So, farewell failing local indie station The Rev and hello Penky’s AC Revolution.

Yes, the ‘star’ of TV’s Naughtiest Blunders has decided to buy himself a radio station – Oldham’s The Revolution. Well, it’s one way to guarantee yourself a breakfast show…

RadioToday picked up on his ‘rant’ this morning telling indie-loving listeners (ie all the people who used to listen to the station) to disappear off to XFM if they want that sort of music. Nice.

I thought it might be good to have a listen to the station this afternoon (4.20 to 5pm) to see what they were doing and I thought i’d share it.

Song: Rocking All Over the World – Status Quo
Link: Quite long DJ chatter
Feature: ‘Schools Out’ where a listener picks a song from their school days. Good way to contextualise an 80s tune, also good that they mentioned Grange Hill being axed.
Song: Terrence Trent D’Arby – Wishing Well
Link
Sponsored Time Check
Production: Revolution ‘Home of Steve Penk Breakfast Show’
News Break
Production: Sponsored Drive
Song: Adele – Chasing Pavements
Link: Solicit for travel information
Song: Blur – Girls and Boys
Link – Oldham Football Mention
Ad Break
Production: ‘All Your Favourite Songs’
Song: Alphabeat – Boyfriend
Link: Travel news (presenter read) mainly covering Central Manchester (Deansgate, Oxford Road etc)
Ad break
Production: Revolution ‘Home of Steve Penk Breakfast Show’
Song: Chris Brown – With You
Link: Promoting the Breakfast Show
Ad break
News: 5pm Bulletin

I thought the music was a bit odd, putting two oldies back to back at the beginning of the monitor and then the following tunes all being relatively recent. I was also surprised that there were no music sweeps at all, it was always song-link. The links were also all relatively long ones – the schools days feature had a long intro and then quite a rambly chat with the presenter. I thought the news and information elements were good, with a solid local focus, though the traffic bulletin was mostly central Manchester.

Relaunching any station is difficult and the ‘first day’ is always a bit mean to critique. However, i’m sure the ‘Penky’ coverage would have generated quite a few people tuning in or re-tuning in for the first time, so it’s important that the station can really demonstrate its essence through everything it does.

I would have really pushed the music elements, even in a content heavy show like Drive and probably dropped features for a couple of weeks, they really need to concentrate on demonstrating The Revolution’s new music policy and have some music sweeps and music-demonstrator production on the air. The other thing they’ve got is of course Steve who has a large amount of heritage in the market – this was promoted well through the programme without it being rammed down your throat – though it would have been good to hear a bit from the show.