Old codgers moaning about radio

In article <f4157a62f969fb38f4df388ccb4b9cda@jiglu-wc>, (Address removed) (Christopher England) wrote:

I put it to you that this is because they are suffering from delusions.

Radio today is as good or as bad as it's ever been, full-stop. There is

nothing magical about radio from yesterday apart from the fact that

it's

re-listened to day in day out through rose-tinted hearing aids. There

is

no magical secret formula which will make Global or any of the other
radio groups hang their heads in shame. It's all just bullshit from old

anoraks who really should shut up.

Am I wrong?

50/50 – to quote your own theory back at ya, we are influenced by that which we hear in our last teens/early 20's. Well not in all cases but mostly.
So it makes sense that Christopher England doing a wacky intro to Vera Lynn would remain in peoples minds – even if it was 50 years ago. Therefore, that memory becomes better radio, following this.
Tis a bit like yr very own SPLASH BACK show – now I think that should have got a Sony, then. But NOT NOW!
It was great radio at the time.

I'll await direction to an mp3 or stream of some wacky mega anorak
showing me how radio should be. What's the betting no such stream
exists, eh?

Armchair anoraks, eh? Pah!

I think Paul as in Mr208 penpal club is here and he has a nice 80s-ish stream running. It sound nice and is well put together and a lot of the toones are not on your average 300 track radio station, so that's kinda nice.

I'm sure Oscar will jump in and help you with comments about talky radio – that's cos we're all getting on a bit LOL. But he and you have a point as they isn't much talky radio around that makes you laugh – it's all a tad boring.
And staying there a while, how often do we get Talky shows from the 60's were so much better than they are today – careful I did say talky shows. IMHO the talky bits when I were a lad would have me running for the off button, boring-tired-slow and not entertaining. Now start me on old radio comedy cos I still think that stacks up in many case.

Now taking the stance, slightly sideways of you point but something I could never work out, how come the three in a row thing is important to many anoraks so as not to upset the flow of the music. And yet all we see stored on anoraky sites is the talky bits, like Euroseige ( don't give me bull about music rights) with the music cut out with a chain saw.

Your right the sad truth is that the majority of radio is very boring and has been for decades – the trouble is those that fought so hard to get rid of the diabolical Light Programme became the establishment. They stopped moving forwards.
Shame on them

Eric

Your post did make me chuckle out loud. All these thousands of broadcasters are rubbish because they don't know how to pick gramophone records properly, so step aside and make way because Mr Silly Old Anorak is coming through to show everybody how picking gramophone records should be done. And then just wait to hear how mind-blowing it is going to sound when he speaks in between the gramophone records which he has picked as only he can.

Christopher England <(Address removed)> said:

Radio today is as good or as bad as it's ever been, full-stop.

No, I would disagree.

Radio today is far better than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago, both in terms of the variety and number of offerings, and the quality and convienience it offers. And entry to the market is much easier too.

It may be the case that people find individual stations boring, or mainstream radio boring, but the sheer quantity of radio on offer from multiple different sources means that you will almost always find something that you will like.

Look how easy it is to get into radio at various levels of cost from micro-cost (net only) through medium (RSL, satellite) to fullscale (local commercial – licences going begging and being returned to ofcom because no one wants them).

Sure, there were individual stations in the old days that were a joy to listen to, and they are gone now, but we have a much broader playing field.

These days on FM I can hear mainstream and specialist stations as well as community/local, and via Sky/Cable I can hear a huge number of general or specialist stations from around Europe.

I no longer have to listen to The Archers on crackly mediumwave, I just download the podcast and listen at my own time of convienience, and the same facility allows me to catch up with all sorts of interesting bits of the World Service that I would never have been awake to hear in the past.

The past was lovely, and I cherish it. But I'm happy to live in 2009, and look forward to the next decade.

Steve Conway
Dublin

httpp://steveconway.wordpress.com

I only vaguely remember that. I have no recordings of anything I've ever done, so rely on memories alone.

I think Paul as in Mr208 penpal club is here and he has a nice 80s-ish
stream running. It sound nice and is well put together and a lot of the
toones are not on your average 300 track radio station, so that's kinda
nice.

Shudder. 80s. Double shudder. And why do folks playing the 80s stuff never include the excellent era of Electro or early House, not to mention the electronica or new romantic stuff? They just play the manufactured pop.

I'm sure Oscar will jump in and help you with comments about talky radio –
that's cos we're all getting on a bit LOL. But he and you have a point as
they isn't much talky radio around that makes you laugh – it's all a tad
boring.

I think the point about talking radio is that really it's what anoraks are truly into. They weren't really listening for the music, but for the links. The talking. Anoraks listened for what Johnnie Walker or Tony Blackburn were saying. It is the men who were talking on the radio that the anoraks keep recordings of, usually cutting out the records! It's the men who were talking on the radio who attended the conventions and gave autographs to the anoraks, not the records they played.

I put it to you that one of the reasons why so many are critical and hated the version of Caroline that re-appeared in the 80s from the Ross is because the DJs stopped talking. Nobody wanted to listen to a bunch of records playing back to back. They wanted somebody talking to them as usual. When that didn't happen they were bored. Anoraks need to hear talking even if they don't realise it!

Surely they were always there. Alan Crawford for example. He was a suit, a money man. He stopped the early Caroline South from developing much beyond being a Light Programme clone, playing his soft melodic versions of songs on his own record label, which obviously stopped the creativity or allowed the DJs to pick records.

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

Shudder. 80s. Double shudder. And why do folks playing the 80s stuff
never include the excellent era of Electro or early House, not to
mention the electronica or new romantic stuff? They just play the
manufactured pop.

That is actually a fantastic point. The 80's was a fantastic era for pop music, but listening to those 80's weekend thingy's that stations do these days they make it sound so cheesey! They fall into the trap of playing the same songs over and over. Whenever I do my anorak thing playing 80's I try to mix it up to make it interesting, yeah I do play some of those familiar songs, but is mainly to keep people interested while I slip in all those songs that never get played. I get my reward when people say to me wow I haven't heard that for years or I'd totally forgotten about that track!

I think the point about talking radio is that really it's what anoraks
are truly into. They weren't really listening for the music, but for the
links. The talking. Anoraks listened for what Johnnie Walker or Tony
Blackburn were saying. It is the men who were talking on the radio that
the anoraks keep recordings of, usually cutting out the records! It's
the men who were talking on the radio who attended the conventions and
gave autographs to the anoraks, not the records they played.

I put it to you that one of the reasons why so many are critical and
hated the version of Caroline that re-appeared in the 80s from the Ross
is because the DJs stopped talking. Nobody wanted to listen to a bunch
of records playing back to back. They wanted somebody talking to them as
usual. When that didn't happen they were bored. Anoraks need to hear
talking even if they don't realise it!

This is where I must be a bit weird (people say that to me all the time anyway) but the early years of the Ross were my favourite, and my other great love at the time was the "clutter free" sound of Nova, for me it was the music. I only really needed the talking to tell me what those obscure tracks (in Caroline's case) were or the unheard of American tracks (in Nova's case) were.
I'm still really a music person, that likes to hear things about the music being played, rather than "what the papers say" or "showbiz trivia".

Interesting. Maybe it's an age and era thing, good neighbour (well, almost. I speak from my new Liverpool venture. Recession. Deepest in the North West. Was I ill advised or what. Mumble. Oh well. Anyway, I'm here in Liverpool waiting for Pete Price to hand over the headphones. He'll give in soon, I'm sure. He fears me. Alpha taxis are mine! I'll be expecting a dedication on my local pirate station this weekend, now I'm officially among you).

I'm still really a music person, that likes to hear things about the music
being played, rather than "what the papers say" or "showbiz trivia".

Horses for courses. Thank goodness we are not all the same. I'd agree about the reading out of show prep rubbish. Hate it. That, and the safe old music is why I can't listen to most of the BBC 'locals'. But, I think the 'magic' is when you are listening to a witty and intelligent fun person saying their own stuff inbetween the songs, even if it's trivia, it's their own trivia, a bit like it was on the ships 'back in the day'. Dare I say it, but these fun links are what keeps me listening to Radio 1 by day (and the lack of oldies).

Christopher England <(Address removed)> said:

Horses for courses. Thank goodness we are not all the same. I'd agree
about the reading out of show prep rubbish. Hate it. That, and the
safe old music is why I can't listen to most of the BBC 'locals'. But,
I think the 'magic' is when you are listening to a witty and intelligent
fun person saying their own stuff inbetween the songs, even if it's
trivia, it's their own trivia, a bit like it was on the ships 'back in
the day'. Dare I say it, but these fun links are what keeps me
listening to Radio 1 by day (and the lack of oldies).

You are so right Christopher about anarak pirate stations just playing basically at nostalgia and yes , all that most people listening want to hear is the Dj links between the records in case they say something interesting about anaraky and techie stuff. Personally i really only listen to speech based programming on radio these days as if i want to hear music i will play my own exactly to the format i like.If i listen to radio which tends to be mainly in the car , i want to learn something interesting or be informed about whats going on in the world so Radio 4 or my BBC local are common listens and sometimes BBC world service, but generally only for short periods.For music radio its a tiny bit of a mixture of Heart colchester , Garrison FM colchester and Dream 100, until the ad breaks make me reach for the presets.Most anaraks have an idea in their head of what an ideal radio station should sound like but if they had to construct an actual format for a real station would probably struggle to come up with something that people would actually want to listen to for any period of time.

Hi ya Chris and the rest on AN, Old Codgers, well i am getting there like. Anyway the Offcom stations in my neck of the woods on MW, are totally crap, they both have exactly the same outputs and the music is SHITE. When i have my DAB thing on XFM is not too bad, Arrow isn't either, but the quality is absolute pap. Absolute on AM is OK at times, but my fave station is my own little transmitter on 100mw on 104.9 which i play your wonderful shows from Caroline in the late 80s. I've even made it sound like stereo, you can hear the generators in one ear and your wonderful DJ skills in the other. I can sit outside in the summer, listening to my radio, and shut my eyes, Christopher England locked in the 558 studio with his glove puppet, and going stir crazy on the Ross, sheer bliss. Caroline is back,LA and 73s,

It amazes me that neither the advertisers nor the marketeers getting the advertisers to advertise realise that this is exactly what the vast majority of listeners do, and so, in truth, very few people actually ever hear the adverts.

Modern radio listening is exposed by RAJAR as being done in 15 minute chunks, and it always 'mystifies' the programme controllers who wonder what happened to the concept of listening to a station for longer. Er, shall we tell 'em why listening is in 15 minute chunks? Cos that's what the listener deserts – on the adverts which are every 15 minutes! (Well, actually, on the run up to the adverts, which is always the presenter speaking. People are so trained to know that the guy starting his speaking is a warning of pending adverts that they hit the button to step to another station as soon as his monotone railway-station platform announcement commences, they now immediately hop away as soon as he does.)

Why oh why do they still format music radio like this? I don't get it. The concept of playing records back to back in a segue, and then having a whole cluster of adverts, trailers (for the bloody breakfast show), and other 'info' lasting ages and ages before going back to the music is clearly not working. Why oh why are they still doing it?

It's PC (Programme Controllers) gone mad, I tell ye.

I hope you realise I broke the holy format rules to do those types of shows on Caroline. I was lucky not to be thrown overboard by the strict enforcers.

In article <b4d44bfd4a98de224f7e8aa2f2c65bb6@jiglu-wc>, (Address removed) (Christopher England) wrote:

Why oh why do they still format music radio like this? I don't get it.
The concept of playing records back to back in a segue, and then having

a whole cluster of adverts, trailers (for the bloody breakfast show),
and other 'info' lasting ages and ages before going back to the music

is

clearly not working. Why oh why are they still doing it?

It's PC (Programme Controllers) gone mad, I tell ye.

That'll be the focus group employed by the PC who can't think for himself.