Like a Virgin?

sang Madonna and, as I continue my steady slide away from the BBC, I find that I do like Virgin radio.

I tuned my nifty wireless speaker to stream Virgin Radio soon after the much hyped launch of the Chris Evans breakfast show in January. Now I've always liked Evans, especially when I was regularly driving at that time of day. I find his enthusiasm infectious. But listening at home is different. His Virgin show has too many guests, too much chat and so, despite the lack of adverts on his programme (it's sponsored by Sky) not enough music to hold my attention when I'm at home. Its a drivetime experience for me and I'm not frequently making  other than short car journeys at that time of day now.

I compared Evans's new show (like The Who's  boss in Won't Get Fooled Again - much like the old one) with the slightly manic and occasionally desperate sounding Zoe Ball on Radio 2. I quite like Zoe on TV, not so much on Radio. In the first few days Evans was on Virgin the music he played was more to my taste, but the Radio 2 producers seemed to respond promptly to feedback as Zoe's show's playlist seemed to rapidly evolve closer to that of Evans. Nothing to choose between them.

Of course the reason the breakfast slot is considered so important on radio and TV is that, in theory, once folk have tuned in to a station they are more likely to stay with it through the day. Until we see audience stats hearsay indicates that might not be happening with Virgin and one can infer from the recent slew of full page newspaper ads for the Chris Evans show that listeners aren't steadily building for Virgin. Despite the growth of internet radio it seems a lot of radio listeners don't have or won't find the means to tune in to a station that isn't on the traditional FM/AM wavelengths.

However, when I tried out the Evans show I did stay tuned to Virgin for the following show, by Eddy Temple-Morris - and I'm hooked, permanently tuned to Virgin in the house. Unfortunately in my car the DAB signal keeps dropping out (and Mrs H's newer car mysteriously only has FM, must have been part of a ripoff expensive option). One can see why the powers that be have had to extend the life of FM radio -  it's not just us laggard oldies, DAB just isn't reliable enough.

The reason I like Virgin - and Temple-Morris in particular - is simple: the music. There's a very playlist feel, with some songs and artists coming up fairly frequently. But if they're things you like that's not a problem.

I've listened loyally to Radio 2 since gradually shifting from Radio 1 some 20-30 years ago. I think it was the arrival of Chris Moyles at Radio 1 that finally made me complete the shift. Doing a fair amount of daytime driving at the time with my job I was quite surprised to find I loved the R2 Terry Wogan and Ken Bruce shows. The music choice, heavily biased to golden oldies from the 50s onwards (a typical example would be Dionne Warwick's Walk On By) appealed, though the treatment of the punk/new wave era (as classic as 50s American Diner and 60s Britpop for me) as some kind of black hole always grated. The exception that proved that rule was The Stranglers admittedly mellow Golden Brown, an R2 staple over the decades that had been their record of the week on its release and which Wogan frequently played. The "features" in the two shows, particularly the gloriously smutty Janet and John yarns on Wogan and Bruce's Popmaster quiz were addictive.

R2 clearly couldn't stay in a 60s to 80s focussed time warp for ever, the playlist had to evolve. For some years now I've disliked that evolution. I'm not at all sure what audience demographic they are trying to appeal to. Younger than me - fair enough, though I'm not that much above their average listener age. While Ball's playlist has gone a bit rockier, Bruce plays a lot of pallid, sugary disco music which doesn't hit any kind of spot at 1030am whether you're driving around or in your kitchen.

In contrast Temple Morris plays rock music - admittedly middle of the road rock music - with a smattering of current and recent chart material. Much more beat and he has me singing (well, shouting) along in the car to Oasis or bopping around my kitchen, for example trying to demonstrate that you can do a quickstep to The Pretenders Don't Get Me Wrong. (Don't try this at home. Aljaz from Strictly can do it that fast, I can't).

While doing some domestic tasks a few weeks ago I noted what Temple Morris played to identify the range and median release date of his playlist. Over a 25 song sample the spread was 1973 (Credence's Bad Moon Rising) to 2019 (three songs including Lewis Capaldi's Someone You Loved) with a median date of 1993.  This featured 15 songs that I know well and 10 that I didn't know much or at all; quite a pleasing mix. The songs I know and like included classic tracks by Fleetwood Mac, Keane, U2, Eurythmics, Toploader, Nirvana and Joan Jett topped off with Oasis's Look Back In Anger (but you couldn't possibly listen for many hours without hearing an Oasis classic), Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town and The Clash's London Calling. There was Linkin Park, Aerosmith, Coldplay, Spin Doctors and the Stereophonics Dakota, which I've heard played several times since and is a very Virgin track. Now some of that list could pop up on R2 - as does ELO's Mr Blue Sky which Eddy also played in this particular sample - but even if a lot of it could be heard on R2 at some time, the mix is very different.

And checking against R2, while Bruce was playing George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, a worthy song I can hear about once a year without boredom setting in, Temple Morris was playing the Spin Doctors Two Princes, one of my favourite singalongs and one that I can hear with pleasure at least once a week. And if you listen all week I imagine it would indeed come up more than once, such is the Virgin playlist, though still much more varied than my beloved 60s pirate stations where the hot tracks would come round once an hour.

The other great thing about Eddy TM's show - and all the Virgin shows other than the discursive Evans - is that chat is generally minimal and, while there are ads they are brief, much shorter than on most other commercial stations.

There are three Virgin radio stations - Virgin Radio, Virgin Radio Anthems and Virgin Radio Chilled. At some times of day (e.g. while Evans is on) all three broadcast the same programme. From what I've heard the Anthems (what they anyway?) and Chilled flavours don't hit the spot for me.

I thought the name Temple-Morris rang a bell - and it does. Eddy has had a long career as a DJ and record producer with a lot of radio and some TV on his CV. His full name is The Honourable Edward Owen Kayvan Temple-Morris. How so? His dad was Baron Temple-Morris, before his enoblement Peter Temple-Morris MP. And that's what rings the bell: Temple-Morris senior was famous for crossing the floor of the House. He was MP for Leominster from 1974 to 2001, standing for the Tories at every election. However, he quit the Tory whip in 1997 after being suspended for questioning his own committment to the Conservatives. He crossed the floor and joined Labour in 1998, stood down as an MP in 2001 and was made a life peer where he sat on the Labour benches. Eddy and his dad come from Cardiff. Why the esoteric Kayvan middle name? Well it's a Persian name meaning Saturn. Temple-Morris senior's wife and Eddy's mum was Iranian.

Anyway, Eddy might well be the only radio DJ with his own family coat of arms. Whatever, his show rocks. The only part of the Ken Bruce show I sometimes listen to now is Popmaster.

P.S. Apart from Zoe Ball most of this is about male DJs. While I also quite like Sara Cox, I have a problem with women broadcasters and I don't think it's sexist. Until and unless I get hearing aids (and even then, probably) I just can't hear them as well, especially in the car. It's also why I'm not fond of female sports presenters on the radio. Sorry, ladies, none of you can penetrate the ether quite like Ken Bruce, whose dulcet tones I can hear with clarity. The reason I know this is age releated and not  subliminal sexism is that 1) I used to like listening to Annie Nightingale back in the day and 2) Mrs H agrees with me