Why music...and why radio?

There are a lot of things one can do with his sparetime or as a job.

My parents never pushed me into anything so I could practically choose to do the things I wanted to. Of course, my mom preferred to have us outside the house as kids most of the time and that was okay. Perhaps I read a book while staying in my room but apart from that, I don't recall doing much else. I don't have much memory at all how I spent my days at home as a kid. However, I remember well what I did outside.

I do remember though that I sometimes spend the afternoons at a friend's house. There, we listened to some old 45s that belonged to his sister. That was in the mid 70's and only one band's name resided inside my memory: ABBA. At that time, we didn't have a record-player at home, so, only at my friend's homes was I able to hear music played from singles or LPs.

When we moved to another village, I got a radio-/tape-recorder which enabled me to listen to radio and some old tapes that were given to me by my parents or other friends. I also went to another friend's house to listen to his "collection" of music which mainly consisted of records by Nazareth, Suzie Quattro, Sweet and Deep Purple. We listened to "This Flight Tonight", "Can The Can", "Fox On The Run" and "Black Night" at full volume, lying on the floor looking at the posters on the wall of these bands feeling kind of checked out from reality.

It wasn't actually a good friend of mine. He was about 4 years older than me and only when he was in a good mood, was I able to go to his place. When he was in a bad mood he chased after me, when it was me feeling moody I called him names.

It was then that I started following the Top20 of the national charts in Switzerland on channel 1 broadcast Saturdays or Sundays on the Swiss Radio network. I fancied the Les Humphries Singers, Hot Chocolate, BTO, Rod Stewart, Bay City Rollers, Michael Holm, Harpo, Donna Summer, Elton John, Ten CC, Boney M & Carl Douglas.

And then, in 1976, I fell in love. Deep love. I was so happy that I could cry. I'm not talking about falling in love with a person, no, I fell in love with a particular song. I listened to it time and again, maybe 1000 times or more: The track was called "Music" by John Miles.

To me, it was just the perfect song, combining the best of classical elements with rock, an exciting rockopera of almost 6 minutes produced by soundengineer and composer Alan Parson.

That song was also a typical example of my musical taste: I couldn't really put a finger on my favorite kind of music. I mean, take a look at the list above! It's like eating cabbage, icecream and French Fries at the same time and to top it, a Milk Shake.

The bands/music above mainly represented the music that was played on the radio at the time but there were records I only listened to inside my room on my own next to a lit candle.

One of the first record I bought myself was Supertramp's "Crime of The Century" released in 1974. I often put on one of my sister's records by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, who, in 1976, released an awesome record called "Roaring Silence". Alan Parson's Project release "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" was another one of my favorite.

On the radio I tuned in to pirate stations that were mushrooming all over Switzerland or listened to radios I over the AM/FM bandwidth. I think I got really caught by the radio virus when I finally tuned into a station broadcasting for Switzerland from Italy. The station was called Radio24.

Read on...my next blog called "Get into the groove"...

Low-Budget Radio

There's a big variety of radio stations worldwide of various formats. Some are hardly worth being operated at all as their USPs can hardly be recognised. Playing the same music time & again produced by the top100 selling artists isn't a hard thing to do. It must actually be a very poor & dull job chosing and spinning these tracks not being once able to adjust the playlist to one's very own taste. Those music directors might fall into deep shock (or get their ass kicked) by simply putting on a track by someone whose music their listeners have never heard of. Play this nobody and get fired!

I admired the pirate radio stations who dared to play tracks I had never heard before. I looked up to the djs introducing unknown, less radio friendly music, tracks that caused a certain confusion when the first tune hit your ear & brain. What the heck is that???

Got tired of the same voices and phrases heard a thousand times. Could have puked at the senseless overkill the music and radio industry was about to produce by streamlining their sound and playlist in such a way that music with grooves and edges, lengthy or complex compositions, extraordinary intros didn't stand a chance for airplay.

Only a few, mainly low-budget radio stations really got the balls to play music of different roots & genres, music outside "mainstream" and artists yet to be discovered.

Funny though when you think about it. Low-budget radio stations have less money, fewer listeners but dare to play those "risky" less radio friendly tracks". Seems like they don't really have to lose anything, eh? Or the bigger & more popular radio stations were just too scared to be a bit different.

I think Radio Stadi was rather low-budget but their playlist was quite unique mixing Finnish artists with international music not so often heard on FM. They played rock, punk, country, blues, latin, and a little jazz. They always had some technical difficulty as their money was tight and couldn't always fix when something was going a little wrong and someday, around Christmas, their announcers just disappeared and music only was played for hours on end. I called the station to ask what's up and they said that their mic got broken and their mixing console was kind of out of order and that they would fix things soon, after Christmas or New Year. I offered them my time & help but they turned it down saying "thanks, but we'll manage somehow".

Unfortunately they didn't and soon, Radio Stadi went off air without an announcement on their behalf. It all happened in the middle of a song, before some skips & hickups for a couple of hours and then suddenly - dead silence. That was it. I read in the papers a couple of days later that they run out of money to keep going - poor chaps, really.

I was pretty upset and sad now that my radio had gone. Where should I turn to? Should I just grap the remote and select the next station available? There was Radio Nova, KissFM & Energy whose sounds & formats I loathed to put up with.... No, there wasn't really an alternative for me. I left the dial right where it was, switched off the tuner, scanned my LPs, took out Donald Fagen's record "The Nightfly" and listened to "The Goodbye Look".

Read on...my next blog called "why radio?"