Radio Jennifer (again); free radio on a weekday, and ch-ch-changes

 

Many thanks to the operator of Radio Jennifer, whose shall remain nameless, for this e-QSL I received just a few days ago.

I have seen it said elsewhere that free radio on shortwave appears to be declining in quantity. Whilst it cannot be denied that the quality of broadcasts, at least in my opinion, have sharply declined over the last twenty years, something I have noticed that was not prevalent in the 1990-2002 glory days is a willingness to broadcast during midweek on for example 6 and 7 MHz.

As a student in the early to mid-1990s I would often tune around 48 metres during the day, usually without any success. Radio Armadillo - the Middle A - could sometimes be heard on 6292 KHz during a Friday afternoon and for a time Radio Merlin, including its forerunner Radio Galaxy, would pop up on 6239 KHz on a weekday, but otherwise once Radio Fax left 6205 KHz the bands would normally be silent until a Friday night or Saturday morning. That is how I remember it, although others may have different recollections.

In the current era it is not uncommon to hear the likes of Radio Jennifer, Parade, Pamela, Nova, and a glut of yawn-inducing identikit Dutch stations during the day. At least for the unemployable free radio enthusiast and those of us who predominantly work from home there is often something to listen to during the week. 

Free radio much like life is what you make it, and whilst the 1990s has proven to have set the bar unattainably high for the decades since, the reported terminal demise of free radio has somewhat been exaggerated. As society today and attendant technologies are almost unrecognisably different to those three decades ago, it is unrealistic to expect free radio to not have rolled with the times. Only subjective opinion can though say if that is for the better, or to its detriment. 

Happy Easter.

1990s UK shortwave free radio compilation album

This is a subject that I have touched upon before. Not only does the music of the very early 1990s continue to have an enduring influence upon me, but so did many of the tracks I heard on shortwave free radio during the same era and up to the turn of the millennium, even if some of them were of a completely different vintage. 

Without further ado, may I present to you a compilation album of hits inspired by what to me at least, when compared to the subsequent three decades, was the golden generation of UK-based shortwave free radio. Feel free to guess which tracks were synonymous with certain stations; some will be obvious, others not so...

Sniff 'n' the Tears - Driver's Seat

Ofra Haza - Im Nin Alu

Kim Appleby - Don't Worry

Acker Bilk - Fancy Pants

Scarlet Fantastic - No Memory

Space - Magic Fly

Mark Wirtz - A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass

David Morales - Needin' U

Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love

Tinman - Eighteen Strings

Les Reed - Man of Action

Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea

Was (Not) Was - Shake Your Head

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall

Hyper Go Go - Never Let Go

Blancmange - Living on the Ceiling

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters.

Bjork - Big Time Sensuality 

The list surely goes. If I have missed (m)any tracks that particularly remind you of a UK or Irish-based free radio station that broadcast on shortwave during 1990s, please enlighten me. It should be noted that some of the aforementioned tracks were individually far more enjoyable than the stations who broadcast them, but that perhaps is another subject for a different day. 

Radio Pamela

Is was good to hear Radio Pamela earlier today, with operator Steve Most testing a newly installed turntable predicated on improving upon what can be tinny-sounding CD players.

As regular readers know I am not an advocate of output where speech is conspicuous by its absence, but Steve's back-to-back music programme that included the likes of Black Sabbath, Dave Brubeck, and a version of Bob Dylan's Wheels on Fire by I think Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger certainly made for entertaining listening. Perhaps, after all, the concept of continuous music should not be pilloried if the content is easy on the ear, but that again comes down to subjectivity rather than being a hard and fast rule.

Steve Most gained further credit for pushing out a strong and stable signal on 7705 KHz in the 41 metre band during Storm Eunice, which is today(Friday) slated to pummel the south of England and in particular an area not too far away from Pamela Towers.

Keep a listen out in the following days, storm damage permitting, for this evergreen free radio stalwart who can be found anywhere between 5 and 7.7 MHz, in particularly 6902 KHz, and 7505/7605/7705 KHz often with programmes from Terry Phillips, another free radio perennial.