With the replacement Pure micro system finally here, the DAB wonders of 18 digital radio stations now fill the front room in the flat. The timer is set up to record numerous BBC Radio 4 programmes to the SD card, and I wonder how I ever managed without it.
Searching through the station list on Sunday morning was surprising, though. A station named Birdsong appeared in the channel choices, (unsurprisingly) playing nothing but birdsong. Just like Big Brother does when its housemates talk about anything remotely contentious, or exercise their foul and uncouth mouths. First recorded in 1992, the audio track was last broadcast three years ago.
Birdsong is broadcast daily from 06h00 to midnight
It turns out it now occupies digital speech station Oneword Radio’s frequency, before it stopped broadcasting on 12 January, along with another popular DAB channel, Core. The only national commercial radio station offering spoken word entertainment, Oneword Radio first hit the airwaves in 2000, won many awards, and was the commercial riposte to the BBC’s Radio 4.
As well as birdsong, a ‘rural soundtrack’ will be played in place of the station’s programmes for the time being. And although not music, it was strangely (and surprisingly) soothing on a Sunday morning, and seemed to bring the outside indoors. What other aural delights make up a ‘rural soundtrack’, though?
Cows moo-ing? Lambs baa-ing? Cockerels crowing? The Archers already does those sounds more than well enough. That programme’s listeners would no doubt already be listening to other similar programmes on Radio 4.
And therein lays the probable answer to Oneword’s demise. The BBC has been offering a broad mix of spoken word programmes for years.