My last piece about the consumption of alcohol by media professionals provoked a host of reactions – largely on social media outlets. And the distinctions are interesting. Social media’s algorithms have given the responses a degree of bias. Perhaps they’re influenced by my past activity on each of the socials. Computers never forget. And here’s … Continue reading Oh, alright then. Just one more before I do the two o’clock…
Tag: Radio History
Booze and journalists. They’ve been together for decades…
And radio producers have been prone to the vice of alcohol too. I speak from experience. During my bachelor days of the early 1980s I recall spending a lot of evenings with colleagues in a bar. One of my first shifts was at a radio newsroom in an English provincial city during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. … Continue reading Booze and journalists. They’ve been together for decades…
Radio jokes – the ones that exist may not be funny…
For PODCAST jokes, click here. For more details about MY BOOK on radio history as told through movies and pop songs CLICK HERE. So, there's a couple of cartoons that I've enjoyed recently. They’re from the British satirical news magazine, Private Eye. Cartoonists don't earn massive amounts of money, so I'll not post the images … Continue reading Radio jokes – the ones that exist may not be funny…
Got the FM radio on…**
This piece celebrates analogue radio on the FM band. In light of recent events it seems fitting to put down some memories and promises of VHF frequency-modulated broadcasting. A colleague in Chile, a radio historian and researcher, asked me for any books I knew that charted the story of FM broadcasting in Britain. His request … Continue reading Got the FM radio on…**
Radio on the telly (and the movies too…)
Last month I wrote about some of my favourite radio moments on TV and in the movies. I'd now like to share some more. Also, I'll provide an update on the changes to the BBC's Local Radio services in the autumn/winter of 2023, I’ll have some memories of working in England's smallest county, and I’ll … Continue reading Radio on the telly (and the movies too…)
When they put radio on the TV and movie screens…
I am a journalist and radio presenter by trade, an academic historian by training, and a writer by vocation. All together they just about pay the rent and put food on the table. They also feed my passion for broadcasting. But I’ve spent the summer and autumn of 2023 sharing the sadness of the BBC’s … Continue reading When they put radio on the TV and movie screens…
BBC Local Radio: “Digital First” news – October 2023
This is the latest of three pieces. You can read the others here and here. In this edition there’s a critique of recent emergency flood reporting at one local station, I’ll share news of continuing concerns from MPs, and we’ll hear echoes from one hundred years ago – when once again the Beeb was tinkering … Continue reading BBC Local Radio: “Digital First” news – October 2023
BBC Local Radio: “Digital First” Autumn 2023 updates…
I’m writing this in the middle of September, and I'm not the bearer of particularly good news I'm afraid. In this piece I’ll hear claims about BBC long-term policy mis-decisions, and how the planned changes are "ageist and abelist" (but the presenter who said that, found her comments had been cut from the BBC Sounds … Continue reading BBC Local Radio: “Digital First” Autumn 2023 updates…
BBC Local Radio: is “Digital First” the End?
It is with a heavy heart that I write this. As a raw radio hack I graduated from the London College of Printing in 1982 – a training ground for some of the best local radio talent of that generation. I worked in BBC Local Radio for the next two decades: at Leicester, Lincolnshire, Derby, … Continue reading BBC Local Radio: is “Digital First” the End?
The one about the paperback writer…
The paperback edition of my book about the history of radio is available from 27 July 2023. So, as I write this the BBC (originally a Company, later a Corporation) is 101 years old. Born on-air on a foggy November evening in 1922 in the Strand not far from the River (*See footnotes*) Thames, it … Continue reading The one about the paperback writer…