2ND January 1995
COASTLINE FM - RSL
MUSIC PROGRAMMING
Introduction
Although there had been a number of RSL broadcasts In the Dover & Folkestone area prior to Coastline FM the station marked a turning point in its approach to RSL programming policy. Drawing on Mark Stafford and Bob Le Roi's experience at lnvicta, and recognising the shortfalls of previous RSL's a tight programming policy was adopted. Previous RSL's in the area had adopted a “free-for-all” approach to music with the inevitable result that the station's sound was totally dependant on who ever were on air.
Coastline FM adopted an Adult-Contemporary format with the on-air slogan, "Coastline FM with quality pop and quality rock”. The rock in this case was of the soft variety! Without the resources of Selector scheduling a simple but effective rotation system was introduced to cover the main playlist. This was included in the station's Programme Clock (a throwback to the early ILR days) and strictly adhered to.
Current Playlist
The Coastline FM philosophy was to treat all new releases totally on merit and we were quite daring in giving “A “ List rotation to Run Rig and Scarlet many weeks before they were picked up by lnvicta FM. The core playlist was almost twice the size of previous RSL's and this helped us to achieve a fresh musical sound.
General Playlist
Previous experience had shown us that RSL stations tended to live or die by the quality and size of the presenters CD collections. We were determined to avoid this and a mini station record library was built up. This allowed presenters to put together well balanced programmes and acted as a control of the type of music played.
In general, Coastline FM endeavoured to avoid repetition of tracks outside the main playlist and had a very well balanced sound. Presenters quickly got a feel for the station sound and as it fitted in with the majority's tastes there was little need to discipline presenters. One Important factor that we offered the listeners was the “Wow! I haven't heard that one in ages” factor. This came about as the listeners reacted to hearing us play the occasional song which had been eradicated from musical history by being absent from the Selector playlists of lnvicta FM and lnvicta Supergold.
Our overall aim was to avoid repetition of tracks and to feature as many quality records as was possible from within our chosen music policy.
Specialist Shows
The main music format was aired at all times, except for the following specialist music shows:
Thursday & Friday Nights - Midnight - 3am - Coastline Rock.
A classic rock selection featuring artists such as Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, Meatloaf to name but a few, presented by Martin Turner and Mark Stafford.
Sunday - 6 - 7 pm – Coastline's Local Music Show
Totally dedicated to music produced In East Kent .
Copyright East Kent Radio Ltd 2004