In some cases it is more a matter of practicality. Many stations across the country will be playing this week’s Totally 80s today, which will have been recorded before she passed away. Often on Radio Two they announce that Sounds of the 60s was recorded before the death of a singer who has passed away that week.

Hi, Paul…

But we’re in a world of the internet, where Totally 80s could have a new segment recorded right now, and be delivered to stations within a matter of half an hour. This is exactly what new technology lets you do. I agree with Richard: are we really so passionless about our industry to simply shrug our shoulders?

While James makes a fair point I think Richard’s original point wasn’t so much about pre-recorded syndicated shows, such as T80s, but automated/voice-tracked shows that are part of the regular Sunday schedule.

I know of several station programmers who have remote access to their playout system. When the Queen Mother died (10 years ago!) I was able to put a fully-automated DAB station into ‘obit mode’ – running a playlist that had previously been compiled for such an occasion – from the comfort of my own home in about 15-20 minutes, so there’s no reason why it can’t be done.

Incidentally, I understand LBC dropped its usual 0500-0700 pre-rec’d shows this morning and brought regular Sunday breakfast presenter James Max in early to do an extended programme.

Surprised that Absolute 80s changed their output this morning to include Whitney Houston tracks and the mid-morning show appears to be VT today as well with Chris Martin rather than Richie Firth.

Well done chaps.

A GOOD question James, and pertinent.

60 may be the ‘new 50’ but I’m part of the ’60s Generation’ and very aware there will be MANY BIG names go to ‘pop heaven’ in the next 10 years. Stations which play artists from the ’60s to ’80s may over-play the music in ‘tribute’ and start to sound morbid, create a big switch-off factor.

If one of my ‘iconic’ artists passed away I’d prefer to put on a CD and my headphones, than listen to their music on a station with a presenter who was probably not even born when the songs were issued.

The ‘fans’ comments suggest most realised Whitney Houston would end like this after her lifestyle, and many are personally affected even though they never ‘knew’ her. However, for listeners from my generation if you add up the ‘hits’ /memorable songs of Whitney, against those by Diana Ross as a solo or group artist, there is no comparison. Whitney came from a generation where fans turned them into ‘superstars’ after 1 or 2 hits; to me, Ross was the true ‘boss’.

If you go back to when Michael Jackson died a couple of years ago, I remember Capital playing 70s, 80s and 90s tracks of his (and the Jackson 5) and yet it appeared the audience appreciated the tracks.

Absolute Radio managed to playlist a couple of Jacko tracks while keeping on brand.

It appears Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs on Radio Two was pre-recorded this week. So there was no mention of her death on a show which has one of the biggest radio audiences of the week, and which also plays the big ballads she was famed for. The Daily Mail will have a field day tomorrow.

It appears Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs on Radio Two was pre-recorded this week.

It usually is, so I am reliably informed.

Difficult one for smaller commercial stations, some of which spend all of Sunday in automation. The Quidem stations, who fall into this category, have managed to react to the news so credit where it’s due there. The Lincs stations have a round up of the week in showbiz at 3pm – recorded, probably on Friday. Wonder if anyone’s made any effort to repackage it today.

I must admit I was surprised how slow stations were to react last night in the age of VNC, Dameware and LogMeIn. Heart and Gem 106 both appeared to carry on as normal, although Heart did run a bulletin at 2am.

I know when Michael Jackson died, it was on a Thursday night, allowing Blue Revolution to re-record a new show at the eleventh hour. That night, certainly Global’s stations were very quick to react.

Certainly if I was in charge of anywhere, I’d have pulled all automated/pre-rec’d output between 8 and 4. Whitney was a huge star and even on Capital (who have played her stuff today) people are going to expect to hear her music on the radio.

...on the other hand…

From ‘Radio Ink’ magazine:

Following the announcement that Whitney Houston’s dies Saturday, Emmis owned WRKS (98.7 Kiss-FM) in New York went into all-Whitney Houston mode, playing songs and fielding calls from grieving listeners looking for a place to share their feelings. Cocoa Chanelle and Bugsy were on the air last night, along with program director Jay Dixon. The trio remembered that KISS helped launch Houston’s career, as the station played her earliest singles in the mid-‘80s. “I’m in shock and disbelief,” said one caller. “I’m crying, singing and dancing.”

Reviewing various SN sites, the response falls into 3 types, ‘Youth’: little response, ‘Middle-aged’: grieving and naming THEIR favourite (limited to about 5 songs as she did not actually have that many memorable hits) ‘Mature’, little response.

REALITY: WH’s page on Wikipedia shows her in a NOT rose-tinted light: a very mixed career, littered with problems and drugs, and cancelled performances.

She was easily outsold by Diana Ross, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as being “The Most Successful Female Artist of All Time”

Going ‘all-WH’ is of course a predictable American OVER-reaction.

I wonder if Britain’s ‘youth orientated’ syndicated radio stations will make as much of a fuss about Ross (when she goes) as they are clearly doing about Houston?

With due respect to Diana Ross, I don’t think she has the crossover potential that Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson have with a broad range of stations.

I can see the likes of Heart, Smooth, Radio 2, Absolute’s decades stations and possibly what’s left of local commercial radio with a Hot AC/Greatest Hits format paying tribute.

While you don’t like Whitney Len, it appears the stations with the youth and middle age market have been measured with their playlisting today in the UK at least.

If you go back to when Michael Jackson died a couple of years ago, I remember Capital playing 70s, 80s and 90s tracks of his (and the Jackson 5) and yet it appeared the audience appreciated the tracks.

That’s probably because of the horror that, despite being played newly-released commercial music all of the time, their demographic actually likes a few songs from before 2009!

On the topic of Diana Ross versus Whitney Houston, I would point out that Whitney had one more United Kingdom #1 than Diana Ross (that’s including The Supremes), and while her career didn’t span as many decades, I’d certainly wager than most people under 40, and even 50, could name a larger number of tracks by Whitney.

Whitney of course also spent more time in the public eye in recent years over here, and had a lukewarm comeback in the past couple of years.

I’m not sure where the comparison came from in the first place, but there’s a couple of things to think about.

I’d certainly wager than most people under 40, and even 50, could name a larger number of tracks by Whitney.

Surely not.

That’s probably because of the horror that, despite being played newly-released commercial music all of the time, their demographic actually likes a few songs from before 2009!

I’d also wager that some of the youth demographic also like Diana Ross, yet not to the extent that Whitney has been in the press.

Surely not.

Fifty was probably a bit too high (I’d forgotten that would mean being a teenager in the 1970s), but I do believe that it’s possible for many people in their thirties now. Certainly, most people under 30, how many Diana Ross solo songs could they name that aren’t “Chain Reaction”?

I know it’s a side point to the original thread, but Len raised it, and it’s something to think about.

I’ve just blogged about this – it would be interesting to discover what you heard, and what you didn’t, on the radio today. Did we react quickly? Or did we “shrug our shoulders and kept to the irrelevant, pre-recorded or voicetracked shows we’d prepared”?

I found it very odd that Five Live was earlier trailing a “special” tonight at 10pm on Whitney Houston.

Surely this belongs on Radio 2?

I’ve no doubt that Five Live will cover (and has been covering) it well from a news angle, but our nation’s biggest music station should surely be taking the lead here. And Five Live should have been able to promote a Radio 2 hour long special or whatever.

In the fullness of time, I’m certain that Radio 2 will put together an excellent documentary on Houston’s life. But it just really struck me as strange hearing that throw forward earlier today.

Are there actually any live programmes on Radio 2 today at all aside from perhaps Aled Jones this morning and the news?

Considering that Radio 2 on Sunday evenings is for an under served elderly audience, 5 Live would be the best place to serve the target audience for a Whitney tribute for tonight at least.

Radio 2 I’m sure will have a well produced tribute and retrospective of her work at a later date.

I wouldn’t want to deny a specialist music audience their programming on Sunday evening. But I think it’s very odd that – from what I can see on the Radio 2 website – they’ve played precisely two Whitney Houston tracks since 6am. One in Aled Jones and one in Wogan (obviously the website may not be 100% accurate).

Whereas, according to their website (which similarly may not be 100% up to date), Radio 1 managed two tracks in breakfast and one track each in Sara Cox and Huw Stephens’ shows. I suspect, because Radio 1 had fewer pre-recorded shows.

Whichever way you look at it, Houston is much closer to Radio 2’s audience than Radio 1’s.

btw 1xtra played 5 tracks during Nick Bright’s breakfast show 7-10am according to the tracklist via
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bw4tv . Its billed as a Whitney tribute.

I can’t understand why any station would choose not to change their programming to reflect this – it’s the biggest talking point of the day and no matter what your target audience – it’s got people talking.

Anyone who uses the excuse ‘we were in automation’ is simply justifying not making the effort – if you work on a station with voice tracked output, you know you have to be able to respond appropriately and quickly – even out of ‘office hours’!

Isn’t this where commercial radio has the advantage over the BBC?

If you want a Whitney ballad, you’d listen to Magic 105.4 or Heart or Absolute 80s or a local station for her up-tempo music.

Radio 2 with it’s broad remit can’t satisfy everyone it serves all of the time and today has shown where it’s weak.

Was surprised (in a positive way) to hear Heart and Capital adjust their programming schedules today to reflect the events of last night.

I have an online community radio station that reacted in the aftermath f the news. We had specialist shows on through the night – but I still insisted in playing two of Whitney’s gospel tracks during the Gospel Hits show between 6 and 8AM. Every show thereafter has played two or four tracks (as double-plays) until 10PM.

Even though the studios are 20 miles from my home, if the station was in automation and VT mode, I would still remotely access the playout system from my house and make tweaks to include more Whitney songs …. it is that easy even for my supposed cheap, cheerful, mickey mouse unprofessional community station. So quite why the commercial stations couldn’t or wouldn’t do the same if they were in VT/auto mode is not excusable.

It’s a ‘side point’ I know but it is VERY relevant as to how radio handles these events, so in response to the Whitney/ Ross ‘camps’, and the point:

“On the topic of Diana Ross versus Whitney Houston, I would point out that Whitney had one more United Kingdom #1 than Diana Ross”

The simple facts here are that with the Supremes, Ross had 30 UK Top 50 singles, solo she had 21

Houston had 26 UK Top 50 singles

Ross = 51, Houston = 21

Importantly, if you check Houston on Wikipedia, her most ‘productive’ years were 1984 to 90, so she IS completely comparable with Ross, whose discography is much larger and stretches from 1960 to 2011.

It’s also fact that as record sales declined it was far easier to get into the UK charts in the 80s or 90s than in the 60s or 70s so Houston’s ‘big’ hits sold less copies than Ross’s. If you take out the film-led ‘I will always love you’ her sales dwindle a lot.

Houston issued NO new albums between 1990 and 1998, and only ONE since then. Also (surprisingly) she only had ONE Top 50 single in the USA since 2000, so all the Americans bewailing her loss have had little new material for 12 years.

This all suggests British radio listeners have had limited exposure to her music in the last 12 years, any ‘music buyer’ under 25 has only seen one new album.

If you add in the (incredibly) well-oiled publicity machine behind Houston, much of her ‘success’ has been despite her actions, and lasted well after there was anything but back-catalogwe to promote. I accept many radio listeners fall for the hype, but again make the point most would be hard put to name more than 5 of Houston’s songs.

With an ever-ageing group of ‘music stars’, many between 60 adn 70, it won’t be an easy world to be ‘Head of Music’ in this century!

Errata, that should read “with the Supremes, Ross had 30 UK Top 50 singles, solo she had 21

Houston had 26 UK Top 50 singles

Ross = 51, Houston = 26

I can name at least TEN off the top of my head.

Martin, your details say you are a ‘part-time radio presenter’, so I’d EXPECT you to know more..

My point was about “LISTENERS”:

‘I accept many radio listeners fall for the hype, but again make the point most would be hard put to name more than 5 of Houston’s songs.’

Just to drag us back on track (is it quiet in Portugal at the moment?)... thanks to Radiomonitor, I’ve some interesting evidence of who played what:

UTV’s overnight show (networked among most UTV northern English stations) was the first to play Whitney after the news was announced: at 1.16am these stations mostly started playing Whitney Houston songs back to back.

Smooth Radio played “One moment in time” at 1.25am, then played a Whitney track out of the news for the remainder of the night.

Ignoring the BBC World Service who was playing clips, Gem 106 was next, at 1.28am – though since this was the only play of the night for any Orion station, this looks like coincidence.

Next, Lincs FM at 1.32am, U105 at 1.33am, and Central FM at 1.38am.

BBC English local radio played Whitney at 1.40am (unless that was BBC World Service – not sure what happens overnight); and the first play for Whitney on Heart was at 1.51am. Notably, Heart, Capital and Choice FM played a lot of tracks for the remainder of the night: one of the benefits of live presenters, I guess. They clearly made a feature of these tracks.

Smash Hits Radio played Whitney at 1.54am (quite a departure from Smash Hits’ normal fayre, I’d have thought); Metro Radio also played Whitney then; followed by The Revolution at 1.55am (the second play of the night for this station, too). The Hits Radio and Heat Radio also played Whitney at 2.00am (again – probably a surprise to their listeners), along with most Bauer English and Scottish stations, and Real Radio. The almost non-stop Whitney on UTV stations continued.

After 3am, both Capital and Heart then appear to have started playing non-stop Whitney Houston for a while – significantly ramping up the number of tracks played.

BBC Radio 2 first played her at 3.09am; the first of three tracks played before 5am. The Quidem stations played her out of the news at 4.00am.

My data runs out just after 5.00.

Notably, no plays at all from the Absolute Radio network (despite a live presenter) – should be noted that Whitney Houston normally gets no plays on these services (even Absolute 80s from my recollection). Also, no plays on BBC 6music, on XFM, the Star stations (who actually played her at half midnight), or any Orion Media station (with the exception of Gem 106 early on).

My point, above, is that the main changes should have happened to programmes from 7am, rather than overnight – since this is where the bulk of the listeners are (and where you can make a real difference). However, interesting to see the changes that happened overnight though. I’m grateful for the data.

I heard the Gem 106 play of How Will I Know at about 1:20ish. I’m pretty sure that HAD to be a fluke play scheduled when the log was run.

James C, the BBC LR playout is probably BBC London who are a 24/7 service for now at least.

Absolute 80s playlist Whitney during their Saturday party show from 5pm-midnight or as part of their ‘Haven’t Heard it for Ages’ feature. The addition of poppier tracks have crept into the daytime playlist in the last year.

According to A80s recent tracks feature, they started playing Whitney after 10am, one track per hour until just after noon, then two tracks between 6-8pm.

So kind of you to ask James, but ‘no’ it is not ‘quiet in Portugal at the moment’.

I actually compiled all that in just a few minutes from (the excellent) Wikipedia, also using my experience (full time!) as Head of Music for Radio Trent/and later GEM between 1978 and 1994.

Perhaps a future topic on your enjoyable ‘discussion pages’ could be about WHO were the longest serving Heads of Music in UK radio since commercial radio started?

Goodnight!

Len, you are more than welcome to press that “post new topic” button. (No, seriously, I am getting bored of doing it myself.)

Odd Diana Ross obsession in this thread. Weird.

James: thank you, can I be a ‘sitting tenant’?
Maybe, a topic about the days of Music Programming based on ‘gut feeling’ as opposed to ‘research rules’, of dj’s having free-choice oldies, when music rotation was larger, when the ‘looks’ of an artist were less important than the sound of their music?
Mark: using statistics on relative ‘success’ to illustrate the true, relative importance of an artist is not an obsession. WHO would you have used to compare WH output to?
The point STANDS that playing a lot of WH in the next few days will lead to a ‘switch-off’ factor for many listeners.

Here’s an interesting piece about how some US stations also failed – and it wasn’t the middle of the night there:

The Night Radio Became Irrelevant

Now as many of you know, I pretty much run radio six international on my own (in between a proper day job) and although some of our output is simulcast by other stations, chunks of daytime are purely on the net. So what did we do, given that Whitney Houston isn’t an artist whose music we often feature? I put together an hour-long ‘built’ programme mixing her hits and some of her album tracks, topped and tailed it with facts about her career (but not her sad personal life) and put it on air in place of the advertised show at 2pm with a repeat at midnight. We even managed to make a promo and run it a couple of hours before the show. I had a nice email from a listener who said they preferred to just enjoy her music rather than hear yet more experts dissect her dysfunctional life. Hopefully we got it right – for our audience.

Tony Currie: that sounds like a good, mature way to handle this problem for Music Radio divided into eras or styles: and good to be endorsed by the email too.

“a listener .. said they preferred to just enjoy her music rather than hear yet more experts dissect her dysfunctional life. “

Len… are you seriously saying we should do away with actually researching what the audience want to hear?

Really?

Really am I hearing this?

I’m delighted to say that I am on holiday abroad and Whitney’s death was announced here at teatime. That meant I could get into Radio Scilly automation and get songs and mentions on air each hour from 7am-12noon Sunday. (Thank God for that virtual voicetracking) I’d suggest that all small market stations, heavily reliant on automation, pay someone in NZ or the USA to work on retainer to interrupt automation if bad things happen overnight UK time. Or only holiday in places with at least a 10 hour time difference.
Because these celebs never go during the 0600-1000 M-F shift do they?

Against my better judgement (I sense a Digital Spy style ‘baiting element’ in some of the posts) I’ll continue to contribute. Although I’m ‘retired’, I do a pre-recorded show on a non-commercial station, so ultimately I am ‘self-programming’ as I have 100% music choice, and it no longer matters how many people listen..

I’m also continuing to contribute as we do now have someone who very much knows what he is talking about from EXPERIENCE, Keri Jones, and he’s answered the topic perfectly, and brifly, and not rambled as I do !

So I’ll answer both this topic and the other which James Martin is posting on..
James, your question “Len… are you seriously saying we should do away with actually researching what the audience want to hear? Really? Really am I hearing this?”

YES JAMES YOU ARE ~ like the capitals? :-)

[Snip: the rest of this post forms a new posting from Len on should we use music research – Ed]