So, there I was sitting in the bath, occasionally letting bubbles come up to the surface, and my radio, on the other side of the room, was playing my default listen of BBC Radio 1.
Now, I listen to Radio 1 for two reasons. Firstly, because I love, as I have always loved, proper personality based ‘DJs’ or, as we call them these days, ‘presenters’. People on the radio, not just personality void ‘voices’.
There’s nobody. Absolutely nobody human on commercial radio (with the exception of Tony Blackburn, of course, who is the last remaining personality on commercial radio). This means that commercial radio ends up being just a stream of back to back songs. There’s nobody there to stitch it all together, making it a lonely experience. As lonely as just listening to an iPod on shuffle, but with the addition of lots of shouty adverts.
The second reason I tend to listen to Radio 1, is because I love, as I have always loved, current choons. Or, more correctly, I hate, as I have always hated, oldies. Anything older than a couple of years, with only a few exceptions, is annoying, tediously old, and I really really don’t want to hear it any more.
It’s happened to me whilst trapped in the bath before, listening to Radio 1, but I suddenly heard feckin’ ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’, a song by Slade from 1973. 19-feckin’-73. That’s 43 feckin’ years ago. And there I was, in the bath, too comfortable to leap out and turn my radio off, forced to listen to it. AGAIN.
Yes, because it is the Christmas season, Radio 1 has to insert bloody Christmas songs. And, so it complies by playing 43 year old recordings. Why would you do that?
As far as the BBC is concerned, Radio 2 is where the oldies should go. I mean, Radio 2 is there to play oldies or country music or soft safe newies from very old people. So, Radio 2 is where 43 year old Christmas songs should live. Definitely not Radio 1.
A lesson should be learned from the likes of Kiss Fresh. Now, Kiss Fresh is indeed a commercial radio station, so yes, indeed it has ‘presenters’ that are not allowed to say anything, and have had their personalities drilled out by a brain specialist, and indeed, there are many repetitive commercial breaks, BUT. And it’s a fantastic ‘but’. BUT, there are no old Christmas recordings. Yay!
Amazing. Kiss Fresh gets on with its job of playing the fresh new music, and doesn’t inflict those listening, with the horror of 43 year old songs. Why can’t BBC Radio 1 be like this?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not adverse to ‘new’ Christmas songs, or even current artists with their take on traditional Christmas songs. It’s just those feckin’ bloody oldies. If a person excitedly sung along to the brand and exciting hot new hit ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ back in December 1973, why the feck would they want to inflict that song on themselves every year for 43 years? 43 years! Every year!
And why would they want to punish people who love new music by playing it on Radio 1?
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