a little, and being a firm believer in the importance of radio to ‘go digital’ in future, it’s frustrating to see such slow progress.

What’s the answer? Well... more unique content and stations on DAB would help. It was encouraging to see the continued growth of stations like Absolute 80s (up to 665,000 weekly reach), Absolute 90s (cuming 295,000) and even the recently refreshed Planet Rock (with a new high of 827,000) doing so well. It shows that when there is great content or a different offer on Digital, listeners will gravitate towards it. Niche formats on digital seem to be the way forward. Just make sure your niche is big enough!

Talk radio is proving more and more popular in the UK with the growth of TalkSport as a format (now reaches over 3 Million a week), BBC 5Live gaining record audiences (now over 7 million), and 97.3 LBC in London (almost reaching 1 million a week), radio audience are lapping up mainstream and populist speech content. BBC Radio 4 has always delivered great audiences, but it’s a very different offering to the former 3. It would be great to see the success of speech radio in a local form in the commercial sector outside London; a trick has proved quite difficult to perform so far. Perhaps as some mainstream music radio does less and less speech, the ‘talk sector’ will benefit more in the future.

Meanwhile in London, Magic continue to outperform its commercial rivals taking top spot in reach and share. Its consistent blend of ‘light favourites’ and inoffensive links seems to be just the job for stressed out Londoners! As I write, they’ve just played Amy Winehouse - ‘Back to Black’ into Candi Staton ‘Young Hearts, Run Free’. Lovely ;-)

Capital are just behind Magic, and still sounding good. The benefit of their big TV campaign and the impact of the networking will be felt next quarter. Kiss have overtaken Heart into 3rd place in terms of reach, which is a great result for Kiss and will be naturally disappointing for Heart, who have really lost touch with Magic now. Next in Kiss’s sights will be Capital, and you can hear how tight the battle is between those two simply by listening to how close the music formats are in the daytime. Want Tinie Tempah, Bruno Mars, Rhianna or Mike Posner? Well either station will suffice right now!

So as the number crunchers do their thing, and stations up and down the UK have an explosion of PowerPoint and Excel, it’s nice to know that above it all, the UK is one of the most vibrant and creative radio markets in the whole world with some fantastic formats, and some superb broadcasters. There really is always something great to listen to... and the continued growth of ‘listen again’ / on-demand / podcasts etc, means that you don’t even have to worry that you missed a particular show.

It’s radio that waits ‘till it’s wanted.

Now that’s Magic! ;-)

Radio 100 - Refresh!

2011-01-31T17:33:00.005Z

Congratulations to all the team at client station, Radio 100 in Denmark who have just pulled off the neat trick of launching a new morning show, a new daytime show, a new afternoon show, a new jingle package, a new station voice... and a shiny new logo too!

You can hear their efforts at http://www.radio100.dk/

Refreshing your brand and ‘product line’ is as applicable for radio station as it is for any consumer brand.

Consistency can become mundane over time.

A predictable format can become unsurprising for the listeners without development.

And as the world changes at ever increasing speeds and your brand stays the same, will it be left behind?

Possibly – yes. And certainly, if it’s not given some development and the occasional refresh. So don't stand still. Evolve!

So have a think about your station. What are the bits that are just great, and need no real attention. And what are the bits that if you had your way, could do with a ‘lick of paint’?

"Everywhere's Got Talent!"

2011-01-14T15:11:00.003Z

Where do you get new talent from?

Where do you get new talent for your radio station from? Developing the stars of tomorrow is an important job for any station. Making sure that there’s always a new generation of people coming through the ranks is vital to the lifeblood of a creative industry.

There has been quite a lot of talk recently in the UK about the opportunities for young hopefuls to get their break being much curtailed. Networking, centralisation and syndication has resulted in fewer on-air position, fewer live overnight shows, and fewer places for people to learn their trade. At the same time, it must be said, we have also seen a growth in community and student radio. These places can be a great breeding ground for new talent. And let’s not forget ‘hospital radio’, which in the UK is often where young guys and girls who like the idea of being on the radio first put on a pair of headphones and speak into a microphone.... all be it speaking to people who are a captive audience, but nevertheless, it’s a start!

But talent is all around us, and to prove it, Kiss 100 in London have launched “The Chosen One”. With the tagline ‘We’re searching for the next Kiss Presenter – could you be in the line-up?”... it’s a great way to not only look for new talent, but to promote your station within its core audience.

There are open auditions at some of the big shopping centres around London (great event marketing) or you can submit a demo. The whole thing is sponsored by Blackberry who want to position themselves as cutting edge and connected with ‘new things’, so there is an important revenue stream too.

What a great piece of new year activity from Kiss!

So, what are some of the ways to find new talent for your station?

1. Hold a ‘Search for a Star’
As discussed, do what Kiss are doing right now and hold a talent search. It’s one of the oldest formats in the book but works great. It’s a perfect way to get publicity and find someone good for your station. Make sure they get a decent programme out of it so you can continue to the PR for as long as possible!

2. Comedy Clubs
‘Stand Up’ and ‘radio’ are very different, but if you’re looking for a new personality for your station (maybe on the morning show), often comedy clubs can be a great place to start. Many comedians have never thought about transferring their skills to radio, but with the right coaching it can be done.

3. Your Own Staff
Look around your radio station. I bet there are quite a few people who are great entertainers in the office, and can tell a great story or always make the office laugh... or even just have a great voice. Try out a few in a studio one evening and see what they sound like. You never know, your receptionist might be a morning show star waiting to happen. You can train skills, but you can’t train attitude. Get people with the right attitude! It will pay off massively.

4. The Real World
I meet lots of new people every week. Sure, not all of them could be on the radio, but there times where I think “This person would be great on the radio”. So keep your eyes and ears open. Sometimes really talented communicators are doing a completely different job, but their ability could be transferred on to the radio with a bit of coaching and some encouragement.

5. Clubs
If your brand is targeted slightly younger and has a cool, credible vibe... then go check out all the cool clubs in your town. Is the big resident DJ well known? Would putting him on the radio add something to your brand? I remember back in the 90’s in Liverpool, my local station took some of the coolest dance music DJ’s and gave them a Saturday night show from 6pm to 3am each week, with different DJ’s popping in to do different hours!! As you can imagine, all the younger listeners loved hearing the DJ’s they knew from the clubs on the radio, and it added a real sense of kudos to the station. And by 2am, it really was worth a listen what they were getting up to in the studio!!! ;-) They may need some coaching to transfer their skills, but you could really add something to the image of your station.

So keep your eyes and ears open. Your market is full of great new talent waiting to be discovered. You’ve just got to look in the right places!

Josh Sings Kanye

2011-01-07T11:44:00.002Z

Morning shows thrive on creative and fun ideas. Here’s one that’s been done, not by a morning show... but by a US late night comedy talk-show. But this could easily have been done by a creative morning show team.

A neat idea... executed well... and topped off with a celeb performer make for a fantastic bit of TV.

New Year... New Capital

2011-01-03T10:56:00.006Z

Happy New Year... and what better start to the year than seeing a roll-out of a heritage brand across the UK. For some time, listeners to many heritage stations across the UK have heard that Capital is coming. Well... now it's here, and they've produced a shiny new ad to tell us all...

"So this is Christmas..." 2010

2010-12-22T14:34:00.006Z

It’s snowing outside my office window in the beautiful English countryside, so it must be time to write another ‘end of year posting’ as we come to the end of another exciting year in radio.

2010 has been a challenging year for many radio stations and many radio industries across the world. The difficult economic circumstances have meant a tough advertising market to operate in for the commercial stations, and many public service organisations having to make large cost-savings, which often affect programming departments and the ‘end product’ for listeners.

However, against that backdrop we see a sector that is as popular as ever with consumers. Taking the UK, the latest RAJAR (audience measurement) figures show almost 91% of the UK population tune in to radio every week, with digital radio listening hours up 23% year on year, and DAB ownership is up 10% year on year to 18.3 million adults.

And if we look at radio services delivered by the internet in the UK, we can see that 2.2 million Smartphone owners have downloaded a radio app with 16.3 million listeners claiming to have ever listened to radio via the internet.

Non-linear services are becoming increasingly important with a real growth in “radio that waits till it’s wanted”. 8.1 million adults in the UK have downloaded a podcast, and 44% of users say they listen to them at least once a week, showing how advances in technology is helping to maintain the relevance of radio and audio entertainment in a ever-changing mediascape.

The argument about the importance of radio having a multi-platform future with a strong digital broadcast backbone is, I believe, academically won. The challenge for 2011 is winning the ‘hearts and minds’ battle and the PR war that is currently being fought. Obviously, different countries are at different stages of digital adoption and it will be interesting to see how they develop over the next 12 months, but the signs are encouraging with announcements like the launch of DAB+ services in Germany in 2011.

Why does this matter for programme makers and radio creatives?

Well, for several reasons. Ensuring radio continues to be relevant for consumers is important for the healthy future of the radio industry in every country. Developments in technology mean more stations, more formats and more creative possibilities. That’s a good thing is you have great ideas and want to find a home for them. I look at the success of Absolute 80s in the UK in 2010, that has grown from ‘nothing’ to over half a million listeners across the UK on DAB in a very short space of time. That’s a niche format that has found a tribe of happy fans of 80s music on digital radio. (And it’s now joined by its siblings Absolute 90s and Absolute 00s too)

The other development that has started to take shape in 2010 in the UK is Radioplayer. It’s a simple, consistent way for users to access UK radio stations of all shapes and sizes and grow online listening as a result. It’s a partnership between the BBC and many of the big commercial radio groups and is a great example of where collaboration between public and private sectors in radio provides benefit to the industry overall. I look forward to seeing it really take off in 2011.

So, like it or not, we can’t get away from the fact that technology now shapes our industry more than ever before, but embracing this change rather than denying it has got to be the only way forward.

The good thing that hasn’t changed though is... ideas. We’re still an industry that revolves around great ideas. Great ideas for shows, great ideas for promotions, great ideas for outside broadcasts, and great ideas for music features... and the need for those great ideas is never greater.

So, let 2011 be a year we all work on generating even more great ideas for our radio stations!

Finally, in an Oscars style thanksgiving, let me thank all the clients I’ve worked with in 2010. I’ve boarded over 120 planes in the last 12 months (!) and flown all over the world to work with some great people who all love radio as much as I do, and it’s been a real pleasure to work with you all. And to those of you I’ve yet to work with... 2011 might just be the year!

So, as the snow gets thicker and I throw another log on the fire, and I hear the carols drifting from the windows of the snowy village pub... let me say Happy Christmas and Seasons Greetings to everyone... and here’s to a great 2011.

See you next year!

"I Beg Your Pardon...??"

2010-11-24T21:49:00.003Z

I’m always fascinated by regional and cultural differences when I travel to different parts of the world working with all sorts of radio stations.

I spent some time in India a couple of weeks ago with the team from CLUB FM in the Kerala region, and naturally the cultural differences between the UK and India are many, although the fundamentals concerning ‘radio programming’ are remarkably similar.

You would have thought that in Europe the differences are more subtle, and in many cases they are. However, one area that always amuses me is that of language... or more precisely ‘bad language’. So, when I was in Vienna with client station KRONEHIT last week, this commercial came on the radio and almost made spit out my Schnitzel with laughter...

Listen!

That would not air in the UK, I can safely say!! The attitude to the word ‘fuck’ in most of Europe is that ‘it’s just another foreign exclamation’, and it’s not that bad really. So much so, that the word is not edited out of songs and alternative versions are not sought out.

Therefore in Austria, Cee-Lo Green does not ‘Forget’ anyone, but certainly sings very proudly... ‘Fuck You’!

Attitudes to language in the media change quite slowly over time, but I think I’ll be waiting a while before I hear that ad in the UK.

Fuckin’ funny though...

Russell At His Best

2010-11-04T21:05:00.008Z

Some of the best radio is when naturally entertaining poeple just talk... and one subject leads to another. Take a look at this clip of Russell Brand recording his show for TalkSport, and see how they get from reading a basic news story in the local paper about someone impersonating a policeman... to discussing the Nazis.

It's a great bit of radio and obviously relies heavily on Russell's unique talents, but the roles that Matt Morgan and Noel Gallagher play are actually really important in the whole thing too. Noel has 2 short, yet really important interventions and comments, and Matt plays the part of "questioning sidekick" really well. Radio is at its best when it can be this natural... and you don't need a big expensive studio to do it in either! Recording it in some backstage dressing room will do just fine!

New Logo

2010-10-25T17:51:00.006Z

Attention radio station logo fans!

Do you like the new logo for this familiar brand?

Radio Festival 2010 - Review

2010-10-21T20:14:00.006Z

So as the expenses forms are being filled in, and all London based radio types are still wondering if the drinks really are that cheap in the Ramada, the Radio Festival has waved a fond farewell for another year.

And what did we glean from the UK’s premiere “insular, naval gazing industry symposium”?

Ones and Zeros
We’re still talking about digital, and it’s still not resolved, but the principles of a digital future with a broadcast backbone seem to get most people agreed. How long that will take, and who pays for what are the questions no-one quite knows the answer to. As Jeremy Vine put it, talking about digital take up...“We’re not even half-way, to half-way!”

Together in Electric Dreams
Radioplayer was given its first proper demo in public, and is getting rave reviews. Commercial and public service stations in the radio sector can come together and do something for the good of the sector. Ensuring more people are listening to more radio as a whole has to be a shared objective, in whatever country you’re in. There’s still some natural tension between the sectors when it came to Radios 1 and 2 being a little ‘broad’, and that’s not to the liking of a Mr A Tabor of Leicester Square. But overall, the sense of some shared vision for UK radio did come across when the ‘cheeses’ took to the stage together.

The C Word
There was a lot of discussion about creativity this year, and the need for more of it in the commercial sector. The actually very nice and not normally shouty Jeremy Kyle, reminded everyone present of the need to ensure radio does not become too bland in a very engaging way. And who’d have thought that one of the most entertaining people on stage would be Timmy Mallett! Chris Evans was, as usual, excellent I must add. A real ‘radio guy’ who still loves the medium. Delegates could also be left with no doubt that although format music radio is a lovely thing, format music radio with added personality and creativity is a much more lovely thing, and likely to make more money and be more competitive. For the record, I agree!

The L Word
Local is still powerful and can command an audience. There are of course different types of local... small local, like community radio. Big local, like Key 103 or Radio City, and pretend local, like the Heart and Capital ‘national’ roll out. It’s just not really local radio, so I think as soon as they give up the pretence, the better for us all. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both great stations / networks, and sounds really good right now. But local, they ain’t!

BLT
Richard Bacon is a really good broadcaster and interviewer and all round likeable chap. Dave Lee Travis is none of the above.

Salford
The venue was really good and it feels right the Radio Festival should have a permanent home instead of wondering around like ‘The Littlest Hobo’ from year to year.

There are lots of other blogs and reviews to read, and the Radio Today coverage is really worth checking out.

Well done Radio Academy team and organising committee. Excellet job.

And there we have it. I saved you the airfare, train fare, taxi rides, ticket price, hotel cost, drinks bill etc... but suffice to say, if it’s as good as it was this year next time around, I’ll be back, and you should be there too.

As Richard Bacon put it... “For radio people... this is our Glastonbury”.

Nano Tagging

2010-10-11T18:00:00.004Z

This is rather good, isn't it...

Conference Call

2010-09-20T10:33:00.005Z

Every year, there’s a slew of radio and media conferences to attend all around the world... some of which I’m asked to speak at, and some of which I’m a willing delegate.

In October, I have one of each. On October 2nd I shall be hosting a session at Radiodays Denmark where I will discussing with my colleague from the UK, Drivetime presenter Greg Burns from Capital FM, what goes into making a radio show on a music driven format in 2010, and how the role of the presenter has developed and changed over the years.

And between 18th -20th October, I shall set up camp in Manchester for the UK’s Radio Festival, which this year looks like it’s going to be an excellent conference debating and discussing everything from the ‘Art of Creativity’ to the business of making some money!

Finally, I should give a little plug to Radiodays Europe, which had its debut in Copenhagen last year, where over 400 delegates from 35 countries attended, what I believe, was a really good starting point for a new European radio conference to take the place of the old NAB Europe.

Well, good news. It’s returning on 17th / 18th March 2011 in Copenhagen, and I attended a networking meeting in London last week to discuss ideas on taking it forward. As you can see from the photo, lots of ‘post its’ were involved!

Radio is at such an interesting point in its evolution... perhaps the most interesting point there has ever been, that getting together and discussing, debating and dissecting the issues has never been more important. The more radio stations can learn about the way the industry is moving, the more they can lead in their own particular market... and not follow; the more they can profit... and not miss out on new revenue opportunities; and the more they understand the importance of the changing nature of the consumer, and what ‘content’ they actually want... and not believe all the old models of the past will apply in the future.

Capital UK

2010-09-14T10:08:00.004Z

So as the ‘Army of Networking’ marches inexorably on, and a whole raft of stations become Capital FM, what are we to make of this latest move by Global? Is it another dark day for local radio or is it a brave move designed purely to simplify an offering to advertisers and maximise audience?

The answer is of course both.

We wave goodbye to the Galaxy brand, which has served audiences across the country well, and when it launched, provided listeners with a real alternative to their heritage ILR station. The local and regional stations Galaxy stations delivered some great shows and you felt instantly in touch with the areas they broadcast too anytime you tuned in. Over time and with increased networking, this sense of identity was diluted somewhat, but you can’t help feeling that a perfectly good brand has been ‘put to sleep before its time’.

And of course, the station that was the very essence of what is was to be Welsh... Red Dragon FM, is another brand casualty. It was and has always has been a station that’s proud of its nation, and used its ‘Welshness’ as a strong identifying factor. How will it fare by having some of its programming piped in from ‘over the bridge’?

There are of course many other cases to cite; Trent FM – another strong heritage brand going, and let’s spare a thought for the ‘Scottish station’... I hardly know what to call it now, after it has gone through more rebrands in a decade than most stations have in a lifetime!

So, laying the sentiment aside for a moment, is this a smart move? Well there’s no doubt that creating a strong single CHR brand makes it far easier to sell, and far easier to manage. Advertisers and agencies will instantly ‘get’ a pseudo-national Capital FM. And that’s the main reason behind this when all is said and done. They want to make more money, which is a perfectly noble ambition in business. It’s just that we get more attached to radio brands than we do to say, toilet roll or cleaning products... so there’s more of an outcry when it comes to rebranding to maximise profit in radio.

Of course the other argument used is about bringing a better product to listeners, and the theory behind that is perfectly sound... however as good as they are, bringing Roberto and 'The Bassman' on to replace you local offering during the day isn’t exactly going to have people skipping work just so they can stay home and listen all day.

The line touted to the media yesterday evening was very much along the lines of “this will be a station to rival Radio 1”. And sure enough the papers have bought that PR line, and reprinted old photos of Kenny Everett and Chris Tarrant to illustrate the ‘power of Capital’. Well yes – except that was the Capital of old, and the only real national star that Capital has now is Johnny Vaughan. So as it stands at the moment, Capital isn’t exactly a real rival to Radio 1 in terms of content. It’s just a very different offering indeed targetting a similar demo. (In the same way as Heart is touted as an alternative to Radio 2 - “Chalk and Cheese” anyone?)

Which brings us on to Johnny / breakfast. You get the sense that if the rules allowed it now, all local programming would be put to the knife, and Johnny and Lisa would be rolled out across the country. Surely it’s only a matter of time before the requirement for any local programming is quietly put to one side, and the true reason for all of this can be final made clear; Johnny Vaughan on Capital Breakfast and Jamie Theakston on Heart Breakfast... nationwide.

And once we have that, the plan will be complete... and then we can truly mark the demise of much of UK local radio as we used to know it. (There are of course notable exceptions and they continue to perform well... Key 103, Radio City, Wave 105 etc...)

Is it a ‘sad’ thing to see these latest stations disappear? Yes.

Is it a sensible move in a changing media environment? Yes.

So there we have it. The harsh reality of the ‘business’ of media ruling over sentimentality of it all.

A lesson for us all.

"Friends... Lend me your Talent"

2010-08-23T12:04:00.003Z

How exclusive should your talent be?

How would you respond if another station wanted to “borrow” your morning show host to cover for someone for a week, and present an afternoon show on a completly different station?

Well that’s exactly what’s happening with Christian O’ Connell, morning show / breakfast host at Absolute Radio in the UK. According to reports today, he’s booked do a week’s cover of Richard Bacon’s afternoon show on BBC Radio 5Live.

It’s not the first time that Christian has ‘moonlighted’ with the station, as he’s hosted shows like the excellent ‘Fighting Talk’ before, and provided cover for some other 5 Live shows... but perhaps not as high profile as a big daytime shift.

So, is this a good idea... to lend out your key talent to another broadcaster? With a weekly reach of over 6.5 million people, it could be part of a strategy to allow talent to ‘do other projects’ in exchange for the benefit from the exposure that those projects bring. In this case, maybe core listeners to 5 Live will enjoy what they hear, and possibly seek out Christian on a daily basis?

Or is it a slightly dangerous game to play, especially with the BBC, who have a habit of occasionally filtering off commercial radio’s best talent luring them over to the network with promises of bigger audiences and multi-platform exposure etc. They’ve never been particularly gentlemanly when it comes to competition over talent!

I understand the Christian recently re-signed a deal with Absolute to continue with the company for a couple more years, and there’s no suggestion that he’s looking to move elsewhere... but I guess it’s always nice, as a host, to know you have a potential home somewhere else should it all go horribly wrong!

Doing a breakfast show each morning and then a quite intensive afternoon show every day for a week, will be a good stamina test for sure!

I look forward to tuning in to see how it sounds...

Let It All Flow

2010-08-20T15:14:00.005Z

It has to be said, I’m a bit of a sucker for new gadgets or innovations, especially when they have something to do with music, music production or radio. So I was quite excited to hear about the launch of FlowSongs from the manufacturers PURE, who make lots of lovely radios, including the rather splendid Sensia.

If you haven’t read about it yet, FlowSongs is a new service which you can use to identify tracks playing on any radio station and buy them in high-quality MP3 format directly from any PURE radio with the Flow technology firmware installed.

The neat thing is that FlowSongs works on any digital, FM, or internet radio station you happen to be listening to. If you hear a song you like, just press the ‘FlowSongs’ option on your radio. For me, owning a Sensia, I press the little icon on the touch screen. FlowSongs the identifies the track (using the technology rented from Shazam) and then shows you the artist, and price etc. You can then buy the song if you’ve set up your account and loaded it with some credit.

So it was with some eagerness that I tried the Beta version of the service, which went live in the UK this week.

I was quite sceptical beforehand. Would it actually work and how difficult would it be to set up?

After I’d updated my Sensia with the new firmware, I eagerly tuned in to a station on DAB, and waited for a song and hit the little FlowSongs icon. Sure enough, it whizzed away and within about 10 seconds it told me that the song playing was Synchronicity II by The Police. (It was BBC Radio 2 playing it, for the record).

However, my radio then told me that this track was not available for purchase. OK – as PURE say, not all tracks you hear on the radio you’ll be able to buy. FlowSongs uses 7Digital’s ‘backend’ to sell the songs legally and the catalogue’s pretty good. It even sells Synchronicity II by The Police, so something didn't work perfectly there. But hey - giving them the benefit of the doubt, it's still in Beta I guess!

So I tagged a few more songs on a range of DAB and stations streaming online. And sure enough, the tagging worked every time and when I fancied some Hip-Hop, I was reliably informed that I was now listening to NAS and ‘Made you Look’ on New York’s ‘HOT 97’.

When I tried the ‘purchase’ function it was actually really easy and within seconds whilst listening to Kiss 100, I’d tagged and downloaded ‘Stereo Love’ by Vika Jigulina and Edward Maya, and was playing it directly on my Sensia. The track was also available to download onto my laptop, and pull across to any portable device that I wanted.

So, all in all... so far so good. It seems to work pretty well and for the occasions that I hear a track that I like and don’t know, I can tag it and buy it. Or as the marketing says “Hear It, Buy It, Love It”.

The real question is, will it replace iTunes as my default choice for legally purchasing all my music online? Well... no it won’t.

Despite being a cool bit of technology, it’s still a bit fiddly to work with the Sensia screen. Plus there’s an annual subscription of £2.99 just for privilege of tagging and ID’ing songs (which is to apparently to pay for the Shazam licence). Will I pay that after my 90 day trial period is up? Not sure yet!

Also, I’d prefer to ‘pay per song’ downloaded instead of pre-loading the account with multiples of £10. Likewise, I have to wait for a song to come on the radio in order to tag it and then buy it. I can’t just go to their online store to use my credit up. Finally, as I use an iPhone the integration is seamless, and that’s the one big advantage it has.

Will it encourage me to purchase the odd song spontaneously whist listening to the radio? Probably, yes.

Is it a clever use of radio and IP. Certainly.

Will the whole country be rushing out to get a PURE radio equipped with Flow technology this weekend?

We shall see!

"Can You Kick It?" - Absolute Football

2010-08-13T19:50:00.005Z

The Premiership football season in the UK starts again this weekend, and there’s something slightly different about it this year. Not only will you be able to hear live commentary of certain matches on BBC 5Live and TalkSport, but there’s a new player on the pitch. Absolute Radio.

Absolute Radio has won the rights to broadcast Barclays Premier League football commentary as part of a three year deal that kicks off this weekend. The station will bring live commentary from 32 exclusive Premiership matches during the 2010/11 season.

So – there are a few things to discuss here...

1 - Does adding football commentary to a music radio station blur to definition of the brand, or add another exciting dynamic to it?
2 - Has the strategy to launch an additional DAB channel, Absolute Radio Extra, to host to the commentary, and the 'split output' been effectively communicated so far?
3 - Will it work, both in terms of audience and revenue?

Let’s deal with the ‘brand’ thing first. Absolute Radio is a music radio station first and foremost. But there are 3 additional factors here. First, it’s a music radio station aimed at men, who traditionally are likely to enjoy football more. Second, it’s a station that has driven the concept of providing ‘entertainment’ in all sorts of forms, particularly in the digital space. And finally, the station has a long connection and heritage with ‘football as entertainment’, with the “Rock n Roll Football” brand being invented by Chris Evans back in the old Virgin Radio days. (The ordering of the 'Saturday afternoon take-away' on air was always a highlight!)

So adding football to the mix on Absolute Radio seems to be a perfectly logical thing to do, and in my view, it falls well within the brand boundaries of the station, and certainly adds a new dynamic to it, and will potentially drive some new listening, as well driving more brand awareness through natural talkability amongst fans.

Regarding the communication strategy... I was slightly confused about how to listen to be honest. I know from listening to the station over the last week, that live commentary is happening on Saturday, but it won’t be on 105.8FM or the national DAB signal I listen to. However, there is the usual Rock ‘n’ Roll football show from 3pm on those channels (Music and goal flashes etc). If I want to hear the live commentary, I need to tune to 1215AM, or listen to Absolute Radio Extra (a new DAB station), from 1:30pm, where I’ll hear commentary of Aston Villa v West Ham, presumably with a 90 minute build up. Then from 5pm, I can hear new signing, Ian Wright’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Football for 90 minutes, which presumably will be similar to 5Live’s ‘606’ show... comment, analysis, phone-calls etc. This, however, will not only be on Absolute Radio Extra, but on 105.8FM and the Absolute radio national DAB channel. Still following?

As one presenter said on air yesterday, "You need a flow chart to follow what’s going on!" I’m not sure if enough has been done to explain this all to listeners, or if it will just naturally fall in to place? I believe that real fans actively ‘seek out’ live commentary, so if a Villa fan tuned in to 105.8FM and couldn’t hear their team’s game, I’m sure they would try and work out where it was. Plus, I’m believe it will be heavily cross promoted at the time. E.g. “For those of you wanting live commentary, re-tune now to our sister station etc...”. After all, it works for BBC 5Live Sports Extra quite well. But even today, I heard some talk up of the commentary, and no mention was made of the fact that I will need to retune waveband or find it on another DAB station etc.

So, finally... will adding football commentary work in terms of audience and revenue

In terms of revenue, having unique content that can drive a decent sponsor is always a great starting point, and the Premier League comes from the top drawer of content (even if they are the 2nd pick of Saturday afternoon matches). So it’s a no brainer for Sky Sports to sponsor the live commentary Rock ‘n’ Roll Football, and all the pre and post match shows as well as having an online presence. (They’re doing the same on TalkSport). This will bring in a healthy amount of revenue to Absolute. The price the station paid for the rights hasn’t been made public as far as I can tell, but presumably the sums add up to make it a worthwhile enterprise, as well as the invisible value it brings to the station. Will their notorious transparency extent to letting us know how much they paid for the rights? ;-)

In terms of audience, we shall see. Commentaries are a funny thing, as they tend to drive loyalists to those teams, but don’t always attract the masses. Splitting the output may well be the wisest thing to do, as there’s now a choice consumers can make. Football... or er...football with music! We shall see this time next year how much of an impact it makes, however I suspect that this is not all about pure ‘generic reach’. It’s about the value of a listener that has a deeper connection with specialist content... and that’s worth a lot more to advertisers.

So – I look forward to hearing the coverage this weekend, as we’ve been promised "an alternative style of football commentary", and the commentator, Jim Proudfoot, is a really excellent communicator on radio. (Believe it or not, he used to read the sports bulletins when I was on the radio about a hundred years ago!!)

Good luck to all the team at Absolute Radio this weekend. Let’s hope they get a home win / score goals with the audience / are top of the ratings table / bag 3 points every week... **insert your own footballing cliché here!**

A Passage To India

2010-08-11T13:10:00.006Z

My whistlestop tour of two of India’s great cities, Delhi and Mumbai is over and I’m happy to report that commercial radio is thriving, and the passion for the medium in the country is undeniable.

I’m working with the ‘TV Today Network’ who are probably most famous in India for their Indian News Channel ‘Aaj Tak’, but the company owns a host of other TV networks, along with a large magazine and publishing empire (including the India Today magazine), as well as a radio business.

The network of 7 existing radio stations across the country are about to be re-launched with a new brand hitting the airwaves over the next few weeks.

Working alongside their RJ’s, producers, imaging staff and music programmers in advance of the launch was a real treat, as the level of creativity and energy that they all possessed was enormous.

One of the key things that came out of all the sessions was the need to “keep things simple”. In an over communicated world, we are bombarded with all sorts of content and messaging than ever before. Just as an example, when I arrived in India, I read in The Times of India that Indians are sent over 100 Million junk SMS’s per day, advertising all sorts of different things! The amount of “stuff” that’s just circulating around is phenomenal, and in a country like India, that’s only ever going to grow.

Therefore, cutting through the clutter is more important than ever, and a radio station that offers ‘simplicity in complex world’ is something that has a chance of finding a space to breathe and grow.

Sure... the new station will play great music, and have great RJ’s... but being concise and clear in all forms of communication is something that I confident will help the station to slowly carve out a niche for itself, and it’s something that we worked hard on during my time with the teams in both Delhi and Mumbai.

It was my first trip to India, and I was enthralled by its media, particularly it’s TV rolling news channels, however it’s a sign of the times that the world is becoming a much smaller place with the same familiar formats being repackaged for a new domestic audience. (I’m sure I wouldn’t complain if I held the rights!)

Radio in India is fresh and exciting... and I can’t wait to go back!

Indian Summer

2010-08-01T13:49:00.006Z

One of the most interesting things about being a radio consultant is the opportunity to find out about how a particualr country’s radio industry is set up and operates. So, I’m looking forward to getting on a flight to India later today to work with a new client on a network relaunch, and find out a little more about their thriving radio industry.

Some of my colleagues in the world of radio consulting and research have had, and still have great clients out there, so it’s been fun hearing their stories, good and bad, not only about the radio industry but also just going about ‘doing business’ in India. Sure, there’s a little bit more paperwork than normal... but so far so good!

Everything I’ve seen and read makes it out to be the most fascinating of places and, although I’m only spending a week there, I’m going to try and soak up of much of it as I can and also learn as much about the Indian radio industry as possible in a short space of time. If there's one thing for sure, a country of 1.2 Billion people needs lots of radio stations!

I’ll be working in both Delhi and Mumbai, so I get to squeeze in 2 big cities while I’m there. (I’ll try and take a few interesting pictures and update the blog whilst in India, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to top the artistic heights set by another ‘radio traveller’ friend of mine)

One radio-related statistic that I was told which, if correct, I find staggering... is that up to 40% of listening to radio occurs on mobile phones! It’s differences like this that make the role of advising stations in different countries so interesting and challenging.

And I’m very much looking forward to the challenge. And the curry!

>Photo: James Cridland

Made in Birmingham

2010-07-20T15:43:00.003Z

Lots of people are very proud of the city they were either born in or live in. Cities have heritage... they have an identity... and have a story to tell. People are quite tribal by nature, and like to associate themselves with a particular clan or group, and are rightly proud of their roots. Cities also tend to have things that they are famous for. For Liverpool, the city I was born in and grew up in, it’s ‘football’ and The Beatles. Not bad.

Becoming part of the ‘fabric of a city’ is something which can only be built up over time. With any luck, a local radio station can also be a part of that fabric... that DNA of a place that makes it so unique, and hopefully a great location to live and work in.

Trading on the heritage of a city and what makes it special, is a theme that Birmingham station ‘BRMB’ in the UK has done with its “Made in Birmingham” positioning and campaign. BRMB launched in February 1974, so I think it’s qualifies as old enough to trade off being a part of the fabric of Birmingham!

They’ve just produced a nice piece of marketing which places the station alongside other famous Birmingham ‘products’ and places the city as ‘the place where great things begin’.

It’s fun, very local, and at a time when much of the UK’s local radio is in an undergoing major heart surgery and slowly being dismantled piece by piece, it’s good to see a station and brand that’s proud to be local.

In a media world where global mega-brands are born, grow up in a matter of years, and sometimes disappear as quickly, it’s reassuringly comforting when a familiar name is around for a little while, hopefully giving the same quality as it did all those years ago. It’s hard for radio brand to trade off its heritage yet convince new listeners “it’s not the old fashioned station your mum used to listen to, but a modern version of it!”

But I think BRMB are managing it. ‘Made in Birmingham’ connects with local listeners, and surely that’s what it’s all about.

Passion 1 - Mediocrity 0

2010-07-14T12:20:00.005Z

Passion is a wonderful thing. Combine the passion felt for a football team... add a person from a infamously passionate country, and then broadcast it on a medium the excells at being able to convey that passion to it's audience... radio. What do you get?

The Spanish radio commentary of when Iniesta slotted home the winning goal in the World Cup 2010 against Holland.

A passionate radio moment!

Listen!

Passion in radio is good.

Baby You Can Drive My Car...

2010-07-14T12:05:00.005Z

Outside Broadcasts on Breakfast / Morning Shows can sometimes be a bit hit and miss. But what about doing it from the hosts house?

Well - if you have a great reason, and a garage full of the most valuable cars in the world that you're going to let listeners drive, and the resources of the BBC... to make it all work... then why not?

Here's a great summary of the 'Drive and Dine 2010' Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2, live from Chris Evans house in the beautiful Berkshire countryside.

5 Years On...

2010-07-07T11:13:00.006Z

It’s 5 years ago today that terrorists attacked London.

I remember that day really well... getting on the Bakerloo Underground line at around 8am, passing through Edgware Road, to hop over to Piccadilly Circus and then the short walk up to Leicester Square, where I was working at Capital FM as Programme Director. It was a beautiful day and London was on a high after just being awarded the 2012 Olympics the day before.

I was in the radio station around 8:30am and was preparing for the day ahead. I wondered over to the newsroom just before 9am, where the news editor at the time, Matthew Schofield, was looking a little concerned. He’d just had reports in of smoke being seen coming from an underground station. At first it was thought to be an electrical fault, with a related fire, but as the minutes slowly ticked by, the true horror of that day slowly started to unfold.

As the nature of what was happening became apparent, the whole team at the station swung into action with a kind of reflex that is shown at times of crisis by true radio professionals. Reporters dispatched themselves across London, taking considerable risks, as no-one was aware of the extent of the threat at that stage. Were there more bombs to come? No one knew.

Within minutes we had correspondents live at various different points across the capital feeding eye witness information and describing minute by minute, what was happening. Then the listeners kicked in with their stories... and they were a massive help in piecing together what was a jumble of facts and rumour at that stage. Every available team member was answering phones, recording, editing, putting calls through to the studio. It was an amazing sight. The whole programming staff felt the gravity of the situation, knew this was unchartered water, but at the same time instinctively knew what to do. It was incredible to be a part of.

Here’s an extract from the day, quite early on in the morning, with one eye-witness describing the scene of the explosion on the bus;

Listen!

And at 10:30am, Capital FM went ‘all speech’ and simulcast with other London stations Xfm, Choice FM and Capital Gold, as the need to provide Londoners with the best possible information regarding a very fast-changing situation became the over-riding concern.

From then on until 8pm, there was nothing but news. No music, no ads, no interruptions, just a constant flow of information as the facts started to emerge. It was the only thing to do, and throughout the day we even got reports of the emergency services on the ground, not knowing the full extent of the attack, sitting in their vehicles tuned into Capital for the very latest. That day, it felt we had a really important role to play, and the sense of responsibility became very tangible. It’s a very different feeling to playing pop records, I can assure you.

For days following the terrorist attacks, we received a huge amount of emails and calls praising the coverage. That’s a very humbling experience when you realise you’ve done something that has helped people enormously at a time of real panic across a city, and something you don’t get every day if you work in a commercial radio station.

I remember one email in particular. It was from a woman who was working in the centre of London. She’d been using the Underground only minutes before the attacks and this had really shook her up. For hours, she couldn’t reach her boyfriend who was also working in the centre of London, because the mobile phone system went into meltdown.

She stayed glued to the radio all morning to hear what was going on. Eventually they made contact and he was OK, and had made his was back out of the centre of London and headed home. As all the transport was down for the rest of the day, there was an enormous exodus of people on foot heading out of the West End in the afternoon , crossing the bridges, looking for a way back home.

This particular women said she had to walk for several miles, but fortunately she had a portable radio with her and plugged her headphones in to keep listening to Capital on the long walk back. She still felt frightened, shocked and very confused as to why this had happened, but in her email thanking us for the coverage, she paid a lovely compliment. She said that walking home listening to Capital was like “walking home with a friend”.

So 5 years on, not only do I pause to remember the 52 innocent people who lost their lives in the attacks, but I also remember with great pride the hard work done by a really dedicated team of radio professionals at Capital FM who kept London informed at a time when information was the thing listeners strived for most.

I felt the true power of radio that day.

The Programming team on July 7th 2005 consisted of...

News Editor: Matthew Schofield
Content Directors: Sheena Mason, Annie O’ Neill and myself
Producers: Nathan Freeman, Stephen MacKay, Becky Rogers, Jamie Scott, Richard Spencer, Rich Steel & Jo Stoller
Presenters: Richard Bacon, Neil Bentley, James Cannon, Gareth Roberts and Matthew Schofield
Reporters: Hugh Broom, Paddy Bunce, Tracey Spurrier and Margherita Taylor
Journalists: Olly Barratt, James Keates, Andre Morgan, Debbie Ramsay and Tony Shepherd

"There's something rockin' in the State of Denmark..."

2010-06-25T12:23:00.007Z

I've always been a fan of radio stations getting behind the national footbal team at times of World Cups and Euros etc... and what better way than to stage screenings in iconic locations. So, here's a picture of the 'Town Hall Square' in Copenhagen last night as Denmark had their 'do or die' match against Japan. This is 'the' place where large crowds gather for big event and things like New Year's Eve etc... and is the Danish equivalent of Trafalgar Square if you want a UK comparison! Over 35,000 fans were entertained with live music, and DJ's from the Radio 100FM team hosted the whole thing. Brilliant event. Shame about the result of the match if you're Danish!

Absolute Adolf...

2010-06-25T11:42:00.001Z

Brilliant!

Enjoy The Silence

2010-06-15T10:34:00.005Z

Here's a nice bit of fun, entertaining and topical video content from client station Kronehit in Austria, and their Morning Show.

What can make a Vuvuzela quieter?

May The Force Be With You...

2010-06-11T14:53:00.006Z

Regular readers of the blog will know we like to highlight and celebrate great creativity, wherever and in whatever form or medium it appears in. So to mark the start of the World Cup today, here's probably the best current World Cup football related TV ad. And my choice has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a massive Star Wars fan...

Summertime Mash-Up

2010-06-08T13:44:00.006Z

Well done to all the team at Capital FM who delivered a great show at Wembley Stadium at the weekend. There are lots of videos, pictures, interviews etc on the website, which is well worth a look. In the meantime, this is getting quite a lot of attention at the moment - it's a mash-up of all the artists that appeared at the Summertime Ball. Great idea and really well executed by DJ Earworm!

"Adjust the bass, and let the Alpine blast..."

2010-06-01T11:52:00.004Z

'Happy June' everyone... and 'Happy Summertime' I guess!

As summer slowly approaches, so do the series of radio station events. In the UK, we’ve already had BBC Radio 1’s One Big Weekend, which showcased the might (and resources) of the BBC in all its glory. And a great job they did too.

Next is the turn of Capital FM’s Summertime Ball, which takes place on Sunday 6th June at Wembley Stadium. The line-up is great. Usher, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Cheryl Cole, Ke$ha and “many many more!” as they say...

Here’s a nice thing I noticed that dropped into my email box...

It’s from Capital FM, but basically a promo message from the sponsors ASOS.com, which is a leading UK online clothes and fashion retailer. The email invites me to get the Summertime Ball look and buy the clothes to make me look more like my idols! I can then choose the Usher look, or the Beiber look or even the Dizzee look!

Now, if you’re 15 and going along to this gig, then you’d probably want to look your best and get some new clothes etc, so it’s a great piece of direct marketing from the show sponsor to encourage listeners to visit the ASOS.com store and buy some new clobber. (Maybe it’s a week too late allowing for delivery times etc?)

The email links through to the Capital FM site and then I can click on the item I like, and it takes my directly to the ASOS.com site where I can buy it.

Perhaps they could have gone a step further and put together a mini Summertime Ball section on ASOS.com with all the different looks and clothes. There is a festival section mentioning everything from Lollapalooza to Roskilde, but no obvious link with Capital and the Summertime Ball except for a competition to win tickets which is tucked away somewhere. However, the sponsor presence on capitalfm.com is really strong.

So – there we go. A nice example of offering a sponsor some ‘added value’ and linking the sponsor of an event with the actual event itself in a clear and relateable way.

Just waiting for my Justin Beiber style “Jersey Zip Through Hoody” to arrive and I’ll be all set for Sunday!

"Because Your Station Is Worth It..."

2010-05-24T10:09:00.004Z

As we're getting closer to the World Cup, radio stations in those countries involved in the action are plotting their different ways of reflecting the excitement, fun and national pride that the tournament generates.

One piece of imaging caught my ear last week. It's from BBC Radio 5 Live (I know... I must stop writing about them!)

Imaging Producer, Stephen Mackay, and the rest of the team there have recuited the voice of Stuart Hall (familiar to those in the UK) and written some real stand out pieces of production that just grab your attention because the set up is very different.

When I emailed Stephen asked about the promo, he said that they've gone for the 'off the wall' approach and are going to "...up the weirdness as we get closer to the tournament!"

I look forward to that. But in the meantime, enjoy this short piece of imaging and the very creative approach they have taken to hook you in the the subject.

Funny stuff...
Listen!

How To Increase Your Ratings In One Easy Step...

2010-05-13T11:20:00.007Z

I’ve cracked it. The thing we’ve all be searching for, for all this time. It’s called “How to increase your ratings in one easy step!”

Here is the step.

1. Announce that the station may be closing
2. Err... that’s it!

There will be outcry that the much beloved ‘jewel on the radio dial’ would be sorely missed. Campaigns will be started, Facebook groups and Twitter hashtags will be in surplus and all the kerfuffle will cause a massive surge of interest in your station.

Economic theory shows us that often when something is in short supply, then demand increases. So, more and more people will then tune in to see what they’re about to lose, and hey presto... ratings increase by 50%!!

‘Surely some sort of drug fuelled fantasy caused by an overload of rolling news and too many late nights Nik’... I hear you say? Well – no... not really. Look at the following graph I borrowed from the lovely Media UK.

Those of you not familiar with BBC 6 Music, it’s a national DAB station playing an eclectic mix of new music and cooler classics. The BBC have threatened to close it as I’ve talked about it on this blog before. And hey presto... after the announcement, the latest figures out this week, show a huge rise is both listening share and reach. The ratings have rocketed!

So there we go. How to increase your ratings in one easy step!

**Disclaimer – Do NOT try this at your radio station. Your radio station may be at risk if you do not keep up investment in content or fail to apply appropriate levers to generate audience.

Don't Mention the 'E' word!!

2010-05-06T10:16:00.004Z

If you tune in to any UK radio station today (particularly from abroad to hear about the General Election) you may think that we're a bunch of very untopical and disconnected people, hardly bothering to mention the election at all. Well, just so you know, the Ofcom Broadcasting Code (the UK broadcasting regulator) forbids all broadcasters to discuss the election on election day itself. There are all sorts of other election laws in the UK that relate to broadcasting. Here are the relevent bits of the Ofcom Code...

6.4 Discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues must finish when the poll opens. (This refers to the opening of actual polling stations. This rule does not apply to any poll conducted entirely by post.)

6.5 Broadcasters may not publish the results of any opinion poll on polling day itself until the election or referendum poll closes. (For European Parliamentary elections, this applies until all polls throughout the European Union have closed.)

As you can imagine, press and the internet and not so tightly regulated, so it's a bit of a free for all in that area, but all us responsible people (!) in TV and Radio try and abide by the rules. How very British of us! Good sense of fairplay and all that...

It's quite funny really. We're at the peak of election fever, you can't really talk about it other than mentioning that the polls are open!

I will be popping along to my local Polling Station later to cast my vote later. It seems quite quaint that it's in my village hall, next to the village pub about 100m away from my office, where I'm typing this blog from now! All very Enid Blyton and not very high tech / 2010 at all!

Fear not however if you're feeling starved of coverage. Come 10pm and there will be an explosion of 'Icelandic Volcano' proportions from all media outlets declaring that... well... we'll see!

"My name's Nik and I'm an addict..."

2010-04-30T09:01:00.004Z

I have a confession to make. I think I’m an addict. Not to crack or ‘Meow Meow’. No... something far more addictive. It’s BBC Radio 5 Live.

Maybe it’s down to the UK General Election and the natural amount of news that is circulating as a result of that, or perhaps it was the recent volcanic ash cloud and the ability of radio to really convey the changing nature of the story minute by minute, but I’ve probably spent more time with 5 Live than any other station over the last few weeks.

For those of you not resident in the UK or not familiar with it, let me try and explain what it does.

• It’s a speech station
• It’s main areas are News and Sport
• It also covers entertainment and popular culture
• It’s not stuffy
• It’s very conversational
• It doesn’t always rely on the ‘phone in’ as its main tool
• It has a sense of humour
• It employs some of the best speech broadcasters in the UK
• It has appointment to listen programmes
• It’s broadcast on Medium Wave (!) which is how most listeners hear it, but never mentions this fact on air!
• It’s also available on DAB, online, and all the other platforms too...
• It’s bloody good! Sorry - did I already mention that?

I have a lot of conversations with stations at the moment about how the ‘speech content’ is more and more important as a weapon to a music station these days than ever before. So my appetite for speech stations has grown considerably over the last few years, so perhaps that explains the current love affair with 5 Live.

But I thought I would cheat a little bit on my new found love the other day when I travelling in the car, and tuned into London speech station LBC 97.3, where James Whale was doing the afternoon show live from Bristol where the 2nd Leaders Debate was happening that night. Nice move to put the show in town, but after about 5 minutes of a pretty good interview with William Hague, the show went rapidly downhill with some formulaic callers and then the mother of all technical cock ups where presenter could not hear callers, but callers were on air and then the engineering talk-back went loudly into the headphones, bleeding on air, putting off James even further, until eventually the talk back actually went live in air! (It gets funny from about 4:40pm onwards and it was last Thursday 22nd April if you have access to a London station logger!)

Now, the point of telling you this was not to put a downer on LBC. Nick Ferrari at Breakfast is a great broadcaster and knows his audience very well and really connects with them fantastically on a daily basis, as do many of their other presenters. The point was to point out how difficult really great speech radio is to do and then to heap large amounts of praise on 5 Live, saying that they get it right, day in, day out.

Now, before you cry foul, I know they have “jacuzzis of cash” and a huge team to make it work, but I’m delighted they do, and as a listener I enjoy every bit of it. From 5 Live Breakfast to Richard Bacon, from Danny Baker to Tony Livsey, and from Fighting Talk to Simon Mayo’s Movie Reviews. It’s all good.

It’s far too easy for us who work in the industry to be overly critical when listening to the radio and give opinions on how things could be done differently or done 'far better’... but sometimes we don’t take time out to give praise where praise is due. So I thought it would be nice to do that once in a while, and this is blatantly one of those occasions. (Maybe it's the sunshine or the bank holiday 'feelgood' vibe that has gone to my head!)

I’ve never worked for 5 Live, but I know a couple of people who do. I hope they’re having as much fun working at the station as I’m having listening to it currently.

Happy weekend!

'Brown Underpants' Moment on BBC Radio 2

2010-04-29T10:00:00.005Z

If you're looking for a good reason as to why you should always have cameras rolling when you have big name guests in your radio studio, this is it...

So... if you haven't got the kit already, go and get your engineer to worke out a tech solution to allow at least one 'locked off' camera in a single position, with an easy way of capturing audio and video from the guest. You never know what you might capture!

And it may just change the course of history!

"Classic Tracks and Today's Best Shaving..."

2010-03-31T10:05:00.005Z

On the plane back from the conference I was speaking at in Lisbon last week, I opened the locally printed version of The Daily Mail (it was the only paper they had and not my regular choice of paper... honest!) and I came across this ad.

Nice to see a bit of marketing for radio station, even if it is pretty basic. These days it’s kinda rare to see any radio station running press ads!!

I actually went online to Central FM and tuned in. (Shame the positioning statement on the website doesn’t match the marketing however...)

I listened for 10 minutes out of interest... and the DJ was doing a promotion for a device that extends the life of your razor blade. Basically, if you use this device, apparently you can get over 100 shaves from just 1 blade. It was nice to see they’d extended the activity online, and had pictures of the DJ’s and a count of how many shaves they’d had from just 1 blade each etc.

But blimey... this link went on forever and ever, and I felt like I was listening to a TV shopping channel. “Undue prominence”? Ofcom would have had a field day if it was in the UK!

From what started out as a bit of interesting promotional content that I was actually genuinely intrigued about, I ended up hating the brand and never wanting to hear about it again, and promising to myself to grow a beard in protest.

Moral of the story... Don’t think you’re doing a favour for your clients by overselling their product or brand. It’s a turn off and actually does more damage than good.

By the way Central FM, there are far better records by The Hoosiers to play than Cops and Robbers! :-)

Absolute Classic Rock - 'The Great British Guarantee'.

2010-03-29T15:16:00.007Z

UK station 'Absolute Classic Rock' relaunched today with a rather nice music propostition. At the start of every hour, every day, they'll play some great British songs back to back. They call it 'The Great British Guarantee'.

I tuned in today to take a quick listen, and sure enough... at the top of hour I got The Who, Billy Idol, David Bowie and Genesis. Very nice and very British.

It's true that British Classic Rock is a very definitive genre and hangs together well regardless of the era that it's from. You can easily draw a line from The Kinks to Blur, from The Beatles to Oasis and from David Bowie to... well, to everyone!

The interesting question to ask is why this move has taken place? I guess we can assume that analysis of research over recent years has shown that British Classic Rock has proved particularly popular in terms of artists and songs, and also as a 'cultural definer'. There's something about the ongoing 'coolness' of bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin that make a station playing old rock records seem relevant in a contemporary radio offering.

I wonder if there's an attempt to differentiate between Absolute Classic Rock and Planet Rock, the other commercial Classic Rock station that's available nationwide on DAB.

As a very crude experiment, I randomly listened to 3 'Top of Hour' songs from Planet Rock last week. I got Nirvana, Kiss and Pearl Jam... all US bands. Coincidence? Luck of the draw? Or do Planet Rock have a more US skew which Absolute are trying to provide an alternative to? Alice Cooper on Breakfast is great... but is just very American!

The listening figures show Planet Rock reach 698,000 listeners every week, whilst Absolute Classic Rock reach 217,000. So there's certainly some room for Absolute to grow in the Classic Rock space.

And perhaps playing more British Classic Rock is the key.

Rock on!

Radiodays Europe - Rewind

2010-03-24T11:14:00.006Z

The first ever ‘Radiodays Europe’ took place last week in Copenhagen. Designed to fill the gap left by the increasingly redundant NAB Europe, it provided a fresh perspective to many of the issues being discussed right around Europe. The conference was really well attended with more than 400 delegates from over 30 countries.

So what did we all glean from this orgy of European radio chit-chat?

Well, I think it’s fair to say that one of the main themes was addressing how radio evolves in an integrated media world, where there are multiple platforms for content consumption. Radio is at a huge crossroads and this was communicated passionately and eloquently by Tim Davie, Head of BBC Audio and Music, who quite easily dismissed the notion that radio has no option but to seek a digital future. It can’t be the only medium just to bury its head in the sand and pretend FM will do just fine thank you very much.

Many, including myself, agree completely, but there are always a few nay-sayers. When even the Book industry is turning to digital delivery and technologies, it’s time for us all in radio to embrace the digital future.

The debate about which technologies will become dominant is somewhat immaterial, as the most vital thing for radio is quality content... a sentiment echoing throughout the conference. Quality radio needs to be available to our listeners on as many platforms as possible and making it easy for listeners to find and enjoy our content is the next big challenge.

The UK Radio Player, an initiative between BBC and Commercial radio got a good reaction when demonstrated, but talk in the corridors was very much ‘we couldn’t get that kind of collaboration in our country’. Well, guess what? You can! It just takes the each domestic radio industry to try and put aside short term differences and focus on the long term survival of radio, let alone growth. Short termism would be a nail in the coffin of radio.

The topic of visualising radio as well as interacting with audiences via social networks was also discussed in many sessions. There is no doubt that devices in future will all have screens and we need to put something on them, so working on solutions is important. There are already lots of great examples out there of good work in this field. Videoing great bits of audio content and putting them online for a deeper listener experience is NOT bad TV. It’s something completely different, and again, some Luddite radio purists said that they never want to see a camera in radio studio in order to preserve the ‘magic’ of radio. Well, I’m afraid the world has moved on and radio is a bit different these days. “Play Misty For Me” was 1971!!

There was great case studies and stories of radio using social networking to get a richer experience for listeners and to spread the brand and content from it to a wider public. I think a lot of stations will be revisiting their Facebook strategies after hearing some of the presentations last week... and quite right too. It’s a massive tool in the battle for ‘share of ear’.

And finally, let me mention Rachel Mallender and Marc Haberland from BBC Radio 1 and 104.6 RTL Berlin. They both over see their respective breakfast / morning shows and shared the secrets to success in a really entertaining session that I produced and hosted. Everyone was surprised that RTL has up to 16 people working on the morning show! Investing in content in the morning has resulted in a very successful show being on the air for 19 years!

Moyles has done nearly 7... and realistically won’t get to 19 years on Radio 1... but it was great to hear Rachel share her thoughts and talk so passionately about producing the breakfast show which is such a well-oiled machine these days. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the session as much as I did!

So, overall I think it’s fair to say Radiodays Europe was extremely well received. Conferences can sometimes be a bit dull... (well, they can can’t they!) but this was an important gathering at a key time for the radio industry in Europe which actually addressed many of the hot topics. We sometime forget that we have more in common than divides us, and sharing best practise and discussing the issues is one of the best ways to create a bright future for us all.

BBC 6 Music and Asian Network Face The Chop

2010-03-03T18:36:00.006Z

The media is changing before our very eyes. Traditional media is drastically re-thinking its business model. New media is being outsmarted by ‘newer media’. Social networking is now a major source of information and entertainment. And radio is striving to stay relevant, connected and mass market.

In the midst of this, the world’s greatest broadcasting corporation, the BBC, has to navigate and chart a course that balances public service, quality programming making and journalism, value for money, political pressure, and viewer and listener benefit.

The BBC’s ‘land grab’ into digital during the last decade was, strategically the right thing to do. Move, and move fast or risk being left behind; the symbol of a bygone era... an ‘IBM’ in a Google world.

So a raft of digital networks, both TV and radio, were created and the investment online was spectacular.

This was at a time when most commercial rivals, in all media, were doing well. And although some voices were raised, the opposition was not too vocal.

Fast forward to 2010, and the world is a very different place. The BBC has grown bigger and bigger, and concurrently, commercial rivals are being challenged like never before, many with declining audiences and declining revenues. The BBC had just got too big in many people’s eyes.

Read their annual report to see the scope of its work (and read the budgets, if you really want to bring a tear to your eye!)

So the announcement yesterday by Director General Mark Thompson of a Strategic Review into BBC services was always going to be met with some sort of reaction. After all, in the UK, we all feel we “own” the BBC and have a close personal relationship to it. It’s ‘our’ BBC. And due to the licence fee UK citizens pay, it’s all funded by us. So everyone has a sense of ownership, more than with, say a brand like ITV, or Sky.

The headlines tended to focus on stuff that’s going to close, which brings me to BBC 6 Music and Asian Network. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are 2 national UK radio stations available on DAB, Online, Digital TV etc.

A quick look at the numbers for you; BBC 6 Music has a weekly reach of 695,000 and 0.4% market share. In 2009, BBC 6 Music costs £9 Million pounds to operate.

BBC Asian Network has a weekly reach of 360,000 and 0.2% market share. In 2009 BBC Asian Network cost £12.1 Million to operate.

Many in the commercial radio across the world will baulk at these figures. It’s no doubt that these networks aren’t exactly cheap to run! Could or should they perform better given the budgets? Or is that missing the point? Are we so obsessed with numbers and performance we forget that the BBC is meant to be a cultural body, safeguarding and feeding our cultural needs in the UK, whatever they may be.

It’s a nice sentiment, but the BBC doesn’t operate in a complete vacuum and has to function in a market environment, even though it has guaranteed funding.

(By the way, BBC Radio 1 cost £43 Million to operate in 2009, and Radio 2 almost £51 Million! Nice.)

So, why axe BBC 6 Music and Asian Network? It seems the answer is that the BBC feel that much of what 6 Music does could be incorporated by Radio 1 and Radio 2, which I actually believe to be true. It would certainly make those channels even more distinctive, and the crossover with commercial radio even less.

Likewise trying to group all Asians together and provide a UK radio station for them was always going to be a challenge, and the BBC believe that it can serve the Asian community better by more targeted programming through local radio, TV and online, which is probably true. The fact that neither of the stations were performing very well is true, but should not be the main argument for closing them down. They do become more of a target however, due to their low performance and high operating costs.

The BBC can’t be seen to grow to large. And it has. So it’s trying to do something about it. And fair play to them.

The reaction to the proposed closure of BBC 6 Music is unsurprising. The vast majority of its fans will be educated, highly computer literate, socially networked, and independently minded. The ‘Twitterati’ have sprung into action, so a visible and sustained campaign to keep it open will now follow.

I’m less certain how the majority Asian Network listeners will feel as it’s harder to define a ‘tribe’ that isn’t united by music or attitude, but rather defined by which continent their motherland was. However, nobody wants their favourite radio station to close down, so I’m sure the passion is there too.

So, do BBC 6 Music and Asian Network do some great programming? Yes... no doubt. Are the networks too costly to run? You bet. If they close, can some of their output feature on BBC platforms? Probably... yes. Will commercial radio benefit from their closure? Not greatly. Is there an over-reaction to the closure of 2 DAB stations? Undoubtedly – but they are ‘BBC’, so that’s expected!

The strategy review is now out to a 12 week consultation, and it’s the BBC Trust will ultimately decide the fate of these 2 radio services. You can have your say too, and if you feel strongly enough, I’m sure they’d welcome your thoughts. Just click here.

If these stations do close, I’m not overly concerned that the cultural backbone of the UK will wither and die. It won’t. I’m actually more interested in reminding everyone that these stations are staffed by a whole load of talented radio guys and girls that may lose their jobs at the BBC, and even their passion for radio. And that’s one of the sad consequences of all of this.

The media world has never seen a more turbulent time than now.

Good luck Auntie.

3 Things To Remember...

2010-03-01T00:48:00.005Z

Programme Directors often place signs in the studio to remind their presenters of some of the key style points they need to remember when they open the microphone.

I particularly liked this one taken at Capital recently...

Extra points for guessing which DJ's Facebook page I stole the image from!!

The BRITS 2010... in Danish!

2010-02-16T15:05:00.005Z

It's the BRITS tonight in London, and Radio 100FM in Denmark are airing the whole show live and unedited, as it happens, from 21:00 CET, with a 2 hour warm up show runing from 19:00 CET.

I will be on standby, on Messenger, providing explanation of any overtly British jokes by host, Peter Kay... so their true comedy value can be appreciated by the Danish audience!

If you want to hear how it's promoted in Danish... take a listen to the promo...

Listen!

Even without the translation, you get the idea.

'Big up' to the guys at Somethin Else for facilitating it all. It's nice dealing with professionals!

"Welcome to the show..."

2010-02-15T11:35:00.008Z

Want a little laugh on a Monday? You may have seen this reported last week (and heard the audio) but in case you haven't... here it is!

Model and all round 'action-girl' Jodie Kidd was sitting in for Lisa Snowdon on the Capital Breakfast Show with Johnny Vaughan last week.

The weather finishes, and the Top of Hour jingle fires at 6am, and listeners were treated to this...

Listen!

Not much to say really is there? Telling your listeners to 'fuck off' is certainly a fun and entertaining way to start a show! And I'm not sure there was a technical problem... the mic was working perfectly when Jodie started talking. ;-)

Reach or Share?

2010-02-09T14:21:00.007Z

If you looked at last week’s RAJAR figures released in the UK, and perhaps read a few of the press releases, you may have been slightly confused as to who is Number 1 in London?

Well – nothing’s changed insofar as the devil is in the detail and if you’re doing well in one metric you shout about that... and if you’re doing well in another, you shout about that.

Magic 105.4 are number 1 commercial station in share, with 6.1% and Heart 106.2 are number 1 commercial station in reach, with 1.881 Million listeners a week

And although they don’t shout about it as much, as they’re perhaps a little more restrained about such crass self-promotion (due to the “unique way they’re funded”) BBC Radio 4 are actually the number 1 station in London in both share and reach, with 14.7% share and 2.380 Million listeners a week.

At breakfast time, Capital have the largest breakfast show with 1.231 Million listeners whilst nationally, Terry Wogan’s much publicised last quarter delivered 8.102 Million listeners.

The biggest surprise was the growth of London talk station LBC, which has overtaken Capital and Heart to become Number 2 commercial station in share terms, with a highly respectable 5.7%. There’s no doubt that LBC is the star performer and gets the teachers 'Gold Star'!

So what can we glean from all this?

Capital’s current format is always going to deliver stronger reach than share. CHR always tends to do that, due to the deliberately repetitive nature of things. The average hours of 5.5 a week are actually pretty good. But Capital has historically always been about reach, so that’s the most important metric for that station I believe. Remember...reach before revenue!

Heart’s format should allow it to generate more average hours and 5.7 a week feels a tad on the low side. As we know, their ‘variety’ position is more of a myth (sorry... marketing position) than reality, as they tend to play a pretty tight bunch of songs over a week. So perhaps they’re playing more of the reach game than the share game currently.

Meanwhile, Magic seem to have got the formula right and although they may not play significantly more tracks than Heart in any given week, the image of being a ‘you can listen to us for ages’ station seems to have cut through... hence the 6.1% share. Plus there's no real significant difference between them in terms of reach and the other 2 competitors.

Meanwhile LBC’s average hours are up at 13.6 a week! They’ve got a growing cohort (841,000) of fans who just love that station. I didn’t know London had that many cab drivers!! This figure compares really well with say BBC London, who have 7.4 average hours a week and actually beats BBC Radio 4 nationally, which is at a mere 12.6 a week.

Often it’s smaller or more niche stations that have really high average hours. LBC has some way to go if it’s to be Magic 1152 in Hull (15.2), 107 The Bee in erm.... Blackburn, I think (15.4). And finally, come on down Premier Christian Radio with average hours of 16.6 a week. I know it’s difficult to compete with GOD. And some of those sermons go on forever...

So reach or share? Which is more important? Well of course, the answer depends on which one you’re doing the best in... and whichever that is, that’s the most important!

Actually – they’re both important. Lots of listeners, listening longer. And in London, this time, without sounding like Paul Daniels, you’d have to say... “That’s Magic!”

Image FM

2010-02-09T13:09:00.007Z

So in the world of The Long Tail, there's infinate opportunity to do niche products and indeed niche radio stations. Just yesterday I was listening to an All Michael Jackson station that popped up on my Pure Sensia. They were playing Michael Jackson funnily enough.

Well how about a station that appeals to... Radio Producers and Imaging Directors!!

Look no further. It's called Image-FM!

Their plan is to create a radio station that collects great imaging from stations around the world, and play it for others to hear. I'm led to believe there'll be a few records too... so your ears don't start to bleed after 5 minutes, but what a nice idea.

Here's a sweeper from them!

Listen!

You can read more details on their website which includes info on how to submit stuff to be played out.

But imaging is just a form of niche content in a way... and so instead of being force fed the latest showbiz news or hearing a rather overly edited caller telling you which station they love, producers can settle down with a cup of tea, turn on Image FM and maybe get inspired by great imaging from around the world.

"Give It Some... Hmmmm?"

2010-02-02T20:20:00.005Z

Here's the new 'Heart' TV ad.

'Feel Good' or just 'Feel Bemused'? "Give It some Heart" or "Give It Some Cheese?" A 'smiley' branding job for Heart... or feel that it could as well be an ad for a new type of coffee... or a chocolate bar... or Class A drug?

Not quite sure it demonstrates 'music variety' particularly well... but it looks all shiny and colourful I suppose. I guess it's fairly inoffensive. A bit like Heart really.

Comments welcome!

"Solid Gold?" Solid crap more like...

2010-02-02T18:50:00.006Z

Time for a complaint! Please indulge me. If you live in the UK, you'll be familiar with the 'Halifax' and their track record at producing particularly annoying TV ads.

If you don't live in the UK... be thankful that you're not exposed to them, but they esentially use real members of staff in their ads, mainly singing and dancing like cretins. The Halifax is a UK High Street bank, and if there's one good reason not to place your money with that particular bank, it's their marketing campaigns.

Their new TV ad is one that's particularly annoyoing for people working in the radio industry. Take a look...

Is there any wonder that sometimes 'radio' as a medium (especially commercial radio) fights to get itself taken more seriously when the image that's portrayed is the one you've just watched? It really is just the most horrible depiction of a breakfast show I think I've ever seen. I know it's just a make-believe station, and it's just an ad, and it's pretend and all that... but it's just utter crap!!! (Or am I wrong and it's the best advert for working in radio there is?) Do they really think this will attract customers?

If at a dinner party someone asks me what I do, and I say I work in radio... and they say 'Is it just like Halifax ad?' I think I may commit a serious crime punishable by a long custodial sentence.

And they've tarnished a fantastic record too with their shoddy advert. Shame on you Spandau Ballet for allowing that to be licenced!!

Complaint over. Normal service will now resume! ;-)

"From the A's 4 to 41..."

2010-01-26T16:06:00.005Z

I mentioned the presenter Richard Bacon in my last blog, and by coincidence was going through some old archive audio today and came across one of his 'fun' sung jingles, from the days when he presented his 'Go Home Show' on Capital.

I post this with no in-depth analysis and no strategic point to make, other than... it still makes me smile when I hear it.

Listen!

"I Can See Clearly Now..."; Positioning Your Radio Station

2010-01-26T10:36:00.013Z

I was reading a blog post from a former colleague of mine, Carl Lyons (he was Marketing Director at Capital FM when I was Programme Director), who writes a great blog about marketing in the digital era and how to “get famous and stay relevant”. It's called ‘Talkable Likeable’.

He’s posted a video showing Steve Jobs talking about 'branding' and how we live in a “noisy and complicated world” and that brands need to be “really clear on what we want people to know about us”.

This is a good lesson for all brands, let alone radio stations. But with that in the back of my mind, I was listening around to a variety of stations this morning, and perhaps the one station that was really clear on its proposition was BBC Radio 5 Live, with its new positioning statement, which you can hear here. (It was at the front of a ‘contact us’ sweeper).

Listen!

“News, Sports and Entertainment” is a position worth commenting on for several reasons.

1. It’s certainly really clear on what the station wants us to know about it. No clever strapline, no play on words... just a very honest and precise definition of what they stand for.

2. They’ve added ‘Entertainment’! 5 Live was always about news and sports, but with the addition of people like Richard Bacon to the daytime line-up, and shows like ‘Fighting Talk’ not only retaining but adding to their popularity, it seems 5 Live have seen a gap in the market for ‘entertaining speech’ that is less stuffy than Radio 4, less contrived than LBC, and less moany than BBC London (which on occasion, can be like listening to several hours of people complaining every day!). Martin Kelner writing on Media Guardian says that news, sports and entertainment is a difficult mix to get right "...especially in the middle of a tragic natural disaster when the banter can jar somewhat."

So, in our noisy and complicated world, are 5 Live really clear on what we should know about them... or is the addition of ‘entertainment’ to the mix a negative step. Is having 3 things in your proposition providing less clarity?

Certainly it muddies the water a bit, but I think we’ll see more and more ‘entertainment’ in the mix over the coming years from 5 Live. As music stations and streaming services become a ubiquitous, amorphous glob... will it be ‘entertaining speech’ that’s the differentiating factor that provides real audience appeal?

Chris Evans First Show - Music Review

2010-01-11T10:54:00.004Z

So, an expectant nation was tuned in to hear how Mr Evans did this morning. What will the reviews say? Well, the correspondents and bloggers have already been busy typing away, so we don’t have to wait until tomorrow mornings papers. But, as I always think it’s a bit unfair to judge a shows speech content and features on its first proper outing, I thought I’d look at the music content instead.

Here’s the running order from this morning's show:

7am
Beatles – All You Need Is Love
Beatles – Got To Get You Into My Life
Frank Sinatra – Fly Me To The Moon
Robbie Williams – You Know Me
Hockey – Song Away
The Seekers – Morningtown Ride
Paolo Nutini – 10/10
Madonna – Material Girl
Ocean Colour Scene – Magic Carpet Days
Fats Domino – Blueberry Hill

8am
Bruce Springsteen – Glory Days
Elbow – One Day Like This
Tom Jones – It’s Not Unusual
Dionne Bromfield feat Zalon – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
The Monkees – Daydream Believer
Mika – Blame It On The Girls
Neil Diamond – Pretty Amazing Grace
Rolling Stones – Honkey Tonk Woman
Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire
Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind

9am
ELO – Rockaria!
Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman
Supertramp – The Logical Song
Bon Jovi – Superman Tonight

Despite what any other station may claim, I think Radio 2 wins the prize for “More Music Variety”!

There really was something for everybody, with the oldest song being from Fats Domino with his 1956 version of Blueberry Hill. Throw in some Sinatra and Beatles and you’ve got the older end pretty happy... and many of the younger end too come to think of it. You can’t really go wrong with them. And the currents were catered for as well with Robbie, Alicia Keys, the new one from Mika... and even a rather good new song from the ‘Evans favourites’ box, Ocean Colour Scene.

Chuck in a few 80’s songs for good measure, and hey... I think we’ve got a show!

With 10 songs an hour, there certainly wasn’t plenty of music, so they ‘quantity’ box gets a tick. I’m certain there was a great deal of attention paid by Head of Music, Jeff Smith, to ensure that the playlist was suitably skewed as not to turn off the older end, suitably modern to appeal to a new generation of Radio 2 listeners, and suitably eclectic to ensure Radio 2 does not get criticised for being too mainstream.

I think he achieved that.

It will interesting to see how the music content develops over the next 12 months, so we’ll repeat this exercise again in a year’s time if that’s ok with you!

As for the speech content, we’ll leave that for another day... although I daresay “man who holds ‘blowing up hot water bottles’ record will never make another appearance on UK radio.... ever!

"Wake up... It's a Beautiful Morning..."

2010-01-10T12:48:00.005Z

Tomorrow morning at 07:00, there will be a new dawn in Breakfast Show radio in the UK. The Chris Evans Breakfast Show will debut on BBC Radio 2.

Chris’s road to 'rehabilitation' has been well documented and there’s no doubt he feels blessed to be at the top of the tree once again, this time on BBC Radio 2.

Fans of morning shows... and more importantly fans of well structured, entertaining and engaging morning shows would be well advised to tune in at some point over the new next few months and take a good listen to how it’s done. (I say ‘few months’ as it’s always tempting judge a show by its first outing, which is dreadfully unfair. Give it a few weeks to bed in!)

I’ve always been a fan of Chris from when I used to listen to his BBC Radio1 Breakfast Show. And later when I then got the chance to work with him at Virgin Radio from 1999 onwards I became even more appreciative of what he actually did and what he brought to the programme.

The thing is, Chris makes something look so easy, when the truth is it's devilishly difficult and very few people can carry it off. Having worked alongside him for those years, here’s what I think Chris brings to a Breakfast Show:

Great Ideas
There’s a creative mind at the heart of every great Breakfast Show and turning up each day with loads of ideas to try on the radio is at the core of that.

Preparation
Usually the most spontaneous sounding shows are the most prepared. Tight running orders, thorough preparation and always having a good reason to open the microphone are essential elements. A strong production team behind you helps, and having a Producer who’s ‘married to the job’ is worth their weight in gold. (The Exec Producer for the new show is Helen Thomas, who is a fantastic talent. During the Radio 1 days it was Dan McGrath, who again was the backbone of 'making things happen')

Originality
Looking at new and different angles to topics is a sure fire way of getting engaging content. What’s the angle? How do you get into a topic? What will amke the way you do it different to way everyone else does it?

Energy
There’s no point in anyone presenting a breakfast show if they don’t really turn up each morning with 100% energy and 100% commitment. Yes it can be tough doing morning radio (especially when it’s dark and Minus 10 when you open your front door), but having ‘the love of doing the job’ is something that comes from ‘deep within’.

BBC Radio 2 have produced a great video documenting the behind the scenes moments at the recording of the full pilot. It’s a lovely insight into how the show is put together and a brief taster for what we have in store staring tomorrow morning.

Good luck Chris, and good luck to the whole team. I’m certain that the show will be a fantastic listen, and we’ll be talking about it on this blog on frequent occasions!

Snow Business

2010-01-05T19:00:00.004Z

When it's snowing badly across the UK, you want your local radio station to swing into action on air. But are they also using online to give the more detailed info of school closures, advice to listeners etc...

Perhaps like this...

Well done Key 103 in Manchester. Front page... nice and big... job done!

Programmers Checklist 2010

2010-01-03T12:30:00.006Z

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm now into my 4th year of blogging and I'm glad to say it's still really enjoyable to share my thoughts and opinions with everyone. Last year, you were one of several thousand readers from 85 countries aound the world. So thanks for reading and I'll do my best to contimue to write some challenging and thought provoking articles in 2010... and have some fun too!

Just before Christmas I was asked by the lovely guys at Blue Revolution to revisit an article I had written about a 'Programmers Checklist' for 2010. If you're a PD, here's a Top 10 of things you may want to think about on your way back to work tomorrow!

1. Music
Consumer choice in the field of ‘listening to music’ has never been bigger. There are more and more opportunities for people to listen to music aside from listening to it on the radio. Therefore it’s essential to make sure your offering is providing that something extra. Go through your core categories and to ensure that the big songs are still rolling round regularly, and that each category has not got bloated over the year. But also question whether you have got a structure for placing those ‘Oh Wow’ songs that make the listener turn the radio up and give an extra layer to your station. Is there a list of those songs you can draw on when you need to pull something special out of the bag? Having a ‘sound’ to your format is still important, but understanding that radio formats must evolve to still retain a sense of ‘stickiness’ with the audience is even more important.

2. Clocks
New Year is as good a time as any to refresh your clocks. If you have a good clock structure in place, the temptation is to leave it be. That’s not bad practise, but it’s always nice to refresh the order of things. Just by swapping around the openers or by changing the order of the first few songs at the Top of Hour can break the pattern of predictability. You’d be surprised at how your station can feel a lot fresher by making these simple changes. Also, does every ‘listening occasion’ (a sweep of around 20 minutes) really represent the sound of your station? Now’s a great time to check!

3. Production
Consistency in production is a good thing, but be careful not to use consistency as an excuse to allow things to get stale. Is it time to write some new liners? How about changing those ‘vox-pops’? Have the music imagers been running for too long? If your station has limited production resource, as many do, then the temptation is to leave things on air a little too long. But try and find a way of doing a refresh. It might not only be in the content of the production, but also in the style. For example, topical production (writing and producing cuts that are applicable to current events or the time of year) can really add a positive dynamic to the sound of your station.

4. Feedback
One of the most common complaints that DJ’s have is that they don’t get enough feedback or that the PD never has enough time to spend on them. All presenters have an ego, and it’s part of the PD’s role to attend to that regularly! Not only does it make for happier DJ’s but it’s one of the most effective ways of improving you product. The talent that you have is the single biggest category investment your station makes, and leaving ratings success down to between 5 and 10 people who don’t have regular feedback is a gamble you shouldn’t be prepared to take. When staring at the diary for 2010, blocking out regular weekly sessions for giving feedback will be time well spent.

5. 2010 Activity
The arrival of a new year is good time to look ahead and start to put together all your on-air activity. It’s a really useful tool for programmers and will guide you through the year ensuring there’s always something on the table for listeners. Not only can you plot all your station led activity and major promotions on it, but you can plot all sorts of things that might appeal to your listeners and have an on air angle to it. Lady Gaga’s coming to town? The station can ‘Go Gaga’ for the day. Valentine’s Day? Plan something different than a Love Songs show! Use it as an excuse to stay connected and topical as well as control over your content.

6. Cross Promotion
How well do you let your core audience know about all the other great shows and activity on your station? I believe it’s always easier to get an existing listener to listen longer than try and get someone to switch to your station in the first place, so investing time in a plan for 2010 to cross promote more effectively might be a good idea. Morning Shows always get good cross promotional airtime but what about all your other shows? Put together a schedule where you plot in some airtime to promote other shows. You can’t always promote everything all the time… but you can put a great plan together to make sure you’re recycling listeners back into the station.

7. Online and Digital
Every year ‘online and digital’ becomes more of an integral part of the business of a radio station than the previous year. Make 2010 the year that you invest time, energy and (if you have any) money into this area! How good is your website? Is it content rich? Is there exclusive content? Are your DJ’s blogging? Is there a great photo gallery your loyal fans can visit to see all the good guests that have stopped by? And can visitors to the site find out how to ‘listen live’ really easily? Having a social networking strategy is now essential for any station. You need to bring content to where your listeners are congregating. And, you need to work out how you can monetise all of these things.

8. News
The bits in between the records are now as important (or even more so, some would argue) as the records themselves. And news is a vital part of the mix. Revisit the news strategy. How can you make your stations news an ‘event’ every hour rather than just background? Radio news has sounded the same for far too long and listeners can now access news anytime and anywhere, 24 hours a day. So, be bold. Make changes and provide radio news that jumps out of the dial!

9. Target
The first programming meeting of the New Year is a good opportunity to gather your team together and remind them of the focus of the station. You are we targeting? What are these people like? What do they do with themselves? What kind of content are they interested in? Ensuring everyone understands exactly who they’re talking to will really help the on air team to focus on your audience.

10. Sponsorships & Promotions
Schedule a meeting as soon as you can outside your normal ‘promotions’ meeting to talk about your expectations and ambitions for your on-air sponsorships & promotions in 20010. Was the prize level last year a little on the low side? Did you carry some promotions with no brand-fit whatsoever? And did the sales guys agree to a really long tag line without getting programming approval first? New Year is a great moment to wipe the slate clean and lay out your vision for how S&P will integrate into the product in 2010. Sponsorship and Promotions is an increasingly significant revenue area so getting it right is now a crucial part of the mix. Start the year off on the right S&P foot!

So there we have it! That should keep us all busy for the first full week back in 2010!

"Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow!"

2009-12-21T17:32:00.009Z

And so as the large and silent snowflakes drift majestically downwards from a dark and dreary sky... and the view from my office window here in Windsor seems like it’s taken directly from a Hallmark Christmas card, it feels an appropriate time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. It’s been another fascinating year in radio as we say goodbye to the ‘Noughties’ and stand on the edge of a new decade (The Tens??). Imagine for a moment if we fast-forwarded a decade right now, I wonder what the radio business will look like in 2019 going into 2020?

There are many radio futurologists who spend a good deal of time thinking about the way radio will evolve, and much of their speculation is derived from and rooted in advances and changes in technology. There’s no doubt that technological advance has changed all media an unimaginable amount over the last decade, so it is reasonable to believe that the next decade will be no different.

I’m writing this as I’m listening to my shiny new ‘Pure Sensia’, which as many of you know is a device which does a pretty good job of integrating FM, DAB, Wi-Fi radio, Podcasts and my own music library at home. Having spent a few days with it, I find that actually after a while, it becomes pretty unimportant to me which type of technology I’m employing to listen; I just want the content that I want, there and then. And if an integrated device can bring it to me simply... great.

I’ve found a whole new seam of previously untapped stations and content to listen to, and so my time spent listening to audio entertainment (or radio as we used to call it) has increased of late.

So, if the technology advances in a positive way to make the user experience an even better one, the onus then swings back to programmers and programme makers once again. We have to strive for even more creativity to make sure our content stands out in the plethora of audio entertainment available. That’s easier said than done, but it’s nice to see there are stations and programmers who understand the importance of this right now. Spending some time, effort and yes... I’m afraid you’ll have to spend some money, in developing creative radio hosts and programmes is going to be vital for the next decade.

Programmers need to take more risks. I’ve seen stations become so nervous of making a mistake in tough economic times, they become a sterile, insular and unimaginative. Meanwhile the ones who are prepared to take calculated risks are sowing the seeds for a healthy future in the digital space. And making radio a ‘digital enabled’ business is vital in the commercial sector if radio groups worldwide are to compete with the internet for ad-spend.

But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Radio is evolving, but the pace of change varies from market to market. At least let’s try and plan the next 12-24 months ahead and see which way the wind blows. If the last decade is anything to go by, it may be a regularly changing wind which gives us a few storms along the way!

In the meantime, I wish all my lovely clients and radio friends from stations and media businesses across the world all the very best for Christmas, and a very successful 2010.

And now Dean Martin and a large glass of Mulled Wine await me...

Merry Christmas everyone!