The Selector Radio Story
Selector began over 25 years ago – a new radio show from us at the British Council, providing a platform for UK music to be heard around the world. It's heard by millions of listeners every week and unites music lovers, wherever they are, all lovingly sharing the same interest.
But just how did Selector get there? Radio's one of many things that's changed a lot since 2001. So, to better understand the Selector story, we’ll take you on a little journey through time. Hold on tight!
UK music in the new millennium
It’s 2001. In the UK, internet use could be accurately labelled ‘a niche pursuit’. Just 36% of the population had internet access at home in 2001 with many still using slow dial-up connections. Facebook, Twitter and Spotify wouldn’t appear until the middle of the decade and Instagram not until the start of the next. Even MySpace – which was claimed at the time to launch the music careers of artists including Lily Allen and Kate Nash – didn’t go online until 2003. But the first rumblings of disruption to a many-decades-old music business model were felt in the form of file sharing sites like Kazaa and Limewire. These allowed users to share music between them for free which, while often illegal, posed a huge challenge to the record companies. Before streaming, if you didn’t physically own the music, radio was the main way to hear new music.
In a pre-streaming era, beyond radio, traditional TV was the obvious gateway for aspiring musicians to reach huge audiences. With fewer channels to choose from, audiences could and would quickly grow in their millions to see and hear for themselves what all the fuss was about. Capitalising on this was a music talent show that would go on to dominate the UK chart for many Christmases to come. Simon Cowell’s X Factor churned out a slew of identikit seasonal singles on the back of his long-running show, year after year. The bubble was finally burst by the end of the decade when a social media-supported campaign to get Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ to the top of the charts prevailed. Joe McElderry was the fall guy.
Selector was launched to effectively verify the statement: ‘there’s more to UK music than this.’ It asked, what about the acts beyond the charts? And, given the ubiquity of UK pop music around the world, it was designed to give airtime to those lesser-known names and emerging artists for an international audience that, in a pre-internet age, might struggle to easily find this music elsewhere
Andi Oliver and Selector Radio’s early years
This new UK music show, produced for the British Council by Somethin’ Else and hosted by Andrea ‘Andi’ Oliver, was known simply as The Selector. The show ushered musical guests through the doors who would go on to become genuine household names in the years to come.
‘Presenting The Selector was such a special time for me,’ says Oliver. ‘The sheer scope of artists that we featured from a very early Amy Winehouse to swirling drums featuring Benjamin Zephaniah was simply breathtaking!’
Other session guests included Dizzee Rascal, Elbow, Bat For Lashes, Jamie T, KT Tunstall, Emmy the Great, Kano and UK jazz stars Soweto Kinch and Jason Yarde. All were in the early stages of their careers. These sessions are still available to listen to in the Selector sessions archive.
Opening the door
Sam Duckworth – then performing as Get Cape Wear Cape Fly – still fondly remembers his time on the show back in 2006: ‘Selector was one of my first radio sessions and certainly the first time I was able to picture my music going out to the wider world. I can still remember the excitement as a 20-year-old musician, in the early infancy of the internet, picturing where my tunes would be heard.’
Duckworth also contributed to ‘the door’ – Selector’s very own hall of fame was a studio door which every guest was invited to scrawl their name on. ‘I popped back a few years later, with my Recreations project, and remember seeing the door of signatures, friends, heroes and future icons and made sure to add my name again.’
Selector goes gold
In 2009, Sam Hall – better known as DJ Goldierocks – became The Selector’s presenter and would go on to present the show for the next 10 years as its popularity grew around the world. ‘The show was a huge part of my life – getting to broadcast around the world for over a decade. I grew up on that show,’ she says.
The new-look show, now produced by Folded Wing, continued to bring in musicians that would go on to have huge careers. Before he was a global star, one Calvin Harris dropped by for the Tea and Tunes segment of the show. And live sessions, specially recorded for Selector, were a regular part of the show. Producer John Cramer’s vision was that this went hand in hand with the industry’s shift towards live music and away from album sales. ‘It was quite an exciting time really in terms of the music industry in the UK,’ says Cramer. ‘Gigs were becoming much more of an important part to the career of a musician than maybe they had been for years prior to that, and so one of the things I really tried to do when I was the producer of Selector Radio was bring in as much live music as possible from as early as possible.'
Karen Pearson, CEO of Folded Wing, remembers working with a young Jamie Woon on one of the first Selector shows made by her team. ‘I remember being sent a vinyl of Wayfaring Stranger in 2007 and listening to it over 10 times in a row. So being able to bring people like Jamie Woon on to Selector Radio is a dream come true; to give them a platform to a massive international audience. He came into our small Folded Wing voice booth and recorded a beautiful session. Off the back of the session and plays of his tracks his music was playlisted on a few stations around the world and he went out to Kazakhstan on a British Council trip. That led to a residency in China for a couple of months where he presented his own radio shows. We were very proud!’
To help reach new audiences, over her 10 years as host, Goldierocks visited over 30 countries. These visits were often to launch and celebrate a new country broadcasting the show and for her to DJ at Selector live events. In many cases, these were countries where UK broadcasters struggle to have much of a presence at all, but Selector was able to find a home due to the British Council’s existing connections, built up over years of cultural relations activity within these countries. ‘I loved Nepal – the architecture, peaceful, kind natured people,’ Sam Hall explained. ‘I’ve been to China five times with the show and it’s such a vast, completely different place to the UK and that was fascinating. Cuba will always have a very special place in my heart – the music, the people … the rum! It’s such a romantic, artistic, passionate place. We threw some huge open-air parties there and getting on air was quite a feat, but a truly historic moment. We’re the only internationally-made media allowed on air since the Cuban revolution. I’m very proud of that.’
Student radio and rising stars
Selector Radio is usually recorded in the UK and then provided to countries around the world as an audio ‘kit’. This means it can be repackaged for local audiences, wherever they are. The English language links by the UK presenter can be replaced by a local host who translates the script or provides their own, in the country’s language. Sections of the show can be cut down to produce a new show which fits the broadcaster's requirements. If there’s no time in the schedule for a full two hour UK music show then no problem – the kit allows a show to be anything as short as 30 minutes. This kit approach also means the show doubles as a useful training tool for anyone learning about the production side of radio; many radio trainees have found their way into the industry by working with the show in this way.
In the mid-2010s, Selector teamed up with the Student Radio Association (SRA) to offer a new opportunity in the UK to would-be producers. The call was simple – produce your own version of the show from the kit and enter it into the SRA Selector Awards competition to be in with a chance to win two days of production and presenting training and a trip to Selector’s sister station in Mexico (Ibero 90.9 FM). Phil Catchpole, the Selector Programme Manager for the British Council at the time, was delighted to see the competition take off: ‘To be able to identify and develop fantastic young broadcasting talent using our unique radio show is a wonderful thing for the British Council to be doing here in the UK alongside our extensive work overseas.’
Jack Saunders is just one of those winners – now a mainstay on the BBC as host of Radio 1’s New Music Show and their Glastonbury Festival coverage. Another winner is Cassidy Baillie, the winner in 2017 who’s worked with London station Reprezent, became an assistant producer with Folded Wing and later, producer of Selector Radio itself. He can now be found at BBC 1Xtra, in front of the mic, as host of 1Xtra's Alternative Selection with CassKidd.
Selector goes Supernova
October 2019 saw a restyle for The Selector – we dropped the The and, more significantly, Jamz Supernova was announced as the show’s new UK host. Jamz, bringing years of radio experience with her having worked at Reprezent and BBC 1Xtra, quickly stamped her authority on Selector. With a renewed emphasis on electronic music, reflecting her passion for the club scene, the weekly show doubled down on its mission to bring listeners new music from nascent talent all around the UK. ‘There are more releases than ever, each and every week,’ explained Jamz when she took on the role. ‘For me, it’s about being on top of it, so setting aside a day, like a full day, that I’m just going to sit, go on the internet and explore. So whether that’s reading music articles, going through playlists … that’s the part of radio that I really enjoy: finding new music.’ Selector explored different music cultures through Jamz’ eyes following her trips with us to Ghana, Georgia and Colombia. Going After Dark, Selector would also share Jamz’ own late night DJ mixes, inspired by and captured on location.
The radio evolution
Covid-19 in 2020 saw a resurgence for radio as audiences turned to something regular and familiar. Selector continued its weekly run – it has never missed a week in all its years – albeit with 2020’s recordings made from Jamz’s living room with remote production support, just like so much of the rest of the industry. Live sessions and overseas trips were placed on hold but the show went on and, unlike TV and film, radio showed itself to be more able to adapt to the challenge of a global pandemic. Through Selector Radio, the artists featured on the show still reached a huge audience around the world, without having to board a plane. 'There is nothing else in the world that can give artists experiences like this and the stories keep coming,' says Karen Pearson. 'It’s a very special platform.'
Lisa Phasha puts Selector’s longevity down to its design as an eclectic show for new music. ‘Services like Spotify offer many of things that [many] years ago we would turn to radio for but I suspect the reason Selector has weathered that storm is because of the diverse programming it offers. It can surprise listeners with something they didn't even know they would like.’
Audio Always and Sian Eleri
In September 2023, Audio Always became the new producers of the show – eager to steer Selector on its endless quest, discovering amazing new music every week – and, after more than four years as host, Jamz Supernova announced that she would be stepping down as presenter. '200 shows later! My time on Selector has come to an end!' she said. 'I have loved my time every week curating two hours of the best music from the UK. There has been an endless amount of artists I have been able to champion and share with the world.'
Jamz's DJ boots were clearly big ones to fill. Who would be able to take the baton and build of the international platform?
Enter Sian Eleri, one of the biggest music tastemakers at BBC Radio 1, announced as Selector's brand new host on 22 December 2023. Well, almost brand new. Sian covered Jamz over late 2021 and previously worked briefly behind the scenes of Selector. Since then, she has been host of The Chillest Show, The Power Down Playlist, The Voice, Glastonbury coverage, the Proms, Radio 1’s Big Weekend, the Welsh Music Prize and the BIFA Awards. She's also been a judge and co-presenter for the Mercury Prize. 'Having featured on Selector numerous times over the years,’ said Sian, ‘this feels like a real, full-circle moment getting to work on the show again but this time in the position I always dreamed about.’
The future of Selector looks very bright and many people who have worked on the show, as it's evolved and changed with the times but kept its mission for new music at its heart, continue to show huge affection. Andi Oliver: ‘I never fail to be proud of what we did and how many listeners we reached plus I got to work with a whole slew of brilliant fledgling producers every single week. It really was a gift.’
