Welcome to The Listening Post, where each week we get an insight into the radio listening habits of a guest contributor. Once each person has made their picks, we ask them to nominate someone for the following week's Listening Post...
Last week after being nominated by Rowan Slaney, an Assistant Podcast Producer at The Guardian, Freelancer Christy Evans provided us with her listening highlights. They included Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, Elis James and John Robins on Radio X and Sound Of Cinema on BBC Radio 3. You can view her full selections here.
Christy has nominated Producer Mark Willington to provide this week's Listening Post. Mark produces Zoe Hardman's show on Heart and occasionally produces content for Heart Extra as well.
Check out Mark's suggestions below...
Read moreThe forgotten decade?
1. Nothing But The 90’s – BBC Radio Manchester
"The 90’s are the poor relation to the 80’s when it comes to the hours of specialist radio shows on offer (yep, I know there’s 90’s at 9 on Heart and Absolute 90’s, but these tend to draw from a smaller pool of tunes), so having 2 hours a week focusing on the most memorable years of my childhood is an overdue treat. Some of my favourite music radio is always radio that surprises me with a great song from the past. Those tracks that either passed me by, or I’d long since forgotten, and this show delivers plenty of them. So you might get a favourite from Blur one minute, and then out of the blue comes Ralph Tresvant's 'Sensitivity', seemingly getting its first play on the radio in what seems like a million years. This week you barely got 10 minutes into the show before Bass-o-matic's 'Fascinating Rhythm' was booming out of your speakers. Of course its rounded nicely off with those anthems you can sing along too, and it's all held together by Stephanie Hurst, who sounds right at home with these songs. It is really great hearing her back on the radio, especially for any fans of Hirsty's Daily Dose on Galaxy."
>> Listen here
Hits from the flicks
2. Saturday Night At The Movies – Classic FM
"Classic FM is a radio station I’m incredibly fond of and while it will always be the Full Works Concert on weeknights that I will forever associate with the station, I have chosen a show that I probably listen to more than any other on Classic FM. I mean, let's face it, who doesn’t like movie soundtracks? Well, here they play the best of them, with Andrew Collins navigating us through and plenty of trivia thrown in. The show has not been afraid to stretch the movie theme and delve into other areas of entertainment, like TV shows and video games. Special mention must also go to the time I was tech-oping the show and got to play out the full-length theme to The Simpsons on the radio!"
>> Listen here
Back in the day
3. The Chris Morris Music Show (1994) – BBC Radio 1
"SO controversial, even in its day and listening back it’s hard to imagine a show like this ever having a place on the modern day Radio 1. If you are a fan of the work of Chris Morris then this is a fascinating retrospective listen, and all the staples he became known for on programmes like The Day Today and Brass Eye are here. My favourite of which are the celeb interviews (obviously secured under a false pretense) with Morris in character as an investigative reporter. The discussions with Peter Stringfellow and Martin Lewis are hilarious and utterly surreal."
"The show was known for deliberately and wrongly announcing the deaths of celebrities, these included Michael Heseltine, an announcement that got the show taken off air for a few weeks, and when it returned it was reportedly no longer live. The music selection, whilst not the centrepiece the show's title makes out, is actually pretty good as well and Chris is joined throughout by sidekick, Peter Baynham."
>> Listen here
Antipodean antics
4. Smallzy’s Surgery – Nova (Australia)
"For someone who has never visited the country, I’ve always listened to a fair amount of Aussie radio. Double T FM in Melbourne was my first but as Nova started launching around the country in the early noughties my listening hours increased. My interest was re-kindled last October when Smallzy broadcast from London for a week and took over Hearts' Studio 4B to present his Nova evening show. It’s a mixture of showbiz news, celeb guests, caller interaction and a countdown of the biggest songs of the day. Now, I know all this can be found over here in a similar format on both Capital and Kiss, but as with a lot of radio from down under, the boundaries are pushed just that little bit more (sometimes too much, I should probably point out), and everything is far cheekier and closer to the bone, which just adds to my enjoyment. Basically they get away with things that you wouldn’t over here. Also the podcast is a geeks dream, as it’s just a scooped aircheck of the show. Brilliant."
>> Listen here
One for the wee hours
5. Simon Beale – Heart
"OK, so I’m at major risk of sounding like a company man but I had to pick Simon Beale. The show follows the one I work on so it’s become the soundtrack to my journey home. Simon is so effortlessly good on the radio and there are enough regular features to allow a more diverse playlist, but without the show feeling like one long set piece. I actually don’t know what night-time sounds like now without my fix of All 80’s between 1 and 2am and for those who really are up all night, that Heart daytime fave, the Time Tunnel, features at 3am."
>> Listen here
Next Week's Listening Post:
"So that’s my choices and next week Jack Mooney will be giving us his radio choices. Jack is a great guy, who is not only a studio manager for BBC Radio but has also dabbled in a bit of presenting on BBC Jersey. I reckon it will be a selection well worth checking out!"
Check back next week for Jack's selections...
