GWR Cross-Promotion

Another little observation - if a presenter on 2CR FM mentions a programme that's coming up on ITV1 (which they often do), the channel is ALWAYS referred to as Meridian. Which is odd, considering that most people around here either call it "Channel 3" (mostly by older folk) or "ITV".

Quite a few radio stations have a nightly preview of the regional TV news programme in return for their news team being able to dub material off the TV for use in their bulletins.

Some just do it because it's exciting to have telly people on the radio!

Can't speak for any other tv region, but Meridian has an agreement with most local radio stations, that Meridian Tonight gets a promo before 1800, in return for the station having access to Meridian audio. It's some years since I worked down there, but Meridian used to record the promo and have it on a loop, so stations could dial up on ISDN and record it. The station I worked for already had a different agreement with Meridian when they came up with this idea, and we always flatly refused to play their promo, as our main news programme was also at six o'clock.

Speaking of which my local radio station, Power FM, use the Meridian Tonight theme tune for a segment on the breakfast show, even when it changed over to the current standard ITV regional news theme.

Century FM has either Lucy Meacock or Tony Morris on during The Way It Is, sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 every evening.

2CR has a round-up of what is going to be on Meridian, and use the words Meridian, instead of ITV1.

Power FM has a Meridian Tonight trail, not too sure on Ocean FM.

Well 96 Trent FM's Morning Crew Jo & Twiggy seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Central News (East), and Twiggy in particular has a bit of a thing for Marie Ashby!

So does anyone else's GWR Station claim to be 'New'? For the past few days I have heard trails on Trent FM saying '...on your new 96 Trent FM' etc. etc.

Now it plays 80s, 90s and Today - copying CenturyFMs slogan almost identically...

So would this be the second time it's been 'The New...'? At one point in the mid 90s most of (if not all) the GWR stations were "The New [insert station name] FM, [insert area]'s Better Music Mix".

On the subject of copying Century's slogan though, there's little originality anywhere. How many stations have 'best music' or 'biggest variety' somewhere in their strapline?

I've just taken this from the Trent website - and after having a look around some other station's pages, it looks like Trent is the only one to be 'New'... (the bit in bold is the new slogan)

At the NEW 96 Trent FM we're now playing the best mix of the 80s 90s and today [for the World's Best City] . That means that everyday we play more songs from more of the artists you love.

We're also giving you the chance to win your share of £20,000 by playing our NEW contest 'The Money's In The Music'. Just take us to work and listen all day for your chance to win cash. Click below for details of how to play.

We also have a NEW phone number - Nottingham 873 96 96. Store our number in your phone now....and over the next few weeks if you catch up with the Black Thunders, show them our number in your phone and you could win a NEW mini 96 Trent FM radio.

Make sure you tune into our NEW Mon-Thurs late show. From 10pm Deano presents THE LATE NIGHT LOUNGE, now playing the best love songs from the 80s, 90s and today along with your dedications and the chance to win free CDs and tickets. You may even hear a famous person or two on our NEW casting couch! Click below to send your dedication

At the NEW 96 Trent FM, we were the first radio station in the WORLD that let you hear a song, buy it and then download it to burn off onto CD. Our NEW Download chart now plays every Friday in Core Control from 7pm and is based on the music you've been downloading online. Click below to see HEAR IT, BUY IT, BURN IT

For the weekend there's our NEW Saturday Breakfast show between 7am and 11am. Richard Clarke will tell you what's on in Nottingham and Mansfield this weekend. There will be plenty of ideas of how to keep the kids occupied as well as great places to go and things to do. Click below to see what's on this week

If you like your music, then you'll love our NEW CD Countdown every Saturday between 11 and 1. We'll countdown the biggest selling albums across Nottinghamshire. We'll also have NEW music features at the weekends so you can listen longer

We hope you you enjoy the NEW 96 Trent FM and would welcome your feedback, so why not e-mail our NEW boss. Click below.



Well, at least there is a cool new memorable phone number! 873 96 96

What really frigs me off about stations calling themselves 'The New' is invariably do so for two to three years!

Well this can only be good news for Trent FM - although it is now very similar to Century, but it makes it much more of a listenable station. And at least there is no networked programme at 10pm - that's how it should be!