[Stooky Bill]

How was that done? I thought Pirate's original setup had a computer choosing all the music, as seen in that Tomorrow's World clip upthread? Was it just a coincidence?

No of course it wasn't a coincidence.

They were the first (or one of the first) to have that sort of system whereby computers choose and played out the music, but that doesn't mean they had to slavishly follow what it decided. It wouldn't have locked them out and allowed no human intervention. Imagine having to choose the next upbeat song straight after news of 9/11 or a royal death. Simpler still, imagine not being able to play a request

The big advance was the automation, being able to play thousands of songs remotely or automatically is standard now, not back then. Having computer generated playlists was also a new thing, soon software called Selector was doing that for every station.

Where Pirate's system came into its own was overnight, a huge money saving being able to run overnight, or off peak, without human DJs