Pirate Eye

Brian Marshall's personal look at the world of radio

Why, I ask myself, has the man who once attacked me with a shaving cream flan handed over and let me loose on 'Pirate Eye'? Perhaps he's just a generous sort of chap at heart. Or maybe the lure of an 'Eric Free Zone' like Ireland has finally proved too strong! Whatever the case, I'm not sure that I can whine quite as effectively as Mr England, but I'II have a go...

Top of the list at the moment has got to be the long-awaited Green Paper on the future of radio. Several months late in publication, following on from the equally belated announcement about the ill-fated Community Radio Experiment, The Home Office now reckon that it'll take at least three years to bring any changes into effect. The cynics amongst you might be thinking the whole thing is simply an elaborate delaying tactic... and you'd probably be right...

So, if we've got years to wait before the Government acts, what is there to look forward to in the meantime? Well, judging by the current state of unlicensed broadcasting in London, not a lot. Most pirate radio rates as high on the originality front as Independent Radio at the moment. With a few notable exceptions like Network 21, RFM and the ethnic stations, everyone wants to be a hip and oh so trendy Deee Jaaay!

Trouble is, most of the soul / reggae 'black music' stations simply aren't up to it. They do their best to imitate the big boys like Kiss FM, but they nearly always seem to be run by people who know a little bit about what sort of records they like, but absolutely nothing about what making a radio programme is all about. Let's hope that when licences do finally arrive, those in positions of power will seriously limit the amount of soul / disco in an effort to make up for the hideous overdose we've all had to put up with over the last two or three years!

Before anyone writes in and says I'm biased against 'black music' I'm not. It's just that radio should be about choice: proper choice of speech, language and musical styles. To be able to choose from half a dozen stations all churning out the same records in a different order is NOT choice. It is, in the words o Basil Fawlty, 'a waste of space'! It's a pity that Uncle Eric doesn't take programming into account in his day-to-day raiding policy. If he did that, maybe some of the ethnic stations and those trying to offer a real choice would get it easier than at present...

Talking of formats, it's interesting that both Capital with its CFM and Radio One with its Stereo Sequence have both rediscovered the contemporary rock music format, albeit in rather a watered down form. There's a lot of producers hanging around Alice's Restaurant with not a lot to do at the moment — perhaps we should lend them to the competition to make them a bit more adventurous.

Capital is rumoured to be trying to get CFM onto a permanent footing at the moment, as the experiment is due to end soon (it is only an experiment). If the Home Office is really serious about its plans to develop radio it'll make Capital wait in line with the rest of us — preferably at the back of the queue. The choice of Bruce Springsteen or Bruce Springsteen isn't choice either!

Ah well, I'm off to sunny Wales at the weekend to attend the Community Radio Association (CRA) meeting with lots of other wireless types. It might be quite interesting. At the last one some bright spark came up with the idea that the CRA should have a strong anti-pirate policy. The idea was narrowly defeated, but it's a shame that it even got as far as it did since many of the ideas the CRA now puts forward as its own were originally developed by pirates. They're not all bad, however. I leave you with the closing words of the CRA press release about the recent Government document: "Never mind Green papers, let's get on with it".

See you at the Restaurant

Brian Marshall

Selections

Welcome to the new review section in TX. This month we're slightly short of space, so unfortunately there isn't any room for a radio review. This should be back next issue, when we hope to have more room available. For this issue, we continue our magazine review.

Quick note to anyone that wants their radio related item reviewed: send it in! Books, magazines, TV programmes, videos, records, tapes, bobble hats — we do them all. Mark it or the attention of Selections and send to TX Radio Today, BCM Box 225, London, WClN 3XX and we'll do our best to give it a review.

This issue we turn our attention to Media Monitor. This is a weekly magazine / newsletter, A5 size with around thirty pages an issue. It isn't stapled, so you'll need to be careful when reading it on trains (picture the amusement of passengers on Southern Region train whilst TX editor tries hard to re-assemble magazine which has fallen into individual sheets...).

Contents wise, Media Monitor deals with a wide spectrum of radio, but with a bias towards short-wave broadcasting and unlicensed radio. A recent edition led with news of a new American religious short-wave station, and included several other reports on international radio. More locally, there is usually a strong element of news from the London pirates, and usually again one major story. Media Monitor has done well in getting several exclusives in the past, and several of their stories make it into other magazines.

On the feature side, there's quite a mixture, from offshore radio history to fairly technical descriptions. There are also often programme plans from short-wave stations or publicity material from various broadcasting organisations.

To close, it's a good source of news, particularly on the international / short-wave front. Its presentation could do with a bit of a boost but I'm sure it's still early days in its development -these things do take time.

£1 or a sample copy from Roger Tidy, 11 St Philip House, Lloyd Baker Street, London, WC1X 9BA.