Keeps me smiling (Wyvern FM)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Wyvern FM
Date:	05/02/03 (525 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: up beat

Disadvantages: repetative

I stumbled across Rodio Wyvern by accident. You see, I have a wind up radio (excellent and totally recomended) and was in the mood for something a bit more lively than radio 4. Now, normally I listen to radio 4, but during the day it can get a bit grim and drab - there's only so many of those insightful but ultimately depressing state of the world programs that I can take. I wiggled the knob on the radio a bit (did I mention its a wind up radio?) and found some bright, upbeat sounding music. I stopped there, I've been stopping there a lot lately.

I should perhaps mention now that I live under a rock. I have no TV and am, by choice, cut off from 'popular culture' and have been for a couple of years now. I'm largely sceptical about pop music (at the grand old age of 25) I find a lot of it shallow, superficial, uninsprired and samey. But sometimes I want something that isn't gonig to depress me, worry me or make me feel guilty about all the things I can't fix in the world. This is where Wyvern comes in.

Radio Wyvern broadcasts across Hereford and Worcestershire. Its as chirpy as any local radio I've ever encountered. The presenters sound young to me, they tend to be in a good mood, half of what they say is drivel and the rest doesn't bother me, which is nice sometimes. The news is infrequent and brief, which is great when I don't want to know anymore, and these days I keep finding I would prefer not to know because its always grim.

The music - dominated by whatever's in the charts, but with a splash of classic album tracks, which is ok by me. Sometimes you end up hearing the same couple of songs over and over during a week, which is ok if you like said, but a nightmare if they've picked some daft tune that gets in your head and drives you mad. There's a lot of audience participation - for example they will offer up a couple of choices and you text in to say which one you want, or they off
er a selection by one artist and people vote on those. It is a bit biased towards text messaging, and I don't have a mobile phone, not that I ever get the urge to phone in anyway.

There are regular competitions to win things. As most of the 'things' seem to pertain to bands I've never heard of, much of this is lost on me. However, based on the levels of excitment of those who win, I guess someone out there knows who these people are. Perhaps with a few more months of dedicated listeing I will start to pick up names, but I doubt it as I haven't managed yet.

They do some sort of nightly chart which I have yet to get the hang of. I don't have the faintest idea what its based on, but somehow I still find myself listening with enthusiasm wondering whose in, whose out, and who the hell half the people mentioned actually are anyway.

I would imagine the local travel news is quite handy..... if you have a car. (I told you, I live under a rock.)

The adverts. All local commercial radio has cheesey adverts with jingles that make you feeling like throttling someone, this is just one of those things. I find them very useful - they come at regular intervals, reminding me that I need to wind up my radio (I may have mentioned this before). The process of winding up the radio makes a moderate amount of nosie and distorts the output. Thus I don't hear much of the ads, I keep my radio wound and I don't have to miss any of the music. Ads are thus fine with me!

Most of my listening thus far has been between about 7.15 (after The Arches, yes I know I'm sad) and nine. I've dipped in a few times during the day and thus far it seems that they keep doing the same thing - lots of chart stuff and the occasional 'something oder but decent'.

Local radio, because it goes on about places down the road from you, and has phone ins from people who live where you live, has this amazing knack for givin
g you the impression are connected to you local 'community'. You aren't in any real sense, but tis a nice feeling none the less so I don't knock it too much.

If you want something fairly low brow, easy going and cheerful, Wyvern is a good choice. I don't know why its called Wyvern ( a type of dragon I believe) if I ever find out, I'll come back and let you know.

Summary: