James Cridland

The #1 radio trends newsletter

NPR headquarters

Above: NPR’s HQ in Washington DC, where I was last week.

Back in Brisbane, and enjoying SCA’s B105 claiming it’s “Brisbane’s #1 Hit Music Station” meanwhile down the dial, ARN’s KIIS 97.3 claims it’s “Brisbane’s #1 Hit Music Station”. (Melbourne has the same, as do many UK cities).

I wonder whether the only thing this communicates is that radio stations think the audience is dumb. When both stations play similar music and are a preset-punch away, do they genuinely think audiences won’t notice? How does this do anything other than erode trust? It’s clear, surely, that both can’t be right, so the obvious conclusion is that one of these stations is lying.

Of course, #1 means nothing; which is why both can claim it. But I wonder whether other nonsense superlatives could be used here. “Brisbane’s favourite”? “best”? “biggest”?

Eroding trust is, surely, not the game-plan here?

RCS

In Australia, ABC News has retired its quite nice 2017 TV news theme, composed by Martin Armiger, which replaced this from 2011. I discover a longer version on YouTube, too, containing much of the pieces for the headlines.

As of last week, it moved to a remixed version of the Wall/Ansell heritage 1984 ABC News theme, which appears to have gone down well, even if it sounds a little dated to me. (You can watch ABC News online; learn more about the new remix; and even hear a dance remix of it).

What’s this got to do with radio? ABC News Radio has its own music; and elsewhere, ABC Radio - whether it’s Radio National, or ABC Local Radio - still uses a piece of music from 1935 by an English composer called Charles Williams, called the Majestic Fanfare. That started in 1952; and it’s still going (after being reorchestrated in 1988). Here’s how my day starts at 7 o’clock. Even Richard Mills, who re-orchestrated it in 1988, thinks it’s “nothing special”. To my foreign ears, it sounds anachronistic and horribly old-fashioned.

The press release about the new remix version from the ABC says “No matter where they get their news, Australians will be able to instantly recognise ABC NEWS.” - but not if they’re listening to the radio (which is, um, the most popular way of consuming ABC News).

If it was up to me, the new Wall/Ansell theme would be across the ABC, including the radio services - at least on ABC Local Radio and ABC News Radio. Perhaps the Majestic Fanfare might be right for ABC Radio National: but not for anything aimed at a modern audience, surely?

Heresy? Or suggesting that a consistent brand across TV and radio would make sense? Reply with your reasons why I’m wrong, Australians… ;)

  • Bill Rogers reports that BBC Local Radio stations are pre-recording news bulletins. This is seen as a real negative in some quarters, and some are waving their hands around in horror. But - whisper it - I can’t think why. All the clips they play? Pre-recorded. All the words they say? Pre-written. What difference does it make if it’s pre-recorded, as long as it’s accurate? When I worked at Virgin Radio, the station pre-recorded its news bulletins at the top of the hour (to offer a split UK and London bulletin); but, on the incredibly rare event that there was breaking news that couldn’t wait the ten minutes it took to pre-record, both bulletins were collapsed into one. What’s the big deal?

  • Jeff McHugh writes in RadioINK “How to win #1 Neilsen Ratings” - pointing out, as I did, that things take time. The rule is that anyone mentioning this newsletter gets a mention in this newsletter, by the way - so go ahead! ;)

  • Professional Father Christmas look-a-like Brett Debritz wrote a thought-provoking piece just before the new Australian radio figures pointing out that most of radio in Brisbane is using the same talent that they have been doing for the last twenty years. “As much as I’ve enjoyed some of my previous gigs, and perhaps could have stayed a longer in some, I couldn’t imagine still doing the same thing I was doing 20 years ago.” Well, indeed.

  • The new Australian radio figures are out. We should, I guess, return to radio’s highest-paid smut act Kyle and Jackie O, who - in their first wholly-owned figures for Melbourne - posted a slight improvement in share, but a smaller cume number (and a slump year-on-year). In terms of share, they’re at 6.1% - the 7th biggest breakfast show in the market. So much for rocketing to number one. The reason has nothing to do with being piped in from Sydney; it’s that they don’t care for their Melbourne listeners, and that their show is full of lazy smut. The show they replaced, which shifted over to Nova, is now the #1. Perhaps quality wins out. Here’s hoping.

PS: I’ve done some flying recently over to Washington DC. Here’s a trip report of the way out, and of the way back, in case you have trouble sleeping.

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