Two Strangers and a farce

jimbojazz

Xyo wrote: »

I hooked up with her before..

Ahem...........Did you?:D

djsupreme

Hey guys,

I have responded to some of the gripes in the radio forum, and I thought I should try to do the same here. I am connected with Beat, so I'd like to say a couple of things.

Firstly, we were all quite aware from the start that this radio event would stir up some strong feelings. We're quite happy to accept some criticism from the religious side, the moral side, etc. But we realise that we will also deal with criticism from the usual non-Beat fans who will use Two Strangers as a stick to beat us.

To put things in perspective, the main reason we did this was to provide a distraction for Beat listeners from the constant 100% doom and gloom that has dominated the Irish media for the last six months. Maybe you personally aren't into 2 Strangers, but we reckoned a good chunk of the audience would like to follow a love story on air in the old fashioned courting sense. The workload was huge, and we were aware that so many things could go wrong. I think we prepared counter plans for about 18 situations. Some of them much worse than what happened.

The couple married. Or at least "made a decision to commit". That was all we wanted. Or expected. We thought at the worst, they would not get on, but be friendly.... come home and it would fizzle out. But they really didn't get on. Which is unfortunate. But in reality, it made the story a whole lot more interesting for the listener and the national media.

You may think it was a farce/failure/whatever. Beat's goals were achieved. We set out to get two strangers to make a commitment to each other. That happened. What we didn't expect was national media coverage worth hundreds of thousands of euro, which has lead to a big increase in advertising and sponsorship. The fact that so many people are talking about it here and in the radio forum, and elsewhere, makes us believe that the listenership figures will be pretty good (although we won't know that for about 6-9 months). All in all, we're pretty happy.

I'd now like to respond to a few of the comments posted in this thread....

• @Galagumas: TCH are delighted that any of their companies are increasing revenue at such a difficult time. I don't know what Beat websites you've been looking at, but the official Beat website, the Bebo, and the Facebook are pretty much covered in 2 Strangers stuff. And as regards Billy Mc, it's a general rule of radio that you don't talk about what the competition are doing, even if you disapprove.
• @Ziedth: Thanks for the nice comments about Beat. You mention it's been done a few times before. It's actually been done about 24 times. Every time produces different results. That was what excited us about the project. Neither us, nor the listener could predict how it turns out. If every couple who took part in 2 Strangers fell in love and stayed together forever after, it wouldn't have the same impact.
• RE: Beat FM. Interesting debate. It does bother us when people say FM. It's like adding "TV" to the end of every television station name because ITV/UTV etc do it. Either Beat 102 103 or Beat are acceptable in terms of selling ourselves. But once people recognise the brand, that is all that matters.
• @steveaustin: The "A or B" quiz was an attempt to add a little bit of fun and lightness into what was otherwise a serious business. It was only 60 secs long, and if you're a regular listener to Beat Breakfast, you'll know the crew try to bring a bit of fun to every situation. And if I can be cheeky, you say that you turn to Ray D'Arcy every day at 9am - but that quiz went out about half nine every day :P
• @abouttobebanned: Not sure what your particular issue is, but I can assure you that your assertion that Beat needs to be rescued from "certain obscurity" is slightly off the mark. As I mentioned elsewhere, Beat received it's highest ever listenership in the last JNLRs - and is the most listened to independent youth or regional radio station in Ireland - with more adults (85% of Beat's audience is aged 20-34) listening in the South East than 2FM or Today FM. A far cry from obscurity.

They are the facts. Genuine non-biased reaction is always welcomed and listened to.

longshanks

Cabaal wrote: »

two chances, bob hope and no hope and bob just left town :pac:

seriously? two chances?

ziedth

djsupreme wrote: »

Beat's goals were achieved. which has lead to a big increase in advertising and sponsorship. The fact that so many people are talking about it here and in the radio forum, and elsewhere, makes us believe that the listenership figures will be pretty good (although we won't know that for about 6-9 months). All in all, we're pretty happy.

Well I'm glad for you TBH I for one would always respect anyone who tried something different, I have allot of time for Beat Breakfast. We are constantly bombarded with reccession and economy it is nice to live in a happyier world if only for the 30min it takes me to get to work.

However, since you are involved with the station I would like to give some constructive advive. Maybe just trying something complelely orginal, I know in this day and age its very hard todo but it might generate a little more ya know.

alpha2zulu

Nice post DJ supreme.

@abouttobebanned: Not sure what your particular issue is, but I can assure you that your assertion that Beat needs to be rescued from "certain obscurity" is slightly off the mark.

Completetly agree, autotobebanned, have you ever listened to Spin SW...obscure isent the word,5word weather and the 'lowdown' is car crash radio.

What beat have done very well is get their whole station imaging on message and very sharp and Beat actually seem to know their audience unlike alot of the national broadcasters

djsupreme made some fair points. One way or the other Beat has certainly made the news, and that's obviously the object of the exercise. To be fair Niall and Mary's morning programme is top class. That's about all I ever get to hear on Beat.

meldrew

djsupreme wrote: »

Hey guys,

I have responded to some of the gripes in the radio forum, and I thought I should try to do the same here. I am connected with Beat, so I'd like to say a couple of things.

Firstly, we were all quite aware from the start that this radio event would stir up some strong feelings. We're quite happy to accept some criticism from the religious side, the moral side, etc. But we realise that we will also deal with criticism from the usual non-Beat fans who will use Two Strangers as a stick to beat us.

To put things in perspective, the main reason we did this was to provide a distraction for Beat listeners from the constant 100% doom and gloom that has dominated the Irish media for the last six months. Maybe you personally aren't into 2 Strangers, but we reckoned a good chunk of the audience would like to follow a love story on air in the old fashioned courting sense. The workload was huge, and we were aware that so many things could go wrong. I think we prepared counter plans for about 18 situations. Some of them much worse than what happened.

The couple married. Or at least "made a decision to commit". That was all we wanted. Or expected. We thought at the worst, they would not get on, but be friendly.... come home and it would fizzle out. But they really didn't get on. Which is unfortunate. But in reality, it made the story a whole lot more interesting for the listener and the national media.

You may think it was a farce/failure/whatever. Beat's goals were achieved. We set out to get two strangers to make a commitment to each other. That happened. What we didn't expect was national media coverage worth hundreds of thousands of euro, which has lead to a big increase in advertising and sponsorship. The fact that so many people are talking about it here and in the radio forum, and elsewhere, makes us believe that the listenership figures will be pretty good (although we won't know that for about 6-9 months). All in all, we're pretty happy.

I'd now like to respond to a few of the comments posted in this thread....

• @Galagumas: TCH are delighted that any of their companies are increasing revenue at such a difficult time. I don't know what Beat websites you've been looking at, but the official Beat website, the Bebo, and the Facebook are pretty much covered in 2 Strangers stuff. And as regards Billy Mc, it's a general rule of radio that you don't talk about what the competition are doing, even if you disapprove.
• @Ziedth: Thanks for the nice comments about Beat. You mention it's been done a few times before. It's actually been done about 24 times. Every time produces different results. That was what excited us about the project. Neither us, nor the listener could predict how it turns out. If every couple who took part in 2 Strangers fell in love and stayed together forever after, it wouldn't have the same impact.
• RE: Beat FM. Interesting debate. It does bother us when people say FM. It's like adding "TV" to the end of every television station name because ITV/UTV etc do it. Either Beat 102 103 or Beat are acceptable in terms of selling ourselves. But once people recognise the brand, that is all that matters.
• @steveaustin: The "A or B" quiz was an attempt to add a little bit of fun and lightness into what was otherwise a serious business. It was only 60 secs long, and if you're a regular listener to Beat Breakfast, you'll know the crew try to bring a bit of fun to every situation. And if I can be cheeky, you say that you turn to Ray D'Arcy every day at 9am - but that quiz went out about half nine every day :P
• @abouttobebanned: Not sure what your particular issue is, but I can assure you that your assertion that Beat needs to be rescued from "certain obscurity" is slightly off the mark. As I mentioned elsewhere, Beat received it's highest ever listenership in the last JNLRs - and is the most listened to independent youth or regional radio station in Ireland - with more adults (85% of Beat's audience is aged 20-34) listening in the South East than 2FM or Today FM. A far cry from obscurity.

They are the facts. Genuine non-biased reaction is always welcomed and listened to.

Hi Niall
Just a couple of things
! Mary is hot
2 You dont really look like Josh Hartnett !
3 While I was listening to some of the interviews with the potential "brides and grooms" it became so exrutiatingly embarrassing that i actually turned off the station , surely that was.nt the point of the exercise .I just thought the whole thing was tacky and contrived and absolutely nothing positive came out of it , even though now Beat are advertising about what a great success it was .
4 I await with dread the next promotion your marketing department are scouring the internet for to see what was done in other countries .

abouttobebanned

@DJsupreme - How much debt are beat currently in?

merlante

The real reason why this was a farce, imho, was that there was no marriage. Isin't that the whole reason why this sort of thing is interesting?

Two strangers 'making a commitment to each other' happens numerous times every weekend in Ruby's, Muldoons, etc., without all the rigamarole.

road_high

merlante wrote: »

The real reason why this was a farce, imho, was that there was no marriage. Isin't that the whole reason why this sort of thing is interesting?

Two strangers 'making a commitment to each other' happens numerous times every weekend in Ruby's, Muldoons, etc., without all the rigamarole.

Yea, I was tuning in fully expecting (in my naievity) a "real" wedding. Not a commitment ceremony. The selection process should have been more rigorous in my opinion as the people chosen did not seem very all that commited to the idea imho.

j walsh

djsupreme or Niall if its you,
I commend beat on what you've achieved with the whole wedding thing even though its being done before in other countries it still took balls,Waterford people are great for "begrudging and knocking there own"
if it happened somewhere like Galway and it got loads of press, i could hear people saying "we would never thing of something like that" so congrats and you got the result you wanted.
I personally enjoyed it as it was something different, i also enjoy beat breakfast and Andy Mc who's a mate so i'm baised.:D

I'm critical of certain songs being played at the exact same time all week long, like a couple of weeks ago eminem was played i think at 10.05am all week,i know ye have certain songs to play but mix up the times.
Also i ran a Muay Thaiboxing tournament a couple of months ago and e-mailed you about an interview or a plug but to no avail i never got a reply, shame on you:mad:.
Apart from that little rant a big thumbs up to beat from me.

steveaustin

djsupreme wrote:

The "A or B" quiz was an attempt to add a little bit of fun and lightness into what was otherwise a serious business. It was only 60 secs long, and if you're a regular listener to Beat Breakfast, you'll know the crew try to bring a bit of fun to every situation. And if I can be cheeky, you say that you turn to Ray D'Arcy every day at 9am - but that quiz went out about half nine every day

I can't give you a "Touché Turtle" moment there for been cheeky cause I listen to Beat Breakfast repeat between 1 and 2am weeknights. I'm a bit of a night owl.

Just in the context of us the listeners trying to get to know the people been interviewed I just thought it didnt add much. But i understand that it is light entertainment in the morning and it also relaxes people who are not used to talking on the radio. Still think it was silly

btw, I think your big reply to various comments was a good call.

abouttobebanned wrote: »

@DJsupreme - How much debt are beat currently in?

abouttobebanned, where do you want to go with this?
It's getting off topic.
This is not really the forum for financial details of a company to be openingly talked about. If you want to find out such details go into Beat and talk to the finance person or something. I wouldn't be surprised if they say and who are you? what interest have you in Beat? Are you a share holder of TCH? etc if you know what I mean.
To want to have a financial discussion about "any" company on a public forum isn't really gonna happen in all fairness. And if it did I would be surprised and raise an eyebrow.

Also just in case your are wondering, I have no affiliation to Beat, I don't know anyone working in there, just listen to Morning Crew and flick to station every now and again if I'm in the car. I just wouldn't like to see any company been financially discussed here. Unless of course it was public knowledge. Disagree with me if you wish. All always, it's just my opinion.

I could go on and on about this off topic but now I'm going off topic myself

j walsh wrote:

....Waterford people are great for "begrudging and knocking there own"

Ah c'mon, that is like the ace card you can say about anything!!!
I disagree, I dont think you can brush everyone with that brush.
I would consider a lot here as been feedback/opinion.

merlante wrote:

....Two strangers 'making a commitment to each other' happens numerous times every weekend in Ruby's, Muldoons, etc., without all the rigamarole.

LOL, brilliant

Sully

j walsh wrote: »

djsupreme or Niall if its you,
I commend beat on what you've achieved with the whole wedding thing even though its being done before in other countries it still took balls,Waterford people are great for "begrudging and knocking there own"
if it happened somewhere like Galway and it got loads of press, i could hear people saying "we would never thing of something like that" so congrats and you got the result you wanted.
I personally enjoyed it as it was something different, i also enjoy beat breakfast and Andy Mc who's a mate so i'm baised.:D

Beat covers the south east. They were not knocked, afaik, in local press or just by locals. They were hit by the bigger fish such as the Irish Times, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent. Possibly even the times. The more "serious" press. I'm not counting the tabloids, who I am sure covered it in as much detail as possible. People just thought the idea was making a mockery of marriage and was just a way to increase listening numbers and increase revenue (I highly doubt it was just for the "craic" or an "experiment").

Also i ran a Muay Thaiboxing tournament a couple of months ago and e-mailed you about an interview or a plug but to no avail i never got a reply, shame on you:mad:.

Im sure your not being serious, but in the event you are, id suggest emailing your complaint rather then making a public showdown! :P

Apart from that little rant a big thumbs up to beat from me.

Yup, tis a good station alright.

robtri

Have to say I listen to beat most days on the drive to and from work...

would make the following abou the two strangers.....

It worked very well, proof being national interest, press, sponsorship deals..

I didn't like the idea of it being marketted as new and original, Beat FM( i will add the fm if I like) nothing new and nothing original about this competition..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Strangers_and_a_Wedding

Beat FM is great for local news bits and traffic....
some of the DJ's are very good and they are what make the difference to the station, as the music is the same junk played 20 times a day on every other main station in ireland...

Kotek Besar

I remember BRMB in Birmingham did this years ago. I thought it was a stupid idea then.

j walsh

Ah c'mon, that is like the ace card you can say about anything!!!
I disagree, I dont think you can brush everyone with that brush.
I would consider a lot here as been feedback/opinion.


Ok stone cold , the ace card is right i'll admit that, but there's a fine line between feedback/opinion and having a go, which IMO some posts are doing.
True also about the brush but it does happen a lot also in IMO.;)

abouttobebanned

The reason I asked about the debt situation is because i was laughed at when I said that the station needed to do something before it faded into obscurity.

gscully

I got to thinking about this over the weekend...don't know why, but anyway...

As bad as we may think the whole 'two weddings and a stranger' thing was, anything has got to be better than that f***ing beat fugitive!

I remember a couple of years ago, I had the misfortune to be in town on the day of the final and was continuously being harassed by teenage girls asking if I was the fugitive. Obvious jokes about that aside, any event that encourages young girls to go up and talk to strangers is not good in my opinion. Not in this day and age anyway...

For what it's worth, I do like Beat (even though I'm older than the demographic), but only for the non-mainstream shows. The breakfast show is one of the best of it's kind around and is up there with D'Arcy's show on Today FM. The repetition of certain songs on the mainstream shows grates me though.

robtri

gscully wrote: »

I got to thinking about this over the weekend...don't know why, but anyway...

As bad as we may think the whole 'two weddings and a stranger' thing was, anything has got to be better than that f***ing beat fugitive!

another big crowd puller... worked very well it did for them,
but again this has been done before many radio stations....
they need to do something big and ORIGINAL

gscully

robtri wrote: »

another big crowd puller... worked very well it did for them,
but again this has been done before many radio stations....
they need to do something big and ORIGINAL

Well, they're the right kind of station to pull something big off alright (no deliberate innuendo). If they can't think of something themselves, why not have a competition (date with Mary being the prize) to come up with an idea?

Trick of the Tail

Guys, don't you understand? The promo wasn't a failure at all!

The SOLE purpose of it was to get the station publicity and listeners, right at the perfect part of a JNLR survey period!

And it succeeded in that!

The fact that the 'social experiment' failed, is irrelevent. It didn't fail anyway, in that no result of an experiment is a failure - it's just the result.

Although of course it wasn't a proper 'experiment' anyway - no control group, not a big enough sample, results not repeatable, none of the points demanded of a bona fide scientific experiment.

But none of that matters. It was a publicity vehicle, and it did its job. And continues to, as long as we talk about it!

A.

Daysha

abouttobebanned wrote: »

The reason I asked about the debt situation is because i was laughed at when I said that the station needed to do something before it faded into obscurity.

No you weren't.

You were laughed at because you slyly suggested that Beat workers care more about the correctness of it's name than the financial security of the radio station.

Which, with all due respect, is laughable.

nkay1985

It seems that this event has served its purpose from a Beat perspective.

But is everybody missing how this affects those involved, particularly the two that went through with it?

These people will be a laughing stock for a long time to come. And I know they put themselves forward for it but sometimes you have to protect people from themselves.

I don't agree with the principle of the promotion but that's not a surprise because I don't like any of Beat's stuff if I'm honest. A friend of mine was working with WLR when the new license was being applied for and the plan for Beat back then sounded really good. I'm saddened to see what it's become because it's completely not my type of station but they seem to do well with certain types of people, which is their main aim I suppose.

If this promotion has appealed to this type of person, they've done well. But I've not met one person who was anything but disgusted by this.

BTW I'm a 23 year old male, so I presume I'm part of the target demographic!

abouttobebanned

Daysha wrote: »

No you weren't.

You were laughed at because you slyly suggested that Beat workers care more about the correctness of it's name than the financial security of the radio station.

Which, with all due respect, is laughable.

Unless you admit that the station is in an awful lot of financial trouble...than it's not that laughable.

robtri

alinton wrote: »

Guys, don't you understand? The promo wasn't a failure at all!

The SOLE purpose of it was to get the station publicity and listeners, right at the perfect part of a JNLR survey period!

And it succeeded in that!

A.

I don't think anybody said it was a failure,
I actually said it did very well out of it with all the coverage it got...

my bone of contention is that the station hasn't come up with anything new or exciting.... it is just rehashed *&^% that other stations have done successfully before...

Daysha

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Unless you admit that the station is in an awful lot of financial trouble...than it's not that laughable.

Why admit to something I know nothing about?

Sully

Daysha wrote: »

Why admit to something I know nothing about?

And on that note...

Lets move swiftly along. The topic is about the "Two Strangers and a Wedding" event. Not about how Beat is running financially.

Please stick to the topic at hand folks rather then getting sidetracked on seperate issues.

Any problems with this, PM me.

Thanks.

steveaustin

j walsh wrote: »

Ok stone cold , the ace card is right i'll admit that.......

Not to sound pedantic or anything, but my handle Steve Austin, refers to The Six Million Dollar Man and not stone cold the wrestler.

It does bother me when people say Stone Cold. I don't like wrestling but I am of that vintage age of early 30s who remembers fondly as a kid the good old 70s and 80s TV shows.
Either Steve Austin or Steve or 6 Million Dollar Man is acceptable in terms of people knowing my handle name. But once people recognise its not Stone Cold, that is all that matters.



back on topic, nkay1985 raises interesting points, the human element to the promotion. Hopefully they received advice on how to handle media intrusion.

WMT

steveaustin wrote: »

Not to sound pedantic or anything, but my handle Steve Austin, refers to The Six Million Dollar Man and not stone cold the wrestler.

It does bother me when people say Stone Cold. I don't like wrestling but I am of that vintage age of early 30s who remembers fondly as a kid the good old 70s and 80s TV shows.
Either Steve Austin or Steve or 6 Million Dollar Man is acceptable in terms of people knowing my handle name. But once people recognise its not Stone Cold, that is all that matters.


"AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE" ," 'COS STONE COLD SAYS SO "

j walsh

WMT wrote: »

steveaustin wrote: »

Not to sound pedantic or anything, but my handle Steve Austin, refers to The Six Million Dollar Man and not stone cold the wrestler.

It does bother me when people say Stone Cold. I don't like wrestling but I am of that vintage age of early 30s who remembers fondly as a kid the good old 70s and 80s TV shows.
Either Steve Austin or Steve or 6 Million Dollar Man is acceptable in terms of people knowing my handle name. But once people recognise its not Stone Cold, that is all that matters.


"AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE" ," 'COS STONE COLD SAYS SO "

Sheer Class :D:D