Eagle 80s - it was good while it lasted

Time to mourn the Eagle 80s radio station.

It was an offshoot of Eagle radio, coming from Guildford, where I used to live. So it was fun listening to the music of my childhood while getting news and updates of what was going on in my old haunting ground.

Recently, Bauer Media bought all the UKRD stations. Eagle 80s is no longer, and as of September it looks like Eagle itself will become some sort of classics station. While there might be hope there, it’s worth noting that all of the Planet stations are geoblocked and won’t play to me in France. I can’t imagine whatever becomes of Eagle being any different. Jeez, it looks like Bauer owns just about everything in the UK that isn’t the Beeb…

I’m currently trying https://retrohits.ca/ (from Toronto) which isn’t strictly 80s, but close enough. It’s an MP3 stream, so I can put it into my NetRadio.

Oh well. Maybe in another twenty years I’ll find an available station from Guildford and hear that the Bisley Interchange is still a disaster at rush hour. Some things never change. ;-)

Suggestions welcome.

I guess I’ll get a more America-centric selection. So…that’ll be a no to Red Box’s “For America” then? ;-) 😂

At least it’s not endless gun safety/buzz driving adverts like PPN Radio.

https://www.eagleradio.co.uk/radioplayer/80s/ plays for me outside the UK with cookies enabled in Firefox.

Suggestions welcome.

Post less off topic content?

Eagle currently does play internationally, but Bauer’s existing 80s station does not.
https://planetradio.co.uk/absolute-80s/

Post less off topic content?

Peter, you obviously have not got the hang of Aldershot and its proximity to Guildford.

Guildford is certainly on-topic here!

it’s worth noting that all of the Planet stations are geoblocked and won’t play to me in France.

Did I not very recently offer a solution to that problem?

Post less off topic content?

Off RISC OS is on topic here, so I think he’s doing fine.

I clicked on this topic thinking I’d see a discussion about Dan Dare, PC49, etc… 8-] I’ll mention The Eagle Society whilst I’m here though. :-)

Peter, you obviously have not got the hang of Aldershot and its proximity to Guildford.
Guildford is certainly on-topic here!

If I didn’t live in this god forsaken fake forest, I’d get upset about how Surrey centric the forum is.

how Surrey centric the forum is.

<pedant> Aldershot is not in Surrey </pedant>

And anyway, it wasn’t intended as a compliment to the <cough> fine town of Aldershot, but rather more in the context of “that place where all the pointless **** ends up”.
Anybody who watched the development of the shopping centre will understand what I mean (anybody local: in the nearly two decades since I last saw it, has it improved at all? did they ever get any actual real shops in the new part (the Wimpy/PostOffice end)?).

As for the Aldershot/Guildford connection ¹, it’s my old stomping grounds.

¹ Lies! You have to change at Woking. ²

² Correction – the route was Aldershot, Ash Vale, North Camp, Guildford wasn’t it? I had to change because I lived in Ash (which isn’t Ash Vale), which is on the Woking line. Woking was nice. Decent library and big shopping centre. I understand they’ve totally ruined it now with some skyscrapers!

Yes I live in Camberley these days, with a train line that’s so useless it doesn’t even go to Guildford anymore, you have to change at Ash Value for there as well as Woking and London. I’ve been unfortunate enough to see the 32 & 34 storey monstrosities rise out of the eternal building site that is the centre of Woking. It’s ruined the view from the McLaren Technology Centre, where previously McLaren park stretched to the horizon unspoiled by any human structure. Not that I’ll be worrying about that any more.

Not that I’ll be worrying about that any more.

Bit of down-Saintzing?

I live in Camberley these days

Ooh, the Pipe Elephant. Used to like to see that when I was little ¹. There was a Little Chef sort of opposite. Back in the days before the monstrosity that was The Meadows Roundabout.

rise out of the eternal building site that is the centre of Woking.

Yeah. Just looked on StreetView. What a mess. More road cones than the orbital!

Not that I’ll be worrying about that any more.

You gonna go Milton on us? ;-)

¹ See? I was even a sad sack way back as a tweenie. ☺

I’ve not been back to Woking since I left school in the early 70’s. I believe the Grammar School that used to be on the south side of the station is long gone now. I used to use the library there a lot during lunch breaks. SRCH, where I used to live was pulled down and turned into a housing estate many years ago too.

I do visit Camberley a few times a year as one of my clients is based there, but I’ve managed most of their stuff remotely from home for many years now and only go there when something has to be done on site.

I hate it when you find a place you once lived has gone. My history in London has nearly been eradicated, North Row and now Kidderpore Avenue gone. Ironically Langton Close is still there despite being the one scheduled for demolition at Easter 30 years ago.

now Kidderpore Avenue gone

That rang a bell, and so I looked it up and realised it was the location of the Uni residence my youngest sister was in back in 1988. The “Princess”¹ had all her luggage transported and installed by the mere males of the household. Google street view shows it much as I recall but with some older properties replaced with new build looking very recent.

PS. I also stayed in the room next door ten years later when the GBBF was hiring rooms for staff – bit of a hike from there to Olympia, especially when you try and avoid zone 1.

¹ In keeping with ‘royal’ status she rarely carried money when the family went anywhere…

Yes, the Westfield College which provided some overflow accommodation for UCL undergrads – all the old and not so old halls are gone now, replaced with new apartments. North Row was Goldsmid House, another UCL hall, above American Burger (only got food poisoning from there twice), but had a great view of Selfridges diagonally opposite on Oxford Street – the entire block has been replaced by a new shopping centre. Langton Close just along Grays Inn Road from the then new ITN building was the Royal Free Hospital residence but also had a few rooms for UCL. The ceiling dandruff was terrible, but they promised it was going to be pulled down soon – still there.

The house in Northolt I lived in until I was two has been demolished, one of just two in the street, to make way for a new side road leading to new houses whare there used to be long back gardens. But I don’t actually remember the place at all, unsurprisingly.

A tower block hall of residence in Woodford I lived in for a year – that was fairly new in the late 1960s – has gone.

A house in Bradford that I lived in for a couple of years was compulsorily purchased and demolished shortly after I moved out.

Other than that I think everywhere I’ve lived is still there, although my parents-in-law’s house, where I’ve stayed a lot, is getting very dilapidated now – they died seven years ago.

It is not only buildings that disappear. In 1958 I travelled by train from Keswick to Penrith, a beautiful line that followed the path of a river which wriggled from one side of the line to the other. It is not even shown on maps nowadays.

Yes, the Westfield College which provided some overflow accommodation for UCL undergrads

Mostly English & Drama it seemed. Their parties were soft drinks only, as per residence rules, but the jellies were “interesting” being only blessed with as much water as happened to be diluting the scotch, gin, vodka, rum…

I worked at Northfleet power station from Jan 1978 to Oct 1979, then Pembroke power station from then until May 1982. At Oldbury power station from 1995 to 2001. All are closed and the first two have been razed to the ground, with no trace remaining. Houses I have lived in all survive…

In 1958 I travelled by train from Keswick to Penrith, a beautiful line that followed the path of a river which wriggled from one side of the line to the other.

Ah, yes. The CK&PR. A railway built on the cheap by the man who later went on to create the least successful of the Tay Bridges…

It was scenic, but never seemed to make sense financially as its viability was based on mineral traffic that apparently never existed. In hindsight, the tourist traffic is obvious, but I’m led to believe by family who used it regularly in its, er, heyday, that it was never really busy despite a limited service. The fact that the current campaign to reopen it can’t seem to demonstrate its viability is probably telling…

It is not even shown on maps nowadays.

You need better maps… :)

On an OS Landranger, it’s still marked almost all the way from Keswick until the junction with the WCML (and a good chunk of it is a footpath, at least when the bridges haven’t been washed away by the River Greta). West of Keswick, it’s even clearer – but they’ve mis-labled it as “A66”.

Mostly English & Drama it seemed.

Yes, but more importantly to us UCL CS and engineering students, they were mostly girls, which was nice ;)

At Oldbury power station from 1995 to 2001

I spent a short time just up the road at Berkeley in 87 doing a bit of non destructive testing for the CEGB. I haven’t been back to see what’s left of those sites, but at least something will be there for a few (thousand) more years.

The labs at Berkeley no longer exist, razed to the ground. Power Station and its vaults will (as you say) be in care and maintenance for a while but much reduced in size.