Why is radio so crap now?
Posted in Old blogger by Twenty Major on October 19th, 2004
You flick through the dials, you hear the same song on 5 different stations, the same ads, the same everything. It’s homogenous, it’s boring, it’s dull and safe. It’s everything that’s wrong about Ireland.
I remember in the late 70s and early 80s listening to the radio in Dublin was cool. For years we had nothing much to listen to. RTE, the BBC on the world service and then we started getting pirate radio stations. Radio Dublin was one I remember, but where it really kicked off was when the English lads came over. For years everything we had to listen to was on medium wave. Most of the kids won’t even know what medium wave is, but it’s like listening to music being played in a tin can 100 yards away after bursting your eardrums.
But then along came Radio Nova, on 88FM. Man that was cool stuff. We had the hottest hits to listen to, cool DJs, groovy sounding jingles and a city was changed. Soon we had the likes of Sunshine 101 and Q102 competing for the same listeners. But the Zoo Crew with Declan Meehan and Bob Gallico was the one show you had to listen to in the morning. As a kid going to school I didn’t like getting up in the morning, but I’d wake up and lie in bed listening to my alarm clock radio just to hear these guys.
Then there were the giveaways. Nova ran a competition to give away £10,000 when they played 3 particular songs in the correct order. After weeks of promotion and almost playing them came the fateful day. The three songs got played, caller 100 was going to win the prize, but such was the fascination and enthusiam of the listeners that they brought down the entire telephone network in Dublin. Heady days.
Sadly Nova ran into difficulties with the NUJ, boss Chris Cary was a spiky character and it closed down in around 1985 I think. A re-grouped station called Energy 103 emerged but things would never be the same again. For those few years if you were cool you listened to Nova.
Now we have DJs all reading the same scripts, playing the same songs, station bosses afraid to give anybody licence to say anything that might upset advertisers and sponsors. And it’s boring. Tedious. It makes me want to invent a device which would enable to me to say the words ‘fucking cunty bollocks’ over any broadcast in the land and nobody would be able to find me.
Regulation killed Irish radio.
Scaryduck says:
It’s going the same way as commercial radio the world over, I’m afraid. Identikit stations playing the same playlists to keep the same iadvertisers happy.
They used to limit adverts to nine minutes per hour, but now there’s no limit. In America, some stations have 30 minutes per hour!!!
Having said that, satellite digital radio is taking off where you pay a subscription to get ad-free radio. The traditional stations are shitting themselves.
I gave up on commercial radio in the days you’d get your hourly Phil Collins fix, and it’s got worse since.
/depressed media analyst
October 19th, 2004 at 11:21 am
Anonymous says:
We use to love Capital Radio in Dublin in the 80’s, lots of cool ‘alternative’ tunes and loads of local talent - a-house,fountainhead, stars of heaven, blue in heaven - all the greats! Sadly missed.
October 19th, 2004 at 1:58 pm
1
Twenty Major says:
I remember Capital - they used to do gigs in McGonagles and stuff.
October 19th, 2004 at 2:02 pm
2
Mosher says:
I think it all went to shit about 10 years ago. That was about the time all the commercial stations that had specialist shows (rock, dance, jazz, whatever) got rid of them all and went for the same formulaic shite they’re still trapped with.
MetroFM in Gateshead used to have the Hot ‘n’ Heavy Express on a Saturday night. 4 hours of metal, rock and so forth. Interviews, competitions. And a captive audience with no alternative show. Brilliant.
Only it got canned with one week’s notice. The guy who presented it was shellshocked.
What’s today’s replacement? Kerrang FM in the Midlands. A station from a magazine so “metal” it features Eminem. A station so completely wank they even hired Lucio Bufone as a DJ. I went to university with him. He’s a greasy, arse-licking, cock-sucking (literally - he was “bi” for a while as it was politically correct to be so), ingratiating, backstabbing, publicity-seeking, condescending, self-important cunt. Who hasn’t got the first clue about rock and metal.
So a perfect choice to work for Kerrap, really.
October 19th, 2004 at 11:15 pm
3
Mosher says:
Oh, by the way, me and two mates did a series of rock shows on Bradford student radio many moons back. Five or six nights a week, every week. Four hours one night, two all the others.
We had the highest ratings by a fucking mile. Which kind of piles the shit on the radio authority who won’t give a license for a “Rock AM” station or similar as they reckon there’s no demand.
Wankers.
October 19th, 2004 at 11:17 pm
4