TUNE IN TUESDAY: RADIO ON (1979) — THE BLU-RAY BROADCAST:

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Buzz Drainpipe reporting from a transistor dream soaked in petrol and post-industrial sighs…

You want a signal from the static? Radio On is it. Chris Petit's monochrome highway hallucination—restored and remastered now for the digital dead-enders and analog dreamers alike. It's a British road movie that drifts through 1979 England like a pirate signal across FM bands. Ghost frequencies, grey skies, and krautrock radio.

THE FILM:
England, pre-Thatcher. Post-hope. Robert, a London DJ, takes to the motorways after his brother’s suicide. But this isn’t a quest. It’s a mood. Sparse encounters—an AWOL squaddie, a German woman, an out-of-time Joe Strummer stand-in—drip in like slow code from a cold satellite. Plot exists only to frame the long pauses, the reel hums, the space between signals.

Shot in stark, icy black-and-white by Wim Wenders’ cinematographer Martin Schäfer, Radio On feels like someone filmed a Joy Division bassline under sodium lights.

THE SOUNDTRACK (STILL KILLS):
Bowie. Kraftwerk. Robert Fripp. Lene Lovich. Devo. Art-rock, cold wave, Euro static—all flowing through cassette hiss and car radio distortion. It’s not music as soundtrack, it’s music as message. You tune in to the film, because the characters don’t always talk.

THE BLU-RAY:
Brought to life by the wizards at the BFI, this release isn’t just a transfer—it’s a resurrection. The 4K restoration sharpens the grain without losing the grit. You can almost smell the petrol, taste the Wimpy grease, and hear the hiss behind each track. Streetlights glow like forgotten thoughts. Rain-soaked windshields blur into abstract expressionism.

EXTRAS? YES, TRANSMISSIONS RECEIVED:

• A deadpan, poetic commentary by Chris Petit that feels like tuning into a numbers station for cinephiles.

• Short films and interviews that deepen the haunt.

• Booklet essays from orbiting academics and zoned-out DJs trying to triangulate the film’s frequency.

• Optional subtitles for those who want to read the silence.

WHY UPGRADE?
Because this Blu-ray gives you access to a version of Britain that was never advertised. The motorways, the pylons, the pubs, the radio towers—they were always there, waiting. Now they're sharper, more ghostly. This isn't nostalgia. It's evidence.

ZINE INSERT BONUS:
“Buzz Drainpipe’s Guide to Broadcasting Existential Dread from Your Vauxhall Viva.” Foldout includes: hand-drawn petrol station map, annotated Kraftwerk lyrics, cigarette burns, and a bootleg mixtape for Robert’s final drive.

RATING:
5/5 ghost frequencies restored.
This disc is your passport to the psychogeography of static. One of the most hauntingly beautiful time capsules ever committed to celluloid and now encoded for eternity. Put it on. Turn it up. Tune in. The Radios on.

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