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Bauer rebranding 53 stations to The Hits/Greatest Hits

The majority of its acquisitions last year (May 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
VM
VMPhil
I also really liked Real Radio, the north west version at least (previously Century). Nice mix of music, good presenters… and catchy jingles! So of course they ditched all that and replaced with Heart.


The jingles live on. Pretty much every small scale station that launches seem to order re-sings!

Heard them on Great Yorkshire Radio, Scarborough's This is the Coast, and YO1 in this area alone.

Well, these are the specific ones I remember. They were produced by Music4 who don't exist anymore, because of reasons, so I'm not sure you could get them resung now.

http://aircheckdownloads.com/RealRadio_Jingles_2009.mp3
LH
lhx1985
Ah, it was the original ones I was referring to.

Chris Moyles had somebody re-do his, so you never know, but no, I've not heard those ones anywhere.
SP
Spencer
Most of the Real Radio jingles with the familiar sonic logo were made by Bespoke Music. They switched to the Music 4 package for a couple of years before reviving the original logo in the final package made by Ignite. The final Bespoke package in particular seems to be very popular for resings.
scottishtv and DJ Dave gave kudos
DJ
DJ Dave
Yeah I also loved Real Radio/Century Radio, I think at the time Radio City was going through a lot of changes and Century Radio also took a few of their presenters.

I was gutted when Heart came to the North West, the only good thing about that station was Joel and Lorna on Breakfast.

Talking of the jingles here is a cover of the Bespoke ones
BB
BBI45
Might just be me, but I really think a 'RadioForum' would be good.
EM
Emily Moore
BBI45 posted:
Might just be me, but I really think a 'RadioForum' would be good.


Most of the existing radio forums are either a bit bitchy, or they're dominated by a small number of single-issue posters and threads (Radio Caroline fans, LBC fans discussing the political programme content rather than station production, people bitter that their local station is no more, people who really love or really hate some particular presenter, fantasy schedule/rota obsessives etc etc ad infinitum).

Count me as someone who would love a better-moderated place to discuss (current and historic) radio production, industry issues and stations with better moderation to get rid of the obsessive "I hate presenter X" and "did you hear what James O'Brien said?!" dross.
Last edited by Emily Moore on 12 February 2021 8:50pm
EM
Emily Moore
There was once a Kiss FM in Manchester, albeit a brand license run by another company.


And as I remember it did pretty well, as did the short-lived Kiss FM Yorkshire, before they both were rebranded as Galaxy... which also was very popular. I still think it's a shame that the Galaxy brand was scrapped, as I still think it would be doing well today, but it suffered from the 'not available in London' problem, so was a difficult sell to the agencies. Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here.


Kiss 102 Manchester was brill - even the jingles were fantastic. I was a 12-year-old raver hanging out of her upstairs bedroom window to pick up the distant signal carrying dance tunes out of Manchester to my parents' rural home. This page has some of the publicity cards showing what was, at the time, an excellent DJ line-up - Judge Jules, 808 State and live Hacienda broadcasts on local radio. It was never quite the same after it became Galaxy, but I still listened for many years until it eventually went to Capital.

I've read in a few different places that Ashley Tabor was actually quite a fan of the Galaxy network, its attitude and sound and programming, but it came to a point where Global had to decide whether to dump Capital London and replace it with Galaxy, or network Capital out to the Galaxy stations, and the known London brand sadly won out.
LL
London Lite Founding member
BBI45 posted:
Might just be me, but I really think a 'RadioForum' would be good.


One off threads like these are fine, but as Emily Moore mentioned, radio attracts some random users who'd need moderating more than anything posted on here and that says a lot!

The fact that this thread has been on the whole enjoyable with reasonable debate shows that TVF members can discuss some radio within our group of tv pres enthusiasts, but I wouldn't want it to turn into the DS radio forum.
SC
scottishtv Founding member
I was working part-time in a small warehouse when Real Radio launched in Central Scotland, and it became something of a phenomenon amongst the full-time staff there. I'm talking normal people (not radio dorks) shouting at you if you tried to change station. It was a cheesy singalong format and everyone knew it, but it was so upbeat and polished you couldn't help but warm to it. The formula clearly worked and struck a chord, even now I can't say the station name aloud without singing it.

Most of the Real Radio jingles with the familiar sonic logo were made by Bespoke Music.



These are the ones I remember (the Scottish versions), with even the most grumpy, jobsworth members of staff belting out "Another winnnnerrr, Real Rad-io!". As for the Fugitive/Renegade competitions, they were executed perfectly. My non-geek brother once admitted abandoning a construction site he was managing in Glasgow to search the city centre for "the futigtive".

I guess you can only sustain such a formula for so long without people eventually getting bored.

PS. Going back on-topic, I note Scotland has been left largely untouched by the GHR experiment.

EDIT: I see Scotland's "Place 2" AM stations are GHR in format but not branded as such. They have kept their 2 branding and have Scottish networked presenters. Wonder how that is working out for them compared to GHR down south. Surely it's an admission people like a degree of localness.
Last edited by scottishtv on 13 February 2021 1:52pm
BR
Brekkie
I don't think there is a greater sin in the workplace than changing the radio station of choice.
MA
Markymark
I don't think there is a greater sin in the workplace than changing the radio station of choice.


A couple of factories I visit have quite detailed rotas for the radio stations that are played on the floor.

Split into half days. Everything from Kiss and R1 through to the local 'tinpot' (now GHR! ) station to Planet Rock and R2
JO
Joe
Now I’m wondering if you are Gregg Wallace

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