Tuesday 27 September 2011

As one era ends, a new one begins

So it’s goodbye ‘Flashback’, hello ‘Random Records’.



Just a few weeks ago, we were celebrating ‘Flashback’s’ first birthday, and I didn’t envision ended the series of shows.

However, as you know, I’m always lookiing to improve my radio shows and to bring you a better product.

In fact, I suppose my tagline could be ‘Striving to do better, daring to be different’.

And the truth is, I’ve been looking to do a show that is different to most of what’s out there.

And a couple of week’s ago, I was going to have a night just playing random records. It’s always been something that I do.

This time however, I decided to go on air and do it as a show to see what others thought.

From the minute I decided to do it, I went online, let people know what I was going to do, and starting the show, it was around 10 minutes.

And so ‘Random Records’ went on air for the first time, with no format, no preparation and no playlist. I made it up as I went along, and people made requests as well.

The only proviso, was that if they wanted a request, they had to give me a memory to go with the song they wanted to play.

Apart from that I just played different songs from different genres and years.

The result was a 3 hour, one-off show.

The next day I posted it on my listen again site and the results were astounding. The numbers paralysed every other show!

So I thought I’d try it again. Last Tuesday I did show 2, this time for just two hours.

The result was again excellent. It was then I decided to make it part of my regular scheduling.

However, because of the time constraints I have, one show has to go in order to make way for it.

As it's like an oldies show, ‘Flashback’ would be the one to fall by the wayside.

Whilst ‘Flashback’ has decent listening figures, ‘Random Records’ was beating it by 5/1.

And so, the situation is that I shall do two more ‘Flashback’ shows, so that the stations that take it have time to rearrange their schedules.

I’m going to carry on doing the ‘Random Records’ show and that will then replace ‘Flashback’.

In regard to ‘Random Records’, we’re also going to include a novel feature to the show as well, which will go hand in hand with the randomness of the show.

We’re going to give listeners the opportunity to pick a song from the ‘Pot-Luck Jukebox’.

I’ve assigned 20,000 songs to it and each song has an identify-ing code number.

What the listener will need to do is choose tow numbers.

The first number will need to be between 1 and 20.

The second number will need to be between 1-1000.

Once I have the chosen numbers, I’ll look them up and the song that corresponds with the numbers will be played.

I’ve a feeling we’re going to get some songs played that otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance.

Also, to make sure people don’t keep requesting the same song when they find one they like, and to keep it more random, each week, I’m gonna shuffle the juke box and so the same number may bring up a completely different song.

I’m hoping that this will make the show more interactive, and also a lot of fun.

Like I say in my tagline, ‘Striving to do better, daring to be different’.

Till next time...

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