Radio Stations

Following on from the Dave Lee Roth/Morning Edge post, what do you reckon makes a good radio show? When I lived in Malvern I lived 3 miles from work, so very rarely listened on the 'commute' to work. In the summer I would usually bike in (if the weather was ok!) so never listened at all, but when I worked in London/Oxford/Farnborough I would tune in all the time to while away the drive.

I dont think there is any difference at all with good radio shows in the UK or the US. But what makes a show 'good'?

Jagger Mondo and Dean had a good mix of talk/music (ie less music, more talk) Chris Evans (and his team) on Virgin had a similar format. There was the 'main guy' (Jagger on kdge, and Evans on virgin) who held thing together and a team built around him (although Evans was more dictatorial than Jagger). Its the same with Chris Moyles and 'comedy' Dave and the rest of them, although I find Chris Moyles quite obnoxious, and unfunny, so I dont tend to listen to him. Im sure he's popular with some, but maybe Im just getting old and find the word 'arse' not that funny any more. No, wait, I just laughed at the word 'arse', so maybe its just Moyles talent that I dont find funny?

Anyway, Lex and Terry claim that talk shows are the future (they have done research and everything), and thats why they don't have any music. That might be true, but I think they have to come up with some content to make it work rather than just having, what amounts to a phone in to move the show along. Even I could sit there and have people call in with relationship problems that I fixed on air, and have a radio show (you could even do that on a blog!). Oh they even have a comedy 'head to head' with homeless people telling jokes to win 100 bucks, so they do think of some stuff to broadcast.

So whats the formula? Shock jocks? Comedy Homeless folk? Phone ins? Radio 4's Im sorry I haven't a clue? Hancocks Half Hour?