@thelog 556106 wrote:
Oh well down here when I was at school, there was a radio show called Terry Garoghans last bus to whitehawk where he did an excellent job of making each housing estate feel segregated by singing songs about certain areas
just looked him up and though “zoo format” radio (presenters trying to be wacky) was getting tired by the 2000s and there were a shit ton of such presenters his material wasn’t too bad for the era.
Some of his jingles are quite funny, though paraphrasing what Capital DJ’s were doing in the 80s, not surprising he got laid off when Capital took his station over. it does work in local areas but today if a presenter trys that today on a local commercial radio station they just get sacked for “alienating listeners and reducing potential advertiser reach” and even on community stations you’ve got to be very careful about making fun of any group of people as if just one listener complains its a full investigation (ofcom log tapes copied, station manager has to go through them and make a report).
I’ve had to do a few such “forensic” copies of ofcom logs over the months for ICR-FM – its part of my rôle but it means I find it really hard to be close friends with anyone at the station as if they are presenters I could be helping investigate them tomorrow, same as at work and with telecoms/network intercepts, I try to be a decent person and 100% honest with people so I have to keep a professional distance to safeguard my own integrity and sanity….
wierd though as even today stations are allowed phoneins with people angry about everything especially immigrants, the presenters wind them up (even though I suspect a lot of them harbour similar views) and provided no one actually says “bloody wogs and pakis” its viewed as “robust debate and free speech” but a comedy song or a mistimed (but not intentionally malicious) joke can fuck up someones career – and then they wonder why younger people don’t listen to the radio any more other than music stations…
