The Wonders Of The Wireless

Having got everything sorted with birthday money paid into my bank account and whathaveyou I decided to actually listen to what the garden of England has to offer in terms of "aural pleasure". I've finally managed to get my Bug back to Canterbury although despite rescanning it it's still got all of the London stations listed which I can't actually recieve in Canterbury. Not that I'm complaining of course.

In hope of getting ideas for the second semester's radio features assignment (yes I know it's months away) I decided to see what the BBC had to offer and managed to discover an old pro in the form of Adrian John, best known for being the early bird at Radio 1 throughout the 80s and now covering at BBC Radio Kent. He's certainly a familiar voice in Kent as he has worked at just about every station in the county at one time or another.

Among the items covered were an interview with a woman promoting a vegetarian awareness week and another with an actor from the RSC who are putting on a production of 'The Canterbury Tales' this week at the Kingsmead Leisure Centre in Canterbury. Now the Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer and not William Shakespeare but they would still have the same effect on me as the Bard, as I'd probably end up falling asleep during the performance. Well, the Miller's tale is pretty memorable actually, but several 10 year old children would say the same thing after reading it's rather dodgy content.

I decided to see what the commercial stations had to offer as well although I now tend to keep a close ear towards the stations imaging no matter how far it goes over the average listeners head. Invicta FM are still speeding up songs by 2% which is makes them the audio equivalent of clothes that have had their colours faded after being washed. KM-FM on the other hand is still playing Madonna and Simply Red on constant rotation and the presenters are still sounding bored. Then again with that sort of run of the mill repertoire who can blame them? Things apparently do improve later on with Neil Faraday providing an entertaining alternative to the dirge that is 'Late Night Love' with Graham Torrington which is impossible to avoid now with GCap inflicting the show around the country. How can a presenter be so perverted to ask such personal questions about an individual's sex life on a radio programme? Then again like as is the case with 'on the edge' radio, the people who call in know what they are getting before hand. I just don't want to go to bed feeling depressed and hardly bother to switch the radio on at all.

However tonight sees the return of a radio comedy favourite in the form of "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" on BBC Radio 4 in which there are guaranteed to be plenty of new definitions in the 'Uxbridge English Dictionary'. For example
Urdu:"Liverpool hairstyle"
and Beaverbrook:"a nude bathing area"
There's quite a few others at this site under the New Definitions section and plenty other selections from the show although it's not as funny as actually listening to it on the programme itself. Surprisingly I've never really gotten into "Mornington Crescent" or even playing it over the internet along with the many ISHIAC fans who are mental enough to do so.