Real Ale vs Real Radio

No, your eyes do not deceive you; this IS Mark Savage posting to "Radio Far-Far". To all those who do check in here from time to time, I'm sorry it's been so long.

It's been a long time, too, since Independent Local Radio has been that. When commercial radio first became legal in the UK in 1973- with the London Broadcasting Company- there were high hopes for it. A genuine alternative to the BBC; a new source of news and information- with Independent Radio News- and an aural sense of local identity for communities poorly served by the corporation, especially in the part of the United Kingdom which is not England. For Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, here at last was something they could identify with, and the result were pioneer stations like Radio Forth, Marcher Sound- and the one in Ulster I'm ashamed to admit I can't even remember the name of all these years later. Was it Radio Foyle?

Meanwhile, in England, there were confident-sounding names which resonated with the associations of their communities: Piccadilly Radio had to be Manchester, BRMB was the ingenious name for a Birmingham station, and there were many similar examples gracing the pages of the Independent Broadcasting Authority handbook each year. OK, the pop sounds may have been fairly similar, but these stations had attitude as well as DJs who knew what they were talking about, and new their audience, most of the time. Of course, money had to be made somewhere along the lines, but there was still a semblance of intelligent local radio there, and legislation ensuring it stayed that way.

Over thirty-five years later, it's a very sad, very different story. Gone are the local identities and local names, replaced with bland, rather meaningless titles like "Heart", "Real" and the luscious-sounding "Galaxy", which for all its starry connotations lacks the sensual satisfaction of its choclately namesake. Indeed,for all the individuality these local stations now carry, they might as well be coming from Mars, if not the moon.

It would be easy to despair at what's happened to commercial radio in the UK, were it not possible to learn from the experience of discerning drinkers of our national beverage- that's beer to you and me, not aerials we're talking. In the late 1970s as independent local radio began, things were starting to look bleak on the ale scene. A series of mergers over the post-war decades had left a "big four" of brewers- names like Watney Mann and Truman (or Grotney Ban a Truebeer as I preferred to call them), Courage, Whitbread and Bass dominated the industry. They'd taken over small regional and family breweries and, if they hadn't imposed their corporate branding on once proud local products, they'd emasculated most of them to the point where they were unrecognisable faint imitations of their proud namesakes.

This trend had started in the late sixties. Had not somebody seen the wood for the ttees, or in this case Beer from the Wood, Society for the Preservation of, then thirsty Britons today could have been left with the same kind of homogenised rubbish served up in so many fast food joints. Fortunately, a rebellion was on the cards which led to the formation of the Campaign for Real Ale and to the situation in 2009 where, far from the extinction of beer unique to particular towns rather than megakeggeries in Luton or Burton, traditional ale is doing very nicely thank you. OK, the pubs where it has hitherto been served might be struggling, but even that bete noir of retailing, Tesco, will tell you that the bottled real ale market is burgeoning; a stroll along the beer aisle in your local superstore will certainly prove that.

For some inexplicable reason, many radio fans are also huge lovers of real beer. I've never fathomed why, but I'll always thank that member of the British DX Club that introduced me to its delights back in the heady days of the late seventies- and the head wasn't just on the beer but on the young shoulders that drunk it, lots of it. Middle-age might bring a more temperate attitude to drinking, and the enjoyment of a slow, lingering pint, but it's palate respects the unique characteristics of a good local pint all the more. Does this give us some hope for radio?

I think it does. Where local radio is thriving now, is often the same place where real beer is thriving- at special events, particularly this time of the year. Airbourne FM in Eastbourne, on air for just a week covering the south's largest free air show. Or Steam Fair FM, bringing a similar unique sound to Dorset late every summer for the Great Dorset Steam Fair. Then there are the stations covering sporting events, religious festivals, even school studies and prison inmates. For every outdoor event or interest, there's an RSL, it seems.

The problem is, these stations are usually limited to 28 days at a time, at best. Once they're gone from your area, you're usually limited to the undemanding, easy to produce fare put out with the veneer of a local product, but usually produced by distinctly foreign sounding companies like Bauer. How do we convince them that what people want is a local service that recognises their uniqueness?

Perhaps just as drinkers had to vote with beers, by continuing to drink 'living' beer with character, taste, variety and flavour, listeners need to vote with their ears and their fingers. Hold up your jug ears, everybody, and let's raise a glass to the survival not of an ersatz brand calling itself Real radio, but to the creativeness of Everett and Peel, or the legendary local status of (BBC!) names like Hold Your Plums and the news in Cornish. Now there's real radio for you. Cheers!

Trust Us, It's Your BBC

I know, it's been way too long since I last posted to Radio Far-Far, for which I can only apologise. It's not as though nothing's been happening in the wonderful world of the meeja these past six months just that I hadn't thought there was anything sufficiently novel or inspiring to report back on.

Tonight's a worthy exception though. I'm just back from attending a historic event. Eighty years after the British Broadcasting Corporation came into being, from the 1st January 2007 it has a new charter and a new governance regime. Gone are the "Governors" of old, who in times past included many illustrious or sometimes infamous names, most recently Michael Grade who jumped ship for a job at rival ITV plc, the commercial TV broadcaster, just before the new body came into being.

The new "sovereigns" of the BBC are hand-picked (well, picked by the powers that be, not us) 'trustees' who are supposedly there to ensure the continuing independence, impartiality and all-round accountability of dear old 'Auntie' to the millions of nieces and nephews around the UK who are forced to support her in her dotage by means of the licence fee. The BBC Trust has now been in existence for just six months, and today saw its first ever Annual General Meeting at Centre Point, which is appropriately sited at the hub of London's home entertainment 'silicon city' at Tottenham Court Road.

Keen no doubt to air its clean new look and discard some dirty linen to both the assembled media types and ordinary licence payers, the BBC Trust invited the public to the meeting and it was an invitation too good to miss. Tickets were free and there was also the promise of refreshments both before and after the main meeting. I arrived in plenty of time to enjoy Dim Sum courtesy of the corporation, among various other goodies, but I didn't anticipate the dim sum of many of the views occupying the first half of the meeting.

Of course, I'm all in favour of free speech and generally speaking, it has to be said that the BBC's reputation for preserving this, particularly through the World Service, is intact. But tonight's meeting unfortunately but perhaps predictably brought out more than its fair share of oddballs who dominated a fair part of the meeting with a range of often quite extreme and off the wall views which, in my view, spoiled what could have been an interesting debate on the BBC's current and future plans and how they choose to spend our money. These may well have been voices deserving a hearing, but tonight in my view was not the place they should have been heard. Pre-chosen questions- though not ones the panel saw beforehand- could have led to a more orderly meeting than the shambles this was, at times, in danger of becoming.


Mind you, it's often said that the more things change, the more they stay the same and in many ways, I think this is particularly true of the BBC. Nearly thirty years ago now, the Beeb held a whole series of public meetings called "It's your BBC", at various venues around the UK. One of my friends from the British DX Club and myself attended one of these meetings, which I seem to recall was at York House in Twickenham. That meeting too, had more than its fair share of oddballs let out for the night, amusing at first but after a while just more than a tad embarrasing and frankly, clueless.

However, tonight's meeting was at least chaired by the excellent Jane Hill, one of the BBC's better news presenters in an otherwise rather bimboesque female TV team of late. Fortunately, this doesn't apply to good old Radio 4, which like the other BBC networks in their present form celebrates its fortieth birthday this September. There, at least, you can still find quality radio, impartial journalism, intelligent, innovative and enquiring programmes- can't you? Probably on balance, yes, but you be the judge. Many of tonight's early 'combatants' though, doing battle with the trust panelists who were like Christians before lions, or should I say Lyons, Sir Michael, for it is he of that ilk who is the new chairman of the trust, did their causes no help whatever by the forceful and lengthy ways they expressed them.

Perhaps it's no surprise that radio hardly came up during the course of the evening and upstart younger brother television took the lion's share of the debate and questions. However, it was interesting to note, during a film showing the work of the BBC's four national Audience Councils, that it was the Northern Ireland AC which got the BBC to instal more DAB transmitters in the province, after complaints from listeners unable to make use of the service there. People power still sometimes works, it seems.

However, these days of course you don't need a radio to listen to radio. The internet takes care of that, but hopefully it will be many years yet before the good old radio receiver is replaced by a new form of wireless set, geared up to streaming internet signals on a local network rather than signals passing through the airwaves for all to hear. But the internet is incredibly liberating, and provides the opportunity for communities unlikely ever to get Auntie's favour with their own radio stations to broadcast the roice of their communities on relative shoestrings and within the bounds of what is legal, under no official scrutiny whatever. Is this perhaps the future of broadcasting in the UK, sans Auntie BBC?

RADIO PECKHAM is but one example of an internet-only radio station (for the moment, anyway) which is every bit as good with it's megabit music and messages from the South London community all too often maligned, as anything the nation's original broadcaster could produce.

The last question of the formal session of the meeting went to Davis, a young representative of this excellent project, who wanted to know what the BBC was doing to encourage young talent out there to get into broadcasting. What indeed! I had quite an interesting chat with him afterwards, over wine and yet more dim sum and assorted savouries proffered up presumably from the licence fee.

While BBC Radio still retains much unique talent, its cost is often questionable, witness the furore last year over the telephone-number sums paid to some of its top stars such as Sir Terry Wogan. So can we really believe the BBC Trust will take a more pro-active approach to give the BBC's huge UK audience the radio and TV it deserves, or should we fear yet more dumbing down and increasingly a departure from the worthy yet all too easily ignored aims both of the corporation's original charter and its new one?

'Nation shall speak peace unto nation', still proclaims Eric Gill's 1930s sculpture above the iconic home of the BBC at Broadcasting House in London. But in an age where journalists such as the BBC's own Alan Johnston is abducted by desperate men and women in the tragic territories of the Middle East and held to ransom for the sake of publicity for a cause, can we dare hope, indeed trust, that the BBC will continue to just tell the truth and nothing but the truth? Let us Trust it will

What IS "Radio"?

Welcome back to RadioFar-Far, and hello if you’re a first time visitor, especially if you've found me through the recommendation of Radio User magazine.

As I’m writing this on the 21st December, I might as well fit the Season’s Greetings bit in here too- as no doubt every radio station in the UK will be doing in some way over the next five days. Their efforts will either give you aural indigestion or touch your soul deeply, but I hope you have a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas, however you spend it and whatever you’re listening to.

I suppose these words might not chime like interval signal bells much if you’re reading them after Christmas 2006, but then, hey, you can have Christmas radio all year round these days, thanks to the worldwide web- but can internet listening really be called ‘radio’? That’s our other topic for today; read on, dear listeners (as Radio Tirana would so charmingly have addressed you in years past).

Perhaps radio offers a better way of enjoying Christmas than the rather boring modern diet of TV. It’s certainly my own preferred choice over the goggle box or even the Google tube while I’m wrapping pressies and putting decorations up. BBC 7 (www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7) is a great place for a spot of nostalgia, and they’ll be doing their bit with well-loved vintage Christmas specials from Hancock and others who use radio’s power as a vehicle for laughter so well. Last Tuesday’s edition, where Bill Kerr was cruelly informed at the age of 34 that there’s no Santa Claus (how could they-everyone knows he’s real!), was a classic indeed. Imagination can create far more humorous scenes than a camera lens ever can- and who needs CGI to create the most bizarre seasonal scenes and effects? Mind and ear do it so much better.

However, my personal favourite radio station this time of the year is Classic FM which captures the aural essence of December so well. It’s become required listening in my household on Christmas Day, and especially in the car on festive journeys. It’s usually the same programmes every year, but that doesn’t matter- like the turkey and the Christmas pud, the more predictable the better.

Rather more eclectic though are the weird and wonderful Christmas-themed “radio stations” you can now listen to all year round –if you’re mad enough or sad enough, that is. Guardian Unlimited (www.Guardian.co.uk- simple free registration required to read most articles) this week has been taking a look at some internet radio stations and on the 20th December their pop pages looked at two stations where it’s perpetually Christmas- almost a radio Groundhog Day, I guess. Always Christmas has a free listing on live365.com, one of the leading providers of internet radio services, while Christmas Remixed lurks at I might give them a try when I’ve had one too many drams on New Year’s Day perhaps. But Christmas music and programming any time after Twelfth Night- or Candlemas on 2nd February if you’re really observant- isn’t really cricket. Having said that, despite Rupert Murdoch’s best efforts to monopolise the media, you’ll probably find a radio station somewhere or other carrying cricket commentary most of the year! The very English Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave and 5 Live Sports Extra (and on-line in the UK only) will be where the most die-hard fans might still be hiding in the small hours of Boxing Day morning with a bottle or two of a decent English brew, even though the Ashes are already lost after their brief sojourn in England’s hands again.

In the past the BBC World Service on Short Wave, or other local broadcasters on Medium, Long or VHF wavebands would be the natural haunt for sports enthusiasts or indeed anybody looking for a local perspective on news and events in other countries as well as the world music scene before that garnered a whole music category of its own. “Radio” was the medium of choice, and the illuminated ‘dials’ of many a receiver from the thirties onwards bore testimony to this. All it took was a twiddle of the knobs and there you were in Algeria or Australia, Zealand (New) or Zetland. Although often thwarted by the vagaries of propagation and electrical interference, there was a wonderful air about it, if you’ll pardon the pun, to be able to drop in on foreign parts thanks to a freely available signal wafting through the air, wirelessly.

Today, however, the wireless is more likely to be providing your home network than your radio network. The development of the internet and cheap, affordable audio editing and processing technology has made it theoretically possible for everyone to ‘broadcast”. But is this really radio?

I was thinking about this recently when some members of the British DX Club were commenting on Radio Luxembourg, so long the occupants of that famous wavelength 208, becoming essentially a web-based station. They were arguing that the new service is hardly worthy of the name associated with the pop and personality based service which served the UK using transmitters in the small principality in the dark ages when commercial radio was illegal in the UK- even before the pirates of the high metres took to the wavebands.

I checked a number of on-line dictionaries to see how they defined “radio” and, for that matter, “broadcast”. The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary seemed at first reasonable with its primary definition:

"a piece of electronic equipment used for listening to radio broadcasts"

Except for two things. Firstly, a computer or other digital device which can receive internet audio programmes is clearly also a “piece of electronic equipment”, as much as a radio receiver making use of an aerial and assorted components to do much the same job, as it has done for the last century. And saying that a radio is used for listening to “radio broadcasts” is really like one of those unhelpful definitions which sends you searching off for another word’s meaning!

So what is a “broadcast” then? The verb offers little clarification:

to send out a programme on television or radio:
Radio Caroline used to broadcast from a boat in the North Sea.
The tennis championship is broadcast live to several different countries.
FIGURATIVE I'm leaving but please don't broadcast (= tell everyone) the fact.



It’s nice at least that they use Radio Caroline as an example! As a noun, it merely offers “a television or radio programme”- but should that now be amended to say “a television, radio or internet programme” .

The crux of the matter is, I suppose, is radio now defined by the means of distribution – whether that be wireless or via cables and connections- or as a kind of collective noun for a collection of assorted words and sounds collectively making a programme. And hence, a radio station is no longer a building where programmes are put together, or the transmitter that distributes their signals, but can even be a “virtual” broadcasting house. It’s not getting any easier, is it!

I suppose in the end it’s a case of accepted meanings with this word as much as any other. Personally, I’ve yet to grasp why the small circles with dots in the middle on many a web form are known as “radio” buttons, but I can see a certain resemblance to the tuning knobs on those classic old radio receivers I mentioned earlier. Maybe that too is the reason why the latest technology will enable you, with some irony, to combine wireless technology- your home IT network’s distribution system which uses “radio frequencies”- actual electromagnetic pulses through the ether- with a connection to an internet service provider which effectively becomes the transmitting station.

Maybe too, Cambridge’s third definition is the most helpful one in the internet age:

"the system or work of broadcasting sound programmes for the public to listen to"

None of these useages actually limits "radio" to the signals we receive through the medium which pioneers also struggled to define and so termed the "ether". By that token, perhaps we should not be so quick to dismiss material which is clearly a broadcast, obviously a sound programme and intended for a wide audience and often comes from a distant place- but not necessarily via a signal distributed via the Radio Frequency spectrum!


That’s what I think, anyway. Now, what are your views? Hit that comment button (not sure whether it’s a radio button!) below now for your feedback, or e-mail me via radio AT marksavage.org.uk (please replace AT with the @ symbol when writing).

Next time, maybe we’ll look at what is truly DX listening- now there’s another can of worms, or is it better looked at as two tin cans connected with a piece of string?

Have a merry listening Christmas, and you might like to visit my other blog:
www.mas59.blogspot.com.

Whatever turns you off

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted to RadioFar-Far. There doesn't seem to have been that much interesting to say about radio, that somebody else hasn't said elsewhere, perhaps better than me. There are of course a wealth of radio websites, blogs, forums, etc etc out there. I know, because I see any number of them quoted on the BRITISH DX CLUB news list. For more information on BDXC, go to their website at www.bdxc.org.uk.

However, I might have been silent on this particular wavelength of cyberspace, and not posted with any frequency for a couple of months, but I've still been listening, oh yes. Times of international crisis are perhaps when the hobbies of DXing and Short Wave listening come into their own. The internet may give us unfettered, 24/7 access to the world's media- but it still does it at a price, that of a connection and an ISP. Radio's great strength is, and always has been, that you can listen to it any time, any place, anywhere, as a well-known brand of vermouth once said.

However, although there are some great programmes and personalities out there, occasionally radio produces moments of sheer lunacy when Marconi must be turning in his grave. I've just read of one such example which I was grateful I did not hear, on London's LBC (incidentally, this is a tautology, since the "L" stands for London!) last Sunday. Apparently, the idea was to have a three-hour, presenterless phone-in. People could just call in and have their say unfiltered, on any subject whatever, with free rein (although there was the safety net of the 7-second delay, or "profanity button" as I believe the US call it).

According to The Guardian's radio reviewer today the results were, apparently, mind-numbingly awful, and the show was abandoned after an hour. Well, hardly surprising, perhaps: how long could you listen to a caller just saying "Q Q Q" for ages on end without snoring into oblivion. Or listen to sexual inuendo which would never make it into a presenter-driven programme.

I thought shock jocks were the ultimate in inanity, but this seems to take the biscuit. Thank heavens there's no listen again- unless of course, you recorded it and want to share it with the cyber world...

Transmissions on this frequency will be resumed as soon as possible.

Six and One make Seven- Radio Heaven?

The Sony Awards, the British radio industry's equivalent of Hollywood's big gongs, were dished out on Monday night, just a day after their televisual equivalents in the BAFTAs at the same venue.

Winner of station of the year was BBC Radio One, up against hot competition from its stable mate Radio Two, though there was maybe something of a consolation prize for the former "light" programme with the lifetime achievement award to the ever-genial Sir Terry Wogan- whose breakfast audio fodder is even favoured by Her Majesty the Queen, it appears.

Wogan's rival at Radio One is the sometimes controversial Chris Moyles, who has nevertheless caused something of a resurgence in listening over the cornflakes to the national broadcaster's pop channel in the very competitive morning slot. Ironically, though, a few days after the Sonys came news that listening figures were down for Radio One and indeed radio generally. Yet the BBC manages to maintain the lion's share of listening despite the plethora of commercial competition and even it's expensive digital options are attracting niche audiences.

These are strange times for radio listeners, and indeed for radio hobbyists. As the "delivery platform" of electromagnetic waves is threatened with ever more new methods of listening- from iPod to Freeview eye pod (audio only), there is nevertheless no end of lucrative demand for short term "restricted service licences", or RSLs. Indeed, these provide a very lucrative filip to HM Treasury through the fees charged by Ofcom, the light-touch radio regulator in the UK. Stations abound for everything from religious festivals to football matches- though for those listening to the FA cup final on BBC Radio 5 live today, it almost IS a religion.

At the same time, reports of the death of Short Wave have been very much exaggerated. Listen in 13840 KHz at 07.45 GMT (08.45 BST) on Sunday 14th May, or on 5775 on Thursday 18th May at 09.45 and you can catch another number which has nothing to do with the BBC- Radio Six International. They've just started a new, monthly programme for DXers and Shortwave listeners with the great title of DXtra.

The first edition of the show, presented by Tony Currie, was excellent, featuring news of the latest update to the schedules of the DXers "bible", the World Radio TV Handbook, plus a very welcome plug for the British DX Club's ever excellent Broadcasts in English. For further details on this publication, visit www.bdxc.co.uk- a brand new domain name! Happy hunting, lovely listening.

Meanwhile, I'm off to listen to the natural waves of the English Channel, then as I enjoy "the Sunshine Coast" and maybe discover a few pieces of radio hardware from the heyday of wireless at Eastbourne's Museum of Shops and memories of wireless's heyday.

The Shocking Forecast

Well, the controversial new Radio 4 "start up" indeed started at 5.20 this morning, sans theme. Instead, a brief burst of continuity announcer and a trailer for a later programme, was followed by BBC weather presenter Jay Wynne reading the whole of the shipping report.
Whatever's wrong with continuity announcers doing the shipping forecast now, then? Sorry, Jay, it all ended up as very wishy-Washy for me, even with the extended sixteen inshore forecast areas.
Mr Wynne and his colleagues may be excellent meteorologists, and there's nothing wrong with the delivery of their 3 minute general forecasts in the usual slots just before the hour. But first and foremost these are Met Office forecasters, not radio presenters. A 10 minute forecast is simply not the right thing for the Met team to be reading, whereas the voices of the continuity announcers do it so well.
I hope someone sees the error of their ways pretty soon and gets the Radio 4 bods back where they belong. Goodness me, Jay Wynne couldn't even pronounce the names of the sea areas correctly: North Oot-seer indeed: it's Oot-seera, man!

Then came the much-trailed "pacier" News Briefing at 5.30. If the aim of this is to get people in the mood for news and the Today programme, well for me it had just the opposite effect. Once I'd had fifteen minutes of this up tempo agenda, I decided enough was enough and foresook most of Today altogether. It might be a politically correct idea to feature the regional press alongside the internationals in the press review, but I much prefer a more in-depth look at what the nationals are saying, as used to happen in this slot. And why bother with the business news at this early hour when 5-Live is already doing it with Wake up to Money?

Sorry, Mark Damazer, but you've got it seriously wrong for this listener. It just doesn't work. It's almost enough to drive me back to Shortwave, or at the very least the soothing tones of Classic FM.

Sailing, bye

So it's official. The BBC Radio 4 UK theme has not got an ethereal reprieve, and will be heard on the flagship network's frequencies for the last time on the weekend of HM Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday, somewhat ironically.
I wonder what her maj. thinks of all the furore over the demise of this 33-year old day-opener? Maybe as a responsible sovereign she'd rather have a ten minute fill of the shipping forecast for all her brave boys out on the briney than a burst of Rule Britannia at that hour of the morning. She certainly needs to keep in touch with what's happening in her realms and territories, so maybe the news briefing will fit the bill, though I suspect her courtiers will be the ones blearily rising rather than this stately lady. News Briefing once started Radio 4 all week anyway at 06.00 - rather than just on Saturday as at present- before the all-conquering Today programme gained an extra half hour.
Well, I suppose we will just have to accept the fate of the late Mr Spiegl's opus, but maybe with charter renewal and discontented licence payers in mind, Radio 4 controller has come up with some kind of typical British compromise. The Radio 4 UK theme will continue to be available as a stream on the station's website, though not to download.

Mind you, quite who is going to get out of their bed at 05.30 to play a 5-minute tune on their PC or laptop is anybody's guess. Perhaps in the tradition of great British eccentricity I ought to be one of them. But then that's hardly a necessary option, since the enterprising Light Music Society, with the assistance of the man behind an easy-listening cover of Oasis's Wonderwall a few years back, has released a CD single of the theme. It went into the charts at number 29 at the weekend; I bought a copy myself on Monday evening so maybe it will rise even higher next week. Now, will it ever get to number one? Unlikely, but wonders do happen...

At least the second track on the disc seems set to continue to rule the late-night waves. Sailing By, composed by light music maestro Ronald Binge, heralds the 00.43 shipping forecast before the national anthem- the only place in British broadcasting you'll now hear it on a daily basis- closes the evening shift and the old home service takes a half-night nap. Now if God Save the Queen were ever to vanish, maybe it really would be off with the controller's head.