Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

Here's how Terry Wogan signed-off from his final Radio 2 Breakfast Show:

"This is it then this is the day I have been dreading, the morning when you and I come to the parting of the ways, the last Wake Up To Wogan. It wasn't always thus. For the first 12 years it was the plain old Terry Wogan Show and you were all Twits, the Terry Wogan is Tops Society.

"When I returned to the bosom of the family you all became Togs, Terry's Old Geezers and Gals. It's always been a source of enormous pride to me that you have come together in my name, that you are proud to call yourself my listeners, that you think of me as a friend, someone that you are close enough to laugh with, to poke fun at and just occasionally when the world seemed just a little too cruel, to shed a tear with.

"The years together with you have not only been a pleasure but a privilege. You have allowed me to share your lives with you. When you tell me how important I have been in your lives it's very moving, you have been every bit as important in mine.

"We have been though at least a couple of generations together, for many of you your children like mine have children of their own.

"Your support for Children In Need has been consistent and magnificent… If anybody embodies the generous, warm spirit of this country it's you, my listeners.

"I am not going to pretend that this is not a sad day - you can probably hear it in my voice - I am going to miss the laughter and the fun of our mornings together. I know you are going to welcome Chris Evans with the same generosity of spirit that you have shown me.

"I am going to miss you, until we are together again in February have a happy Christmas. Thank you, thank you for being my friend."

Tribute To A True Radio Legend

In case you hadn't noticed - or live outside the UK (in which case this will probably mean nothing to you) - Sir Terry Wogan is leaving the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show at the end of this week after a total of 28 years (1972-1984 and 1993-2009.

Some of his peers have contributed to this video tribute.

Acceptable In The 80s - Absolute-ly

For much of this weekend I've had Absolute 80s providing the background music around the house - and really enjoyed it.

When plans were first announced, Absolute 80s was described as '...a "nostalgia trip" for 30- to 54-year-olds, playing 80s pop from the likes of the Human League, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Duran Duran, Prince, ABC, Depeche Mode, Blondie and Bon Jovi.' On the basis of my weekend listening it does, to use someone else's strapline, what it says on the tin.

It's strange to realise that the 'newest' track on the station is now 20 years old, while the 'oldest' will be 30 next year, but while it may be a "nostalgia trip", Absolute 80s is playing a lot of good, strong songs that have become timeless.

The overall musical feel is uptempo pop and rock; I have yet to hear any of the decade's slower songs. This would seem to be because the station is currently in party mode in the run-up to Christmas and New Year, so I suspect there will be some more light and shade from January when there will also be presenters on the station. At the moment it's non-stop music.

As far as the All-80s format goes, restricting yourself to a single ten-year band the amount of available music is finite. There will also need to be some quality control; after all you're not going to play everything from the decade so those hoping to hear Joe Dolce album tracks or Nolan Sisters B-sides are likely to be rather disappointed.

'All-80s' was tried in the States a while ago but, along with Jammin' Oldies, turned out to be a 'fad format'. In August 1999 Chicago's WXXY - “The 80s Channel" - became one of the first to switch to the format, but lasted less than 18 months. Licensed to one of Chicago's suburbs, and barely audible in some parts of the city, it was inevitable that, when the more-powerful ABC-owned FM station become WZZN –“The Zone”, with a rock-based 80s playlist, WXXY was going to have an uphill struggle to survive and flipped to a Spanish contemporary music format.

Many US stations that went All-80s have since either moved right out of the format, or broadened the era range of their playlist to become a regular AC.

I don't, however, want to rain on Absolute's parade. Right now Absolute 80s is a good listen and, I suspect, is still Work In Progress. Its predecessor in that slot, Absolute (nee Virgin) Xtreme, lasted just over four years and even if the station changes or is replaced by something else in a few years' time at least the team at One Golden Square will have tried doing something different; which is A Good Thing. After all, let's not forget that Xtreme has now morphed into dabbl; another new idea.

Finally, here's a short clip from WXXY's launch - what I like is the totally relaxed attitude of the person driving the desk (the station's Chief Exec, Mike Kakoyiannis).

(Apologies for the quality but this comes from the days when 56k dial-up was about as good as the internet got and video clips were encoded accordingly)