❝ I am beginning to see that the most interesting aspect of these programmes are those that go off on tangents, ones that are spontaneous and alive
The year after I stopped believing in Santa I asked for a radio. I could have asked for a stereo but I like to keep expectations manageable. The pastel-blue transistor could fit in one hand. The dial was a mechanical cog the size of a 20-cent coin, the interface a dense constellation of mysterious numbers. I believed that longwave meant secret and far away, mediumwave brought close and often annoying things, and that FM, that odd-one-out acronym, was where you found proper radio.
Ruth McKee: The loose format of the show is cousin to a programme I have listened to all my life, Desert Island Discs I can’t grasp how radio works for much longer than it takes to read a Wikipedia article. It’s magical to me, in the same way that camera obscura makes complete sense and yet the concept is so slippery that I can only catch it for a moment, until photography becomes once again a deep art. How can you capture a voice on a wave?
Radio was my friend during those weeks, the comforting format of Meet the Artist on BBC Sounds, the opening bars of the RTÉ Arena theme music, the reassuring chat of Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 in the morning, all saying quietly, emphatically, everything is going to be alright. Jan Carson can often be found on the airwaves. She grew up not too far from me although our experiences of that background are different – the same- different, as is the way with us all, particularly those of us who grew up in the complicated North. People use the word voracious about reading, but Jan’s appetite for books surpasses anyone’s I know; she has a library of knowledge but is wise and funny, with a humility to go with that quick intelligence.
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