Virgin Radio

The first station I listened to was Virgin Radio, I listened to Virgin During their Chris Evans breakfast show which broadcasts from 6:30am to 10am. The station styles itself as a Hot Adult Contemporary music show with a broad range of popular music from across the decades. The Breakfast show is exclusively sponsored by Sky TV, which means unlike other big commercial radio stations the show doesn’t have any ad breaks, although Sky was mentioned as sponsoring the show frequently during the time I spent listening. I thought the music played on the show was an interesting mix of songs you find played on a range of different radio stations. For example, when I listened I heard them play The Clash and The Jam back to back which you’d typically hear on a station such as Absolute Radio. I also heard Lewis Capaldi and Amy Winehouse which you’d typically find on a station like Heart.  I believe this was done to widen the appeal of the station and its type of listener it attracts. There didn’t seem to be a station playlist as such, one of the shows taglines is ‘playing the best music’ and they’re constantly changing Spotify playlist shows nearly all the music they play comes from very commercial mainstream artists.

Heart FM

The second show I listened to was the late show with Fia Tarrant on Heart FM which broadcasts every weekday from 10pm to 1am. Heart FM is an easy listening Adult Contemporary Radio station  that  tends to play upbeat pop music from the past 20 years, with a few classic songs from older decades of music thrown in. The station as a whole is very joyful and light hearted which fits in with their slogan ‘turn up the feel good’. This was reflected when I listened to the late show as many of the songs they played were easy listening, light hearted up-tempo pop songs. Songs such as Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night and Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger. The show had a pretty even split of male and female artists. The shows playlist also plays similar songs of the same genre however the playlist wasn’t in rotation when I was listing and is only operational during the daytime shows. The adverts the station featured were definitely family friendly. When I listened they played out adverts for exercise bikes, holidays to Centre Parks, as well as constant reminders about Coronavirus and how to keep you and your family safe. The Centre parks advert works well as it includes lots of activities going on in the background which helps to relay the message that centre parks is a fun action packed get away with things to do for all the family.

Country Hits Radio

The Last station I listened to this week was the Country Hits Radio evening show Country Hits Nashville. Country Hits is a relatively new radio station having launched in April 2019. The evening show is unlike the other shows on the schedule as it broadcasts directly from Nashville the home of country music in America. The show plays upbeat modern country songs from artists such Tenille Townes, Lady Antebellum and Matt Stell, and there is a about a 50/50 split between male and female artists with only one group played when I listened to the station.  All the songs I heard were very middle of the road, radio friendly country songs that had very soft tempos.  Some of the adverts I heard on the show included we ‘Buy Any Car’ Moon Pig and McDonald’s. Just like the adverts on Heart FM they were very family friendly. The We Buy Any Car advert had a very light hearted script joking about buying any old rubbish car or van, I’m not sure how much these adverts appeal to the stations listener however as country music is not a very mainstream form of music in the UK and I’m not sure how many families would be listening to the station.