fearne cotton

Issue
02
free
SUMMER 2012
Inside...
THE MAGAZINE
Powered by
q KISS 5
q SONYS PHOTOS 10
q DIGITAL RADIO REVIEW 16
q 6 MUSIC 19
SPECIAL
EDITION
Sony
Radio
Academy
Awards
2012
Including
FEARNE
COTTON
RadioToday THE MAGAZINE is sponsored by
6 Music
UK Station of the Year’s
Editor Paul Rodgers
KISS
MD Steve Parkinson
on Sony & RAJAR success
SONYS PICTURE SPECIAL
KISS MD STEVE PARKINSON
FEARNE COTTON TALKS TO RADIO TODAY
16
0161 262 1010
editor@radiotoday.co.uk
radiotoday.co.uk
facebook.com/radiotoday
@radiotoday
Welcome
9
19
to RadioToday THE MAGAZINE for Summer 2012
In this special edition we celebrate some of the
winners from our industry’s biggest night of the
year - the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2012. We
speak to Steve Parkinson, the Managing Director
of double gold winner Kiss, which also recently got
some of its best ever RAJAR figures.
Plus Paul Rodgers, Editor of BBC Radio 6 Music
tells us the secret to the station’s success, after it
was named UK Radio Station of the Year.
Please mention RadioToday THE MAGAZINE when
you respond to any of our advertisers. We hope
you enjoy the magazine - special thanks go to
John Myers and the team at The Radio Academy
for putting on a great Sony
Radio Academy Awards
event!
Stuart Clarkson
Editor
RadioToday
Live
at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2012
Full coverage of the awards, introduced by Pat Sharp and Radio Today Editor Stuart Clarkson.
Celebrating 30 Years of Radio Excellence
© benjamineagle.com
Listen again at radiotoday.co.uk/sonys
Sponsored
by
Q&A: 6 MUSIC’S PAUL RODGERS
5
PURE AVANTI FLOW REVIEW
Sony Radio Academy Awards
10
3
RadioToday THE Magazine SUMMER 2012
4
RadioToday the magazine SUMMER 2012
RadioToday the magazine summer 2012
MEDIA MENTOR
Looking to advance your media career?
Our team of experts can help through training,
advice and guidance.
In an increasingly tough industry Media Mentor
can give you that competitive advantage.
Whether your thing is news, weather, travel,
presenting or producing, we can help you
achieve your goals.
Includes: demo evaluation and production,
voice training, CV writing and most importantly
- contact building.
For more information visit
www.spencermedia.co.uk
or call 07801 278005
5
does golden double
RadioToday THE MAGAZINE talks to the Kiss Managing Director Steve
Parkinson about the station’s recent RAJAR and Sony Awards success.
What are you doing right at Kiss?!
I put a lot of it down to Programme
Director Andy Roberts. He and the team
spend hours every day - not just looking
at what the computer might say, but also
the human instinct of the music choice
and the music flow. They also spend a lot
of time on the glue in between the music
– the imaging, what the DJs do, the kind
of competitions, the right tickets and all
the lifestyle information. I call Andy the
‘Gordon Ramsay of radio’ because he is
not just passionate but he’s instinctive
- and you don’t want to cross him either
because he absolutely knows what he
wants. The team are sort of his souschefs. It’s maybe a bad analogy, but he
really does pore over the ingredients to
come up with the best kind of output.
Nationally the Kiss reach is at 4.4m,
up 7% year-on-year. And in London
you’re third commercially now…
Yeah I think for the first time too. In
terms of share, Magic’s just ahead of
Capital which is neck and neck with
Kiss. From a commercial versus BBC
perspective it’s good to see all three
ahead of Radio 1 on market share in
London. What’s good too is that Radio
1, Kiss and Capital are all really focusing
on that younger end, so that can only
be good for young listener choice. There
are so many more ways now to listen to
radio though, which is great for reach.
An iron is the only thing you can’t listen
through at the moment I think! What
we’ve all got to work harder on is the
engagement side of things to keep them
entertained and keep them tuned into
one brand or the other – and keep them
from the myriad of distractions that new
technologies also bring.
It’s important we don’t get labelled
as just radio – because for younger
consumers it’s a case of Kiss or Radio 1
or whatever... and they will get it through
their TV, from their mobile phone or from
the radio in the corner.
Rickie, Charlie & Melvin (Breakfast Show of the Year 10m+) :
“We can’t believe it - it’s a dream. When we first started on Kiss
the thing we wanted to get was a Gold Sony. To the judges thank you so much. And thank you for drinking that day!”
Bauer’s strategy is almost the antithesis
of Global Radio’s – with the exception
of Kiss, where you’ve ‘done a Heart’
by networking all programmes from
London to the FM stations in East Anglia
and the Severn Estuary. The RAJARs for
the regional licences though show it was
clearly a worthwhile move don’t they?
In the run up to taking the decision to
make Kiss national, we did a lot of work
on all 42 of our stations – probably the
most consumer research that Emap or
Bauer had undertaken in a very long
time. What became clear was what we
now know as the Bauer ‘Passion’ and
‘Place’ portfolios. It’s really clear that
certain stations are very much about
the community sounds and cities. For
others it’s less about the geography
and more about the music passions and
lifestyles – Kiss definitely fell into that
camp. For Kiss it’s about one output
that concentrates on what’s important
to those listeners. For listeners on the
two stations in the East and West of
England they’ve gone through a bit of
a journey, with the stations changing
name a couple of times. It’s probably
now the longest stability those stations
have had. We certainly knew from the
research that it was likely to go this
way – and what we’re doing centrally is
far better than what we could produce
locally.
Two Gold awards too at the Sonys...
Yes, I was delighted that breakfast finally
got a Gold – they’ve been nominated
for so many awards. I think they’ve
won two Silvers in the past. You never
know what judges are going to look for
– sometimes it’s the luck of the draw.
The submission this time was really
strong, and every year they just up the
game more and more. We’ve got two
producers in there now and the extra
effort going into the content means it’s
a real team win. And it was great too
that the chef of the team – going back to
my analogy – was recognised, with Andy
winning Station Programmer of the Year
up against Moz and Clive who are great
figures out there. We might have been
the only commercial station to win two
Golds I think. It just feels great when it’s
a youth station that’s evolved over time
to be winning awards.
So where do you go from here then?
I never thought I’d be sitting here with
Magic and Kiss both at almost 2m reach
in London. The next near goals for Kiss
are certainly 2m in London and more
than 4.5m nationally. But there are also
many more brand extension ideas for
clearly-defined brands like Kiss so that’s
where some of the effort’s going in at
the moment – you’ll have to watch this
space! n
Kiss PD Andy Roberts (Station Programmer of the Year): “I was really happy to
win - this is a big surprise. As Chris Evans was saying all throughout the night, it’s
about having a great team. I have an amazing team who inspire me to do what they
do so it’s kind of down to them. There’s a shelf at Kiss where we put our awards it’s slightly reinforced because we’ve had a bit of a good run - this will go pride of
place on there.”
6
RadioToday the magazine SUMMER 2012
Congratulations to
talkSPORT’s Richard
Keys and Andy Gray for
winning Best Sports
Programme at the 2012
Sony Radio Academy
Awards and achieving
record audience figures
of over 1 million listeners.
Does your
station sound
require 30
years’ radio
experience?
Email Pat Sharp on pat@sharpsell.com
with your query or brief and get a free
sampler by return.
LONDON
Innovative competitively
priced music
music
imaging
for
radio,and
tv &comm
film
imaging, jingles, idents
prod
that will blow the others away!
sharp sell
Remember, we’re not happy until you’re not
happy.... errr yeh, thanks for checking us out.
E: pat@sharpsell.com T: 0701 0701 775
www.sharpsell.com
sharp sell
LONDON
music imaging for radio, tv & film
Official broadcaster of UEFA
EURO 2012 and global audio
partner of the Premier League
Advertorial
Best
Airwaves
Zetta
RadioToday
contemporary
the magazine
magazine summer
month 20XX
2012
The
From
to
A few years ago, RCS embarked on a mission to develop the
next generation of digital playout system. While we had two
very successful systems in Master Control and NexGen, they
were both conceived in the 1990s and unaware of the vast
technology advancements that would come later. Like every
other playout system at the time and in the years since, they
both had genetic limitations that weren’t imagined when
they were created.
In creating Zetta, we took all the lessons we learned through
our rich history in the automation space. MC-DOS, Player,
Master Control, Audio Prophet, Audio Wizard, Player 101
and NexGen all had their time and glory as leaders in the
industry. Master Control and NexGen are still terrific
systems which have stood the test of time, and still operate in
thousands of markets across the planet. But RCS strives to
build on success to bring the best, most flexible, industryleading tools to our clients. To take advantage of today's
hardware and to solve many of the struggles of the broadcaster
today we needed a new approach. That new approach is Zetta.
The scope of Zetta's powers isn't just confined to a single
station database. We have a great toolkit to allow our systems
to withstand failures in individual parts of the system whilst
still keeping your stations on air. The architecture of
everything down to the software that plays audio to an audio
card is built for maximum redundancy and flexibility. It's part
of Zetta's DNA. This modular construction makes it very
simple to adapt as time goes on. Additional types of media,
outputs and inputs become simple to implement.
Zetta’s unique design aspects are just some of the reasons
you will want ZETTA to be your next automation system.
Here are some more: stability, effortless integration, shorter
learning curve, easy to use, scalable multi-station application
and instant studio and traffic reconciliations.
With Zetta you can auto-normalize audio on import, find trim,
segue and intro points automatically, drag content into blank
logs for instant playlist creation, create and have open unlimited numbers of hotkey banks, or power your station with live
GSelector integration. With Zetta’s exclusive Stacks module
you can create a special show and go to it live at any time.
Zetta’s sleek new interface allows you to build screens in any
configuration to take advantage of one or several in studio
screens. Dockable modules with tabs deliver complete control
of the look, feel, and functionality. You can name and save
layout settings for each presenter, or use the powerful
security features to fix the layout for your less experienced
staff. Zetta is the most reliable, intuitive, advanced and
flexible automation playout system.
We have just introduced three platforms for mobiles devices
that will make the broadcaster’s life better, a result of our
dedicated R&D department harnessing the power of smart
phones and tablets with its software programs and services.
First, we created iPush. RCS iPush is an app for your phone
or hand-held device that gives you a way to gather audio
from the field, and push it into Zetta, Master Control,
NexGen or RCSnews.
Then, we developed RCSremote, which lets you control your
station log from a smart phone or tablet. You can control
what’s on the air with play, pause, stop and next functionality,
and switch between live assist and automated modes. It is
easy to configure macros and record simple voice tracks into
the system, and get a real-time countdown of how long your
song has left to make outside broadcasts a breeze.
And now, the latest from RCS: Selector2Go! Tailored for the
web, Selector2Go works on all of today’s contemporary
browsers and across platforms and mobile devices. The system
is specifically designed to keep the interface simple and
straight-forward. The data flow is kept small to enable fast
performance, even on mobile networks like 3G. Selector2Go
gives you powerful core scheduling and schedule editing
functionality and essential analysis details of your rotations in
the palm of your hand.
When you want to schedule music, you come to RCS. We
have just released GSelector 4 that is powered by Selector2Go.
With its patented goal-driven demand based scheduling
engine, GSelector 4 is like no other music scheduling program.
Fearne Cotton
9
talks to RadioToday
We caught up with Radio 1’s mid-morning
presenter after she picked up the Sony
Gold for Best Music Programme.
Half an hour after going on stage to
collect her award, Fearne was still
visibly shocked when she came into the
studio to chat to Stuart Clarkson and Pat
Sharp on the Radio Today Live webcast
from the Sonys.
Fearne’s award was presented to her by
Jessie J, who also sang three songs on
the night. “I love Jessie so that’s really
amazing,” she told us.
Not only did she meet Jessie J, but she
got very excited about meeting Pat
Sharp, who was co-hosting the Radio
Today Live webcast. “I used to love Fun
House more than you would ever know,”
she told him. “It’s my favourite show
ever. I talk about it on the radio all the
time - it was the best.”
“This has just been a big weird blurry
dream,” she said. “I came here and I was
so adamant there’s no way I was going
to win, never in a million years. I was
so chuffed to be nominated - coming
from the world of TV you kind of have to
really earn your stripes. I feel like after
seven years I’ve started making a bit of So would she do a celebrity version if
headway so to be nominated I couldn’t they brought it back? “Absolutely, I’ll go
believe it. I don’t know what I just said in the go kart. I’d go red - danger.”
on the stage - it was a blur! Thank you
to everyone at Radio 1 just for letting
me do my job and talk on the radio everyone that’s trusted in me to do it.”
How about teaming up with good friend
Holly Willoughby to be the new ‘twins’?
“I think we’re a bit over qualified for that
aren’t we?” she suggests.
Fearne got mistaken for Holly by the
oldest ever Sony Radio Academy Award
winners - Beryl and Betty from BBC
Radio Humberside - when they met
backstage. “Betty came up to me and
said ‘I love watching you on the telly’.
She thinks I’m Holly on This Morning!” n
Fearne took over from Jo Whiley two
and a half years ago on Radio 1’s 10am12.45pm show, which regularly features
artists coming in to play live. She had
a frosty reception initially - so is a Gold
Sony a sign it was all worth it?
Zetta Live On-Air: customizable-dockable modules
Create a station, design clocks, enter and code your songs,
and then GSelector 4’s smart natural demand algorithms find
the best song for each position every time.
Quickly adjust your overall rotations, reshape the sound of
your station and fine-tune the flow with simple to use
attribute sliders. Improve your station with just a few clicks
then sit back and watch GSelector 4 create schedules that
reflect your modifications.
With newsroom software to help you produce better bulletins
and our traffic and business management software Airwaves
and Airwaves Online, RCS is the one-stop shop for everything a broadcaster would need to build a radio station.
RCS UK has a complete studio setup in our Surrey offices,
and welcomes you to drop by and see our latest products in
action. Or if you’d like us to visit you for a demonstration of
any of our products, just give us a call.
rcsuk.com
+44 (0) 1483 422411
“I was lucky to work at Radio 1 for a few
years before that to really understand
the family nature of it and how it works
internally,” she says. “Taking on that
show was a huge deal and I was terrified
because I was a big fan of Jo - I still am
now and listen to her on Radio 2. I was
very nervous but all I could do was be
me. I love music - and live music - more
than anything. I love interviewing and
chatting to people, so I just had to go in
there and give it my best shot and hope
people were accepting. And it seems
they have been.”
Betty Smith, 90 (Entertainment Programme):
“I couldn’t believe it - I still can’t believe it. I was
gobsmacked. I’m going to hang up the award on the wall
in my living room. My family will be really chuffed.”
Beryl Renwick, 86 (Entertainment Programme): “If
we hadn’t have won it would have still have been an
achievement for Betty and I at our age to have been
nominated. Without David (Reeves) we wouldn’t be here.
We’ve been doing the programme with him for six years
- he’s taught us all we know.”
Nicholas Parsons (The Gold Award): “I think if you live long enough people start
to use the word ‘legend’, but I have been consistently working for nearly 70 years
now. I do believe that if you keep working, and using your brain and your memory,
it keeps you going and you can survive longer. I do a lot of theatre work and a lot
of other things - but this is something incredibly special. I’m lost for words - I can
usually think of something to say but on this occasion words fail me. I’ll have to
find a mantelpiece for it somewhere - this will have a place of honour.”
10
contemporary
RadioToday
the magazine
magazine SUMMER
month 20XX
2012
RadioToday
contemporary
THE Magazine
magazine SUMMER
month 20XX
2012
11
RadioToday THE GALLERY at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2012
BEST SPEECH PROGRAMME - STEPHEN NOLAN (BBC RADIO 5 LIVE)
STATION OF THE YEAR (over 1m TSA) - RADIO CITY 96.7
See the full list of winners at
radiotoday.co.uk/sonywinners
STATION OF THE YEAR (300k-1m TSA)
107.6 JUICE FM
SPEECH RADIO PERSONALITY - DANNY BAKER
(BBC RADIO 5 LIVE & BBC LONDON 94.9)
BEST MUSIC PROGRAMME - FEARNE COTTON (BBC RADIO 1)
AWARDS HOST CHRIS EVANS & GOLD AWARD WINNER
NICHOLAS PARSONS (BBC RADIO 4)
SPEECH BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR - VICTORIA DERBYSHIRE (BBC RADIO 5 LIVE)
BEST SPORTS PROGRAMME
KEYS & GRAY (talkSPORT)
BEST BREAKFAST SHOW (under 10m)
GARY & LISA (REAL RADIO NORTH EAST)
BEST ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
BERYL & BETTY (BBC RADIO HUMBERSIDE)
SONY DAB RISING STAR 2012
LUKE FRANKS (FUN KIDS)
UK STATION OF THE YEAR - BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC
(CONTROLLER BOB SHENNAN, SIR TOM JONES, EDITOR PAUL RODGERS)
See more photos at
facebook.com/radiotoday
12
contemporary magazine month 20XX
Advertorial
With the celebrations we have had for
the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the torch
relay across the UK and the games
this summer, INRIX know that 2012 is
a big year when it comes to traffic and
travel news - and the next few months
are going to be some of the busiest
ever seen.
contemporary magazine month 20XX
allows users to manipulate the data
much more easily and also ensures
that no breaking news stories are
missed.
“When monitoring travel across the UK,
it can be hard to know every region you
are talking about in detail. The maps
in the new version of REGIS make it
much easier to give that detail and
other visual references too – it makes
it much better for the listeners.”
- Dave Brierley-Jones, Senior Network
Producer, GMG Radio
Just like you, they have been planning
for all these events to ensure that they
will be delivering a comprehensive
traffic and travel service before, during
and after the summer; and it isn’t just
London that is going to be affected by
all the extra travel plans.
“REGIS from INRIX is great; easy to
use and for somebody who hasn’t
For years, INRIX have been reporting lived in the area for long, the new
on traffic and travel incidents for the maps feature is brilliant. I can get a
BBC and, through their partnership real feel for where problems are and
with GTN, for commercial and better judge how they might affect our
community radio. Dealing with this listeners.”
summer’s events in the UK is well - Scott Myers,
within their capabilities. INRIX publish Breakfast
up to 40,000 road traffic reports and Producer, Capital
around 6,000 public transport reports FM Yorkshire
each month in the UK alone. In a year,
their broadcasters deliver around one To ensure that
are
million traffic reports across all of their clients
getting the best
various services.
data
available,
have
To ensure INRIX are ready to capture INRIX
constantly
all the changes in traffic and travel been
and
patterns over the summer, their six developing
the
regional Traffic Intelligence Centres improving
that
and studios will be open longer, with information
extra staff collating and broadcasting they provide to their
information. INRIX will be working very clients. They view more than 3,000
closely with all authorities involved camera images, they are in contact
in the games to ensure that travel with more than 100 CCTV control
information is available to their radio rooms and they have data feeds
station clients and in turn the stations’ directly from some police forces. In
listeners, accurately, and in real-time. addition, there are more than 200,000
vehicles
on
the UK road
n e t w o r k
that
they
constantly
track
to
determine
where
the
traffic is slow.
INRIX also add
in anonymous
location data
they
have
collected from
the movement
All INRIX clients should now be familiar of drivers’ mobile phones - more than
with the brand new version of REGIS 100 million of them across the world.
(pictured) which has been designed,
built and tested by traffic and travel The combination of all of these
news specialists who use INRIX data resources ensures that INRIX deliver
on a daily basis. The new version the most comprehensive and accurate
provides many more features such as picture available of what is happening
integrated mapping and scripting. It on the roads, anywhere – right now.
13
TOP TIPS!
To make sure you are ready for the busy
summer ahead, there are a few simple
checks that you can carry out to ensure
that your station is at the forefront of
delivering travel to your listeners.
Check that all your team know how to
access the new INRIX web page and
how to use it.
•
INRIX offer free training to your
staff on their products. Make sure
you are getting the most from it.
•
There is a handy five minute
training video available to watch at
www.youtube.com/INRIXUK
Ensure that you have a Traffic Alert
email set up and that the information is
going to the right people.
•
Every time a big incident happens
in your TSA, INRIX can automatically
send you an email. It means that you
are alerted to things as they happen
and don’t have to continually watch
REGIS for updates.
Ask INRIX to send you a map of the
coverage area that they provide you
information for to make sure that it
matches your TSA.
Have your local INRIX office contact
details to hand in the studio so you
know who to call if you need further
help.
Check to see if you are using INRIX
traffic data on your website (commercial
radio only).
•
If not, then you can get an XML data
feed to display on your website
which will update 24/7 and provide
fresh content for online users of
your site which they will return to
time and time again.
For further information on any of
INRIX’s travel news services, contact:
Andrea Day
Manager, Client Relations
and Communications
Andrea.Day@inrix.com
0161 929 3642
14
contemporary magazine month 20XX
GMG Radio congratulates
Real Radio’s Gary & Lisa for
waking up the North East
to Britain’s Best Breakfast Show.
Officially Britain’s Best Breakfast Show*
Sony Radio Academy Awards Breakfast Show of the Year 2012 Gold Winner.
contemporary magazine month 20XX
15
For radio journalism
above and beyond.
GMG congratulates the award winning Smooth Radio team.
Christian Spooner and Katie Collins (Smooth Radio News)
and the entire Walking with the Wounded Team won the
Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Feature/Special/Documentary.
What the judges said: “Packed full of personality and perfectly pitched for its target audience.
Original in its features, this show also has a good eye for PR opportunities which gave it a
massive exposure in 2011. The presenters have great chemistry and the show really shines.
*Under 10m TSA category
What the judges said: ‘Walking with the Wounded’ was a compelling documentary worthy of the 18 months
invested in its making. This was a brave production for the resources of a commercial station but it took the
listener on a moving journey of endurance, courage and personal rediscovery. The documentary was
brilliantly narrated by the expedition leader Simon Daglish. His passion for the project, together with skilful
use of production techniques, made this a truly stand-out piece of radio story-telling.
Award Winning News
16
contemporary
RadioToday
the magazine
magazine SUMMER
month 20XX
2012
Product Review PURE
One of the few mass-market
digital radios to include a
subwoofer, the PURE Avanti
Flow is a top-end set, perfect
for the lounge. RadioToday THE
MAGAZINE’s Product Reviewer
Vincent Lo takes a closer look at
the firm’s ‘connected table-top
digital audio system’.
RadioToday
contemporary
THE Magazine
magazine SUMMER
month 20XX
2012
Avanti Flow
Sound Quality
HHHHH
Features
HHHHI
Usability
HHHHI
Reception sensitivity
HHHHI
Value for money
HHHHI
The first thing you notice about this radio
is its size: firstly how heavy it is, and
then as you lay it down on the table, how
solidly-built it feels. It certainly gives
the impression that it’s more suited as a
coffee table radio rather than a bookshelf
radio. The design is elegant with its
curved front. From the aesthetics alone,
it does somehow make us think that it
might have been the creation of Bose.
however, and we feel it is sadly lacking.
Despite this, the speakers still have quite
There are plenty of buttons that you can a large dynamic range, and can perform
play around with. These are located on well in high volume.
the front and top of the radio. But having
given it a test-drive, we do wonder if Internet Radio The Avanti uses the
much thought had been given to the PURE Lounge portal, which is accessible
location of the buttons in relation to at www.thelounge.com. It’s capable of
one another. For example, just the basic playing WMA, mp3 and AAC+ streams.
navigation of the menu system requires We found its AAC+ decoding ability quite
your hand having to switch from the surprising, since it’s not something they
top row of buttons to the front panel actually boast about in the specifications.
to advance anywhere. An alternative AAC+ seems to be the codec of choice in
way of operating under the design of a lot of today’s internet radio streams,
these controls would be to lay both your so we consider this to be a must.
hands on the unit: an idea that we’re not Connecting and buffering of stations is
particularly keen on.
acceptably fast, with the higher bitrate
streams being able to fill the buffer in
A comprehensive remote control is shorter time. The display will show the
included as standard, which we feel is ID3 data in mp3 and AAC+ streams if
acceptable as redemption to the previous it’s available. But regardless of whether
issue, since it’s pretty powerful in terms a station provides this metadata or not,
of what it can achieve. Although it doesn’t they will all work with PURE’s unique
provide the most instant of responses, PURE Tag system. More about this later.
it can at least change the radio station
you’re listening to. It can also change When listening to radio streams you
the radio source modes and access even can change the information display by
some of the most insignificant of menu pressing ‘Info’, which will let you choose
items. We like! The screen, whilst not a between wi-fi strength, stream URL,
colour one, is made up of a bright yellow or date and time (which also hides the
OLED display, giving a rather pleasing station name). The default display can
look. It nicely contrasts the piano black also be changed in the menu system.
of the radio’s body. Those who find the
screen too bright can give adjustment by The play and stop buttons on the remote
dimming it. We do like the clarity, though. control don’t seem to have much effect
The speakers are supported by a generous on internet radio. So to stop a stream if
downward-pointing subwoofer. This your phone rings, you only really have the
gives a nice rumbly sound that could, choice of pressing mute (and forgetting
perhaps, be complemented by equally you’ve still got it switched on), or putting
nice treble speakers. This is not the case, the radio into standby.
DAB Reception of DAB is pretty good
with the aerial fully extended. The
telescopic aerial is screwed on to an
F-type connector at the back of the radio.
This gives flexibility to use an external
aerial instead, if one is available to use.
The display shows all the vital data you
would expect in most DAB receivers.
RRP £279.99
Lines of station DLS are scrolled vertically
rather than horizontally. Given that two
are shown at any time, this has the
advantage of displaying more legible text
in a shorter amount of time. A generous
30 presets are available for use. Alongside
the line of PURE’s other internet radios
with DAB, DAB+ broadcasts can also be
picked up out of the box, with a separate
upgrade unnecessary.
FM The FM tuner offers RDS 8-character
PS display and any associated RadioText,
plus a standard seek function. We
thought the seek function was rather
slow and tedious: from 87.5MHz, it took
us over 100 seconds to get to the top of
the band at 108MHz by holding down
the ‘up’ button. There is the alternative of
setting the tuning mode to ‘Manual tune’
in the FM radio settings. This increases
the speed to just over 50 seconds, at the
sacrifice of autoseek. This is perhaps a
better mode for those who know what
stations are available in the area, and
which frequencies they’re on. As you’re
only offered 10 presets for FM stations,
it’s as if PURE don’t really want you using
the FM feature much, and expect users
to concentrate more on the mode they’re
more famous for: DAB.
On-demand and music shares
We tried getting TVersity, a popular UPnP
server, to work with the Avanti Flow.
Whilst the radio identified the server
and was able to list the available songs
on it, none of them would play. No error
messages feeding back, just silence. It
turns out that you can install PURE’s
own simplified version of Twonky Media
Server, called PURE Flow Server. This can
be downloaded free from their website
with a condition to register your radio
first. Whilst it’s nice that PURE provided
such software for free, it does mean
loading your computer with software
that might not have been needed if
TVersity had worked with the Avanti
Flow in the first place. The radio’s specs
say ‘MP2, MP3, WMA4, WMA7, WMA8,
“The generous
WMA9, AAC (including .m4a) or Real’
audio formats are all supported. Once
downward-pointing
PURE Flow Server was installed, all our
subwoofer gives the
mp3s and playlists could be played on
the radio. We did, however, find strange
Avanti Flow a nice
duplicates of songs showing inside a
rumbly sound.”
pre-created playlist. Since the server
software is rather basic, it doesn’t show
statistics of what music and playlists
have been catalogued, so we couldn’t pretty much does the same thing. The
identify the reason for the duplicates, in feature is available in The Lounge mode
(PURE’s own term for Internet Radio)
case it was user error.
plus DAB and FM modes. The use of
iPod mode iPods can be charged and PURE Tag doesn’t cost a penny.
played at the same time. The standard
dock is situated on the top of the unit Other features Other features we’ve
and allows remote control of tracks and not covered so far include basic treble/
volume. Docking adaptors, which are bass EQ settings (and subwoofer gain
supplied, can be used for specific iPod control), a mini-USB port for upgrading
models. We didn’t find this particularly firmware, and both AUX-in and AUX-out
necessary. Song names were not 3.5mm jack sockets. As well as the usual
transferred to the radio’s OLED screen sleep and wake-up alarms you’d expect
as the iPod was playing, which we found to find, there’s also a kitchen timer, which
a little surprising. But operation was gives an audible bi-bi-bi-bip sound.
straightforward and reliable. Together
with its awesome speakers, music from
the iPod sounded crisp and clear.
The Lounge and PURE Tag In The
Lounge, PURE’s online portal, you have
the ability to search through a huge
database of radio stations around the
world, create favourites and add your
own custom radio streams. A bonus to
the lineup of radio stations and podcasts
from around the world are something
called ‘PURE sounds’. Offered free of
charge, these are a set of audio streams
providing non-stop ambient sounds
such as forests and waterfalls. The web
interface seems a little cluttered, and the
folder structure a touch confusing. It took
us a while to figure out how to move a
radio station stream into another folder.
This was due to its unconventional way
of having to select a stream entry then
clicking on an unconvincing box before
you could perform operations on the
selected stream. Note that The Lounge
has now updated its user interface,
and can be accessed by visiting new.
thelounge.com
The stations from The Lounge’s directory
can also be browsed from the radio itself,
which offers a slick feature where you
can filter the list of stations by name,
language, country or genre.
An energy-saving mode can be enabled,
meaning that your radio will go into
low-power mode when on standby. This
appears to disconnect the radio from
your wi-fi network, which will mean a
longer start-up time the next time you
power up. Thankfully, the energy-saving
mode doesn’t turn off the iPod charger,
so you can continue to dock it overnight
to top up your battery. At the back of the
radio, you’ll find a power switch – useful if
you don’t like to leave things in standby.
PURE Tag is a mechanism that allows
you to fingerprint songs you hear on the
radio to ID them (and ultimately be given
the option to download them as 128k
mp3s from the PURE Music service). If
you’re familiar with Shazam, then this
Finally, a remote-binding feature allows
you to set up your PURE remotes (should
you also own other PURE radios) so
they don’t interfere with one another. A
seemingly trivial idea, which may actually
prevent quite a lot of frustration!
Industry discount
available
PURE have a special deal on their digital radios for people working in our
industry. To redeem your discount just go to pure.com/industry and use
the password marconi.
17
Verdict The overall sound of the radio
was pleasant enough, with plenty
of bass from its in-built subwoofer.
The top end didn’t disappoint either.
Usability could be improved somewhat.
Sometimes we felt we were presented
with way too many buttons, and it wasn’t
easy to remember how ‘up’ differed from
‘right’ on the remote’s D-pad - and how
pressing ‘Back’ might get you kicked
out into a menu level higher than you
would’ve expected.
The radio doesn’t come with an Ethernet
port, but these days there are fewer
reasons as to why you might need one.
The radio itself is pretty heavy, and if
dropped, would probably cause more
damage than suffering from it! But for
that reason, we wouldn’t recommend
using it as a portable.
We feel we must also report on an audio
issue we encountered. During testing, we
used the AUX-out socket quite a bit to
hook up to a hi-fi. We found unexplainable
sound dips every 2 minutes, on average,
lasting approximately one second. This
seemed to happen in all modes, including
iPod, Internet Radio, DAB and FM.
Speaking with PURE’s technical support
team, it was suggested that it may have
something to do with our setup of trying
to use a headphone-output for a linelevel (AUX) into the hi-fi. With a signal
level and impedance mismatch, this
may be the cause of the interruptions.
Having tried with headphones to try
and replicate the problem, we were
unable to do so, so perhaps they’re onto
something. However, this does leave us
with the question of what the correct
way to listen to the radio through a hi-fi
might be, since the radio has no line-out
port.
Although the PURE Avanti Flow has
an RRP of £279.99, several leading
department stores offer it at under £200,
which - in our view - is great value-formoney. n
18
contemporary magazine month 20XX
Tired of the
old school?
RadioToday
contemporary
THE Magazine
magazine SUMMER
month 20XX
2012
UK Radio Station
of the
Year
great sales people wanted now at UKRD stations
At UKRD the most important asset
we have is our people - that’s
not hollow corporate speak, it’s a
belief that’s ingrained into every
part of our culture. We feel it’s
one of the reasons we topped the
poll of The Sunday Times 100 Best
Midsized Companies to Work For
in 2011 and 2012.
This is your chance to work for
a company that cares about the
figures AND the people; a company
that strives for a rewarding
working environment that provides
greater rewards for its staff.
strayfm
97.2
2BR
99.8fm
While others are cutting back,
we’re adding to our teams
and we’ve got life changing
opportunities now at all of our
locations.
106.5
Extra
To find out more visit:
ukrd.com/recruitment
BBC Radio 6 Music
Editor Paul Rodgers
talks to RadioToday
THE MAGAZINE as his
station wins the big
prize in its 10th year.
Q>
A<
What was your reaction when you
found out 6 Music was Station of
the Year?
My instant reaction was that my
mouth felt full of cotton wool.
Then I just felt very, very happy for all
the people who have contributed to
the station’s success over the years.
It’s a quality listen and more and more
people are hearing and enjoying the
music it plays. There are staff who have
been with Radio 6 Music since it was
created in 2002, so I can imagine they
feel a particular satisfaction about this
accolade. For a digital station to earn
the biggest award in radio displays that
qualitatively, digital stations can be
judged in the same context as the larger
analogue stations.
Try a better way
19
Q>
Q>
A<
A<
Another record set of RAJAR
10 years on, 6 Music has finally
figures just out too showing the
‘made it’ - is there anything with
audience is now at nearly 1.5m - can it hindsight you’d have done differently to
Another Gold too for ‘NowPlaying’ get even higher?
get there quicker?
- and two Silvers - you must be
delighted?
Yes it can. And the station will
I meet new listeners all the time,
retain its distinct identity as
and they often express a disbelief
…And eight nominations, which it reaches more people. It will grow that they hadn’t discovered the station
is a huge achievement for us. as digital listening becomes more before. I think there are a lot more new
Adam & Joe had no chance of taking accessible and as people become listeners to reach who will appreciate
the Gold against Beryl & Betty did they, more aware of the station’s unique our distinctive musical offering before
and Lauren’s Silver was recognition for proposition. Winning awards such as we could even contemplate saying
the important role she plays at Radio 6 the Sony, and Music Week Station of the that we have ‘made it’, although this is
Music. Her show is excellent, she and her Year earlier this year will certainly help obviously a very satisfying moment.
team work hard to create a consistently promote awareness of Radio 6 Music It would have been helpful if 6 Music’s
great show that’s always energetic and as a high quality station with uniquely identity had perhaps been more clearly
curious, and she plays some great music. engaging presenters sharing music you defined earlier in its development so
don’t hear elsewhere. Hopefully this that it could have been promoted with
Now Playing’s Gold award recognises awareness will tempt people to give greater vigour. Which is easy to say
how Tom Robinson and his team the station a try. The evidence so far with hindsight but the station wouldn’t
have created a truly multi-platform suggests that when people find Radio be what it is today without having had
radio proposition. The show is largely 6 Music, they discover something they time to mature, and it is the station’s
based on communities meeting in the like, so I’m confident the station will maturity that gives it the confidence to
moment and celebrating the music that continue to grow.
develop in the future. n
matters to them. It’s exciting to see how
communities can use various platforms
to converge but it couldn’t work without
the live linear element in which these
music lovers can express their passion.
Sundays at 6pm - I suggest you check it
out. It’s really absorbing.
Q>
A<
Q>
You’ve now got nearly double the
number of weekly listeners you
had when 6 Music was first threatened
with closure - is that the reason?
A<
The proposal to close Radio 6
Music and the campaign to save
it generated a mass of publicity which
obviously had an effect on the audience.
That audience has been retained and
its growth is continuing. That’s because
people who discovered, and continue to
discover 6 Music find a refreshing radio
station that they tend to spend a lot of
time listening to.
Thank you for reading
RadioToday THE MAGAZINE
Don’t forget you can get daily news about the radio
industry online at radiotoday.co.uk - and you can
also subscribe to our email updates to get our
content sent to your inbox each lunchtime.
If you have a product or service to promote to the
radio industry, we can get your message seen by thousands of
people via RadioToday THE MAGAZINE, on radiotoday.co.uk or in
our daily and weekly emails.
Email advertise@radiotoday.co.uk or check out our ratecard at
radiotoday.co.uk/advertise to find out how we can help market
your business.