Smooth FM...And Freeview...

These two stories are unconnected but they do link because for most to receive both Smooth FM and Digital television if you do not have access to satellite or cable, the next best thing is a Freeview box and at present the Government, Ofcom and BBC?Commercial television
have done plenty of promotion of Freeview.

It would appear that one station has taken some notice of my suggestion that they should offer more varied programming(Speech/Music)for the over 50's. The only problem is that the change seems destined to affect listeners within the London area and not across the DAB versions across the UK. The station in question being Smooth FM...

It will retain its 45 hours of Jazz but it now chooses having come to an arrangement with the broadcasting regulatory body Ofcom to offer more speech and music to appeal to the over 50's.

There is a percentage written into the agreement.

But in general it has to be described as an Easy Listening station.

I hate the way media has to use such terms to describe who a station is serving. I mean, I'm middle aged but can enjoy new music and am open to trying what is on offer just as I enjoy music that was performed, produced and composed before I was born. I am sure with an open mind people much younger could given the chance enjoy music which probably would seem "old fashioned" but if its never played or rarely heard is it any wonder, its dismissed.

How do you define Easy Listening?

Is that performers like Sinatra, Bennett, Fitzgerald, Matthis etc...Big Bands such as Dorsey, Miller, Ellington etc...orchestra's and singers such as Mancini, Conniff and so it goes on...why not just play it and see what response it gets. I like to think if it sounds good or pleases those listening its doing its job.

So though I can hear Smooth FM on my DAB radio, assuming the satellite feed is the London service I will give it a try and see what it offers. It does come back somewhat to what Dee said in the comments on the previous entry.

I rarely listen to Talk Sport but on Mike Medoza's programme at something like 3am in the morning(what a time to choose to do this)and on what is primarily a talk station, he recently interviewed Matt Monroe's son who is a singer in the style of his Father. The records are selling, he's having sell out tours across the UK and when he appears in countries such as the Philippines(yes, I said the Philippine's)he plays to really large venue's and is invited on to television programmes to perform. He's also gaining in popularity in the States but here in the UK...he gets little if any media attention.

What programmes on BBC or commercial television gives more than either specialist music specials such as Opera playing the culture card. Otherwise nearly all music channels are based in recent pop and if a new music show is on television or a guest appears on say Parkinson with a few exceptions its some recent pop artist flogging a newly released album. Even the Royal Variety show scheduled for broadcast next week has Jordan and Peter Andre and I have lost track of how often Girls Aloud seem to crop up of late.

Of course you have to promote and move on with new artists and music being given encouragement to grow but does this mean that you should ignore the great performers of the past. I am thinking of treating myself to some titles from a specialist record label that issues music neglected in the shops and by the radio stations and I am going way, way back...How varied is this list? Ray Anthony, Les Baxter, Jack Benny, Billy Cotton, Bob Crosby, Vaughan De Leath, Ruth Etting, The Four Aces, Erroll Gardner, Betty Hutton, Al Jolson,Kitty Kallen, Peggy Lee, The Pied Pipers, Jimmie Rodgers, Semprini, Dinah Shore and many more. The recordings have been remastered and all clicks and hisses removed where possible and speed variations corrected. However, as you'll see later I have ordered material by Julie London and in the same range are some classic albums by Nat King Cole, Nelson Riddle, Peggy Lee and so on. You'll notice that many of these artists had some connection to the great Capitol lable.

My hope is that one of the promised national DAB stations will by choice or by being forced offer a much wider variety of "Easy Listening" music rather than just sticking to the more well known material that we know from the charts of the last 50+ years and play some of the other material such artists and performers recorded.

When it was OK to use peer to peer websites much of the music being offered was material that radio and television was neglecting so it was actually bringing artists to the attention of the public who then went out and purchased the material or discovered something new. And I have a feeling that sales probably increased rather declines as we are led to believe. But most of the major record companies want to promote and shift the artists that they are signing up today and try and recoup the money that they have invested rather than go to the back catalogue. If they are not prepared to release the material I wish that they would give the specialist labels more access to what is just gathering dust in some archive somewhere. Or release it themselves on a specialist label with perhaps a shorter run than modern commercial titles.

Now, you know that we have questioned the system we use for DAB in this country and reception is not helped by the factthat we could do with many more transmitters to boost the signal but information that trickles out suggests these may happen...one day.

Well, guess what! Even though the analogue tv signal will be turned off across the UK and you have to go digital...Ofcom has released a report that after the switch off its likely 1 in 10 homes will still be unable to watch Freeview. So tough if its you!

This means that you will have to go with a Sky box, possibly cable or hope that the promised Freeview satellite is launched(a joint project between commercial tv and the BBC)news on that has gone rather quiet.

Otherwise, you'll have to hope that tv and radio can be streamed in better quality via broadband.

Its not an ideal solution when we are being told how great digital is.

I know for now my blog has gone very technical and much of its contents is television and radio based but I will get back to some personal entries soon and maybe talk of matters that have caught my attention in the press.