[Charlie]

Absolute Radio is to launch an 80s station catering for "reluctant adults" who want to reconnect with the tunes of their youth.
The new station, Absolute 80s, will be broadcast from early December on the internet and the London DAB – digital audio broadcasting – slot currently occupied by Absolute Xtreme.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...3/absolute-80s

[radiosgalore]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Absolute Radio is to launch an 80s station catering for "reluctant adults" who want to reconnect with the tunes of their youth.
The new station, Absolute 80s, will be broadcast from early December on the internet and the London DAB – digital audio broadcasting – slot currently occupied by Absolute Xtreme.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...3/absolute-80s

nice. I just hope the internet stream is decent quality. Ideally i'd like it national on DAB. compete with Heart

[4-4-2]

I'm sad to be seeing the end of Absolute Xtreme. I listened to it quite regularly and often preferred it to XFM during the daytime as it had a much broader playlist. Given its very small audience, though, I'm not surprised it's going to be replaced by something with of a wider appeal.

[Ridgieman]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Absolute Radio is to launch an 80s station catering for "reluctant adults" who want to reconnect with the tunes of their youth.
The new station, Absolute 80s, will be broadcast from early December on the internet and the London DAB – digital audio broadcasting – slot currently occupied by Absolute Xtreme.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009...3/absolute-80s

Will this all be back to back music or will it be presenter led i wonder? It would be nice to hear more of the presenters not used often enough on the main station especially Neil Francis and Sarah Champion.

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by Ridgieman

Will this all be back to back music or will it be presenter led i wonder? It would be nice to hear more of the presenters not used often enough on the main station especially Neil Francis and Sarah Champion.

Like dabbl, it'll be an automated station.

Personally, this is a fantastic move and at long last a station that I'll want to listen to on DAB in a long time.

However, I suspect the daytime format will more slanted towards the rockier side of the 80s keeping with the Absolute brand, although I hope the 'party' format in the evening will have pop artists, including the Stock Aitken and Waterman ones and Madonna etc.

[suffolkblue]

in our dreams probably rock and more rock

[Ray Cathode]

I expect DAB bitrate will be reduced to 112kbps.

[AuralJunkie]

Just what we need on UK radio - more of the same!
It seems that radio in the UK is obsessed with the 80s. What will be the difference between this automated station, and the station Virgin ended up as?

[Martin Phillp]

For an industry obsessed with the 80s, London has no station which plays anything that's different from the 80s since Real Radio Digital closed down in 2008.

Today's Absolute Radio 80s hour should give us an idea of what they'll be playing. I heard The Jam, Roxy Music and the Pet Shop Boys.

[bringbackGalaxy]

Any chance of making some room and adding The Groove back on DAB ??? (I know DABBL is in its slot ATM)

[AuralJunkie]

Originally Posted by Martin Phillp

For an industry obsessed with the 80s, London has no station which plays anything that's different from the 80s since Real Radio Digital closed down in 2008.

Today's Absolute Radio 80s hour should give us an idea of what they'll be playing. I heard The Jam, Roxy Music and the Pet Shop Boys.

Absolutely!!!

[paulhgc]

Great idea there is no real 80s radio either on dab or mainstream radio

[AuralJunkie]

Originally Posted by paulhgc

Great idea there is no real 80s radio either on dab or mainstream radio

You must have a very strange radio set. Even my chosen station, BBC 6 Music, plays too much 80s - and commercial stations like Wave seem to play little else but 80s pop!

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by AuralJunkie

You must have a very strange radio set. Even my chosen station, BBC 6 Music, plays too much 80s - and commercial stations like Wave seem to play little else but 80s pop!

Or he doesn't have DAB. FM in London is very limited in what 80s music is played thanks to the tight formats of Magic and Heart.

Radio Jackie is probably the closest you'd get to mainstream 80s hits in these parts.

[Jim (B)]

Someone on here has already said it's a shame that the station won't be on Digital 1. It would complement the main Absolute station and as a digital only station, it might encourage more people to get into DAB - the current offering on D1 with all the narow casting certainly won't drive up sales of digital radios.

[jaffboy151]

If anyone ever tried to time travel from the 80's then they would think they had failed if the delorean radio was switched on... I think there is more 80's music played on air now then in the decade its self!!!!!!! The only giva away might be the reduction in sound quality from the 80's if listening via DAB!!

[Westward]

Originally Posted by Jim (B)

Someone on here has already said it's a shame that the station won't be on Digital 1. It would complement the main Absolute station and as a digital only station, it might encourage more people to get into DAB - the current offering on D1 with all the narow casting certainly won't drive up sales of digital radios.

Haven't we been here before? Capital Life (later Life) played a lot of 1980s music and that didn't get enough of an audience to make it commercially successful.

The reason there are no queues forming for digital-only stations to get on Digital 1 is that there are no national advertisers for such stations in the worst recession for 50 years. There isn't a thing that Arqiva or Ofcom can do about that situation in the short term, so they might as well accept stations which get their funding from other sources, whether it be BFBS (HMG) or UCB & Panjab (donations).

[TomRN]

I live in the midlands but would love this station we dont all live in London. What an absolute joke.

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by Westward

Haven't we been here before? Capital Life (later Life) played a lot of 1980s music and that didn't get enough of an audience to make it commercially successful.

Capital Life played 80s music, but it wasn't as broad as Real Radio until recent changes to that station or the old Century FM under Capital/GCap. Life was also female targeted.

This new Absolute station being the UK's first all 80s format radio station seems to be male skewed, so don't expect any female friendly tracks that you'd expect on Heart, Heat, Magic etc.

Also the US has tried the all 80s format in smaller markets, most have tended to fail or have had to add 90s tracks. I believe The Point is still going which is the main brand over there.

However an all 80s mainly British tracks station could work if marketed well with the current trend for nostalgia.

[2Legit2Quit]

Originally Posted by TomRN

I live in the midlands but would love this station we dont all live in London. What an absolute joke.

Buy an internet radio. Ebuyer sell them from £38 and you'll have access to thousands of stations including hundreds of 80's stations.

Absolute 80's will be broadcasting on the internet so you'll be able to listen to that too.

[Martin Phillp]

Originally Posted by TomRN

I live in the midlands but would love this station we dont all live in London. What an absolute joke.

The new station will take over Absolute Xtreme's digital tv slots too.

[80sfan]

Given my user name, no surprise I'll be giving this station a go

I hope there'll be no Eternal Flame and Holding Back The Years though plus all those tried and tested 80s songs (thank God!) you hear anywhere

[vinnielo]

Interesting to note that back in the Virgin Radio days, it was Party Classics that was pulled from Sky.. rather than Xtreme.

[WestwardTelecom]

I would be really pleased if the replaced the Medium Wave national service with the 80 output, rather like a Gold version of Absolute and kept the main Absolute service on National DAB. That would give listeners outside of London an extra choice.

[Martin Phillp]

I wouldn't mind having Absolute Classic Rock on FM. At least it'd give Londoners a distinctive format compared to what we have now, bar the Iain Lee 11pm-1am slot weekdays and Tim Shaw's weekend show.

But yes, Absolute 80s on 1215 could work a treat it done properly.