I still remember lying in bed with a small, transistor radio under my pillow listening to the top-40 countdown usually trying to stay awake until my favorites (like Fame by David Bowie) were played...

I also recall bugging the living crap out of the DJ's (who would actually answer the phones back then!) requesting Elton John's Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding.  A melody that was WAY longer than they really wanted to play back then, yet they had too due to all the requests it was getting - LOL.

SteveStrummerUK

Mystic38


John Peel R.I.P
 
Him and Alan Freeman were the only source of real music in the UK in the 70's when you lived in nowhere...  

Big +1 for John Peel - his show was essential listening.
 
Plus Tommy Vance on a Friday night, and even Anne Nightingale played some decent stuff on a Sunday afternoon.

You're talking my language Steve. Even Alan 'Fluff' Freeman played some decent stuff during his time at the Beeb

Fluff's Saturday Rock Show was where I first heard all the lesser known prog and rock bands. No-one else was playing Van Der Graf, Curved Air, Stomu Yamashta or Michael Chapman back then.

craigb


I still remember lying in bed with a small, transistor radio under my pillow listening to the top-40 countdown usually trying to stay awake until my favorites (like Fame by David Bowie) were played...

I also recall bugging the living crap out of the DJ's (who would actually answer the phones back then!) requesting Elton John's Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding.  A melody that was WAY longer than they really wanted to play back then, yet they had too due to all the requests it was getting - LOL.

Man, that just reminded me... I didn't always hate radio. 


When I was 9-12 years old, there was this one guy who used to babysit my brother and I and who worked at the local radio. I remember calling him to request songs - usually stuff that was a bit too rock and roll, so I'd end up saying - well, just play Mama by Genesis then... 


He'd sometimes take me there and make me do my own fake show when the secondary studio was unused - pick up records and publicity tapes, work out a playlist and show structure, all timed and all. Pretty incredible...


That guy went to to become a celebrity in his own right managing a young local singer who made it big time.


Another funny coincidence - I had refused to kiss that singer when we were kids because I thought she wasn't pretty enough. She went on to become a star. 


The irony is that people often mistake my wife for her.

Not sure, please correct me if I'm wrong: Could it be that as ya' older radio seems so much more urrrm banal? 

The other thing is; times have changed so much since I was a teen (no Internet back then and all my work with music was LIVE.)  I suppose Radio was OK back then, but not always!

From what I read nowadays YouTube seems to be 'probably' the best source to discover music and often people love to share YouTube on forums and social sites.  Other opportunities open such as; earn per click/view and live-casts and tutorials seem to be popular too.

WOW if only I had all this technology when I was a teenage Rocker sweating it out LIVE but then again, today's technology doesn't seem to give the younger generation as much motivation to get off their ibutts, get out there and perform LIVE! And now DJ's (club/venue scene) seems to be so very popular that I think Radio may as well be background music for on-hold calls, storefronts and restaurants > to disguise loud traffic noises, screams and sirens. OMG!! 

craigb


I still remember lying in bed with a small, transistor radio under my pillow listening to the top-40 countdown usually trying to stay awake until my favorites (like Fame by David Bowie) were played...

Radio Luxembourg, and the Doors "Riders on the Storm", listening in bed late at night on an ear piece - An enduring memory.

jamesg1213



It's one of the things the BBC still excels at. R4's content is unsurpassed IMO, and if you listen to R2 beyond 7pm there are some real gems, excellent documentary shows and features.

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There is some good stuff, and yet daytime Radio One is some the biggest drivel on the planet. Its not that the much of the music is not to my taste, its that its filled with total inane drivel from the DJs, I just can't see wants to listen to Fearn Cotton inconsequential social media experiences and what she did at the weekend.

John Peel was the greatest DJ the BBC ever had and I was devastated when he died. I have fond memories of listening to all of his shows in the 90's. Where else could you hear twisted drum & bass next to country & western next to lover's rock next to swirly indie, with a little Frank Sinatra thrown in as a treat? It was absolute heaven for those of us who just loved good music whatever the genre. The man was thoroughly unpretentious, extremely pleasant and unwittingly hilarious. RIP. 

John Peel R.I.P Him and Alan Freeman were the only source of real music in the UK in the 70's when you lived in nowhere...

 
In LA, it was "Captain Midnight" at KPFK with the weirdest mixes ever, that really helped give folks like Frank Zappa and others a nice hand. And later helped raise the awareness of the "imports" and foreign bands, that became famous.
 
One other group that was a MAJOR and MASSIVE part of the KPFK history, is, no doubt about it ... the Firesign Theater!
 
Later KNAC, became a major player in the imports and foreign music, that led directly to Jem Records (I think ... not sure about this), which for a couple of years, was already a very large importer of albums. I can not say how good KNAC was, as we could not reach it in Santa Barbara! By the 70's KMET and KLOS were already tied up to the "dot" system with the Who, Beatles, Stones, Led Zepellin and such as mandatory plays every hour to make sure the audience was there!
 
On the wird side of things, Dr. Demento started his career in the LA area and he did have a nice collection of really off the wall things! And of all these, the fun one to listen to that had nothing new? ... Wolfman Jack! ... with signals being routed via Tijuana to flood the LA/San Diego market!