In the U.S., Laser 558 was a station profiled once in Radio & Records. In the UK, it was a big story in commercial radio, an offshore AM station in pirate radio tradition that was tighter and more Americanized than the more full-service presentations of BBC Radio 1 and commercial broadcasters. Laser launched in 1984; by the time a second incarnation went away in 1987, its competitors are said to have modernized considerably.
Laser’s closet North American counterpart was XETRA (The Mighty 690), the 1980-84 Mexican-owned AM that targeted both San Diego and Los Angeles until FM Top 40 was firmly reestablished in both markets. Eventually, it was FM sister 91X that endured.
In 1984, I got to hear Laser 558 just once; specifically, the airchecks that were supplied to write its R&R profile. But last year, UK radio veteran Steve Bannister revived Laser 558, first as an online station, and now as a DAB broadcaster in four markets, with three more on the way.
Using the same technology that helped reanimate Chicago’s legendary AM stations last year, Bannister is offering three online channels: one for unedited airchecks, one that uses editing to adjust the content slightly, and one offering the same feed but with AM-radio processing. (The editing is so that the station, which went through a second frequency and slightly different name, “Laser Hot Hits,” can be consistent throughout the four-year period covered.)
Hearing Laser 558 isn’t quite the same as listening to airchecks of American CHR from that era. Besides being the UK’s mix of music — always deeper in both new wave and dance/R&B — there’s also a deeper gold component than most American CHRs had in the “hot hits” era. (There was apparently a ’60s Sunday, which explains a few of the surprising segues below.)
But Laser is still a great listen. The UK mix was often superior. It allowed Top 40 there to avoid our early- ’80s doldrums. A lot of the music heard mostly on the burgeoning dance format outlets, such as KPWR (Power 106) Los Angeles, was mainstream there, and it buoys Top 40 in 1986-87 at a time when the excitement was wearing off here. Hearing American airchecks would give you more depth than our tighter-than-ever Classic Hits format anyway, but hearing a different country’s hits (and stiffs) bakes that in.
In the early ’80s, when UK stations still had considerable spoken-word requirements, Laser was (like the Mighty 690) considered very tight and music-intensive. Now, of course, like the ’80s aircheck of overnights that prompted a previous story, it sounds entirely foreground compared to today’s radio. Bannister is still looking to acquire more airchecks of the station and hear from surviving staffers; he can be reached here.
Here are a few stretches of Laser 558, including this one from the first day, May 27, 1984:
- Fun Boy Three, “Our Lips Are Sealed”
- OMD, “Locomotion”
- Jonathan King, “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon”
- New Order, “Thieves Like Us”
- Sly & the Family Stone, “Stand”
- After the Fire, “Laser of Love” — the “Der Kommissar” band with an earlier single that was being positioned as the station anthem
- Jam, “Going Underground”
- Amazulu, “Excitable”
- Rolling Stones, “It’s All Over Now”
- Pat Benatar, “Love Is a Battlefield”
- Feargal Sharkey, “Lovin’ You”
Here’s the station representing July 1985:
- Arrow, “Long Time”
- Elvis Presley, “Way Down”
- Harold Faltermeyer, “Axel F”
- Tracey Ullman, “Breakaway”
- Steve Arrington, “Dancin’ in the Key of Life”
- Billy Ocean, “Mystery Lady”
- U2, “The Unforgettable Fire”
- Cyndi Lauper, “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”
- Fine Young Cannibals, “Johnny Come Home”
Finally, here’s a segment whose music puts it in late 1986:
- Modern Romance, “Don’t Stop that Crazy Rhythm”
- Mary Wells, “My Guy”
- Simply Red, “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)”
- Nick Berry, “Every Loser Wins”
- Supremes, “Automatically Sunshine” — forgotten in the U.S., but a UK top 10 from a great post-Diana Ross run of singles
- Danny Wilson, “Mary’s Prayer”
- Freddie Jackson, “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Time’s Sake)”
- Big Audio Dynamite, “E=mc2”
- Isley Brothers, “Summer Breeze”
- Prince, “Raspberry Beret”