So, a radio station using the name ‘England‘ has got to be cool, right? ‘England‘ is such a good name. No?
Erm, well I’ve been listening to Radio England UK.
Ok, it’s not a real radio station. It’s a stream from a dedicated website. And I can select it on my Pure radios so I can listen whilst washing up our laying my huge lard arse in the bath. And it comes out of the same radios that I use to listen to trendy DAB radio stations, and even some of those on the old fashioned FM.
So, as long as I don’t leave the house or the office, to me it’s a radio station.
Anyway, this is a radio station with a most obscure format. Programmes seem to occupy one hour slots, and they range from fairly modernish disco mixes, non-stop oldies, through to old radio comedies. I’ve heard Jimmy Clitheroe, Round the Horn, ITMA and a whole range of those old mainstays of the Light Programme‘s Sunday lunchtimes. Old American radio dramas like The Green Hornet (he’s got polarised wind-shields, you know) and Philip Marlowe Private Eye also find themselves allocated an hour to occupy here and there.
The hour will change and so the output will suddenly change to non-stop Beatles songs or Elvis Presley songs for some reason. There seems to be no logic to the output, and were it not for the style of programming being clearly and prettily described on the schedule on the website, the casual listener would be confused beyond confusion. Look, here’s the website. Pretty innit!
The website gives away nothing about who might be behind Radio England UK. Well, in the sense that it doesn’t give any names. However, a couple of times a week there’s a one hour slot innocently called ‘Vintage Radio‘. A quick listen will give everything away. ‘Vintage Radio‘ is chunks of well used and well known recording of offshore radio stations. Usually, recordings of them closing down or calling for help. Yep, Radio England UK is the radiochild of RADIO ANORAKS.
The other give away is the highly edited original ‘Swinging Radio England‘ jingles. Swinging Radio England was an offshore radio station back in the 1960s that didn’t last very long, but is embedded into every radio anorak’s brain as being the symbol of radio cool.
Ok, so radio anoraks are behind Radio England UK. A longer listen to the on air imaging, and also a look-see at the server being used tells me all I need to know. Radio England UK is run by good radio anoraks. Lovely radio anoraks, in fact.
So, why produce a radio station with such a strange variety of programming? Well, it’s better than producing one that sounds exactly the same as some prehistoric offshore radio station, like so many other old radio anoraks insist on doing, is probably the only answer.
It also is one central stream, erm, radio station for lots of different things, I suppose. There’s even times set aside for the playing of what it labels as ‘podcasts‘. These are those pre-recorded ‘shows’ that wannabie radio DJs make and then pass out to any and all radio stations in the hope that one day they’ll be discovered and get a real gig. There seem to be a goodly few of these on Radio England UK, so again, bringing new experiences to the Radio England UK listener they wouldn’t normally bother seek out for themselves. I mean, out of curiosity I’ve sat through some tedious ‘podcasts‘ and enjoyed a few too. The ones I liked I later investigated more fully and listened to directly, so Radio England UK acted as a sign-post and barkering stream on their behalf.
Anyway, my listening pleasure has been greatly enhanced in recent days by Radio England UK, and, for the moment, it’s stopped me ‘tuning around’ so much. Find them here.
England's England 