Phantom Last night 18/6/04

ShriekingSheet

Why was phantom fm ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL last night!!!

The nectar show sponsored by the village venue kicked off at midnight as the station started 4 the weekend. Im usually more a daytime/evening car listener but stuck it on as i was in bed last night. The few times i do listen at night it seems to be quite good- even better than the 2 petes etc but last night was apauling!

All this far out blues/jazz influenced stuff, weird ass rock rather than good alt or irish stuff!

I texted in for Ryan Adams and maybe some Melaton and didnt even get a mention and then texted again for some La Rocca and got blanked again! Surely she should have had ONE of those three or at least said "sorry i cant seem to dig out any" etc!

Anyone else find this...

mollser

I've thought this before about Phantom, i've turned on on a sunday morning and heard over an hour of complete bollo$ jazz and alternative jazz and complete weirdo music.

If they get a license based on this, two things will happen...

1) they will lose their license cos they will be in breach of their remit to play rock music

2) they will never be commercially viable, cos its complete horse****e they play some of the time, and are not reliable for decent tunes.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the station, but sometimes, just sometimes, it can be so far off the wall I do worry that people even listen to the crap.

Whats wrong with a good ould fashioned rock station ala Oz/US?

SimonMaher

Jaysus relax the jets there!

Very simple answer to this one is that not everyone will like everything thats being broadcast on Phantom all the time. A lot of the programming on Phantom is aimed at a more general audience with the recognizable Phantom alt stuff. Some programmes are more specialised though and are not to everyones taste. We have to try to cater to as many tastes within the genre as we can, and we should.

Remember too that what you are listening to at the weekend is a very telescoped version of what 7 day Phantom would be. Its a week squashed into two days. I got three people texting in last weekend asking where X-1 had gone to. I explained that there just isnt the time for it on the restricted schedule but that when we were back 7 days, doubtless it would be too! X-1 and Suspense aren't standard Phantom programming, but were very popular amoung a certain audience. Likewise stuff like the Metal Shows, Media Beacon, The Two Petes etc.

Should we never vary outside of the standard? Listen to the stuff you like, give the rest a try, and if you dont like those bits, switch off and come back later. Trust me, being able to hear what you like a lot of the time is a damn sight better than what you can hear after June 27th :-)

Regards,

Pete Reed
92.1 Phantom FM
reed@phantomfm.com

ozone6280

In my opinion these shows would be dropped if they didnt get any response on the phone txts and email. So someone must be listening.I think Phantom have a good grip on what there audience want , I must say i dont like everthing they play-- no one does but they are far better than all the crap you have on at the minute. If the djs were to mention everyone they wouldnt have time to play the music. I have sent in requests and never got them played but that dosnt mean I dont like the Dj . Maybe Pete can tell us on average how many requests txts emails they get per show? It maybe to many to mention everyone.

Remember nobody can can please everybody all of the time but only half of the time

Monkey

"I've thought this before about Phantom, i've turned on on a sunday morning and heard over an hour of complete bollo$ jazz and alternative jazz and complete weirdo music"

That's the best show on phantom.

Smurfpiss

yeah i want ambers babies.

I wouldnt consider playing alt jazz or whatever name you like to sullie it with as a "breach of their remit to play rock music". I mean,its not as exactly janet jacksons third nipple now is it?? Besides lotsa bands will have some crazy funked out jazz songs that often get played on phantom, but it doesnt mean the music is crap.

While the station focuses mainly on the alt rock scene with a heavy side order of irish rock, I feel the djs are given more freedom to play what they like than in other stations. You and others may not always enjoy their choice of music,but you can be sure that the djs on the station will play quality music and will steer well clear of the generic, the bland and the manufactured. That alone is something we should be thankful for.

To be honest I can't call myself a rap fan, but I still listen when they play the beasties boys. Theres the odd show that doesn't tickle my fancy, but theres plenty more after to woo me back.

As for the requests and text messages - Ive never known a station to be so receptive of its audience. Anything, and near everything is read out without prejudice or smirking (well maybe not the last one!) In fact maybe a bit too many are read out? Poor petes, sometimes I think they should just call it "The Text Message Show!" But like the rest of the djs they pull through with a fine aul set all together.

PhantomFM is for music lovers, not just rock lovers. Its not a background noise to your daily life but a source of quality listening. So if ya don't always like the music, there's always CDs.

legofsalmon

I couldn't disagree more with those earlier posts, and I do sympathise with shriekingsheet and mollser, and for different reasons pete himself.

I know where you guys are coming from. Back not so long ago on the 7day schedule, phantom made a real name for itself and rightly so and we all got used to that phantom vibe and rock sound we got off the station. They played what they wanted to cater for a demographic that was being unfullfilled. But there still was the more jazzy, avantgarde and sometimes plain weird back then, I used to listen out for it all the time. ( pearl used to play some.... inbetween billy bragg tracks of course . And now if you look to the airplay of alt rock to the jazzier/"weirder" stuff, the rock will still dominate, by a fair load.

And come on, I could understand Petes dilemma, trying to cram all of the old style schedule into 48 hours, is extremely hard. Us little guys who liked out teeny dose of something weirder are no less a part of the phantom listenership as anyone else, and I could see that we would have to be catered for. It makes sense!

Anyway, even if I didn't like jazz, or rock music at all... variety is what makes music radio. It builds a wider listenership, encourages more new music, and ultimately educates listeners, who are aware in varying styles and genres. If we didn't hear something new everynow and again, we wouldn't listen! there would be no point. The same goes for the programmes, if all programmes were playing the same music after each other it would all get very old.

Finally, if you were to look at all the stuff phantom plays there are links to rock music in it all. Jazz emerged in Europe especially after WW2, about ( being very approximate, no way am I naming a time when anything really "started" ) the same time as rock n' roll got a kickstart. They fed off each other and elements of both crossed, and styles of rock take from jazz/blues ( cough::cough:: hendrix:: ) and likewise stlyes of jazz have been influenced vice versa. ( <insert similar cough here> george benson ).

Beh, this has gotten waaay to serious for my liking.

Okay to summerise........ they didn't play westlife...... until then don't fret that they aren't playing "good" music.

And whats wrong with jazz????????

:rolleyes:

legofsalmon

Originally posted by Smurfpiss
yeah i want ambers babies.

hmmm I was worried that you hadn't come to defend amber smurf... it cools like its you, me and monkey defending her and the show.....

huzzah for bjork!!

McGonagles

Originally posted by Pete Reed
Should we never vary outside of the standard?

Never varying outside the standard is what 98 and 104 do!
And they do it very very well, which makes a lot of JNLR-rated
target demographics tune in. But it's boring!

If you just want to swap one standard for another, and stick to it
with no diversions, then you might as well slap on a Pixies
greatest hits CD on random play. Or one of those indie label
sampler CD's that Road always seem to have for a fiver.
Or your current fav. 5 CD's over and over again.

What makes me put away the fav. CD's and tune in, is the chance of
hearing some new "weird ass" music, played beside the old and new
music that I already know I like. Having the same 4 Pixies songs on
the old Phantom was great, but getting to hear Chuzzle is better...

Not everyone will like all of the unfamiliar stuff, but the trick is to
balance it so that only the really impatient listener gets turned off.

As for texting in, maybe I'm just lucky but every text request I ever
sent in got read out, more or less word for word, and the artist
I was asking for got mentioned whether they were able to play
it or not. I really can't ask for more than that!

Steve Conway

A really interesting discussion, it's insightful to see how the different styles of show are coming across.

I think the key thing here is that due to the 48-hour restriction, the specialist shows are standing out far more than they normally would - Pearl for example is 2 out of 48 hours, rather than 2 out of 168.

If (please!!!!!) we are given the chance to do this full time again, shows like hers will have more chance to breathe set amongst a greater quantity of "core" phantom. For me, I love them all, for different reasons, Pearl's style is lovely to lie in bed and slowly wake up to (not that I get to do that these Sundays).

As regards texts, the amount coming in can vary according to factors such as Bank Holiday weekends, time of day, time of year etc, and even according to the mood of the presenter (when I do shows, if I'm particularly upbeat and happy, and I'm putting that across on air, I'll get twice as many texts).

If it's not busy, there will still be way more text requests then there are tracks to play, and if it is, it's not uncommon to have so many that it's difficult to read them all on the computer screen before they are pushed down by newer incoming ones.

Anyway, please keep the responses coming - all read with interest!

butterfly

Originally posted by mollser
1) they will lose their license cos they will be in breach of their remit to play rock music

bull, that doesn't happen. if you've applied for an alternative rock licence, then you have to play alternative rock.
....for around fifty days, then you can change it to whatever the hell you want and comreg can't say a word. this is the haenous and terrifying threat of commercial stations/associations/whatever (those that aren't phantom, in short) applying for the same licence.

the show is fine. it may not be my cup o' tea personally, but hell, i cant hack that two hours solid of metal either (why yes, please allow me to listen to my little brother jump up&down on my guitar and scream while i try to get ready to go out why don't you, lovely..) on a saturday night, but you don't see me complaining. (ooh, except for just now!!)
the fact that there are no shows for jazz etc anymore in dublin since jazz fm got shut down (with all the rest) last year means that someonehas to appeal to that audience. it's only fair! these people get what, two hours, everyone else gets the whole rest of the weekend, and everyone else (in the true and broadest sense of the world) gets commercials 24/7.
it's good that phantom is better than saying 'oh, we might get 4 more listeners if we put on such 'n' such', it's a more personal thing, it's a community, a co-op if you will, and in a co-op, people work together because they appreciate that everyone's in the same boat.

rant over

oh, and yeah, what is wrong with jazz??

Gerard_Smith

Personally with the exception of my pathological hatred of pop, I have wide and varied taste in music, so I can listen quite happily to most anything played on phantom. Thought it must be said I am a big fan of Amber and her show and the music thats played on it. It’s unfair to say its crap just because you don’t like the style of music being played. Different strokes for different folks my friends. In any case let’s hope that phantom gets the license so you can have the privilege of being annoyed by her again.

geekstinkbreath

In my opinion, its the mix 'weird ass rock' and good alt and irish rock, that makes phantom so good.

i was only thinking the other week how irratating it is to hear the same popular rock tunes on mainstream stations played repeatedly, just because its cool. A whole station of this, would be really bland, and no better than the pop counterparts.

When I first started listening to phantom, most of the songs i heard were unknown and weird to me, but i embraced it. Now my musical tastes have broadened sooo much. Bands and musical styles that i used to dislike, i now love - and vise versa- thanks to ph.

Ive gone so nuts about unusal music, that when i hear i song i like, or is a bit different, i write down the name of it, or lyrics from it and i can find out more then about it. I have a notebook full of songs!..But enough of my anorakyness...

While hearing alot of songs that you dont know and are not used to can be irritating, i think those who find this should just give it a chance. But while i personally still find pearls show a bit boring, im not that stuck to the radio, and
ive figured out that there's actually an off button if iwant to use it!!

McGonagles

Originally posted by butterfly
bull, that doesn't happen. if you've applied for an alternative rock licence, then you have to play alternative rock.
....for around fifty days, then you can change it to whatever the hell you want and comreg can't say a word.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Dublin's Country
becomes STAR. Will they be keepin' it country, or playing whatever
their audience analysis-o-matic computers tell them they should be
playing?

PS: As for the "weird ass" music - I really like Pearl's weird ass
music!

Rockiemalt

I've gotta say i've grown to like the station more and more over the temp licences cause u don't it for granted that its there all the time

like chocolate money.. its not actually that nice but because you only get it once a year its exciting....

saying that though full time phantom fm will be phantastic! it'll really help bands and stuff and wow, it would be amazing if u knew it wouldn't be gettign shut down or be off after the 28 days or stuff. apart from the fact that everyone has worked really hard for it and its about time that the new station id was Dublins Fulltime Rock

phantoms given me an education about music that I couldn't have got anywhere else.. apart from doing a degree in phantomesque music...when it starts sign me up! there coudl be classes in picking the final 6 o clock news story.. and different music and....*is gettitng a little carried away*