From: "Christopher England" <(Address removed)>

I still find it completely fascinating that we anoraks will collectively
cite the non-stop music-ness of things like Nova and the offshore
stations are being an integrated part of their appeal. Yet, with a
second breath we'll moan about Borg stations citing the fact that they
play non-stop music as one of their ills.

An interesting point that you make. Obviously I can only speak personally, but back in the late 70's and early 80's the main thing that I wanted from my radio was music. Those were the days when I would record the Top 40 on a Sunday, then skillfully edit out all the talkie bits. Stations like Nova were to some extent an extension of that, if you like, just like a tape, with very little chat and the odd block of commercials.
I think as I have got older I want more from my radio, and to a certain extent radio has got better over the years, by that I mean more choice of different genres. I just wish that would extend to the FM band, that is my only gripe I think, there isn't a wide range of choice on the FM band, where I live anyway. If you tune along the FM band you will hear regionals like Century, locals like City and Buzz, and the smaller stations like Dee all playing the same safe Top 40 format with the same djs and their stupid dj voices.
Getting back to your point about criticising the same things we championed
25 years ago, the only thing I can think of is the fact we are talking about completely different eras. Back in ye olde days we needed Nova and Laser to put a freshness back into a stale radio market. Today radio has to compete with music TV channels (and the remote control) also ipod/winamp in shuffle mode. It has to be different to survive. How? I haven't got a clue to be honest!

Are we all a tad confused?

Yes. Probably our age! It's probably the "It's not as good as when I were a lad" syndrome!