WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH PICK OF THE POPS?
I confess that I don't actually listen to Pick Of The Pops on Radio 2 any more. What I now do instead is follow the progress, or otherwise, of the show live on Twitter every Saturday afternoon, seeing what Gambaccini's playing, what he has left out, and the general reaction of the social media stalwarts who still listen to the show as religiously as they moan about it. While that's happening I listen to that week's full Top 40 via Spotify (with YouTube Music fallback for the hits which Spotify doesn't have) and imagine that I'm having a much more enjoyable listening experience. I'm not sure what the point of Pick Of The Pops is any more. Listening to some old editions with Alan Freeman, uploaded by Rob Chapman and others, it is clear that the show's main attraction was its present tense. Prior to that week's Top 20, which Fluff usually played in full (banned records notwithstanding), there would be a stream of dizzyingly eclectic new releases; ever...