CHBN Launches new Easy Listening Show
CHBN's Mike Brown has launched a new weekly programme of Easy Listening music. 'The Light Programme' can be heard every Sunday afternoon between 4pm - 6pm.
Mike says: "I really thin that this is a genre of music which has always been under-represented on UK radio. Years ago, back n the 1960s we had the BBC's Light Programme of course, which was the fore-runner to Radio 2, and there were a couple of off-shore pirate radio stations, Radio 390 and Britain Radio, which used the strapline 'Hallmark of Quality', which I have resurrected - you'll hear it in the jingles I've had made for the programme. Then, more recently, there was a station in London called Melody Radio, but really, Easy Listening has never been seen as 'cool' in this country, which I think is wrong. We need to overcome this idea that easy listening is elevator music, and start to enjoy it for what it is, great arrangements of great tunes.
So what can we expect to hear in this new show? "Oh, it will actually be incredibly wide ranging - everything from Strauss to... well... The Lighthouse Family and Rumer. Along the way there will be light orchestral music from composers like Leroy Anderson, Robert Farnon, Eric Coates... there will be show tunes, film scores, country and Americana - you name it, If it's got a decent tune and is easy on the ears it will probably find its way into the programme. Our first regular feature on the programme is Two by Two and that's always going to be a selection from two of the Easy Listening greats - Bert Kaempfert and James Last.
Who does Mike feel the programme is aimed at? "Oh, no-one, really. No, I don't mean that! I guess it's actually aimed at everyone. I think that good music is timeless and that the best radio is not ageist, and I think that's one of the strengths of CHBN. We're not specifically aiming ourselves at any particular age group. Ideally I want people to listen, to hear music they maybe haven't heard before and hopefully realise that they like it and want to hear more. A lot of people listen to radio out of habit, so I'm hoping they'll get the Sunday afternoon habit, because I don't think there's much else on the radio or tv at that time and I don't think there's anywhere else you'll hear a programme quite like this."
The Light Programme can be heard on CHBN every Sunday afternoon from 4pm. Listen live via this web site, through the CHBN Radio app and in Truro on 100.8 FM, (or 'Stereo VHF' as they used to say!