Listening to Russian radio

Inspired by World Radio Day, many of us have listened to something different on the airwaves this week. Below are some personal musings by Simon Prentice of S2Blue and his experience of listening  to Megapolis FM and Love Radio in Russia.

‘Inspired by World Radio Day and the fact my wife’s father lives in Russia I decided to have listen online to some stations from Moscow. I went over to Russia 3 years ago and was shocked by how western Moscow had become so I was interested how this shift had been reflected in radio.
I came across Megapolis FM, a dance/house station broadcasting from Moscow and tuned in for an hour or so. The overall sound was very Western, as you would expect from a house/dance station anywhere in the world. The imaging (voiced in a mixture of Russian and English) fitted well with the music. The transition coming back from the commercials seemed quite abrupt but from my experience of Moscow life that doesn’t surprise me.

Just for a contrast (and with it being Valentine’s Day) I also tuned into Russia’s ‘Love Radio’, which immediatelysounded professional and much like most Western stations. This was backed up by a slick website (although Google couldn’t translate it) and social media with more interaction, etc. From an imaging point of view I heard a few beat matched music demonstrators, which although technically sounded good, seemed to go on and on – one of them was maybe 60”with 6 or 7 different tracks and I couldn’t believe something that long would keep the attention of the listener. The female presenter kept the links tight and allowed the whole sound to flow although when it was time to get back to the music that again felt quite sudden.

In a week where we’ve had World Radio Day I would encourage everyone to have a listen around the radio world. I’m sure most of us have listen to American and other English speaking foreign stations (personally I’m a huge Howard Stern fan) but it’s worth listening further afield. I enjoyed my radio trip to Russia, great to hear how they are doing things over there and give a different perspective on the UK market, you may even get ideas that can work over here. I was impressed with what I heard and pleased to hear that radio is being made with such high production values even in relatively new markets.’

Having something different in Earshot ….

In my opinion, it’s always good to try out new stations, new sounds and new formats. It allows us to take a plunge into new arenas to get different ideas, revised concepts and creative approaches to our work. I regularly listen to US and Australian radio to get ideas for promotions and competition mechanics that I’ve heard to bring to my work at Global Radio. Give it a go!