Today FM Megathread Mod warning post #1 / #1401

paddylonglegs

robo wrote: »

I have given up on the music on TodayFM - rarely listen now during the day, except for Sunday nights from 7pm with Ed Smith. The station's music choices are woeful

To be fair, I doubt they have a choice most of the time, it’s commercial radio and you’re going to hear the same songs on other national stations the world over. I’m sure there’s some agreement made with record companies etc to keep their songs on the radio. As much as I love Ed Smiths show, it just wouldn’t be viable to have that type of music playing 24/7, as big companies wouldn’t want to advertise on niche radio. Radio nova is an example

Irish Gunner

That Bl**dy Driving Licence song is on repeat on every show

At this stage I would like to go and Hot Wire her car and run her down:mad:

Its the Repetitiveness of songs that I cannot stand

Also the constant HSE adds get on my wick

Thats my 2c

radiotrickster

Irish Gunner wrote: »

That Bl**dy Driving Licence song is on repeat on every show

At this stage I would like to go and Hot Wire her car and run her down:mad:

Its the Repetitiveness of songs that I cannot stand

Also the constant HSE adds get on my wick

Thats my 2c

But are radio stations made so that you listen to the station non-stop for the entire day? It makes sense to repeat songs because most people probably won't hear it every time it's one, so it doesn't feel that repetitive to them.

TaurenDruid

radiotrickster wrote: »

But are radio stations made so that you listen to the station non-stop for the entire day? It makes sense to repeat songs because most people probably won't hear it every time it's one, so it doesn't feel that repetitive to them.

Well, in the Before Times, no... you'd hear the radio on the way to work, maybe, possibly lunchtime, possibly on a commute home, maybe while making dinner.
(And in my case it stayed on then because most evenings, radio is better than TV, unless I'm streaming something).

Unless you worked in a shop or somewhere else that has the radio on all day.

Now? Radio goes on at 9ish in the morning, and stays on all day long, unless I really need to concentrate on something, in which case I have Spotify playlists.

Irish Gunner

radiotrickster wrote: »

But are radio stations made so that you listen to the station non-stop for the entire day? It makes sense to repeat songs because most people probably won't hear it every time it's one, so it doesn't feel that repetitive to them.

And your point been caller?

In these times more people WFH and also some others have radio on while working in shops, factories etc I can change the dial but post was my POV

I understand that they play the 'Popular' songs to get more listeners and then more advertisement but if they stick with the repetitiveness it may turn listeners off.

So to quote Homer on Todays FM plan 'First you get the sugar... Then you get the power... then you get the women'

marno21

Most listeners only listen to the radio in short bursts. Therefore, the biggest songs are on high rotation so that people who tune in and out have a good chance of hearing them.

I’d bet that 10 minutes after they play x song there’s people texting in for it already.

Didn’t Atlantic 252 have 90 minute rotation for some of the biggest songs? Capital in the UK have 2 hour rotation for some of the bigger songs

TaurenDruid

marno21 wrote: »

Didn’t Atlantic 252 have 90 minute rotation for some of the biggest songs? Capital in the UK have 2 hour rotation for some of the bigger songs

:eek::eek::eek:

As someone who used to work in retail - that's a terrifying thought!

paddylonglegs

Other countries have far tighter rotations it’s laughable. Defo thought of Atlantic 252 though

ButtersSuki

I’ve posted this before, but still hits the nail on the head. Go to 1:18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOFKU_hwj2o

Only thing is he’s severely under-estimated the time period at just 3 months.

True story: I’m so old I have the original (F*ck Dat) on vinyl. I wonder what would the content creators think of vinyl?

stronglikebull

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Other countries have far tighter rotations it’s laughable. Defo thought of Atlantic 252 though

American radio is terrible for that. Last time I was in Florida, they had One Direction on every single time we got into the car, no matter what station was on. It became a running gag by the end of the two weeks. We thought that Simon Cowell was sponsoring all the radio stations in Florida or something.

Johnthemanager

Mairead ronan needs to be taken off the bloody air. Every link she does is Covid or lockdown related, she never shuts up about it.

If I want to hear constant negativity about the pandemic I'd put on Radio 1!

Does she have any producers to tell her she is supposed to be doing a light topiced music orientated show. She would depress a bloody nation!!

Chuck Noland

Johnthemanager wrote: »

Mairead ronan needs to be taken off the bloody air. Every link she does is Covid or lockdown related, she never shuts up about it.

If I want to hear constant negativity about the pandemic I'd put on Radio 1!

Does she have any producers to tell her she is supposed to be doing a light topiced music orientated show. She would depress a bloody nation!!

After her recent jab about being on her period I checked out. I’ve listened to today fm for over 20 years but can’t anymore bar D&D. Amazing that she makes Tracy Clifford on 2FM look and sound like prime Larry Gogan.

ButtersSuki

Johnthemanager wrote: »

Mairead ronan needs to be taken off the bloody air. Every link she does is Covid or lockdown related, she never shuts up about it.

If I want to hear constant negativity about the pandemic I'd put on Radio 1!

Does she have any producers to tell her she is supposed to be doing a light topiced music orientated show. She would depress a bloody nation!!

That’s not true, she doesn’t just talk about Covid; she talks about herself too. Actually mostly.

RINO87

Chuck Noland wrote: »

After her recent jab about being on her period I checked out. I’ve listened to today fm for over 20 years but can’t anymore bar D&D. Amazing that she makes Tracy Clifford on 2FM look and sound like prime Larry Gogan.

Funny you mention that, i had not listened to daytime 2fm in years but put it on Tuesday there and her show was light years ahead of the other stations, it was so refreshing to hear!

Chuck Noland

RINO87 wrote: »

Funny you mention that, i had not listened to daytime 2fm in years but put it on Tuesday there and her show was light years ahead of the other stations, it was so refreshing to hear!

It’s not perfect but it’s a lot better then Today FM. The 2pm pump, Cliff bangers, noughties at noon, plenty of features to get people interacting like Mo K’s slot or the headline game and competitions like Panic..Not much of the “what things remind you of the 80s/90s” etc that seem so forced on Today FM.

Rfrip

Kelly Anne byrnes new show on face radio is brilliant! So happy she’s back on the airwaves

https://thefaceradio.com/

fg1406

Chuck Noland wrote: »

It’s not perfect but it’s a lot better then Today FM. The 2pm pump, Cliff bangers, noughties at noon, plenty of features to get people interacting like Mo K’s slot or the headline game and competitions like Panic..Not much of the “what things remind you of the 80s/90s” etc that seem so forced on Today FM.

I recently got a new job where the radio is on all day. I had not listened to radio (outside of local radio the odd time) for about 15 years. I actually felt I was being held hostage by the TodayFM algorithm. Same ads, same order, same songs, same “witty banter” day in day out. The shouty unfunny characters on D&D, the jingle for Letter Rip...what is that? It sounds like it was made by a transition year student on Cubase. And then Fergal Darcy. He’s probably a nice person but sweet Jesus....it’s like ctrl+v radio straight out of the tony Fenton playbook.

I could feel my brain cells melting with each day. I got angry every time I heard that “my wife is not a ho no” song. It’s lyrics are so asinine and misogynistic.

Again,I dont like the format of daytime radio and I never in a trillion years would expect to say this but 2Fm is so much better.

Dannyman76

Paula McSweeney back for a weekend covering Allison Curtis. Nice to hear her so happy to be on radio. Wonder where Pamela Joyce will go when the maternity cover ends

Dannyman76

fg1406 wrote: »

I recently got a new job where the radio is on all day. I had not listened to radio (outside of local radio the odd time) for about 15 years. I actually felt I was being held hostage by the TodayFM algorithm. Same ads, same order, same songs, same “witty banter” day in day out. The shouty unfunny characters on D&D, the jingle for Letter Rip...what is that? It sounds like it was made by a transition year student on Cubase. And then Fergal Darcy. He’s probably a nice person but sweet Jesus....it’s like ctrl+v radio straight out of the tony Fenton playbook.

I could feel my brain cells melting with each day. I got angry every time I heard that “my wife is not a ho no” song. It’s lyrics are so asinine and misogynistic.

Again,I dont like the format of daytime radio and I never in a trillion years would expect to say this but 2Fm is so much better.

"So there you go, oh
Can't make a wife out of a ho, oh" There's that other song too called Mood, you might have heard it "Only thing I need to know is if you wet enough" Sometimes I think certain presenters (they're not DJs) only read a script like Ron Burgundy

giveitholly

Heard the start of the Mairead Ronan show earlier. According to her the only reason the hairdressers are not opening is because they are a luxury item for women so they won't open them for that reason

dinneenp

Hi,
What was the third clue for 'Ah Sure what is it?' on Dermot and Dave for QPR please?

Thanks,
Pa.

statto25

giveitholly wrote: »

Heard the start of the Mairead Ronan show earlier. According to her the only reason the hairdressers are not opening is because they are a luxury item for women so they won't open them for that reason

Yep it's all because only Women get their haircut. Meanwhile I'm slowing morphing into Cousin It from Addams family.

TaurenDruid

Chuck Noland wrote: »

That’s not how it works. Songs are Categorised into folders. The playlist software then chooses songs from each folder randomly and within the restrictions on that folder say For example


High rotation (top 10). songs not to be repeated for 2-3 hours
Medium rotation (recent hits). songs not to be repeated in a day
Irish. Songs not to be repeated in say 6 hours


The playlist is then built in folder format on the advise of well paid external music research company’s normally and an example of this would be

News
High rotation
Add
High rotation
Medium rotation
Add
High rotation
Irish
High rotation
Add
News


This is obviously a very very basic example and things like links, features, competitions all need to be factored in. Add in slots then for music to tie into cheese and crackers and the “text in too choose” features, but I think you get the jist. As new songs hit the charts and “scores well” with music research company’s they get added into the high rotation folder. As songs fall in the charts they move into the medium rotation and so on. Again this is very basic but the majority of music radio from 6am - 6pm is done is this fashion to ensure the stations “sound” is kept to.

Very few Radio Presenters during those hours actually get to choose what they put out on the air but part of the “magic of radio” is leading people to believe they do.

Perfect example of this yesterday on Mairead Ronan, where she intro'd a song with surprise as "Oh! My favourite song, great!" - so definitely not getting to choose the playlist.

Irish Gunner

dinneenp wrote: »

Hi,
What was the third clue for 'Ah Sure what is it?' on Dermot and Dave for QPR please?

Thanks,
Pa.

First word is Question

Chuck Noland

TaurenDruid wrote: »

Perfect example of this yesterday on Mairead Ronan, where she intro'd a song with surprise as "Oh! My favourite song, great!" - so definitely not getting to choose the playlist.

My example was a pretty crude one as many factors are at play other then the folder the songs are in but it does amaze me that people aren’t aware that the majority of music on daytime mainstream radio isn’t chosen by the person on air.

tallaghtjoe

Irish Gunner wrote: »

First word is Question

Its the most stupid quiz ever - "whats the random saying in my head"
If it was an actual saying or well known phrase it might be a bit better, but who comes up with Question Politian's Ruthlessly. No wonder it went on for so long.

I miss the half 9 howya. It was stupid game too but hilarious. I used to be in the stitches laughing driving into work every morning.

maybe that says alot about me..;)

Dannyman76

What's this about Fergal D'Arcy starting an Irish music show on Sundays?

TaurenDruid

Dannyman76 wrote: »

What's this about Fergal D'Arcy starting an Irish music show on Sundays?

He's starting an Irish music on show on Sundays! :-) Sunday mornings, I understand. Old stuff is a given, presumably there'll be some newer artists covered too. I'll give it a listen - from what he was saying when I heard it mentioned, it'll be him picking the music and not an algorithm, so it'll already be 90%R better than weekday daytime music!

Though there is presumably a high risk of Dermot Kennedy and 'Giants'...

Dannyman76

TaurenDruid wrote: »

He's starting an Irish music on show on Sundays! :-) Sunday mornings, I understand. Old stuff is a given, presumably there'll be some newer artists covered too. I'll give it a listen - from what he was saying when I heard it mentioned, it'll be him picking the music and not an algorithm, so it'll already be 90%R better than weekday daytime music!

Though there is presumably a high risk of Dermot Kennedy and 'Giants'...

An odd time to have it on but he's only replacing robodj at that hour

TaurenDruid

Dannyman76 wrote: »

An odd time to have it on but he's only replacing robodj at that hour

Yeah, starting at 8am, which means I'll miss the first 90 minutes, most weeks :-)