Although my parents rented a TV set as early as 1954, radio played a large part in my early life, and continues to do so today. back then, as with television, there were far fewer choices: basically, the BBC Home Service, the Light Programme and the Third Programme. I fondly recall Sunday mornings around the breakfast table listening to the omnibus edition of The Archers, and then later that day, to Two Way Family Favourites and the likes of The Navy Lark or The Clitheroe Kid. Pop music was a rarity, heard and seen more on the TV… and then in 1964, along came pirate radio and Pandora’s Box opened for me. Why my parents chose to listen to them over the BBC I have no idea although they were for their ages (dad was 43 when I was born, mum was 32) surprisingly hip. Initially, it was Caroline but when Radio London began later in 1964, that was our station of choice and looking back, damn we were spoiled. Of course, the government pitched several blue fits and on August 14th 1967 essentially banned the pirates. What happened next? Not being complete fools, the Beeb duly swept up all the best pirate DJs and, on September 30th that same year, Radios 1, 2, 3 & 4 started. The latter two were merely rebranded Third and Home Programmes, but 1 & 2 were, in essence, the pirates legalised and ad-free. Then, in October 1973, London’s Capital Radio started broadsacting and we moved on to that… at least until 1983 when a more local station, County Sound, came along. Broadcasting from Guildford, it was just a wonderful listen and remained my station of choice via the change to 96.4 The Eagle in 1996, until fall 2020 when the latter became part of a greater group and was rebranded Greatest Hits Radio. And it was just awful, hugely restricted playlist and inane DJs. That said, I kept with it (and occaisionally radio 2), increasingly unhappily, until the following summer when I happened – I still can’t recall how – on Boom Radio… and suddenly it was 1964 all over again, which was hardly suprising as a goodly percentage of the DJs were old pirate jocks! The clue is in the title: the target audience is boomers, those born 1946-64, thus the music hails from the fifties, sixties and seventies. or for me. musical bliss, and here’s the thing. Almost on a daily basis they play either records I’ve not heard on the radio for some fifty years or something I’ve never, ever heard on the radio before (Dantalian’s Chariot, anyone? Joyce’s Angels??). Given who some of the DJs are – Graham Dene, Roger Day – there’s a much higher then usual amount of Beach Boys songs, and not just the hits. Beatles too… in fact, just great music from the sixties and seventies. Since happening upon it, I’ve listened to nothing else but Boom. Of course, it’s not perfect: one or two of the DJs are, um, shall we say, an accquired taste (although I’m warming to Andy Marriott), if there’s no DAB+ signal where you are, it’s online or smart speaker only and the Easy Hour every weekday evening seems to last much longer than that. Oh, and they have a tendancy to play new music by old musicians such as Billy J. Kramer and… yeah, no thanks. The last two years have seen two sister stations in Boom Light (music from the 40s, 50s and early 60s – no, thank you) and Book Rock (work it out) but my allegiance to the original Boom remains steadfast. Music is time travel, pure and simple: play me Tubular Bells and I’m 17 again in a heartbeat, and loving it. I can’t get on with current music. I like a melody, and a tune, something I can relate to, and Boom ticks all those boxes, and so many more. It’ll probably see me out, and that’s a pleasing thought.
