Radio

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Bacon posts every day from prison. 

[HandsomeButchIII]

 

 

TalkShite at times was amazing. Listening to Fisherman's Blues on a come down on a Saturday morning was brilliant. Honest, really good radio,

[Jazzy G]

There are plenty of people who've discussed their thoughts of 6 music in the thread, Ralphy. The consensus is that it's alright, but not as good as it used to be. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

On 3/30/2026 at 3:06 PM, BomberPat said:

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. 

 

On 3/30/2026 at 3:51 PM, Gus Mears said:

6 has really gone down the shitter for me over the last few years. Huw Stephens is breathtakingly dull in the drive time slot, and Craig Charles doing the Craig Charles laugh at his own jokes grates after about .5 of a second.

Losing Mary-Anne Hobbes who was the only daytime presenter consistently playing anything at all challenging has been a shame too. Nick Grimshaw is a radio presenter and he's there too.

And to top it off, Iggy Confidential is now 'on hiatus for a year.' Fucking hell, tempting fate a bit there given his age and lifestyle choices.

 

On 3/30/2026 at 5:42 PM, Ulf ist Gut said:

Very much this. I still have it on in the background while I WFH but losing Mary-Anne Hobbs and Sean Keaveney before that but it feels much more sterile and less radioey if that makes sense. I tend to enjoy Riley and Coe in the evenings and Radclifffe and Maconie on weekend mornings as the former feels like it has more of a comminiy about it and the latter is a lot more light hearted and daft. I like programmes to have a bit more personality to it so the 5live football build up on a Saturday with Mark Chapman is another winner for me.  

 

On 3/30/2026 at 6:25 PM, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

I used to be a big 6Music listener but I'm done with that now. Craig Charles is dreadful and Nick Grimshaw is a poor man's George Lamb. 

Now the only live radio I listen to involves live sport and like Carbomb I listen to a lot of stuff on BBC Sounds. Fighting Talk, Strong Message Here, The Unbelievable Truth, Mark Steel's in Town, No Such Thing As A Fish, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, and The News Quiz to name but a few. 

Strong Message Here is particularly good. Armando Iannucci has been a big part of my comedy watching and listening life so its good to hear him weekly. Plus you get Stuart Lee as the guest every couple of weeks. 

I also like Lisa Tarbuck, my mum used to be a huge Lisa Tarbuck fan but since she stamped on the little man on Taskmaster she hates her. 

 

On 3/30/2026 at 8:55 PM, wordsfromlee said:

At work I usually flip between Jazz FM and Smooth Chill which is surprisingly great if you like ambient/trip hop/jazz/film scores.

At the weekend I'll put on Radcliffe & Maconie. I used to be a proper 6Music Dad back during the Keavney/Laverne/Rad&Mac/Lamacq glory years and didn't even mind the change to Laverne in the morning and MAH in the mid-morning, but I can't really be doing with the currently presenters these days.

We used to have Absolute Classic Rock on at work with their "NO REPEAT GUARANTEE (between 9am-5pm)" playlist which would then be repeated the next day in a slightly different order. That barely lasted a week before we all got fed up with it.

I don't mind a bit of the World Service at times but they somehow manage to make the most interesting topics so incredibly dull and boring.

 

On 3/30/2026 at 9:36 PM, Rossman said:

Fucking crap innit? Only things worth airtime are Huey Morgan at 10am on a Saturday. And Craig Charles Funk & Soul, same day at 6pm.

Nick Grimshaw and Huw Stephens in your drive time slots. There's got to be better options. Grimshaw the guy who got the lowest listening figures ever recorded on Radio 1 breakfast.

He really needs a co-presenter to bounce off, because he can be quite jovial like on the Dish podcast. Here he's just too awkward and dry.

And like you say, Huw Stephens, loves his music, but really fucking boring. He was always the stand-in presenter never good enough to have his own show. And then they gave him his own show, and it's not very good.

 

Do they still do the no repeat guarantee? All different songs during 9-5. Then exactly the same songs the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Etc.

 

On 3/31/2026 at 10:04 AM, Gus Mears said:

@Rossman Huey left at the end of last year which has made things even worse!

 

On 4/2/2026 at 8:00 AM, Gus Mears said:

The best thing about Huey on 6 was his utter contempt for playing anything on the main playlist. I've never heard so much scorn in a voice.

 

5 hours ago, Ralphy said:

Thanks Jazzy! ill give it a go later

Edit - anyone lese listen to R6 music? i enjoyed it ages ago as it played all sorts of music which i enjoy 

There you go lazy bollocks. All the 6Music chat in one post so you don't have to go through the absolute chore of reading through a thread. Perhaps you could get your dad to go out of his way to read it for you then you could complain you didn't like it. 

[Sergio Mendacious]

18 hours ago, wordsfromlee said:

I'm surprised he's allowed to do that from prison.

It's all corrupt girl

[Ro_y Disco]

On 3/30/2026 at 2:43 PM, davertfnewman said:

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.

Classic Vine this afternoon: "Donald Trump has promised to reign down fire on Iran, but do you believe him?" straight into 🎶Get into the grove, give your love to me🎶

Our school holiday 'treat' in the office is having the radio on. There's a handful of Radio 2 diehards on the team which usually means the rest have to endure it. I at least enjoy our daily team effort at Ten To The Top (not as good as Popmaster but, again, Radio 2 diehards).

When I work from home, it's Kerrang until I get bored and then Kisstory. On the rare Fri working from home it's Radio X, which always gives me a Fri feeling for some reason.

[Gus Mears]

Vine's show is the absolute pits. Bad music, bad faith topics designed to get idiots to phone in, Martin Lewis. That's before you get to it being presented by one of the nation's biggest helmets.

[SuperBacon]

6 minutes ago, Gus Mears said:

Vine's show is the absolute pits. Bad music, bad faith topics designed to get idiots to phone in, Martin Lewis. That's before you get to it being presented by one of the nation's biggest helmets.

Yep. 

[Jazzy G]

I'm inclined to agree, but don't forget whenever he's away it's usually Vanessa Feltz that sits in for him, which is even worse. Apart from all the Phats & Small she plays. 

[davertfnewman]

Around 2001 I was working in an office doing data entry of the 1901 census. I worked evenings but I got called during the day to see if I wanted to do some overtime and as I was off uni at the time I said yes.

One time I got put in an office comprised of a mother, her daughter, her daughter's best friend, their boyfriends and some other oddball. They were incredibly unwelcoming to the point where they wouldn't let you join any conversation and would go and get a round of drinks from the machine without asking you if you wanted one. To make it worse, they insisted on having Radio 2 on when Radio 1 was preferable and I recall it being an episode of Jeremy Vine's show with Will Self and Richard Littlejohn on getting into some spat.

After that, if they called me up and asked me if I could do some overtime it was always replied to with "Will I be put in that room with them?" and if they said that was where I'd have to be then I'd decline.

[Sergio Mendacious]

2 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

Apart from all the Phats & Small she plays. 

very meta.

[deathrey]

She has split from Mr Phats & Small

[SuperBacon]

7 minutes ago, deathrey said:

She has split from Mr Phats & Small

She's looking kinda down to me.

[King Coconut]

Nobody is worse than Vine.

[Mr_Danger]

Jeremy Vine makes the very reasonable argument that we shouldn’t run over cyclists seem very unreasonable.