Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Absolute invites you to dance the Prince Charming

Absolute have announced plans to launch an 80s station on the internet and DAB in London.

Absolute 80s aims to be a "nostalgia trip" for 30- to 54-year-olds, playing 80s pop from the likes of the Human League, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Prince, ABC, Depeche Mode, Blondie and Bon Jovi.

The new station will operate as a jukebox format, without DJs, while the evening playlist will have a party feel.

This is going to take the place of Absolute Xtreme, which - as we were saying last week - is barely distinguishable from the main station. Something had to be done, and this is clearly something.

The worry for Absolute must be, though, that while people like to have 80s themed parties, and some people still dress up as Boy George and Marilyn to have sex from time to time, is it something that people want round the clock?

Yes, Duran Duran albums still sell tolerably well. And Spandau Ballet can sell tickets to a comeback. But there's a market for Clangers DVDs and Bagpuss backpacks; it would be a foolish move to launch a TV channel off the back of that, though.

I'm not clear that there's any demand for a sustained network playing (a very, very small segment of) 80s music without a presenter or context. And if there is, wouldn't sticking 'Wham" into LastFM do the job?


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A radio station playing this stuff is the perfect dream of just about every female 20-something in my office, so if that's anything to go by, it might just work...

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