Radio Stuff
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Ask a silly question…
One of the basic rules of “good” radio – taught by every brilliant broadcaster I’ve ever met – is that it is a personal medium. Radio generates large audiences, can reach places that other forms of media cannot. But everything you’re ever taught points to the idea that you are talking to just one person.…
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Disgusted (of Wells-next-the-Sea)
One of my colleagues in that there London probably summed it up pretty well on Thursday night. I’d prepared myself for the inevitable borefest of important yet predictable coverage of the Autumn Statement when things started getting busy. A tidal surge was sweeping down the East coast, just as journalists were still crunching George Osborne’s…
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Ask a simple question…
In journalism you get used to doors being slammed in your face. People are naturally suspicious about your motives for asking questions, particularly when the answer might cause some embarrassment. The trick in these situations is to never take no for an answer. But that’s sometimes easier said than done. Since its inception, the Freedom…
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John Shaw
Broadcaster John Shaw died this week after a short but sudden illness. Many tributes have been paid, and more will follow. Here’s mine. Like many of my blogs, my story of John starts with Radio Trent. Through the 1980s I would tune in to shows like the phone in, Talkback, the Sunday Evening Programme (also…
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This Town Ain’t Big Enough…
The rather precise time of 1350 today will be an interesting one for the radio industry. The Competition Commission Tribunal will hand down its ruling on whether Global Radio will be forced to sell a number of its radio stations. This has all come about since Global bought RSL – the company that runs Real…
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What The Papers (Should) Say
It must be something in the air. That’s the only explanation that I can think of for my current state of mind, in agreeing wholeheartedly with a Conservative veteran and my own BBC Controller this week. Let me explain. As a union rep, I’ve had my fair share of run ins (and stand up rows)…
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The British Biased Corporation
Here’s an admission which will doubtless cheer the Chairman of the Conservative party : I work for the BBC and I’m biased. Every day, I do my best to ensure that I do everything possible to protect my employer, and its main source of income. I’m proud to take sides when it comes to defending…
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Note To The Press : Bahave!
There’s been much blustering this weekend about the implications of a possible Royal Charter to regulate the press in the wake of the Leveson report. Newspaper editors and their representative have lined up to denounce any state intervention in regulating the sector as the thin edge of the wedge towards censorship of free speech. Well…
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Life Begins At Forty
“It’s eight o clock, I’m Douglas Cameron…” If you’re of a certain age – or a certain frame of mind – that intro will mean something to you. Forty years ago, something changed in UK radio which meant it would never be the same again. On this day in 1973, LBC launched – the country’s…
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Cometh The “Our”…
Your brand name is supposedly one of the most powerful things that distinguishes your radio or TV station from the rest of the pack. Commercial radio has known this for years, and has played on the power of identity to draw the listener in. So I sometimes wonder why the broadcaster with arguably the most…
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