In the mood

Whilst there's plenty of focus on getting the youth audience listening to the radio, the UK is still peculiarly focussed on the past. In today's RAJAR listening figures, Heart 80s celebrates reaching 1.4m listeners a week - from a standing start in March last year. Absolute 80s is up to 1.5m, from 1.3m last year. The Magic Network, which specialises, in oldies is up nearly 6% year on year; Smooth has nudged forward again.

1968 was the year of Hey Jude, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and The Mighty Quinn. Imagine, in those days, choosing a station majoring on Glenn Miller, Fred Astaire, Ray Noble and Judy Garland.

In May 1968, we'd had nearly nine months of Radio 1, and the remaining pirates were being chased from their boats and forts. Pirates were estimated to have reached 15m at their peak. Radio 1 was said to have doubled the old Light Programme audience within a year of starting, and, at its peak, reached close to 24m a week. Today, Radio 1 stands at 9.4m (up 4% year on year), whilst just one commercial group, Heart, hits 9.5m.