It’s with great sadness that we share the news that Nick Jackson is leaving One Golden Square at the end of the year in order to spend more time with his family.
Nick has been an amazing, integral part of our team for many years and has led afternoons to record audience figures in the last year. Along with Russ Williams he has helped The No Repeat Guarantee become one of the things for which Absolute Radio is best known. The ultimate perfectionist and a passionate ambassador for the station, Nick presents every show with the greatest aplomb, style and finesse. Simply put, he is one of the best of daytime broadcasters on the radio.
We’ll let you know very soon who’ll be taking over afternoons in 2012. However, for now please join us in thanking Nick for all of his efforts and send him your best wishes for the next stage in his career.
Some great news from Radioplayer. This week they celebrate another major milestone as Splash FM* becomes the 300th station to join the online radio platform. Radioplayer has grown from 157 stations at launch in March this year, to 6.7 million regular users** across hundreds of commercial, BBC, student and community stations including us ofcourse. Check
out Absolute Radio on UK Radioplayer here
Radioplayer’s growth will be further boosted with the release this week of two new apps. The first, based on ‘Adobe AIR’, installs a radio in your PC, Mac or Linux computer and lives in the ‘Start’ menu. The app launches Radioplayer with just one click, even without a browser open.
The second app puts Radioplayer prominently at the top of Google’s popular ‘Chrome’ browser, just one click away. Both these new apps join the existing Radioplayer Facebook app on the download page at www.radioplayer.co.uk/apps
The development of these apps paves the way for Radioplayer to explore potential commercial tie-ups with computer manufacturers and retailers to ‘pre-install’ Radioplayer on computers.
The Radioplayer partnership is aimed at growing digital listening by simplifying the way radio works on connected devices. Recent RAJAR listening figures for Q3 2011 show a 32% increase in online listening hours year-on-year.
Richie Firth, co-presenter of the Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show, explains his fascination with the late Jimmy Saville. Last week he travelled from Reading to Leeds to pay his respects to the great man as he lay in state in a hotel bar. Richie’s genuine love of “Sir Jim’ll” led him to the heart of a media storm…
When I heard that Sir Jim’ll was going to be lying in state in a Leeds hotel bar, I immediately turned to Christian and said ‘I have to go.’ What a one-off occasion for somebody of my generation! Jimmy was a legend and there simply won’t be any other celebrity that could have that as a final wish and for the public to think – actually that’s a great idea. A Jimilgrimage.
I tried to find the most garish outfit that Sports Direct would sell the night before and then set off towards Kings Cross for the first train to Leeds. I never imagined that I would end up all over the TV news shows and in the papers the next day. When I arrived there were only two people in the queue and with respect to them, I think I was the first person to turn up that the news companies felt could string a few words together.
And then it snowballed. For the next hour I was doing wall to wall interviews dressed in a pretty poor Sir Jim’ll homage. It was only on the train back to London that I was able to stop and reflect on what had just happened. The emails and the tweets started to drop in with people reporting programmes or news websites they’d seen me pop up on. I just hope Sir Jim’ll would’ve approved off the fuss and attention. I reckon he would.
A selection of Richie’s media appearances can be found here….
RNR Football Live Scores App users seen above during Arsenal v Bolton
The 2011-2012 Barclays Premier League season has started like no other and looks set to be one of the most open (and controversial) in many years. Here in the Rock N Roll Football bunker we’ve been flat out on Saturday afternoons creating radio which shows what happens when football, music and comedy collide. Noel Gallagher’s chanted, Joey Barton’s ranted and Wrighty’s joined twitter with 40 000+ followers in 48 hours. Follow him at @ianwright0. His followers are currently a who’s-who of the football glitterati.
Technology remains at the heart of everything we do with the roll-out of all of the live scores apps for the individual clubs plus the ability to enjoy the iPad specific app. Even more impressive is how we can see who is using the app, checking the scores and goals and listening to the commentary while the games are on. The picture above shows our users at the Emirates while we were bringing you Arsenal v Bolton. You can even see that some people who were at the game were getting involved.
We’ve welcomed new commercial friends to the show and our partners at Sky continue to support us like nobody else can. Oh, and who can forget the fact that we did our first ever show in front of an audience as we held our first ever ‘Rock N Roll Football Boys Night In’ raising valuable money for the Prince’s Trust and enjoying beer and pizza at the same time.
We’re on the home run to Christmas now and this weekend we’re heading to Goodison Park for the first time this season as they take on Wolves. Join me for the build-up from 1.30pm on Absolute Radio extra (1215AM, DAB, Online and on your mobile). Jim Proudfoot’s got the live and exclusive commentary from 3 and then Wrighty’s here when the full-time whistle blows.
So what have been the season highlights on the pitch? Well, Manchester City’s 6-1 win at Old Trafford was a very significant moment in the Premier League season so far but not entirely unexpected. For 2 years now petro dollars have poured into the Etihad stadium and allowed Robert Mancini to be the football equivalent of a kid in a sweet shop.
Manchester United started well by have faltered, Chelsea have new manager AVB trying to find a balance between an ageing squad and a style of play and Arsenal would be in the bottom half of the table without their goal scoring talisman Robin Van Persie.
Spurs had a poor start but have rallied and sit just outside the top four with a game in hand and as a Spurs supporter i’ve enjoyed seeing my club go unbeaten and play some pretty attractive stuff on the way. Mike Ashley’s only possible mistake at Newcastle, to cynically use his own company to rename St James’ Park.
Liverpool flatter to deceive with a striking conundrum and at the bottom Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan prove there really is ‘trouble at mill’ in Lancashire top flight football. It’s not over by a long way but maybe we are seeing a permanent shift of power and I for one think it’s a good thing.
Predictability is not the friend of competition and Manchester City look set for a possible title and a long run in the Champions league. If you don’t like it you know what to do – start walking – because when you fill up at a petrol station your are in essence handing over your hard earned cash to Mancini and Co!
The new Highway 300Di from PURE was launched last night in London and we went along to see.
There were three things that really caught our eye and are no doubt going to make the Highway 300Di a winner:
- New antenna technology. The new ‘active antenna’ will massively improve digital reception in the car, providing the same reception as a large roof mounted whip aerial in a small neat and discreet window mounted model.
- Connectivity to existing devices. This allows full control of music stored on an iPod, iPhone or iPad. There’s also a function allowing pause and rewind of live digital radio.
- Dual Tuners. Having two tuners in the 300Di allows the digital radio to continually rescan for available stations while listening. This means that the most up to date list of available digital stations will be displayed.
The PURE Highway 300Di will be available exclusively at Halfords priced at £179.99, with customers receiving free installation, set up and demonstration for a limited period.
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