Radio

[Weezenal]

I've wanted to start a general Radio thread for a while, but didn't get around to it. So 'inspired' by the the big radio news today that Scott Mills has been sacked by the BBC, I've started it.

Scott Mills has been sacked. Not suspended pending investigation but sacked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckge1yn50y8o

 

General discussion - what stations do you listen to? Any recommendations?

 

 

[SuperBacon]

The World Service, Radio 4, 5 Live and KEXP for me.

But I absolutely hate the news every half an hour and unnecessary waffle, so very rarely listen to it live.

The World Football Phone In remains the greatest radio show of all time, even if you don't like football, and I mentioned it in another thread, but I'm a big fan of Illuminated, which is a short form documentary series on Radio 4, and its a big recommend for me.

This Night Bus episode was particularly good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0028tns?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

KEXP does for me music wise, and I'll always discover something new, and the genre specific shows are always excellent.

If I'm in the car, Greatest Hits radio. I just turn it down when they start talking or the news comes on

[Weezenal]

I randomly started listening to some KEXP last week from a recommendation off Reddit. Were they doing a fundraiser as it felt like Children in Need constantly asking for money or is that what it's always like?

 

Edited March 30 by Weezenal
Children in Need not Children in Nees

[westlondonmist]

I'm a sad bastard who likes Magic Radio. Yeah, I know. 

[davertfnewman]

Absolute Radio, which I've come back to via digital radio after listening to Andy Bush and company on the Scarred for Life podcast.

Prior to that it was Heart, Gem, Absolute, Kerrang, Radio 2. Generally just listen to the radio in the car but I'll play Pick of the Pops back on a Sunday evening at home.

What's the guess on Scott Mills? Was never a fan but guess it's down to being a bit of an arsehole to people.

[Lorne Malvo]

I only ever listen to the radio at work, and it's on Radio 2 90% of the time. It's shite. I thought it was bad back in the Ken Bruce/Steve Wright days, but they seem like glory years now compared to the current bunch.

I honestly think having Jeremy Vine on for 2 hours everyday is a big part of why my mental state is so fucked. 

Then again, my manager sometimes has TalkSport on which makes me grateful that Radio 2 is as bland as it is. Just pure hateful shite, TalkSport.

[SuperBacon]

10 minutes ago, Weezenal said:

I randomly started listening to some KEXP last week from a recommendation off Reddit. Were they doing a fundraiser as it felt like Children in Need constantly asking for money or is that what it's always like?

 

The station is funded by donations, so it's not always like that, but could've been a drive to get more money which they do a couple of times a year. Again, one of the reasons I don't listen live

[westlondonmist]

2 minutes ago, davertfnewman said:

Absolute Radio, which I've come back to via digital radio after listening to Andy Bush and company on the Scarred for Life podcast.

Prior to that it was Heart, Gem, Absolute, Kerrang, Radio 2. Generally just listen to the radio in the car but I'll play Pick of the Pops back on a Sunday evening at home.

What's the guess on Scott Mills? Was never a fan but guess it's down to being a bit of an arsehole to people.

I mean it must be pretty bad and lots of evidence behind it, he was on the radio less than a week ago. No way could a full investigation have happened, he's been told to leave or it get's worse if there is an investigation where they find more stuff. I imagine we will hear very little about why too. 

[davertfnewman]

9 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I only ever listen to the radio at work, and it's on Radio 2 90% of the time. It's shite. I thought it was bad back in the Ken Bruce/Steve Wright days, but they seem like glory years now compared to the current bunch.

I honestly think having Jeremy Vine on for 2 hours everyday is a big part of why my mental state is so fucked. 

Then again, my manager sometimes has TalkSport on which makes me grateful that Radio 2 is as bland as it is. Just pure hateful shite, TalkSport.

Jeremy Vine can go from fake sensitivity in a hushed tone to trying to shill for Swing Out Sister singing Breakout over-enthusiastically so quickly that it'll make your head spin. He also presents Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to spill out some of her bullshit fairly regularly, which is another strike against him.

I couldn't bear Radio 1 in the "My name is X and I'm going home!" inanity days but it feels like they've swung it back around for losing Scott Mills and Nick Grimshaw in recent years.

[gmoney]

Back when I worked in a supermarket we had a radio in the storeroom. The only station we could listen to that didn't generate constant complaints from one faction or another was Gold. This then got taken over by Smooth I think. It was fine but it astounding how little the playlists changed, given the massive back catalogue of hits they have to choose from. I don't know if certain songs are cheaper to play maybe. 

"Like Elton John? Well I hope you like the song Daniel, because for some reason that's the one we're going to play 90% more than any of his other hits"

Edited March 30 by gmoney

[BomberPat]

I've mostly only ever listened to the radio at work.

Radio 1 when I was in the stockroom at HMV, which I mostly hated, but at least had Mark & Lard to look forward to. A few years later, in what was basically an Amazon warehouse, it was far more unbearable, my main memory of it being Black Eyed Peas constantly being in rotation.

Radio 2 when I was working in a garage - I'd do the morning shift most days of the week, so would start with Terry Wogan doing the breakfast show, and always stop at Jeremy Vine because, then as now, I find him insufferable and radio phone-ins unbearable. I have a real soft spot for Wogan on the radio, the Janet & John stories in particular, and still think of it as basically the gold standard of radio. Ken Bruce was the epitome of Radio 2, just completely inoffensive and unremarkable, but Popmaster killed some time at work. I will always remember two things about his show - that if he ever played Forever Autumn from War Of The Worlds it was because he'd gone for a shit, and the time he had people text in about mistakes and malapropisms their friends had made, and somebody texted in that their husband had once solemnly explained how Rudolf Hess was "imprisoned in Spandau Ballet". Years after that, if Ken Bruce played a Spandau Ballet song, he'd sometimes list the members and throw Rudolf Hess in there.

Years of sticking 6Music on if I ever got control of a radio at work. I could barely tell you who's on there any more, but loved listening to Collins & Herring at work, and later to Radcliffe and Maconie, who helped really liven up a slow day at work when someone texted in explaining the game of Tape Measure Pontoon, in which you fully extend a tape measure, and then retract it and try to stop as close to 21 as possible, with colleagues taking bets on whether you'll go high or low. Steve LeMacq was my Jeremy Vine of 6Music, the cue to stop listening and do something else, to save myself from getting irrationally annoyed by him. 

My next office job after that, it was back to Radio 1. This was 2016, and I actually didn't mind it - the presenting style seemed to owe less to the '90s Chris Evans school of radio than it used to, I'd mellowed enough as a music snob as to not really mind listening to music that wasn't normally my thing, and I was so out of the loop with pop music that it was almost all genuinely new to me. This was also the year that Beyonce released Lemonade, and even the Justin Bieber song that was getting airplay - Love Yourself - was pretty good, so the standard was higher than usual for Radio 1 fare. Plus it was 2016, so you could all but guarantee that some good music would get played on the chart show because the singer had just died last week.

 

Back to Radio 2 these days, but only in my partner's car. In her old company car we generally had 6Music on, or a Spotify playlist for longer journeys. Change of jobs, so she got her brother's knackered old car, and with no digital radio we've defaulted to Radio 2. That usually just means Sara Cox on the way to do the big shop, or Elaine Paige if we're heading out somewhere on a Sunday. 

[davertfnewman]

26 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Back when I worked in a supermarket we had a radio in the storeroom. The only station we could listen to that didn't generate constant complaints from one faction or another was Gold. This then got taken over by Smooth I think. It was fine but it astounding how little the playlists changed, given the massive back catalogue of hits they have to choose from. I don't know if certain songs are cheaper to play maybe. 

"Like Elton John? Well I hope you like the song Daniel, because for some reason that's the one we're going to play 90% more than any of his other hits"

The soundtrack to my summer of 1998, working in a factory with my dad, was Lutricia McNeal, Lighthouse Family and the Corrs on repeat courtesy of Cox and Bumfrey on Heart. At the time, the only bit of radio enjoyment I got was Chris Moyles on the radio in my dad's car travelling there.

[RedTwoster]

47 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I mean it must be pretty bad and lots of evidence behind it, he was on the radio less than a week ago. No way could a full investigation have happened, he's been told to leave or it get's worse if there is an investigation where they find more stuff. I imagine we will hear very little about why too. 

He may just have confirmed whatever was alleged right away, meaning there was no need for an investigation. Quite shocked at this one, whatever it relates to. I’ve always really enjoyed his work.

That said, I don’t really listen to the radio at all these days and have a podcast on when I’m driving. I feel like there’s not really a station that caters to my music tastes these days - playlists are either too narrow or too diverse. Maybe it’s just me though, and my tastes are too specific!

 

[Carbomb]

I don't know if this is cheating or not, but I don't listen to live radio; more "on demand", so to speak, on BBC Sounds in particular. Have always loved The Goon Show, Beyond Our Ken/Round The Horne, The Beef & Dairy Network, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, The Unbelievable Truth, amongst others, but I've been listening to a lot of whodunnits and thrillers recently too. There have been a few John Le Carré ones featuring George Cole as Smiley, and recently there was The Red House Mystery, the only whodunnit ever written by A. A. Milne, which was really good.

[SuperBacon]

FANNY'S TOO TIGHT TO MENTIIIIIOOOOOOON!!!