PROJECT BANANA

One breakfast show Seven choices of playlist All live

PROJECT BANANA ELEMENTS:

UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS

MAXIMISING CONTENT

PROJECT BANANA - THEORY

PROJECT BANANA - IMPLEMENTATION

PROJECT BANANA - OPERATION

1. UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS

UNIQUE REQUIREMENTS

They all run the same breakfast show.

• Our listeners enjoy live, relevant entertainment at breakfast • The music at breakfast time is secondary to the content • We wanted to focus on one great breakfast show

• Benefits both listeners and commercial partners

• The Wickes sponsorship of the breakfast show is into its 3rd year

We have seven radio stations – master channel and brand extensions

2. MAXIMISING CONTENT

CHRISTIAN O’CONNELL

6-10am Monday to Friday

Live across the Absolute Radio network of stations

Until May this year, a simulcast of the show.

FRANK SKINNER

8am-11am Saturdays

Also runs on Saturday between 9am-12pm on the Absolute Radio Network

Links are recorded and replayed an hour later

3. PROJECT BANANA -SPECIFICATION

PROJECT BANANA - SPECIFICATION

• Maintain a live, interactive breakfast show across all stations

• Listeners to Absolute Radio shouldn’t notice the difference

• Listeners to the digital stations should get the songs they love

AIMS

PROJECT BANANA - SPECIFICATION

LIVE LINK OASIS – LIVE FOREVER

THE CURE - LOVECATS

BLUR - PARKLIFE

FEEDER – BUCK ROGERS

TOM ROBINSON – 2-4-6-8 MOTORWAY

BEATLES – ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

STEPPENWOLF – BORN TO BE WILD

LIVE LINK KASABIAN – EEZ-EH

A-HA – THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON TV

KLF – WHAT TIME IS LOVE

BEYONCE – CRAZY IN LOVE

DAVID BOWIE – STAR MAN

JIMI HENDRIX – ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

ROLLING STONES – THE LAST TIME

TEMPTATIONS – BALL OF CONFUSION

3’48” 4’50”

SINGLE SONG POSITIONS

PROJECT BANANA - SPECIFICATIONSEGUE POSITIONS

LIVE LINK

11’30”

KINGS OF LEON - SUPERSOAKER CARDIGANS - LOVEFOOL NIRVANA – SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT

FOUNDATIONS – BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP

ARETHA FRANKLIN – SAY A LITTLE PRAYER

JOHNNY CASH – A BOY NAMED SUE

THE KINKS - VICTORIA

EDDIE FLOYD – KNOCK ON WOOD

SISTER SLEDGE – WE ARE FAMILY STEPHEN STILLS – LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH SUPERTRAMP – LOGICAL SONG

CAMEO – WORD UP BON JOVI – LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER KIM WILDE – KIDS IN AMERICA

STONE ROSES – SHE BANGS THE DRUMS STEREO MCs - CONNECTED SUPERGRASS - ALRIGHT

SPILLER - GROOVEJET TRAVIS - SING LADY GAGA – EDGE OF GLORY

KILLERS – READ MY MIND

THE DOORS – HELLO I LOVE YOU QUEEN – DON’T STOP ME NOW DEF LEPPARD – LET’S GET ROCKED

4. PROJECT BANANA - IMPLEMENTATION

PROJECT BANANA - IMPLEMENTATION

Using existing tools • Music scheduling: RCS GSelector • Broadcast ‘playout’ system: Broadcast Bionics’ Genesys

• We already ‘split’ 7 ways during breakfast for commercials • Took the split commercial functionality and applied it to songs

With • New functions written to put Genesys into and out of ‘Banana’ mode. • New ‘Song Balancer’ plugin written by RCS for GSelector

PROJECT BANANA - IMPLEMENTATION

• Examine the depth of the song databases to establish whether rotations are possible

• Synchronise song and intro lengths between Genesys and Gselector

• Normalise all song levels in Genesys

PRIOR TO LAUNCH

PROJECT BANANA - IMPLEMENTATION WORKFLOW PROCESS

■ The Music Schedule for the breakfast show on the main Absolute Radio station is created first

■ Digital Stations then run ‘Song Balancer’

■ This takes the song durations from the main station, and imports them into the other stations databases

■ Songs can be +10-15 seconds if the song fades

■ GSelector then finds songs that match the duration AND scheduling rules for each clock position (e.g. separation, mood, tempo etc.)

■ The person responsible for music scheduling can then manually edit the log as required

PROJECT BANANA - IMPLEMENTATION RCS ‘SONG BALANCER’

5. PROJECT BANANA - OPERATIONS

PROJECT BANANA - OPERATIONS

• Enter Genesys ‘Banana’ mode at 5.59

• Each song or segue group is in a ‘break’

• Advance through playlist using ‘next’

• Drop songs or reposition hour using ‘flush’ and ‘load break’

• Use ‘Fade 5s’ or ‘Fade 3s’ if need to end song early

DAILY OPERATIONS

PROJECT BANANA - OPERATIONS

• Hide what we were doing

• Limit Christian’s freedom

• Extend ‘Banana’ to other parts of the radio stations

• ‘Split Links’ a no-no

THINGS WE DIDN’T WANT TO DO

PROJECT BANANA - RESULTS

Record Audience in first Project Banana quarter

1.5m (source: RAJAR Q2 2014)

THANK YOU@tonymoorey