Colorado Media Newsroom
March 15th, 2024, 01:10 PM
From Radio Insight:
https://radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2024/02/laser558-200x200.jpgIn the U.S., Laser 558 was a station profiled once in Radio & Records. In the UK, it was a big story in commercial radio, an offshore AM station in pirate radio tradition that was tighter and more Americanized than the more full-service presentations of BBC Radio 1 and commercial broadcasters. Laser launched in 1984; by the time a second incarnation went away in 1987, its competitors are said to have modernized considerably.*
Laser?s closet North American counterpart was XETRA (The Mighty 690), the 1980-84 Mexican-owned AM that targeted both San Diego and Los Angeles until FM Top 40 was firmly reestablished in both markets. Eventually, it was FM sister 91X that endured.*
In 1984, I got to hear Laser 558 just once; specifically, the airchecks that were supplied to write its R&R profile. But last year, UK radio veteran Steve Bannister revived Laser 558, (https://laser558.live/) first as an online station, and now as a DAB broadcaster in four markets, with three more on the way.*
Using the same technology that helped reanimate Chicago?s legendary AM stations last year, (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/258524/was-classic-radio-ever-that-good/) Bannister is offering three online channels: one for unedited airchecks, one that uses editing to adjust the content slightly, and one offering the same feed but with AM-radio processing. (The editing is so that the station, which went through a second frequency and slightly different name, ?Laser Hot Hits,? can be consistent throughout the four-year period covered.)
Hearing Laser 558 isn?t quite the same as listening to airchecks of American CHR from that era (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/260629/overnights-in-a-golden-age-of-top-40/). Besides being the UK?s mix of music ? always deeper in both new wave and dance/R&B ? there?s also a deeper gold component than most American CHRs had in the ?hot hits? era. (There was apparently a ?60s Sunday, which explains a few of the surprising segues below.)*
But Laser is still a great listen. The UK mix was often superior. It allowed Top 40 there to avoid our early- ?80s doldrums. A lot of the music heard mostly on the burgeoning dance format outlets, such as KPWR (Power 106) Los Angeles, was mainstream there, and it buoys Top 40 in 1986-87 at a time when the excitement was wearing off here. Hearing American airchecks would give you more depth than our tighter-than-ever Classic Hits format anyway, but hearing a different country?s hits (and stiffs) bakes that in.*
In the early ?80s, when UK stations still had considerable spoken-word requirements, Laser was (like the Mighty 690) considered very tight and music-intensive. Now, of course, like the ?80s aircheck of overnights that prompted a previous story, it sounds entirely foreground compared to today?s radio. Bannister is still looking to acquire more airchecks of the station and hear from surviving staffers; he can be reached here. (laser558.live@gmail.com)
Here are a few stretches of Laser 558, including this one from the first day, May 27, 1984:
Fun Boy Three, ?Our Lips Are Sealed?
OMD, ?Locomotion?
Jonathan King, ?Everyone?s Gone to the Moon?
New Order, ?Thieves Like Us?
Sly & the Family Stone, ?Stand?
After the Fire, ?Laser of Love? ? the ?Der Kommissar? band with an earlier single that was being positioned as the station anthem
Jam, ?Going Underground?
Amazulu, ?Excitable?
Rolling Stones, ?It?s All Over Now?
Pat Benatar, ?Love Is a Battlefield?
Feargal Sharkey, ?Lovin? You?
Here?s the station representing July 1985:
Arrow, ?Long Time?
Elvis Presley, ?Way Down?
Harold Faltermeyer, ?Axel F?
Tracey Ullman, ?Breakaway?
Steve Arrington, ?Dancin? in the Key of Life?
Billy Ocean, ?Mystery Lady?
U2, ?The Unforgettable Fire?
Cyndi Lauper, ?The Goonies ?R? Good Enough?
Fine Young Cannibals, ?Johnny Come Home?
Finally, here?s a segment whose music puts it in late 1986:
Modern Romance, ?Don?t Stop that Crazy Rhythm?
Mary Wells, ?My Guy?
Simply Red, ?Money?s Too Tight (To Mention)?
Nick Berry, ?Every Loser Wins?
Supremes, ?Automatically Sunshine? ? forgotten in the U.S., but a UK top 10 from a great post-Diana Ross run of singles
Danny Wilson, ?Mary?s Prayer?
Freddie Jackson, ?Rock Me Tonight (For Old Time?s Sake)?
Big Audio Dynamite, ?E=mc2?
Isley Brothers, ?Summer Breeze?
Prince, ?Raspberry Beret?
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/265460/hearing-the-80s-again-in-real-time/)
https://radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2024/02/laser558-200x200.jpgIn the U.S., Laser 558 was a station profiled once in Radio & Records. In the UK, it was a big story in commercial radio, an offshore AM station in pirate radio tradition that was tighter and more Americanized than the more full-service presentations of BBC Radio 1 and commercial broadcasters. Laser launched in 1984; by the time a second incarnation went away in 1987, its competitors are said to have modernized considerably.*
Laser?s closet North American counterpart was XETRA (The Mighty 690), the 1980-84 Mexican-owned AM that targeted both San Diego and Los Angeles until FM Top 40 was firmly reestablished in both markets. Eventually, it was FM sister 91X that endured.*
In 1984, I got to hear Laser 558 just once; specifically, the airchecks that were supplied to write its R&R profile. But last year, UK radio veteran Steve Bannister revived Laser 558, (https://laser558.live/) first as an online station, and now as a DAB broadcaster in four markets, with three more on the way.*
Using the same technology that helped reanimate Chicago?s legendary AM stations last year, (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/258524/was-classic-radio-ever-that-good/) Bannister is offering three online channels: one for unedited airchecks, one that uses editing to adjust the content slightly, and one offering the same feed but with AM-radio processing. (The editing is so that the station, which went through a second frequency and slightly different name, ?Laser Hot Hits,? can be consistent throughout the four-year period covered.)
Hearing Laser 558 isn?t quite the same as listening to airchecks of American CHR from that era (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/260629/overnights-in-a-golden-age-of-top-40/). Besides being the UK?s mix of music ? always deeper in both new wave and dance/R&B ? there?s also a deeper gold component than most American CHRs had in the ?hot hits? era. (There was apparently a ?60s Sunday, which explains a few of the surprising segues below.)*
But Laser is still a great listen. The UK mix was often superior. It allowed Top 40 there to avoid our early- ?80s doldrums. A lot of the music heard mostly on the burgeoning dance format outlets, such as KPWR (Power 106) Los Angeles, was mainstream there, and it buoys Top 40 in 1986-87 at a time when the excitement was wearing off here. Hearing American airchecks would give you more depth than our tighter-than-ever Classic Hits format anyway, but hearing a different country?s hits (and stiffs) bakes that in.*
In the early ?80s, when UK stations still had considerable spoken-word requirements, Laser was (like the Mighty 690) considered very tight and music-intensive. Now, of course, like the ?80s aircheck of overnights that prompted a previous story, it sounds entirely foreground compared to today?s radio. Bannister is still looking to acquire more airchecks of the station and hear from surviving staffers; he can be reached here. (laser558.live@gmail.com)
Here are a few stretches of Laser 558, including this one from the first day, May 27, 1984:
Fun Boy Three, ?Our Lips Are Sealed?
OMD, ?Locomotion?
Jonathan King, ?Everyone?s Gone to the Moon?
New Order, ?Thieves Like Us?
Sly & the Family Stone, ?Stand?
After the Fire, ?Laser of Love? ? the ?Der Kommissar? band with an earlier single that was being positioned as the station anthem
Jam, ?Going Underground?
Amazulu, ?Excitable?
Rolling Stones, ?It?s All Over Now?
Pat Benatar, ?Love Is a Battlefield?
Feargal Sharkey, ?Lovin? You?
Here?s the station representing July 1985:
Arrow, ?Long Time?
Elvis Presley, ?Way Down?
Harold Faltermeyer, ?Axel F?
Tracey Ullman, ?Breakaway?
Steve Arrington, ?Dancin? in the Key of Life?
Billy Ocean, ?Mystery Lady?
U2, ?The Unforgettable Fire?
Cyndi Lauper, ?The Goonies ?R? Good Enough?
Fine Young Cannibals, ?Johnny Come Home?
Finally, here?s a segment whose music puts it in late 1986:
Modern Romance, ?Don?t Stop that Crazy Rhythm?
Mary Wells, ?My Guy?
Simply Red, ?Money?s Too Tight (To Mention)?
Nick Berry, ?Every Loser Wins?
Supremes, ?Automatically Sunshine? ? forgotten in the U.S., but a UK top 10 from a great post-Diana Ross run of singles
Danny Wilson, ?Mary?s Prayer?
Freddie Jackson, ?Rock Me Tonight (For Old Time?s Sake)?
Big Audio Dynamite, ?E=mc2?
Isley Brothers, ?Summer Breeze?
Prince, ?Raspberry Beret?
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/265460/hearing-the-80s-again-in-real-time/)