Category: Broadcast Radio

The Top Forty countdown, with only our favourite songs, moves to Friday

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I don’t listen regularly to the Top 40 any more, so its move to Friday afternoon instead of Sunday evening is just another “well, back in my day” to add to my brain, but one thing I loved (and still love) about the Top 40 is that no matter what the song was, it was always played in the countdown. It was one of the few chances to bypass the pluggers and pickers of the national pop music station and get airplay. Be it Status Quo, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, or that year’s winning Eurovision Song Contest, if it made the Top

Should Breakfast Radio Be Short Spots Or Longer Features

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Some interesting thoughts via Media.Info on breakfast radio and why common perceptions and styles don’t match up to the data: New data analysis based on millions of listener movements from the official Scandinavian PPM ratings systems show that this long-standing model has too rigid a focal point. Only half of listeners on Scandinavian airwaves leave their homes during the breakfast show and during the 6 AM to 9 AM period the in-home listeners heavily outnumber listeners on the go.

When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

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Seymour Quigley: We weren’t related, and we weren’t close friends; I can’t tell you what motivated him, what kind of a husband or father he was, or how many sugars he had in his tea. But the simple fact is that John Peel, who passed away ten years ago this month, saved my life. The internet may have allowed more music to be heard by more people, and reduced the barrier of entry, but we still need a curator.

Eurovision songs reach the Top 40, Radio One holds its nose and has to play them. Win!

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I’ve been quiet about my Eurovision activities on this blog over the last two or three weeks (on the assumption that you all know where to find me, or saw the Twitter action), but I want to highlight this little fact. Four Eurovision songs reached the Top 40 yesterday, and 12 tracks made the Top 100. The power of social media and the ability to instantly buy digital music online has once more been able to show that the music does have an impact. The old-school gatekeepers might not hand tracks like ‘Undo’ or ‘Calm After The Storm’ a physical

Don’t forget to listen to Edinburgh Nights every week!

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You might recall that after this year’s radio broadcast of the  Edinburgh Fringe chat show came to the end, I decided to keep the format alive and showcase all the fun things in Edinburgh each week (that would have been the moment for a David Tennant-esque “I don’t want to go…”). It’s three months later, and Edinburgh Nights is still on the air, at 3pm every Friday, with a podcast available to listen again to the show (if you’re in Edinburgh), or to listen fresh to the whole hour if you are further afield. It’s a show that continues to evolve,

Tonight’s the night I head into the history books of Eurovision commentary

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Starting at 6pm tonight in the UK (7pm Central Europe, and 8pm local time in Ukraine) is the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013. For once I won’t be in the Press Centre, or directly in front of the stage. Tonight, I’ll be with Luke Fisher in the Commentary Booth for the European Broadcasting Union. The Eurovision Song Contests have had free and official streams for many years, but until now they have been the pictures and the stage audio only – the traditional commentators role has not been part of the EBU’s stream. That’s changed for this Song Contest. My good