Wednesday 16 November 2011

Solving problems

Well, there's so much to do and sort. I never realised how much work it would take to get the station up and running.

A major challenge we've had is the fact that we're nearly 4 miles from our nearest exchange. It's caused no end of problems keeping the station online during peak periods of the day during the test phase, but we're starting to overcome that through different strategies and planning.

We confirmed another presenter last night and so we're slowly filling the schedule. That's harder to do than I thought it would be. We're aiming to get great shows on board from lots of genres, however including the right presenter is proving more of a problem. I have to admit to being fussy about who we have doing shows on the station. But then again, I'm a bit like that in all things. All I can promise is that we'll have the best we can get.

We're working on the imaging for the station all the time. It's all about being feel-good to me. I want a station that you'll want to listen to because of how it makes you feel. We've got plenty of ideas, but they're going to take money to put in place so that's another area we've got to look at. This station isn't going to be a hobby. It's going to be where I dedicate my time and I'll need to make a living out of it.

I have big plans for where I want this station to go - after all, what's the point in putting effort into it if you don't want to get somewhere?

So sponsorship is another area we're looking at. It would be excellent to be able to raise some support to help the station in it's early stages. There's no doubt, I'm not afraid of hard work and am happy to do plenty of that, and having support behind you certainly would allow us to push on with our plans.

You see, for us, it's more than a radio station, it's about a feeling, and one we want to pass on to others. It's mighty hard out there in the real world for many people, and we'd like to think that people can tune into us to be uplifted and be given a reason to feel better.

There's no doubt, that getting this station up and running will be an all-consuming desire over the next few months - after that, getting us into your consciousness will be our next task as we continue to try and make Smile 101 part of your life!

It's all go....

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Cliff Banned!




And so another station says they'll not be playing Sir Cliff on their 60s station because he's not 'cool' enough.

It baffles me how one of this country's most celebrated artists is once again given the cold shoulder. I can only assume it's because of his religious beliefs and as we entered the 90s' and 00's he brought out a few religious singles.

Admittedly, they didn't do anything for me, but I'm confused at how you can block out such an important musical figure from and oldies station in the UK.

I don't like Abba - can't help it, I don't. But it's never stopped me playing their music at a disco and it won't stop me playing them on Smile 101. If the audience like them, who am I to argue?

I fully understand the fact that they've decided he doesn't fit their demographic. I'm sure there's music on Smile 101 I won't play. But surely narrowing their choice of artists to those that they consider cool and trendy, will only cut down on their audience.

I'm keen to play as many different songs on the station as we can. To give the listeners variety, and no doubt I'll be accused of not playing certain  classic artists. Smile 101 is about feel good, and so artists that haven't played what could be thought of as feel good music won't be played.

However, I just think Cliff isn't cool because of his religious views and his goodie goodie image. Sorry, for me it's about his music, and whether I like it or not is irrelevant - he was a pioneer in the UK and therefore he should be in the playlist.

Just my opinion....

Monday 14 November 2011

Update time!

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks - I made the decision, and we're well on the way to having our station launched.

Smile 101 will kick off early in the New Year - I'm not rushing it as I want to get it right before we launch.
The web site is up and running - a facebook page is in place, the logo has been designed, and now I'm testing the stream. You can check the stream here and see what you think.

So lots of things are going on.

We've started the search for presenters. Some have already agreed to join the line up and we'll continue looking until I find a varied selection of shows to keep our listeners entertained.

All we really need to do now is to get some sponsorship to help cover costs, some advertising to bring some money in and some promotion to bring in the listeners.

Now when I say it quickly, it sounds like we're almost there.......