The Lemon Fool

No, don't laugh. I assumed it was all a great big elaborate spoof when I read about it in Robert Shrimsley's column in the FT. I was in for a shock.

It's real, and it's on DAB in major cities or online at https://www.boomradiouk.com/. How quaint of them to have launched it on Valentine's Day, too. All the pirate radio DJs of the sixties, or at least, all the ones who still dare to have their names mentioned in public. A great, toe-curling inclusive empire of boomer newsletters, boomer quizzes and boomer shopping opportunities. (So far, mainly boomer dating, boomer exercise gear, boomer kitchenware, boomer financial advisers. I imagine the stairlift manufacturers are still negotiating their terms.)

Listen, you idiots, the whole point of being born mid-century was that you were born to kick against being pigeonholed, stereotyped, rule-bound, obedient, and easy to second-guess. We didn't storm the Grosvenor Square embassy for this. Nope, like Groucho Marx, the last thing we'd ever want to belong to would be a club that would have us as members.

Oh, and by the way, I don't mean to be picky but Tony Bennett and Shirley Bassey are what our parents would have bought. What's next, Val Doonican? I shall watch this station's progress with a mixture of revulsion and a strange kind of grotesque fascination.

"Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver" BJ

Looks like the boomer generation are growing old gracefully, rather than raging against the machine. I've often wondered what care homes will be like in the very near future. Will the likes of Black Sabbath & Led Zep be piped into the lounges as the residents go about snoozing and playing bingo. Perhaps the medications reduce the impulse to be a free spirit.

Tuned in yesterday and tuned out again shortly thereafter.

May try again in a month or so to see if they've got the hang of it by then.

Being a Boomer I'm quite enjoying most of the programmes on Boom Radio. Roger Day is a good listen in the early evening, but there's Nicky Horne, Graham Dene and, now in his 80s, David Hamilton amongst many familiar voices.

www.boomradiouk.com/

An alternative listen might be The Wireless, online and on Tune-In. Mostly ad-free.

www.henleymediatraining.com/

There's Caroline Flashback, too.

www.carolineflashback.co.uk/

Any others??

I've given up with Radio 2 now, it's clearly targetting a much younger audience.

CatcheeMonkee wrote:I've given up with Radio 2 now, it's clearly targetting a much younger audience.

It's a bummer when that happens, isn't it? Marks & Spencer had the same problem ten years ago, when it realised that its "sensible" target demographic was thinning out fast, and that it needed to refocus on the Next and River Island sector instead.

Not that it succeeded, mind you. And the policemen are still getting younger. Something should be done about it.

BJ