The One Network
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| The One Network | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Subsidiary - GCap Media |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | UK |
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Products | Local Radio |
| Website | haventyouheard.co.uk musicradio.com |
The One Network is the collective name for the thirty-eight regional Independent Local Radio licences operated by GCap Media in the United Kingdom. It was previously known as 'The Mix Network' and coincided of stations owned by GWR Group, but upon the merger of Capital Radio Group and GWR Group it was re-named 'The One Network', and joined by most of the local radio stations owned by Capital Radio Group. Its main regional radio network rival is the Big City Network, owned by Bauer Group.
As of 31st March 2008, the One Network is set to become part of the biggest radio group in the UK. Global Radio have been recommended to acquire GCap Media by the GCap board for £375 million [1].
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[edit] History
The Origin of The One Network Stems from the merger GWR Group's The Mix Network and Capital Radio's Capital FM Network. On Aug 1st 2007 there was a change to the logo and sound of ex-Capital stations to harmonise with former GWR stations.
[edit] The Mix Network
The One Network (previously 'The Mix Network') was created by GWR Group in attempt to create a national radio network on minimal cost by simulcasting the same programmes across all stations at off-peak times of day. All of GWR's networked stations used the same branding and presentation design, alongside similar slogans, initially "today's better music mix", later "today's best mix" and "the best mix of the 80s, 90s and today."
All centrally-produced programming and playlists were broadcast from GWR FM Bristol, and songs are broadcast simultaneously as neighbouring group stations, albeit with the exception of advertisements and local station identities/slogans, pre-recorded weather and brief social action or What's On inserts. Many avid listeners were disappointed by GWR's approach to networking programmes and reducing local content, but GWR felt that networking was the way forward and as a result, GWR gained much financial success, mainly due to the group's long held philosophy of heavily researching the average person's listening habits and tastes. Such practices were led by Group chairman Ralph Bernard, who oversaw the creation of the tightly formatted sound where popular Top 40 chart hits and ex-Top 40 songs are blended in with older hits. Despite the changes of schedule and management, the stations continue to be commercial market leader in the areas in which they operate. To increase the listener's perception of each station's local output, GWR came up with 'The Black Thunders', often Mitsubishi 4x4s that travel around local events promoting the station they are allocated to.
The Mix also ran for a short while as a station on its own nationally on Sky Digital taking the same format and other stations, but was unsuccessful even though it was promoting on the FM stations.
A similar concept of syndicating programmes across local radio stations had previously been used by the Marcher Radio Group bouquet of stations, now part of The One Network. In addition to The One Networks' networked programmes from Bristol, Marcher still continues to simulcast many of its sub-regional programming throughout its four local licenses.
[edit] Capital FM Network
Capital FM Network was the collective brand name of local radio stations owned by Capital Radio, all purchased between 1993 and 1998. The stations were roughly based around the format of the company's London based station Capital FM and were linked by sharing the same logo. Stations under the brand were Fox FM (Oxfordshire), Red Dragon FM (South Wales), Power FM (South coast), Southern FM (Sussex and part of Surrey), BRMB (Birmingham) and Invicta FM (Kent). The stations still used these logos until September 2007 and are closely linked, although not as much under the One Network. Due to falling listening figures Capital FM is no longer part of the network and has been re-branded Capital 95.8. The other stations now fall under the hands of the One Network.
The One Network's logo was initially an amalgamation of the two original logos, utilising the Mix Network's symbol and the Capital FM Network font. In July 2007, a unified look for all the One Network stations was adopted, covering everything from car stickers and on-stage branding to letterheads and screensavers, based on a visual identity of green and pink bubbles.
[edit] Programmes
Main syndicated programmes across the network include:
- hit40uk (Sunday 4pm to 7pm) presented by Lucio Buffone
- Music Control (weekdays 7pm to 10pm) presented by Kevin Hughes
- The Entertainment Edge (Sundays 2pm to 4pm) presented by Ryan Seacrest
- Late Night Love (Sunday to Thursday 10pm to 1am) a phone-in show presented by Graham Torrington
- Music On Demand (every night 1am to 6am Sun-Fri, 1am to 7am Sat) presented by Dan Wood or Andy Henly
- Party Saturday (Saturday 10pm to 1am) presented by Toni Phillips
- Sunday Night with Jason Donovan (Sunday 7pm to 10pm) presented by Jason Donovan
On Friday and Saturday evenings the network splits, with two show being sent simultaneously. The local station can choose which programme they wish to broadcast depending upon their audience. The shows on the spilt networks are:
- Non-Stop Party (Friday 10pm to 1am) presented by Toni Phillips
- School Daze (Friday 10pm to 1am) presented by Trevor Marshal
- Hairbrush Divas (Saturday 7pm to 10pm) presented by Sally Bailey
[edit] Slogans
- 1994 A mix of the 70s, 80s and the best of today
- 1995 Station name - A better music mix - from the 70s, 80s and today
- 1997 Today's better music mix
- 2001 Station name - "Today's best mix"
- 2004 "Today's best mix, today's best variety" - "More music, less talk" - "The best mix of the 80s, 90s and today"
- 2007 On-air "Today's best mix" and "Haven't you heard?" The additional tagline of "Haven't you heard?", used on website and advertising only - not used on air, appears to have disappeared from the individual station's websites as of March 2008.
[edit] Content delivery
On the previous Mix Network, stations were traditionally supplied syndicated content using a dedicated satellite network, which proved costly and relatively inflexible. Network show presenters would have to travel to the GWR Group head office in Passage Street, Bristol to broadcast across the network. In 2004, the GWR Group commissioned Thus to design and implement a state of the art upgrade to allow broadcasts across The Mix Network to be delivered using an MPLS IP VPN meaning that content could not only be delivered from any station in the group to the whole network, but also to individual groups of stations excluding the rest of the network if desired.
Content is delivered around their IP network using a system designed in-house by GWR Group, called BLAST. BLAST can automatically adjust to any problems during broadcast; it will drop an audio stream from stereo to mono to save bandwidth if it realises contention and if a packet is dropped BLAST will stretch the audio stream by 26 milliseconds to fill. [1]
At the time of writing, the networked shows are broadcast from the following sites:
- Music Control - GWR FM Bristol, Bristol
- Late Night Love - 96.4 BRMB, Birmingham
- Party Anthems - GCap Media studios, Leicester Square, London
- Sunday Nights with Jason Donovan - GCap Media studios, Leicester Square, London
- Jeremy Kyle - GCap Media studios, Leicester Square, London
[edit] Stations
The One Network consists of thirty eight regional contractors, previously owned by GWR and Capital Radio, and prior to that, mostly independent. All of the stations in the network broadcast the same programming in peak times, with most local programming allotted in daytime hours. On air, there is no reference to a national network (except during some competitions); just plainly the regional name. Besides advertisements, slogans, and ten second pre-recorded weather and What's On/social action inserts (to satisfy the demands of regulator Ofcom), weekday networked programmes are identical across all stations. On Saturday evenings, stations either broadcast 'Hairbrush Divas' or 'Party Anthems' dependent on the target audience. All of the thirty-eight stations use the same generic imaging, with exception of the sung station-names. These are produced by Music4.
[edit] Former GWR Group stations
[edit] Former Capital Group stations
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official One Network website
- The One Network @ GCapmedia.com (Commercial)
- The One Network @ GCapmedia.com (Corporate)
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