Comments (6)

1. Matt @ September 5, 2008 at 5:00 pm | Permalink

   I’ve watched with interest how you are rebranding Virgin Radio into Absolute…. my company have had to do something very similar, although we’re in the education field… we’re nearly two years under our new brand name and have learned a lot along the way… best of luck to you all… if I could give you one piece of advice…. “say yes to everything and worry about it later”….

   What does ‘Real Music’ mean?

   That is a really good question… I used to love the kind of music Virgin played in the days of 9-5 no repeat… but recently virgin become so predictable in what song was coming next … ‘chasing cars, wake me up when september ends, chasing cars, wake me up when september ends, chasing cars, i kissed a girl, sweet child of mine, i kissed a girl, love it when you call, chasing cars, sweet child of mine, love it when you call’…. in our office we talked about running a ‘virgin radio bingo’ session where we all write down songs we think virgin are going to play, and the one that predicted the first one on air won a kitkat…

   Anyway, back to ‘real music’ and ‘what is real music’…. recently I ate way too many pies and have been running every morning for half an hour to try and reduce my weight… I don’t see the early rise each morning to run for half an hour as a chore anymore, as I see it as an opportunity to listen to ‘real music’…. I stick my iPod on shuffle and jog along to tunes (pick of thousands) saying ‘I haven’t heard that for ages’ each time a track comes on, and have the ability to jump to another track in a second if I need one with a better beat to jog to….

   Now you are probably thinking “why does he not listen to Christian”…. I’ll be honest with you here, I’m not a fan of Christian (although I am a fan of Geoff, Russ, JK & Joel)…. I personally think JK&Joel in the breakfast slot would be the right move to make, that would really give Chris Moyles a run for his money, I like Chris Moyles and listen to him in the car on the way to work…

   The office switches on Virgin (using iTunes) once Chris Moyles has finished, and we’ll usually listen to Virgin most of the day, although it does go off sometimes when the phone rings and someone forgets to turn the volume back up….. which generally means we’re not getting into the music, or have heard ‘chasing cars’ too many times today already.

   If you want to define ‘Real Music’ listen to ‘The Fratellis’ and ‘The Feeling’…. I think it is safe to define them as ‘real music artists’….. both bands are young talent interested in making their own tunes without Simon Cowell asking them to cover Unchained Melody as part of the record deal… I think it also fair to say that they would point blank refuse to sing it too if asked.

   Real Music is a band or person that are happy to practice and practice in a garage, real music is a group that have been together for many years before they get discovered, real music has a great drummer, real music is written by the people that play real music, real music is a song that means something to the person that sings it, real music is a track that imprints in your head and you remember the first time you heard it, and where you was, what it smelt like…
2. Graham @ September 5, 2008 at 5:23 pm | Permalink

   I’m usually a lurker rather than a commenter when it comes to blogs, but since Rowan asked so nicely I thought I might put forward a couple of opinions.

   Virgin Radio launched when I was at university, and I have been a listener on and off ever since. I suppose it was the Virgin name together with the launch publicity that persuaded me to start listening initially, but it was the DJ personalities together with the music that kept me listening.

   I remember presenters like Kevin Greening, Mitch Johnson, and Nick Abbott making it worth the effort of listening on AM. The fact that I can remember their names now, while I can’t really remember who was on other stations at the same time, must say something. Nick Abbott in particular was required listening – I had never heard anything like his show before.

   I must admit that I drifted away from the station for a few years. I felt that the personality had gone. Presenters were reduced to saying “that was” and “this is”, and the music seemed to be much more predictable and frankly boring. I would tune in from time to time, but it is only in the past year or so that I have started listening regularly again. I strayed into the Geoff Show one evening, and before long I was hooked. Geoff reminded me why I listened in the early days.

   Although I would say the presenters are key to keeping me listening, the music is vital too. I am delighted that the music selection is widening and that I am hearing cracking new music from the likes of Keane and Snow Patrol together with tracks which I genuinely have not heard for ages.

   For me, “Real Music” is music that can be played live with real instruments. Also, with a few exceptions, it will generally have been written by the same people that are performing it. Perhaps it is easier to define what Real Music is not. It is not a telegenic nobody singing someone else’s words to a backing track, a drum machine and a bunch of samples. (That Katy Perry song you keep playing is a bit questionable on the real music stakes, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now :-)

   Good luck with the changes. I think you are heading in the right direction.

   Graham
3. Bingethink @ September 5, 2008 at 5:47 pm | Permalink

   Real music is:

   the song, not the video
   playing, not miming
   gigs, not photo shoots
   tour buses, not voice coaches
   built to last, not flavour of the month
   the lads from school, not an ad in The Stage
   something to say, not something to sell
4. Robin @ September 7, 2008 at 4:44 pm | Permalink

   Doesn’t the example of “6 Music” give you an easy answer to the personality vs music debate. How much resource does that station have to archieve material? How many millions of pounds worth of free advertising has it received on BBC1? Yet apparently its producers still need to pose as listeners to generate any response to competitions.

   To me good radio is all about being “live”. The stronger the whiff of danger/excitment/unpredictability the more absorbing it becomes. Surely this has to come down to the skill of the presenter?

   Lets be honest you do have the odds stacked against you – you do not have the financial muscle of the BBC, you have to persuade the listener to stick it out through the ads, and your analogue reception is poor.

   To suceed I think you need to focus on what you can produce that the BBC can’t. For me commercial radio represents the slight anti-establishment/ more risk taking/ more honest and open/ more optomistic/ more self -depreciating brother of the BBC. Presenters who play strongly to these values such as Tarrant and Jon Gaunt generate huge audiences.

   Remember Virgin gave Jonathan Ross the platform and the self-belief to kick start his flagging career? Would the BBC have done the same?

   Sadly with JK and Joel going I think you have already started in reverse gear, but Geoff is very good and Christian can be excellent (although show has never been the same since newsman Chris left). I really hope you succeed. Please learn the lesson of “6 Music” though.
5. JC @ September 8, 2008 at 9:34 am | Permalink

   “Another interesting question that has arisen is do your listeners currently listen because of the brand or the personalities?” Er… shouldn’t the ‘real music’ figure somewhere in that question? I follow the Virgin/Absolute brand because I like the music (even with the current limited playlist, which thank heavens you are expanding) and am guaranteed no poppy rubbish or ‘urban’ rap-crap.

   As for personalities, you have a good mix, but again they are secondary to the music (sorry guys!). I don’t care much for the OC, but love Geoff’s show and there are doubtless some people who feel the opposite. Don’t ever go down the vintage Radio 1 route of making the personalities bigger than the music or the station.

   Oh – following on from that – please do away with the ‘best bits’ shows at the weekend. Cheap programming that we’ve either heard already or didn’t want to hear in the first place. That’s what podcasts are for.
6. Darren Lee @ September 10, 2008 at 8:05 pm | Permalink

   Real music is exciting, a bit raw, emotional, rough around the edges, not too polished. It gets you ‘here’ and gives you a lump in your throat or that tingle at the back of your neck.

   In radio it’s one of those gut vs research, or maybe gut AND research things for whoever’s looking after the music.

   I’m enjoying the blog and comments, thanks.