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Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

The majority of its acquisitions last year (May 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
BB
BBI45
Jon posted:
BBI45 posted:
Juicy Joe posted:
Signal 1 had a continuous playlist of music this morning for their breakfast show, interspersed with jingles. Not a single interjection by a presenter - or even a news reader with a News summary on the hour or half past the hour?? This is particularly weird!! I guess this means that either both the usual DJ's Elliot & Matilda are ill, and as Bauer have fired the rest of the Signal team, there was noone else to cover. Or, they have let the breakfast presenters go and realised that they should have kept Foxy after all. But to have no presenters whatsoever, I can't explain it. I did not hear any explanation for this whilst I was listening. I would have thought the news bulletins would have gone ahead though??

I know this is not strictly relating to presentation but still highly significant bearing in mind Bauer's acquisitions? I'm not sure what happened in other areas local breakfast shows today? Probably not affected?? I hope Foxy does return!!

Given the lack of any news bulletins, it sounds like there must have been some sort of significant fault. Otherwise, it's a breach of the license conditions.

I agree. I think if there was a suspected case of Covid in the building that could explain why there was no news or DJs coming from the building. But you’d think they’d get something on air from another site.

The lack of any DJ though is why I don't think it's COVID-19 related. If it was, then I'd have thought they'd be able to get a basic service out (even if it was just a news bulletin of some form), whereas the only justification for what's happened today is that a critical piece of technology broke.
JA
james-2001
Yes, surely you'd be able to get someone on air from home or a remote location at least?
JJ
Juicy Joe Founding member
There weren't any adverts either in the 30 minutes I was listening? Just song, jingle, song, jingle etc. Weird!

With local radio station buildings now virtually empty, have Bauer planned in advance for what will happen should the local radio breakfast presenters fall ill? Are there freelance broadcasters who can cover their shift around the country - or, would the station transmit a nearby Bauer station's Breakfast Show temporarily? Or just stream the main Hits Radio Network Breakfast Show?? Cos none of these options were chosen this morning???
Last edited by Juicy Joe on 15 September 2020 9:12pm - 2 times in total
IT
IndigoTucker
Driving past the Shelton studios, the shutters are up and there’s a sign on them, and has been for a while. So sign of life.
ST
Steve Founding member
Juicy Joe posted:
There weren't any adverts either in the 30 minutes I was listening? Just song, jingle, song, jingle etc. Weird!

With local radio station buildings now virtually empty, have Bauer planned in advance for what will happen should the local radio breakfast presenters fall ill? Are there freelance broadcasters who can cover their shift around the country - or, would the station transmit a nearby Bauer station's Breakfast Show temporarily? Or just stream the main Hits Radio Network Breakfast Show?? Cos none of these options were chosen this morning???


Sounds like the backup tape at the transmitter to me. Usually if that’s going out there’s a major fault or power cut at the studio centre and if there’s now not many staff about, probably takes even longer to recover from.
CU
Cusack
Juicy Joe posted:
Signal 1 had a continuous playlist of music this morning for their breakfast show, interspersed with jingles. Not a single interjection by a presenter - or even a news reader with a News summary on the hour or half past the hour?? This is particularly weird!! I guess this means that either both the usual DJ's Elliot & Matilda are ill, and as Bauer have fired the rest of the Signal team, there was noone else to cover. Or, they have let the breakfast presenters go and realised that they should have kept Foxy after all. But to have no presenters whatsoever, I can't explain it. I did not hear any explanation for this whilst I was listening. I would have thought the news bulletins would have gone ahead though??

I know this is not strictly relating to presentation but still highly significant bearing in mind Bauer's acquisitions? I'm not sure what happened in other areas local breakfast shows today? Probably not affected?? I hope Foxy does return!!


Looking at social media for Signal 1, they were there doing the show. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJW95HhZnF/
MA
Markymark
commseng posted:

Looking at social media for Signal 1, they were there doing the show. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJW95HhZnF/


Which platform were they missing from, FM, DAB, and/or on line ?

And if FM, which transmitter ? Signal 1 have three 102.6, 96.9, 96.4
JJ
Juicy Joe Founding member
Markymark posted:
commseng posted:

Looking at social media for Signal 1, they were there doing the show. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJW95HhZnF/


Which platform were they missing from, FM, DAB, and/or on line ?

And if FM, which transmitter ? Signal 1 have three 102.6, 96.9, 96.4


They weren't on 102.6FM, Signal 1. Just continuous music & jingles. They were back on this morning though. No explanation was given whilst I was listening.
MA
Markymark
Juicy Joe posted:
Markymark posted:
commseng posted:

Looking at social media for Signal 1, they were there doing the show. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJW95HhZnF/


Which platform were they missing from, FM, DAB, and/or on line ?

And if FM, which transmitter ? Signal 1 have three 102.6, 96.9, 96.4


They weren't on 102.6FM, Signal 1. Just continuous music & jingles. They were back on this morning though. No explanation was given whilst I was listening.


Sounds like the line to the transmitter had failed, and the emergency 'tape' kicked in. Perhaps someone had dug through the fibre!
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Does the modern "emergency tape" still exist as a tape? Or is it a more modern digital solution these days, since I dare say most radio station playouts use digital files. Understand of course the backup solution at the transmitter is probably a fail-safe as there is a difference between going off air because (for example) the fire alarm's gone off at the studio and going off because the link to the transmitter has failed.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
It's often a CD these days. For fire alarms there's an emergency playlist that the studio puts to air before heading for the exits rather than letting the silence detector kick in.
MA
Markymark
Neil Jones posted:
Does the modern "emergency tape" still exist as a tape? Or is it a more modern digital solution these days, since I dare say most radio station playouts use digital files. Understand of course the backup solution at the transmitter is probably a fail-safe as there is a difference between going off air because (for example) the fire alarm's gone off at the studio and going off because the link to the transmitter has failed.


Not quite the same situation, but for the recent BBC local AM radio transmitter closures Arqiva deployed mp3 players at the transmitter sites for the 'We've gone from this frequency now......' messages.

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