THE NEW MUSICAL BOX

So, Where Is All This Hot New Music? (Part 3 of 3)

Radio Is A Sound Salvation

A little nod there to Elvis Costello as we arrive at the third part of this overview of the changing sources of new music here in the UK. 

In the first part, we looked at the music press, then last week we considered the role of your local record store - and here, we home in on the wireless world of radio.

And in many ways, radio is the most powerful medium for presenting great new music: you can hear it - and if there's a decent DJ curating the releases, you'll get to find out about the artists too. But, as with all these things, the simplicity of radio is complicated by the world it inhabits: tastes, politics and technology all have their part to play and, as we all know, these are ever-changing.

So, back in the early 60s when The Beatles hit the charts, where did you tune-in to find out more?

It was a a very controlled environment.

The BBC in the early 1960s

The only officially sanctioned UK broadcaster was the BBC.

Radio Times - 1950

It provided three national networks - The Home Service, The Light Programme and The Third Programme. The Home Service was mainly speech-based and is today Radio 4. The Third Programme focused on classical music and  survives today as Radio 3. But it is to the Light Programme that we must turn, and the very title itself could fill us with dread. Light: safe, inoffensive, peaceful - some words that might come to mind. Most shows at the time barely scratched the pop market: there were odd beacons of light (Pick Of The Pops), but by and large, popular music was sadly absent. Indeed, the light programme persisted with shows born in the dark days of wartime such as "Music While You Work" and "Family Favourites". The occasional sprinkling of something new might be dropped in, but for those seeking the hippest new sounds, other avenues needed to be explored.

1950s Radiogram  

This need to explore was aided by a technological advance in the 1950s - the transistor, a means of reducing electronic components down to a much smaller size and (amongst other things), enabling the launch of the transistor radio. At that time, most UK homes relied upon large, static radio sets - some complete with burnished wood cabinets that looked like a piece of living room furniture: those with the money could even buy a radiogram which also included a record player and storage space for your 78rpm gramophone records. All very swish and modern, but highly impractical and worse, reliant upon mains electricity. The transistor enabled portability with small hand-held sized sets powered by batteries - and (marvel upon marvel), a discreet ear-piece so listening could be done in the dead of night without suspicious parents being any the wiser.

Early 1960s Transistor Radio

And that was the thing - it was often the newly-minted breed of youngsters, the "teenagers" who took advantage of the new miracle. With the ability to flip the dial to the AM stations of their choice - and here in the UK, all of Europe was available - the 1960s teen could start to discover music for themselves: critically, this meant not just the BBC.   

Commercial radio didn't exist in the UK until 1973, but there was nothing to stop enterprising British operators from setting up in Europe and then broadcasting powerful signals back across the homeland. Many remember Radio Luxembourg which broadcast on 208m and, at times in the 50s, a serious rival to the BBC. It was more irreverent, it had ads, sponsored shows - and, from 1960 onwards, plenty of pop-music shows presented by specialist folk labelled by the then exotic term  "Disc Jockeys". Most shows were actually recorded in London and shipped out to Europe for broadcast. And thus,  the British public was introduced to such names as Alan Freeman, Brian Matthew, Jimmy Young and Keith Fordyce. Record companies got involved by sponsoring some shows and livening things up. The BBC with its long history did its best to ignore the brash young upstart, but slowly and surely, Luxembourg began to eat away at its listener base.

Was this the way forward?

Not by a long chalk: interesting things had been happening across the Atantic and revolution, it seemed, wasn't far away.

Caroline To The Rescue! 

In 1964, the first taste of US-style pop-radio hit the UK airwaves.

Radio Luxembourg with its pre-recorded and sponsored shows was about to face a challenger in the shape of pirate radio. Land-based commercial broadcasters were illegal - but there was nothing to stop a radio station being on board a ship, and that's exactly what entrepreneur Ronan O'Rahilly did. Starting with boats moored in the North Sea and the Irish Sea, both outside the four mile limit of British territorial waters, the legend that was Radio Caroline was born. Caroline proved to be a revelation in so many ways.

Good example of Reverse
Psychology at Radio Caroline

The major advance was the use of unscripted live shows presented by personality DJs: freeform broadcasting had arrived and with it, DJs such as Emperor Rosko, Tony Blackburn, Johnnie Walker and Tony Prince. The US-style approach was under-lined by the station broadcasting a number of syndicated shows from New York and this widened the musical base. Bands started to notice and got promoters and agents to get airplay for them. Caroline started its own charts, charts which were so different from those used by the BBC and the UK weekly music press. This was partly reflective of the search for new music by listeners, but also because *ahem*, Caroline was paid to play certain singles. 

With Pirate Radio, anything was possible and Caroline's pioneering efforts soon saw others spring up in its wake. Most visible was probably Radio London, know as The Big L, a station that opened at the end of 1964 and provided (in a large part) the template for Radio 1 in 1967. With promos and jingles "Wonderful Radio London", it brought us Dave Cash, Tommy Vance, the wild and inventive Kenny Everett - and with his hip show The Perfumed Garden, John Peel. Here's a link through to a selection of those jingle, produced in the USA by PAMS (Production, Advertising & Marketing Service) - and by clicking on this link,  the similarity to the later Radio 1 is really rather interesting:

Radio London - The Big L - 1960s Jingles 

Suddenly, it seemed that new music was widely available. The DJs seemed to *get* good music, they championed the latest releases which all helped to encourage bands and record labels to get their music played on Caroline and The Big L. Audience figures grew and for the music-loving hip young things of Britain, this was radio broadcasting for them. Subversive. Secret. Lively. Maybe even a bit anarchic.

Was it all too good to be true?

Marine Broadcasting Offences Act

Sun Setting On An Era

The BBC started to feel threatened and although independent of government influence, it was the nation's "state" broadcaster. Whilst there were BBC staffers who cried out for change, it was Harold Wilson's labour government who initially proposed a clampdown on pirate radio.

During 1966, they piloted the Marine (Broadcasting) Offences Act through parliament and as the rest of the UK thrilled to the 1967 "summer of love", the act became law on 14th August of that year. It made it a criminal offence affecting, as one key clause said:

"any person who supplied music, commentary, advertising, fuel, food, water or any other assistance except for life-saving purposes, to any ship, offshore structure such as a former WWII fort, or flying platform such as an aircraft used for broadcasting without a licence granted by the regulatory authority for broadcasting in the UK."

With the youth of Britain having greater access to music from more stations than ever before, the government in a single blow, removed that freedom and paved the way for big changes in the BBC. Radio London closed down the day before the act came into effect whilst Caroline, ever the defiant pioneer, manfully struggled on for a while and today, exists as an internet station.

Just over a month later on September 30th, the BBC radio stations were re-branded - and a new pop station, Radio 1, launched.

Early Radio 1 logo - "Flower Power"

To eager listeners, it did sound an awful lot like Radio London - the jingles were barely changed and, surprise surprise, there were all the familiar DJs and, better still, no ads. The downside was that Radios 1 and 2 (the latter replacing the Light Programme) shared frequencies, so Radio 1 was only actually broadcast for part of each day. But one good thing it brought, an unintended consequence of the BBC's agreement with the Musician's Union, was the Radio 1 session. The union agreement meant only a certain number of hours of recorded music could be broadcast each day - the so-called Needle Time: the rest, if there was anything, had to be live sessions specifically recorded for the BBC and *preserving* musicians' jobs in the process. Without that, the renowned Peel sessions may not have come into being - and today's Radio 1 and 6 Music sessions would not (perhaps) be the mainstay that they are in shaping our musical tastes.

BBC Expansion

Radio 1's Annie Nightingale - 1970s

Whatever the feelings of Radio 1 listeners, the BBC did try hard at first to push their new baby into the public consciousness. They set up the Radio 1 Club, they encouraged listener interaction and in the evenings, they introduced a range of excellent specialist shows which promoted much non-chart music and importantly, album tracks. With John Peel now a key BBC staffer - if perhaps misunderstood by his new employer - and other  DJs making their influences felt (Alan Black, Emperor Rosko and the first female DJ Annie Nightingale), the signs were promising.

But as time went by and Radio 1 day-time transmissions increased, the station slipped more and more into a rut. Maybe the BBC saw it as an unloved child: as other stations acquired FM frequencies, Radio 1 was limited to AM and the inevitable poor sound quality. This was particularly so in the evenings with dreadful interference from the increasingly crowded waveband as European stations came on stream. The daytime shows started to feel safe and comfortable again, not cutting-edge, and although some DJs tried (Johnnie Walker for example), the majority concentrated on the charts and chatter.

BBC Radio Leicester
1972

A lesser-known impact of the enforced closure of the pirate stations and the launch of Radio 1 came in November 1967: the birth of local radio. And it was the BBC that was at the forefront because, as was then the case, it was the only UK operator to have a broadcast licence. BBC Radio Leicester was the first on air on 8th November and tranches of other stations appeared over the next 20 years or so, creating the network of 40 BBC local stations that exists today. But, being the BBC, the first stations were earnest rather than cutting-edge, although to their credit, they persevered. Local stations enabled a better focus on local tastes and fashions: they proved to be good training grounds for presenters and producers - and they could forge closer links with local musicians too. 

In 1970, though, change came - and once more from a surprise quarter.

Ted Heath's Conservative party came to power in that year, rather against the polling trends and being a "private enterprise" champion, they pioneered a new piece of legislation - The Sound Broadcasting Act of 1972. This opened the way in 1973 for the creation of ILR - Independent Local Radio and the first truly British local commercial stations.

The BBC had competition once more as first LBC (London Broadcasting, a news and speech-based station) opened on 9th October 1973 and then, a week later, the station that would break the mould - Capital Radio.

Capital Sounds

Capital Radio with it's later,
 more familiar AM frequency 

Looking back, we shouldn't underestimate the impact that Capital radio had in London and the south-east. Broadcasting on 539m, it was backed by a powerful team of owners - Bryan Forbes, George Martin and critically, Richard Attenborough. From the off, it was brighter, more confident and more subversive than Radio 1 and the BBC local stations. The night-time shows demonstrated what was possible in a commercial world and presenters such as Nicky Horne ("Your Mother Wouldn't Like It") and Roger Scott soon became highly popular amongst the record-buying public. Kenny Everett, following his recent *sacking* by the BBC joined in and created a real vibe which, for the station's first couple of years, singled it out as the place to go for good new music and maverick DJs.

Manchester's Piccadilly Radio

Other local commercial stations opened up in its wake: Radio Clyde in Glasgow, BRMB in Birmingham - and Piccadilly Radio in Manchester. Smaller conurbations benefited too - Radio Victory (Portsmouth), Radio Orwell (Ipswich) and Radio 210 (Reading). By 1980, there were 30 stations - and more were promised.

For music-seeking folks, the choice was getting wider and wider, wasn't it?

Choice & Quality?

The thing that we must always bear in mind is that word "commercial": the new ILR stations were businesses, they needed to succeed, they needed plenty of advertisers and without them, they'd fail. As some did.

New radio threat?

When the economy got tight in the early 80s there were calls for a "lightening up" of the ILR's regulation of commercial radio. At that time, there were quality thresholds - a certain amount of speech-based programming, commitments to local groups and societies and so forth. These may have been worthy and lofty aims, but they didn't make for large audiences which caused concern for the advertising sales teams. The 80s also saw the launch of Music Television (MTV), a new network running on the back of the fad for music videos. There was also (from 1982) an extra terrestrial channel (Channel 4) which soon launched the innovative show The Tube and its reputation as the "music-breaking" show in the UK. Hosted by Jools Holland, it brought a welcome irreverence to proceedings as well as showcasing a wealth of new music each week. And, in a very London-centric musical world, it broadcast live from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

Guildford's County Sound:
first split frequency

The ILR responded by permitting commercial stations to split their frequencies - AM and FM - into separate networks, the first being Guildford's County Sound. The AM version often became an "oldies" station, leaving FM for a more focused "new" music outlet. The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher encouraged this as a way of "promoting more choice", but too often, "more choice" meant spreading the jam in a more meagre fashion and lowering the quality. This frequency-splitting approach formed the background to the Broadcasting Act 1990: the ILR was abolished, regulation became "light touch" and commercial radio, freed from many of its public service obligations, started its long decline into groups of stations with common owners and precious little local-programming.

Where now for the keen music enthusiast?

Go National, Go Regional, Go Really Local

The 1990 Broadcasting Act also enabled three other changes, changes which occupied positions at each end of the commercial radio spectrum. Firstly, three national licenses were to be issued giving commercial radio a truly UK-wide coverage for the first time. Next came a series of stations that could take a regional approach to broadcasting and cover a much larger area than an existing commercial set-up. The other extreme saw RSL stations - that is Restricted Service Licence, a phenomenon aimed at small community or special interest groups. It allowed such groups to set up their own little station for a maximum of 28 days in a row, no more than twice a year. 

Virgin Radio - First National
 Commercial Pop Station

At first, the national stations attracted the most interest and before long, Classic FM was on air and beating Radio 3 hands-down with its audience figures. Talk Radio was next and a challenge to Radio 5 Live. The pop world - and this blog - were most interested though in the third, a station aimed squarely at the Radio 1 audience and run by that very nice Mr Richard Branson. Virgin Radio was seen as a big threat, but sadly, it was lumbered with an AM signal - which gave it all the quality issues that Radio 1 struggled with in its early years. It tried gamely and put together a highly popular breakfast show - and managed to secure an FM frequency in the London area too. A number of owners have controlled it since, but the most interesting ownership was by DJ Chris Evans who, no matter what you may think of him, took the breakfast show from 600,000 listeners to nearly four times that in the first six months. His company - Ginger Productions - made a decent sum out of its purchase, but time and tide waits for no man, and it was later sold on.

Virgin re-branded as Absolute Radio in 2008 and today operates a "popular rock policy" which, sadly for our interest, doesn't mean championing lots of new music.

Smashy & Nicey - Or is it Harry & Paul?

The BBC didn't take all this lying down: the "night of the long-knives" came at Radio 1 as controller Matthew Bannister wielded the axe on many of the day-time presenters. Out went the "Smashy and Nicey" brigade and in came DJs and presenters who knew and loved urban music, dance music and several of the other sub-genres which were getting prescious little national air-play. Today, of course, Radio 1 is squarely aimed at the teens and twenties and is once again, a champion of new music.

The RSL stations, though, proved to be more interesting.

Often run by enthusiasts and music lovers, they were non-profit making and had quite tight rules as to what they could do in terms of selling advertising and fund raising. They could - and some did - give a platform to local musicians, artists and singers. They could also introduce a wide range of specialist music shows to reflect the demographics of their broadcast area. Some of these temporary stations could be quite big such as Radio Avalon which ran across the Glastonbury festival each year and XFM in London, a station which later grew and became an influential full-time broadcaster.

We shall see shortly how some of these low-key stations would change and grow their role in the years after the millenium. 

Commercial Pressures and The Digital Revolution

Meanwhile, back in the real world of broadcast radio, the late 90s witnessed some major structural changes. 

We've already hinted at the commercial pressures that local stations faced. Challenges arose from a number of areas:

• Increasing consumer access to music TV channels
• The rise of the internet after the Windows 95 launch
• Fluctuating advertising revenues

DJs - Hanging up the headphones?

This manifested itself in two ways, both driven by the need to achieve "the bottom line". Firstly, the larger stations started acquiring smaller stations, building up a group "brand" in key cities around the UK. Secondly, local news and journalism was cut back as was a range of locally produced music shows. The creeping regionalisation allowed "networked shows" punctuated by local advertsing and this is a trend that has continued through to the present day. With some notable exceptions, most commercial local radio has little ability to promote new music or indeed, genre music. Sadly much of the musical choice is simply generated by clever software from the station's database - no DJ involved and money saved.

It was the competition, though,  from the gradual rise of the internet that was to redraw the landscape.

Two things happened, both becoming mutually dependent upon the other.

In 1995, the government allocated the first digital radio licenses: these were issued to the winning consortia followed by a formal launch three years later. Digital radio wasn't broadcast in the same way as AM or FM radio and thus couldn't be received on existing radio sets. Special Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) sets were needed and, as with all new technology, were expensive and highly dependent upon the part of the country in which you lived for the quality of reception. But, and it's a "big but", the major benefit was that using digitial technology, many more stations could broadcast without impacting the existing crowded FM and AM frequencies. 

Early DAB Radio

Both the BBC and commercial consortia bid for various DAB licenses and today, something like 30% of all radio listening in the UK is via a digital medium. The BBC stations have evolved into Radio 1 Xtra (aimed at purely urban music), Radio 4 Extra (a station providing archive shows from the BBC Home Service and Radio 4) and BBC 6 Music, a station we shall return to shortly.

The other complementary event, hinted at earlier, was the rise of the internet. Windows 95 was a revolutionary operating systems and soon, increasing numbers of households were making use of home PCs and all the things that they could offer. Once dial-up access to the internet had been largely superceded by broadband access, there was a veritable musical explosion as suddenly, digital radio could be picked up via your PC. This meant not just access to stations in the UK, but anywhere in the world. 

And, in 2001, with Apple's launch of itunes, an internet service whereby music could be bought and paid for on-line and delivered instantly as a digitised download, each home had access to a vast database of sound.

Choosing & Discovering 

New Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Nick Grimshaw

But of course, there is still a large section of the listening public who consume their music in the traditional way, via broadcast radio. Except that, commercial radio was largely becoming homogenised and generic whilst the (potentially) greater role of the BBC in championing new music was going to require digital access. In many ways it's a tribute to the BBC that they've successfully re-positioned Radio 1 (as described above) and have more recently done the same to Radio 2, a station which has an audience profile in its late 40s and up - but one which is pretty music-savvy. Most of the shows and presenters hanging over from the Light programme days are long gone, some of the music-focused Radio 1 DJs moved across and today, Radio 2 is the most popular UK radio station with over 13 million regular listeners.

However, as we saw in the first two parts of this tale, with much of the music press falling by the wayside and your local record store in (probable) terminal decline, Radio remains a key method of discovering new music. 

And therein lies the dilemma. 

What do you do to find out about new music? Where do you go? Who can help you?

Around The World

Let's take a brief look. The internet provides a myriad of websites - legal and *not legal* - where music can be downloaded. A number of these allow samples to be played, the electronic version of the old record store listening booths. Then there was the advent of Youtube which allowed firstly old music videos to get repeat airings, but is increasingly used by bands and record companies to promote their music. Streaming services such as Spotify allow listeners to tap into a huge database of music and choose the songs they want to hear, build their own playlists and in effect, create theor own little radio station.  And these developments have been complemented by an ever-increasing number of highly specialised internet-only stations. In many ways one could be fooled into thinking, "we've never had it so good". The dilemma I talk of though is always there, hanging over us all: simply put -  is there too much choice, too many ways of seeing or hearing music, too many options which stop us discovering new sounds?

For many of us, it may well herald the return of a knowledgeable *curator* of music, someone able to sift and sort and suggest the new sounds that might appeal. Someone like a DJ. And increasingly, this is coming from two main sources: the BBC and genuinely local commercial radio. 

And incidentally, although the word "curator" might seem more associated with the world of museums, in recent years, it's been appropriated by the musical fraternity - most memorably at the annual London Meltdown Festival. It's a good word to explain the "added value" that can be brought to the listening experience by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable DJ.   

Let me expand.

Community Radio and BBC 6 Music

Proper local radio

In 2002, the Radio Authority (successor to the ILR) issued the first batch of licenses for what was initially known as Access Radio, in truth, the sort of thing that some of the temporary RSL stations had been doing in the 90s. These stations were not-for-profit, although they needed to be commercial and run along business lines: any money made had to go back into the station and critically, ensuring that it operated in accordance with its licence. This is a key point: the station operator applies for a licence by saying specifically what their station will do - music policy, community focus, promotion of under-represented groups and so forth. If a licence is granted, the station must stick to that licence.

In some ways, it's a throwback to the initial commercial stations and their public service broadcasting content: be commercial, but provide a specified service and be monitored against it.

Over 220 such stations are currently operating, some very small indeed with a handful of others not far short of an old-style local commercial station in terms of their professionalism, reach and audience participation. A good number of them focus on music - genre music and mainstream too - with shows aimed at sharing new music, new bands and acts, local artists, touring artists and more. It is this curation, this "bringing to the listeners' attention" which I believe helps send them off in search of that music, whether via on-line download, on-line dealers or a local record store.

In a busy and frantic music world, a guiding hand is a very useful thing. 

The larger local stations increasingly use the internet to widen the reach of their programming.  It also allows some shows to be syndicated to other stations, something which almost brings us back to the world of early commercial radio. Indeed, some of these stations have very healthy internet audiences, something which is easily measurable and a real aid to advertising sales teams up and down the land.

Beyond the internet, probably the biggest influence on new music promotion has to be BBC 6 Music, the digital station launched in 2002.

BBC 6 Music - Groovy

This station has a unique proposition. Most of its presenters are respected musicians or are those who have paid their dues in promoting music elsewhere. Thus, Lauren Laverne rubs shoulders with Steve Lamacq; Jarvis Cocker and Cerys Matthews provide a muso's insight to the sounds they play and, in their playlist, 6 Music is adventurous. Anything from the past 50 or 60 years could be played, whether a single or album track - but the most important thing is the promotion of new music across all the genres. It's done through regular live sessions, band interviews, mini-festivals, MP3 give-aways, a lively website - in fact, it's marrying up all that was good about the very early Radio 1 with modern technology to create a successful station.

And let's not forget, just 2 years ago, 6 Music was threatened with closure as the BBC sought economies to compensate for the (relative) fall in the latest licence fee agreement. The massive "Stop The Closure" campaign worked, and here we are with a relevant station enjoying a doubling of their audiences in that time. 

Listen When You Choose   

One more technological breakthrough must be mentioned - the BBC iPlayer. We have become used to its role in "timeshifting " TV shows and now, through the new BBC iRadio system, radio can be "heard again" at any time to suit the listener and in a wide range of digital formats. No more missing favourite shows or news on the latest musical sounds: better still, listeners can discuss shows and music with friends - and can then go off and listen for themselves.

Listen Again

And with the advent of "cloud-based" data storage, the smaller stations can also play the same game. Indeed, my very own show The Musical Box is available the day after broadcast via mixcloud - simply click on this link and away you go:

The Musical Box - Listen Again

Mixcloud and its on-line relatives also provide a boon to the budding musician: it's quick and free for a band or artist to upload their own music, be it demos, live sets, studio recordings or whatever. They can get feedback, listeners can see the creative process at play and there's a certain feeling of "exclusivity" when an artist responds to your comments.

What Now? 

And so finally, where have we got to with all of this?

We've established that there is probably more new music around today than ever before. This causes potential difficulties for the discerning music lover:

• We know that little of it will receive record company promotion.
• We can't use traditional methods to help us discover it.
• There are so many different ways that music can be sourced.
• Many radio and technology matters are in a constant state of flux
• We have fewer and fewer record stores we can use to give us new music "intelligence"
• The music press is fragmented

But we do know that as long as people want to make music and listen to it, there'll be ways and means of accessing it:

• The internet allows bands easy ways of self-promotion
• Social networking provides quick and targeted ways of raising interest
• Digital and Internet radio increases opportunity for more and varied stations
• BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 1 are more focused on new music
• Good commercial radio stations provide specialist musical knowledge and enthusiasm

So it's not at all gloomy.

We have to get used to change, to new technology and to different listening habits. Good music though will outlive us all.

And as the band Timbuk 3 so memorably sang, "The Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades". 

Next Time:

The New Musical Box blog presents "Variations On a Theme".

See you all then.

Alan  

And this is what it's all about...