DJ
Yeah but I reckon all the stick Global have got with changing Heart Breakfast to Amanda Holden, especially here in the North West. I believe they have also had a rethink on the whole idea, and only time will tell if they keep the current changes etc.
Also I can imagine the regional Smooth breakfast shows were just 1 man and no producer, a lot cheaper than Heart/Capital who had 2 presenters and a producer.
Yeah but I reckon all the stick Global have got with changing Heart Breakfast to Amanda Holden, especially here in the North West. I believe they have also had a rethink on the whole idea, and only time will tell if they keep the current changes etc.
WO
A lot of people are still calling it the 'death of local radio'. Its time community radio stepped up to the plate to fill the void left, stop moaning and do something.
I've worked hard alongside a few other colleagues over the years getting Cambridge 105 Radio to where it is today (on my part branding and producing all the station imaging, commercials and promos). I might sound a bit bias here but I really do think we have (or are at least in the top 3) community stations with the best and most consistent on air sound. You could argue in the local radio category as a whole.
We're already filling the void and have a pretty good reputation locally.
I've worked hard alongside a few other colleagues over the years getting Cambridge 105 Radio to where it is today (on my part branding and producing all the station imaging, commercials and promos). I might sound a bit bias here but I really do think we have (or are at least in the top 3) community stations with the best and most consistent on air sound. You could argue in the local radio category as a whole.
We're already filling the void and have a pretty good reputation locally.
CI
I think it is incredibly telling that they are keeping the regional breakfast shows on Smooth after the large backlash that they got after announcing the national Heart Breakfast show. If the RAJARs for the new breakfast show start bad and stay bad, they may well be considering switching the regional drivetime and national breakfast around as a kind of make good. Obviously, it's way too early to call anything, but I can't imagine a company like Global not taking notice of the fact that even on their own social media, nobody was being positive about the new national breakfast show, and not thinking, 'Oh, we need to come up with a back-up plan in case this goes as badly as it appears it might'.
MA
Was there one though ? I don't recall rioting in the streets, or anything beyond a few local newspaper mentions ?
I think it is incredibly telling that they are keeping the regional breakfast shows on Smooth after the large backlash that they got after announcing the national Heart Breakfast show. .
Was there one though ? I don't recall rioting in the streets, or anything beyond a few local newspaper mentions ?
SP
This makes no sense. Why would Global be about to roll out a breakfast show they think is going to be weak, especially after forking out a reported £3m for Amanda Holden? Plus Smooth and Heart have very different audiences, particularly since Heart has ditched much of its older songs, so they don't compete much at all. If anything Capital and Heart have more of an overlap in terms of target demographic these days.
Global have never worried about the inevitable negative comments on social media before when they've made big changes, so I'd be surprised if they were about to start now.
For all we know, the switch to networking drive rather than breakfast on Smooth might just be to make more efficient use of studio space. If you've got Heart, Capital and Smooth in the same building, doing it this way, you only need to maintain two studios rather than three.
Or they might have found that Smooth's older demographic values local content more than Heart and Capital's audience do, so figured staying regional at breakfast would make more sense.
Quote:
comment on radio today
"Obviously don’t want what they consider any serious opposition to their new networked breakfast show on Heart! A possible indication of how worried they are or how weak they think their new breakfast show may fare on a national level?!"
"Obviously don’t want what they consider any serious opposition to their new networked breakfast show on Heart! A possible indication of how worried they are or how weak they think their new breakfast show may fare on a national level?!"
This makes no sense. Why would Global be about to roll out a breakfast show they think is going to be weak, especially after forking out a reported £3m for Amanda Holden? Plus Smooth and Heart have very different audiences, particularly since Heart has ditched much of its older songs, so they don't compete much at all. If anything Capital and Heart have more of an overlap in terms of target demographic these days.
I think it is incredibly telling that they are keeping the regional breakfast shows on Smooth after the large backlash that they got after announcing the national Heart Breakfast show. If the RAJARs for the new breakfast show start bad and stay bad, they may well be considering switching the regional drivetime and national breakfast around as a kind of make good. Obviously, it's way too early to call anything, but I can't imagine a company like Global not taking notice of the fact that even on their own social media, nobody was being positive about the new national breakfast show, and not thinking, 'Oh, we need to come up with a back-up plan in case this goes as badly as it appears it might'.
Global have never worried about the inevitable negative comments on social media before when they've made big changes, so I'd be surprised if they were about to start now.
For all we know, the switch to networking drive rather than breakfast on Smooth might just be to make more efficient use of studio space. If you've got Heart, Capital and Smooth in the same building, doing it this way, you only need to maintain two studios rather than three.
Or they might have found that Smooth's older demographic values local content more than Heart and Capital's audience do, so figured staying regional at breakfast would make more sense.
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
Looks like Bauer are following Global's lead, in the Midlands at least:
https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/05/free-radio-to-reduce-local-breakfast-and-drive-shows/
https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/05/free-radio-to-reduce-local-breakfast-and-drive-shows/
CI
Was there one though ? I don't recall rioting in the streets, or anything beyond a few local newspaper mentions ?
You didn't see Heart's twitter and facebook pages at around the time they announced the new Heart Breakfast. There wasn't one positive comment about the new breakfast show, and an absolute tonne of comments that said, I listen to Heart, but not anymore, you've lost me as a listener, and there were thousands of these comments, on every Heart facebook and twitter. I have never seen a more uniformly negative response to an announcement like this, ever.
It wasn't a case of the usual suspects either, in fact, I think the usual suspects had already given up on Heart before this. This was something else. This was a backlash of 'how dare you take our favourite presenters off the air'. On this occasion, I think Global took notice. They weren't expecting a backlash like that, I wasn't expecting a backlash like that, nobody was. What we saw was unique and unprecedented in radio history. Even Radio 4 fans, who are notorious for not liking changes to their favourite station, have never responded quite like that to a change.
If you think rioting in the streets is the only signifier of discontent, you are way out of touch.
I think it is incredibly telling that they are keeping the regional breakfast shows on Smooth after the large backlash that they got after announcing the national Heart Breakfast show. .
Was there one though ? I don't recall rioting in the streets, or anything beyond a few local newspaper mentions ?
You didn't see Heart's twitter and facebook pages at around the time they announced the new Heart Breakfast. There wasn't one positive comment about the new breakfast show, and an absolute tonne of comments that said, I listen to Heart, but not anymore, you've lost me as a listener, and there were thousands of these comments, on every Heart facebook and twitter. I have never seen a more uniformly negative response to an announcement like this, ever.
It wasn't a case of the usual suspects either, in fact, I think the usual suspects had already given up on Heart before this. This was something else. This was a backlash of 'how dare you take our favourite presenters off the air'. On this occasion, I think Global took notice. They weren't expecting a backlash like that, I wasn't expecting a backlash like that, nobody was. What we saw was unique and unprecedented in radio history. Even Radio 4 fans, who are notorious for not liking changes to their favourite station, have never responded quite like that to a change.
If you think rioting in the streets is the only signifier of discontent, you are way out of touch.
HC
Still, could be worse than some 'turse' tweets and posts on the Heart facebook page.
When Capital Radio brought XFM, a brick that evening made its way into a first floor window at 30 Leicester Square..
When Capital Radio brought XFM, a brick that evening made its way into a first floor window at 30 Leicester Square..
CI
This makes no sense. Why would Global be about to roll out a breakfast show they think is going to be weak, especially after forking out a reported £3m for Amanda Holden? Plus Smooth and Heart have very different audiences, particularly since Heart has ditched much of its older songs, so they don't compete much at all. If anything Capital and Heart have more of an overlap in terms of target demographic these days.
Global have never worried about the inevitable negative comments on social media before when they've made big changes, so I'd be surprised if they were about to start now.
For all we know, the switch to networking drive rather than breakfast on Smooth might just be to make more efficient use of studio space. If you've got Heart, Capital and Smooth in the same building, doing it this way, you only need to maintain two studios rather than three.
Or they might have found that Smooth's older demographic values local content more than Heart and Capital's audience do, so figured staying regional at breakfast would make more sense.
Normally, I would have agreed with you on Global ignoring the inevitable backlash from the usual suspects. However, this was not that. By a long chalk. This was something else entirely. This was listeners, telling Global, that they were no longer going to be listening, because of this change, in their thousands, on every Heart facebook and twitter. I never expected to see this kind of backlash to a programming decision like this on Heart. Never seen any backlash be this uniformly negative, and I was shocked by this. This one time, I think Global actually took notice, especially because every one of those comments said something along the lines of 'I enjoy listening to x & y at breakfast, but I will not be listening anymore. My radio dial is going elsewhere other than Heart'. Because of that, I think Global this time realised they had goofed, and this move, whilst also making logistical sense, is much more a response to that backlash.
comment on radio today
"Obviously don’t want what they consider any serious opposition to their new networked breakfast show on Heart! A possible indication of how worried they are or how weak they think their new breakfast show may fare on a national level?!"
"Obviously don’t want what they consider any serious opposition to their new networked breakfast show on Heart! A possible indication of how worried they are or how weak they think their new breakfast show may fare on a national level?!"
This makes no sense. Why would Global be about to roll out a breakfast show they think is going to be weak, especially after forking out a reported £3m for Amanda Holden? Plus Smooth and Heart have very different audiences, particularly since Heart has ditched much of its older songs, so they don't compete much at all. If anything Capital and Heart have more of an overlap in terms of target demographic these days.
I think it is incredibly telling that they are keeping the regional breakfast shows on Smooth after the large backlash that they got after announcing the national Heart Breakfast show. If the RAJARs for the new breakfast show start bad and stay bad, they may well be considering switching the regional drivetime and national breakfast around as a kind of make good. Obviously, it's way too early to call anything, but I can't imagine a company like Global not taking notice of the fact that even on their own social media, nobody was being positive about the new national breakfast show, and not thinking, 'Oh, we need to come up with a back-up plan in case this goes as badly as it appears it might'.
Global have never worried about the inevitable negative comments on social media before when they've made big changes, so I'd be surprised if they were about to start now.
For all we know, the switch to networking drive rather than breakfast on Smooth might just be to make more efficient use of studio space. If you've got Heart, Capital and Smooth in the same building, doing it this way, you only need to maintain two studios rather than three.
Or they might have found that Smooth's older demographic values local content more than Heart and Capital's audience do, so figured staying regional at breakfast would make more sense.
Normally, I would have agreed with you on Global ignoring the inevitable backlash from the usual suspects. However, this was not that. By a long chalk. This was something else entirely. This was listeners, telling Global, that they were no longer going to be listening, because of this change, in their thousands, on every Heart facebook and twitter. I never expected to see this kind of backlash to a programming decision like this on Heart. Never seen any backlash be this uniformly negative, and I was shocked by this. This one time, I think Global actually took notice, especially because every one of those comments said something along the lines of 'I enjoy listening to x & y at breakfast, but I will not be listening anymore. My radio dial is going elsewhere other than Heart'. Because of that, I think Global this time realised they had goofed, and this move, whilst also making logistical sense, is much more a response to that backlash.