Commercial Radio

[AndyB]

Forking this off from the Rock Concerts topic...

Here's another cutting, this is from Wednesday's Daily Mail. The radio station i've been waiting for. Gold is ok but it just plays the same hits over and over. Absolute 60s looks like it will playing the more rock oriented stuff like Cream, Traffic, Small Faces, Hendrix, Who etc. and I hope plenty of Psychedelia - my favourite music genre.

From what I hear down the grapevine there is a definite move in commercial radio stations generally to cut the range of music they play. I've noticed this on Bauer's radio stations, and I'm informed by those in the know that this is a general move by radio bosses.

The UTV Radio group is no exception, although U105 in Belfast still has one of the broadest ranges of music in the UK - the station manager told me that for presenter choice, they have gone from hundreds of valid choices at any moment in time to about 50. Their library is massive, most chart hits from the mid-60s to the mid-90s plus selected more recent music. It doesn't stop me noticing some songs coming on my radio more often than they used to...

It wouldn't surprise me if Absolute 60s goes the same way. You can guess what I think of the idea, because I'm all for broad ranges of music, rareties etc.

[stevezodiac]

I stopped listening to Capital Gold (now just Gold) because they were repeating the same songs over and over. I got you babe springs to mind. I was frustrated that thye never played anything with some cutting edge guitar work - even Light My Fire by the Doors was reduced to the edited single version. I'm hoping to hear Slip Inside This House by the 13th Floor Elevators and In A Gada Da Vida by Iron Butterfly in their entirety on Absolute 60s. Trivia: The latter title was a band members drunken attempt to say In the Garden Of Eden. It can be heard at the end of the Manhunter film.

[matrix]

Are Commercial Radio stations , going the same way as the dinosaurs? They have to compete with so much these days ,for example on the internet you can nearly find any song you want.I pads etc , are loaded with hundreds of songs.

I would say the younger generation hardly listen to the radio ,some say only now and again in their cars.

So perhaps they have no choice , but to narrow their range of songs they play?

Are the boomers , the last major Radio listeners?

[AndyB]

RAJAR Stats say that radio is on the way up, actually. Most stations are getting good results at the moment.

[stevezodiac]

I rescanned my DAB clock radio this morning and found I could suddenly pick up BBC Kent as well as Kent versions of some other stations (Maybe because I live in SE London). Also Real XS a Manchester based Rock Music station and Smooth Xmas - an offshoot of Smooth playing non stop Christmas songs.