I always hoped, if somewhat deludedly, that this blog brought in to being by a fondness for 1990s UK-based free radio on shortwave, an attempt to analyse its importance/influence during/on my formative years, and to ultimately compare the difference between how we consumed media thirty plus years ago with the current era would stimulate those who were there 'back in the day' to enter into similar discourse, and even encourage a few of the 1990s free radio big hitters back from out of the shadows.
Using this criteria I have obviously not succeeded to satisfy what was something of a futile wish list, but the re-emergence of Weekend Music Radio(WMR) has shown those who weren't listening during free radio's most recent heyday just how much better speech-based programming actually is, laced of course with a music policy not found on the homogenised output of Heart, Greatest Hits, and Capital.
It has of course been an unusual route back for Jack Russel to return to the airwaves. When old WMR programmes started popping up on 48 metres, or on occasion 6.9 MHz, Jack was as baffled by it as most others listeners were. To subsequently record new programmes made available through the WMR website for the mysterious relayer to put out on each week was an undoubted masterstroke that has (re)introduced free radio how it used to be to an eager listenership, all the while the content being available in crystal clarity through the website.
Whether this rather unorthodox approach to broadcasting will give a dig in the ribs to other seemingly long retired station operators is uncertain, but I do wonder what will become of free radio from the UK on shortwave once the old guard of WMR, Radio Pamela, and Pandora finally once and for all call it a day. The baton will then squarely pass to the inimitable Matt Roberts at XTC, a comparative stripling compared to the aforementioned triumvirate.
Is therefore shortwave free radio a dying art? It is difficult to imagine a new breed of younger operators taking to the air in the coming years as the likes of Steve Midnight, Paul Stuart, Bill Lewis, Andy Winter, Mr. Armadillo and Matt himself did in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This reflects the changing face of technology and how society entertains itself, as well as the loss of speech-based radio to a spectrum now dominated by egregious, vainglorious presenters spouting verbal diarrhoea on legal stations, plus the difficulties in broadcasting from home and out on location. Whilst the aforementioned were all evident thirty or so years ago, they have now become much more acute.
If nothing else, I hope that Weekend Music Radio will play some archive material from the 1990s, of themselves and other stations, and that Jack can tempt some of his fellow doyens to do a show or three with him. Maybe nostalgia ain't what it used to be, but shortwave free radio is now a pale imitation of its former self.
