Frank Turner – The Way I Tend To Be
Frank continues a stellar year, which saw him play the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and headline Wembley Arena, with the next single from his 5th album ‘Tape Deck Heart’, which was released at the end of April. You can see the fantastic session he performed for Absolute Radio and a handful of lucky prize winners here.

Two Door Cinema Club – Handshake
New single from album ‘Beacon’ released last Autumn. Following a huge headline show at Alexandra Palace, and a South American tour, the trio from County Down are lined up to play at Glastonbury, T In The Park and V festival this summer.

Tracks by Muse and Editors move up to A list and B list respectively.

Miles Kane will take to the airwaves on Absolute Radio for a special music show amidst a busy touring schedule to co-host with regular evening DJ Pete Donaldson.

Miles will draw upon his extensive music knowledge to help Pete Donaldson anchor a programme dedicated to live sessions, music interviews, requests and a special ‘new album of the week’ feature. Donaldson’s show is all about supporting new music and providing opportunities and airtime for emerging artists as well as established acts.

This will be the first time the evening show has opened up to a guest co-host. The Breakfast show is no stranger to the notion however, with regular appearances from the likes of David Tennant and Noel Gallagher alongside Christian O’Connell.

The show will highlight the new LP from Kane which features co-writes with XTC’s Andy Partridge, Paul Weller, Kid Harpoon and the album’s producer, Ian Broudie. The new disc teems with the sounds of Merseybeat and glam-rock, and follows on from Miles’s acclaimed debut, 2011’s Colour of the Trap. Both the LP and his newest single ‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’ are out on June 3rd.

Miles Kane will co-host the Absolute Radio Pete Donaldson Evening Show from 8-9pm on Wednesday 29th May.

Read what Music News are saying about us here

Absolute 80s (which was recently named the UK’s biggest digital commercial radio station) is launching a new weekend show that will highlight hidden gems from the decade.

“Forgotten 80s” starts on Sunday 26^th May at 7pm and will celebrate the 80s influence on popular culture. The playlist will go beyond the obvious hits and classics that everyone knows, and give airplay to songs that were big at the time but have been largely forgotten. Listeners will hear the songs on the radio again, just as they were 30 years ago.

The show will be presented by Matthew Rudd who joins us from Q Radio where he hosted a weekly 80s programme and developed a large cult following.

It will be interactive, with listeners involved in selecting the weekly playlist via Facebook (www.facebook.com/Absolute80s) and Twitter (@Absolute80s with the hashtag #forgotten80s)

Matthew will be joining a great list of fellow presenters including 80s legend Tony Hadley who hosts his own show every Saturday night.

See what RadioToday and Music Week are saying about our new show.

Absolute Radio Live 2013 will see us embark on another summer of exclusive interviews, live music content and ticket giveaways under the strap-line of ‘We’ll take you there’.

The campaign will be supported by added-value video and photos for mobile and desk-top supported by a digital marketing campaign to highlight appointments to tune in and drive logged-in listening, which helps Absolute Radio understand more about its audience than any other broadcaster.

As the official radio partner for the Isle of Wight Festival we will broadcast live from the Festival site on the 14th, 15th and 16th of June. DJs Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion will present a series of outside broadcasts from the site across the weekend.

For listeners not lucky enough to have tickets to the Festival we will bring the legendary atmosphere to them with live and uninterrupted performances from Paul Weller on Friday 14th and Ben Howard on Saturday 15th.

Absolute Radio is also the official radio partner at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park, the ten day festival from 5th-14th July. DJ’s Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion will be backstage interviewing artists for a special Sunday Night Music Club show to be broadcast on July 21st. You can watch headline act The Rolling Stones talking to Absolute Radio about their return to Hyde Park here.

We will also be at Hard Rock Calling on the 29th-30th June with a live and uninterrupted main stage set from headliners Kasabian, and a show broadcast from the Hard Rock Calling site hosted by Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion. Exclusive backstage content from Hard Rock Cafe’s VIP enclosure on site will also feature on a special Hard Rock Calling show on Sunday Night Music Club on Sunday 30th June at 10pm.

Bolstering our comedy credentials, we will also return to Cornbury Music Festival where we will programme and present the ‘Absolute Radio Comedy stage’ featuring Lee Nelson, Ed Gambler and Abandoman amongst others. Video content from the event will be available to users after the event.

Absolute Radio will also broadcast highlights of Muse live in concert on their North American tour at 9pm on the 23rd of May.

Absolute 80s headed to Lets Rock The Moor festival last weekend on 18th May, gathering artist interviews from the action packed 80s festival which returned to Berkshire for its 5th year. On-air interviews with Absolute 80s host Martyn Lee will be broadcast on Bank Holiday Monday 27th May at 9pm, as well as video and social media content featuring Tony Hadley, Bananarama, Howard Jones and Claire Grogan.

The live activity will be amplified with a digital marketing campaign including Twitter’s Promoted Products as well as Facebook’s Sponsored Posts and Mobile Install Ads to drive the station’s logged in listening and Player App downloads.

Read what Music Week are saying about us here

Two years ago rock music seemed to be staring into the abyss . In 2011, of the Top 100 singles only 3% could be classified as rock! That’s right – a miserly 3% . Rock was well and truly in the doldrums . And music journalists were queuing up to right off rock forever . Hold your pens boys and girls! 2013 has seen some very positive purple shoots .

In Q1 20% of all hits are rock . That is quite some turnaround. In a sea of pop and R&B we are once again seeing some genuine rock hits – a hit generally being any single track that makes the Official Chart Company’s Top 40 . Imagine Dragons , Bastille , Ben Howard , Of Monsters and Men, Kodaline , Tom Odell , Lumineers , 1975 , Haim and even old stalwarts Stereophonics have managed this year to broach the walls of the Top 40 Singles Chart.

Happily these are all artists that Absolute Radio has been supporting and our faith in the quality of new rock music is borne out in our new Pete Donaldson evening show , which together with Sunday Night Music Club and Unknown Pleasures will help to trail blaze on behalf of all those great new rock acts .

And there was further good news for rock in this week’s RAJAR results when rock stations like ourselves and XFM posted healthy results . So it seems the rock revival is genuinely on the cards and that is great news to all of us that were devotees of Joan Jett and her heartfelt proclamation!

James Curran Absolute Radio Head of Music

Phillip Phillips – Home
Debut UK single off new album ‘The World From The Side of The Moon’ (June 10th). The 22 year old singer-songwriter has had huge success in the U.S. with this track, where it has sold a massive 4 million copies.

Bon Jovi – What About Now
The title track from the latest Bon Jovi album gets a single release to coincide with their UK tour, which kicks off June 8th in Manchester, and their headline appearance at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival

Fleetwood Mac – Sad Angel
NEW track the band have been playing on tour – now available on ‘Extended Play’ – Fleetwood Mac’s first collection of unheard tracks since 2003’s ‘Say You Will’ album. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks share vocal duties – and there are, ahem, rumours (excuse the pun) that another new song’ ‘Without You’, re-recorded from the 1973 Buckingham-Nicks sessions may surface too.

Editors – A Ton Of Love
Great return from Editors – available to download now with 7inch single out 24th June. Their 4th album ‘The Weight Of Love’, recorded in Nashville is out July 1st, and the band return to festival action at Glastonbury next month.

Tracks by Beady Eye, 30 Seconds To Mars and Passenger move up to A list while Miles Kane and Kodaline move up to B list

The Absolute Radio Network has further grown its audience by 274,000 listeners, an increase of (+9.2%) Yr on Yr. Overall the Network has achieved a record number of listening hours, increasing total listening hours from 23.5m to 25.7m hours (+9.2%) Qtr on Qtr, and (+22.6%) Yr on Yr.

This is great news for our commercial partners with over 90% of airtime, sponsorship and promotions activity being carried across the network.

Yr on Yr the main station’s performance is following the strong trajectory of the Absolute Radio Network, with a significant increase of 76,000 listeners, (+4.7%). In terms of hours, Yr on Yr Absolute Radio increased by 1.4 million (13.7%).

Within our family of digital services, Absolute 80s is now the biggest commercial digital station in the country with 984,000 listeners up by 127,000 (+14.8%) Yr on Yr and increases of 96,000 (+10.8%) Qtr on Qtr.

Absolute Radio 90s posted record reach, increasing listeners by 129,000 Yr on Yr, taking it to over half a million at 509,000 (+33.9%). The station also grew by 73,000 listeners Qtr on Qtr (+16.7%). Absolute Classic Rock increased its reach by 13.5% Qtr-on-Qtr and 3.8% Yr on Yr.

Absolute Radio 00s has also recorded an increase in audience reach of a massive 86,000 (+102.4%) to 170,000 Yr on Yr, as well as an increase of 21,000 (+14.1%) listeners Qtr on Qtr. Absolute Radio 70s also increased its audience by 26,000 listeners Yr on Yr (+16.6%) and 19,000 (+11.6%) Qtr on Qtr.

Following on from Christian O’Connell’s Sony Radio Academy Award success, the Breakfast show recorded big gains – now at 1.4million reach a week. Also, in London, the shows hours were second only to Capital FM’s Dave and Lisa recording higher figures than Magic, Kiss, Heart and Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw.

For the first time, UK radio listening online has reached the same level as listening via a digital TV (5.0%), with online accounting for an even higher proportion (7.8%) for the Absolute Radio Network, as our audience embraces the our logged in listening strategy and offering of ‘fewer ads and more music’ across desktop and mobile.

Source: RAJAR / Ipsos – MORI / RSMB, period ending March 2013, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA.

To win awards, you have to make great content, you have to be brave, bold and on the top of your game. Last night the Sony Radio Academy awards once again proved that our industry has much to be proud of in terms of its creativity, passion and a wealth of talent which is truly world-class.

For Christian to scoop three awards and the radio station to take gold and bronze in the Branded Content category plus a bronze for our InStream technology sends a clear message to the industry that Absolute Radio is in the rudest of health, curating programmes with our audience, commercial partners, with innovation at the heart of everything we do. Christian has now won 10 Sony Gold awards in 10 years, something unparalleled in Sony Award history. In trying to find words to recognise this achievement, I’ll defer to the judges’ comments from the Music Radio Personality of the Year who sum it up perfectly:

Christian is funny, smart and a great storyteller – your ultimate friendly next door neighbour. But add to that the fact that he completely gets radio; he knows his target audience inside out and he uses the medium cleverly and creatively. The combination makes Christian unbeatable.

Congratulations to the whole breakfast team for taking silver in the blue-riband best breakfast category, beating Chris Evans and coming second to the national institution which is the Today programme which enjoyed a halcyon year. From ‘Man On Wireless’, to ‘Spandathon’, we knew the breakfast show had enjoyed a purple patch in terms of its creativity, not everyone can seamlessly integrate work-benches, combi-drills and protective clothing into a breakfast show’s branded content, but Christian and Richie managed just that……..with a little help from their friends.

The judges said this entry stood out from the rest. It hit the core values of the brand and stations audiences. It was a witty and innovative feature that literally had everything, including David Tennant, listeners impersonating drills and a kitchen sink. The content was un-missable.

InStream taking bronze, less than a year after launching demonstrates Absolute Radio’s commitment to redefining the way radio is consumed by an online audience. It’s clearly working with the judges using our own words in their citation:

This entry clearly redefines radio’s online future: unlocking additional revenue, and makes significantly better-sounding radio.

Congratulations go to Geoff, Annabel and the Hometime team on their double nomination and a stunning review of their show in this weekend’s Observer. Unfortunately Ronnie Wood wasn’t able to attend this year, apparently he’s got a day job in a band. This was Ronnie’s 4th Sony nomination and the 12th award nomination for the programme in three years. It is without question one of the most successful programmes of its kind, unique in commercial radio and testament to the incredibly close collaboration with Ronnie’s producer Claire Neal and the team at Somethin’ Else. Here’s what the judges had to say:

Ronnie Wood’s skill as a radio presenter has grown and grown. This show reflects a presenter who is a great storyteller – engaging the listener with his passion and energy. This is an upbeat, rewarding listen.

He is able to give great insight into the individual tracks played on the show, and can tease out new insights into his interviewees (in particular, his interview with Sir Paul McCartney gave us a relaxed and insightful interview with one of music’s legends, all within the context of a shared respect and love of music).

Ronnie’s ability to pick up the guitar and illustrate his points is a skill which draws the audience in – and the relaxed manner in which he glides from performer, to host, to interviewer is a tribute to his strength as a presenter.

This a great listen – which reflects a love of music in every second of every show.

Congratulations to BBC Radio 5Live on a great haul, reflective of a superb Olympic year for the station. Sharing the stage controllers past and present, Jonathan Wall and Adrian Van-Klaveren delivered a speech which oozed class, passion and a sense of what makes radio ‘special’.

Elsewhere, the re-birth of Metro Radio continued as they scooped Radio Station of the Year (1 million+), Danny Baker delivered the crowd-pleasing speech which the audience (..or at least most of the audience) had been waiting for. Well done to Gem 106’s Sam and Amy who took Gold for best Breakfast show (under 10 million). Their speech reminds even the most cynical amongst us what it feels like to hear your name and take to the stage for the first time.

In a year when many of the winners were returning faces, it’s crucial we recognise and nurture the next generation. Commercial radio still has much to do to compete with the BBC in terms of nominations and wins, we must use this as an opportunity to examine why this is the case while simultaneously celebrating an organisation which continues to deliver a high quality product that succeeds in entertaining and educating across all services and platforms.

So that’s it, the generic brown meat has been consumed, the suits and dresses are heading to the dry cleaners and the hard work begins again for next year. Well done to John Myers, Riza, Mandy and the Radio Academy team for a night which makes a bold statement and which serves as a permanent reminder of a great year for both Absolute Radio and our industry as a whole.

By Paul Sylvester Absolute Radio’s Head of Presentation

Some of the UK’s best audio and media talent, including Fleet Street legend, Eve Pollard, will be taking part in the first ever Sound Women Festival on Saturday 18 May from 1pm, at the BBC Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in London.

Audio and content directors, as well as radio presenters and business leaders will be among those sharing their inspirational stories of how they have made it in their industry. They have been brought together by the networking and development group Sound Women, which hopes to boost the confidence of women in audio so they can reach their full potential.

Getting to grips with the changing culture of radio will be the theme for a talk by Absolute Radio’s Content Director, Tony Moorey. He’ll be drawing on his experience of managing content both on air and online, as well as looking back on a career which has taken him from Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, to the BBC as a Senior Producer for Radio 5 Live, and on to his current role.

The Festival, which is open to both members and non-members, will also welcome philanthropist and business pioneer Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley, Gerry Jackson, the founder of SW Radio Africa, BBC journalist Helen Fawkes, Observer critic Miranda Sawyer, Radio 1’s Gemma Cairney and James Everton from The Hits Radio

The event will be hosted by BBC Radio 4’s Fi Glover and Anita Anand, along with Magic FM’s Angie Greaves.

Tickets for the Sound Women Festival are £25 for members and £40 for non-members. To book or to find out more on how to get involved with Sound Women,  go to http://www.soundwomen.co.uk/event/sound-women-festival/

Read what Music Week are saying here