I grew up in a world where there were literally a handful of radio stations. As a child, they were basically the BBC Light Programme (basically easy listening), the Third Programme (classical music) and the Home Service (Radio Four). There were various ‘pirate’ stations, mostly broadcasting from the North Sea, so reception would be anything from scratchy to non-existent and there was Radio Luxembourg. Reception wasn’t too good from the principality, either but at least you could hear popular music when lying under the blankets at night. I was thrilled when, in 1967, the BBC created Radio One. Fast forward to 2021 and there are radio stations everywhere, coming out of and going into your ears.
54 years on and I am still a BBC man when it comes to radio. When I want music, I listen to 6 Music, when I want news I listen to Five Live. That is pretty well it. I would like to think that I have a broad, some might say eclectic, taste in music. I like music from a variety of genres and I still love to hear new music.
I would say that music is not just one of my main interests in life: it borders on obsession. This does not make me a superior to anyone who likes music. I love music like others enjoy knitting, jogging, flower-arranging and reading about the royal family. Music can be an accompaniment to daily life, which is why there are so many generic ‘greatest hits’ stations which are geared to serve, or rather make money from, the Boomer generation. Which leads me to Boom Radio.
Boom, you might have gathered, is aimed squarely at Boomers, the over 55s whose musical taste never developed beyond the music they grew up with. It’s rather lovely, actually. You may have grown up listening to Diddy David Hamilton in the early 1970s on Radios 1 and 2 and now you can listen to him on Boom. Dear old David, literally playing Middle of the Road music (one for the teenagers, there), at the age of 83.
For Boom, add Smooth, Heart, Capital, Breeze, Absolute, Sam, Planet Rock and a myriad of other stations which provide safe, generic music that you’ve heard before and won’t offend you. This might read like I am taking the piss, but I’m really not. It’s like football on the telly. There is a massive audience out there who have no real affiliation to a team and would never dream of attending a game, but when it’s on telly, they watch TV in the same way someone might watch the One Show: not essential but a decent way of killing a few hours.
I think I’d rather go deaf than listen to wall-to-wall commercial radio but I am not you and you are not me.
Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with DJ’s being old. Many of the best ones on 6 Music are in their 40s, 50s and even 60s. And as long as they are entertaining their listeners with something they want, who can not like that?
