Sounds of 2020

It has been tough to pick twelve tracks which represent my favourite 'Sounds of 2020', but these are my best attempt to do so. With a neurological condition that suppresses my immune system, like many, I have been shielding for most of the year. It has meant that the radio, and in particular, music has …

Down With The Kids – Polyhymns’ sound of parenthood and isolation in the digital age is with me in lockdown

I’ve tended to withdraw from social media to a great extent while I’ve been shielding during the lockdown. It was getting a bit too much. It’s no overstatement to say that music has been a real lifeline during the last couple of months, and one track in particular in recent days has done the business. …

Sounds of 2019

It's that time of year when lists of favourite albums of the year, or 'Sounds of 2019' are compiled. This year, I've decided to put together two lists. The first is my 'Sounds of 2019' - albums released this year which I've been introduced to through tracks played on UK radio. A huge thanks to …

DJ culture

Chris is a DJ.  God, Annie is a superstar DJ.  Both are on the radio.  James on the other hand is a podcast presenter (although he is on the radio too).  Krishnan is a podcast presenter (and on the telly). Whatever the difference is between radio DJs and podcast presenters, podcasts provide an excellent long-form …

Late Junction – we must not lose this connection

Radio is my best friend.  I know it is the same for many people. BBC Radio is a particular treasure.  Having worked as a press officer in BBC Radio back in the mists of time, I know all too well of the public service mission that the various stations have a duty to deliver, as …

Best of 2018

As ever, it has been a tough call pulling together my top tracks of the year, but in what has been a difficult year due to deaths in the family, and against the backdrop of stagnant cesspit of national politics, it has been a usefully therapeutic exercise. I've included links to videos of my twelve …

Maltings radio project takes to the air

The Farnham Maltings is using the occasion of World Radio Day on Monday 13 February to announce that it is to launch its own radio project – and it wants the community to get involved. ‘Sound Vault’ will take to the air in the next year, and will seek to create a ‘radio space for …

Greatest Radio Voices

The Guardian recently published a list of the Top 10 Radio Voices, and in response, an alternative Top 10 list, as proposed by its readers. I could not let this opportunity pass without using it as an excuse to compile my own Top 10 list. With radio being such an important part of my life, …

Radio silence

I had a joyful hour last night, listening to a BBC Radio 4 documentary on silence, presented by Lucy Powell.  It was called "Shhhhhhh" and as the promotional notes said, "examining the nature of silence might not seem the most obvious thing to do on the radio, the medium most wholly given over to noise …

It’s courtesy to listen

I've just heard the kind of programme that reaffirms why I love radio as my medium of choice - and why I love the BBC.  It was  AL Kennedy presenting "A Point of View" on BBC Radio 4, on the topic of "In Praise of Courtesy". It is the kind of programme I would usually …