RockScotland

So much for 96.3 Rock Radio! Scotland's ONLY Classic Rock station?

Let me just clear this up - U2, Simple Minds, Franz Ferdinand and all the other trendy indie-pop is not classic rock music!

As for the playlist could it be any safer?

The station needs to think beyond the lightweight acts, such as Gun and Logan, that it seems to devote all it's time to and ask someone (preferably someone who knows) what "classic" rock is.

Think Rainbow, think UFO, think Dio, not Bon Jovi or other pop acts.

There is a huge audience in the Glasgow area that are crying out for proper Rock Music and who still have to turn to Planet Rock, Total Rock and the various internet stations to provide this.

heather

heather wrote:U2, Simple Minds, Franz Ferdinand and all the other trendy indie-pop is not classic rock music!

You're completely right these bands are not Rock!

I recall that when Ciaran O'Toole had a phone in poll regarding this, everyone told him to stop playing Simple Minds and U2.

This was a Saturday afternoon show and he claimed that they wouldn't play that sort of stuff again.

However, they were back to playing U2 and Simple Minds a couple of days later!

I also think that as Station Manager, Ciaran O'Toole is responsible for the playlists. It's really only Tom Russell who make any attempt to play proper classic rock.

Angus

angus wrote:he claimed that they wouldn't play that sort of stuff again

I heard that phone in as well!

All the management at Rock Radio, Billy Anderson, Jay Crawford and Ciaran O'Toole, came from a pop background at Real Radio so nothing's going to change in the near future!

rocker

While I don't necessarily disagree with any of the above, the fact remains that 96.3 is the best that we've got!

I wouldn't play any of the indie-pop (especially the diabolicle White Stripes) but I still listen to 96.3 almost exclusively.

Tom Russell is still one of the countries top Rock DJ's and he has also done lot for the local area in terms of rock music.

Give the station a chance because it's certainly made a difference.

I read an article that claimed that BBC Radio Scotland had lost a load of listeners from the 35 - 55 age group (specifically from the Tom Morton Show) who had all switched to 96.3. That seems to make sense.

crazy_train

crazy_train wrote:I read an article that claimed that BBC Radio Scotland had lost a load of listeners from the 35 - 55 age group (specifically from the Tom Morton Show) who had all switched to 96.3

I saw something similar as well. At the end of the day Tom Morton on BBC Scotland was the only person playing any "adult" type music on daytime radio.

I think a lot of people were definately waiting for something like 96.3 as most of your proper rock fans, and by that I mean classic rock fans, are guys (and gals) in their 40 and 50's who just can't be bothered with the UK daytime radio rubbish.

Even Tom Morton is playing stuff like Katy Perry and other teen pop now so it was obvious the listeners were going to go as soon as there was an alternative.

I'm sure he had already lost a load of listeners anyway when he moved away from the Americana and Folk stuff that he used to play.

brazzer

heather wrote:As for the playlist could it be any safer?

It probably could - do you want BoyZone, Take That etc?

There are obviously limits as to what can be played on daytime radio but think yourself lucky you're getting rock music at all - before 96.3 came along all you got was the occasional Bon Jovi or Whitesnake on daytime radio and even then only the Top Of The Pops friendly stuff and it was always treated as a novelty item. You just have to accept that heavier thrashier stuff just doesn't work on daytime radio and that the extreme stuff only has a limited audience anyway.

heather wrote:The station needs to think beyond the lightweight acts, such as Gun and Logan, that it seems to devote all it's time to and ask someone (preferably someone who knows) what "classic" rock is

I think the recent Gun and Logan gigs have shown that there is a lot of support for both these bands. At the end of the day it's a Scottish station and it's good to see it getting behind the local acts. It's been years since any Scottish radio stations gave any support to rock bands and in fact there's been nothing since Tom Russell did his Friday night show on Radio Clyde.

heather wrote:Think Rainbow, think UFO, think Dio, not Bon Jovi or other pop acts

I'd let them away with Bon Jovi (that's for the ladies like yourself ) but I'll concede that Franz Ferdinand and the other indie-pop isn't welcome. Everyone has their preference but, as they say, you can't please everyone all of the time.

heather wrote:There is a huge audience in the Glasgow area that are crying out for proper Rock Music and who still have to turn to Planet Rock, Total Rock and the various internet stations to provide this

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Planet Rock just play the Who's Greatest Hits on permanent rotation? It seems like that to me! However, audiences will go to wherever they get to listen to what they want - if you can get better elsewhere then tune in there!

Have to agree with all the above posts. While tis true that i would much prefer having 96.3 than not, The playlists are a disgrace! i once counted the utterly awful awful Thin Lizzy "Rocker" (personal pet hate song!) get played 7 times between 6am and 1pm. Met Tom Russell at a Pallas gig last year and bent his ear about WTF inxs, stereophonics modern mince like the view, killers,kings of leon have to do with Classic rock. He intimated that the manager Billy somebody was a big inxs fan and demanded that crap and similar be played.They need to sit up and take notice of the listeners before the station dies.. more and more people tuning into Planet Rock,Totalrock even Virgin Classic Rock (or Smirnoff or whatever they call it now) on DAB and as DAB gets more accessable with more cars getting it less and less people will "settle" for the odd rock classic sandwiched between oasis and u2. That said, at least they seem to have nearly got the birthday party gig right Saxon,Waysted and Quireboys in one night!! brilliant, Not too sure why they have a bluesman on in the form of Danny Bryant (at least he can play) and no idea what manner of boy band garbage the haze are(suppose it will be good bar blitzing time!!) drop those 2 put in a couple of rock bands and what a night it would be.

mabozza wrote:the manager Billy somebody was a big inxs fan and demanded that crap and similar be played.They need to sit up and take notice of the listeners before the station dies..

Billy Anderson - All the management at 96.3 came from Real Radio so it's not too much of a surprise that they concentrate on the indie pop and TOTP rockers.

Just be glad they didn't bring any of the DJ's - imagine smart arse Steve McKenna trying to pretend he knows anything about rock music?

mabozza wrote:no idea what manner of boy band garbage the haze are(suppose it will be good bar blitzing time!!) drop those 2 put in a couple of rock bands and what a night it would be.

The Haze are Donald McLeod's latest young friends and that's the only reason they're on the bill. They already played as support at 96.3's GUN gig and didn't exactly impress anyone with their sub-Oasis indie pop!

McLeod must be financially involved with 96.3 as there's no way that he'd get away with his unlistenable Friday night show anywhere else - you'll certainly never hear any classic rock there, it's all Bauhaus and Marriane Faithful every week. Makes Billy Rankin sound like a professional.

gb

mabozza wrote:no idea what manner of boy band garbage the haze are(suppose it will be good bar blitzing time!!)

ROTFL at "boy band garbage"! Certainly not classic rock anyway if their performance at the Gun gig was anything to go by!

You'll be glad to know that they've added a couple of token "Rock Chicks" as well in the form of Damn Hot! See:- http://www.myspace.com/damnhot247 So should give you some extra time at the bar.

I now count 6 acts in total. How are they going to properly fit that in before everyone's kicked out at 10pm so that Donald McLeod can get the mini-skirted "clubbers" in for their disco? Very short sets I think!

Quote from the General Rock Music Chat forum:-

rock_bottom wrote:Then again, how many Glasgow rock gigs have you seen the 96.3 Rock Jocks at?

That sums up the attitude at 96.3 as it's so true!

Apart from Tom Russell, has anyone ever seen any of the "Rock Jocks" at a gig? I think I go to an above average number of gigs and I've never seen any of them.

Even more amusing at 96.3 is the strange accent Ciaran O'Toole has now adopted. Anyone else noticed the psuedo English accent he's recently started using? Ciaran - you're Irish, not English!

mabozza wrote:They need to sit up and take notice of the listeners before the station dies..

One thing that's consistent with any of the regional radio stations is that they don't take any notice of what the listeners want.

We had a local station out our way called Clan FM. They had a regular rock show for a while. The managing director told me that when the rock show was on they had 10 times more telephone calls and 10 times more email than for any other show on the station. First show to be dropped when the station was struggling - the rock show! He justified this by saying that they'd surveyed some shoppers in Motherwell shopping precinct and they had said that they didn't listen to it.

This sums up the mentality of these "managers" as obviously they should be asking rock music fans, not some housewives out doing the messages!

The management at 96.3 are quite content as they know that the worst that can happen is that they go back to their pop music at Real or elsewhere in the GMG group and as long as the advertising revenue comes in and GMG continue to pay for the licence then nothing will change.

Tom Russell is the only employee with any credibility at the station and is the only DJ that can actually discuss anything outside the mainstream, whereas the rest only know the Whitesnake, AC/DC, Bon Jovi etc that Mr O'Toole programs into their computers.

Still, better than nothing - although I can't see it changing! (unless I win the EuroMillions! )

crazy_train

crazy_train wrote:Even more amusing at 96.3 is the strange accent Ciaran O'Toole has now adopted. Anyone else noticed the psuedo English accent he's recently started using? Ciaran - you're Irish, not English!

You can't miss it! One day he's Irish, the next a dodgy fake accent. Maybe he thinks it's posh?

crazy_train wrote:Still, better than nothing - although I can't see it changing!

I agree with everyone else that it's better than nothing, but it could be so much better for just a little effort.

Heather