Manx Radio is turning 60 years old, and to celebrate its making some changes.
The public service broadcaster is launching a new schedule on FM, as well as a brand new station, Manx Radio Gold, playing the greatest hits online and on smart speakers.
Alex Brindley is the Director of Programming, News and Content and has been telling Amy Griffiths more:
Hi there, I'm Amy and I'm one of the journalists in Manx Radio's Newsroom. And on this episode of Newscast, we're talking about Manx Radio celebrating its 60th birthday. And in doing so, the public service broadcaster is making a number of changes. There'll be a new schedule on FM as well as a brand new station, Manx Radio Gold, which will play the greatest hits online and on smart speakers. Alex Brinley is the director of programming news and content and he told me what listeners can expect going forward. Well, we've been planning this now for quite some time actually, that as it's our 60th anniversary year, we have been highlighting the wealth of broadcasting that we've done over the last 60 years and we've been digging into the archives and celebrating the different things that we've reflected in the community over those 60 years, but we kind of wanted to celebrate by not saying, 'I'll just look behind us at what we've done, it's about looking to the future'. And around our birthday, which is the 29th of June, the Saturday, in the week leading up to that, we're going to be doing some special programs every evening, looking back at some real key highlights of Manx Radio's broadcasting, it's on every night at six o'clock. And then, from the Monday after, it's all changing in quite a big way. Go on then, tell us what's happening. You're going to say that. But in terms of Manx Radio's FM radio broadcasts, we're going to be tweaking the schedule. Mark Tiley is retiring from daily broadcasting, so his final show will be on this coming Friday and we thought it was a good time to use the opportunity to shake things up a bit. So, breakfast will be slightly changing, Ben will be starting the early time of six o'clock through until nine o'clock in the morning, still bringing you that fantastic mix of news, the latest information you want when you're getting up in the morning, along with entertainment competitions of music. But Chris Williams will be back into the daylight, he's going to be bringing you a brand new morning show from nine through until 12. With the brand new, I've got to get this right, the Williams winning wheel of wonder, it's got lots of W's in it anyway, so that's going to be quite a highlight, not just on there, but also online, because it'll be a video spectacular on our social media channels. And then, in the afternoon, Beth Espie is going to be taking over updates, our news and current affairs roundup, it's going to be a slightly earlier time now of five o'clock, instead of five thirty, with our either-life programs at five thirty, and then Chris Kinley is getting slightly extended with greatest hits. And then, over the weekend, we've got some fantastic new programs as well. Simon Clark and Kirri Kermod are going to be there on a Saturday morning with the Saturday sandwich. Anything could happen between those two and it's live, so, you know, tune in just to hear what happens. Carnaby Street is going to be slightly earlier. It's going to start at eight o'clock through until ten o'clock. And also, we've got a new indie music show on a Saturday evening as well. So, there's plenty happening on that side. Dum, dum, dum, because there's more. There is more on the other side, as it were. It's getting more and more difficult as a public service media organisation to fit the numerous decades of music into one station. The BBC is very lucky having Radio's 1, 2, 3 and on onwards. But we are launching Manchredio Gold, which is a brand new greatest hit station that's going to be available on your smart device, on smart speakers, on the smartphone app online, at its own website gold.manchredio.com. And Andy Wint will be delivering a brand new Manchredio Gold breakfast show, which will be kicking off on Monday, the 1st of July, at seven o'clock in the morning with nothing but that. And it really has been handpicked greatest hits working from the '60s onwards. Because if you think about it, if I turn around to you and say, "Let's play a greatest hit track from the year 2000." It's nearly 25 years ago. There was a lot of music to choose from. Time is, you know, he's plodding on. So, there's a lot of decades there to pick from. And I think for a lot of people, it's going to bring back a lot of nostalgia, some fantastic memories as that well-known track. Everyone will be familiar. Everyone will be a track that people go, "Ah, I remember this on what a great track." And it's going to be playing those greatest hits throughout the entire day and throughout the entire night as well. So, Manchredio Gold will be looking back a bit. And then Manchredio from the 1st of July will be looking forward. There is going to be an extra demand on resources. So, how is something like this going to be resourced in-house? We've embraced a lot of technology, quite frankly. There's a lot of existing technology in terms of automation and without getting too technical. Studio switching and different commands, which we've not really utilized in the systems we already have. We are going to be doing so. Manchredio Gold will feature hourly Manch's news, which effectively we're syndicating from both stations. So, in terms of resources, it's using what we've got, the idea that we can produce a greatest hit music station with the team we've already got here. And we can also tweak the new schedule on Manch's with the team we've already got here. So, it's basically about making the best use of what we've got and just moving the chairs around slightly. And I suppose some people might ask whether or not there's a risk that we're going to be taking the Manchredio, what will be the Manchredio FM listeners away from them to be going to the greatest hits? I mean, there are only concerns about that. But really, it's about offering it to a broader audience. So, we'd like to grow the audience, really, in that there is an audience who are more mature-style of broadcasting, the Carnaby Street audience, which we'll now have a chance to listen to their type of music, maybe further throughout the week, likewise with our sensational 70s program, our 80s, mix tape. Manchs will have a brand new 90s program on a Friday night with Nicola Holt. So, you've got the chance to listen to those greatest hits on a Manch's radio station throughout the week, but then it also allows us on Manch's FM to embrace, and I say more modern music in inverted commas. I'm talking about people who are middle-aged because the 90s is the kind of music that appeals to people in their 40s and the 50s. It's not, yeah, your face is telling the same story that a lot of people do. You don't realize how time has passed and you think that what was young music isn't actually so much young music anymore. So, really, it's giving us a chance to embrace these new platforms like smart speakers and online broadcasting, which is incredibly popular, to bring Manch's radio sound to a wider audience and to challenge some of those perceptions because we've been doing surveys, we've been listening to people about what they like and what they don't like about Manch's radio and reasons that they don't listen, and a lot of it is about perception. Oh, I listened 20 years ago and I didn't like it then. Our message to you is, from the 1st of July, listen again to Manch's radio because you'll find it's very different. And you mentioned the survey there that we've been conducting and how much did that contribute to the changes that we've made? It's contributed in a large part, to be honest. We'd had plans in place to look at an additional smart speaker station for quite a while. There is the other side of the coin, which is that Manch's radio does have to earn a substantial amount of its income from commercial revenue and that gets more more difficult in these economic times. So a different station to be able to monetise was certainly one driving force. But in terms of what people told us on the survey, it told us about what sort of new stories we should be focusing on, the topics that actually matter to people, which sometimes when we get wound up in the excitement of what's going on in Tim Walter, what politicians are talking about and you sit there going, but what are the parents talking about around the school gate? What are people talking about, the infamous water cooler? A lot of the time, they don't match. So it told us a lot about that kind of content, but it also told us a lot about not so much what people think Manch radio should be doing, but also what they would like to hear from Manch radio. And there's two different things. If you tell people what do you think they should be doing, or they should be doing this and doing this, would that make you listen? And they go, "Oh, well, no, but I think they should be doing it." The survey told us a lot about what people would like to listen to. And that's very important because we are the public service media provider. We should be serving the public with the type of content that they want to listen to. And it also told us how they listen to it. In terms of our podcast offering, which is effectively radio on demand, podcasts, we've got well over 100 series of podcasts now online, and they're available through all different podcast providers. You will be amazed just how many people now are embracing podcasts. So it's a case of, "I'd love to listen to that program on Countryside. I'd love to listen to update, but my life dictates that I haven't got the time to listen to it live." But they embrace podcasting so they can listen when they want. This has informed a lot of our decisions as to where the audience are and how we can serve them best. And you talk about perception, and I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that the manx public can be somewhat stubborn in their opinions. So how do you actually go about changing those perceptions? I mean, it's a tall order. It is a tall order. I would like to say the proof is in the pudding. So if you've not listened to Manchrelia for a long time because of the perception that it's an old station or there's too much chatter or it's all very down in the mouth, or all these kind of perceptions that are out there, they are very negative. It's a case of actually judgers on what it's going to sound like. So listen again from the first of July, because I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And that will be the way that you change perception is that here's the product that Manchrelia puts out on both Manchrelia and Manchrelia gold and via our podcasting. And if you've not given it a listen in recent times, when you listen again, I think you'll be surprised. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manchrelia newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manchrelia podcasts at your favourite podcast provider. So our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. [Music] You
