Spirit of Tasmania: Special Report
BearCave
for Surf FM, the LPON radio station I'm involved with. My business
partner and I got here overnight on the Spirit of Tasmania, the first
time we've taken the Spirit across to Tassie at a night time.
Last week I was working on a mission statement for Surf FM, while last
night provided some inspiration for writing a values statement for the
station.
If I was to judge the production values of Devonport-based
narrowcaster Spirit FM, I'd term it as "the basics, done well".
Spirit FM broadcast at both ends of the Spirit of Tasmania route, with
a Devonport-wide service operating on 88.4 FM, with a very small but
still quite audible transmitter also operating on 88.4 from the pier
at Port Melbourne in Victoria.
The station, due to its association with TT-Line and The Spirit of
Tasmania, is then also heard in every cabin as a gentle wake-up 45
minutes prior to arrival in Devonport, The station has a small team
of announcers that update the daily weather, backtrack songs, give
time calls and pre-record small, simple segments such as "what
happened on this day", in between music tracks and advertising
schedules.
Spirit FM seem to understand that many thousands of people will spend
time with Spirt FM, but only for a short time, so its programming
approach reflects this reality - so its programming could be summed up
as being "the basics, done well". It provides some inspiration for
the production values we may adopt at Surf FM.
As you leave the Victorian coastline on the Spirit, Geelong stations
Bay FM and K-Rock enjoy a reception almost as powerful as the
Melbourne FM stations, yet Star FM from Gippsland is difficult to
recieve,
Due to satelite delivery, one TV station showing on the big screens in
the loungue area of the ship was Central Australia's Channel Nine
affiliate Imparja - which made watching the locally made TV
commercials more eye catching than whatever TV program was showing.
In Devonport, you still get a large chunk of Melbourne AM radio, with
3AW much much clearer than a very faint Magic 1278. Some of my
business partner's family live here and have the radio tuned to 774
ABC daily.
I listened mainly to the 7LA breakfast show, with 7LA heard on both FM
and AM in Devonport. 7LA carries a wide variety music format
alongside many interviews throughout the day with local personalities
and organisations. Being Launceston's only music station, it always
makes interesting listening to hear how this station multi-tasks and
delivers to a wide demographic.
I'll write more when I get back, but for now, I've actually gotta get
back to the Spirit and go back to Melbourne tonight. Been a short
trip this time, but still managed to enjoy a lunch at Lucas Pub in
Latrobe, Ansvers Chocolates and Chickenfeed!
...From Justin in Tassie
The Philestine
Now that's what narrowcasting is all about. Targeted radio promotions -
TRP. And Spirit FM seems to have that formula worked out.
I suppose it would qualify as visitor radio, traveler information service
updated daily.
One of the best posts I've read from you Justin. I learnt something.
Right. Enough talking the talk. Walk the walk and get on the air brother!
"BearCave" <bearc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:84c86a8e-344f-4580...@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
BearCave
wrote:
> Right. Enough talking the talk. Walk the walk and get on the air brother!
Actually, the last 12 months has been a lot of "walking the talk" -
deciding what to do. What we've started doing this week is "walking
the talk" - doing what we've decided.
The reality, however, is that you can't always plan, then implement
the plan, in that order. I expect they'll be instances ahead where
we'll either be able to go ahead and do something (an "Activate"
action), or we'll have to do more planning before doing something a
"More to Plan" action, or we'll be waiting on something to happen
before we can move ahead with something else (a "Waiting for"
action". These are "principles of action" that occur in my everyday
paid working life and I don't expect it to be any different in the way
things get done at the radio station.
I've actually set up an "action grid" in the radio station building
this week (using a simple Sasco Project Planner you can buy at
Officeworks) to help me decide exactly what sort of an action needs
implementing - an "Activate", a "More to Plan" or a "Waiting For".
The workflow system I'm experimenting with is largely influenced by a
trusted consultant called David Allen who you can find at: http://www.davidco.com/
One other thing: a great music trackI first heard on Devonport's Sea
FM two days ago, and heard again on Sea FM later that day, is 7 Things
by Miley Cyrus, star of Disney Channel's Hannah Montana (not a show I
watch :) and daughter of one hit wonder Billy Ray Cyrus.
Hopefully you'll agree with me the track is a bit more cool for
airplay than Nikki Webster's Strawberry Kisses :)
Here's the music video:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk
...From Justin
BearCave
> Actually, the last 12 months has been a lot of "walking the talk" -
> deciding what to do. What we've started doing this week is "walking
> the talk" - doing what we've decided.
Should have been:
> Actually, the last 12 months has been a lot of "talking the walk" -
> deciding what to do. What we've started doing this week is "walking
> the talk" - doing what we've decided.
Blame that on being a tongue twister :)
briang
"BearCave" wrote
> Right. Enough talking the talk. Walk the walk and get on the air brother!
Actually, the last 12 months has been a lot of "walking the talk" -
deciding what to do. What we've started doing this week is "walking
the talk" - doing what we've decided.
*****If you ask me,I'd say you can't spell correctly,I'm sure you meant to
write,"wanking the stalk".
Really,proof of the pudding,actions speak louder than words etc.,etc.
Brian g.
Bus 679
to say i would not listern to it ever again. Music was all over the
place first song was a 90s dance song then it went to a 60s song then
another crap song. So to the guy who owns Surf fm sort out you music
at the moment it sounds realy shit i perfer to listern to repeated
Paul Kelly songs on 1611am.
Wombat Lover
That's a pretty unique formula Surf FM has got going, maybe a bit like Vega?
A small suggestion if that's the case, I've found on my recent holiday that
a station in Beenleigh, QLD on 87.6 was playing Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease"
followed by Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do"
That would be keeping it within the limits of a specific sound, to catch the
audience's attention. Mind you, it was either that or Vision FM up there
But, we're off topic, we should have a banter on a Narrowcast thread
--
From Robert | Wombat Lover | Melbourne | http://www.surfnetvictoria.com
BearCave
> G'day,
>
> That's a pretty unique formula Surf FM has got going, maybe a bit like Vega?
To be precise, 300 of the currently playing 400 tracks were
preselected from an old 3TT "3 Decades Countdown" play list that went
to air over the New Year Weekend 1989/90. So it is an old play list
we're borrowing from.
The remaining 100 songs is just an experimentation with categories and
rotations at this stage - about 100 songs from the 90s. Adding these
songs in probably has diluted the effectiveness of the 3TT list, but
we're not staying with that narrow play list anyway.
Still to be fully determined are the actual long-term format, music
rotations, rotation cycles and varying of music tempo. It's not
intended to be like Vega, even if that's an initial impression given.
I'm seeking influences from a number of overseas stations to help
formulate an on-air sound for 2009.