Absolute Radio 90s UK – by Tony Moorey

24Aug

The UK’s Only 90s Radio Station is just two months old, but in that time has already built up a loyal and often vocal fan-base. The two most frequently asked questions are:  

  • ‘Can more songs be added to the playlist?’
  • ‘Will I be able to listen on DAB where I live?’

The answer to question 1 is yes!  We are constantly evolving the sound of the station, the list of songs we play and when and where they are played.  The answer to question 2 for most areas of the country has unfortunately been ‘not at the moment’. But we are now delighted to announce that for a trial period of 5 weeks, Absolute Radio 90s will be on DAB right across Britain.

From 10am on Wednesday the whole country can join our 90s party, just look for “Abs Radio 90s UK” or “Abs90sUK” on your DAB digital radio. If you can’t find it, you may need to select the auto-tune, re-tune or re-scan function in your radio’s menu.  

We are celebrating with a 90s weekend on Absolute Radio this Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. We will be giving away DAB digital radios and every hour through the day will start off with 5 classic 90s tracks.

If you can’t wait for your 90s fix, you can tune in across the country now on Sky channel 0203 or online.

 - Tony Moorey

Categories: Absolute Radio 90s Technology 8

Posted by jonny on August 24, 2010

Zune, the Entertainment Platform and Portable Media Player from Microsoft

23Aug

While looking through our podcast download stats, we noticed an increase in downloads to the ‘Zune’, what’s a Zune I hear you say…..well, let us tell you a bit more about this neat little entertainment platform and portable media player from Microsoft.

Launched last year, the first thing that you notice about the Zune HD is it’s glossy 3.3-inch touchscreen which if you’re used to the action of an iPhone or iPod touch will be very familiar and unlike other touchscreens that have tried to rival Apple, this does a very good job. The user interface is smooth, responsive and performs brilliantly, which is what you’d expect from it’s Tegra APX 2600 chip.

So what does the Zune HD do – firstly it’ll playback audio in many formats so downloading and listening to your favourite Absolute Radio podcasts is not only possible but made easy with its desktop software and podcast subscription option. The video below demonstrates just how easy it is to subscribe to your favourite podcast channels.

The video playback quality on the Zune is very good and what you’d expect when you combine OLED technology, tight pixel density and a small screen. HD video content is crisp and clear as you’d expect. With most devices you get one or the other, great video or great audio, but not usually both which is what the Zune is able to provide. Compared to similar devices the Zune HD audio sounds more expansive and open.

The Zune also has a web browser which is built upon the existing mobile Internet Explorer. Although it is useful and allows zoom-in/zoom-out via pinch screen technology, long sessions of browsing the web is probably not what the Zune was designed for due to it’s screen size.

For those FM radio lovers, the good news is that the Zune has a built-in FM RADIO and the audio quality again is pretty good and as it’s FM there’s no need to hunt for a free wifi connection when out and about.

Just like the Apple touch has iTunes, The Zune HD requires its own desktop software which allows the owner to manage the device contents and as you can see from the video below, it’s not only easy to use but looks great too!

The Zune HD is available in 16GB and 32GB varieties and costs between £150 and £200.

Categories: podcasts Technology 3

Posted by paul on August 23, 2010

Chrissy Polcino Wins Absolute Star Award

19Aug

Absolute Radio's Chrissy Polcino wins Absolute Star Award

It’s that time again where Absolute Radio celebrates a member of its staff for the achievements and enduring hard work in the form of the Absolute Star.

The massive trophy was awarded to Chrissy Polcino our Commercial Producer being graciously passed on by the previous winner our Music Section Producer Llia Apostolou.

American born Chrissy, moved over to the UK from New Jersey in 2002 and joined One Golden Square in 2006 as the Ad Technology Executive working alongside the online sales team in creating co branded adverts with clients such as Sony Ericcson and Renault.

In 2008 Chrissy moved into the Production department to become Commercial Producer working alongside Dave Kenny in creating homepage takeovers, splash pages and S&P online. Chrissy has taken on a massive amount of commercial production work and even used her own time after work to build the new Absolute Radio 90s website which is a credible achievement in its own right.

COO Clive Dickens recognises Chrissy’s efforts by adding, ‘Without Chrissy’s contribution during this busy period, the company’s fantastic online World Cup coverage would have been greatly hampered and preparation for our Premier League coverage would also have been severely impacted. On top of this, during the same period, she has assisted the 4th floor with the challenging migration to a new ad trafficking process. She is always approachable and able to think of creative solutions, Chrissy is a credit to the OGS team.’

Known as Aunty Chrissy due to her love of baking cakes for everyone at Absolute Radio, Chrissy always works with a smile upon her face, and always deals with the challenges ahead with a giggle has made it apparent she was a well deserved recipient of this award.

Well done Chrissy!

Categories: Absolute Radio People 2

Posted by jonny on August 19, 2010

Playlist: 19th August

19Aug

The playlist is out now.

The xx – Islands (2nd August)
The English band’s debut album ‘xx’ has been one of the sleeper-successes of the last 18 months, regularly used on TV trails and gradually drawing more and more fans to the band’s smoky/moody/delicate sound. It’s a favourite for this year’s Mercury Prize.

Paul Weller – Fast Car/Slow Traffic (13th September)
Latest single from Weller’s acclaimed album ‘Wake Up The Nation’ – which is also nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize

The Drums move to Absolute Radio’s B-list

Categories: Music playlist 0

Posted by carrie on August 19, 2010

Absolute Radio July Engagement Metrics

17Aug

In July, The Absolute Radio Network (Absolute Radio, Absolute 80s, Absolute Classic Rock, Absolute Radio 90s and dabbl) served 11,093,352 million hours of compelling online content including live online streamed hours, live mobile streamed hours, downloaded on-demand audio and video. This is a massive 31% increase from June.

The Absolute Radio Network streamed 8.9 million hours of live audio in July, up 35% from 6.6 million in June. 244,000 hours were streamed via a mobile platform. 

The Network served a total of 2,149,701 on-demand hours via IP connected devices – up 14% from 1,884,963 in June. This on-demand figure consists of all audio and video content available online through downloaded podcasts, audio clips, live sessions and videos both on Absolute Radio websites and third party sites. A record 3,854,000 podcasts were downloaded in the month which equate to 2,006,717 hours of audio and 57,919 hours of video – 2,064,636 in total. On-demand hours represent a huge growth area for the brand opening content up to a far wider online audience and the content has become an attractive commercial proposition for the stations advertisers.

Absolute Radio remains the only commercial UK station to release its streamed or on demand listening hours data and make this information public. This measure of engagement allows the station to give greater insight into how listeners hear it’s output via the internet providing further accountability for customers and stakeholders.

Absolute Radio continues to work hard across the industry to ensure it provides consistent figures. The statistics are gathered using data from streams in a variety of formats with actual listening data collected from multiple computers or internet radio devices. Data is also collected from cookies removed from PCs.

Monthly figures for the network are available from our stats page.

Categories: Uncategorized 0

Posted by jonny on August 17, 2010