Radio Caroline Top Fifteens

Circa December 2020 one evening I got bored enough enough to submit another Top 15 to Radio Caroline. I looked at the other playlists of crap music that people had chosen and thought I could do better.

Six months later and my tunes were played. It was only partially successful. Maybe I’m slow on the uptake but I thought my first choice would be played last as it was track one and I thought the idea of a Top 15 was a countdown to your favourite song. The music was played in the reverse order to what I expected. I thought Aphrodites Child would close the hour, not start it! Also tracks one and two Radio Caroline played completely different (inferior) versions of the songs I chose. And although Rainbow Chaser is an ok sixties song, with novel-for-the-time phasing effects, but I’m pretty sure I chose a Black Sabbath track for number 14? Hey Ho! So here is the track listing. In September 2021 having listened to a lot of music this year (don’t watch TV any more) I may have chosen a somewhat different selection but it’s a better hour than many that appear in the 9.00am slot on Radio Caroline but I would say that wouldn’t I?

PS: Why not submit YOUR Top 15 to Radio Caroline by following this link???

The bizarre world of Len Groat

Some excellent music radio with some excellent DJing and jingles (better than most of the “pirates” output) came from the UK midlands radio station GEM AM in the late 1980s/early 1990s when it was run by the legendary Len Groat. I’m pleased to see that after a period writing books about ceramics (?!?) he (and GEM AM) are back via the Interweb (which these days is where you find any “radio” that is worth listening to). I don’t dabble with DAB any more.

Read Len Groat’s Blog here.

The current Interweb-only version of GEM AM boasts a library of 8000 solid-gold songs. All well and good I suppose but in reality all these oldies stations do tend to cherry-pick 500-1000 mainly top 20 hits which rotate forever.

Sprouting live radio streams

The “Radio Garden” went live in December. Although basically it is still a list of links to the live streams of Radio Stations around the world it is presented in a novel user-friendly way. When you first access the Radio Garden site you are presented with planet earth covered in green dots that are hundreds of radio stations. It is easy to navigate and will be a great time-waster for me in the future.

http://radio.garden/live/

Where’s the news?

Where’s the news?

How does he keep it up for two hours?

If you’ve got 90 minutes to spare hear here most of a show from September 1989.

Nothing on the Radio

Soon (well, actually most likely circa 2015) there will be nothing on my 19 radios (I’ve just counted them) and nothing on your radios either. Ok, perhaps other countries might not be as quick to embrace digital as the UK. I’m sure Radio Tirana will still be there on MW/SW and the French will be plain awkward and continue using LW.

Actually I’m not that bothered. I haven’t listened to any radio for a few years now. Those 19 sets are either ornaments or novelties and range from 1950s Bakelite to a Sinclair Micromatic “World’s smallest radio” which it probably was in 1971 but certainly isn’t now.

But there are plenty of people who are bothered about the switching off of MW/FM by the BBC and others and the approaching big brother world of DAB digital radio and its fixed bouquet of channels. You don’t come across an unexpected landbased pirate Reggae station on digital. DAB radio uses the already obsolete mp2 compression format which audio experts consider far inferior to FM. It is actually getting worse as they reduce the bit rate to squeeze more channels in. Heck, some DAB radio stations actually broadcast in mono !!

“Portable” DAB radios aren’t even portable because as soon as you swing them round the signal disappears. Patchy coverage makes DAB of little use in the car. The only reason I can think of to listen to DAB radio is BBC 6 Music…oh wait…they’re closing them down !!
Even on environmental grounds alone it seems ludicrous to throw away millions of radios that can pick up literally thousands of stations around the world to “upgrade” to digital radios with a choice of only 50 stations. When I first put up a TV Satellite dish I felt part of Europe with numerous foreign TV stations available from Scandinavia, France, Holland and especially Germany. Once digital TV was in place most channels were encrypted and I was once again reduced to only viewing UK channels unless I spent £££s. It looks like radio will go the same way.

PS: I’m sure there will be many people who say 50 digital radio stations is plenty and who listens to Radio Tirana anyway. One positive aspect to the little DAB radio I own is that it has a slot for an SD card which makes recording a doddle. If I could fathom how to work the fiddly little buttons. Perhaps I should record some BBC 6 Music whilst it’s still there. I can throw the SD card in the box along with my old Radio Caroline cassettes.