Classic Rock Stations
A comparatively recent genre of stations for the UK, the elder statesman of this motley crew (can you see what we did there!) being Planet Rock, which started in 1999 within the GWR group (which went on to be part of Global, if you didn’t know), but has ended up one of Bauer’s (the opposition) since 2013. The Absolute family’s Classic Rock Station, launched not much later in 2000, as Virgin Classic Rock. Virgin became Absolute in 2008, of course, so Virgin Classic Rock became Absolute Classic Rock, before a NEW Virgin Brand launched a new version of Virgin in 2016 (this time owned by Wireless), spawning it’s own classics station as Virgin Anthems as recently as 2018. I hope you’re keeping up as I’ll be asking questions later. Union Jack Rock was the baby of the bunch, launched only in December 2020, but even though it was on national DAB, playing only BRITISH Rock artists, it closed along with the rest of the Union Jack Brands in early 2022.
So, although Absolute Classic Rock and Planet Rock are both part of the Bauer family, you can instantly see from the graphics that they have totally different ideas on playlist size and variety, and this is a great example of what makes our radio monitoring work so interesting! You can see from the yellow line on the graph that Planet Rock’s massive playlist means the variety stays up well into the 2nd week of listening and beyond, while all the others are basically in repeatsville after between just a couple of days and a week. Global launched it’s Radio X Classic Rock station on 16th February 2023.
(Analysis of Virgin Anthems does NOT include the Chris Evans Breakfast Show music which is just his main “Virgin Radio” show simulcast on Anthems, and not the usual “Anthems” playlist Songs which play the rest of the day)
Analysis: 25 days, up to 19-04-2024
NUMBER OF PLAYS IDENTIFIED: 6336
Number of DIFFERENT Songs Played: 2372
Variety factor for this station is : 37.4%
50% OF PLAYS is 595 Songs (25% of the total)
A THIRD OF PLAYS represents:
The 308 MOST played songs (12.9% of the total)
or 1425 LEAST played songs (60% of the total)
Most played airs on average every: 13h 57m
10th most played song airs every: 20h
308th most played song airs every: 6d 6h
595th most played song airs every: 8d 8h
No. of songs with 5 or less plays: 2257 (95.1%)
Lowest Number of NEW SONGS on any day:
27 after 20 DAYS
Different songs played in 1 month: 2522
..in 3 months: 3671, in 6 months: 4815
..in 9 months: 5883, in 12 months: 6742
Top 11 Most Played:
1 [43 plays] Bywater Call – Holler
2 [42 plays] The Answer – Put Your Money On Me
3 [39 plays] Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
4 [38 plays] The Commoners – The Way I Am
5= [37 plays] each for…
+ Bon Jovi – Legendary
+ Gun – Lucky Guy
7 [35 plays] These Wicked Rivers – Don’t Pray For Me
8= [31 plays] each for…
+ Brothers Osborne – Break Mine
+ Shinedown – A Symptom Of Being Human
10= [30 plays] each for…
+ Kris Barras Band – With You
+ The Lazys – Rattle Them Bones
Analysis: 23 days, up to 18-04-2024
NUMBER OF PLAYS IDENTIFIED: 5803
Number of DIFFERENT Songs Played: 953
Variety factor for this station is : 16.4%
50% OF PLAYS is 232 Songs (24.3% of the total)
A THIRD OF PLAYS represents:
The 141 MOST played songs (14.7% of the total)
or 595 LEAST played songs (62.4% of the total)
Most played airs on average every: 1d 6h 40m
10th most played song airs every: 1d 10h 30m
141st most played song airs every: 1d 22h
232nd most played song airs every: 2d 13h 20m
No. of songs with 5 or less plays: 479 (50.2%)
Lowest Number of NEW SONGS on any day:
5 after 19 DAYS
Different songs played in 1 month: 985
..in 3 months: 1128, in 6 months: 1274
..in 9 months: 1331, in 12 months: 1397
Top 11 Most Played:
1 [18 plays] Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower
2 [17 plays] The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle
3= [16 plays] each for…
+ Bryan Adams – Run To You
+ Journey – Any Way You Want It
+ Judas Priest – Breaking The Law
+ Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
+ Motley Crue – Girls Girls Girls
+ Status Quo – Down Down
+ Steely Dan – Reeling In The Years
+ The Kinks – You Really Got Me
+ ZZ Top – Legs
Analysis: 35 days, up to 20-04-2024
NUMBER OF PLAYS IDENTIFIED: 5913
Number of DIFFERENT Songs Played: 979
Variety factor for this station is : 16.5%
50% OF PLAYS is 190 Songs (19.4% of the total)
A THIRD OF PLAYS represents:
The 114 MOST played songs (11.6% of the total)
or 666 LEAST played songs (68% of the total)
Most played airs on average every: 16h 51m
10th most played song airs every: 19h 30m
91st most played song airs every: 1d 2h
148th most played song airs every: 1d 5h 42m
No. of songs with 5 or less plays: 599 (62.4%)
Lowest Number of NEW SONGS on any day:
3 after 21 DAYS
Different songs played in 1 month: 979
..in 3 months: 1180, in 6 months: 1222
..in 9 months: 1250, in 12 months: 1495
Top 12 Most Played:
1 [26 plays] Toto – Rosanna
2 [25 plays] Roy Orbison – Oh Pretty Woman
3 [23 plays] Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
4 [22 plays] Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays
5= [21 plays] each for…
+ Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse Of The Heart
+ Chicago – If You Leave Me Now
+ James Taylor – You’ve Got A Friend
+ Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now
+ Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Blinded By The Light
+ Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes
+ Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
+ Procol Harum – A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Analysis: 26 days, up to 19-04-2024
NUMBER OF PLAYS IDENTIFIED: 8772
Number of DIFFERENT Songs Played: 436
Variety factor for this station is : 4.9%
50% OF PLAYS is 143 Songs (32.7% of the total)
A THIRD OF PLAYS represents:
The 91 MOST played songs (20.8% of the total)
or 235 LEAST played songs (53.8% of the total)
Most played airs on average every: 16h 25m
10th most played song airs every: 17h 20m
91st most played song airs every: 21h 31m
143rd most played song airs every: 23h 6m
No. of songs with 5 or less plays: 68 (15.5%)
Lowest Number of NEW SONGS on any day:
ZERO after 14 DAYS
Different songs played in 1 month: 442
..in 3 months: 485, in 6 months: 544
..in 9 months: 567, in 12 months: 622
Top 11 Most Played:
1= [38 plays] each for…
+ Europe – The Final Countdown
+ Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll
3= [37 plays] each for…
+ Bachman Turner Overdrive – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
+ Toto – Hold The Line
5= [36 plays] each for…
+ Asia – Heat of the Moment
+ Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Old Time Rock & Roll
+ Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love
+ Midnight Oil – Beds Are Burning
+ Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger
+ The Animals – We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
+ The Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra
** Station no longer broadcasting! **
Historic Analysis: 25 days, up to 23-02-2022
NUMBER OF PLAYS IDENTIFIED: 5595
Number of DIFFERENT Songs Played: 624
Variety factor for this station is : 11.1%
50% OF PLAYS is 161 Songs (25.8% of the total)
A THIRD OF PLAYS represents:
The 98 MOST played songs (15.7% of the total)
or 387 LEAST played songs (62% of the total)
Most played airs on average every: 22h 13m
10th most played song airs every: 1d 1h
98th most played song airs every: 1d 13h 30m
161st most played song airs every: 1d 18h 51m
No. of songs with 5 or less plays: 234 (37.5%)
Lowest Number of NEW SONGS on any day:
1 after 19 DAYS
Different songs played in 1 month: 629
..in 3 months: 773, in 6 months: 830
..in 9 months: 861
Top 10 Most Played:
1 [27 plays] Jake Bugg – Trouble Town
2= [26 plays] each for…
+ Alex Clare – Too Close
+ Libertines – Don’t Look Back Into The Sun
4= [25 plays] each for…
+ Mumford And Sons – Believe
+ Mumford And Sons – The Cave
+ Stereophonics – Mr Writer
7= [24 plays] each for…
+ Arctic Monkeys – Arabella
+ Kaiser Chiefs – Hole In My Soul
+ Keane – Is It Any Wonder
+ The 1975 – Give Yourself A Try
We’re monitoring all the most important UK radio stations 24-7, so if you’d like the full “chapter and verse” on what they’ve all been playing, and the full month most played songs lists, then we can provide them – We’ve even got some data going back to 2008!! Our charges start at just £12 (exc VAT) for one station, so that’s a FULL LISTING of every song or classical piece a station has played, with dates and times, plus a stats package with the full “most played” chart for the month listing EVERY song they’ve played and how many times, ranked from most played to least… so if they’ve played 3174 different songs, that’ll be a 1 to 3174 chart!
Subscriptions (minimum term 1 year, exc VAT)
£12 / month for a monthly 1 station subscription
£60 / month for monthly 5 *different* station subscription, building up a 60 station snapshot across the year ** Our most popular enthusiast package **
£120 / month for a monthly 12 stations subscription
£240 / month for a monthly 30 station subscription ** Our most popular corporate package! **
£420 / month for a monthly 60+ station subscription ** includes bonus FREE Christmas Station breakdowns! **
One off’s
£25 (exc VAT) per station per month, but discounts can apply for larger orders depending how much work is involved getting the data you want, so there are certainly bulk discounts to be had for multiple stations and the same data for each… Get in touch with us for more information, and let us know the sort of thing you’re after – there’s no commitment and we’ll try to reply within 24 hours!
If you want an idea of how we can work with your business, don’t forget to tell us what you’re aiming to achieve – For Radio Monitoring, which genres or which particular stations do you want data on? We can provide full lists of songs played and how many times per week or per month etc, they aired.
Don’t forget we can also provide hand picked music libraries for any genre you want for a radio or background music station using our software –
We offer both PC Based or streaming delivery solutions – a radio style service, just music, or with promotional messages too?