Author: jamesstodd

Bob gets the job. But “can he fix it?”.

| jamesstodd

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So with a minor amount of fanfare and somewhat little surprise, the BBC Radio 2 controller job is going to Bob Shennan – former head of 5Live and most recently Channel 4 Radio’s Director of Radio (until they bailed out of radio).

Is this a good thing – and is it really a surprise?

Well – he knows the BBC politics inside out (having run 5Live for 8 years and launched 5Live Sports extra). And maybe Radio 2 needs a steadying influence over the next few years – to help recover from the blows it’s been receiving. Does it matter that he’s not got much music radio experience? He’s got the incredible music mind of Jeff Smith to steer the music – so no worries there. And he’s injected a large dose of personality (and ego) into 5Live – so maybe he’s the man to bring the new blood in.

But what are his main challenges?

1)Decide what to do when Wogan goes? Evans? Baker and Ball?
2)Protect Wossy. The pressure is being piled on him by the tabloids. Let the guy do his job and give him the editorial confidence to do it
3)Tweak the focus – let me know exactly what I’ll get when I listen.
4)Ignore all the armchair pundits – what do we really know?

The trouble with Radio 2 is that it has a really loyal core audience (much like Radio 4 – where it’s impossible to make any wholesale changes to the schedule without angering the career complainers). It’s a station with a split personality. At one end of the room, there’s the cool furniture where Chris Evans and Jonathan Ross sit- being entertaining and edgy. Then there’s comfy leather sofas where you’ll find Wogan and Ken Bruce chuckling away and delivering a warm cosy feeling. Steve Wright sits midway – doing the same sort of radio he’s always done. Jeremy Vine sits in a big chair by the window reading the Broadsheets (whilst secretly wanting to rock out all day). And out back, there’s the old time shows, musicals, big band – and buried away, the excellent documentaries

I want to like it – and I listen loads now. But I want to love it.

Will we get a killer lineup of Chris Evans, Jonathan Ross, Simon Mayo, Danny Baker (with Zoe Ball), Nicky Campbell, Stuart McConie, and Mark Radcliffe. Oh – and throw in a side order of Wogan at the weekends. And yes, Whispering Bob for late night Saturday night drives. And could we dare hope for Richard Bacon too?

It’s a dream job Bob. Enjoy…

I Want it All. I Want It Now. UPDATE

| jamesstodd

Ok.

So I wanted it all – when I wanted it. So maybe it’s a pipe dream.

However – I can do some of it – sort of – and certainly on my iPhone on an app I randomly came across called Stitcher

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It’s basically allows you to stream podcasts  – at the touch of the button – categorised by genre, subject and even brand. So you’ll find loads of BBC content  plus stuff from ABC, CBS, CNN, and pretty much everything else. And it does it over wifi and also when you’re out of a wifi hotspots (though not sure how your battery or data consumption will like it). Basically it pulls together loads of podcasts – but you can listen without downloading. 

Searching just now, I’m randomly listening  to KNX 1070 Notable News from Los Angeles – so for the sheer geek  factor of almost live radio from anywhere in the world – this is great. In fact – a lot of the U.S stations seem to update podcast content snippets of various parts of their output from the latest news bulletin to the latest weather. And since the application let’s you choose favourites into a playlist – I could build a playlist right now of the latest news for KNX 1070 Notable NewsL.A., plus weather for New York (because maybe I’m off to the airport to fly there)from the Weather Channel, followed by The Hollywood Minute – and finally BBC Radio 1’s Entertainment News from the UK.

So my “personalised” radio journey still continues. Maybe the BBC can start adding hourly news updates, Traffic Radio can add the latest  travel bulletin by county  and maybe Global Radio can get me a daily dose of the best bitching from Steve Allen (as let’s face it – he is the master of that genre).

If someone could give me the content snippets to pick and choose from – then I’ll be closer to getting exactly what I want.

Or am I maybe being too demanding?

It’s not TV. But I like it.

| jamesstodd

moylesgrab2

This morning’s Chris Moyles Show was streamed online to allow you to see the whole show – in all it’s behind the scenes glory. And I really like it. 

On the Radio 1 site, it’s viewed via the Visual Radio Player. This allows you to see live video of the show – cut live by Radio 1’s online team plus a load of enhancements such as moderated text messages, a realtime show blog and also song details/artist biog etc which display instead of live video when the songs play. I didn’t try accessing it on my iphone and guess it may not have worked – but a mobile option would be great – particularly on the train (bandwidth issues notwithstanding).It’s an enhanced listening experience – but is it TV – or radio with pictures?

Radio1 have done this before online – and it works as an added extra – not so good if you’re on the move, but a fantastic extra, particularly for the many people listening at work – have it open on the desktop and click on it if you really want to see what’s going on. It would work especially well if  the show was live at an event – say backstage at The Brits or all weekend at Glastonbury – as an enhanced experience. 

It worked today because they did the show as normal – not really playing up to the fact to the cameras being there – and that’s the main point. This is still visualisation for radio rather than creating a TV viewing experience. But that’s not to say that radio shouldn’t be an enhanced experience. The idea of being able to listen to a station on the move, click on the application to bring up travel information or buy the song playing is available on most radio station websites. But added extras and new ways of presenting the information are all things that differentiate one station from another.Compared this to the trial last year when the Scottt Mills show ran on BBC 3 as a TV show; it worked really well – but many of the features felt like they had too many contrived visual elements.

So this is the BBC – big resources, big ideas and fairly big budgets. But what about those who need revenues to do the same? 

This application from 95.8Capitalfm does a similar thing (in smaller measures)…

ipod2-1228758140-article-1Whilst it works best in a wifi area-  (data usage is quite high) – it allows you listen to the station, get “now playing information” and, really useful for a local station, live tube data and traffic camera pictures. It also allows you to switch between a number of Globalradio’s services – keeping it in the family.

Of course, if you can see the presenters doing their job on screen – how long before  video  well and truly kills the radio star? Will  “a good face for radio” still be acceptable? 🙂

I want it all. I want it now.

| jamesstodd

 

aol-radio-iphoneImage http://www.geardiary.com

“I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now”. And so sang Freddie Mercury back in 1989.

Back then, the thought of an “on demand” world was little more than a pipe dream on “Tomorrow’s World”. But I have seen the future , and it sits in my living room now. I fire up the Virgin Media box and that’s pretty much what I get – down a fibre optic line. Want the Christmas “Doctor Who”? Simply select the BBC iPlayer and it’s there on screen in seconds. Fancy an old episode of “Spaced”? Click on 4OD and it’s there just as quick. And maybe anything from a massive catalogue of stuff from Warner Brothers TV in the US – just as easily.

So has this really changed my viewing world, when just a few short months ago, I was singing the praises of the Freeview recorder box that we watched everything on – never in real time? Not really – but now I can get the iplayer or 4OD (and soon ITV content) whenever I want it.

So what about radio? Will I ever consume it in a similar way? Sure – there’s the iPlayer to catch up on whole shows. Or the many shows (both BBC and commercial) that I can download as podcasts. But maybe I don’t want it quite that way. Maybe I want to become the scheduler just like I can be on my TV. Maybe I want my “radio” to be exactly how I want it.

In my future world  I’ll want to be able to do this…log on to “My BBC” and create my whole experience to take away on my iPod – something that updates according to my choices every day. I’ll choose what content I want and choose the music as well from my iTunes library. My music that I own and the BBC content that I’ve paid for. But why just BBC content – why not let me have the best commercial radio can offer as well (served up in a data packet with an advert bolted on)? 

So maybe my morning commmute will have me listening to this 30 minute example on my Ipod – which I will have synced before picking it up to leave the house at 7.30.:

Random ipod track

BBC News from 5 Live

Most recent BBC Travel from BBC London

Random ipod track

Chris Moyles show guest from yesterday

Radio1  session track from the Live lounge 

A guest from Geoff Lloyd’s show on Absolute radio (with an ad bolted on)

Business news from the Today programme

A most played track from my iPod

etc.

Sure – there’s a million and one things to prevent this happening – but when websites can pull together content and generate meta data tags to personalise the visiting experience, I’m sure there are ways and means of exporting this data into an application that works with my portable music device – or even to my DAB radio. Don’t ask me how – I don’t work in R&D – but I bet someone here could make it work.

But how would you promote your content when people weren’t consuming the media in a traditional way? Well there’s a topic for a long night in the pub…

The mighty Power Tower is no more

| jamesstodd

It was a Sunday morning – 4th December 1988. I was waiting for the gates to be unlocked to get into the school hall at Portsmouth Grammar school for a technical rehersal for a school play. And we were sat around a radio listening to this…103.2 Power FM

 

Instead of non stop Phil Collins and Heart and Tina Turner, the South Coast had a cool new radio kid – playing Ton Loc, Whitney, Pet Shop Boys, They Might Be Giants, pop hits through and through, but delivered with an energy that hadn’t been there before..(Ocean Sound/radio Victory anyone?). Plus DJs who were young, and a bit more edgy and fun – Pete Wardman, Bernie Simmonds and Chris Kelly . Let’s face it – the only real competition was Radio 1 – with Simon Bates, Gary Davies and Steve Wright. And as Power FM grew more confident, it sounded cooler too. It was 90s radio, and for a while, it rocked.

 

Fast forward to 2008 – almost 20 years later – and Power FM is now no more – replaced at the weekend by GALAXY  

As time moved on, Power FM has found it harder to sound different in a market that has become more crowded. As resurgent Radio 1, local  competition from Ocean, Wave105, The Coast plus countless more local stations. Where Power once was cool and new, the world of radio has moved on and it’s now all about brands.

Galaxy launched in 1990 in Bristol, and whilst it’s music policy has evolved between stations, it’s always been one cool customer – riding the waves of Dance and R n B.

And let’s face it – the South coast has been crying out for something like this for a long time. I’ve got mixed views on whether the “destruction” of truly local stations is a good thing or not. The bottom line is, if it were my money, would I do the same and try to generate a maximum amount of revenue for my investment – whilst keeping local advertisers happy? I guess the answer is Yes. Do listeners necessarily care where the programme is coming from as long as it’s entertaining and delivers what they want? Probably no? Sure, it’s another local station gone in name – but was Power really ever a truly local station- more a  music station in a local market. It always wanted to be bigger than that – so will a change of name and a tweak of format help? Given that the Galaxy brand is well established, and pseudo national – then probably yes.

So,the world moves on, Power FM has grown up and the mighty Power tower has been demolished.

Rubbish Christmas Lights?

| jamesstodd

I was listening to Jo Russell on Absolute radio at the weekend when I was driving home from Ikea (spotlights, toilet roll holder and a new bedside light if you must know). She was bemoaning the fact that people put Christmas lights up too early. I absolutely agree. Rule of thumb in our house is normally the Weekend before Christmas. Just try living in a house with a 5 year old now at school and you realise that Christmas is their all consuming interest from about September!

Now I love Christmas. And nothing makes me feel more christmassy than shopping when the Christmas lights are on. But I’m really not sure about this year’s offering on Regent Street in London.

These are on the theme of “wish upon a star”. They are Eco friendly and powered by energy efficient bulbs. And the overall effect is as if the stars have descended upon the shops. Just not sure if they provide the spectacle that the lights used to. I remember when they were animated and a real thrill (though perhaps I’m putting myself in the mind of a 5 year old too much again).

Just off Regent Street, the shops on Carnaby Street look out onto something more festive… Loads of giant snowmen. Though to me, they remind me of the giant marshmallow man in Ghostbusters.

Maybe I am just getting old! 


The Best TV Theme Show Mashup ever?

| jamesstodd

I’ve been listening to BBC 6 Music a lot recently to purge my system of years of Commercial radio overload. Not that I’ve given up on commercial radio – particularly stations like Absolute Radio and XFM. But after years of working in it, it’s good to feel free to try out new things – and not get a guilty feeling that I should be checking out “my station”.

I heard this the other week whilst doing the ironing (just to put it into context – not that it’s particularly relevant…). Just a great example of a funny, well written and really nicely produced parody.

Maybe we’ll see it on updated titles on BBC 1 sometime soon?

Listen here…

They’ve done it again

| jamesstodd

So Radio 2 have created another brilliantly conceived, yet simple TV ad to showcase what the station is all about.

 

There have been many attempts to create compelling TV ads for radio stations and radio shows. Some worked and some didn’t. Coming myself from a commercial background, the only one recently for my old station Capital 95.8 that I feel worked  was the one we created to launch Johnny Vaughan’s breakfast show. It showed him dancing all over London to a version of “Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner”. This was fairly big budget and designed to create an affinity between Johnny, Capital and London.

This new Radio 2 ad is a mash up of songs they play on  the station; Blondie’s ‘Atomic’, David Bowie’s ‘Sound and Vision’ , James Brown’s ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’, plus  Run DMC’s ‘Walk This Way’ and KT Tuntstall ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’.

To me, you get hooked in by the clever cutting of the music, plus visually how the video clips are cut and recut, as if to mimic sampling of the songs. 

The ad features many of the stations star names including Jonathan Ross, Russel Brand and Chris Evans (though no Wogan). 

The clever part will be to see how they extend this message this time. I’d expect the clip (now available on You Tube) to be a viral success. They are running a version on air which includes the musical soundtrack, cut together with audio clips from all the shows – taking the idea in a different direction, but making it work on the radio station. Not quite sure how it would translate into print…talking bus shelters anyone?

Not missing commuting

| jamesstodd

What is it with your average commuter? You know, the one who treats a double seat as their own private property?

Maybe it’s a territorial thing. Maybe it goes as far back as when we were cave dwellers and protected our caves with fires. And that was to stop the wild animals getting in.

I’ve seen people use many methods to protect the seat next to them. Some simply cover them with loads of bags.Some drop food all over them. And some simply develop huge backsides to try cover both seats.

And could someone tell me exactly what the etiquette is when you eventually find a seat only to find that the person next to you hasn’t yet discovered deodorant? Is there a polite way to leave your seat? Is there an optimum time? Or should I just carry a peg to put on my nose?