Thankyou from all of us at theJazz.
Those were the final words from a pre-recorded station ident, followed by Bobby McFarrin's 1982 hit Don't Worry Be Happy.
On the stroke of midnight the song cut off and a we are treated to a blast of popular jazz music for 54 seconds... then..... silence.
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.
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theRadioRabbit. Reporting on and from radio events in the UK and beyond.. |
Monday, 31 March 2008
"theJazz is closing down at the end of March"
This isn't a time to be piccy, if there is such a word, because the producers have probably already moved on to another GCap project, but you'd think for something like a station close-down, which a few anoraks will be taking particular note of, that they would make an alternative version of the above sweeper to say: "theJazz is closing tonight at midnight".
No?
Anyways, just 10 minutes to go and already in the last hour we've had 6 adverts for myclassicfm.com. I wonder what will happen after midnight to this channel. The Birdsong +1 ?
No?
Anyways, just 10 minutes to go and already in the last hour we've had 6 adverts for myclassicfm.com. I wonder what will happen after midnight to this channel. The Birdsong +1 ?
Cross Promotion is alive and well.
47 minutes to go, and a promo-trail for the online jazz stream over at myclassicfm.com
Well why not, they've nothing to lose. Shame Global didn't say "we'll give you £375 million - as long as you leave theJazz where it is"
Ralph would be turning in his grave, if he was dead.
Well why not, they've nothing to lose. Shame Global didn't say "we'll give you £375 million - as long as you leave theJazz where it is"
Ralph would be turning in his grave, if he was dead.
All that Jazz
The Rabbit is listening... the last dying hour of GCap Media's (or even Global Radio's) theJazz.
One hour and counting.
This is a typical case of use it or lose it because having been listening for the last 10 minutes with a pint of ice cold water, the lights down low and fantastic jazz ouuzzzing out from my little free promotional black box called a DAB radio, this is actually a great relaxing way to spend the midnight hour.
Shame I've only ever used the station for background music at the occasional dinner party.
One hour and counting.
This is a typical case of use it or lose it because having been listening for the last 10 minutes with a pint of ice cold water, the lights down low and fantastic jazz ouuzzzing out from my little free promotional black box called a DAB radio, this is actually a great relaxing way to spend the midnight hour.
Shame I've only ever used the station for background music at the occasional dinner party.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
It's All Gone Pete Tong
BBC Radio 1 are negligent. We've got the proof, it's a Radio Today exclusive.
Pete Tong deliberately mentioned there was a house party. In a house. Somewhere. And at some time.
As you can imagine, over 2,000 people, probably all drug addicts or teenage mothers we imagine, turned up and wrecked the 21-bedroom manor house in Devon on Friday night. And according to one eye-witness statement we've just made up, Tong himself urinated in a wardrobe while naked.
It was the birthday party of 18 year old Sarah Ruscoe. According to the Telegraph, her mother is considering legal action against the BBC: "I think it's totally negligent of the BBC to allow a statement like that to be broadcast."
The power of radio, eh?
Sales executives would kill for a testimonial from Sarah Ruscoe's mother, if the outcome had been slightly more positive. And not entirely irrelevant. Imagine it: a live read on a radio station with average reach of just 21% in any one part of the country, somehow convinced 2,000 people to appear at the same time in the same location, without mentioning either.
A commercial with no details, an OTH of just one, and more people respond than the Osmond family has teeth.
Fortunately this time around, and unlike last week's preposterous non-story concerning Radio Teesdale (which inexplicably made it as far as the pages of USA Today), the press didn't simply regurgitate the story.
The Telegraph published a complete confession from Ruscoe. In fact she'd put up a poster at school inviting 'everyone' to attend which then, according to the Observer, was published on the internet with the instruction that attendees should cause as much damage as possible.
Which would explain the man found trying to remove the door from the fridge.
The moral of the story is this: no matter how tinpot you or your peers may consider a station to be, the simple fact that it reaches into a person's home or car means it has power. Radio 1 certainly wasn't responsible for the uninvited guests or the subsequent damage, but it's a far more credible scapegoat than a sheet of paper stuck on a corridor wall.
Pete Tong deliberately mentioned there was a house party. In a house. Somewhere. And at some time.
As you can imagine, over 2,000 people, probably all drug addicts or teenage mothers we imagine, turned up and wrecked the 21-bedroom manor house in Devon on Friday night. And according to one eye-witness statement we've just made up, Tong himself urinated in a wardrobe while naked.
It was the birthday party of 18 year old Sarah Ruscoe. According to the Telegraph, her mother is considering legal action against the BBC: "I think it's totally negligent of the BBC to allow a statement like that to be broadcast."
The power of radio, eh?
Sales executives would kill for a testimonial from Sarah Ruscoe's mother, if the outcome had been slightly more positive. And not entirely irrelevant. Imagine it: a live read on a radio station with average reach of just 21% in any one part of the country, somehow convinced 2,000 people to appear at the same time in the same location, without mentioning either.
A commercial with no details, an OTH of just one, and more people respond than the Osmond family has teeth.
Fortunately this time around, and unlike last week's preposterous non-story concerning Radio Teesdale (which inexplicably made it as far as the pages of USA Today), the press didn't simply regurgitate the story.
The Telegraph published a complete confession from Ruscoe. In fact she'd put up a poster at school inviting 'everyone' to attend which then, according to the Observer, was published on the internet with the instruction that attendees should cause as much damage as possible.
Which would explain the man found trying to remove the door from the fridge.
The moral of the story is this: no matter how tinpot you or your peers may consider a station to be, the simple fact that it reaches into a person's home or car means it has power. Radio 1 certainly wasn't responsible for the uninvited guests or the subsequent damage, but it's a far more credible scapegoat than a sheet of paper stuck on a corridor wall.
Monday, 10 March 2008
Something Out of Nothing...
I'm putting my life at risk just telling you this, but something profound and deeply disturbing occurred last week.
You may not believe me, and frankly who would? I can offer no proof, not a shred of evidence to support my theory but my belief is absolute.
Here it is. Brace yourself.
The entire population of the Earth has been transported to a doppelganger planet, in the exactly same orbit as Earth but on the exact opposite side of the sun. Everything about this new Earth is identical, except for small yet terrifying differences.
No, wait. Sorry, that was the plot of 1969 sci-fi flick Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. My mistake.
How else do you explain it then? Why has the media gone nuts about a presenter who forgot to put his studio live to air?
Andy Greener is a volunteer DJ at Radio Teesdale, a community radio station in Barnard Castle. He forgot to press the big button that puts his studio live to air, so the emergency back-up CD kicked in.
Goodness. Presumably this state of affairs continued for a week? Is that why it's such an unusual story? A day perhaps? No. Just for an hour early in the morning when next to nobody noticed. Right.
This ground-shaking exclusive has since appeared on ITV, the BBC News website, in the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph. And this is what I don't understand. How often do stations fall off air? It doesn't happen every day, but haven't we made an astoundingly large gaffe at one point or another? And how many of us work at stations where there is scandal the tabloids would really love to get their hands on?
Was last week a slow news week? Did a community station playing a CD for an hour really warrant so many column inches in the nationals? I wouldn't expect that if it happened on a regional station, let alone a community one.
Next week: your PC cops off with one of the 17 year-old crew girls in the station's toilets. I know, it's way too far-fetched.
You may not believe me, and frankly who would? I can offer no proof, not a shred of evidence to support my theory but my belief is absolute.
Here it is. Brace yourself.
The entire population of the Earth has been transported to a doppelganger planet, in the exactly same orbit as Earth but on the exact opposite side of the sun. Everything about this new Earth is identical, except for small yet terrifying differences.
No, wait. Sorry, that was the plot of 1969 sci-fi flick Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. My mistake.
How else do you explain it then? Why has the media gone nuts about a presenter who forgot to put his studio live to air?
Andy Greener is a volunteer DJ at Radio Teesdale, a community radio station in Barnard Castle. He forgot to press the big button that puts his studio live to air, so the emergency back-up CD kicked in.
Goodness. Presumably this state of affairs continued for a week? Is that why it's such an unusual story? A day perhaps? No. Just for an hour early in the morning when next to nobody noticed. Right.
This ground-shaking exclusive has since appeared on ITV, the BBC News website, in the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph. And this is what I don't understand. How often do stations fall off air? It doesn't happen every day, but haven't we made an astoundingly large gaffe at one point or another? And how many of us work at stations where there is scandal the tabloids would really love to get their hands on?
Was last week a slow news week? Did a community station playing a CD for an hour really warrant so many column inches in the nationals? I wouldn't expect that if it happened on a regional station, let alone a community one.
Next week: your PC cops off with one of the 17 year-old crew girls in the station's toilets. I know, it's way too far-fetched.
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Too Little, Too Vague.
Too Little, Too Vague. GCap Media's mid-week rejection of Global Radio's improved bid ended intense industry speculation. In a statement GCap said the Global Radio offer of 202p undervalues its business and included too much uncertainty. Interestingly, GCap reckons the offer failed to take into account the benefits of Fru Hazlitt's dynamite strategy of giving away more than a decade's worth of various DAB investments. The rejection could now signal the commencement of the axing of digital brands Planet Rock and theJazz, plus the closure or sale of the Xfm network. In what can only be described as wholesale DAB cleansing [leaving only Classic FM on the national platform], GCap is also bailing out as co-owners Digital One, leaving Arqiva to work out if it has a deal or a dog.
If GCap thinks flogging some of the less attractive family silver will make everything better, its shareholders might just be thinking something else. Whatever happens, it will take a lot more than a dollop of Silvo to buff a shine back on GCap's tarnished record of failure.
Before the merger, Capital Radio and GWR led the way in an historic multi-million investment into DAB. Is this wipe-out policy total madness or a brave new logic? Well, everyone said Ralph was 'brave' to cut advertising on Capital Radio to two commercials per break - and what an absolute stroke of genius that was.
To be fair, though, Fiesty Fru might be onto something. After all, despite now contributing about 5 million weekly hours* (that's half of Capital FM London's hours) GCap Media has consistently failed to effectively monetise its digital-only brands. Well, Fru knows all about sales so if she can't sell 5 million hours, then who can? Whatever the logic and whatever GCap gets for its digital brands, Fru certainly appears determined to jetison any excess baggage, if that's what it takes to stave off a hostile takeover. (*Source: RAJAR Q4, 2007 - so it could be wrong, of course).
Or - we could wake up tomorrow to a higher bid and a done deal. In this industry, anything is possible - just ask Bauer.
If GCap thinks flogging some of the less attractive family silver will make everything better, its shareholders might just be thinking something else. Whatever happens, it will take a lot more than a dollop of Silvo to buff a shine back on GCap's tarnished record of failure.
Before the merger, Capital Radio and GWR led the way in an historic multi-million investment into DAB. Is this wipe-out policy total madness or a brave new logic? Well, everyone said Ralph was 'brave' to cut advertising on Capital Radio to two commercials per break - and what an absolute stroke of genius that was.
To be fair, though, Fiesty Fru might be onto something. After all, despite now contributing about 5 million weekly hours* (that's half of Capital FM London's hours) GCap Media has consistently failed to effectively monetise its digital-only brands. Well, Fru knows all about sales so if she can't sell 5 million hours, then who can? Whatever the logic and whatever GCap gets for its digital brands, Fru certainly appears determined to jetison any excess baggage, if that's what it takes to stave off a hostile takeover. (*Source: RAJAR Q4, 2007 - so it could be wrong, of course).
Or - we could wake up tomorrow to a higher bid and a done deal. In this industry, anything is possible - just ask Bauer.
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