All Change!

It's a strange day in UK radio today. Lots of people are doing their last show as the big groups centralise their programming in London and try to create a national network. The people who have woken you up in the morning and been with you on the drive home are all good at their job, whatever the CEOs say about them not being up to scratch. I firmly believe radio presenting is a skill, one that takes time to learn and is not conferred on the individual simply because they happen to be an actor/comedian/tv host. Those are completely different skills. You only have to listen around to hear shows where someone famous 'takes over the radio' and dies on their arse. Sure there is advertising and hoopla to get their fans to listen and some will stick it out, but for the most part, listeners will switch off.

Radio is about providing companionship and fun in a world that can be lonely and bleak. Not desperate loneliness but the kind that comes when you are the only person in your car, when have babies and no other adults to talk to, the kind that happens when you are the only person like you at work or school, when no-one likes the things you do or speaks like you. It's about taking people on a journey with you and allowing them to join in, to feel like they belong and to make their day better as a result of that communication. Make them feel that they are a star. What it isn't about is your fame, your book, your tv show, your on screen persona.

There is life after radio, I have friends, good radio presenters, who are train drivers, run big railway stations, train podcasters, sell cars, are paramedics and teachers - Oh don't forget voiceovers! When you get fired, there's always a moment of despair and then you pick yourself up and then go outside and do something less boring instead. What that is? Well that's up to you but you are only limited by your imagination and in radio - we have imagination in buckets.