In the past few decades as the stats will prove, the BBC’s stranglehold on their loyal radio listeners has dwindled. Through their revolving doors, new controllers have come in with newer ideas on how to reverse their diminishing listening figures. The result is the grass really is greener if you search around…
By Ian Woolley
As new radio stations sprout up from the neglected fields of National radio broadcasting, they’ve welcomed with open arms many of the experienced presenters who once kept their listeners entertained. Deemed past their sell-by date, it’s not rocket science to see where the real problem lies.
What these controllers fail to grasp, is they are trying to entice a new younger audience weened on downloads and streaming. The flip side is what loyal listeners they had, have ‘jumped ship’ as it were. Much like they did when the likes of Radio Caroline started playing the type of music that wasn’t deemed ‘radio friendly’, new radio stations like Boom have capitalised on this trend. Recently we found a station that has dispensed with presenters altogether.
A step too far I hear you ask?
RCR CEO Andy Johnson
Well, recently we caught up with one such station, Retro Charts Radio.
We asked controller Andy Johnson how he came up with the novel idea of just playing back-to-back hits without a radio presenter in the studio.
“Retro Charts Radio was launched this year in January to provide listeners with a historic archive of all the UK Top 40 hits from the start of the music charts back in November 1952, right up to the last chart of 1999”.
“By our calculation, there are nearly 15,300 hits from that period, which will play randomly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There will be no presenters, no shows, no news, no playlists, no favouritism and no exceptions. No frills, just the music”!
“With our random elimination system, it should ensure that a hit will not be repeated for 1000 hours. In other words, we proudly present to you, a 4-Week No Repeat Policy”.
“As you listen, you will notice that there are literally thousands of hits that you have never heard before and even more #HitsThatRadioForgot”.
“From Bing to Bowie, Sinatra to Sinitta, Fury to Ferry, and Stargazers to Starship, we have them all. Our ‘Now Playing’ feature also displays the year of chart entry and its highest position. Fascinating facts nobody else provides on such a feature”.
“Obviously we would love to play new music from these established retro artists and we do have a donations page that helps to run the station. Already we have been funded for next year”.
Finally, Andy tells me “It’s a musical journey that no one has been on before”, and having listened to the station we have to agree.