Is there room for a 'Bubble Hits' type radio station?

connundrum

Hey,

So I was flicking around stations (Dublin & National) over the last week or so, conducting a mini survey of how many times music was actually playing versus news/chat/adverts etc. I'd mostly be in the car between 8am and 7pm flicking down the dial.

I was surprised that on several occasions I couldn't find a song playing for a good minute or two on any stations. This got me thinking of the Bubble Hits TV station available on the digital channels, where they play music only and 1 x thirty second advert every 5-6 songs.

I realise that BCI regulations wouldn't allow for this type station to exist, but I'd like to know if there'd be a demand for it? Whilst driving from Donegal to Dublin yesterday I actually switched the radio off for an hour or two purely because of the ads and crap talk from DJ's.

I'd imagine it'd be a very cost effective station to run at least

monkeyfudge

connundrum wrote: »

I realise that BCI regulations wouldn't allow for this type station to exist

Why wouldn't they? There are limits on how much airtime can be given over to advertising, but I don't think there is a limit on how little time you give over to it.

What is the model that bubble hits works under again? Is it premium text lines to select the videos played?

LordSutch

Leaving Bubbles aside, what annoys me is that every bleedin radio station has the same news on the hour, every bleedin hour!

Try looking for a song (any song) on the hour !!!

Well at least it did annoy me, until I got a DAB Radio

themont85

ArthurF wrote: »

Leaving Bubbles aside, what annoys me is that every bleedin radio station has the same news on the hour, every bleedin hour!

Try looking for a song (any song) on the hour !!!

Well at least it did annoy me, until I got a DAB Radio

Spin don't but apart from them they all have news/ads at the exact same times your right. I've always been a bit suspicous about that to be honest.

connundrum

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Why wouldn't they? There are limits on how much airtime can be given over to advertising, but I don't think there is a limit on how little time you give over to it.

I was just assuming that there'd be regulations about speech content etc. Can't remember the exact details, college was a long time ago

monkeyfudge wrote: »

What is the model that bubble hits works under again? Is it premium text lines to select the videos played?

Nope, the one 30 second ad every 5-6 songs is sold at a premium rate - as obviously its the only ad the listener will hear for ages. I remember seeing the co-founders of Bubble Hits interviewed and thinking that the idea behind it was good-ish. Very few overheads ie. minimal office/studio space, no presenters/dj's, no newsroom etc.

Latchy

I think the old radio format were they played 3 or 4 hits,back to back before the snazzy jingles came in ,followed by a bit of advertisement was cool .

Kenny Evertt springs to mind. He successfully transfered his radio show to tv ,with the outakes one liners and mad-cap jingles and it worked .

dulpit

If you mean a station with very few adverts and lots of music in a row, then yes, that would be greatly appreciated. If you mean it would also play the sort of muck that bubble hits does, then no...

TBH there's no way a station could operate without all the ads, where else do they get their money? (Apart from RTÉ getting money of course..)

As for the news on the hour thing, Red FM in Cork has news at 10 to the hour, which means you could flick to that to listen instead of news, pity the music is rubbish...

_feedback_

dulpit wrote: »

As for the news on the hour thing, Red FM in Cork has news at 10 to the hour, which means you could flick to that to listen instead of news, pity the music is rubbish...

Yeah same with I102-104 in Galway... and same rubbish music!

It would be a highly listened to radio station alright, if you could find a way to make money without ads !!

connundrum

dulpit wrote: »

If you mean it would also play the sort of muck that bubble hits does, then no...

Deffo, I like their format - not the music

elviscostello wrote: »

It would be a highly listened to radio station alright, if you could find a way to make money without ads !!

Again if they played 1 advert every 15 minutes, surely they could charge xxx% more than a normal radio advert which could be jumbled in between 7 - 10 other ads.

And as I suggested previously, their overheads would be greatly less than any other station. All they'd need is a music director, and a sales team.

TRSJ

Hi Connundrum,

unfortunately a bubble hits type format on radio would not be allowed here under BCI regulations. There is a law in Ireland which requires stations (even music stations) to talk for 20% of their output even if they have nothing to say!

www.moremusclesstalk.com is a lobby group trying to change that and has details about the law.

My local Londis plays bubble hits as the owner once told me he nor his staff can stand the little amount of music on the radio.

TRSJ

TRSJ

sorry left out an "i"

it's: http://www.moremusiclesstalk.com/

roxy

Aw, I like More Muscles, Less Talk..