The British Council’s weekly international radio show, The Selector, just released its 600^th edition and hasn’t missed a single week in eleven years. Phil Catchpole, the show’s manager, tells us what is changing in radio.

Voices: Phil, you recently attended the Radio Academy Festival with six overseas Selector DJs. What did you do? What are the trends in radio?

Phil: Last November, six of The Selector’s global representatives (Bosnia, Slovenia, Spain, China, Indonesia, Mexico) visited us in the UK to attend the annual gathering of the UK radio industry in Salford at the Radio Academy Festival.

The trip included visits to public and commercial radio studios, including the new BBC studios in London and Salford, as well as some gigs in Hoxton. We had a full programme and everyone learned a lot. Our production company made a podcast of the visit and interviewed the DJs, so you can hear what they had to say:

The whole week underlined the importance of radio as a medium. Because people now have access to everything, you need a good filter. You can listen to anything you want at any time, but where do you start?

Voices: So, radio acts like a friend, recommending music…

Phil: Yes, exactly, like a friend. You listen to 6 Music, for example, because you like the music they play and you want to discover new things. Radio’s role is editorial.

Voices: Do you get requests for The Selector? Can people call in?

Phil: We get requests to include overseas music, but we can’t do that as we only play UK music.

You can’t call in to The Selector, but the web helps us build an interactive element. Bands can send us requests by Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud.

People listen to the show because they want to discover new music. They can find new music through us. If we were to take requests for non-UK music, it wouldn’t be unique. People are already doing shows with music from all around the world (e.g., Gilles Peterson). What we’re doing is unique.

Voices:  How is The Selector unique?

Phil: The show is curated and reflects what’s going on in the UK right now. Also, the way we deliver the show is unique, as we offer the show to stations in a kit format as well as a complete radio show.

Voices: If you had free reign over the programming, what would The Selector be like?

Phil: I’ve got a fairly eclectic taste in music. I love Two Tone, ska and pretty much anything that was ever released on Stiff Records, which is a bit too retrospective for Selector. The people who select the music are producer John of production company Folded Wing and Sam Hall aka DJ Goldierocks, who presents the show. I occasionally send suggestions their way, including from the bands and artists who contact us.

Voices: How does The Selector work as an international radio show?

Phil: The Selector is broadcast in over 35 countries from Mexico to Australia. Everyone listens to The Selector at different times, because it’s not a live show.

We offer a kit version for DJs worldwide, and they can use the kit to deliver the show in their own language. The kit has the tracks, a script, the jingles and info on the bands. The shows are not straight translations, as some sets have to fit with local broadcasting schedules.

Voices: Why is such a big chunk of the show dedicated to electronica?

Phil: Electronic and dance music has always been important in the UK, so we felt we had to reflect that. Check out the outtakes on Selector After Dark if you want to indulge further.

Voices: What’s your proudest achievement?

Phil: I’m proud we’ve grown the audience to the size it is in such a short space of time. We have quadrupled the amount of countries the show is broadcast in since I joined three and a half years ago.

Voices: What are your plans for the future?

Phil: We want to continue expanding the network around the world, keep building on our social media and get people talking to each other. We want to expand into the UK. We’ll be making video content available for us and the stations, which is happening this year. We also have various overseas events confirmed. That’s quite a lot to be getting on with.

Listen to The Selector on SoundCloud.
Learn more about the British Council’s work in music and the arts.