Stockport renamed "Scottport" for a day

[Topological]

Not a clue. Never heard of him until today. Why should I?

Tiesto, Tong, Van Buuren, O'Callaghan, Emery etc all on my playlist.

Mills? Used to have them in Bolton making cotton sheets.

Used to go to school with Mark Radcliffe...dies that help?

I quite like the idea of renaming all the London stations London Village - now that would cause confusion. I never did know why a village needed so many stations.

I am not sure whether getting off a train and realising you are in Stockport not Scottport is a tale for the "Wheel of Misfortune" though.

(This is definitely target audience)

 

[Howardh]

I quite like the idea of renaming all the London stations London Village - now that would cause confusion. I never did know why a village needed so many stations.

I am not sure whether getting off a train and realising you are in Stockport not Scottport is a tale for the "Wheel of Misfortune" though.

(This is definitely target audience)

If Oxford Road were 200 yards further east it could be called Gay Village or University!

Anyhow, Scottport looks and sounds completely different than Stockport, we Brits might get it, but an overseas visitor?

And if your ticket says Stockport but you get off at Scottport then is it legally valid?!

Just imagine, you are on a train in the Netherlands and your destination is Haarlem but for one day they call it Harem.

Bonkers.

 

[gg1]

that must have been a pretty big rock you've been living under for the whole of this century to have not even have heard of him

I'd never heard of him either, just googled him and looked at his IMDB profile and I can see why. The only radio I ever listen to is the football commentary on local radio and, with the possible exception of his Never Mind the Buzzcocks appearance 22 years ago, have seen none of his TV appearance. He does seem to appear in a lot of programmes I wouldn't watch if you paid me.

If you don't listen to radio and don't have poor taste in TV, it's perfectly plausible to have never heard of him.

 

[tumbledown]

Used to go to school with Mark Radcliffe...

Of course, they renamed a Metrolink stop after him. But nobody noticed.

 

[enginedin]

it's perfectly plausible to have never heard of him.

I totally accept that not everyone likes the mainstream music that's played on e.g. Radios 1 & 2, but I do think there's a difference between "not interested in their work" and "never having heard of them". Between them, Radios 1 and 2 have somewhere (depending on the stats that you believe) between 30 and 40% of the national listener share. If you take the remainder, I'd hazard a very educated guess that the majority of people will have heard of the presenters in headline slots (e.g. Greg James for the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Zoe Ball for the Radio 2 Breakfast Show until Christmas, and now Scott Mills, Vernon Kay for the show that Ken Bruce used to present). Perhaps all those people who haven't heard of them are the people who frequent this forum

 

[Gathursty]

Sea Mills was a perfect opportunity to do this. Quiet station on a branch line with only altering a couple of signs and not many people who'd end up confused however I can see why a large station was chosen over a suburb of Bristol.

 

[Falcon1200]

Who is 'Scott Mills'?

I'm not sure if this is purposeful facetiousness,

that must have been a pretty big rock you've been living under for the whole of this century to have not even have heard of him

I only became aware of Scott Mills thanks to another example of the BBC's never-ending self promotion/congratulation. Plus this thread, of course.

hazard a very educated guess that the majority of people will have heard of the presenters in headline slots (e.g. Greg James for the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Zoe Ball for the Radio 2 Breakfast Show until Christmas, and now Scott Mills, Vernon Kay for the show that Ken Bruce used to present). Perhaps all those people who haven't heard of them are the people who frequent this forum

Why would anyone, frequenters of this forum or not, necessarily have heard of presenters of radio shows whose listeners are a tiny proportion of the UK population?

 

[Tetchytyke]

a bit of annoying and stupid yet pointlessly harmless fluff

Is the right answer.

It’s exceedingly annoying and completely pointless- just like Scott Mills, it has to be said- but ultimately what does it matter? Nobody is getting confused.

 

[Towers]

The gratuitous tampering with station name signage should be banned under accessibility rules; end of.

This is utterly desperate, and smacks of the BBC’s recent fondness of attempting to turn their light entertainment output into some sort of cultural event. There is absolutely zero reason why tens of thousands of people passing through a mainline railway station should be dragged into advertising for a radio show.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2025 ==

Is the right answer.

It’s exceedingly annoying and completely pointless- just like Scott Mills, it has to be said- but ultimately what does it matter? Nobody is getting confused.

How do we know that? Clue: Station signage tends not to be provided for the benefit of people who travel through the same place every day and know exactly where they are! If putting some daft made-up name on them genuinely has zero impact then they may as well remove them as they clearly aren’t required!

 

[Tetchytyke]

If putting some daft made-up name on them genuinely has zero impact then they may as well remove them as they clearly aren’t required!

With all the announcements on the train, I confidently estimate that a number of people very closely adjacent to zero use station running-in boards as a navigation tool.

Most people won’t notice and, of those that do notice, the reaction will be “why?”

 

[Dr Hoo]

Another member of the ‘never heard of him’ brigade here.
In the wilds of the Peak District there is no DAB radio signal to enable listening to Radio 1 or Radio 2 where I live.

 

[RailwayRookie]

Why would anyone, frequenters of this forum or not, necessarily have heard of presenters of radio shows whose listeners are a tiny proportion of the UK population?

Let's be frank, the demographic for this forum is largely made up of men 'a certain age'.
In much the same way I wouldn't expect most people here to recognise the names of some of the most successful hip hop artists or social media influencers (best not get started on that topic), i also wouldn't expect the majority of Radio 1 listeners to know who Fred Dibnah was.

Changing a few station boards for a day in the grand scheme of things is totally harmless and only seems to upset those looking for things to be upset about.

The irony being, its all advertising, I bet more people are now aware of who Scott Mills is than before they went to bed last night. So whether for or against the renaming. It's already served its purpose.

 

[Falcon1200]

I bet more people are now aware of who Scott Mills

That is certainly true! But I still won't be listening to his programme....

 

[Towers]

With all the announcements on the train, I confidently estimate that a number of people very closely adjacent to zero use station running-in boards as a navigation tool.

Most people won’t notice and, of those that do notice, the reaction will be “why?”

Get rid of them then, no?

 

[CardiffKid]

… another example of the BBC's never-ending self promotion/congratulation.

I asked in my earlier post, is there any evidence this was engendered and instigated (or paid for) by the BBC?

Why would anyone, frequenters of this forum or not, necessarily have heard of presenters of radio shows whose listeners are a tiny proportion of the UK population?

The average daily audience for the Radio 2 Breakfast show was 6.28million between July and Sept 2024 making it comfortably the most listened to audience at that time, ahead of 2nd place Heart Radio with 4.05million listeners. Hardly a tiny proportion. [Source]

But as RailwayRookie said, maybe this is only upsetting people looking to be upset about things.

(It’s also back to Stockport now btw.)

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Of course, they renamed a Metrolink stop after him. But nobody noticed.

There's a Metrolink station called Mark?

 

[sh24]

I’ve heard of him and think it’s mildly funny. Some people take things a little too seriously

 

[Towers]

Let's be frank, the demographic for this forum is largely made up of men 'a certain age'.
In much the same way I wouldn't expect most people here to recognise the names of some of the most successful hip hop artists or social media influencers (best not get started on that topic), i also wouldn't expect the majority of Radio 1 listeners to know who Fred Dibnah was.

Changing a few station boards for a day in the grand scheme of things is totally harmless and only seems to upset those looking for things to be upset about.

The irony being, its all advertising, I bet more people are now aware of who Scott Mills is than before they went to bed last night. So whether for or against the renaming. It's already served its purpose.

You’re missing the point, I fear! Station running in boards are not there to ‘advertise’ the station, they are provided to inform people on an arriving train of where they are. We can argue all day as to whether or not they’re really necessary in this day and age, but that is their purpose. In that context, it is unacceptable to bastardise them and intentionally provide false information as some sort of daft gimmick - if you want to advertise something, use the abubdant advertising space which is no doubt available in the station area! If it was something like an all-over advertising livery it would be of no concern whatsoever, but the deliberate misuse of information signage should not be happening - particularly when it has been intentionally designed so as to mock the original style and look ‘proper’, which is plain misleading.

 

[Sprinter107]

I've heard of Scott Mills. But I didnt realise its because of his move to an earlier show that was the reason the boards have been renamed at Stockport. The same may be said about many other people not knowing either. Those unfamiliar with the journey may miss their stop. This may be a minimal amount, due to on train announcements, but non the less, its not fair for people to be inconvenienced in this way, possibly getting penalty fared for it.
It needs to stop. I'm sure they can think of other ways to publicise radio programmes.

 

[DarloRich]

With all the announcements on the train, I confidently estimate that a number of people very closely adjacent to zero use station running-in boards as a navigation tool.

Most people won’t notice and, of those that do notice, the reaction will be “why?”

But as RailwayRookie said, maybe this is only upsetting people looking to be upset about things.

correct x 2 (imo)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2025 ==

Those unfamiliar with the journey may miss their stop

they may but I bet the announcements on the train haven't been changed. I suspect this change barely increase the risk of people missing thier stop.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Get rid of them then, no?

I doubt anyone would actually notice if you did.

 

[Sprinter107]

I disagree. There are many passengers who are nervous about their train journey as it is, I come across them every day I'm at work. It's not just complaining for complaining sake. I'm all for a laugh, and a bit of fun. It brightens up the day. But this is not the way to do it. Those boards are there to inform, not advertising. If the BBC wanted to promote Scott Mills radio show in Stockport, then they shouldve hired advertising space. Regular listeners to radio 2 will already know about Scott Mills, as they will have been bombarded by promotional adverts after every few records.

 

[Indigo Soup]

Baffling nonsense that probably won't affect too many people, positively or negatively.

I'm curious what the threshold is for gimmicky station renamings. Evidently hosting the Radio Two breakfast show will do the job. But I note we didn't get a similar renaming in honour of Emma Barnett joining the almost-equally-big Today programme on Radio Four last year.

There‘s also the strange case of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Or indeed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which got its name extended in the 19th century as a railway marketing stunt.

 

[dcbwhaley]

This isn't a new idea, it's been done before at another station & it causes absolute confusion. Particularly among non-regular passengers.

Presumably I can travel there this afternoon without a ticket since there is no opportunity to buy a ticket to Scottport at my local station

 

[The exile]

With all the announcements on the train, I confidently estimate that a number of people very closely adjacent to zero use station running-in boards

Many of those announcements are automatic and (if GWR ones are typical) not always to be relied upon. I agree that most people won’t register what the station signs say (as opposed to not seeing them) - unless they something other than what they expect to see.

 

[185]

It's absolute stupidity, the kind of thing someone with no interest in running a railway would do. Besides, he has almost zero connection to Stockport. He arrived from the south, worked for Key103 in the early 90s for just over 18 months, then went back.

 

[geoffk]

Who is 'Scott Mills'?

I didn't know who he was until I saw his photo - he was a contestant in the TV "Race across the World" series. There's a lot of wibble on Facebook about this, mostly in support of a "harmless bit of fun".

 

[Halwynd]

Never heard of him, but then the last time I listened to a radio programme it was Alan Beswick on Red Rose Radio in nineteen-eighty something...

I've heard of Tony Blackburn if that counts?

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Presumably I can travel there this afternoon without a ticket since there is no opportunity to buy a ticket to Scottport at my local station

Interesting point. I wonder how much revenue Avanti may have lost if passengers trying to book tickets to Stockport yesterday couldn't find the station on ticket machines and online booking sites because it had been renamed Scottport. A bit of a PR own goal, I think.

 

[gg1]

I totally accept that not everyone likes the mainstream music that's played on e.g. Radios 1 & 2, but I do think there's a difference between "not interested in their work" and "never having heard of them". Between them, Radios 1 and 2 have somewhere (depending on the stats that you believe) between 30 and 40% of the national listener share. If you take the remainder, I'd hazard a very educated guess that the majority of people will have heard of the presenters in headline slots (e.g. Greg James for the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Zoe Ball for the Radio 2 Breakfast Show until Christmas, and now Scott Mills, Vernon Kay for the show that Ken Bruce used to present). Perhaps all those people who haven't heard of them are the people who frequent this forum

We're not talking about musicians though, we're talking about presenters. While someone who has no interest at all in football will probably still have heard of Harry Kane or Marcus Rashford in the same way that most people with no interest in modern pop music will have heard of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, the majority of those people will most likely never have heard of Jeff Stelling or Alex Scott. It's the latter 2 who are comparable to the people you mention.

Of the names you mentioned, I've never heard of Greg James either, I'm vaguely aware of Vernon Kay's existence but if you'd said his name without context I wouldn't have known he was a radio presenter.