Being a foreigner in the United Kingdom allows for an outsider’s perspective and a frame of comparison that has been developed over many years. Making long trips across the UK in the car also allows for a fair test of the radio waves.
Got My Banging on The Airwaves
The diagnosis isn’t great.
The main radio stations in the United Kingdom keep spinning the same records (partly because the listeners request the same songs) but it is still hard to believe, despite the fact it is known, that there is more fantastic music out there than what we hear on the radio.
The largest stations such as Kiss, Capital, Radio 1 and even Heart play the same tracks continually, albeit in alternating orders. Even worse, they play them more than once an hour making the inane lyrics (‘tik, tok, on the clock…’) practically impossible to pry off the brain after a long car journey.
One must mention that alternatives do exist in Smooth FM, Kerrang and all the other BBC stations, but let’s face it – the further you go from the four main stations mentioned above, the more specific the music tastes get and the universality of radio enjoyment of the past becomes lost. This creates several problems.
When compared to the radio selection in other countries the United Kingdom which is home to some of the most influential genres, musicians and concepts known to the music world begins to shrink and a feeling of disappointment can hardly be avoided. Another problem this creates is the increased difficulty in discovering ground-breaking new bands, particularly because the play time they receive (if any) is likely to be at night and is frankly overshadowed by the current big players such as Lady Gaga or the Black Eyed Peas.
My argument then, is that whilst at the moment the radio is not great for those keen to diversify their tastes and enjoy themselves a bit more every time they’re in the car (which has become the most frequent medium for radio use), there is still an upside.
The positive thing is that there is plenty of room for improvement. With a collection of public opinion, British radio could be revived to its glory days. Perhaps the radio waves should (and pardon the pun, but I couldn’t resist:) ‘meet us half way’.
