Radio Stations: Which one(s) do you listen to?

[J-2739]

The thread title says it all!

Capital FM: Yorkshire's no.1 Hit Music Station!

Sometimes Hallam also.

 

[Howardh]

50% of the time Ibiza Global Radio, the rest di.fm vocaltrance; jenny.fm and the Dutch or German Schlager stations with the odd bit of 5-live sport thrown in (and TMS). Those are my 10 "favourites" on the internet radio set.

Britain's commercial radio stations used to be ace in the 70's and early 80's, but now they are indistinguishable, unlistenable and plagued with adverts.

 

[Seacook]

Radio 4
Radio 4 Extra
Radio 5 Live

These are the only ones I listen to. All are speech stations - I have plenty of CDs if I want to hear some music.

 

[Gathursty]

LBC
BBC Radio 2

 

[GusB]

Britain's commercial radio stations used to be ace in the 70's and early 80's, but now they are indistinguishable, unlistenable and plagued with adverts.

I stopped listening to my local "independent" radio station (MFR) for precisely that reason. Loss of local programming and an increasing amount of "network" content was another.

These days it's usually Radio Scotland for news, and 6 Music. Occasionally I'll listen to Classic FM or a bit of Radio 2.

 

[SS4]

Planet Rock for music, BBC WM for football

 

[Johnuk123]

LBC and Talk - nothing else.

 

[radamfi]

Talk

As in talkRADIO? Which shows?

 

[507021]

I listen to Radio City 96.7, Heart or Capital Liverpool.

 

[radamfi]

I stopped listening to my local "independent" radio station (MFR) for precisely that reason. Loss of local programming and an increasing amount of "network" content was another.

Unfortunately, most of your fellow forum members seem to be quite happy to listen to bland, networked stations, especially those from Global Radio.

 

[TheEdge]

Radio X, Radio 4, ocassionaly Classic FM and the World Service

 

[radamfi]

Capital FM: Yorkshire's no.1 Hit Music Station!

It does seem quite bizarre that Global (and its predecessors) seem happy to use the Capital brand outside London, leading to odd sounding phrases like the above. Originally it was just Capital Radio, then Capital FM and Capital Gold, all serving London. Then when the big radio takeovers started being allowed, the Capital Radio group bought BRMB and Xtra AM, its AM counterpart. So they networked Capital Gold to Birmingham, creating the bizarrely named station of Capital Gold Birmingham. Now Capital is a brand that is even considered usable in Scotland.

 

[Howardh]

Unfortunately, most of your fellow forum members seem to be quite happy to listen to bland, networked stations, especially those from Global Radio.

How idea if it's owned by Global, but when I had workmen in the other week they asked if they could have their radio on, does anyone ever say no...?? and it was something called "Heart".

After half an hour of listening I just wanted to slash my wrists. But didn't want to annoy then, just found loads of jobs that happened in a room as afar away as, and put my own tunes on.

Still gave them a tip when they'd finished. And brewed up for them. Good news is the job's perfect, and hopefuly they won't be round for a while with their "all the hits all the time..." or whatever.

 

[Lrd]

I'm always flicking between different stations in my car trying to find a station actually playing music rather than a constant stream of adverts or talking. On my presets are Radio 1, Radio X, Capital, KISS, Absolute and Heart.

Kiss and Radio X taking precedence over the rest.

 

[radamfi]

How idea if it's owned by Global, but when I had workmen in the other week they asked if they could have their radio on, does anyone ever say no...?? and it was something called "Heart".

Yes, Heart is owned by Global and is the most extreme case of Global Radio networking and extreme blandness. At least 20 local stations have been lost to the Heart brand.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Radio 3 and Radio 4 (occasionally 2 and even 1)
But

Britain's commercial radio stations used to be ace in the 70's and early 80's, but now they are indistinguishable, unlistenable and plagued with adverts.

I was an avid listener to Radio Clyde from its launch and even did some work for them, but it has lost all its appeal for me. It had a wide range of programmes (even a Public Service broadcasting requirement at first) and it was done well.

 

[Howardh]

Yes, Heart is owned by Global and is the most extreme case of Global Radio networking and extreme blandness. At least 20 local stations have been lost to the Heart brand.

Must point out that my fave Ibiza GLOBAL Rdio has nothing whatsoever to do with the Global bland in the UK!!

 

[Bevan Price]

Radio 4
Radio Merseyside or Radio Manchester mostly for local news, or (in season) for rugby league commentaries.

Planet Rock, mainly for the prog rock & blues rock shows, occasionally for more general rock music.

Most other music radios are plagued by "play lists", endlessly repeating the same old songs that have been "hit singles" (actual or potential) and totally ignoring the many thousands of brilliant album tracks.

Test Match Special on Radio 4 Long Wave, or 5 Live Sports Extra.


------------------------------------------

Rather disappointed to discover that Planet Rock has cancelled its "progressive rock" show, "Qne Man & His Prog" - one of the most interesting / varied rock programmes on UK radio. Despite its increasing popularity, prog now seems confined to an occasional track in other programmes.


Forgot to include Radio 5 in my previous list - I listed occasionally for sports commentaries.

 

[Cowley]

I spend a lot of time working on my own (decorating) and tend to go through phases of listening to all kinds of different things, you can't get every station in Devon on the DAB but for instance yesterday I listened to a bit of radio 6 and then a bit of 2 as I quite like Pop Master, then a bit more radio 6 (Radcliffe and Maconie) until 4pm and then a bit of Johnny Vaughn on Radio X after that who I find a bit off the wall and rather funny.
If I listen to anything too talk related I find my work rate goes down as I keep straining to hear what's being said. If I need to get lots done I try and find a station that's playing plenty of rock as it speeds me up.
A couple of weeks ago a carpet fitter was working on a house I was doing and he had Heart on, it was the worst thing I'd ever listened to and I told him that if I had to listen to that every day I'd end up killing someone or myself.
I like a bit of DJ chatter if it's witty. In fact a lot of the people that text in to those shows seem to be decorators too so perhaps they're stuck on their own like me looking at endless banisters that need glossing...

 

[Welshman]

Radio 3 mainly, except the Jazz programmes.

I remember being bombarded by "Heart FM" during a hospital appointment recently. Waiting to see my cardiac specialist was bad enough.

 

[Busaholic]

Yes, Heart is owned by Global and is the most extreme case of Global Radio networking and extreme blandness. At least 20 local stations have been lost to the Heart brand.

Those of us old enough to remember the 1960s pirate radio stations tend to do so through rose-tinted spectacles, although they undoubtedly set in train Radio One and the commercial stations of the early/mid 1970s, but there were some shockers floating alongside Radio Caroline and Radio London. One of these was Britain Radio which, alongside its stablemate ''Swinging'' Radio England was set up on a ship by an American who'd been one of the founders of Radio London but had fallen out with his cohorts. This well-financed operation pioneered the playing of bland 'wallpaper' music, often without a DJ although I believe they created an imaginary DJ whose voice was never heard, beyond a pre-recorded intro perhaps. They even had a teleprinter so that, in theory, they could be supplied with news from a news agency rather than re-writing the BBC bulletins, but turning it on blew the transmitters, apparently! Those transmitters were powerful enough to draw complaints from a station in Rome that they were suffering interference. I think Britain Radio led, directly or indirectly, and many decades later, to Heart FM in all its awfulness.

 

[317 forever]

BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Sheffield
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 6 Music

Imagine FM
Tameside Radio
Gold
Key 2

 

[yorksrob]

BBC For Me:

Radio 4 in the morning to keep me informed, not to mention the comedy slot at the end of the day to cheer me up at 22:00 and "minute" and "clue"obviously).

And of course, BBC Radio 2. Pure heaven (so long as they're not doing show tunes!).

Wonderful Anneka - who would want to wake up to anyone else !, Sounds of the seventies, Paul O'Grady, the great Ken Bruce - Not to mention radio 2 of yore - Bunty Bagshawe (I am forever a dawn patroller Bunty) and the late Sir Terrance of Wogan - gone but not forgotten ....

 

[J-2739]

It does seem quite bizarre that Global (and its predecessors) seem happy to use the Capital brand outside London, leading to odd sounding phrases like the above. Originally it was just Capital Radio, then Capital FM and Capital Gold, all serving London. Then when the big radio takeovers started being allowed, the Capital Radio group bought BRMB and Xtra AM, its AM counterpart. So they networked Capital Gold to Birmingham, creating the bizarrely named station of Capital Gold Birmingham. Now Capital is a brand that is even considered usable in Scotland.

I remember the very day Galaxy FM was switched to Capital FM.

To this day, I still think that 'Galaxy' is a better name. :cry:

 

[Bevan Price]

Those of us old enough to remember the 1960s pirate radio stations tend to do so through rose-tinted spectacles, although they undoubtedly set in train Radio One and the commercial stations of the early/mid 1970s, but there were some shockers floating alongside Radio Caroline and Radio London. .

Yes, looking back, the pirates were imperfect, but at the time, they were better than anything else on offer.

BBC had Pick Of The Pops, and about another couple of hours of "pop" music - per week.

Radio Luxembourg broadcast in the evening, but many programmes were sponsored by record companies. Therefore they "plugged" what the record companies wanted to sell - and even worse, they often played only part of a song - presumably because the record companies wanted to "advertise" as many records as possible in the available time. (And before the start of pirate radio, Luxembourg output had included some drama & light entertainment programmes, etc.)

If you knew where to find it, AFN Germany had a few good pop / rock programmes in the evening, and played a good variety of music. It was sometimes amusing to hear hippy / underground anti-war songs being played by soldiers - I presume the generals did not listen at that time of night....

Unfortunately, they later dropped local music show production and started to relay the syndicated Wolfman Jack show, which was just standard playlist pop mediocrity.

(AFN = American Forces Network)

 

[Howardh]

Those of us old enough to remember the 1960s pirate radio stations

60's?? In the early to mid 80's in Manchester we had KFM pirate based in Stockport which was, if memory serves, the first to play CD's ahead of our local BBC and commercial stations!

I still have recordings which, if it weren't for copyright issues, I'd love to put on Youtube.

 

[adrock1976]

Stations I used to listen to when I used to reside in my native West Midlands:

Beacon Radio
BRMB (except when live football commentary featured the dirty Bluenoses at home)
Mercia (on occasions when I could get a reasonable signal to listen to the football commentary if the once mighty a long time ago but not so mighty nowadays Aston Villa were away at Highfield Road versus Coventry City)
BBC WM

Both Beacon Radio and BRMB used to play decent music before the various takeovers and acquisitions of recent years. Now they sound dreadful today, with no live commentary involving the local teams, and every record seems to be somebody "featuring" somebody.

Stations I listen or have listened to since residing in Scotland:

Scot FM (on some occasions). This would later become Real Radio when the Guardian Media Group acquired this station.
BBC Radio Scotland
96.3 Rock Radio. This became Real XS, then XFM, now defunct. Of note, this originally started out as 96.3 QFM, which had a local licence rather than a regional licence to specifically feature news from the Paisley and Renfrewshire area.
Radio Forth - when I used to reside on the top floor of a high rise flat, my windows had a direct line of sight eastwards to the Black Hill (Shotts) transmitter. I would tune in for the Friday Night Rock show, and the Sunday night edition as well.

Stations I mainly listen to nowadays:

Absolute Radio (formerly Virgin 1215 AM)
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio 4
Classic FM (when I need to declutter my mind)
Talksport (if the live commentary features Aston Villa)
BBC 5 Live (if the live commentary features Aston Villa)

 

[Howardh]

Stations I used to listen to when I used to reside in my native West Midlands:

Beacon Radio

I could get Beacon Radio here in Bolton (I live on the south face of Winter Hill) and I wrote in for a request and they sent a Beacon Radio 301 sticker which was stuck on the back of my desk until a few months ago!! Wish I'd kept the backboard so I could prove it with a snap!!

 

[radamfi]

60's?? In the early to mid 80's in Manchester we had KFM pirate based in Stockport which was, if memory serves, the first to play CD's ahead of our local BBC and commercial stations!

I still have recordings which, if it weren't for copyright issues, I'd love to put on Youtube.

I listened to the first day of KFM when it went legal and I still have my recordings.

I wouldn't be afraid of putting up your recordings on YouTube. There are loads of old radio recordings on there. If commercial music is part of the recording then YouTube sometimes automatically blocks it so it is best to edit out the songs.

 

[Howardh]

If you are one of the lucky ones and live in the North West, and are of a certain age, like getting on a bit, here are some names that will make you all weepy.
Phil Easton - Great Easton Express (City)
Mark Joenz - Saturday Night Out (with quiz) (c)
Phil Put Some More Wood On The Wireless (Piccadilly)
Stannage (P)
Roger Day (P)
The Great and Right Honourable Sir James H. Reeve Esq (P)
Ian Roberts (Red Rose)
Mark Radcliffe - Transmission (P/Key 103)
Phil Michell - IQ (Key 103)
Grannie Landowski (Kiss)
Graeme Park (Kiss)
Stu Allan - dance/extended mixes (P/K)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I listened to the first day of KFM when it went legal and I still have my recordings.

I wouldn't be afraid of putting up your recordings on YouTube. There are loads of old radio recordings on there. If commercial music is part of the recording then YouTube sometimes automatically blocks it so it is best to edit out the songs.

The music's half of it. Find it strange when there are all these copyright "issues" and all the threats etc, yet the BBC often plead for anyone who has home recordings (eg Dad's Army) which they have "lost" (taped over) to forward them.

Most of the stuff I watch on youtube is absolute gold, and provided by amateurs which they've saved from original transmissions - probably illegal (???).