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I have seen it all before. Peter Saxon is dreaming with his interpretation of the Smooth brand, the programming is so "not correct" it's depressing for a true music professional who understands what listeners want from their Radio Station. Nobody can advise these "experts" they are off in a world of their own. The Marketing Manager with his 6% forecast is closer to the mark but even that is a leap of faith if the music programming stays so unfamiliar "British". My bet, Smooth in it's current incarnation will not be heard by the swearing in of the next Federal Government. Saxon has no idea what Smooth music really is .... done properly the format could have reached double figures by the end of 2013!
** Brian, not sure whether you mixed up Peter Saxon with Paul Jackson, but as the interviewer I merely asked the questions, I didn't give any interpretation of the brand. I left that to Paul.
Peter Saxon
Yeah, it's depressing alright. A pure waste of a frequency ... just as it has been from its Vague-a start. (well, apart from Alice Cooper's 'inserts'!) It's amazing how all these so-called experts never actually get it right. How DO they get these jobs? Depressing is the word.
What I find depressing is that the audience seems to have such low expectations from music radio. Why on earth are music stations still regurgitating Elton John and Billy Joel? Programmers are so formulaic in their selection methods, I'm sure you could train an eight year old to do it in a couple of weeks. I miss the Mulray show, epic, original comedy! Nobody gave a stuff about the music, in fact, they were just waiting for it to finish to get some more laughs. The current crop of breakfast presenters are total amateurs compared to Mulray. Sydney has enough music stations playing Michael Buble and Phil Collins, Smooth FM, hhmmmm, I think the waters of Sydney Harbour will be so smooth after it sinks, you'd swear it had never existed in the first place.
What about the human being in all of this that is the human being behind the Mic..... Please give me some magic, personality that really goes to a level that's so completely entertaining... you turn on the radio to be with..... lifting you up, taking you away from the hum drum of normality. It's been a Long Long time since Mulray in the morning. It's time It's really the time now to have faith in a Personality that captures all. However it takes real talent from a MD to be brave enough to believe their instincts and give the nod to such an individual that has these qualities. faith.... faith....please lord let there be such a person in this position to do this and relinquish radio from mediicrity from the bonds that have held it down for so so long........ Amen!
These days it would appear that the only way to get a breakfast gig is to be a minor TV personality. When I start to think about radio I've really enjoyed in my 30 odd years in the business, I see a trend. The trend is that good radio is written by talented writers. Martin Molloy, Club Veg, Mulray all had talented writers on the team either on air or in the background. If a comedy piece is written and produced properly, it's polished and perfect. Breakfast radio these days relies solely on the ad-lib talent (or lack thereof) in the presenters. So they yammer on about topical subjects and crap they've seen on the internet. I think anyone can do that with varying degrees of success. PD's have long played the safe end of the spectrum in all their decisions and it shows. Conservative music and presenters, trying to be all things to all people. This continues until all of the stations sound like eachother and any real talent has been chased out of the business by being obliged to do station id's and time calls and not much else. AFTRS seems to excel at educating these types of talent-free individuals, who then take their dulness and lack of creativity into the industry to further dim the lights. Anyway PD's stop reading this and get back to our music selection computer and juggle a few Elton, Billy and Phil tracks so that you can declare your station has "variety"
Ha hahahahahahahha!
Hey, I'll be honest. As someone who has worked under Mr Jackson in the past, I'll happily describe him as "scary". "Tactful and sensitive?" No chance.