Thursday, May 17, 2007

Looks like I got out at the right time!

Xfm ditches daytime presenters
Oh dear, what a foolish thing to do. And the idea that the listener will suddenly be able to access a huge range of music is just absurd. They'll get access to the daytime playlist. The end result will be exactly the same songs you hear now, just in a different order.
*sighs*
I was listening to Xfm whilst I was in the bath this morning, it just made me very sad to think how far it's fallen. It was such a big part of my life and i'll always have an affection for it, but it really does feel as though they are trying to squeeze the life out of the station.....
Been rocking this recently, another one of those useful tech start-ups: Tubes

17 comments:

Tim said...

One word springs to mind: insane.

Part of the joy of radio is the banter from the DJ and the interaction with the audience. A radio station without DJs where I can choose the music - oh, that'll be my iTunes library! And I won't have to pay 25p per text or be limited to the daytime playlist for the privilege...

Anonymous said...

Ouch! Suicide for the station surely?

Sounds like you made the move at the right time :(

Any more news on "The Project" yet?

Iain Baker said...

i'm working on it....we're about a week or so away from Beta :)
Soon as that URL is available, i'll be posting it here

Anonymous said...

Humm... they do seem to be trying to milk the cash cow, don't they.

Every show's pushing listeners to contact them via txt, which obviously costs us money, but to do it for six hours a day!?!

I think people like, and need, to hear another human's voice (preferably injected with humor) when they listen to the radio.
This is why Shaun Keevney's show was my favorite, and is why the likes of Moyles is soo successful on Radio One.

As they've got Capital and Xfm in London to play with, GCap Media must be using Xfm as a guinea pig to see whether this will work...

Shedsey said...

The station died the moment Crapitol Radio bought them and moved them out of Charlotte St.
It only had one way to go eventually sad.
But we had a riot on the way down!
I think it killed the little indie world that was blooming because it started repeating the same songs all the time instead of allowing the DJ's to dictate the music.
And now that unknown stuff that used to get an airing is gone from the FM dial.
DAB and Internet are the only avenues to go down now.
Thankyou Iain for entertaining us while you were there it was good to talk to you and share familiar tastes. Lowgold right from the first time you played 'In Amber' I was hooked and then that was one of the last songs you played out with. Forty years old and I had a little tear.
Cheers, good health and hopr to bump into you and thrust some well earned beer your way.

Anonymous said...

Xfm’s Managing Director, Nick Davidson said ‘Xfm has always been an innovative radio station and we really felt that we were ready to push the boundaries again.’

I say that Nick Davidson is a twat.
No doubt that it'll save the management money (or so they hope) but a radio station without presenters is a radio station without any personality, and so ultimately it'll be a radio station without listeners. Let's see what that does for their ad revenues and how quickly they perform a U-turn.

Unknown said...

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/spotlight/?sc=8

Didn't Fleetwood Mac get to play at the (first) Clinton inaugaration?

oh, and no presenters on radio? no point.

Anonymous said...

Hey - Dave from Tubes here. Just wanted to say thanks for mentioning us on your blog!

Anonymous said...

Oh god, they did it. Bugger :(

Still, you got out in time and there's always other station, however unpalatable that seems right now.

Hurry up with the project too :p

Anonymous said...

You might as well just buy a Razorlight and Fratellis album and listen to them on repeat if that's what you want to hear!

Xfm is just wank now - I listen to 6 Music, 5 Live, and LBC now!

"The Project" sounds interesting - any jobs for a web developer going?!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like radio station suicide to me.

Rachel x

Anonymous said...

Damn, my comment from yesterday didn't post. Crappy conference wifi.

Honestly, though, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen done in the name of 'brand'. It's complete idiocy, and precisely the sort of thing that wakes my activist side and makes me say "right, let's organise!".

I feel a revolt coming on.

Anonymous said...

Gah! What are they doing at X?!
Sounds like a bloody shambles to me...*sigh*
Xfm was always the only station for me. I've been listening from the start. It got me through my Art GCSE (I got an A, I thank Xfm for that!), spent many a happy day listening to Ricky and Steve (and you on the X-List!) and many a boozy night at the various live sessions and Xtra-Curricular at Market Place (considerably better than First Friday imho)
Best of luck with "The Project".

Anonymous said...

C'est moi, le roi!

Iain Baker said...

"C'est Moi, Le Roi"? Blimey, that's a blast from the past (it's a quote from my French A-Level exam) anonymous, show thyself! :)
And, Miss Weston? thanks for that, it's always nice when people remember Market Place, it was great fun wasn't it? keep in touch,
iain
x

Anonymous said...

Hi Ian,

Sorry for the (crap) cryptic clue - but I couldn't resist it!

I recently went looking for you on the XFM website (after hearing that one of your band's songs is up for selection as Hillary Clinton's campaign song!) - and found that you'd gone. I found the link to this page on your old profile page. (I didn't e-mail you directly, as I don't have your e-mail address (only ever had the XFM one.)

I was very surprised to see that you'd gone - in common with everyone else.

Anyway, I wanted to catch up - and this seemed to be the only way possible.

If you sill have my e-mail address, by all means e-mail me directly (I'm rather conscious of the fact that this is a public forum!). If not, I'll check back here - but nothing too embarrasing, please?

Cheers,

Dud

Iain Baker said...

Aha! Dud! it all makes sense now ;)
keyboardbreaker at the gmail dot com........