I’ve been looking through British radio stations lately, and here’s my latest find — Absolute Radio, a station with the main focus towards mainstream rock and music performed live.

So to speak: Coldplay, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, R.E.M., The Police, Muse, Blur — this kind of programming certainly makes for an enjoyable listen. If that hasn’t got you covered, perhaps you can give a go to one of the sister stations: 00s, 90s, 80s, Classic Rock. I switch to any of these every time the main channel plays ”autoglass repair, autoglass replace”, or — what’s even worse — bothers with anything from Nickelback. 

Here’s a quote from Clive Dickens, the station’s chief operating officer:

Most people now have their own personal radio station in their pocket: an MP3 player cleverly playlisted with some popular tracks and maybe a few surprises too. On-line you can discover new material within minutes of it being recorded or re-discover album tracks from old albums from artists who influenced today’s finest musicians. That is the world we are in.

So, we’re sticking with real music – not manufactured rubbish – and we’re building on the amount of live music we do – we’re just going to discover more of all of it.

Also, one key finding from every piece of research we did, and that includes walking into the newsagents opposite, we’ll be playing more different songs – in fact, ten times more! When we play a “Haven’t Heard It for Ages” on Absolute Radio, you really won’t have done. Once we’ve played it, it won’t be on again for a year. And the No Repeat 9-5 workday is back, by popular request.

Absolute radio seems to be having a struggle keeping a fair balance between the commercial aspect (jinggles, contests, commercials) and actual music, and l find myself in trouble getting used to the “drive time”. Broadcast in periods of 6-10am and 3-7pm suffers from bothersome advertising and quickly becomes somewhat… hard to enjoy. For example, every time I hear that “autoglass repair, autoglass replace” jingle, I’m loosing my senses, feeling like I may eventually go mad. Try watching this short comedy clip twenty times in a row — you will get the idea. 

On another note: their website could serve as an example of web development craft at its finest. It’s exceptionally good; such proficiency is something extraordinary, even taking into account high standards in the UK. In addition to the fabulous website, the station also provides live studio webcams, and a top-notch quality online audio streaming service; even developer resources for third parties. It’s really impressive.

Quick glance over Absolute Radio on Wikipedia reveals that they were the first European radio station to stream 24-hours a day on the internet. Things must have been this way for quite some time.