When I was a teenager we used to torment the saintly Phil Adams as he drove us to school playing Radio 2 on the car radio. We teen agers wanted Radio 1 and agreed that we would rather be dead than choose to listen to anything else. I think I was in my late 20s when Radio 1 started to piss me off greatly and by my thirties I was a loyal Radio 2 listener.
But these days I find foul mouthed moron Radio 2’s Sarah Cox unlistenable and the musical tastes of her highest paid colleague vacuous Zoe Ball a real pain in the ear. Ken Bruce, Steve Wright and Bob Harris can still command my loyal attention but on long drives there are times when I am forced to switch channel.
Radio 4 is normally alright but if it is running a “comedy show” packed with comments that have the studio audience laughing hysterically about what a racist, sexist, imbecile Donald Trump is and how anyone who does not believe in global warming or supports Brexit or the Tories is just so dim, racist. Sexist. Homophobic, working class etc, I just have to flee to another station. Radio 4 seems unable to grasp that comedy is meant to be funny.
And that sometimes leaves me listening to a harmless station called “Greatest Hits”. I do not know who the bird hosting the mid afternoon show on Sunday was but I think she is, perhaps the dimmest, DJ on this planet. I had just switched over when she started talking about the chance she had to visit Copenhagen. “Talk about the learning curve”, she said, “I always thought Copenhangen was in Germany. But now I learn it is in Denmark.”
I suppose following the Samira Ahmed case she will be pointing out that she earns far less than Mastermind host John Humphreys and saying this is all about sexism and she must get a massive pay rise.