Now OK, I realise most folks call it a 'radio' today but I always find the word 'wireless' appearing in my head and so I might as well use it. When young we did indeed have a 'wirelss,' a great big box with an aerial that looked like a bent birds cage which hung outside the window do obtain a good reception. I wonder if this was obtained second hand or possibly through my aunt who worked in 'Jenners' Edinburgh's principal shop, the one where all the rich women spent much time drinking tea with their pinkie sticking out and discussing the merits of other women's lives. My mother did not have the cash for that pleasure and merely gossipped with the neighbours.
Anyway I recall, possibly before I began school, a large 'Radiogram' appearing in the corner. This vast cupboard had a lid which when lifted exposed the large dial for the wireless on one side and a record layer (ten '45's at one go!) on the other. This my elder brother and sisters much enjoyed though I also took happily to their choice of 'Rock & Roll.'
On the large dial, over a foot in length and several inches wide, there was a list of foreign places from far away. I cannot mind now but I suppose both Long, Short and Medium wave were available on their however if we listened to the radio we most probably only had three stations at that time, the BBC 'Home Service, the BBC 'Light' programme and Radio Luxembourg which in those days played music young people wished to listen to, the BBC remained rather stuffy until the pirate radio ships gave them a shove in the 60's. I spent many a Sunday afternoon with my head up against the speaker listening to the 'Billy Cotton Band Show,' 'The Goons' with their 'pictures in the mind' and other comedy shows that abounded in the afternoons. During the week the 'Tony Hancock Show' brought in an audience of 25 million! This of course before TV was common and then did similar when transferred to the telly later on. Those days have long gone and even the dreadful 'soaps' only get 13 million by adding the two showing of the programmes together.
The Internet has been a blessing regarding listening to the wireless as the BBC iplayer allows me to catch programmes I usually miss and indeed many of those programmes once hear while munching mums salad rolls on Summer Sunday afternoons. Now we possess the updated (though the names do need updating once again) Radio's 1,2,3,4, plus 5Live, the rather juvenile station, plus the World Service once the best of them all now dumbed down and as PC as the rest of the BBC and Radio 4 Extra, a station that plays old programmes, mostly sad to say dramas, stories and pap. However via the iplayer I can catch some wonderful programmes and today I have been working my way through the Radio 3 excellent 'Essay' series. In particular I have been enjoying some of the 'Free Thinking' programmes, I listened to the 15 minute ones where one person spouted their opinion on a topic (many wide and varied) and dis so in an intelligent and thoughtful manner. I did not always agree, some were spectacularly wrong, but I had to listen and wanted to hear more. There are so many talk shows on Radio 4 that are decidedly middle calls and usually aimed at women with problems that when you hear grown up women talk on Radio 3 you wonder if it is not time for a change in the programming layout somewhere. Maybe the Radio 3 audience is more open to reason?
I must confess that I have had a fill of thinking talk for a while and may well retire to the West Wing and place my dull ear to the speaker again and listen out for something that either takes me out from this box or makes me laugh, I don't as yet now which. Either way it will be better for me that glueing my face to the box in the corner where 50 channels, when they work, offer me little of value. Once again there I must reach for the TV iplayer and seek something worthy.
Surely that is what they mean by 'the web...?'
Quite how the spiders connect via an ISP I know not. However as several have made their home on the telegraph pole it appears there must be some method available. Note also we refer to a 'telegraph pole' yet the 'telegraph' as such no longer exists. What do we call these things now I wonder?
During the last week I have made use of the web, mostly to listen to the 'wireless,' although that today must be called the 'radio.' There again as many listen to the 'radio' via their mobile phone can we call it 'radio' any more? I am getting confused now. When I use the laptop to listen to the radio, via a wireless connection, am I using a 'radio' or a 'wireless?' I am beginning to blow a valve, bring back the old certainties I say!
The radio I listen to mostly is BBC Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra or Factual, BBC World Service, or even Murdoch's TalkSport (who's link doesn't work for me!). World Service News until recently has been the best in the world. The cutbacks have reduced this somewhat, especially early in the morning when 'Daybreak,' an African 5Live style offering appears instead of the proper news programmes that once held sway. Still some news programmes run during the day and have proper journalists most of the time. The usual liberal BBC policy drives the choice of subjects and narrows the spread of news somewhat I find. I have tried other nations radio stations, in English as my Finnish, Russian and Serbo-Croat is somewhat lacking, but not as much as my command of English of course, some offer a good news service but usually at limited and awkward times. In days of old I often spent hours listening to the Eastern European stations under Communist control. The slanted viewpoints, boasting of successful agriculture, factory output (how many tractors we made today) and diplomatic successes, came over as interesting in comparison to the views expressed by western media. I suspect their radio stations are better these days, at least the newsreaders will not have rumbling stomachs like the Romanians and Bulgarians used to suffer! Some US local news stations, the type named after leftover 'Scrabble' letters, offer five minutes of screeching adverts followed by one minute of extremely fast 'news,' then it returns to the ads. I heard several like this, mostly in New York and the like, and wondered what the point was? If you cannot make out the words because the speech is so fast and the majority of the hour is adverts i have to ask why bother? Better US stations always begin by asking you for money, something you cannot do in the UK. It would never work!
Radio 4 is filled as you know with Middle aged, Middle class females telling us their many problems, which reflects greatly on the women who arrive on here, they always appear so normal so why does the Beeb look for this particular hung up type I ask? However in amongst this we can find a great many decent programmes, especially if we use the 'Programmes A-Z bit. I often do this and the documentaries on radio have as you know better pictures than those on the telly. History is very well covered alongside a wide variety of topics, I particularly like those many short 15 minute programmes that have appeared in recent years. This week I discovered the story of a female Chinese Emperor, some things about Henry VIII and a tale regarding H.V. Morton the travel writer. Some are available for a week only, others hang around for a year! Radio 4 Extra and the Factual stations also offer past titles, 'Extra' dealing in Comedy where I find 'Hancock' and 'The Goons,' regularly offered. All such making a change from the drivel that fills the majority of daytime TV and Radio. So many radio channels offer nothing but music, and usually at a time when I wish to hear something spoken. It is most irritating that these people do not appear to cater for me specifically which is disappointing, although the web now makes a better choice available through searching.
When lying in bed I usually listen to the wireless. Radio 4 may offer the 'Shipping Forecast,' which can lull one to sleep after the midnight news or wake you gently just after five in the morning. Many non sailors are keen to see how 'Forties,' or 'Cromarty,' will do today. "Easterly 5, Moderate, Rain, Poor," are just the words required to delight or terrify those who go down to the sea in ships. Usually we struggle to comprehend what they mean but the chaps in small craft, fishing boats and the light still listen in spite of all their modern equipment so it clearly serves a purpose still. Alvar Lidell was a famous BBC announcer who spoke the Kings English properly as you should, he I think it was, would end the shipping forecast with "Good fishing gentlemen," or some such phrase, as in those days vast numbers of trawlers worked the seas. Such niceties are less common today, as indeed are the fishing boats. Often I switch this off and turn to 'TalkSport.' As the laptop cannot offer this it means the radio, or is that a wireless I wonder? This station offers 'Sport,' usually football with occasional other things thrown in at quiet times. Owned by that nice Rupert Murdoch I find that whenever I switch it on the adverts are running. The adverts, always loud and bolshie and often with an English working class voice' to sell it to the people, take up so much space because it means the presenters don't have more time to fill I suspect. After the ads come the ads for the stations programmes themselves in the usual Murdoch loud and empty boastful manner. The major topic is always the top four football sides, the rest not counting to hacks, and the main story of the day, whether real or imaginary, will be discussed in urgent fashion for hours, long after those involved have forgotten it. 'White van man' is a regular contributor, calling from his mobile phone on an unintelligible line at three in the morning to make his point concerning a player or club. His knowledge is lacking, he clearly knows nothing, and yet he makes more sense than the presenters, possibly because the line keeps going down!
Cultural folks like you and me will turn to the BBC iPlayer and search BBC 3's site where music abundant is found as well as sensible (?) programmes on the Arts. My favourite is 'The Essay,' where fifteen minute programmes discuss various subjects. The Anglo Saxons offered many worthy fifteen minutes which I enjoyed thoroughly, most are still available and well worth a listen. Since this quality station has so few listeners, it has a certain (deserved) snob approach to classical music and life in general, many despise it, however again a little digging brings success. One day I hope to hear my clever musical niece playing in an orchestra here. She is playing a part in Messiaen - Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, making a noise on Tubular bells I believe. At least I hope that is the same thing that she is involved with, they all sound the same to me I sometimes get confused by the foreign names.
I would bore you with more but instead I am off to bed to listen to a variety of foreign stations in an attempt to find something I like.
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