Capital - Taylor's Version
In the UK, national CHR station Capital has launched an additional channel, Capital (Taylor’s Version). It’s available on broadcast radio (DAB), and online via the Global Player.
It ties in with Taylor’s tour of the UK (Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London) which are going on over the next few weeks.
I tuned in and listened for a few hours (thanks to having a daughter squarely in the target group); she was thrilled that there was an entire radio station dedicated to Taylor Swift, and enjoyed listening in the car.
They say young people don’t listen to the radio; but Capital (Taylor’s Version) has audio clips from fellow “Swifties”, all saying how excited they were at seeing Taylor Swift. One listener told us she was making friendship bracelets; another that she didn’t get tickets but her and her mother are going to stand outside the stadium for the next four fours; and another that they “were sitting outside Sainsbury’s guessing the songs - and we’ve got every one right so far!” - exactly how my daughter was listening! We were invited to send in voice notes via WhatsApp.
The station is mostly automated (with voicetracked “hand-holding” from the Capital DJs just before a commercial break), but has presenters in the late afternoon (until 7pm) and then again after 10pm - because it’s designed as the station you put on when you drive to the Taylor Swift concert.
A neat trick: it has a proper top-of-hour, as all Capital stations do, and the fun tagline “the UK’s number one Swift music station” - a little nod to the main station’s “number one hit music station”.
And, yes, it carries advertising. Of course it does.
Excellently programmed, it encapsulates what every young girl loves about Taylor Swift; and once more shows the power of a flexible transmission platform like DAB, which can ably cope with pop-up, temporary stations like this. It also means that Capital will own Taylor Swift’s fans this summer: a perfect piece of marketing for the station, and an on-ramp for new listeners.
Most impressive.
-
We’re often told that radio is the emergency broadcaster, but in reality, what we really mean is “we have one point of failure, which is unlikely to go wrong”, but these pictures from eastern Texas show that things still do go wrong. Of note: one station’s internet radio stream also fell over, since it was fed from the transmitter site.
-
In the UK, the campaigning for the General Election means lots of radio interviews (and a slavish caution for balance, which is legally required). But that doesn’t mean that politicians can get away with not answering the questions. Here’s Nick Ferrari from LBC cutting off UKIP founder Alan Sked; or, in another interview, discovering that the Minister for Children doesn’t know how much child benefit is. There’ll be more before the election comes.
-
Talking about the election, this piece about David Cameron in Private Eye was worth sharing.
-
A flashback to a previous age. In 1978, as the BBC’s radio stations changed frequencies, the BBC worked together with the Scouts to help elderly and housebound people retune.
-
An impressive demonstration of dynamic advertising. Drive in the Australian desert while listening to ARN’s iHeart app, and you’ll get bespoke advertising warning you of temperatures ahead, to ensure you have enough fuel or water, and to ensure you’re aware of the “last chance servo” (or “service station”) to fill up.
- Not a bad idea, although Optus coverage ends an hour before the “last chance servo”; and if you’re on Vodafone, coverage ends more than 2 hours 30 minutes before the town it’s in. But, it’ll work if you’re on Telstra, I guess…
Want to supercharge your radio show? Here’s a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep - from a world class radio consultant and the best show-prep writer in the UK. Great for UK stations, or for English-language stations everywhere, too. (ad)
Where I am speaking next
- ABU RadioSonic 2024, Kuala Lumpur (Jul 3)
- Radiodays Asia, Kuala Lumpur (Sep 2-4)
- PBI Conference, Ottawa, Canada (Oct 8-10)
- Lyddager, Norway (Oct 18-19)
- Guldörat, Sweden (Oct 22)
- Independent Podcast Awards, London (Oct 23)
- Audiodays, Denmark (Oct 25)
- ASI International Radio & Audio Conference, Venice, Italy (Nov 6)
- Radiodays Europe, Athens, Greece (Mar 9-11 2025)
Supporters
Thank you to the supporters you see on this site, plus Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.
If you’d like to support my work in any way, you can BuyMeACoffee - become a member to give regularly or just give a one-off coffee, or five. Here’s where to do that.
Please do follow me on Mastodon, too: I’m @james@bne.social there. I’m much more active there than anywhere else.
My website has more detail about who I am, and what I do, and whether I can help you further.