I heart Team Rock Radio!

I have developed three new obsessions lately, all of which are proving to be hugely distracting and are subsequently threatening my livelihood: my shiny new Mk 7 Golf, coffee cake (who knew? I don’t even drink coffee!) and Team Rock Radio. It’s the latter that I want to talk about today, although the way things are going I will soon be starting a Cars & Cake blog just so I can discuss the other two.

I’m not a massive fan of radio, it hasn’t really served a purpose for me since the early 90s when we would listen to Radio 1 for the UK charts every Sunday night, eager to find out if somebody had finally pushed Celine Dion off the top spot, and praying that the DJ wouldn’t talk over the end of whichever track we were trying to record onto cassette tape. (Kids today, you have no idea…)

My personal opinion of radio has typically been, why would you listen to somebody else’s music selection in the hopes that they might occasionally play a song you don’t half mind? Especially when the invention of the iPod means that beautifully tailored playlists and your entire CD collection can fit into your handbag and travel the globe with you.

The arrival of DAB radio and stations like Planet Rock and Kerrang! Radio certainly helped; the music was the right genre and the odds of hearing something you liked were far greater. But still, things tend to become a bit repetitive.

So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a test transmission last month, from a little station called Team Rock Radio. From The Gaslight Anthem, Volbeat and Twin Atlantic to Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper and Pearl Jam, it was like listening to my iPod on shuffle with a few bonus tracks thrown in for good measure. To top it all off there are no ad breaks and they don’t go all soft just because it is 7am. After all, what’s wrong with some Iron Maiden with your breakfast?!

Team Rock Radio is part of the Team Rock brand, which has recently acquired Classic Rock and Metal Hammer magazines. In a statement on their website they say, 'We've spotted a gap in the rock music market, it's called "the rock music market" and we've noticed that rock music fans aren't getting what they want, so we're changing that.'

The station officially launched at two minutes to midnight last Sunday and despite the odd technical teething problem they are looking strong. So if you like your rock, add this station to your favourites, it really is good. Will it become repetitive like most other stations? I guess only time will tell. But for now I’m going to jump into my lovely car, turn the radio up loud, and go on a mission to find some more coffee cake! Or I suppose I could do some work instead.

www.teamrockradio.com

@TeamRockRadio