David Hepworth ponders the birth of commercial radio, Bond villain lairs, Mr Smooth, and a fistful of dollars
It's 40 years since commercial radio first came to Britain, initially in the shape of LBC and Capital Radio. As Tim Blackmore describes in the first part of his documentary *Established 1973 – 40 Years Of Commercial Radio* (Thursday, 10pm, R2) it was a difficult birth. Neither station was quite ready. The BBC did its bit for diversity by commissioning research that said nobody was listening, while furiously launching regional services to stave off the anticipated flood of agile local competitors. If they'd taken the long view they needn't have worried. Forty years on it's all consolidation and the localness is mainly theoretical.
The problem with radio history is that the only people who know it are radio people, and radio people are apt to know the frequency of everything and the value of nothing. During the first three quarters of this programme you can almost smell the Old Spice and feel the quilted leather chairs as the movers and shakers who secured those early licences talk in great detail about how they did it. It's only in the last quarter, as we hear from the on-air talent, that we get some idea of what it meant for the listeners.
What happens to rolling news radio when people don't want to hear the news? On a recent Friday morning I woke up to catastrophic Test match news from Brisbane. To avoid being reminded of this every 10 minutes I spun the dial and found myself listening to *Simon Bates* (weekdays, 6am, Smooth). I rather enjoyed being in the hands of a trained professional who makes it sound as if he's got more time than he has (unlike the presenters on Magic, who seem to be broadcasting above a trapdoor) and a music mix that hints at the possibility that a live human being may actually have been involved at some point – the regular injection of 60s Motown was a treat. When I turned it on they had Manfred Mann doing Come Tomorrow from 1965 (we were in Simon's Golden Hour). Three hours later, I'd learned a great deal about getting dental implants and Lynn Parsons was playing More Than A Woman by the Bee Gees. It was all most congenial. I shall visit again.
In *A Profile Of Ken Adam – The Spectre Of Modernism *(Sunday, 7.15pm, R3) the excellent Matthew Sweet meets the 92-year-old German émigré designer whose fictional lairs for Bond villains have had as profound an effect on the contemporary imagination as any of the directors he worked for. This programme is a fascinating examination of the way films can foreshadow reality. In 1939 the young Adam feared a war that would look like the 1936 film Things To Come. When Ronald Reagan was being shown around the Pentagon in 1981, he reputedly asked to see the War Room, presumably expecting something like Adam's pyramid-like confection for Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. Further appreciation comes from distinguished admirers such as Norman Foster, Nicholas Hytner and Christopher Frayling.
The dollar is more than money. *Greenback: How The Dollar Came To Rule The World* (weekdays, 1.45pm, R4) is Graham Ingham's fascinating examination of how the fledgling United States came to establish its currency. The dollar bill, which looks a little like a religious artefact, is the only currency that hasn't changed its appearance since invention, which is some measure of the veneration with which Americans regard it. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.
It's 40 years since commercial radio first came to Britain, initially in the shape of LBC and Capital Radio. As Tim Blackmore describes in the first part of his documentary *Established 1973 – 40 Years Of Commercial Radio* (Thursday, 10pm, R2) it was a difficult birth. Neither station was quite ready. The BBC did its bit for diversity by commissioning research that said nobody was listening, while furiously launching regional services to stave off the anticipated flood of agile local competitors. If they'd taken the long view they needn't have worried. Forty years on it's all consolidation and the localness is mainly theoretical.
The problem with radio history is that the only people who know it are radio people, and radio people are apt to know the frequency of everything and the value of nothing. During the first three quarters of this programme you can almost smell the Old Spice and feel the quilted leather chairs as the movers and shakers who secured those early licences talk in great detail about how they did it. It's only in the last quarter, as we hear from the on-air talent, that we get some idea of what it meant for the listeners.
What happens to rolling news radio when people don't want to hear the news? On a recent Friday morning I woke up to catastrophic Test match news from Brisbane. To avoid being reminded of this every 10 minutes I spun the dial and found myself listening to *Simon Bates* (weekdays, 6am, Smooth). I rather enjoyed being in the hands of a trained professional who makes it sound as if he's got more time than he has (unlike the presenters on Magic, who seem to be broadcasting above a trapdoor) and a music mix that hints at the possibility that a live human being may actually have been involved at some point – the regular injection of 60s Motown was a treat. When I turned it on they had Manfred Mann doing Come Tomorrow from 1965 (we were in Simon's Golden Hour). Three hours later, I'd learned a great deal about getting dental implants and Lynn Parsons was playing More Than A Woman by the Bee Gees. It was all most congenial. I shall visit again.
In *A Profile Of Ken Adam – The Spectre Of Modernism *(Sunday, 7.15pm, R3) the excellent Matthew Sweet meets the 92-year-old German émigré designer whose fictional lairs for Bond villains have had as profound an effect on the contemporary imagination as any of the directors he worked for. This programme is a fascinating examination of the way films can foreshadow reality. In 1939 the young Adam feared a war that would look like the 1936 film Things To Come. When Ronald Reagan was being shown around the Pentagon in 1981, he reputedly asked to see the War Room, presumably expecting something like Adam's pyramid-like confection for Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove. Further appreciation comes from distinguished admirers such as Norman Foster, Nicholas Hytner and Christopher Frayling.
The dollar is more than money. *Greenback: How The Dollar Came To Rule The World* (weekdays, 1.45pm, R4) is Graham Ingham's fascinating examination of how the fledgling United States came to establish its currency. The dollar bill, which looks a little like a religious artefact, is the only currency that hasn't changed its appearance since invention, which is some measure of the veneration with which Americans regard it. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 day ago.