From BRMB to Free Radio - inspired or uninspiring?
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James Cridland posted on Monday 19th March 2012 at 18:40So, brmb and others change to Free Radio shortly.
They’ve already posted a jingle which appears to show that the tagline for the station is the “today’s best music mix”.
So now, from the city, I can enjoy “more music variety”, “Birmingham’s number one hit music station”, “great music for a great city”, “proper music radio”, and now “today’s best music mix” – all of which tells me nothing about the stations’ actual music policies, nor about anything I might enjoy on these stations that I can’t get from YouTube, Last.fm, Spotify, my iPhone or iPod, or any other number of rather more interactive outlets.
I find “today’s best music mix” profoundly uninspiring. We highlight music over everything else – yet the thing that makes radio different is the shared experience and the live-ness: and the presenters and locality that’s impossible to get through other media platforms. Radio is so much more than ten great songs in a row, yet we appear to want to market ourselves as a music source – as a commodity, as nothing special, just something that plays lots of music and contains nothing else I might be interested in.
(Of note – the only one that has “Birmingham” in its marketing description is, for 20 hours a day, broadcast from London.)
In radio, we want to market ourselves, it seems, as something that plays “music”, but not to actually promote what kind of music we play. How do I know that “more music variety” is different from “today’s best music mix” – and why is this important to sing at me in a jingle? What does this communicate about the Free Radio brand? Why should I switch over from Heart or Capital? It’s not even a differentiator or a unique selling point – you might as well sing “we play quite a lot of music just like the others but we’re not going to tell you what kind”. The only station in that market with a clear differentiator in their marketing is Kerrang, with their “everything that rocks” slogan. At last, I know what I might get before I turn on the radio.
Incidentally – a search for Free Radio brings up last.fm in number one place on Google (if signed-out). Which plays today’s best music mix for me, since I’ve taught it rather a lot about what I like. In a world increasingly driven by SEO, Free Radio has a considerable mountain to climb.
Finally, Birmingham radio veteran Robin Valk has posted an interesting blogpost apparently arguing for the good old days. Which, if nothing else had changed, would be a good thing to think about. But… it has.
(PS: If any up-and-coming jingle company would like to sing me a jingle that goes “We’ll play you lots of music but we’re not going to tell you what kind… Cridland FM” then I promise to play it at lots and lots of radio conferences and credit you.)
I get to hear Heart “Sussex” everyday (and I don’t enjoy it) as they insist on having it on at the Gym every morning.
It’s tagline is “more music choice” which is very odd, because Compare My Radio says it has the least music choice of any UK radio station, with the exception I suppose of BBC Radio 4 and 5, which are speech-only stations.
http://comparemyradio.com/stations/Heart_Sussex
I can’t help wondering if Ofcom or the ASA should investigate, or if it’s just irony.
But like the Birmingham examples, it’s a utterly crud way to say “this is radio from Brighton”. I suppose that’s because it isn’t.
Should I point to the no repeat guarantee that absolute radio have hence why people do listen to it because it doesn’t repeat songs again and again in such a short amount of time. Plus they do tend to play more of a certain genre than others. Same goes with Kerrang radio playing mostly rock music or similar genres.
Interesting that neither of the two most popular music radio stations in the UK position themselves as music services. Radio 2 is simply “the nation’s favourite” if it brands itself as anything at all (and is actually a personality led service); and Radio 1 has moved away from “in new music we trust” to include “in new DJs we trust”, thereby accentuating the personality element. Yet both are music radio stations at their core.
Radio 1 has moved away from “in new music we trust” to include “in new DJs we trust”, thereby accentuating the personality element.
I’m pretty sure that is a reference to the increasing popularity and airplay of DJs such as Skrillex and to all of the guest mixes that they broadcast, and not a reference to presenters or personality-driven radio.
Interesting that neither of the two most popular music radio stations in the UK position themselves as music services.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
I didn’t follow Chris Evans from Radio 1 to Virgin Radio because of the music. Nor do I listen to Geoff Lloyd from time to time on Absolute Radio because of the music. Radio’s far more than that.
Dave – yes, you’re right but it’s all about the impression the service gives. My impression of Radio 1 through all its marketing is of the personalities that lead the service, not the music.
James – precisely.
I think brmb should not change its name to free radio brmb has been a house hold name since late 70s when people tune in to brmb there used to hearing the brmb jingles so i dont no why there need to change it it is pointless someone thing else we will have to get use tp
Here’s a general comment. I followed James over here from his own blog. I follow James (and hundreds of other blogs) in Google Reader. So when I find a new interesting site I add it to Google Reader. You know, RSS, picks up new posts, lets me read what’s new when I want to. It’s incredibly efficient and in the interests of sites that want to be read.
But no. There’s no RSS feed on this site. So I can’t follow it. I don’t want to follow it on Twitter, that is more than pointless (because stuff on Twitter disappears into the past so quickly). I don’t want to share it on Facebook. I just want that tiny little bit of efficiency, an RSS feed. Is that too much to ask?
@Ivan Pope
Just paste the url into the Google Reader subscribe box.
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Hi James
Thanks for the link. To be clear: I am emphatically not arguing for a return to the ‘good old days’. Times have changed the radio landscape irrevocably; there is no going back, and I would not want to. But – call me a dinosaur if you wish – I still feel the basics of great communication, market awareness, surprising and pleasing your audience, and imaginative programming with a bit of flair still work, no matter what platform they are deployed on.
Robin Valk