I haven't seen the statistics but is it doubtful that in 1991 many 14-year-old's had ever heard of the celebrated clarinettist Acker Bilk. Even today, it is highly unlikely that the advent of Social Media and the Internet have broadened the appeal of the Somerset-born instrumentalist with the same demographic, but strangely many of my formative years would be all too aware of not the late jazz man's oeuvre, but one particular tune from his body of work.
For anyone who heard a track on shortwave I later found out to be called 'Fancy Pants', it usually meant one of two things: either Weekend Music Radio(WMR) had just returned to the airwaves for another broadcast, or that station operator Jack Russel was until next time about to close down. My last blog post mentioned Station Sierra Sierra's theme tune Don't Worry by Kim Appleby(the surviving half of Mel and Kim) and whilst many stations would bookend broadcasts with the likes of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Fanfare for the Common Man and Man of Action by Les Reed, these and others were generic 'go to' tracks used by many stations to draw a veil over their latest broadcasts. There was though something unique about hearing a genre of music otherwise conspicuous by its absence on shortwave free radio, not only because of its 'foot tapping' qualities but that it would hopefully mean that I was about to hear one of Jack's broadcasts, rather than having just missed out on one.
An overwhelming majority of the UK's free radio stations broadcasting in the 1990's were based in England, with only the Northern Ireland Relay Service, Wales' occasional broadcaster The Voice of the Leek, and Scotland's WMR and Radio Gloria broadcasting from what are today termed as the devolved nations. By this time the prolific Radio Stella, operator by the legendary Jock Wilson, has switched operations to the Republic of Ireland, to where taped programmes would be forwarded to go out on a variety of frequencies, perhaps as many as four at a time, including 6295 and 7446 kHz. There is obviously a limitation to spontaneous programming that's open-ended in length when relying on a helpful transmitter operator in another country to take the controls, but fairly frequent trips to the transmission site would allow for rig and aerial improvements to be made by Jock and WMR Jack. The complete history of Weekend Music Radio and details of some of those epic trips to Ireland can be found on WMR's website Weekend Music Radio Scotland - a fascinating journey through time of a station that first hit the airwaves 41 years ago. Although Jack has been heard at the latter end of last year doing programming for a legal shortwave relay station, there is nothing to indicate that he is about to break his WMR silence any time soon.
A catchy theme tune is of little worth if the forthcoming programme or that previous to it were not of significant entertainment value. Those early days of my immersion into shortwave free radio included some great broadcasts, often with studio guests and including phone calls from some of those listening in. This all sounds now to be rather twee, but in those days Jack was in effect replicating how legal stations went about their business, but he did it better. Throw in an interesting mix of music spanning by then the two decades that WMR had been on the air only lent greater kudos to the station, one of the most listenable of the time. A broadcast would often be rounded off with a QSO - in effect a conversation with fellow operators once the call had gone out to anyone who fancied a chat - some of which that would be as entertaining as the programmes themselves. Radio Gloria's Alan Hayes would often pop up for a chat with WMR, as would a somewhat mysterious gentleman, I think called Brian, under the Sierra/Sugar Foxtrot 0(Zero) 3 moniker.
A highlight of Christmas time in the early to mid-nineties would be Weekend Music Radio's festive broadcasts. Characterized by their longevity and of no little audience participation, these epic transmissions would often go out on several frequencies with a hope of reaching different, far-flung areas of the world, which they did on numerous occasions. WMR would though at times be radiating significant power for a free radio station, and whilst technical expertise can produce a strong signal greater than the transmitter's modest parts, Weekend Music Radio would often push the envelope to get out the kind of signal which was heard beyond the usual anticipated extent of how far from its location a UK shortwave free radio station would expect to be so.
As my interest in the shortwave scene tailed off in the latter part of the 1990's WMR flip-flopped between frequencies and schedules, often sharing channels with other stations on an agreed basis and/or broadcasting out in the field, as it were. As with all things pertaining to Weekend Music Radio, far greater historical depth than my precis of the station can be found on the station's thankfully still 'live' website.
It is now too long ago for me to recall the exact reasoning behind my falling out of love with the hobby, but a mixture of deteriorating listening conditions, and the move from my teenage years into adulthood precipitated relationships, work(and unemployment) and foreign travel which placed greater demands on my time, with a-by-then schedule limited to listening on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings proving to be unrealistic.
Weekend Music Radio was though one of the free radio stations that my listening was reared on, and very much contributed to the level of interest that I retained for perhaps the first seven years of the 1990's. It was those stations that appeared to me at the time to be broadcasting with spontaneity and without a defined schedule that most captured my imagination. As previously discussed local circumstances and indeed those within the operator's own household would greatly determine if/when a station would pop up on the band, generating a level of anticipation of not quite knowing when that would next occur - something which undoubtedly contributed to the appeal of listening to shortwave free radio.
As a premise free radio has always meant to me to be a medium that is unfettered by restrictions, playlists, and schedules. Now, I understand to say someone, or something is 'free' tacitly gives license to do as one pleases within the bounds of whatever the pastime or predilection may be, and each person will have their own idea as to what 'to be free' actually constitutes. There was though always a certain mystic about shortwave's free radio scene built upon unpredictability of both when broadcasts would occur, and those attendant with live output. I never felt any great interest in listening to 'loop tape' broadcasts and whilst this approach was for many operators their only viable means to an end, especially when broadcasting 'on location', my preferences is not a criticism in itself, but an acknowledgement that free radio, for both listeners and operators, must always retain an 'each to their own' quality.
As time ushers in an increasingly fading memory - perhaps I should have starting writing this blog 10 years ago - of even my favourite stations of the time, one of which was Weekend Music Radio, there is little doubt that Jack Russel was a voice and personality synonymous with the 1990's UK free radio scene on shortwave. It is easy to accredit stations whose signals were usually strong, regardless of the modest or comparatively significant wattage they were running at the time, as favourites by dint of their relative listenability, but WMR walked the walk, talked the talk, and rightly became a firm favourite due to Jack's marathon live, unstructured broadcasts that lent more to spontaneity and improvisation that which couldn't inevitably be replicated through taped transmissions. It is to those early, halcyon days that I will raise a glass of something nonalcoholic - something that probably at the time would not have been found in WMR's studio!
NEXT TIME: Continuing the theme of UK powerhouse stations on shortwave...
