I woke up on Friday morning to discover yet another radio station was about to launch later in the day. These are largely bland affairs as the launch of Thames Radio in London was earlier in the summer with more generic AC fare.
However, Union Jack from the makers of Absolute Radio and Absolute 80s did make me think this would be yet another anally programmed station about 'real' music.
The station provides a wide mix of British music from the last six decades, there's no Madonna or Justin Bieber here being foreigners.
Like Absolute it's rock skewed, but also plays music from the likes of Shakin' Stevens and Cathy Dennis, not known for their 'real' music credentials which would have seen them not playlisted on Absolute or their spin-off stations.
I dipped in at lunchtime to the surprise there's an actual radio presenter on-air. This station is a brand spin-off of JACK fm, a local radio station in Oxfordshire which outside breakfast has Paul Darrow from Blakes 7 with sarcastic one liners between songs. However "Trev" was talking between the records and updating listeners about who should be the next song played.
Union Jack has an app where listeners can vote for songs to be played on the radio station and is truly interactive, I tested it out at 2.30am and changed the next played song which they played out, so it isn't a con in any sense of the word, although I suspect it works better overnight when only a few people are listening than during the day.
Later on Friday "Trev" than became "Rich" who was also enthusiastic about the interactive format, which leads me to think that if you're going to present on Union Jack, you have to be a man with a four letter name, so "Gary" may be the next presenter.
However "Gary" didn't materialise and Paul Darrow's sweepers became the norm along with voiceovers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure that this station celebrates the UK, rather than be another Londoncentric media outlet.
Overall, it's a decent background listen, despite the random new music showcased which doesn't detract from the fact you're never too far away from a Beatles or Genesis track.
Absolute's branding lead to the creators putting out a product which alienated listeners who didn't like Queen or Snow Patrol every five minutes. Union Jack on the other hand is a much broader affair which celebrates a broader selection of British music without being up their own backside.
Oxis Media have found the right format for a national station.
The only downside is that the station is on DAB+ on the second national multiplex at 24kbps. It's not a big deal for me listening on a pocket DAB radio, but listening on a hi-fi may be too distracting. However they have a 320kbps AAC+ stream online which is excellent for audiophiles.
Outside of radio anoraks, I hope they have many more Trev's, Gary's and Jane's listening to this station.
Listen to Union Jack at www.unionjack.co.uk or on DAB Digital Radio on the SDN multiplex nationally. (DAB+ receiver required)
Friday saw the shock announcement from OXIS Media which whose largest shareholder is Absolute Radio International (ARI Consultancy) about the expansion of their licensed Jack FM brand across the UK regionally and the launch of Jack FM 2, a female skewed version of the largely automated main station in Oxford.
Jack FM 2 replaces Glide FM, which itself launched with a blaze of glory by stunting as Glee FM, which played tracks from the hit musical tv series. However since then, ARI hasn't been able to capitalise on it's early publicity and is now on it's third relaunch in a short period for a station which was also called FM 107.9. As Oxford's only commercial radio station for young adults, this is a failure despite sharing resources with the main Jack FM station, yet it appears that a CHR skewed Heart is still continuing to bring in the numbers, despite being networked from Reading and London.
For those of you who are not aware, ARI are also under contract to manage Absolute Radio, the national AM and London FM station on behalf of the Times of India, which may also be converted to be a Jack FM later in the year. While ARI have increased the share of the overall Absolute Radio network, this has been done by launching seven costly digital radio spin off stations based on the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s and a mainstream classic rock station.
While some of the programming decisions of the main station have to be applauded, such as their investment in personality presenters such as Christian O'Connell, Geof Lloyd, Frank Skinner and Emily Dean, the business continues to lose money and has been rumoured that the likes of Richard Branson and Bauer have attempted to acquire the station.
If TIML don't sell and ARI continue to operate the station as Jack FM, this is about preserving the business and cost cutting, rather than taking the money from a larger well resourced radio group as well as maintaining Absolute's AOR 'real' music policy while not having to pay presenters.
The other rumour is OXIS/ARI may be ready to step in and acquire stations Global Radio have to divest as part of their acquisition of GMG Radio to launch Jack FM in major regional markets. The beauty of the Jack brand is that it can be adapted to suit the formats of other stations, for example Jack FM Solent a former AAA format is as far as you can get from Jack Hertfordshire which plays Hot AC. Both of these stations are not owned by OXIS, but they have licenced them to other media groups as part of the business to sell the branding to local stations.
If OXIS pulls this off, it'll take them from being a small scale operator in Oxfordshire and a loss making contractor in London to taking their one successful brand Jack into something special. It could be that midas touch that stops Bauer's expansion of Planet Rock and puts them into another successful male skewed brand alongside UTV's talkSPORT while keeping the contract for the national and London station safe.
