Travelling along the M6 between Birmingham and Cheshire twice in the past week gave me a chance to review the radio offerings in a part of the country i'm not regularly in. I have to say i wasn't impressed. To say there is no choice is putting it mildly. Almost every ILR on the dial is doing the same thing. Gem 106, Signal 1, Free Radio, Heart and Capital are interchangeable. There might be mild differences between the brands of banal pop they peddle, but nobody is doing anything remotely interesting. The highest level of variety between the stations is the adverts.
If this is the "variety" being offered by a regulated market, then the regulator has failed.
The variety is more stark between BBC locals in the area. Treasure Hunts, Gardening phone-ins, Football commentary, Minority programmes, a bloke who sounds like he really wants to be Simon Bates(1).
BBC Radio Stoke sounds like it is actively chasing the Smooth audience and promoting the same bland "the greatest hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s" schtick that all the b-grade ILRs are up to. Its a shame because James Watt (weekday afternoons) is much better than the playlist and slow pace of the show suggests.
(1) - Colin Young, BBC Radio Shropshire. If there was an Olympic event in talking slowly and leaving unneccessary pauses, he'd be the odds on favourite.
Thursday 20 August 2015
Thursday 13 August 2015
Listening List 03: Clifton in Clubland, The Great Bleep Forward, Penn School, Kent Queues and Mark Forrest
A small selection of oddments that have crossed my ears recently...
Radio: Clifton in Clubland or The Golden Days of the Working Men's Clubs. (BBC Radio Sheffield)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r9fzy
BBC Radio Sheffield are rapidly gaining a very good reputation for their one off shows and documentaries. Last year's doc on the TV film Threads was very well put together and this two hour long special fronted by comic Bernie Clifton is a warm and atmospheric tribute to the highly organised entertainment scene which thrived in South Yorkshire (and across the North). The guest list for the subject matter is exceptional with none of the shoehorning in of talking heads which a TV version may have generated, Clifton riffs particularly well with Tony Christie and Cannon & Ball. The subject is also thoroughly explored over the two hour show with turns of all varieties being celebrated. My only criticism would be that there is little exploration of the decline of the Working Men's Club, although mention is made of the resurgence of live performance in smaller venues as the public tire of stadium performances.
Radio: The Great Bleep Forward (BBC 6 Music)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6s96
This 2004 documentary presented by Andrew Collins is repeated fairly regularly on the 6 Music overnight schedules. On paper, it should be brilliant - i'm fond of both the subject matter and Andrew Collins' sharp and witty narration. The execution feels like something of a missed target, the victim of the sort of music snobbery which runs throughout 6 Music's programming and playlist. There is endless lip service paid to what the cool kids like to think is all electronic music, but scant attention is paid to anything post 1982. The early historical aspects of the birth of electronica is enlightening, but as soon as we move on to more commonly known music history, everything becomes a little partisan. In terms of lip service paid, the New Romantic movement seems apparently the most important thing to have ever happened to electronica. Rave is practically ignored, while Chicago House is credited with being the genesis of anything that came after it. The only mentions of European electronica are the obligatory hero worship of Kraftwerk. Because of the gaping chasms of whole movements which are missing from the programme, Collins' usually entertaining schtick becomes tiresome. The series seems a missed opportunity covering a subject which could be revisited to deliver a better balanced telling of the story.
Radio / Podcast: Iain Lee and Team - Penn School (BBC Three Counties Radio)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrvh3/episodes/downloads
Despite Louis Barfe's superb write up of the 3CR coverage of the situation where a privately run school for children with severe communication difficulties has been allowed to go in to receivership having found itself over £1m in debt, i feel compelled to add my voice to the praise being directed to Iain Lee, Justin Dealey, Katherine Boyle and the rest of the staff on the Three Counties Breakfast show. The compassionate but firm handling of the situation highlighted many failures over recent years, which were responded to not by the school's governors or trustees, but by a Soho based PR firm. It is the sort of story which should be a national scandal and proper answers demanded from those who have been placed in a position of trust.
As an aside, Iain Lee is very much a marmite character and those assuming he is the same cocksure face that presented Channel 4's The 10 o'clock Show would be much mistaken. He has developed his skills as a broadcaster very well, moving from the Human Zoo format he presented on LBC and Absolute to bring some much needed life and lightness to the perennial bland beige worthiness of BBC Local Radio breakfast. The whole team on the 3CR show demonstrate how local radio doesn't have to be persistently earnest and hand wringing in order to show respect for and relevance to the region it serves.
Radio: Gridlock Kent (BBC Radio Kent)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ypcg3
I tend to scan through the listings for the BBC Local Radio Specials from time to time in order to see what sort of things have been going on around the country. As i have a fair familiarity with East Kent, i started listening to this to hear the exciting story of Operation Stack, where HGVs heading for blocked ports or the Channel Tunnel get parked on the M20. Sadly, i only managed about 20 minutes. It soon became clear that there was a lot of hi-jacking going on for cheap political points rather than people wanting to actually resolve the situation. I also hadn't realised that the show went on for THREE HOURS and had been broadcast from 22h00 on a Monday night. On the plus side, i believe that the insomniacs of Kent were delighted with the programme...
And finally: A thought about Mark Forrest.
I heard a segment of Mark Forrest's national early evening show last week and i think i've finally worked out what it needs to make the format... errrm... less shit. The show is trying to be a radio equivalent of The One Show by collating interesting stories from all of England's BBC local stations. It falls in to the inevitable trap of constantly plugging what is "coming up later" and breaking stories up to play records we've all heard a thousand times before. I think the solution would be to revise to format to become predominantly speech based. Perhaps a record at the start and end of each hour and maybe between inserts, but otherwise collate the stories in to a more rich and engaging format, which doesn't lose the interest of the listener as a 15-20 minute segment gets stretched out interminably over an hour.
Radio: Clifton in Clubland or The Golden Days of the Working Men's Clubs. (BBC Radio Sheffield)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r9fzy
BBC Radio Sheffield are rapidly gaining a very good reputation for their one off shows and documentaries. Last year's doc on the TV film Threads was very well put together and this two hour long special fronted by comic Bernie Clifton is a warm and atmospheric tribute to the highly organised entertainment scene which thrived in South Yorkshire (and across the North). The guest list for the subject matter is exceptional with none of the shoehorning in of talking heads which a TV version may have generated, Clifton riffs particularly well with Tony Christie and Cannon & Ball. The subject is also thoroughly explored over the two hour show with turns of all varieties being celebrated. My only criticism would be that there is little exploration of the decline of the Working Men's Club, although mention is made of the resurgence of live performance in smaller venues as the public tire of stadium performances.
Radio: The Great Bleep Forward (BBC 6 Music)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6s96
This 2004 documentary presented by Andrew Collins is repeated fairly regularly on the 6 Music overnight schedules. On paper, it should be brilliant - i'm fond of both the subject matter and Andrew Collins' sharp and witty narration. The execution feels like something of a missed target, the victim of the sort of music snobbery which runs throughout 6 Music's programming and playlist. There is endless lip service paid to what the cool kids like to think is all electronic music, but scant attention is paid to anything post 1982. The early historical aspects of the birth of electronica is enlightening, but as soon as we move on to more commonly known music history, everything becomes a little partisan. In terms of lip service paid, the New Romantic movement seems apparently the most important thing to have ever happened to electronica. Rave is practically ignored, while Chicago House is credited with being the genesis of anything that came after it. The only mentions of European electronica are the obligatory hero worship of Kraftwerk. Because of the gaping chasms of whole movements which are missing from the programme, Collins' usually entertaining schtick becomes tiresome. The series seems a missed opportunity covering a subject which could be revisited to deliver a better balanced telling of the story.
Radio / Podcast: Iain Lee and Team - Penn School (BBC Three Counties Radio)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrvh3/episodes/downloads
Despite Louis Barfe's superb write up of the 3CR coverage of the situation where a privately run school for children with severe communication difficulties has been allowed to go in to receivership having found itself over £1m in debt, i feel compelled to add my voice to the praise being directed to Iain Lee, Justin Dealey, Katherine Boyle and the rest of the staff on the Three Counties Breakfast show. The compassionate but firm handling of the situation highlighted many failures over recent years, which were responded to not by the school's governors or trustees, but by a Soho based PR firm. It is the sort of story which should be a national scandal and proper answers demanded from those who have been placed in a position of trust.
As an aside, Iain Lee is very much a marmite character and those assuming he is the same cocksure face that presented Channel 4's The 10 o'clock Show would be much mistaken. He has developed his skills as a broadcaster very well, moving from the Human Zoo format he presented on LBC and Absolute to bring some much needed life and lightness to the perennial bland beige worthiness of BBC Local Radio breakfast. The whole team on the 3CR show demonstrate how local radio doesn't have to be persistently earnest and hand wringing in order to show respect for and relevance to the region it serves.
Radio: Gridlock Kent (BBC Radio Kent)
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ypcg3
I tend to scan through the listings for the BBC Local Radio Specials from time to time in order to see what sort of things have been going on around the country. As i have a fair familiarity with East Kent, i started listening to this to hear the exciting story of Operation Stack, where HGVs heading for blocked ports or the Channel Tunnel get parked on the M20. Sadly, i only managed about 20 minutes. It soon became clear that there was a lot of hi-jacking going on for cheap political points rather than people wanting to actually resolve the situation. I also hadn't realised that the show went on for THREE HOURS and had been broadcast from 22h00 on a Monday night. On the plus side, i believe that the insomniacs of Kent were delighted with the programme...
And finally: A thought about Mark Forrest.
I heard a segment of Mark Forrest's national early evening show last week and i think i've finally worked out what it needs to make the format... errrm... less shit. The show is trying to be a radio equivalent of The One Show by collating interesting stories from all of England's BBC local stations. It falls in to the inevitable trap of constantly plugging what is "coming up later" and breaking stories up to play records we've all heard a thousand times before. I think the solution would be to revise to format to become predominantly speech based. Perhaps a record at the start and end of each hour and maybe between inserts, but otherwise collate the stories in to a more rich and engaging format, which doesn't lose the interest of the listener as a 15-20 minute segment gets stretched out interminably over an hour.
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