Sectionfive
bandwagon house
I am a big fan of radio and its various modern incarnations. There is a lot of shit talk about people now having everything on demand and 'consumers' wanting to cherry pick the best tunes from an album and all that. In parallel, words like 'curate' have been debased by all sorts of self-important posturing.
Beyond strictly music I gobble up lot of podcasts, documentary, drama and discussions on all sorts of subjects. Obviously people are often subject to absolute dross and monotony as part of their work day but at the same time, the "radio" format feels like the last place where you still find the committed and obsessives, on both sides of the microphone. That wonderful blogging of the last decade never quite made or survived the transition to mainstream (and paid) publication and at best remains marginal. We all know know the names and posts from long abandoned blogspot accounts but that standard and level of ingenuity appears only sporadically in the online press. (you only need look at the death of Bowie where one generation couldn't see beyond the 90s and another, by and large, are incapable of writing without the aid of a press release)
'Radio' and that format where someone has to put together an hour for broadcast still holds a vitality rarely found elsewhere. No doubt many of DJs on somewhere like Rinse or NTS put serious effort to prepare their show and I will always big up the likes of Spooky (as one of the last peope keeping old skool pirate patter alive and) seemingly doing seven shows a week if possible, but the straight DJ mix show often makes me long for the style that (for want of a example that everyone would understand) Peel, where you get a bit talk, history and anecdote in between tracks.
I listen to a lot of stuff where a couple of friends or acquaintances with a mic will record six episodes of wild shit and never be heard from again. The may only be brought together not by geography or history but passion for a subject or concept This might just be from some regional town in Ireland or abroad with a soundclud account or even on NTS they do an hour of field recordings or an hour what you could barely descibe as music at three on a wet Wednesday afternoon. IntergalacticFM, or even Resonance, likewise have such an open minded ethos and willingness to push and exploit the medium
The BBC , for all its faults, remains a standard for how to do radio and US campus stations have been a big influence. Obviously, London pirates have been a constant of this forum and to me, some tunes will never sound as good as when you listen back to old Stretch and Bobbito shows but beyond that I would be interested in what others think of the format and what you are listening to. Whether released this week or 30 years old.
Broadcasting is still magic and I'm sure there were shows that every scene once revolved around that I still haven't heard of. Who ruled the airwaves in Jamaica for example? Was the Electrifying Mojo or Hot Mix 5 really ground zero in their cities? There are some incredible New York radio sets in the 80s from the likes of Pettibone, Merlin Bobb and Tony Humpreys. I grew up too far from Dublin and the grass roots pirate era to have underground radio butradio was essential and we always chipped in for batteries to keep it going all night, every Saturda from 6pm to 6am (and till seven - "the 13th hour" when we were first introduced to more ambient out there stuff) radio remained a vital connection to music. What stations, shows and DJs influenced you growing up?
Beyond strictly music I gobble up lot of podcasts, documentary, drama and discussions on all sorts of subjects. Obviously people are often subject to absolute dross and monotony as part of their work day but at the same time, the "radio" format feels like the last place where you still find the committed and obsessives, on both sides of the microphone. That wonderful blogging of the last decade never quite made or survived the transition to mainstream (and paid) publication and at best remains marginal. We all know know the names and posts from long abandoned blogspot accounts but that standard and level of ingenuity appears only sporadically in the online press. (you only need look at the death of Bowie where one generation couldn't see beyond the 90s and another, by and large, are incapable of writing without the aid of a press release)
'Radio' and that format where someone has to put together an hour for broadcast still holds a vitality rarely found elsewhere. No doubt many of DJs on somewhere like Rinse or NTS put serious effort to prepare their show and I will always big up the likes of Spooky (as one of the last peope keeping old skool pirate patter alive and) seemingly doing seven shows a week if possible, but the straight DJ mix show often makes me long for the style that (for want of a example that everyone would understand) Peel, where you get a bit talk, history and anecdote in between tracks.

I listen to a lot of stuff where a couple of friends or acquaintances with a mic will record six episodes of wild shit and never be heard from again. The may only be brought together not by geography or history but passion for a subject or concept This might just be from some regional town in Ireland or abroad with a soundclud account or even on NTS they do an hour of field recordings or an hour what you could barely descibe as music at three on a wet Wednesday afternoon. IntergalacticFM, or even Resonance, likewise have such an open minded ethos and willingness to push and exploit the medium
The BBC , for all its faults, remains a standard for how to do radio and US campus stations have been a big influence. Obviously, London pirates have been a constant of this forum and to me, some tunes will never sound as good as when you listen back to old Stretch and Bobbito shows but beyond that I would be interested in what others think of the format and what you are listening to. Whether released this week or 30 years old.
Broadcasting is still magic and I'm sure there were shows that every scene once revolved around that I still haven't heard of. Who ruled the airwaves in Jamaica for example? Was the Electrifying Mojo or Hot Mix 5 really ground zero in their cities? There are some incredible New York radio sets in the 80s from the likes of Pettibone, Merlin Bobb and Tony Humpreys. I grew up too far from Dublin and the grass roots pirate era to have underground radio butradio was essential and we always chipped in for batteries to keep it going all night, every Saturda from 6pm to 6am (and till seven - "the 13th hour" when we were first introduced to more ambient out there stuff) radio remained a vital connection to music. What stations, shows and DJs influenced you growing up?
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