If They Can Do It, Why Can't We?

By Frank Absher

Imagine a radio market where all the announcers are live, not voice tracked. Thanks to technology, you don’t have to imagine it.

Several years ago I was visiting a friend who manages a big station in a big market, and he wanted to show me his new toy. It looks like one of those Bose radios your grandmother bought after she heard Paul Harvey talk about it.

But we’ve turned it into much more. It’s an Internet radio tuner. It’s set up here in my office at home, wired into my 40-year-old Sansui amp and run through my studio speakers. The sound is unbelievable, and so are the choices.

And that brings me to the fun an old radio freak like me can have. Yes, you can listen to most of the major-market stations, but what you hear is the same old thing. At the behest of my wife, we searched overseas and found several UK stations that have kept us entertained.

And that is where I found this “dream” station. Actually there are several that have really been fun to listen to. For the sake of avoiding confusion, I want to focus on one that brings back lots of fond memories. It’s unashamedly Pop, complete with jingles, talk-ups, countdowns – all the elements are there. (But there are no 10-minute spot breaks.)

It’s London’s Capital FM.

Anyone who’s jocked at a Pop station knows the headaches: unbearable song repetition, teens and pre-teens jamming the phone lines, etc. But the jocks at Capital don’t let this get in the way. If you use your imagination, it’s easy to see them in the studio hitting a post and smiling, knowing that other radio folks “get it.”

Much like WLS, WABC and the other icons of Top 40 history in the U.S., Capital churns out a good sound with jocks who are allowed to be personalities. And there is NO VOICE TRACKING.

All the jocks, including the all-night guys, take phone calls on the air and weave them into the show.
The promotions are familiar too – cash giveaways for trivia knowledge, concert tickets. In short, listening to Capital FM is a leap into radio’s past, only they are playing current Pop stuff.

When Capital FM is on in the office, we’re both more productive because the music is lively and the station sound is full of energy and fun. Isn’t that the way radio should be?

Capital FM doesn’t have a corner on this. BBC 2 is live (I know this because they’ve responded on the air to my email questions), and you never know what or who you’re going to hear. The programs are exceptionally well-researched and entertaining. Then there’s Beacon Radio in Shropshire, another Pop station that’s live all the time.

In short, there is radio that is fun to listen to. In my case, I’ve had to go overseas to find it. Why is that?

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