Airwaves - Radio Articles, Features, Jingles & Radio Audio

.... Oh here's something interesting: Did you know that in 1982 at their studios in Barbourne Terrace in Worcester, Radio Wyvern installed a large cabinet as the news reading booth and during a visit to Radio Wyvern one of the staff told me that it was an old refrigerated meat locker! In fact music and radio guru Muff Murfin kindly contacted me to say: "With regards to the news booth at Wyvern it was a proper voice over booth made by some acoustics company in the midlands somewhere and installed in studio two in my studios in Wardour street, London which I bought from BMS/ Standard Broadcast. I am told it cost a fortune because it had to keep out the rumble and traffic noise in a busy street outside. I had it dismantled and gave it to Wyvern when we were building the station (should have swapped it for shares in hindsight) It worked great and was used right up until Wyvern moved recently. It was never a meat fridge unless you count meat as some of the lovely and now famous radio stars that worked in it!!!!!!! Just thought you would like to know. Best wishes, Muff Murfin."

....Oh, here is something to think about!

In late 2005 we spent a couple of months or so listening to MAGIC 105.4 in the late evenings as something tuneful to go to sleep to. Magic 105.4 is the London 'easy listening' station. At first it seemed quite pleasant, but after several weeks /months of listening it became quite apparent that their record library was extremely limited indeed. We began to notice that every single night the very SAME records kept appearing again and again and again. Magic's record library / playlist seemed more limited than even our own private record / CD collection!

Having studied the article 'HITTING THE TARGET' [here], we now know the reason - it seems that a typical commercial radio station is just too scared to offer variety and may only playlist from as few as several hundred to around 1000 narrowly researched and targeted records. 1000 or so records seems incredibly limiting considering that a station will be on the air 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The same records being played over and over and over again will certainly become most boring! Indeed after a number of weeks of listening, MAGIG 105.4 became extremely tiresome indeed and we were forced to find musical entertainment elsewhere.

It is interesting to note that research shows that audiences certainly are bored with the amount of repetition on many commercial radio stations and some prospective companies biding for new radio licences have recognised this fact.

It is amazing to think that a major commercial station has a playlist of such meager proportions, where our own recorded music library must be well in excess of 10,000 tracks. We have therefore now converted around 12,000 tracks to mp3 files to enable them to be played out via our own 'radio station' from a computerized Media Player and into the Hi-Fi system. This is a much more satisfying musical experience than many commercial radio stations that we have recently heard.

Although it may not have been to everyones taste SAGA RADIO played an enormous range and variety of music from the 1940's right up to today. SAGA was a very professional and intelligent sounding commercial radio station on 105.7 FM in the Midlands, 106.6 FM in the East Midlands and 105.2 FM in Central Scotland. Unfortunately SAGA has now gone, having been bought out by GMG radio, it has been replaced with Smooth Radio - still quite good though.

BBC Radio Two is probably plays the widest variety popular music - not perfect by any means since one may have to encounter Chris Evans between the tracks!

To read more about how commercial stations program their playlist read the article 'HITTING THE TARGET' [here]

The War Of The Worlds

The War Of The Worlds is the famous radio drama broadcast on the CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) radio network in America on Halloween, October 1938. The play was performed by The Mercury Theatre On The Air, directed by Orson Welles who played the part of Professor Richard Pierson. Listened to by 6 million people, the radio production and performance was so realistic that many radio listeners thought that the events were either really happening or were very scared.

The event subsequently caused considerable controversy. It is still disturbingly realistic - Listen if you dare!

Listen to The War Of The Worlds Tape recording

New York Times headlines -
Radio Listeners Panic - Taking War Drama As Fact

CBS Radio - New York - http://www.cbsradio.com WCBS 880 - http://www.wcbs880.com

EXTERNAL LINKS
MERCIA SOUND by Kevin Sykes	JASPER CARROTT MIKE BROWN's MB21 The RADIO LINKS Page .	NICK ABBOT - nickabbot.com
SOME INTERESTING RADIO DOCUMENTARIES & FEATURES {{ List made 15-02-2010 }} * Internal Links * In my collection but not uploaded * External Links (these link to the containing page but not the individual file): Sixty Years Of Radio - with Steve Wood - ESSEX RADIO (from BRMB) (1982) * Twenty Five Years of ILR (Independent Radio) - with Nicky Horne & ..... - Talk Radio (1998) * All At Sea Part 2; What Happenned Next - with Ray Clark - BBC ESSEX * All At Sea Part 2; What Happenned Next - with Ray Clark [[Enhanced]] - BBC ESSEX * The Worst Of LBC - LBC - 1991 - from Vintage Broadcasting * Radio Caroline Feature - as broadcast on RADIOFAX * The Radio Revolutionaries part 1 - BBC RADIO TWO * The Radio Revolutionaries part 2 - BBC RADIO TWO * A Tribute to Offshore Radio (Radio 390) - with Les Ross - SAGA 105.7 FM * Numbers Stations on Short Wave - BBC RADIO FOUR * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 1 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO ONE (1982) * * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 2 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO ONE (1982) * * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 3 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO ONE (1982) * * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 4 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO ONE (1982) * * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 5 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO ONE (1982) * * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 6 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO ONE (1982) * * The Story Of Pop Radio Part 1 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO TWO (1997) * (azanorak) The Story Of Pop Radio Part 2 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO TWO (1997) * (azanorak) The Story Of Pop Radio Part 3 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO TWO (1997) * (azanorak) The Story Of Pop Radio Part 4 - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO TWO (1997) * (azanorak) When Pirates Ruled The Waves - with Paul Rowley - from BBC LOCAL RADIO * * When Pirates Ruled The Airwaves Part 1 - with Bill Nighy - from SMOOTH / REAL RADIO * * Happy Birthday Maurice Cole - Kenny Everett - with Paul Rowley - BBC ESSEX * (azanorak) Kenny Everett The BBC Local Radio Years - with Paul Rowley - BBC ESSEX * (azanorak) ILR Promotion Tape 1974 - Capital Radio * (Vintage Broadcasting) 25 Years Of LBC - LBC - 1998 * (Vintage Broadcasting) The Story of Radio Luxembourg - with Noel Edmunds - BBC RADIO TWO * (azanorak) Last Hour of Big L Radio London 266 14th August 1967 - RADIO LONDON * (azanorak) History Of BIG L - Broadcast by RADIO LONDON * (azanorak) History & Clips of Radio 390 - Radio 390 * (azanorak) David Allen talks about Radio 390 - Radio 390 * (azanorak) On The Run - the story of the land based London pirates * (azanorak) More: http://www.transdiffusion.org/rmc/features/on_the_run_the.php * Links to archived radio features and prgrammes: http://www.azanorak.com/ http://www.zen77094.zen.co.uk/vintagebroadcasting/index.htm http://www.transdiffusion.org

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We intend to add further content as time allows, so please do come back again.

Credits:

$ These audio clips very kindly submitted by Julian Watson - thank you! Individual clips edited into an audio compilation by Mike Smith.

$ These audio clips very kindly submitted by Keith Burson.