Following the news that Oasis are to reform for a series of no doubt very lucrative stadium gigs, I thought I’d look to see how a sample of UK radio stations reacted to this widely anticipated news.

Note: I used the various stations’ websites where they publish show track information. Not every station has this functionality, so I’ve only considered BBC, Bauer and Global stations here. Also, I’m not including any presenter chat, or news packages that may well have included lots of clips of Oasis tracks.

For context, Oasis’ debut album came out in 1994, with the peak of Britpop being 1995-6, and Oasis finally breaking up in 2009. I have no real skin in this game since I don’t think I ever bought an Oasis album or saw them play. (Virgin Radio was playing them a lot when I joined in late 1996). I did buy two copies of Blur’s Country House on CD-single when it came out directly up against Oasis’ Roll With It. Country House won that particular battle. But someone who bought Definitely Maybe on release aged 20 would today be 50. Noel Gallagher is 57 and brother Liam is 51.

Anyway, here are the counts from the various breakfast shows on Tuesday 27 August 2024. The news that Oasis would be touring next year formally came out at 8am, but it was a certainty ahead of time, and programmers would/should have been able to react accordingly.

Station	Oasis Tracks Played	Notes
BBC 6 Music	4	All in their 8am Cloudbusting segment
Radio X	4
Radio 1	2
Radio 2	2
Magic	1
Greatest Hits Radio	1
Hits Radio	1
Heart	0
Capital Radio	0
Kiss	0

No real surprises that both 6 Music and Radio X leant into Oasis quite a lot. As noted, 6 Music played all of their tracks at once, while Radio X perhaps didn’t even need to adjust their playlist too much out of the normal 🙂

Radio 1 playing two tracks is a little surprising considering some of the lack of airtime on other stations. This is likely to be their parents’ era rather than theirs. But they’re a famed live band, and Radio 1 leans heavily into the live experience, with extensive Reading & Leeds Festival coverage over the weekend.

Radio 2 only offering a single track is a little surprising. It would seem to be a decent fit for the station even if some complain that they’re getting younger (Spoiler alert: You’re getting older!).

Similarly, I might have expected more than a single play on Greatest Hits Radio. Even its youth-oriented sibling managed that!

Heart not playing a single song was a little surprising. I think Oasis fits into the Venn diagram of music their listeners are interested in, even if they’re never going to be a core Heart act. Capital ignoring them I find less surprising, although a bit like Taylor Swift this summer, I think this is going to be a culturally resonant moment that extends beyond the main fanbase. Expect that same friend you never knew was into music at all, yet found themselves watching Swift at Wembley doing the same thing with Oasis next summer.

Kiss not playing Oasis? Fair. No notes.

Stations that played a single track were more likely to play Wonderwall than other songs.

Note that this just considers breakfast shows. I’ve no doubt Oasis will get a lot of airplay over the rest of the day too. And at time of writing Oasis are responsible for all of today’s three new entries in Spotify’s UK Top 50. They’re in at #36, #37 and #39 in a chart dominated by Sabrina Carpenter who’s new album came out on Friday. I’m not sure when Spotify updates that list or how dynamic it is.