This Saturday from 8AM UK time BBC Radio 2 will be playing 80s album tracks all day 
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How was it @Brianc68? What tracks did you enjoy?
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One of the emailers into the OJ Borg overnight show on BBC R2 today was from Sydney. Saying how him and his family were recent converts to BBC R2 because the local Sydney stations just ādidnāt cut itā in terms of music and entertainment.
I must admit Iām finding myself increasingly listening to UK stations when at home. Thereās an entertainment element thatās a bit hard to quantify that you donāt get on Australian radio, or US/Canadian radio for that matter. I quite like some of the Canadian music station playlists actually, but the announcers are a bit over the top and annoying - yet donāt really say anything at all - and there are a LOT of commercials on North American radio.
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One of the things that I discovered during lockdown is that there is a decent number of UK radio stations that play a decent amount of music with minimal interruptions for hosts or ads during a large portion of our work day
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The latest radio ratings for Chicago US are out below. I always find the radio ratings in North America quite interesting. AC, Classic Rock and Classic Hits formats generally rule. Top 40 seems to be struggling. Markets like Chicago and LA have successful stations targeting R&B. Station V103 is usually No. 1 or 2 in Chicago and is kind of R&B/Urban AC. Lite FM does well with an AC/Soft AC format and a strong breakfast show. The other thing I like about Chicago is that some iconic stations like WLS and WBBM still have both an AM (talk station) and FM (music station) under the same name.
WDRV (The Drive) always does well, and WXRT is an adult album alternative station and is usually in the top 10 and sometimes top 5.
- WBBM 780-AM/WCFS 105.9-FM all news, 6.7 (6.0)
- WVAZ 102.7-FM R&B, 5.8 (6.5)
- (tie) WDRV 97.1-FM classic rock, 5.2 (5.2); WLIT 93.9-FM adult contemporary, 5.2 (5.6)
- WOJO 105.1-FM Mexican regional, 4.4 (4.1)
- WLS 94.7-FM classic hits, 4.1 (3.5)
- WTMX 101.9-FM hot adult contemporary, 3.5 (3.8)
- WBEZ 91.5-FM public radio news talk, 3.4 (3.4)
- WXRT 93.1-FM adult album alternative, 3.3 (3.7)
- WGN 720-AM news talk, 3.1 (3.3)
- WPPN 106.7-FM Spanish adult contemporary, 3.0 (2.9)
- WSCR 670-AM sports talk, 2.9 (2.6)
- (tie) WUSN 99.5-FM country, 2.8 (2.8); WKSC 103.5-FM Top 40, 2.8 (3.1); WRME 87.7-FM soft rock oldies, 2.8 (2.7)
- WBMX 104.3-FM classic hip-hop, 2.7 (2.6)
- WCHI 95.5-FM rock, 2.4 (1.9)
- WGCI 107.5-FM hip-hop, 2.2 (2.4)
- (tie) WBBM 96.3-FM Top 40, 2.1 (2.3); WKQX 101.1-FM alternative rock, 2.1 (2.1); WSHE 100.3-FM adult contemporary, 2.1 (2.8)
- WLEY 107.9-FM Mexican regional, 1.7 (1.8)
- (tie) WFMT 98.7-FM classical, 1.5 (1.9); WPWX 92.3-FM hip-hop, 1.5 (1.2)
- (tie) WLS 890-AM news talk, 1.3 (1.4); WMVP 1000-AM sports talk, 1.3 (1.2)
- WCKL 97.9-FM contemporary Christian music, 1.2 (1.1)
- WVIV 93.5-FM Spanish contemporary, 1.1 (1.2)
- WMBI 90.1-FM Christian ministry, 1.0 (1.1)
- WXLC 102.3-FM hot adult contemporary, 0.8 (1.0)
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Nobody has mentioned it yet, so I thought Iād plug one of my favourite stations: KEXP from Seattle, WA. If you want to hear some great new music, they play pretty much everything, including alt rock, electronica, jazz, R&B, hip-hop, etc.
I usually tune in during the āgraveyard shiftā (which means between 7 and 10pm AEST) and the overnight DJs come up with some awesome tunes.
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Iām currently listening to an online station called āBack to the 80sā radio. Iām not even sure where it comes from - either UK or US. Iām finding it pretty good as it mixes mainstream and rarer 80s songs - some Iāve never even heard before, but they still sound very ā80sā of course.
Anyway Iām really enjoying the mix.
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Iād also recommend XS80s from NZ. Whilst an online station, it does broadcast on FM in parts of the country, and also plays some Australian music too.
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I just tuned in @TV-Expert, I am enjoying the variety and unlike the DAB 80s channels, the sound quality is good.
Edit: They do an album show playing the entire Youthquake by Dead or Alive. Not something I would normally listen too by choice but I donāt mind it on a radio station.
Good find @TV-Expert
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Itās good yes. Iāve been listening a bit too lately.
Personally though I find the Back to the 80s playlist a bit more eclectic and really adventurous. There are a lot of songs played I only vaguely remember, or not at all. Itās great to hear ānewā 80s music lol.
Itās a bit US-skewed but has a lot of British rarer tracks too.
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Great find @Brianc68. Appears to be from Florida:
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Pro note, use less gifsā¦
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the 1990s!
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Yes I messaged him on Facebook and got a reply! Love the playlist as some of the 80s songs played Iāve never heard before - itās like hearing ānewā 80s music. That makes you feel like you really are back in the 80s lol. Itās like a time machine.
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I have been listening to Antenne Bayern from Munich over the past few months on my Sangean FM/DAB+/WiFi radio set. Why this particular station? Well, I have been to Bavaria several times to visit a friend I have had since high school and when Iām there I have listened to the station so it reminds me of my visits. I speak some German but Iām not entirely fluent so listening to the news, weather and traffic updates is a good way to improve my knowledge. I find that the news report and the announcer talk breaks are too fast to completely understand but I hear enough to get the general gist. I generally completely understand the weather and traffic reports.
I have some observations of radio in Germany from my listening:
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The German organisational skills are evident, there is news precisely on the hour, every hour.
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Antenne Bayern is live from 0500 to 2359 every weekday and from 0600 on weekends. Although the music programming is automated from midnight to 0500, there is a newsreader live 24/7. They read the hourly bulletins and do a traffic report every 30 minutes, with the ability to break into the programming with an urgent traffic update for a dangerous situation - usually a āgeisterfahrerā (literally a āghost driverā) which is someone driving the wrong way on the autobahn.
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The station is commercial free from midnight until just before the 0500 news bulletin. Outside breakfast there are only two commercial breaks each hour, just before the news bulletin and just before the traffic update at the bottom of the hour.
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Over 95% of the songs played are in English, including nearly all of the local German artists. The few foreign language songs are in French or Spanish. It has been an interesting change in the past two decades as when I was visiting in the early 2000s there were numerous songs in German.
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The station broadcasts across the whole state of Bavaria, with over 40 FM transmitters. The coverage extends into Austria, Czechia, Switzerland and neighbouring states of Germany. There are a couple of high power transmitters in northern Bavaria that provide good coverage into the states of Thuringia and Saxony, which is a legacy of the Cold War when radio and television signals were designed to provide maximum coverage into East Germany. Antenne Bayern has an average daily cumulative audience of around 2.2 million. Broadcasting is a state responsibility and Antenne Bayern is the only private station licenced state-wide, competing against the state government owned Bayern 1 and Bayern 3.
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The station has had a distinctive 5 note jingle since it opened. The notes correspond to the syllables of the stationās name āAhnā āTenā āNayā āBuyā āUrnā. I donāt know why Australian radio stations arenāt keen on jingles any more as the Brian Cadd 3XY jingles from the 80s were fantastic. The power of the jingle was demonstrated to me when I recently shared a table at a cafe at the snow with a couple of ladies who were originally from Germany but had been living in Australia for 20 years. When I asked them where they were from, they replied āMunichā and when I said I was listening online to Antenne Bayern they both sang the jingle.
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Antenne Bayern plays a lot of Australian artists. In recent days I have heard Dean Lewis, Vance Joy, Sheppard, Sia, Gabriella Cilmi, Tones & I and Gotye.
I have put up a music log from the early hours of this morning German time. The station format is pop, rock and hip-hop from 2000 to today (Hot AC) but doesnāt go too heavy with the rock and hip-hop. Its digital-only sister station Rock Antenne has a heavier rock format. The last hourās playlist is available at Song-Suche | ANTENNE BAYERN with 15 second samples of songs you may not have heard before.
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I am a fan of Rock Antenne and Rock Antenne Classic Perlen, as I explained on the other thread.
Speaking of Germanic pop songs, I noticed 1CMS play a lot of German and Austrian pop (EAV in particular). Iām fond of the song āDie UFOs Kommenā.
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@Laoma and @TV-Expert - hey thanks for the mention fellas. I program XS80s and have tried to balance the tried-and-true hits with a lot of Australian and NZ stuff, British hits and more obscure stuff that people have suggested over the years because they couldnāt find songs while searching the music universe. It is great to hear ānewā 80s songs. I just found an Australian minor-hit that I remember hearing on the radio back in the day called Shake This City by Non-Stop Dancers. Great song.
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@dxnerd played that song on his radio show on Braidwood FM (2BRW) a few weeks back as a request.
He has two shows: The Billy Bob Show at 7-9pm (9-11pm NZ) Tuesdays which concentrates on freeform rock, and The Conga Line at 3-5pm (5-7pm NZ) Fridays, which concentrates on (mostly) obscure pop/rock from the 80s to the 00s, such as āShake This Cityā.
Also, welcome aboard to the forum @KJA03. Iāve listened to a bit of the station whilst holidaying at Wanaka back in February 2018, where it can be heard on 103.4FM.
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Yeah XS80s is great. I have received them both locally in NZ and via E-skip in Aus (mainly 105.9 Timaru).
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Just an update for Germany. Antenne Bayern has recently established a new DAB+ only station broadcasting in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, which is Germanyās largest state by population. Antenne NRW is a classic hits station with the slogans āAchtziger, Neunziger, ein hundert prozent Greatest Hitsā (80s, 90s, 100% Greatest Hits) and āDie bestem Hits aller Zeitenā (The best hits of all time). The Antenne Bayern influence is there, the Antenne NRW jingle is similar but with an extra note to accommodate the extra syllable in NRW (NRW in German is pronounced āennā, āairā, āvayā) and the news is currently being read by the newsreaders in Munich.
The music programming is interesting, the newer songs are the older songs Antenne Bayern plays and the older songs go back to the 70s but the bulk of the songs are as the slogan suggests (80s and 90s). The songs are generally up-tempo with the occasional slower song. Antenne NRW is following the North American adult contemporary radio trend of having Christmas songs (itās the Advent long weekend in Germany) but only 1-2 per hour.
Iāll put together a log of the same hour on Antenne NRW, Antenne Bayern and Rock Antenne to compare the Hot AC, Classic Hits and Rock formats, and post it sometime in the next few days.
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