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Old 14th Feb 2021, 7:03 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
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Default Boom Radio.

Just noticed this:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/wh...-broadcasters/

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2021/02/boo...oomers-on-dab/

aimed at the "Baby Boomer" generation [which includes me].

Available online - https://www.boomradiouk.com/ - and on DAB in some areas.

Perhaps I'll give it a test-listen in the car tomorrow?
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Old 14th Feb 2021, 7:13 pm   #2
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Have you seen the presenter list?

Kid Jensen and Diddy David Hamilton to begin with.

David
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Old 14th Feb 2021, 9:10 pm   #3
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

About time. Radio 2 used to do a reasonable job, hopefully this will fill the void.
Rob
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Old 14th Feb 2021, 9:39 pm   #4
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Clicked on the link then clicked on listen live....Anna Raeburn.....Bye

Lawrence.
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Old 15th Feb 2021, 6:37 pm   #5
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Been dipping in and out of Boom to give it a 24-hour 'test-drive' - and have decided that it's not really for me.

Too much inane smalltalk, not enough music!

If I want talk, I want it to be proper serious political/economic analysis [which I can get from the likes of Times Radio or Bloomberg] - if I want music I'd prefer it not to be interrupted by a DJ - so I build my own playlists.

Ergo, I give Boom maybe 6 out of 10. At least it's not as bad as BBC Local Radio.

Kudos to Boom's backers for giving it a go - we need more innovative 'radio' stations - and I'm sure their offering will appeal to some - seems I'm just not one of them.
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Old 16th Feb 2021, 7:09 pm   #6
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Does anyone know the URL of the stream, so I can put iy into Winamp?
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Old 16th Feb 2021, 7:40 pm   #7
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

I have just put it on one of my Amazon Echo's (very easy just say "Alexa enable Boom Radio") I'll dip in and out so far the music seems OK. The chatter is a bit inane but just listing to a new song from Tom Jones (no hole in my head) not my cup of tea but that's what I like about someone else choosing I hear things I would not have chosen and mostly I really enjoy that.

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Old 16th Feb 2021, 7:42 pm   #8
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Quote:
Originally Posted by stainless View Post
Does anyone know the URL of the stream, so I can put iy into Winamp?
Is this the one you need?

Cheers Mike T
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Old 18th Feb 2021, 3:14 pm   #9
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Quote:
Originally Posted by robinshack View Post
About time. Radio 2 used to do a reasonable job, hopefully this will fill the void.
Rob
I’ve long abandoned Radio 2. All the progammes and presenters that I enjoyed have been steadily removed in the drive to attract the ‘moving on from Radio One’ and Heart FM, etc., audience.

I gave Boom a listen yesterday and enjoyed it very much. In an era where mainstream music stations seem to have to narrowly target by genre and age range (i.e. the records that were popular when the target audience were teenagers) the variety of music played was wide. (I have given up the oldies stations generally as they all seem to exist on half a dozen Now That’s What I Call Music CDs.) While I’m not bothered about revisiting my youth, or indulging in a nostalgia trip listening to presenters I remember in days of yore, the Boom presenters talked to me in a genial and intelligent way rather than promoting their own egos. I also liked the interaction with the audience and the immediacy of it all. With this type of radio I look for good company – that which I once got from Radio 2 – and I felt with Boom I was getting it.

It’s also refreshingly free from CV-19 info ads which is something that has had me avoiding commercial radio for the last year.

What might be good is if they are able to play recent melodic releases amongst the older records. I’m sure this music is around but as I haven’t listened to pop radio for years – other when it has been inflicted on me in workplaces – I’m completely out of touch.

I can’t see me listening all day to Boom, but then I don’t listen to any station wall to wall, but it will add to my current roster of stations, most of which are online or streaming terrestrial stations located in foreign parts.

Unfortunately, the Birmingham SSDAB footprint is so miniscule – from the Castle Vale TX (I suspect it’s on one of the tower blocks) it barely reaches Erdington let alone the city centre – I cannot get it on my DAB set; and I can’t load it on my Pure Evoke F3 internet set either so it looks like off the computer for now. It looks like Boom is more fortunate with it’s SSDAB coverage in the other cities in which it is available.
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Old 18th Feb 2021, 10:33 pm   #10
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobaltblue View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by stainless View Post
Does anyone know the URL of the stream, so I can put iy into Winamp?
Is this the one you need?

Cheers Mike T
Yes, Mike, Thank you. I've got used to using Winamp, and saving playlists, including lists of streaming radio stations.
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 2:36 pm   #11
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

After being on air just a few weeks in London and a few small scale MUXs Boom have announced they are going national!

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2021/03/boo...l-dab-via-sdl/

What I have heard I have enjoyed and, with Radio 2 targetting a younger audience, the station is plugging what has been an increasingly huge gap in the market.
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 3:06 pm   #12
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

This is the latest in a long line of attempts to cater to the over 50s audience. It's extremely difficult to make commercial stations viable, because most advertisers have little or no interest in that demographic. There's a good reason why most commercial stations target women in their 20s and 30s - they are very status and brand conscious, spend a high proportion of their incomes on discretionary products, and are relatively easy to manipulate through marketing campaigns. They are exactly the consumers that advertisers want to reach.

None of this applies to the over 50s of either sex, as they generally know what they like and buy what they need. The same female twentysomething demographic targeting can also be seen with TV.
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 3:41 pm   #13
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

I've just given Boom Radio a spin. I don't know how much of it I will listen to in the long run, but what I do like about it is that it has presenters. I'm not a fan of stations that are just playlists with the odd voice ident - Boom Radio sounds different in that respect.

I'm not in its target audience, but I did enjoy listening to Roger Day when he was on Radio Oxford and I see he is on the Boom line up.

I suspect that if a new station of this sort succeeds it will be the one that goes big quick and goes beyond being just another music stream. For this reason I think Boom has a chance. Shame it's not on FM.

Music wise, they are currently playing Seven Days Too Long by Chuck Davis... now that's a proper tune
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 4:07 pm   #14
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Bush View Post
... but what I do like about it is that it has presenters. I'm not a fan of stations that are just playlists ...
Each to their own.

I can't stand inane chattering, give me a continuous playlist anyday.
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 4:31 pm   #15
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

As noted upthread, I gave Boom a 24-hour test-drive when it first launched - and its superfluity of chat over music was my reason not to go back.

That was however in its first couple of days of operation - I'm prepared to give it another listen to see if perhaps it has settled down a bit.

Of late, most of my entertainment-radio has been to BFBS(!).
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 5:11 pm   #16
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

I've not actually found it to be speech heavy, but I do like the idea that the person speaking is actually there... I wonder if they are or if it's all pre-recorded links.

I might email them to find out.
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Old 11th Mar 2021, 6:23 pm   #17
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

Reading comments elsewhere it seems a lot of it is voice-tracked but apparently this can be done a matter of minutes before the links go out so it is almost live.

What the advantages of ‘just before’ as opposed to being live at the very moment I don’t know – there will be little saving in time. It might be because eveyone is working at home and the latency of internet links, etc., and the master computer receives the files, queues everything up and makes sure everything is out at the correct time. Roger Day is working from his new home in Spain.

VTing, of course, allows links for a three hour show to be recorded in as little as half an hour. Perhaps in a good session a week’s programmes can be assembled. I guess this is what makes stations like Serenade Radio practical.

Apparently, the more sophisticated VT systems used even allow the start and end of records to be heard so that the jock can talk over them if necessary and then stitches it all together. This is probably handy in any case. You soon know when a show has been VTed when the jock back-announces the wrong record or announces them out of sequence!
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Old 12th Mar 2021, 6:26 pm   #18
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

If you have a Google Smart Speaker you have to issue the incantation:
"OK Google, talk to Boom Radio"

Saying "Play Boom Radio" just gets you the rebuke, "This station is not available in your country".

I thought these things were supposed to be intuitive

<Edit>
There is an Australian Boom Radio that I assume is totally unconnected to ours, but clicking the listen button gets you the UK stream!
https://boomradio.com.au/
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Last edited by Graham G3ZVT; 12th Mar 2021 at 6:43 pm.
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Old 12th Mar 2021, 6:38 pm   #19
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

There's another radio startion just called Boom in the US

DAvid
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Old 12th Mar 2021, 7:02 pm   #20
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Default Re: Boom Radio.

The DAB radio in my car lists two streams, Boom Radio, and Boom Radio UK. Its the same station, maybe the adverts are different, I haven't investigated.

No doubt they are on different multiplexes, but one annoying thing about this radio is that it does not disclose to the user which MPX is being received, so you can easily find an interesting (distant) station only to find it disappears at the bottom of the hill!
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