Classic Hits no longer targeting Dublin audience

youdoyou

I heard a few sweepers today stating they were broadcasting to Cork Limerick Galway and Clare. No mention of Dublin. Maybe imaging is being split by location?

its_steve116

I think they are owned by the same company as Radio Nova, which broadcasts to Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. Maybe their listenership isn't good enough in Dublin.

Just out of interest, what part of Ireland are you located in? I'm in North Dublin.

youdoyou

Cork City. Heard it again today on their top of the hour jingle

Glaceon

I think they're regionalising the imaging. From Three Rock you'll hear Dublin, Wicklow, Meath and Kildare. Online they just say "Across Ireland".

Declan A Walsh

I can understand why they might be targeting audiences outside Dublin. There is a lot of competition on the airwaves in Dublin for the older music-loving adult with its sister station Radio Nova, Sunshine 106.8 and Q102.

Infoanon

Good to hear some innovation on the airwaves , I am surprised others haven't done it, especially with the automation systems available these days.

The next step is regional advertising which afaik has never been done on a legal station. (Pirates in the 80s did split ads by region )

Red Fred

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120208773#Comment_120208773

Shannonside Northern Sound runs different advertising in each of its franchise areas. It also runs area specific features like job finder, community events guide etc. so probably something that would work on multi city stations also.

Declan A Walsh

I suspect that Ocean FM has different advertising at times as it has regional optouts (or used to).

slither12

Not to go off topic but does anyone know whether most radio shows are scripted (i.e. the Niall Boylan Show)? I remember someone here posting a thread about a guy called 'Scumbag Steve' and recognizing his voice as a promoter on a social media platform.

Muller1991

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120209068#Comment_120209068

Most Radio Presenters would have a script to work off or a very tight knit running order that they can then improvise around.

Talk shows wouldn't have a script but they would have a very organised running order. What you are saying above doesn't really make sense though just because he has a name doesn't mean its scripted.

KReid

I heard the same myself coming into Galway last week.

I was wondering if this was the case, but I can't figure out how they would be doing it? The liner is played from in studio, the transmitter just relays the output so I can't understand how they could essentially split the signal to transmit different liners in different regions...

I could maybe understand if it was for adverts and it was a designated 4 minute block, that when a button was pressed it switched to a local feed in each region before reconnecting to the master feed maybe... Anyone know?

Would add that I was in Limerick and heard a liner for the Aran Islands... So may just be chance.

KildareP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120217874#Comment_120217874

As far as I know they still use RCS Zetta playout which can do splits out of the box.

Either each region gets a separate feed from the studio, or the localiser voiceover segment is mixed into the incoming studio feed at the transmitter site.

FM104 and Q102 does it for their news, news is taken live read by one newsreader across both stations but the ident between each individual news story are that of the station. They're also a Zetta operation.

Regionalisation doesn't seem to have taken off much here, presumably any possible additional revenue from having split advertising doesn't make it worthwhile.

Spin are about the only ones who do it with Spin 1038 and Spin South West combining outside of morning and drive but with local idents and ads.

iRadio are technically still two independent regions with two completely separate split playouts, separate processors and STL feed, but I've never heard them using it in practise in terms of regionalising the output or ads. Admittedly I tend not to pay much heed to the ads 😁

KReid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120219601#Comment_120219601

I was thinking of Spin alright and wondering how they did it.

My understanding, and it's partially guesswork and from being in a few studios over the years is that the Spin feed is mostly from Dublin. So they have the master system in place, but split certain items with South West now. So even if it says 1038 in Dublin, an equivalent will play in the South West with their own station ident, but it's all coming from Dublin and in this case Zetta is just playing two different pieces of audio on two different streams.

What gets me is, Spin don't run local bespoke liners, it will never say Ennis or Tralee for example, it's jsut South West, all the transmitters take the same feed. With Classic Hits, they would need separate feeds going to each transmission site, so essentially needs 5-6 virtual stations running at once feeding into a master station?

The FM104/Q102 example is really simple, when they play the news ident, it plays at the same time, but each station has a different piece of audio assigned to that position, but they need to be exactly the same length so the newsreader can come in on time. It's easier to do because it's two different stations, but all from the one transmission site. I can't really get my head around how Classic Hits would have different audio come from different transmitters without having different stations feeding into them.

Infoanon

I would guess it's a separate feed out of the box which would allow monitoring at the studio .

The networked UK former locals , eg GHR / Smooth etc can be monitored from the studio with the one trigger sending out the multiple idents required.

Absolutes have the one breakfast show across all its network's 70/80/90s etc ,all live, the software works out the songs that fit the segment time available.

KReid

Thr Absolute one is impressive, but it's easier to comprehend. You have one master station, then 7 digital stations, but they all have their own unique playlist generated that goes out based around the master schedule, and it's all being done online essentially.

So maybe Classic Hits make a master playlist, then have 7 sub stations running based off the master (everything is the exact same except the regionlaised liners) each of them going to a different transmitter, even then you have several transmitters for Limerick and Galway that need that feed. Which seems very complicated for an FM setup, and it's all just so you can play localised liners, not even localised advertising to raise money.