Radio 4 tends to be my constant companion, day and night, whenever I'm at home. I listen to a surprising amount of what they broadcast, especially as I don't have a TV, so I rely on the radio for most of my news and entertainment. However, inevitably the radio doesn't hold my attention constantly: I have things to do, thoughts to think, places to go. I often tune in for random comments which intrigue me by their seeming disconnection from anything to do with sense when stripped of their context. This is one of the most appealing features of Radio 4, because so much of what is broadcast is random and quirky in nature even before it tries to get through my weirdness filter.
The problem is, one of the things I increasingly find myself hearing when I tune back into what's on the radio is "You are listening to..." - The World at One, The Six O'clock News, etc. But I'm not! I just tuned back in for a few seconds while they said that. Radio 4 broadcasters should know better. We are so much an all-0r-nothing listenership, for many people Radio 4 forms a background to our lives, but we're not always paying attention. They should stop assuming that I'm listening when, in fact, the only thing I've heard in the last 10 minutes' broadcast is them telling me I'm listening! I'm sure they didn't used to say this so much, and they should stop doing it right away. "This is The Six O'clock News" would be so much less presumptuous and more informative.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment