The One Network

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The One Network

Type	Subsidiary - GCap Media
Founded	2005
Headquarters	UK
Industry	Broadcasting
Products	Local Radio
Slogan	Hugely Personal
Website	musicradio.com

The One Network is the collective name for the thirty-eight regional Independent Local Radio licences operated by GCap Media in the United Kingdom. It was previously known as 'The Mix Network' and coincided of stations owned by GWR Group, but upon the merger of Capital Radio Group and GWR Group it was re-named 'The One Network', and joined by most of the local radio stations owned by Capital Radio Group. Its main regional radio network rival is the Big City Network, owned by EMAP.

1 History
- 1.1 The Mix Network
- 1.2 Capital FM Network
2 Programmes
3 Slogans
4 Content delivery
5 Stations
- 5.1 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The Origin of The One Network Stems from the merger GWR Group's The Mix Network and Capital Radio's Capital FM Network.

[edit] The Mix Network

The One Network (previously 'The Mix Network') was created by GWR Group in attempt to create a national radio network on minimal cost by simulcasting the same programmes across all stations. All of GWR's networked stations used the same branding and presentation design, alongside similar slogans, initially "today's better music mix", later "today's best mix" and "the best mix of the 80s, 90s and today."

All centrally-produced programming and playlists are broadcast from GWR FM Bristol, and songs are broadcast simultaneously as neighbouring group stations, albeit with the exception of advertisements and local station identities/slogans. Many avid listeners were disappointed by GWR's approach to networking programmes and reducing local content, but GWR felt that networking was the way forward and as a result, GWR gained much financial success, mainly due to the group's long held philosophy of heavily researching the average person's listening habits and tastes. Such practices were led by Group chairman Ralph Bernard, which created the tightly formatted sound where popular Top 40 chart hits and ex-Top 40 songs are blended in with older hits. Despite the changes of schedule and management, the stations continue to be commercial market leader in the areas in which they operate. To increase the listener's perception of each station's local output, GWR came up with 'The Black Thunders', which are 4x4's that travel around local events promoting the station they are allocated to.

The Mix also ran for a short while as a station on its own nationally on Sky taking the same format and other stations, but was unsuccessful even though with it being promoting on the FM stations.

A similar concept of syndicating programmes across local radio stations had previously been used by the Marcher Radio Group boquet of stations, now part of The One Network. In addition to The One Networks' networked programmes from Bristol, Marcher still continues to simulcast many of its sub-regional programming throughout its four local licenses.

[edit] Capital FM Network

Capital FM Network was the collective brand name of local radio stations owned by Capital Radio, the stations were based around the format of the company London based station Capital FM and were link by sharing the same logo, abet wording which was of there own. Stations under the brand included Fox FM, Red Dragon FM, Power FM and more. The stations still use these logos and are closely linked. Due to falling listening figures Capital FM is no longer part of the network and has been re-branded under its original name Capital Radio.

Upon a closer look, you can see that The One Network logo shows uniting the two networks by using the font of the Capital FM Network and the symbol of The Mix Network inside the 'O' of one.

[edit] Programmes

Main syndicated programmes across the network include:

Music Control (previously Core Control, weekdays 7pm to 10pm (and 7 to 9 on Fridays)) presented by Kevin Hughes.
Late Night Love (Sunday to Thursday 10pm to 1am) presented by Graham Torrington
Party Friday/Saturday (previously Vibe Nation and then Ministry of Sound) presented by Howard Ritchie (Friday and Saturday nights)
James Clayton (Music on Demand) on Monday to Thursday overnights.
Skool Daze, Friday Nights
Hairbrush Divas (Saturday Night) presented by Sally Bailey.

[edit] Slogans

1994 A mix of the 70s, 80s and the best of today
1995 Station name - A better music mix - from the 70s, 80s and today
1997 Today's better music mix
2001 Station name - "Today's best mix"
2004 "Today's best mix, today's best variety" - "More music, less talk" - "The best mix of the 80s, 90s and today"

[edit] Content delivery

On the previous Mix Network, stations were traditionally supplied syndicated content using a dedicated satellite network, which proved costly and relatively inflexible. Network show presenters would have to travel to the GWR Group head office in Passage Street, Bristol to broadcast across the network. In 2004, the GWR Group commissioned Thus to design and implement a state of the art upgrade to allow broadcasts across The Mix Network to be delivered using an MPLS IP VPN meaning that content could not only be delivered from any station in the group to the whole network, but also to individual groups of stations excluding the rest of the network if desired.

Content is delivered around their IP network using a system designed in-house by GWR Group, called BLAST. BLAST can automatically adjust to any problems during broadcast; it will drop a audio stream from stereo to mono to save bandwidth if it realises contention and if a packet is dropped BLAST will stretch the audio stream by 26 milliseconds to fill. [1]

[edit] Stations

The One Network consists of thirty eight regional contractors, previously owned by GWR and Capital Radio, and prior to that, mostly independent. All of the stations in the network broadcast the same programming in peak times, with most local programming allotted in daytime hours. On air, there is no reference to a national network (except during some competitions); just plainly the regional name. Besides advertisements and slogans, networked programmes are identical across all stations.