[martinlesterMember]

Only 2 days before the launch

Who ever Smooth Employs in its promotions department needs a good kick in the arse as the awairness about this in london is non existant

Any one know if they are going to have a new Jingle Package ?

or just reply on the same old Mitch Johnson Linners ?
😡

(is it just me or is he the most over-used Voice for Station Linners in the UK ?)

[RobinBlamires]

I wouldn’t hold your breath.
It is likely that they will have a resing of the 100.4 Bespoke jingles and that they will launch in true Myers style with “A Star Is Born”.

Thank heavens for the Jazz FM.com internet stream which shows that GMG can get something right.

[JingleMadMember]

Aren’t IQBeats working on a new ‘smooth jazz’ package?

Anyone know what station it’s for?

[JingleMadMember]

martinlester wrote: (is it just me or is he the most over-used Voice for Station Linners in the UK ?)

I think over the last few years, Mitch has been used on:-

100.7 Heart FM

Heart 106.2

Heart Digital

Jazz FM – London & North West

Smooth FM – North West

Real Radio – Wales, Scotland & Yorkshire

107.3 The Eagle

Any others ???

[Tommie]

Didn’t Wise Buddah did a Smooth package too?

[DevawebMember]

No, but they did demo a few cuts when we invited a few companies to pitch for the package – I was looking after the rebranding at the time.

As for Mitch, he’s been on many more stations than RJO lists, including your local BBC station Ben!

Add the entire Wireless Group network of local stations, Dee 106.3, Wave 105, some Scottish stations, Ocean FM, some of the Capital group, the list goes on and on and on! This is all over a good 10 year span.

And he still sounds superb.

[JingleMadMember]

Devaweb wrote:

As for Mitch, he’s been on many more stations than RJO lists, including your local BBC station Ben!

I don’t listen to BBC Radio Kent

Mitch was also used on IOW Radio a few years back.

Does Mitch have a website?

[danjamesuk]

Only 2 days before the launch

Who ever Smooth Employs in its promotions department needs a good kick in the arse as the awairness about this in london is non existant

From an anorak’s perspective, a new station launch is indeed very exciting. However, radio stations are run not for anoraks, but for the entire radio listening market. It would make no sense to aggressively promote a station which MAY need its sound to be tweaked after launch, in order to make it a more attractive proposition to the listener, and of course the advertisers.

In my opinion, any new or relaunched station should exercise care in its promotion. Surely it would be better to launch quietly, get things right on air, and then blitz the market with your ad campaign. Most radio listeners are loyal to one or two stations max. If you want them to be loyal to you, you have to give them what they want from day one.

Capital FM shot themselves in the feet last year by rolling out an all-singing, all-dancing, incredibly expensive TV campaign promoting their new Johnny Vaughan Breakfast Show. So, people tuned in and didn’t necessarily like what they heard. There were on-air casualties, with sidekick Becky Jago being the first big departure from the show. This presented listeners with the challenge of ‘getting to like’ yet another new format, and Capital taking the risk of losing them if they didn’t. The initial figures bombed, and it’s taken a long time for them to show signs of improvement. Perhaps if Capital had been a little more cautious by promoting JV once all the creases were ironed out, audience growth may not have been quite so sluggish.

A lesson to be learned! Yes, to anoraks and those working in radio, a new station, a re-branding, a new flagship show… they’re all very exciting, but your average consumer can either take what we give them, or leave it. For a commercial station to succeed, by recruiting a healthy batch of advertisers, you need your listeners to take it… as often as possible. The best way of doing this is by being confident that your new product is firing on all cylinders before flogging it.

[martinlesterMemberAuthor]

Capital FM shot themselves in the feet last year by rolling out an all-singing, all-dancing, incredibly expensive TV campaign promoting their new Johnny Vaughan Breakfast Show. So, people tuned in and didn’t necessarily like what they heard. There were on-air casualties, with sidekick Becky Jago being the first big departure from the show. This presented listeners with the challenge of ‘getting to like’ yet another new format, and Capital taking the risk of losing them if they didn’t. The initial figures bombed, and it’s taken a long time for them to show signs of improvement. Perhaps if Capital had been a little more cautious by promoting JV once all the creases were ironed out, audience growth may not have been quite so sluggish.

Capital Shot themselves in the foot by employing Johnny Vaughan in the first place They already had Dr Fox stand in for Chris Tarot with very good Audience Figures

The Fact is they went for a name but Johnny Vaughan has never had a very good track record, with The exception of Big Breakfast nearly all the shows he has been involved over the last few years have been Flops

Capitals have lost market share in London to Heart106.2 this is partly due to Johnny Vaughan and what do they do about it?

🙄

Well they have started to re-show the “all-dancing, incredibly expensive TV campaign promoting the Johnny Vaughan Breakfast Show”

Just about sums up how out of touch some people in radio are.
😆

[danjamesuk]

I think any station that changes a breakfast show presenter after such a long time is taking an immense gamble. That’s why research is so very important before taking that big step.

Dr Fox was indeed standing in for Chris Tarrant, but was (at the time) at the height of his popularity, with his work on Pop Idol. Also, Tarrant was still a fixture at Capital, so his loyal audience wasn’t going to desert the station anyway, knowing he was going to come back.

I have to admit, I too questioned the choice of Johnny Vaughan on breakfast. He was indeed a very good presenter on The Big Breakfast. However, the BB’s audience figures were already in rapid decline and didn’t really let up once he joined, so many people must’ve disagreed with this. Look at his track record… an axed Channel 4 breakfast show (he left the sinking ship before he was pushed), a still-born sitcom for the BBC, and a chat show relegated to the late night slot on BBC Three, which was supposed to move to BBC One or BBC Two, but was axed before that happened. Of course, his first foray into TV presentation (Moviewatch) was also canned. Also, given the fact that Capital were actively pursuing Heart 106.2’s audience, by going for a more female-biased demographic, made the appointment of the incredibly laddish JV even more questionable. Then, of course, the removal of the female-friendly element of the show (Becky Jago) and what do you end up with? An endless stream of fart and boob jokes. Incredible really, if you think about it.

However, with regards to combatting Heart’s success in the ratings battle with a re-run of the TV ads, there’s very little they could have done. Having pensioned Tarrant off and replaced him with their new ‘big name signing’, the only other option would’ve been to axe Vaughan and mess the listeners around yet again with another new host. To the listener, it’s also a sign that you admit to having got things wrong, and once that happens, you lose their respect, and they tune elsewhere. Radio listeners really are more in touch with programming rights and wrongs than most people realise.

Swings and roundabouts. Changing breakfast show hosts = a very dangerous game, if you haven’t done your homework.

[ah-mediaMember]

Nice to see Freeview are still listing it as Jazz FM and on the EPG it just reads 102.2 Smooth FM

Nice to see they’re keeping up to date !

A.

[RobinBlamires]

Well, in a first for GMG radio the first song isn’t “A Star Is Born” with Smooth FM 102.2 going for Sade’s “Smooth Operator”. The Bespoke jingles as expected have been used to good effect.

[Mad]

The launch is now available for download just incase you missed it!!

Nice Resings of the Bespoke package too

[RobinBlamires]

Very quick timing Roy!

[Brian]

It was a similar launch sequence for Smooth FM Northwest, am I the only one who thinks that the area namechecks are too low in the mix, which the northwest version had the same problem? I noticed the name John Scragg, is he any relation to, and here’s a name from the 70’s, Julius K Scragg, who I think worked on Pennine Radio, and I remember his name from an old Tapetrix demo. Where is Julius k now?

[ah-mediaMember]

Ah ! Yes I remember the old Pennine Radio package .. It was on the 1st Alfasound tape, along with Picadilly Radio and Severn Sound.

😆

[DevawebMember]

Brian wrote: It was a similar launch sequence for Smooth FM Northwest, am I the only one who thinks that the area namechecks are too low in the mix

Hi Brian,

I made the North West launch sequence, and the place names are purposely low in the mix, they are supposed to be more ambient than straight-up audible. Also, the place-names sequence repeats a couple of times in the launch, so if you can’t hear your place first time round then you will the second time round.

I also made sure that Chester got good mentions in the sequence and also in the first set of news jingles… loyalty to one’s home town!

Chris

[Brian]

Hi Chris, thanks for the explanation, the other explanation could be….after listening to lots of music (sometimes quite loudly) and age almost certainly I’ve lost my ablility to hear top end frequencies. Ta Chris 😆

[martinlesterMemberAuthor]

danjamesuk wrote: However, with regards to combatting Heart’s success in the ratings battle with a re-run of the TV ads, there’s very little they could have done. Having pensioned Tarrant off and replaced him with their new ‘big name signing’, the only other option would’ve been to axe Vaughan and mess the listeners around yet again with another new host. To the listener, it’s also a sign that you admit to having got things wrong, and once that happens, you lose their respect, and they tune elsewhere.

Well 4 months on and as reported in tonight’s Evening Standard and the latest figures show Johnny Vaughan Capital Breakfast show
has

lost 161,000 Listeners

So it looks like the idiot who thought that having a “Big TV” name instead of an experienced Radio personality has fallen flat on his face

Also interesting that the person who I originally thought would be the ideal breakfast presenter Neil Fox will front Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show from next Monday

[martinlesterMemberAuthor]

danjamesuk wrote: However, with regards to combatting Heart’s success in the ratings battle with a re-run of the TV ads, there’s very little they could have done. Having pensioned Tarrant off and replaced him with their new ‘big name signing’, the only other option would’ve been to axe Vaughan and mess the listeners around yet again with another new host. To the listener, it’s also a sign that you admit to having got things wrong, and once that happens, you lose their respect, and they tune elsewhere.

Well 4 months on and as reported in tonight’s Evening Standard and the latest figures show Johnny Vaughan Capital Breakfast show
has

lost 161,000 Listeners

So it looks like the idiot who thought that having a “Big TV” name instead of an experienced Radio personality has fallen flat on his face

Also interesting that the person who I originally thought would be the ideal breakfast presenter Neil Fox will front Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show from next Monday

[martinlesterMemberAuthor]

danjamesuk wrote: However, with regards to combatting Heart’s success in the ratings battle with a re-run of the TV ads, there’s very little they could have done. Having pensioned Tarrant off and replaced him with their new ‘big name signing’, the only other option would’ve been to axe Vaughan and mess the listeners around yet again with another new host. To the listener, it’s also a sign that you admit to having got things wrong, and once that happens, you lose their respect, and they tune elsewhere.

Well 4 months on and as reported in tonight’s Evening Standard and the latest figures show Johnny Vaughan Capital Breakfast show
has

lost 161,000 Listeners

So it looks like the idiot who thought that having a “Big TV” name instead of an experienced Radio personality has fallen flat on his face

Also interesting that the person who I originally thought would be the ideal breakfast presenter Neil Fox will front Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show from next Monday

[UKJinglesMember]

martinlester wrote:
Well 4 months on and as reported in tonight’s Evening Standard and the latest figures show Johnny Vaughan Capital Breakfast show
has

lost 161,000 Listeners

So it looks like the idiot who thought that having a “Big TV” name instead of an experienced Radio personality has fallen flat on his face

Also interesting that the person who I originally thought would be the ideal breakfast presenter Neil Fox will front Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show from next Monday

Yeah I thought it was an April Fools Joke (Then realised it was September)
Also funny is how the Heart Management won’t release Jono from his contract a month early even after they “sacked him” and thanks to him got there highest ratings….
Also how the mighty have fallen….Poxy stating how much he loves listening to Magic…..Unless their format is gonna change drastically next week I can’t see his “personality” coming over much from next monday?!?
😆

[UKJinglesMember]

martinlester wrote:
Well 4 months on and as reported in tonight’s Evening Standard and the latest figures show Johnny Vaughan Capital Breakfast show
has

lost 161,000 Listeners

So it looks like the idiot who thought that having a “Big TV” name instead of an experienced Radio personality has fallen flat on his face

Also interesting that the person who I originally thought would be the ideal breakfast presenter Neil Fox will front Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show from next Monday

Yeah I thought it was an April Fools Joke (Then realised it was September)
Also funny is how the Heart Management won’t release Jono from his contract a month early even after they “sacked him” and thanks to him got there highest ratings….
Also how the mighty have fallen….Poxy stating how much he loves listening to Magic…..Unless their format is gonna change drastically next week I can’t see his “personality” coming over much from next monday?!?
😆

[UKJinglesMember]

martinlester wrote:
Well 4 months on and as reported in tonight’s Evening Standard and the latest figures show Johnny Vaughan Capital Breakfast show
has

lost 161,000 Listeners

So it looks like the idiot who thought that having a “Big TV” name instead of an experienced Radio personality has fallen flat on his face

Also interesting that the person who I originally thought would be the ideal breakfast presenter Neil Fox will front Magic 105.4 Breakfast Show from next Monday

Yeah I thought it was an April Fools Joke (Then realised it was September)
Also funny is how the Heart Management won’t release Jono from his contract a month early even after they “sacked him” and thanks to him got there highest ratings….
Also how the mighty have fallen….Poxy stating how much he loves listening to Magic…..Unless their format is gonna change drastically next week I can’t see his “personality” coming over much from next monday?!?
😆

[martinlesterMemberAuthor]

petewilson wrote:
Unless their format is gonna change drastically next week I can’t see his “personality” coming over much from next monday?!?
😆

My Guess is that the Breakfast show with Foxy and Drive Time with Holmes will become more “personality” with the more music continuing with the rest of the day

Magic needs to do something as its market share has gone down from 6.00 to 5.1 (Rajar Figures)

Also my original remarks about smooth lack of promotion and tied out on air sound with regards to its jingles and liners well under the JAZZ FM banner they had 2.8 of The London Market share they now have 1.90!

[Author]

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