R.I. and P Please Bob

Bob Holness it was a pleasure to work with you.  I worked with Bob on 'AM' the LBC Breakfast Show which made the management at the BBC sit up and listen and discover that commercial radio could offer a credible alternative to Radio 4 in the morning.  I think it was both Bob and Douglas Cameron's meticulous way they worked - that gave me an insight on how a show should be presented.

One of the things that amused me with Bob is he would polish the studio - every morning about 30 mins before the show he would come in with a duster and Pledge the studio - lay out his scripts, set up his own personal yellow Sennheiser headphones and then Douglas would arrive and also set all his scripts up. Together they created a comfortable and creative space with which to do their show.

A true professional that was brave enough to return to LBC to celebrate 30 years of the radio station, despite the fact he had suffered a stroke he and Doug presented the Breakfast Show on LBC News that day in 2003 with style and panache,  Bob Holness 12th November 1928 - 6th January 2012 RIP

A Naughty New Year

Grey dull and boring, no not the weather but most of the the radio and TV I have listened and watched the last few days.  It's all as if everyone at the moment is going through the motions and not really putting any effort in.

I think what I am longing for is the cheeky daft shows I have enjoyed in the past, just grabbing a couple of examples - on TV The Big Breakfast (pre Richard Bacon) on radio the daftness of Adrian Juste who did a lot more than just [sic] play comedy records and of course the supreme funny man Kenny Everett.

There's clearly an appetite for less grey more brighter broadcasting in the UK.  On TV the stand-up comedians have taken the ratings by storm - I thought Michael McIntyre was quite brilliant with his Xmas Show, although we did try him on radio many years ago and he had trouble 'pulling back' his performance - but by the end of the week I had warmed to him both as a performer and as a person to work with.

So lets do something naughty, something fun are you with me?

A Messy Christmas

Still trying to digest those left-over sprouts?  Discovered that the box the decorations were in is now strangely not big enough to put your baubles back? The fag end of Xmas has gone a new wet and windy year has started and what a messy Christmas it was. 

TV and in particular cable TV had some horrendous scheduling errors with trails for shows that had gone days before and tatty old Xmas imaging that should have dropped off the screen after Boxing Day.

It seems that an enormous effort is put into getting the Xmas schedule right, whether on TV or radio the shows are stuffed with extra content and celebs and festive music, but like that Aunt you wished you'd never invited over for Christmas - who is STILL making herself at home in your house in early January, the TV and radio programmers seem to forget about that bit after Xmas and before New Year proper.

Xmas Imaging - get rid of it after Boxing Day, give us something to look forward to in the New Year. What a perfect opportunity for a London radio station to promote the Olympics or the race for London Mayor this year.  Even the advertisers are to blame still advertising their festive ware - well past their Yuletide sell-by-date.

I know some will say Christmas lasts a week here in the UK as many take the time off work during this period, but I still think TV and radio missed a trick and an opportunity to look forward rather than backward.  Happy New Year