Metal on the Airwaves

Okay, so it’s a given that Kerrang! Radio is a big steaming pile of dog toss. But it’s not the only radio purveyor of rock.

The BBC has two efforts – Radio 1’s Rock Show, headed by Daniel P Carter, and the Bruce Dickinson Friday Rock Show on 6Music. As great a rock star as he may be, Dickinson is one of the worst radio presenters I’ve ever heard – and I’ve listened to an entire episode of George Lamb’s show. There’s far too much time given over to sycophantic fan messages, who seem more interested in obtaining the attention of Dickinson for the seconds it takes him to read their message, rather than the music they’re requesting. The Maiden frontman himself seems to talk like his listeners like they’re a bunch of idiot children. Which, going by the moron missives they send in, might not be far from the truth.

Stick to what you’re good at, Bruce:

The Radio 1’s Rock Show is a more palatable affair, although it’s still treated like the bitch of the Radio 1 schedules, its timeslot waxing and waning with rock’s mainstream popularity. It’s current host, Daniel P Carter, formerly of A and currently playing with Hexes (verdict after seeing them live: not bad), falls firmly into the category of “knowing what he’s on about” category of metal radio presenters. He also gives regular airtime to unsigned metal, and you rarely (if ever) feel like a radio plugger is sitting on his shoulder and trying to dictate the playlist. Good work so far.

Then there’s TotalRock. It’s long since moved to online-only broadcasting, but it’s still by far the biggest UK-based internet metal radio. I’m probably massively generalising here, but whenever I’ve tuned in (can you even “tune” in to an internet station?), with the exception of Jerry Ewing’s show, it’s always seemed a bit amateur-hour. Which is maybe a little unfair, because it is an amateur operation for a lot of their people. But with the rise in internet broadcasting (hmmmm….), they’re not such a dominant voice anymore.

For my money, it’s Katie P on the XFM Rock Show that delivers the best metal radio. Minimal chat, no fear of the old skool, no cooler-than-thou attitude. I’ll be honest, I was somewhat cynical when Ian Camfield split for K-ROCK that they’d be able to find someone to step in. Sure, there were issues with Camfield – his obsession with Paul Di’Anno, and the fact that whenever he was wheeled out to be the face of some metal event, he would always wear the same damn shirt – but he knew his shit and always produced a good show. But in Katie P(arsons), they’ve found someone who has acquitted herself well in the slot. And since it’s on Sunday night, it’s the most metal way to round off a weekend.

Okay, it’s not perfect. There’s too much limp metalcore and toothless punk on her playlists – and she played bloody Shinedown this week, and nobody wants that. And when she gets her teeth in something it get’s a bit too overplayed (recently it’s been Bring Me The Horizon’s Suicide Season and Slipknot’s All Hope Is Gone), But it’s the best we’ve got at the moment, and we should celebrate that fact.

XFM's Katie P - well deserving a thumbs up