2001

Today's radio, amfm.org.uk, thanks

As for radio... Well, I don't often listen today to be honest. While there may be more licensed stations now, the real choice doesn't seem a whole lot better than it used to be and I can rarely find something I want to tune to. Specialist music radio has been relegated back to the middle of the night once more and what little excitement or enthusiasm Independent Radio once had has now been completely stripped away.

The pirates are still there, though while they continue to serve a purpose they aren't as diverse as they used to be and a lot of the fun has gone out of them. It sometimes seems that in the same way there's an ILR format that's little changed wherever you go in the country, there's also now a standardised pirate format and few people now take the risk to go beyond that. Internet radio still offers hope for the future, but I think that will turn out to be a whole different kind of broadcasting.

I did finally make it to the airwaves myself in 1999, on satellite and short wave operation Merlin Network One, where Chris England was station manager. I contributed a series of mixes for The Green Moon, the overnight continuous music service, and produced a set of jingles for the station. I have a feeling that will be it for my radio career though...

And so, sixteen years on from the launch of TX, I thought it was time that I finally pulled together all the various content I've written or edited about radio over the years and put it together in one place. I've had several people say I should write a book about all this and there's still the occasional request for old copies of TX, so hopefully this web site will suffice. The eighties were an incredibly special time for radio in London and I think the pirates deserve recognition for what they achieved.

Thanks should go to all the people who contributed to TX, Radio Today and AM/FM. To Chris England especially for all his help and for putting up with me through a series of sometimes silly enterprises. To Clive Glover and Ken North for all the articles and stories and help with the listings. To Lawrence Hallett and Charlie Wolf for their contributions. To Pyers Easton for the photos and other help. To all the DJs, engineers and stations who made it all possible and for the most part were incredibly good about helping us out. And to the long-suffering subscribers, callers and readers who for some reason kept wanting me to publish this stuff despite all the hitches and chaos.

Over the coming months there'll be lots more content added so do please check back. Any feedback from you about what you've read and what you'd like to see is also welcomed.

Stephen Hebditch (aka Steve Hamley).
11 October 2001.