Denied Enthusiasts of Radio,

I loved radio but it has changed so much recently that CDs or silence (of a kind) has become preferable at times.

From 2130 to 0030hrs on weeknights, there’s nothing that I want to listen to, unless one of those specialist programmes by Radio Double One’s premier DJ, Mark Lamarr are being broadcast at one of their random times. God’s Jukebox by Mark Lamarr is superb, ideally, it’d be broadcast during daylight hours in order to ruffle a few feathers and wake the nation up to the idea of quality tunes.

Janice Long has been pushed back further into the night. At midnight, it was the perfect show for it’s time of day. I could wind down to it or it could keep me up, all I had to do was adjust the volume on my radio. The show was suitably versatile. Now, it’s just a little too late to go to sleep to.

Having Janice’s show was on next was sometimes the best thing about the now defunct Mark Radcliffe show. Mark has been paired with professional broadcaster, Stuart Maconie and their new show is now broadcast at a stupid time; a time when people are out for the evening, a time when people are listening to better shows or watching television, it’s a time when midweek football is on the television. The content of the show doesn’t appeal to me, the music is mundane and one-paced and the chat is of little value. Mark Radcliffe was always a radio hero of mine, but now I feel that he and Stuart are talking down to me; they are taking their audience to be slow on the uptake.

Their show clashes with 6music’s Brain Surgery. Most of the time, I don’t like the session artists, they’re usually just a few blokes with guitars. There was a band called The Rosie Taylor Project, they had a trumpet, I liked them. Dr Tom keeps a good pace to his show and is funny, intentionally and unintentionally. Gideon Coe, for me, is doing what Mark Radcliffe used to. He has a non-intrusive set of features to which the listeners contribute vigorously, but the key is that the interesting and comedic emails are read out. Gideon Coe also plays the kind of records that are to my taste with his freeplays, more often than not, he’ll also book the artists in for a session. Kissaway Trail and Electrelane are two excellent recent examples, I also look forward to The Twilight Sad session.

Daily, before Gideon is Shaun Keaveney, he plays the dull 6music playlist from top to bottom everyday, in between those records are lame features. He is as bad as Chris Moyles, they both seem to have limited passion for records. I’ve gone back to listening to Sarah Kennedy in the early mornings, at least she has a passion for show tunes. Seriously, I’ve always liked the low key approach that she employs, it’s perfect for its time of day. Phill Jupitus also had this approach, the difference was that he had better records. Phill Jupitus’ departure from 6music was a blow; the fact that Yawn Keaveney has not tried to emulate any of his style in any way has enhanced the problem. After Gideon Coe, 6music return to inane programming, they’ve got that Nermal from Radio 1 telling us what she had for lunch and playing rubbish records. 6music weekends are a no-go area, it’s a circus. I’d feed many of them to the lions although Don Letts’ sole hour of airtime is a treat.

With 6music being so rubbish, I’ve rediscovered how informative Radio Scotland is. Its music programming when presented by Vic Galloway and Tom Morton is always excellent. MacAuley and Co is a quality magazine programme. News takes up considerable airtime but their presenters love asking pointed questions and the phone-ins are great for hearing pensioners ranting.

I’m glad that I found KEXP. I can only hope that someone makes an effort to reclaim the bits of the BBC that are in self-induced disrepair.