Radio

I read news today that radio listening reached an all new high recently, something approaching 48m people, an impressive number.

I;'m assuming the advent of digital radio, improved sound quality etc helps, but on a personal level, I do find the standard of radio to have fallen quite allot. That of course depends on the station, some stations are good some not so good, as you'd expect.

My personal pet hate is Radio 1, I'm not going to start having a go at the music, that's not what I'm talking about here, I'm on about the presenting. Look at a selection Radio 1's line up

Moyles & co: My god could I dislike a man more, yes he's done stuff for charity but he'd have to climb a ladder to the moon to get any joy from me. I find him a big headed, self serving, unprofessional, annoying man. I'd honestly rather listen to the sound of water dripping than him. Never have I known a man think quite so much of himself, if his radio 'persona' is an accurate representation of him personally, I pity anyone living within 15 miles of him. Compare him to Radio 2's excellent Chris Evans (who in all fairness used to be like that, but grew up, something I can't see Moyles doing.) and there's no wonder he's losing ratings to him. The worst part is his seemingly mindless core of listeners who will do anything he says... Don't get me started on that div of a co-presenter/producer Aled. No wonder people think the Welsh are thick.

Remember Mark and Lard? Both still working of course, but they used to absolutely rule afternoon radio! Genius! Well now we have Greg James. I mean honestly where do they find these people and their local radio standard links etc? While not in Moyles' league I don't find the guy interesting, informative, anything, he's like background music between songs, the presenters (I'm not saying DJs) need personality.

Then there's Scott Mills who's like Greg James in a number of ways, once again he couldn't engage me if he got my phone number and rang me, I'd still zone out while he was talking about his favourite subject... himself. Once again Radio 2, with the award winning Simon Mayo trump here.

There's also the thoroughly empty Ferne Cotton, but she is better than the name dropping master that was Jo Whiley, so I'll give radio 1 credit there. There's more but they've never got past nameless voice to me, and never given me any desire to find out more. Wasn't one of them in Dr Who at some point?

So after reading that you're probably thinking just listen to Radio 2 or Nation (good music... dreadful presenting, proper local radio stuff) you miserable fucker, well OK I do. It's 90% of the time one or the other. But these mothertruckers from Radio 1 do turn up regularly other places and sometimes they're hard to avoid. Yes, so does Chris Evans, but I do like him!

So in short bring back Mark and Lard, end of. Or Radcliffe and Maconie. Or even better do some super show with Mark, Lard and Maconie! Yeah, now we're talking.

A wise man once said, "I'm pretty sure AM on my radio stands for absolute moron, I won't tell you what FM stands for." Sounds good to me!

I say wise man, it was Jasper Carrott...

Am I getting old or is music getting crap?

Or possibly both...

One thing is for certain, I am getting older. By no means am I old and I don't think I'm majorly close minded about new music, films etc, infact some of my favourite films have been of the last few years, but of late I can't help but think music is shite.

As I'm typing this I'm also nosing through the top 40 UK singles chart, yes I know that's a gauge of popularity not quality, but people must believe in the quality to buy is surely. All I seem to be seeing contained within said charts is a combination of reality TV stars, rappers talking about 'da club' some rude things they'd like to do to a possibly uninterested female, and celebrities with questionable musical/vocal talents that 12 year olds seem to like/want to be.

It's not all hell, the script are bearable and the manics make an appearance in the top 30,, but even they seem to be trying too hard to sound like what they think people want. Lads, I have Everything Must Go (and what an album!), if I want to listen to that I will, do something else!

I heard recently about what will be, for all intents, the death of Red Dragon FM in Cardiff, can't say I was even vaguely disappointed. The dull radio station with its 5 track playlist will not be a loss to me. I seem to these days not even be able to listen to radio 1, as they play the same repetitive style of music, then the ego fuelled DJs rave on about how great they/it is. Don't even get me started on Moyles rant (newsarse didn't use my story, but a slightly better one, I'll post my effortlater) ! Thank god for little stations such Nation Wales for keeping the rock alive, and I even find myself listening to Radio 2 to seek out decent songs.

Fair enough the 'bangin tunez' is a legitimate genre, people obviously like it, so it deserves a place on the airwaves, but why does it dominate so? It makes me think of request shows where people ring in and request songs off the playlist the station has played 12 times already that day. Do they like it cos it's good, or do they like it cos it's all they know?

Next week sees the release of Lonely Avenue by Ben Folds, an unusual collaboration between him (one of my favourite musicians) and one of my favourite authors Nick Hornby. It should be an absolute treat, but I can tell you now there will be 0 airplay for him and not many more sales. I encourage everyone to check him out, he's on iTunes, spotify etc no doubt.

At least I know I'll be able to get the album without risk of it selling out.. (yes that means an actual CD)

Later!