The unhappy death of all-English radio in CM

[Trujillo]

"Happy Radio" 98.5 is no longer all English. 

It was a nice relief from the bubble gum, cookie-cut Thai pop songs ("Bangkok music" as a Thai friend referred to it), which is what the radio station has reverted to. 

 

Initially, the station had hired overseas native English speaking DJs, had the BBC news at the top of the hour and played exclusively English language music. 

Unfortunately, it appears the marketing department couldn't cut the mustard. They had (basically) four advertisers: a regional airlines (that employed blatant bait-and-switch advertising), a car dealership, a graphic design company (which finally sweetened the pot enough to have the station renamed in its honor), and a restaurant (that used an Abba song in its ad most likely without paying royalties). 

Eventually, the DJs were fired and the station went to an off-the-shelf programming of oldies with no announcers.

 

Now it's called (in English, ironically), either "Live Radio" or "Life Radio" or "Like Radio" -- I can't tell because of the poor Thai announcer's pronunciation. 

 

So I am not sure if Chiang Mai Thais don't enjoy listening to English language music or if the marketing department failed miserably or a mix of both. 

Nevertheless, a noble experiment is ended. 

[canthai55]

Have not listened to broadcast anything - radio, TV ... in over 20 years.

Not since internet radio came along - pick what you want, when you want. Selection endless

 

[watthong]

9 minutes ago, canthai55 said:

Not since internet radio came along - pick what you want, when you want. Selection endless

+1 all in the palm of your hand.

[Tarteso]

I thought “video killed the radio star”...a very long time ago.????

[eyecatcher]

Just to be clear, Xanadu is sung by Olivia Neutron Bomb and Electric light orchestra and had no input by Abba.

Lets hope a new music station gets going before your music knowledge completely fails you.

[donnacha]

I used to work in radio, and have many fond memories, but even I have not chosen to listen to it in over a decade.

For music, the streaming services are infinitely better, whether you prefer listening to your own choices or following curated playlists. For talk, podcasts capture all the magic of radio at its best and far exceed it in terms of breadth. Along with audiobooks, this truly is a golden age for the spoken word.

As far as I can make out, the only people choosing to listen to live broadcast radio are much older folks who, when the Internet came along, were just a little too old to grasp the idea that their content no longer had to be chosen for them. My father is certainly in that category - we have set him up with Plex, Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc, but he still prefers to arduously and haphazardly record the same shows from broadcast TV, adverts and all.

[ChakaKhan]

I used to volunteer in CM for an english radio show on mondays..did it with a japanese guy

 

We used 2 pcs and youtube--I would sometimes use my flashdrive and ipod--was years ago

 

Had to go to bkk to get a volunteer visa which IO did NOT want to give me--had to also pay 2000

Had to get the lawyer involved who started the program--a hiso lawyer in CM...was fun to do weekly

 

Thais would call in to practice english and always ask for same songs--Hotel California was a fav...

 

 

[Hugh Jarse]

On 3/4/2020 at 11:31 AM, canthai55 said:

Have not listened to broadcast anything - radio, TV ... in over 20 years.

Not since internet radio came along - pick what you want, when you want. Selection endless

 

Except on the car's radio!

[Hugh Jarse]

I used to listen toHappy crappy  Radio for BBC news on the hour. Sadly the amateurs handling it were forever cutting short the news, often mid sentence, so abandoned the station on my car's radio.

[LomSak27]

I listen to a radio station from my old city. They put 5 channels on over the internet. No commercials and minimal news, although traffic & Weather updates. This is my go to channel and playing almost everyday. 

[Trujillo]

Yes, you got me. I have written my confession while kneeling on broken glass. 

However, I'm not sure having grand discriminatory skills between ABBA and Olivia Newton John is something I would boast about.   >..<

[Sparkles]

I have 98.5 permanently on the car radio as the CD player is kapoot. Sometimes they do stuff up on the hourly BBC news overlapping or cutting it short but hey its free.

Last 3 tracks I heard before I got home Doors =Light my Fire, Macarthur Park =Richard Harris and Joe Cocker= You are so beautiful,some great oldies. Minimal amount of talk suits me fine.Spent quite a few years working in radio on the marketing side.Lot of our DJ's were on an ego trip, too much talking not enough music.

[Number 6]

Good riddance to broadcast radio.

 

Shortwave I miss it in remote areas but even there music players with 20k songs suffice

[sharktooth]

Who wants to listen to others p1ss poor musical tastes? Spotify in my car all the way. As for news updates on the hour, it’s basically an annoying loop repeating the same guff. 
if I wanted to continually hear Hotel Bluddy California I’d move to the Philippines.

[elektrified]

I don't see a problem with the new format at all (other than they tend to repeat some of the same 70's songs early in the morning, as well as playing some versions which are not the original versions). But it gets better after 9:00 so it seems. Yes, the BBC news get cut off sometimes.

[rebo]

Like this: https://chiliradiothailand.com/