Real Ale vs Real Radio

No, your eyes do not deceive you; this IS Mark Savage posting to "Radio Far-Far". To all those who do check in here from time to time, I'm sorry it's been so long.

It's been a long time, too, since Independent Local Radio has been that. When commercial radio first became legal in the UK in 1973- with the London Broadcasting Company- there were high hopes for it. A genuine alternative to the BBC; a new source of news and information- with Independent Radio News- and an aural sense of local identity for communities poorly served by the corporation, especially in the part of the United Kingdom which is not England. For Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, here at last was something they could identify with, and the result were pioneer stations like Radio Forth, Marcher Sound- and the one in Ulster I'm ashamed to admit I can't even remember the name of all these years later. Was it Radio Foyle?

Meanwhile, in England, there were confident-sounding names which resonated with the associations of their communities: Piccadilly Radio had to be Manchester, BRMB was the ingenious name for a Birmingham station, and there were many similar examples gracing the pages of the Independent Broadcasting Authority handbook each year. OK, the pop sounds may have been fairly similar, but these stations had attitude as well as DJs who knew what they were talking about, and new their audience, most of the time. Of course, money had to be made somewhere along the lines, but there was still a semblance of intelligent local radio there, and legislation ensuring it stayed that way.

Over thirty-five years later, it's a very sad, very different story. Gone are the local identities and local names, replaced with bland, rather meaningless titles like "Heart", "Real" and the luscious-sounding "Galaxy", which for all its starry connotations lacks the sensual satisfaction of its choclately namesake. Indeed,for all the individuality these local stations now carry, they might as well be coming from Mars, if not the moon.

It would be easy to despair at what's happened to commercial radio in the UK, were it not possible to learn from the experience of discerning drinkers of our national beverage- that's beer to you and me, not aerials we're talking. In the late 1970s as independent local radio began, things were starting to look bleak on the ale scene. A series of mergers over the post-war decades had left a "big four" of brewers- names like Watney Mann and Truman (or Grotney Ban a Truebeer as I preferred to call them), Courage, Whitbread and Bass dominated the industry. They'd taken over small regional and family breweries and, if they hadn't imposed their corporate branding on once proud local products, they'd emasculated most of them to the point where they were unrecognisable faint imitations of their proud namesakes.

This trend had started in the late sixties. Had not somebody seen the wood for the ttees, or in this case Beer from the Wood, Society for the Preservation of, then thirsty Britons today could have been left with the same kind of homogenised rubbish served up in so many fast food joints. Fortunately, a rebellion was on the cards which led to the formation of the Campaign for Real Ale and to the situation in 2009 where, far from the extinction of beer unique to particular towns rather than megakeggeries in Luton or Burton, traditional ale is doing very nicely thank you. OK, the pubs where it has hitherto been served might be struggling, but even that bete noir of retailing, Tesco, will tell you that the bottled real ale market is burgeoning; a stroll along the beer aisle in your local superstore will certainly prove that.

For some inexplicable reason, many radio fans are also huge lovers of real beer. I've never fathomed why, but I'll always thank that member of the British DX Club that introduced me to its delights back in the heady days of the late seventies- and the head wasn't just on the beer but on the young shoulders that drunk it, lots of it. Middle-age might bring a more temperate attitude to drinking, and the enjoyment of a slow, lingering pint, but it's palate respects the unique characteristics of a good local pint all the more. Does this give us some hope for radio?

I think it does. Where local radio is thriving now, is often the same place where real beer is thriving- at special events, particularly this time of the year. Airbourne FM in Eastbourne, on air for just a week covering the south's largest free air show. Or Steam Fair FM, bringing a similar unique sound to Dorset late every summer for the Great Dorset Steam Fair. Then there are the stations covering sporting events, religious festivals, even school studies and prison inmates. For every outdoor event or interest, there's an RSL, it seems.

The problem is, these stations are usually limited to 28 days at a time, at best. Once they're gone from your area, you're usually limited to the undemanding, easy to produce fare put out with the veneer of a local product, but usually produced by distinctly foreign sounding companies like Bauer. How do we convince them that what people want is a local service that recognises their uniqueness?

Perhaps just as drinkers had to vote with beers, by continuing to drink 'living' beer with character, taste, variety and flavour, listeners need to vote with their ears and their fingers. Hold up your jug ears, everybody, and let's raise a glass to the survival not of an ersatz brand calling itself Real radio, but to the creativeness of Everett and Peel, or the legendary local status of (BBC!) names like Hold Your Plums and the news in Cornish. Now there's real radio for you. Cheers!