- Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:12 pm
#621417
Funnily enough, I was just reading how Swansea Sound, one of the first batch of ILR stations to be launched has now been swallowed up by something called Greatest Hits Radio, so the good folk of the Mumbles can now expect to hear Rule The World by Take That and Natalie Imbruglia's Torn seven times a day.
These networks are just dreadful soul destroying banality. Bereft of any individuality. When I was growing up, our local ILR station was another one of the first batch: Radio Orwell.
It was committed to Suffolk, and they made a huge variety of shows during the week along with usual chart stuff: Country and Western, folk, classical, reggae, disco, and the legendary Headbangers Ball.
As time went on, they changed their name to SGR, which to be fair was the initials of Suffolk Group Radio, the holding company of both Orwell and Saxon Radio, so there was still the link. But the standard of programming dropped like a stone, as they ditched most of the specialist shows to pump out chart pap all the time.
Then came Heart to take over, and that was that. Destroyed.
But their loss has been the gain of BBC Radio Suffolk, which has a wide variety of programming, highlights new local bands and music for an hour or two on a Saturday night, and is the first port of call if there's any disruption in the area, because obviously they're based in Ipswich.
Quite how Heart Suffolk are supposed to be able to establish wether the B1078 at Ashbocking is blocked during snowfall when they're actually broadcasting from Birmingham is beyond me...
"He's the leader of the gang. He's the top, he's the tip, he's the championship. He's Top Cat. And he's scum!"