No DJs, narrow demographics and a whole load of show tunes: welcome to the world of robot broadcasting
To Staines, where, in the meeting room of an office building opposite the high street's busy Poundland, award-winning radio producer Robin Crowley thinks he has identified a gap in the market. And that gap contains showtunes. Lots of them. Enough showtunes, in fact, to fill an entire radio station. Evita, Rent, Showgirls: you'll find the lot on 24/7 online station Jemm Three, whose 10 presenters have been broadcasting from the studio downstairs since June. "It's a great music genre that hasn't had a light shone on it," Robin insists. "Nobody else is doing it, apart from for two hours on a Sunday on Radio 2."
But is Radio 2's Elaine Paige showtunes ghetto really the result of an uninformed decision? Sometimes, I find myself telling Robin, people leap on gaps in markets without acknowledging that the gap may exist for a very good reason. Unfortunately, I get a bit carried away with my business analyst routine, and attempt to illustrate my point with the observation that there is, arguably, a gap in the market for a poo-flavoured chocolate bar. "I don't think I'd compare musical theatre to poo," Robin says, diplomatically.
Nonetheless, in June, radio production company Wise Buddah announced plans to launch its own showtunes station, seeking £145,000 investment via the crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo. One week ago its funding deadline expired, with just £3,706 having been pledged. Still, over here in Staines, Crowley insists that Jemm Three is on to something, and it's hard not to be swept up by his passion for both radio and Jemm Three's music policy.
The Jemm building boasts touches like a fake-cowskin chaise longue and a presumably ironic portrait of the Queen, while the ladies' bathroom has a Barbie stuck to its door, with a Ken attached to the gents'. It's quite "Shoreditch media hub", even if the Styrofoam ceilings, grey carpet tiles and functioning electrical trunking divulge the building's true locale. Given its modest setting, and as the station broadcasts around the clock, it would be understandable if some of the shows were pre-recorded. Even so, when I ask Robin how much of the output is live, his answer is rather alarming.
"None of it," he says. "Although my breakfast show is nearly live." Blimey, I think. Although, listening to Jemm Three, the non-live nature of the broadcasting is not as obvious as you might expect, and listeners to even the biggest stations hear this sort of skilfully prefabricated output more often than they realise. "Come on!" Robin exclaims. "I've got three radio stations to run!"
Indeed he has. Jemm Three is not the only station broadcasting from the studios below us (see if you can guess what the other two are called). It's a rather peculiar set-up. The principal business of Jemm, the stations' parent company, is to buy and sell online banner advertising. Moving forward, part of the business focuses on delivering audio advertising, so Jemm's likably bolshie owner, Matt Whaley – who previously sold booze to superclubs such as Cream and Gatecrasher – figured that they should start creating radio content of their own. He contacted Robin at the start of this year. "We got three radio stations up and running in 15 weeks," Robin grimaces. "From scratch. We built the studios from scratch, figured out how to get the sound from in here to out there from scratch. Did the whole thing from scratch."
Jemm One cost around £350,000 to launch, while economies of scale meant Jemms Two and Three each cost about £75K. The three stations' branding is rather generic, but while Jemm Three focuses on showtunes, Jemm Two is dedicated to indie music, mostly unsigned (I ask Robin how they chose indie over, say, metal, and he explains matter-of-factly that "I just don't know much about metal", which seems fair enough). Jemm One, with up to 60,000 listeners a day, deals with a well-defined mix of high-octane club remixes and DJ sets. If Robin's name, and the output of Jemm One, sounds familiar to regular Radio Daze readers it's because we first encountered both last summer, when Crowley was running Gaydar Radio. Six months after my visit, the station fell offline: its parent company was up for sale, and the new owners didn't want to take on a radio station. "It was just after Christmas," Robin remembers. "The team came back on the Wednesday, we called a meeting on the Thursday, and the last broadcast was on the Friday."
Today he's keen to focus on Jemm, though, so we head downstairs to where the magic happens. There are three stations currently broadcasting, but there's nobody manning the network's one studio. Even the music isn't kept in the building; it's on hard drives in a data centre next door. It's all impressively efficient, though Robin doesn't quite agree with my assertion that Jemms One to Three are rather like drone radio stations. "Maybe they're more like driverless cars," he suggests. "Which you can get now, apparently. And they're safer than ones with drivers."
There could be more driverless stations to come. Matt Whaley says he already has an idea for Jemm Four, and when I arrive home from my trip to Staines I check online to see just how far ahead he's looking. The domain name for Jemm Four is indeed registered, and so are Jemms Five to 10. Given the speed with which the first three appeared, they could all be online by next April. Maybe there'll be room for that metal station after all. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
To Staines, where, in the meeting room of an office building opposite the high street's busy Poundland, award-winning radio producer Robin Crowley thinks he has identified a gap in the market. And that gap contains showtunes. Lots of them. Enough showtunes, in fact, to fill an entire radio station. Evita, Rent, Showgirls: you'll find the lot on 24/7 online station Jemm Three, whose 10 presenters have been broadcasting from the studio downstairs since June. "It's a great music genre that hasn't had a light shone on it," Robin insists. "Nobody else is doing it, apart from for two hours on a Sunday on Radio 2."
But is Radio 2's Elaine Paige showtunes ghetto really the result of an uninformed decision? Sometimes, I find myself telling Robin, people leap on gaps in markets without acknowledging that the gap may exist for a very good reason. Unfortunately, I get a bit carried away with my business analyst routine, and attempt to illustrate my point with the observation that there is, arguably, a gap in the market for a poo-flavoured chocolate bar. "I don't think I'd compare musical theatre to poo," Robin says, diplomatically.
Nonetheless, in June, radio production company Wise Buddah announced plans to launch its own showtunes station, seeking £145,000 investment via the crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo. One week ago its funding deadline expired, with just £3,706 having been pledged. Still, over here in Staines, Crowley insists that Jemm Three is on to something, and it's hard not to be swept up by his passion for both radio and Jemm Three's music policy.
The Jemm building boasts touches like a fake-cowskin chaise longue and a presumably ironic portrait of the Queen, while the ladies' bathroom has a Barbie stuck to its door, with a Ken attached to the gents'. It's quite "Shoreditch media hub", even if the Styrofoam ceilings, grey carpet tiles and functioning electrical trunking divulge the building's true locale. Given its modest setting, and as the station broadcasts around the clock, it would be understandable if some of the shows were pre-recorded. Even so, when I ask Robin how much of the output is live, his answer is rather alarming.
"None of it," he says. "Although my breakfast show is nearly live." Blimey, I think. Although, listening to Jemm Three, the non-live nature of the broadcasting is not as obvious as you might expect, and listeners to even the biggest stations hear this sort of skilfully prefabricated output more often than they realise. "Come on!" Robin exclaims. "I've got three radio stations to run!"
Indeed he has. Jemm Three is not the only station broadcasting from the studios below us (see if you can guess what the other two are called). It's a rather peculiar set-up. The principal business of Jemm, the stations' parent company, is to buy and sell online banner advertising. Moving forward, part of the business focuses on delivering audio advertising, so Jemm's likably bolshie owner, Matt Whaley – who previously sold booze to superclubs such as Cream and Gatecrasher – figured that they should start creating radio content of their own. He contacted Robin at the start of this year. "We got three radio stations up and running in 15 weeks," Robin grimaces. "From scratch. We built the studios from scratch, figured out how to get the sound from in here to out there from scratch. Did the whole thing from scratch."
Jemm One cost around £350,000 to launch, while economies of scale meant Jemms Two and Three each cost about £75K. The three stations' branding is rather generic, but while Jemm Three focuses on showtunes, Jemm Two is dedicated to indie music, mostly unsigned (I ask Robin how they chose indie over, say, metal, and he explains matter-of-factly that "I just don't know much about metal", which seems fair enough). Jemm One, with up to 60,000 listeners a day, deals with a well-defined mix of high-octane club remixes and DJ sets. If Robin's name, and the output of Jemm One, sounds familiar to regular Radio Daze readers it's because we first encountered both last summer, when Crowley was running Gaydar Radio. Six months after my visit, the station fell offline: its parent company was up for sale, and the new owners didn't want to take on a radio station. "It was just after Christmas," Robin remembers. "The team came back on the Wednesday, we called a meeting on the Thursday, and the last broadcast was on the Friday."
Today he's keen to focus on Jemm, though, so we head downstairs to where the magic happens. There are three stations currently broadcasting, but there's nobody manning the network's one studio. Even the music isn't kept in the building; it's on hard drives in a data centre next door. It's all impressively efficient, though Robin doesn't quite agree with my assertion that Jemms One to Three are rather like drone radio stations. "Maybe they're more like driverless cars," he suggests. "Which you can get now, apparently. And they're safer than ones with drivers."
There could be more driverless stations to come. Matt Whaley says he already has an idea for Jemm Four, and when I arrive home from my trip to Staines I check online to see just how far ahead he's looking. The domain name for Jemm Four is indeed registered, and so are Jemms Five to 10. Given the speed with which the first three appeared, they could all be online by next April. Maybe there'll be room for that metal station after all. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.