30/12/2023

102.7 KIIS FM

Frankie V / Ryan Seacrest

KIIS Reminded me if your classical pop station here in the UK your capitals and BBC 1's of the world it was pop music with celeb interviews gossip news the whole lot. I tuned in at 12pm UK time and then learned it was only about 4am in America I decided to tune in later on in the day.

However, while listening at 4am LA time I made a few notes, notes on sweepers for instance sounding eerily similar to Capital or some of them being stretched and you could audibly hear it. Although I did enjoy the fact there was not a sweeper between every song and that they were used quite sparingly. The links included the socials of the station sometimes and other times it includes the FM frequency which while not rare in the UK is certainly uncommon.

Alright but I tuned back in at 5pm UK time about 9am LA time to listen to Ryan Seacrest? Which I was most definitely not expecting. No he wasn't a interviewee but instead a presenter if the station. One critique in his presenting is say is while his voice protrudes energy it seems monotonous he doesn't change it much. It gives the vibe of a news reading but all the time. He moved into a pre recorded interview with an artist about upcoming singles and albums and the such, which is expect of an LA based station.

All and all I enjoyed this station it was the closest thing I could find to stations I tend to listen to this side of the Mississippi and I will be listening again when needed or when I have the chance although I'll stick to my current favourites at the moment.

22/09/2023

BassDrive

The Skeptics

I listened to some American radio last night I listened to it on demand as the last time this particular show was recorded and uploaded was in September. First if all that's an immediate thing that got me thinking as we are OFCOM required to have a backlog of all our shows for about a time of 3 months.

The show I listened to was a complete DJ show there was non stop music even when the presenters were speaking they started off with a low beat and talked about guest mixes and the such employing a hook and tease with big names. If I had to compare this show to something I'd say it reminded me of dance revolution of spark Sunderland being another DJ based show.

I enjoyed the music it was definitely a dance beat and I say 'a' literally as it felt like one complete song. They had used they're DJ skills, which I find impressive with my limited DJ knowledge, to make sure there was no cut in the music even when switching to the guest mixes which they had done about the 32 minute mark.

Not many links to comment on, which some would enjoy the constant music, I personally like when there's a few links gives me something to critique. All and all it was a good hour just listening to music had it on while I cooked in the kitchen.

28/12/2023

RN Breakfast

Sally Sara

Back to sunny Australia I listened to another talkshow but this time it was breakfast the breakfast shows always need to be quite talky cause not many people want to be listening to dancy music first thing from waking up.

This breakfast show was news based catching people up on what's happening around not only Australia but also the world it dealt with topics such as workplace culture issues within the Australian artic research station aswell as heavy hitting issues as the Israel, Gaza, Hama's conflict here in the UK typically we outsource out news to a station and they read it for us, and that is how we distance ourselves from heavy topics especially stations such as capital and such.

The reason I mention this is as OFCOM has a considerable amount of rules we follow and Australia doesn't so if we were to cover this topic it requires alot of research to make sure to cover these topics without breaking these rules. It's what give Australian radio it's charm to me. Being able to talk about any sort of topics is fun to hear, although I say any sort of course Australian radio has many rules I am not aware as but they certainly have more freedom than that of the UK.

The playlist again isn't much to say and as my previous post this presenter is a great interviewer being aware of time constraints aswell as viewer attention, making sure not to have the interviews last to long but not jumping in and cutting the interviewee off. My only criticism is that its so much so fast and it doesn't stop for a breather.

29/12/2023

3AW Afternoons

Emily Power

Doing a little different today I decided to go to Australia to listen to some radio, I didn't actually go there but instead listened on demand today's station is 3AW and despite half the words said being unrecognisable I still wholly understood the show.

It started off with an ident, a kind of music bed with effects that are recognisable enough that you associate it with the station it plays. This ident said the station the show and presenter. we do not always acknowledge the change over of presenters within UK radio but I like this touch. After this ident the presenter came on for her first link in which she does the typical a reset a shout out of the station which included phone number, emails etc. and talked about what will be mentioned on today's show.

This was a talk show I didn't realize at first so when there was a 10 minute link to start us off I was thrown off however, I was brought back with some Katy Perry as far as playlist goes I can't make any definitive comments due to lack of songs which makes sense for a talk show. There were many interviews over the show with the first link having 3-4 phone call interviews about fireworks for the upcoming new year's occasion.

The presenter was a good interviewer keeping track that time was important no interview went on too long and she asked all the right questions aswell.

All and all 3AW was a good listen taking away from your usual OFCOM controlled station.

21/12/2023

Capital

Aimee Vivian

Today's was capital with Aimee Vivian opening the show she presented a very short and snappy link to say hi and personally I think it rolled very well some people would prefer a little longer a little slower just to flesh it out but the start of the show shouldn't be too much depth if you ask me. They started the show with Jack Harlow and Dave's new hit advice with lyrical lemonade and I don't like having this song on radio I really like the song but the chorus has so many words cut out it take away the enjoyment of listening. Other than that again capital catering towards the younger generations had more pop songs with a few Christmas songs like every station in this period of time.

Aimee's next link was a hook and tease in which she mentioned a thousand pound giveaway to then tell Listers to stay tuned for more information. It wasn't till a surprising amount of songs later that she came back but when you are doing a four hour show I can understand that. When she did come back she gave more information on the giveaway and started talking about what people could spend that money on a recurring theme being a trip to the Maldives for new year's.

She wrapped up the first hour by talking about gift wrapping and I don't know if it was intentional but it's a nice way to do it. Mentioning how she need YouTube to learn to wrap proper and don't we all. This hour didn't have a lot of links and all and all I think it still works yes a producer I believe there should be more talking but as a listener it was a nice difference.

26/12/2023

TFM

Boxing Day With Mike & Brooke

Today was boxing day with Mike and Brooke and as it suggests it was on boxing day. TFM is a station I listen to a good amount living in range of it it's one of a hand few i enjoy while out and about. I didn't listen to this show live however as I am visiting family back in Scotland. The shows playlist was again Pop heavy catering to younger folks as well as playing a few Christmas songs here and there.

The show started off quite normal the presents sharing some relatable personal content about Christmas dinner and the such. As a radio producer I realize how hard it is to find personal content to include in shows and often times it's the most relatable so you always want some. However, during Christmas this idea flips on it's head you've got this big holiday every one does the same stuff and now you got all this content to talk about. I'd like to propose an ideal when is it too much? When is it this content doesn't work from being over used? I talked a little in my last blog post about shows doing too much of the same stuff and this is a prime example I'm sure every show would have asked about Christmas dinner.

Now I enjoyed the presenters Brooke and Mike seem very nice and I love the show I just like to criticise Christmas. As someone who has worked in retailers and listened to Christmas songs on repeat all the time I'd equate it to that.

Later in the show they talked about how they're Christmas was and turns out Mike has prepared the turkey in his household i tried to in mine and was instantly shooed away, while Brookes didn't go as well here's was as she describes hell.

As they came to wrap up the show an imager played and inside that imager was they're giveaway announcement I very much like this idea as it used no gap time between links.

22/12/2023

Fourth One

Boogie In The Morning

I had a listen to some Boogie in the morning on Fourth One today and I had to say the show wasn't as good as I remember. Yes it had the energy and the synergy between presenters but I don't know if it was just all the christmas songs but it didn't feel right. The play list was Pop heavy with a sprinkle of christmas songs, starting of with some Taylor swift and ed Sheeran but then going into Michael Bublé and the such after. A big up for it though is as a Scottish person living in England it's been a while since I've heard any Scottish radio and that's a plus for me. it was the last show before Christmas so presenters seemed excited which is also a good thing as that should make the listeners feel the same, for me though it was quite monotonous I felt like that's all I'm hearing these days would have loved something just a little different.

One thing that peeked my interest was a sponsor? they had I don't entirely know if it's a sponsor but they are giving away Disney plus subscriptions and as they explained it they started to describe the weather, without any warning. "Looking cloudy with bouts of rain, coming up now the weather and news" at first I though oh so we will get more details on the weather but as I listened it was just the news.

They then wrapped up the hour with some news about showbiz a story on David Beckham and one in Hulk Hogan all and all if I was an average listener I'd have enjoyed it but listening to so much radio now in days it has gotten boring and I'd love to see people try new things to engage audiences.