How old we were 20 years ago on Euronet

Well then.  If you read my previous missive about Euronet, the radio station THEY wouldn’t allow to party (here), you’ll have noted that I didn’t have a recording of the non-party in question.  Thanks to some kind Welsh bloke, this has now changed.  I’ve been driving around listening to all 8 hours.

What were we thinking?

Actually, the ‘links’ (the talking bits) were almost all brilliant and subtle, and built the ‘story’ really well.

But.

The music?

What were we thinking?

Ok, we were a bunch of lads with, in 1992 (twenty years ago), ages ranging from 28 to 38, I’d guess.  So, why our obsession with old records?

The random ‘playlist’ is all over the place.  One moment it’s a bunch of 1950s rock’n’roll, next it’s 1960s Motown, or 1970s rock.  There doesn’t seem to be anything from, er, 1992.  Or 1991.  Or 1990.  Or 1989… Yep, ‘music died’ in the early 1980s, it seemed.  And, worst sin of all, all the songs are the bleedin’ obvious ones.  Cutting edge?  Pah!  Who the feck would be listening?  Well, only other anoraks, obviously!

Using today’s measuring stick, people over 35 are at the beginning of the age range catered for by Radio 2.  They are a very long way from being part of the demographic of Radio 1, and just about on the cusp of leaving the Capital Radio demographic.

You know, I don’t think we realised how ‘old’ we had become.  Musically, Euronet, at least on this non-party day, was Radio 2 with a chill pill.  This really surprised me.  Gulp.  Maybe we were a bit more modern at other times. I hope so.

The other thing that I noticed was a lot of segues (playing records back to back).  Segues?  I loathe segues!  Why so many segues?  Maybe we needed them in order to pad out the ‘story’, but, double gulp, segues?  Segues?  I hang my head in shame.

It’s fascinating to think that this non-party broadcast took place twenty years ago.  Let’s examine what was around then.  Or, what wasn’t.

So, there was no internet, no broadband.  There were no computers in the studio.  These days everything runs from a playout program, most of which include ‘count down’ aids to ensure the presenter knows exactly when the ‘vocals’ will start.  In 1992, we were playing music from a selection of gramophone records and CDs (probably about 50-50), with no ‘count down’ aids to assist us not ‘crash’ the vocals as we ‘deejayed’ up to them.  Yes, in those days it was a skill you had to learn by ‘feeling’ the song and being part of it.

It’s a sad fact that as technology has advanced creativity has declined.  You’d think that with computer playout systems, fast assisted editing and all mod cons to help, radio creativity would be, well, just ‘out there’.  Where’s today’s Kenny Everett, eh?

In the Euronet studio we had record decks, CD players, DAT players (whatever happened to the DAT format?!!), cassette players, ‘cart’ players (a professional version of the old 8-track player, with large ‘carts’ with a loop of tape inside that will start playing ‘instantly’ and then stop where it’s ready to play again), a telephone ‘balance’ unit to take calls to air, and a couple of microphones.  We recorded everything onto a video tape running at low speed such that a 4 hour VHS tape will happily hold 8 hours.  And that was all we had in those days.  Heh, to us it was cutting edge!

As I said, these were the days before the internet as we know it.  People used the phone, or wrote letters. Mobile phones were around, but only a minority had one, and there were no texts.  Hey, it was a life before Facebook, Twitter, Google, and all the social networking we take as a given these days.  And yet it was only 20 years ago. There was no Virgin Radio (now called Absolute Radio), no Talk Radio (now called talkSport), no Heart, and Classic FM was only three months old.  John Major (who?) was our Prime Minister, and Princess Diana was still alive.

In 1992, when we broadcast our non-party, none of us would have dreamt that 20 years later I’d be able to drive around with my mobile phone streaming ‘through the air’ the entire broadcast from my (Google) ‘cloud’ storage hooked up to the speakers of the car music system.  Or indeed, that I’d be able to listen to any radio station from anywhere on the planet, come to that.

In conclusion, once again, thanks to everybody who spent a small part of their life being a part of mine by coming and playing with Euronet.  It was interesting hearing the voices again.  Via obsessively stalking most of them on Facebook, I know where nearly all are now, and it’s interesting seeing what unfolded in their lives in those very fast 20 years since we were all together in our studio above a curtain shop in Hoxton, North London.

Those were the radio days, eh…!