Country Music on the Frequencies of Radio Herford.
Nigel Rennie Country is the current Country Music programme of the British forces radio station BFBS. While a Country music programme is indispensable for its American counterpart AFN, the Briton's relationship with country music is bit more ambiguous. There are many fans - more than in Germany - but still only a minority. And that is, of course, reflected on the British Forces Broadcasting Service.
So there have always been periods, during which BFBS did not have a country music programme at all. That had as much to do with the rise and fall of country music on the island as with the personal taste of the programme director. Of the BFBS country music programmes of the past we would like to mention Toetappers and Tearjerkers with Roger D. (Dentith), which ran in the early 90s (Wednesdays, 8-10pm German time) and the programme hosted by David Allan, the British top country DJ, that ran during the 80s. The latter programme was called.... Country Folk. Simularities to the name of a certain other programme are of course not accidental! ;-)
But since BFBS is not beyond radio format lunacy (which, of course does not apply to music to the programme director's liking!), the only space for Nigel Rennie Country is on the second network, which in Germany is only heard on a handful of low power stations not even reaching all of its intended audience.
BFBS Radio 2: Fridays 9pm
In parts of Herford County reception is possible on 101.6 MHz (Bielefeld), 105.0 MHz (Paderborn/Sennelager) and 106.3 MHz (Osnabrück). Via satellite (across Europe): Eutelsat W3, 7° East, 11.325 GHz, vertical polarisation, symbolrate 27500 kB/s, FEC 1/2 (recently encrypted).
But on the British Isles, contrary to American commercial Country radio, there does not seem to exist one uniform idea of what Country music has to be like. So, for more than 10 years there were two different regular Country music programmes on BBC Radio 2. Nick Barraclough presents music from the current, modern mainstream and Bob Harris concentrates on alternative country, singer-/songwriters and other fringe areas. Bob Harris was also the host of the first Country music programme on BFBS after a lengthy break, but has since been permanently replaced by Nigel Rennie. He prefers easily digestible mainstream pop-country. Bob Harris is in his choice of music and style of presentation a big influence on Achim Biermann.. The Nick Barraclough-programme has been discontinued since April 2007. Although he will continue to present occasional Country Music specials on the BBC, he now hosts a regular 3-hour programme on Smooth Radio, which is but a pale shadow of what he used to do on the BBC.
BBC Radio 2: Bob Harris Country: Thursday 8.03pm
Reception is possible in most of Europe via Satellite on Astra 2, 28.2° East, 11.954 GHz, horizontal polarisation, symbolrate 27500 kB/s, FEC 2/3 (digital). Also available as an Internet audio stream live or »on demand« up to one week after the original broadcast.
Portrait:
www.ssvc.com/bfbs/radio/presenters/n_rennie.htm
EMail: nigelr@bfbs.com
Website of the BBC Radio 2 programme:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/bobharriscountry
Bob Harris Website: www.bobharris.org
Bob Harris Country: www.bobharris.org/country
Bob Harris on BFBS: www.bobharris.org/show/bfbs.htm
EMail: bobharriscountry@bbc.co.uk