On a bitterly cold evening I pulled on my coat, grabbed a camera and a hand held recorder and left the house to meet Ross Macfadyen presenter of ‘Thank Folk It’s Friday!' on community radio station ‘Celtic Music Radio’. It’s a 15 minute walk from where I live to the studios, but by the time I arrived my feet were already turning to blocks of ice.
I took the lift up to the offices and stepped into a hive of activity. Ross is busily editing a programme for future broadcast while Alex Jenkins, a Director & Trustee of the station, is repositioning microphones in preparation for a live set from 'Muckle Flugga', a band who have travelled from Edinburgh to be on Ross’ show.
With a few minutes to spare, Ross kindly offered cakes, chat and a restorative cup of hot tea and it swiftly became apparent that we had a lot in common.
Ross Macfadyen:
“In August 1983 I remember reading an article about Radio Caroline starting up again, and then promptly forgot about it, but for Christmas that year I asked my parents for a boogie box (that’s a radio with cassette tape recorder built-in kids!), and for two weeks I scanned up and down the frequencies trying to find something I enjoyed. Finally, I stumbled across this static noise with rock music wafting in and out of it, which turned out to be Status Quo. I had discovered Radio Caroline! What appealed to me was the lack of chat. It was 20 minutes of back to back music, no jingles, no nothing, just music!”
In 1964, Ronan O’Rahilly founded Radio Caroline as a means of shaking the music and radio industry to its very foundations. Based on-board the MV Mi Amigo and moored in international waters it was deemed a pirate radio station and the Government of the day introduced the Marine Broadcasting Offenses Act 1967 in an attempt to close pirate radio stations for good. In the same year the BBC introduced Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 employing many of the ex Radio Caroline DJs in the process.
*A history of Radio Caroline can be found here
“Once I had found Radio Caroline - that was me! It was so different. They avoided the run of the mill music being played elsewhere.
I also loved listening to Annie Nightingale, but sadly never had the opportunity to listen to John Peel nearly as much as I should have. When he passed away I do remember asking myself “what will happen to music & radio now?” and I still feel there is a vacuum when it comes to new music getting the exposure it deserves.
Gavin Knight:
“So when did you switch from being a listener to getting involved in broadcasting?”
RM:
“I was a student at Strathclyde University (in 1985) and discovered their radio station, called “StrathRadio”, which was in the student union and simply wired around the building with speakers playing out to anyone in the various bars and social areas. I spent my first, and as it turns out, my last year concentrating completely on the radio station”.
This, I must admit came as a bit of a revelation to me as between 1995-1998 I had co-founded Strathclyde’s current station (Fusion) alongside Simon Kemp, Tess Grieg, Jacob McKnight, Peter Mann and Sandra Harvie. We had heard whispers of the original, long dead station and their antics, but after all these years I was surprised to finally meet one of the original presenters.
“Tapes still exist of my StrathRadio shows, but they are going to stay strictly in the archives!”
GK:
“Clearly you decided to leave university, but did you continue to pursue a career in radio?”
RM:
“No! Although, in hindsight I could have approached Clyde and offered a demo, I worked in regular jobs and forgot about it until a chance meeting with Alex (Jenkins) three years ago. Initially I pre-recorded my programmes until I worked up the confidence to present live – there’s certainly a buzz around a live show that’s infectious!
GK:
“Why did you decide to get involved in community radio as opposed to perhaps a paying job elsewhere within the industry?”
RM:
“We once had a volunteer who was also involved in a commercial station. We fell into discussion about their play listing and from 4 decades they’d selected 700 tracks that they felt sufficiently covered all genre and 40 years! That was the sum total of their regular output. So, listeners were being subjected to the same tracks over and over on a ridiculous rotation.
Here at Celtic Music Radio we have a growing database with approximately 15,000 tracks. Each artist is given the same amount of airplay as the next. For me it is about the music. It has always been about the music. I wouldn’t get the opportunity to play such wide and varied music elsewhere.” That’s not to say if someone wishes to pay me........."
Ross trails off here.
Volunteers in any of the community, student or hospital stations have to be admired when they give up their own free time and spend hours, painstakingly piecing together new and interesting shows knowing that they could easily be paid elsewhere for doing less work. However, the really impressive thing here is that unlike in commercial or national radio there’s not a large team busily preparing for the transmission, there’s nobody manning the ‘phone, answering emails, producing the show or showing guests in or out of the ‘Green Room’.
On Celtic Music Radio, the presenters are their own producers, choose what music will be played on their programmes and arrange any guests they wish to interview or play for them. For example, tonight there is simply two staffers, Ross and Alex, yet the standard of the output is really high.
As I am preparing to leave and let Ross get on with his show, he concludes:
RM:
“I really think if you listen to our output, we could go national tomorrow. We have created a community radio station, which is not based purely on a geographical location, but is run by a team of volunteers who are enthusiastic about Folk Music for an entire community of folk musicians and fans who simply wouldn’t have a focal point if we didn’t exist. The one thing we hear all the time from listeners is simply 'Thank you for being there'.
Where else would they go to hear folk music? It is rarely given the attention it deserves on other stations.
A prime example of how we feel about our community status is our support to ensure that the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music up in Plockton isn’t closed down. It’s outside our geographical location, but the people and the music are part of our musical community.
We are more than just a community radio station, we are a musical community.”
Ross Macfadyen’s show “Thank Folk It’s Friday!” can be heard live each Friday evening between 8-10pm on Celtic Music Radio 1530AM in the Greater Glasgow area or online (see link below).
CelticMusicRadio.net
National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music
