Small price to pay for gems
Last updated 09:13, Saturday, 03 May 2008
What on earth is this country coming to? Terry Wogan and Chris Moyles are the two most-listened to people on the radio in this great nation of ours.
According to the latest figures, more people than ever are listening to them.
Wogan has 8.1m Radio 2 listeners in the morning, while his Radio 1 rival Moyles has 7.72m.
While I really can’t see (all right, hear) the humour or point of Moyles; I can’t bear the witless wanderings of Wogan.
I can only imagine that millions of semi-conscious people across the country have little idea of what they wake up to and the pap, prattle and pop coming out of the radio is just background noise to the kettle, the toaster and the kids.
What doesn’t surprise me is that radio industry body Rajar figures show that one third of radio audiences use digital radio once a week, and that sales of DAB receivers rose by 40 per cent over the last year.
I was a bit late tuning in to the digital option, but the variety of specialised music and spoken word stations provide a welcome antidote to the increasing dross on TV.
Much of the spoken word programmes are old and forgotten dramas.
Some are brilliantly inventive and amazingly produced.
Some are unintentionally hilarious: “Jeremy, why is that strange man with a ginger wig, pink eyepatch, limp and a sinister cat on his shoulder following us? D’you think he knows we have the secret details of the world’s first nuclear-powered milk bottle top?”
Then there’s dipping in and out of the World Service on digital.
The news and documentary items from the station are worth our BBC licence fees alone, and then there’s Charlie Gillett!
The World Service is a great reminder of just how unimportant we are in the great scheme of things – and how lucky we are to live in this country.
I suppose Wogan and Moyles are a small price to pay.
