Rebel Against The Playlist

Several friends of mine work on community radio. Some online, some on restricted FM licences. One of the stations seems to think it is a clone of Heart, offering the usual promises about an excess of music. Quite why they bother with this, i don't know as it seems to define them as trying to satiate a market which is already saturated. Perhaps they would be better serving their community by offering a truly local voice, or offering a genuine alternative by broadcasting personality led programming. Or maybe they could let the DJs demonstrate their personality by playlisting their own music rather than relying on gormless focus groups which always results in the most bland, unchallenging and tedious music being chosen by committee.

I've never met anyone who is on a playlist focus group. I don't think they actually exist. If they do, i reckon they're cloned at Porton Down. They're specifically made to like music that has been covered by acts on The X-Factor. And Bruno Mars. And Katy Perry. And Adele. Fucking Adele. Every 17 minutes without fail.

Don't get me wrong, i don't dislike Adele, but the British airwaves have been saturated with the lass and her global appeal. Radio 1 play Adele. So do Radio 2. She's bang on target audience for Heart, Crapital, Real and The Breeze. Kiss play Adele dance remixes. The Heart-cloning community station obviously plays her. If you want to listen to non-classical music radio on FM in the West Country, there is no escape.

If anybody seriously wants to grow interest in British Radio, be it BBC or commercial, then make the presenter the core of your offering. Allow them to have a personality rather than being an interchangeable, personality free media studies graduate who has been trained to be exactly like every other DJ. There cannot solely be a market for the bland, tedious wallpaper that passes for radio these days and sooner or later somebody will have to stick their neck out. Some maverick station manager will employ a presenter who dares to illicit a reaction from people. The people who like the presenter will become religious about them. The people who don't like them will simply switch off. But those who are listening will be paying attention far more than your average wallpaper listener to Heart, which is something commercial radio should be able to sell to their advertisers because it will be visible.

Social media has made the public's reaction to broadcast media measurable. If there is a queue of people sending messages to the presenter or show, and heaps of people tweeting about it, this proves people are interacting more with the medium than those who just have it on as background noise. If your marketing team can't sell that audience dedication, then you're doing something wrong.