Radio Songs #45: The Love Zone

The other type of show I drove for extra cash back in the early 90s wasn't on tape at all. Or not all of it, anyway.

Nowadays, radio presenters can record all the links for an entire 3 or 4 hour radio show in under an hour and get a computer to play them in over the songs along with all the ads, jingles and promos so there doesn't even have to be anyone in the studio... or in the station at all. Many of the late night or early morning shows you hear on local (and even national) radio will be recorded like this. Guy Garvey makes no secret of the fact that he records the links for his 6Music show wherever he is and his producer knits them all together for broadcast on Sunday afternoon. Often though, shows such as his go out "as live" with the presenter pretending to actually be there when really they're tucked up at home in bed... or out on the lash.

20+ years ago, such technology was not available, so if presenters did want to pre-record their show, they either had to put the whole thing on reel-to-reel (like the Rick Dees show I talked about last week) or put just the links on tape. Either way, there'd be some lackey like me sat in the studio threading them all together and doing their best to make it all sound live.

The Love Zone was one such show. Every Saturday night from 10 till 2 (the only night the phone-in took a break), our station ran a late night love show. The presenter was a lady from Bermuda was a smooth transatlantic drawl, perfectly suited for such late night Barry White-athons. After a while though she became a little jaded with sitting alone in a radio studio on the most exciting night of the week and decided to go out and live her life instead... while still picking up the paycheck.

Here's where I came in. She would pre-record a set of (mostly generic) links on either tape or cart, and leave me pretty much free rein to put them together with whatever love songs I saw fit. In the early days she gave me a playlist, but that soon became too much hassle, so then it'd just be a stack of Classic Love compilations. Lots of 80s soul, mostly, but once I realised she wasn't even listening to the show (and neither was anyone from management), I started to vary the playlist a little more and throw in a few of my own favourite love songs... particularly after 1am. Sadly, I can't remember what any of my own choices were, and it'd be hard to even guess now since my tastes were not quite as eclectic back then, but I wouldn't be surprised if the odd Springsteen, Costello or Queen ballad crept in there among the Atlantic Starr, Teddy Pendergrass and Peabo Bryson... perhaps even the odd new discovery from the chuck-out box, like some early Aimee Mann. The links were rarely track specific... that kind of planning would have eaten into the presenter's weekend.

So this was how I largely spent my Saturday nights in my early 20s. Alone in a radio station till 2am... while everyone else I knew was out getting drunk, having sex and doing things I couldn't even imagine... playing songs that sounded a lot like this.