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BILZEN, Belgium — On Nov. 27, Radio Bruno became the Flemish mediascape’s first 24/7 corporate radio station. The station serves Bruno Foodcorners — a restaurant chain serving fresh food and drinks 24 hours a day — in the Flemish provinces of West and East Flanders and Limburg. It is also available as a live stream at www.groupbruno.be.
“We were looking to offer the same music throughout our motorway restaurant network,” said Luca Bruno, director of Group Bruno, which manages a network of 25 Esso fuel stations and 27 Foodcorners. “That’s when we met Michel Vanderfeesten, broadcast manager at FM Goud. His expertise developed a specific format for our radio plans.”
Vanderfeesten, looking back on a two-decade radio career as a station manager, and Rudi Moesen, who worked with commercial and public radio stations and is currently working for TV Limburg, decided to team up for the project.
“Although I started doing TV some 20 years ago, radio has always been part of my life — launching a new radio project was a true gift,” commented Moesen, who also works as a part-time PR officer for Group Bruno.
A fully-fledged radio station
The key mission of the new station was to offer a musical format that would not be irritating to a broad audience of clients. “Radio Bruno has become a fully-fledged radio station, with thematic items, commercials, a dedicated jingle package produced by LDG and news bulletins,” explained Vanderfeesten.
Radio Bruno operates as a virtual radio station in the cloud with software-generated prerecorded broadcasts. “We use FM Goud’s D&R Axum digital console-driven on-air studio to record voice tracks, presentations and news items. FM Goud’sSalem sends music network to Christian FM extensive music database served as the basis for our 3000-title music collection, with Moesen as music program director coordinating the musical content lineup. We opted for OTS Labs playout software for music scheduling and the format with a new template every hour. Breakaway Audio Enhancer 1.44 software is used for sound processing,” Vanderfeesten said.
Web hosting company Level 27 distributes the station’s feed, guaranteeing maximum security and 99.99% redundancy.
“Radio Bruno’s signal is then streamed using a private connection and the Icecast protocol to the 27 individual motorway Foodcorner restaurants. The internet receiver hardware with dedicated private streaming address and port number and the local Wi-Fi network delivers the content to the in-house audio system,” continued Vanderfeesten. The station airs commercials for Group Bruno’s products (such as “Sandwich of the Month”) or selected partners like petrol company Esso (the Foodcorner restaurants are on the Esso brand motorway sites). “We have nine Belga news bulletins daily during peak hours,” added Vanderfeesten.
This project is merely a start. We see more opportunities.
Luca Bruno, director of Group Bruno
Merely a start
Radio Bruno has established a new corporate radio presence in Flanders. In neighboring Netherlands, the 732-strong Jumbo supermarket chain operates Jumbo Radio, with live presentation and web streaming, a European first.
“This project is merely a start,” underlined Bruno. “We see more opportunities. Today, we have ‘inside radio’ — the next step is setting up a specific program for the ‘outside stream,’ persuading people who refuel their cars to come inside. We think of a 1980s/1990s up-tempo format with commercials.”
“I’m convinced there’s quite some potential in Flanders for this type of radio. For Radio Bruno, the next step will be listener competitions and live programming from Foodcorners,” predicted Vanderfeesten.
Based in Antwerp, Belgium, the author began hosting a weekly program at a local radio station in 1980. He then joined the Dutch-language national broadcaster VRT as a reporter and music programmer. He has worked as a freelance writer for various publications including national press, industry publications and magazines since 1985.
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