Absolute changes

Bloody hell I can’t keep up with all these re-brands, potential re-brands, who owns what etc!

This time it’s the turn of Virgin to take the headlines, as they relaunch as Absolute Radio, taking on their parent company’s name as the shop window. A logical choice one might think, but pretty easy when the other possibilities in the hat were iRadio, Galleon and Nomad! ‘Across the UK, this is Nomad – Always moving on’ They could’ve had that one for free, shame.

But I suppose this comes off the back of distancing themselves from anything to do with Richard Branson – Times of India Group didn’t splash nearly £54 mill for people to think he still had owt to do with it.

So a new name, and a new positioning in the market, with the new strapline ‘Discover real Music’, but thats not the only thing thats changed down at Golden Square. Having kept a keen eye on the Golden Square blog, its been quite a highly anticipated reveal of the new name. It is somewhat of an anti climax – Absolute. Although no doubt a careful decision – Absolute Rock, Absolute Jazz, Absolute Panpipes and any other of the branches you can think of will fit in just nicely.

The other changes then. Some quite surprising ones. Firstly JK and Joel will be re-hashing that press release we’ve all read somewhere before and ‘Concentrating on their TV projects’, after spending just shy of a year with Virgin. Shame about that, I thought they did a cracking job, and perhaps I prematurely tipped them for a natural progression on to Breakfast.

Then we see Tim Shaw returning the airwaves, hosting a weekend evening slot. Back in his element I guess, after his ungraceful departure from Kerrang! breakfast earlier in the year.

Geoff Llyod will move to an extended drive time slot, now running from 4pm to 8pm. Great gig for a great presenter, and I hope he pretty much takes with him most of what he can from his evening show – not sure where ‘Drunk vs Stoned’ will sit though – perhaps after Traffic and Travel?

And one of the most noticeable additions is Jo Russell – the acclaimed other half of Trent FM’s ‘Jo and Twiggy’. Now, the whole idea of a blog is to provide you lot with an honest opinion – my opinion. I’m not her biggest fan at all. It’ll be interesting to see how she gets on by herself, doing what will be a very different kind of show to her current slot that she’s held down for the last decade. Maybe she’s alright and Twiggy the s**t one? We’ll see, I shall pass judgement when it opens, but in the meantime – one down one to go at Trent FM.

Lets sit tight and see how well Absolute get on with spunking their £5m marketing budget, but all the best to everyone passing in and out of the revolving door at Golden Square. It must be nearly coming off its hinges.

Rob Brydon

Another bank holiday passes by. The obligatory unpredictable weather, MOTD goes out of synch and it’s ok to have one more on Sunday night. But a Bank Holiday means so much more: it’s also a Swing Jock’s playground.

Up and down the country the manager decides to go with the fringe players, give them a run out. It’s valuable experience nowadays, and also keeps the mon-fri talent happy with their day off.

A tedious link to Radio 2′s bank holiday line up as Rob Brydon was in for Ken Bruce.

From the Top Of Hour you could get the idea it was going to be a pretty decent couple of hours. Seamless use of production, engaging and funny. It’s fair to say Brydon is no stranger to Radio, having spent years at Radio Wales and the old Radio 5, but this was the first time I’ve personally heard him do a solo show.

Sticking to the same format as Bruce’s usual show (Popmaster, Record Of The Week et al) it was interesting to see how Brydon would put his unique spin on it. Impressions are somewhat of a forte’, his Ken Bruce and Terry Wogan were uncanny, which lead me on to my next point. I’m not going to get ahead of myself, or make a brash statement – in fact I’ve already built that up too much – but Brydon to fill Tezza’s shoes in the near future? If he wanted it; it’s there for the taking.

Wrap your ears round this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d3l3k

 

Brit Abroad

First drip of football chat sneaking on to the blog, but its worth it.

I love it when the red tops throw in personifications about who they’re writing about like ‘Pint sized Declan Donnelly’ or ‘Tubby Funster Ricky Gervais’. I can’t think of one for Steve McLaren – but if you can give me a shout – he’s ginger and managed to blagg a career out of football management, there’s some ammo already – but have a look at the idiot falling into a stereotypical Brit Abroad, and considers himself attempting the native tongue by speaking louder, going up on the end of each sentence and presuming the person being spoken to is deaf and 12.

 

 

Miron Joins Global

Despite Capital Radio’s ever presence in the media recently what does the future have in store.

Denise Van Outen has decided to cut ties with the station because of the early mornings, and despite constant lavish and expensive relaunch after relaunch it’s a sitting duck in the market place. So who, how or what can save London’s most prestigious fm station?

Today’s announcement that Stephen Miron (currently MD of The Mail On Sunday) will join the board at Global, may see a shift forwards in terms of personnel, but what is Miron likely to bring to the table, that the current set up can’t currently cope with?

Richard Park will now move back into his role Director Of Broadcasting working alongside Miron as he takes up his title of Chief Exec of Radio.

I tend to see Miron’s main credentials being particularly commercial rather than hands on, with the latter being where Park particularly excels. This partnership I’m sure will turn out to be a successful one, when you take Park’s renowned programming ability with Miron’s recognised achievements within the media as a whole, and then add Paul Jackson (Park’s son and Capital PD) – if there was ever one hymn sheet to be sang from and all that.

So, give it until the end of the year at the earliest until Miron gets his feet under the desk at Leicester Square, and we have in place one of the most formidable Radio Group structures ever seen. Not only will Miron bring his own ideas and a very attractive phone book to the office, this will also free up a lot of Ashley Tabor’s free time – giving him more opportunity to play with his ever growing train set.

The metaphorical train set that now includes said Capital fm, alongside its London stations Heart, XFM, Classic, Choice and regional Galaxy’s.

Although the OFT recognised the diversity of Global’s London presence was enough to not force a sale of any assets in London, this can only be a good thing for Capital fm. I say this, as no longer will Heart and Capital fall over each other in various dodgy marketing campaigns to steal back the same listener. I’m sure the guys at Global will see sense in clarifying each of the stations position in the market and its target audience, and be able to more effectively reach them as two separate entities – knock on affect: a much more attractive proposition for advertisers who can cater for their needs more directly and have a minds eye picture of who is a Heart listener and vice versa.

Best of luck to Miron, it will be an interesting time in the next few years to see how he can move Global forwards and who will have the bigger office between himself and Park.

I feel this is far from the last of the changes and additions, and a very busy time ahead for all concerned.

Run and Hide

So this is an interesting one. Wipe the slate clean on the advertising you receive – well sort of.

The fact that advertisers have our details is kinda a given nowadays. Everything we sign up for goes straight on to a database, and we’re straight in the firing line for tailored ads. That loyalty card you got for the supermarket, the petrol points card, your facebook profile anything and everything you fill out is there for the taking. I get ads on facebook for Bicylce shops, because one day I entered cycling as one of my interests.

Fair enough, they’ve got me. However there’s the hot potato of ‘Privacy’. It’s hard to navigate the world wide web, without being followed in some way. I suppose the suits at the internet companies put it down to ‘Data Protection’ and to help ‘Combat Fraud’. Again, fair enough – if that’s what keep my dosh safe. It’s the internet version of going to Anfield and having to pay some kids for parking – it’s against your principle, but god knows what will happen if you don’t.

I did stumble across a website – networkadvertising.org – which can allow you to ‘opt-out’ and see how advertisers have been looking over your clicking shoulder. I hovered over the button to wipe the slate clean. What stopped me, was the reminder of the constant crap I used to receive, in comparison to the advertising I’m now sent. I’d rather see the tailored ad for the bike shop that may actually come in handy one day.

This fella Jeff Hirsch is the chief exec of Revenue Science and sums it up; “We are helping the consumer because the ads that they see are more relevant to them and, over time, they will see fewer of them because the advertisers can be more efficient,”

If I’m going to be bombarded with advertising, it may as well be something I’m vaguely interested in – Damage limitation if you will.

Ironically, I found this quote on ft.com. The even sweeter irony is that I had to register my details to read it…

 

BooBooC

So now this brand spanking new blog is going, lets get stuck in.

And why not go straight in there with a particularly ‘Hot Topic’, thats never quite got an answer.

I read an article yesterday whereby the legend that is Terry Wogan brought a few morale issues to light. He pretty much blabbs that back in my day everyone wanted to work for the beeb, and they wouldn’t mind being paid a bit less for it. To be fair times have changed a wee bit, and it’s generally a given that those who work for HRH British Broadcasting Corperation are paid a bit, if not considerably, more than their equivalent in the commercial sector, BA’s and BJ’s in particular.

However Tezza continues that most of that honor and ‘Chest out – I work for the BBC’ attitude has drained away and people within the corperation itself maybe don’t hold it in such high regard.

Having never made it on to the BBC gravy train myself, I honestly do think I’d like to one day. It does carry a bit of prestige and respect – and it does pay bills.

I’ve Moved

So here I am, on a brand new blog spot. If you kept up with the old posts, then just start off where we left off. If your new and have been so lucky to stumble across this little place of mine on the world wide web, then welcome aboard.

Its basically a place where I comment and write around current affairs in the world of Radio. I say world, I like to keep a keen eye on USA and Australian radio, but you know the score, UK radio still rules the roost…

 

So lets get cynical, lets get satirical, and lets get cracking…