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Old 11th Feb 2020, 11:28 pm   #61
'LIVEWIRE?'
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

Junk Box Nick, you and I share some musical tastes-I, too, used to enjoy things like 'Semprini Serenade, and like to tune into Serenade Radio from time to time, as well as Angel Radio, and I used to like 'Sing Something Simple'. The thing about the Light Programme, and early Radio 2 was, no doubt because they had to cater to a wide audience, the variety of programs they used to broadcast, and, dare I say it, due to the 'needle time' agreement, the different musicians to whom they gave employment..
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 12:45 pm   #62
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"Old ones, new ones, loved ones, neglected ones" sticks in the mind!
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 1:21 pm   #63
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Good MW station until a few years ago was Arrow classic rock from The Hague, predominantly in Dutch (can't think why) we even went two years running to their promoted festival. 675 Khz first stumbled upon it driving a triumph 2000 up to Maldon Essex and it was banging in on a Motorola AM only wireless.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 2:04 pm   #64
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

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Christmas before last a whole hoard of us sat down to Christmas Day Lunch to the sound of a Cliff Adams Singers (Sing Something Simple) Christmas CD I had found in a charity shop. I semi-expected derision to be heaped but it turned out that all (of a similar age to me) enjoyed it enough for it to be played twice!
I hated Sing Something Simple more that I hated any other radio programme. My parents made me and my siblings listen to it during Sunday teatime. I still hate it more than 50 years later.

I don't know how many songs The Adams Singers had in their repertoire, but it can't have been many, as I can still remember the words to all of them having heard them so many times.

If other people like the programme that's fine. We all have our likes and dislikes.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 2:39 pm   #65
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

I heard Sing Something Simple most weeks in the '60s, while at my gran's bungalow up the road from us, taking my weekly bath. Never developed an antipathy for it, indeed the four BBC CDs from 1997 are on my shelves, though they don't come off them very frequently.

As I'll have admitted before, my first venture into vintage radio came in 1968 when I wondered whether a Cossor Melody Maker (494 I think) in the local auction might bring better reception of AFN than I could get from my little Regentone Regenteener portable. Later highlights were John Peel's shows from mid '70s to early '80s and Hubert Gregg's until its demise. I don't listen nearly so much now to Radio 3 as I did in the 1980s, and these days generally turn to CDs and LPs for music and the BBC World Service for other listening.

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Old 12th Feb 2020, 2:40 pm   #66
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

My point about the variety of programming on the Light years ago was simply that, on a typical Sunday you could hear 'Two Way Family Favourites, The Billy Cotton Band Show ('Wakey, Wakey!'), one of the radio sitcoms, e.g. 'Meet The Huggetts' or 'The Clitheroe Kid', 'Movie Go Round', 'Sing Something Simple', and 'Pick of the Pops'. Their weekday fare was, IIRC, similarly varied, no doubt because they had to be 'all things to all people', which, conversely, is why the Pirate Stations proved so popular. Not being so constrained, they could, as most of them did, aim their output at us then teens & twenties, who weren't well served by the BBC. Despite that, most radios were permanently tuned to 1500M. LW (ours was) by day and '208' by night. Happy Days!
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 3:32 pm   #67
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

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and I'm now too old for Radio 2
That must be my problem then. I now listen to a local station as preference. I've had R2 tuned in more or less permanently on the car radio for years but over the last 18 months or so I've drifted away except for Sounds of the 60's on Saturday mornings.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 4:14 pm   #68
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Hi. I have many memories of the "pirate stations" and other European radio stations. In the 1980's I used to listen to Hilversum III from Holland when they had shows that featured pop music, and also BRT (Belgium). These programmes did not have continuous all day music, but I discovered many interesting records (rock and pop) from these countries.
Radio Ten Gold (from Holland) was the best. It is a shame that this station is now no longer on medium wave. Probably it became more popular than the BBC, and that was not allowed at that time?
I have memories of Radio Veronica, Radio London, and many other stations. It was a real education in music discovering records that were not well known both from the U.K and Europe. It is a shame that it all had to go. I believe that the pirates were not to blame for their existence, it is the fault of the system that brought it on plus the media which did not understand the situation.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 4:52 pm   #69
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

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AFN was one of my medium-wave nighttime favourites
I went to work in Germany in 1980 along with a load of other English people. AFN was the only "english" station which was readily available and everyone had their radios tuned to it and the TVs converted to receive AFN TV. I hated it. It was just so American.

They couldn't just play music. Every record had to have something special about it. The first record that got to number one in 1978, the first record with "baby" in the title released in 1976 and so on. I'm sure I would have strangled Casey Kasem if I had ever met him. (Recently there were suggestions that his death was "unlawful" so maybe someone did).

I soon discovered Süd West Funk which was a million times better (Neue deutsche Welle and all that). Even Kenny Everett discovered it and praised its "ultra stark Welle".
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 5:31 pm   #70
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

As I may have already mentioned, I used to listen to AFN. My opinion was that it was good to be able to hear American Radio shows, particularly the hout of the 'Grand Ole Opry', which they used to broadcast on a Saturday evening, admittedly from memory shorn of the Guest Stars habit of mentioning the segments' sponsors at least twice in every 15-minute section ('Martha White's was one which sticks in my mind as quite a few years ago now a German kady who lived in Murfreesboro, near Nashville, sent me some tapes of the Opry recorded directly from WSM Radio. c/w the commercials. Nowadays of course, WSM and many other stations are available 24/7/365 on the internet. When there was flooding in the Nashville area some years ago, because I knew someone who lived in Murfreesboro, I found a local Talk Station there, and kept up to date with the situation that way, remembering, of course, that, due to the 6 hour time difference between UK & Tennessee< I was hearing their Breakfast program at lunchtime. Apologies if this has taken the thread off topic, folks!
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 6:11 pm   #71
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In the early '60s I used to listen to Radio Veronica, a pirate off the Dutch coast on 1562 kHz or 192m. Reception was pretty weak in SW London but perfectly doable with a long wire and none of the SMPS interference so prevalent now. Then on that Easter Sunday in 1964 I was tuning in and came across the Caroline test transmissions. Although I now had another choice, and soon many more, I still often listened to Veronica which of course continued after all the English pirates were silenced. In the early 70s they changed frequency to 557kHz due to interference from a new Swiss station. Problem was soon after that Capital in London started on the same frequency though Veronica could be faintly heard in the background on quiet passages. Veronica reception was still OK in much of Essex and up the east coast however until their eventual closedown by the Dutch marine offences bill in 1974.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 7:25 pm   #72
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

To quote LIVEWIRE, post 66,
"Their weekday fare was, IIRC, similarly varied, no doubt because they had to be 'all things to all people',"
We had a local station, but folded. It seemed each programme had to provide for all tastes. So, jazz, then maybe 60s, then classical, then heavy metal, then unknown artists etc. This format I found was terrible. I very soon abandoned ever listening to this confused output.
However, one programme presented by a chap with a deep USA drawl, really had me sitting up and listening. My minds eye pictured Louis Armstrong or similar character. He was knowledgeable about what he played, but not overbearing. He gave a brilliant few minutes enlightening chat either side of one Big Band piece that he played. The fact I still remember it almost 20 years later shows how good he was.
Then again, I remember, aged around 17 and at work one Saturday morning (Yes, a five and a half day week!) listening to our usual Kenny Everett show (on Radio one?), when he made that infamous remark about the transport minister's wife having passed her driving test and his comment about possible bribery? He was gone!!
He also introduced me to "London Bridge" performed by Bread. That set me off buying several lps and even David Gates solo albums.
"Sing something simple" ("for simple souls", as my late dad used to add whilst singing) reminds me of post bath time, in pyjamas, ready for bed. I must admit, MY programme memories are quite nice and comforting. Taking me back to my childhood.
As I recall Bill Lowe (aka Bandit Bill, Lowe Electronics) once had written in a full page advert "Every dog to it's own vomit!!".
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 7:41 pm   #73
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

SSS was very much targeted at the generation born in the 20s who would have been too old to adjust to rock/blues based pop music as it emerged in the 50s and 60s. It's the same age cohort that bought the Mantovani LPs you find in charity shops.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 7:46 pm   #74
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

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I hated Sing Something Simple more that I hated any other radio programme. My parents made me and my siblings listen to it during Sunday teatime. I still hate it more than 50 years later.

I don't know how many songs The Adams Singers had in their repertoire, but it can't have been many, as I can still remember the words to all of them having heard them so many times.
I too had 'issues' with SSS: us youngsters would enthusiastically listen to the Top-30 charts as revealed by 'Fluff' on the parental radiogram [along with inevitable 'turn that noise down!' shouts] then when SSS came on we would retreat to our bedrooms and use two or three portable 'trannies' to create a pastiche of Surround-Sound by tuning them all to 208 and placing them in different parts of the room.

SSS [and accordion/banjo-music] is embedded in my negative-reinforcement memory-banks, along with primary-school radio 'Music and Movement' and "The Black&White Minstrel show"/"The Good Old Days" on the telly.

We all have different tastes. Long may this continue - and long may the content-providers/broadcasters/streamers/podcasters cater to our needs!
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 8:23 pm   #75
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

Yes,I hated that sing something simple too! Luxemborg and Caroline etc plus 270 were my favourites.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 8:34 pm   #76
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Default Re: Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

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SSS was very much targeted at the generation born in the 20s who would have been too old to adjust to rock/blues based pop music as it emerged in the 50s and 60s. It's the same age cohort that bought the Mantovani LPs you find in charity shops.
Don't dis the likes of Mantovani and Bert Kaempfert: they perfectly targetted a demographic that had plenty of free cash to spend on records.

One of my musical fascinations is the 60s/70s jazzy-stuff that was the inevitable accompaniment to 'news' and 'infomercial' features and ads of the era... as in "And here's Mrs Jones in her Ford Cortina driving down to pick up tonight's tea from her new MacFisheries store..... nice parking, Mrs Jones!..... and now back home to fry it up on her new Flavel split-level cooker ready for when Mr. Jones gets back from work. He's just got a new Triumph 2000! After tea they'll all be sitting round their new Baird colour TV from Radio Rentals - only five pounds a month!"
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 8:37 pm   #77
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SSS was very much targeted at the generation born in the 20s who would have been too old to adjust to rock/blues based pop music as it emerged in the 50s and 60s. It's the same age cohort that bought the Mantovani LPs you find in charity shops.
I agree with that I don't think my parents liked any post war music and referred to the music broadcast by the pirates as trash.

When I built crystal and simple transistor sets in my early teens the only station they'd receive was the BBC Home Service on 275 metres from the Postwick transmitter. I used to like listening to "A book at bedtime" whilst in bed, but my parents considered this too highbrow
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 8:59 pm   #78
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and I'm now too old for Radio 2
That must be my problem then. I now listen to a local station as preference. I've had R2 tuned in more or less permanently on the car radio for years but over the last 18 months or so I've drifted away except for Sounds of the 60's on Saturday mornings.
It's my supposition that they moved Sounds of the Sixties to 6am on a Saturday a) in the hope that the audience figures would drop off and it could be quietly 'rested' (BBC parlance for 'axed') and b) in the meantime it wouldn't offend the new R2 target audience too much in that time slot. Unfortunately, Tony Blackburn is making a rather good job of it. He seems to have quite a fan base and could well hang around as long as Brian Matthew!

I think I'm fortunate that I like a wide variety of listening and always have done. However, I'm clearly in a minority as the trend today in terms of style and content is towards 'narrowcasting' rotating the same 100 or so records from a particular era or genre over and over again. The commercial stations, whose main object is to make returns for their shareholders through advertising revenue, will have done enough research to know which model works best.
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 9:03 pm   #79
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Yes,I hated that sing something simple too!
I'm making a list of who not to invite to the next Christmas Day lunch!
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Old 12th Feb 2020, 9:08 pm   #80
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When I built crystal and simple transistor sets in my early teens the only station they'd receive was the BBC Home Service on 275 metres from the Postwick transmitter. I used to like listening to "A book at bedtime" whilst in bed, but my parents considered this too highbrow
Crikey, I used to do this with my one transistor set built to a Practical Wireless design (my first go with a soldering iron). I can even recall some of the book titles. I used to enjoy 'Listening Post' too, and through the financial report I'd got a pretty good idea of good stock market performers - I was still in short trousers! The set wasn't very selective and I could hear R2 programmes that took over R1 on 247m faintly in the background!

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