Hi amigos and welcome to this week’s 3TFM column.

Last weekend I was having a beer watching a Top Of The Pops special which was featuring the year 1979.

Looking back, at this time I was a first and second year pupil at Ravenspark Academy and my main interest was listening to and buying records.

For the younger readers a record was a flat, circular shaped bit of plastic with a hole in the centre which you placed on a turntable.

The turntable would be selected at a speed of either 33 1/3 or 45 revolutions per minute (RPM) – or in Archie’s case 78RPM. Sorry Archie I couldn’t resist throwing that in! A pick-up arm would be placed on the record and you could hear the song play. Sheer nostalgia!

This 1979 programme featured news events from this year but was more a mix of music hosted by the nation’s top Radio 1 DJs of the time.

The genres of music that year which were prominent in the Top 40 charts were disco, ska, punk, reggae and early traces of electronic/New Romantic music.

Without a doubt 1979 was a great year for music and for anyone doesn’t know, Radio 1’s music policy was then and still is now based on the national pop charts and is still covering the genres of music I’ve just mentioned. Or is it?

It got me thinking how the charts have changed so much over the years. Having listened to the same national station earlier today I felt the station has lost something major about its sound.

Yes it’s very slick, the DJs sound great BUT the songs in the current national pop charts all sound the same.

Where’s the variety gone?

What’s all this RD Rossan with Steve Hinsson featuring SaulKittz about?

You can tell right away from the artists title that their songs will sound similar to Steve Hinsson with SaulKittz featuring RD Rossan.

Their songs all sound the same because the artists are all the same.

So as I see it, if there is no variety of songs in the national pop chart then the national station’s music policy will make the station sound the same – very repetitive and boring.

As a Community Radio station goes I’m glad 3TFM’s music policy covers ALL genres of music.

From Doris Day to the Stranglers, from James Last and His Orchestra to the Smurfs, 3TFM caters for all our listeners’ music tastes and justifies this by broadcasting specialist music programmes – eg The Folk Hour, All That Jazz, Classic Rock Show, Country Hour, Holy Half Hour, Straight Talking, Creative Classics – the list goes on.

The specialist programmes are broadcast more in the evening and the daytime broadcasts cover a mix of music through the day as well as interviews with many guests.

Listen in and hear for yourselves.

Until next week’s column take care of yourselves, keep your radio tuned to 103.1FM Community Radio for Health or listen in online via our website on www.3tfm.org.

We are Ayrshire’s first and original as well as the UK’s leading health promoting Community Radio Station playing great music, chatting to interesting guests, running competitions and broadcasting health info which is all provided free of charge and brought to you by our volunteers.

If you’d like to be part of the 3TFM team and would like more information regarding volunteer recruitment or if you’d like 3TFM to make aware of your group’s purpose and their work to the community in the towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston then contact Louis Ferguson the Station Manager on either 01294 608048 or e-mail louisb@3tfm.org.