My interest in radio stations may have started to listening to whatever station was on in the back of the car. Usually it was Heart, which played the same, often dull songs, over and over again. There was probably Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, and maybe Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, and a lengthy list of songs which hit the charts in the 1990s and 2000s, making sure there's no hip hop. There was also Magic, which played similar tracks. I would listen to Magic before dozing off to bed when I was very young, allowing my final thoughts of the day to be shaped to soft rock and soul in all likelihood.
Then there was Fun Kids, the radio station that plays sanitised versions of music which is perfect for children. I mainly listened for the readings of Horrid Henry, which for a young primary school child was appealing enough. But it was never going to be my favourite radio station, for the simple reason that it's a bit too safe. I wasn't particularly into music then, so I didn't mind, but I quickly stopped listening to it when new alternatives arrived.
Absolute Radio may have been one of those alternatives, becoming a favourite of the car radio. I didn't listen to the alt rock they played, I was largely clueless about bands like Nirvana back then, but I enjoyed listening to the music. It was more interesting than Heart could ever be.
And many years later, Absolute became my station of choice once again when I began exploring the older music, desperate to find something to enjoy. The 80s radio station was fantastic, but I soon got tired of listening to the same music on repeat so moved onto the 90s radio station. There was more variety (Mansun!) but that soon got worn out too. So I moved onto listening to what I wanted to listen, and I ended up some great bands through that route. But if it wasn't for these decade stations, I wouldn't have discovered bands like Talk Talk as early as I did, and for that I'm grateful.
But soon, Absolute was removed from FM radio stations, and as such Greatest Hits Radio, operating on the same frequency, took its place. It's much, much poorer - the hosts are often not funny, songs sometimes end prematurely so they can have an ad break or the host can waffle for longer, and they clearly prefer certain bands like Queen. It feels less eclectic - they claim to play music from the 70s, 80s and 90s which were hits; assuming a hit was in the Top 40 charts, you have a maximum of 62,400 songs to play (obviously that's not true, but puts into context how many songs they could theoretically play). It certainly doesn't feel like they use that large archive, though - the songs are all friendly enough to be background noise, and there's no hip hop; the target demographic is strictly defined.
That's not to say, though, that I dislike talk radio. Nick Abbot's show on LBC was one I loved to listen to, but he's become more serious and critical since I started listening (or maybe I've become more aware), so it's more like every other LBC show, which I've essentially abandoned. Radio 4 and Radio 5 are also often pleasant to listen to, and sometimes can bring up discussions you wouldn't otherwise consider.
Right now, I don't listen to radio as much as I did a few years ago. I've mostly restricted myself to Spotify, which is in a way a shame as I could do so much better. If I had to name my favourite radio station, though, it would be Radio 6 - it's very eclectic and filled with music that's often new and also alternative and experimental. I liked Marc Riley's show, at least until they moved it and I lost interest. No other radio stations are like it in the UK, so it's a shame that it's digital only.
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