Do you listen to radio?

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 1:58 am

Mostly, I listen to BBC Radio Five Live (Sunday Service is my favourite

), though I definitely avoid Edwina Currie.

Radio 4 is great as well (don't miss the News Quiz). I use Radio 2 as well.

McBane · Post by **McBane** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 4:24 am

I listen to the radio at work, I like the background noise. I listen to talk radio mostly, Howard Stern in the am, and 2 other talk programs afterwards. I would listen to sports talk (ala Weasel) but the stations here are full of idiots...

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 8:11 pm

Originally posted by Minerva
Mostly, I listen to BBC Radio Five Live (Sunday Service is my favourite ), though I definitely avoid Edwina Currie. Radio 4 is great as well (don't miss the News Quiz). I use Radio 2 as well.

Does anyone remember the old BBC radio series, My Word, and My Music? They're still occasionally found on public radio stations in the US, and I try to catch 'em whenever I'm in a particular area that has either or both. Very witty, erudite, silly programs. A shame the Beeb does nothing like that anymore.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 5:01 am

Originally posted by fable

Does anyone remember the old BBC radio series, My Word, and My Music? They're still occasionally found on public radio stations in the US, and I try to catch 'em whenever I'm in a particular area that has either or both. Very witty, erudite, silly programs. A shame the Beeb does nothing like that anymore.

Mmm, my BBC experience is only 8 years or so (since I came to UK)... I like programmes like I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue and Dead Ringer.

BTW, my host father was a BBC Radio correspondence in Moscow in the late 60s.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 10:55 am

I listen to NPR almost exclusively. Our local station plays irritating Jazz during the day, but I can sometimes get the Phoenix station for TotN, Diane Rheem, etc. Our local station also plays BBC World Service from midnight to 5, and I like that if I'm up.

When I was out of the country, I had a short-wave, and could pick up British and Australian channels at certain times. "Waltzing Matilda" started my every morning and "Brain of Britain" entertained my weekends.

Unfortunately, only the Voice of America was available during lunch, which played the Rush Limbaugh show. Ug.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Aug 03, 2002 7:48 am

Originally posted by Minerva

Mmm, my BBC experience is only 8 years or so (since I came to UK)... I like programmes like I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue and Dead Ringer.

My Word and My Music were sorta pseudo-game shows, as all the four players were longstanding professionals divided into two teams. The questions (and the questioner, in all cases) were erudite, but the answers were never really that important. What *was* important was the fun the panelists caused and had with one another's remarks--and the fun the live audiences had, too.

I still remember one of the most famous ploys (there's no other word for it) from My Word: one panelist on either team was given a famous quote at the start of the 25-minute show, aloud and in front of the audience. Despite taking active participation in the show, they were expected in the last five minutes to have created a long story whose punchline was a pun on that quote.

Two of the panelists on both shows were the same: the comedy writing team of Frank Muir and Denis Norden. I just found a Muir quote on the Web, which gives a flavor of his humor. It was an off-the-cuff remark about a new book called Writing Comedy, and Muir's impromptu comment was "Along with a rich father-in-law, a good suit, curiosity, venom and innocence, there is nothing a young man or woman contemplating writing television comedy needs more than Ronnie Wolfe's indispensable book." He also once replied, when asked by a radio interviewer what his hobbies were, "Reading books and staring into space."

Robnark · Post by **Robnark** » Sat Aug 03, 2002 12:14 pm

Originally posted by fable
Very witty, erudite, silly programs. A shame the Beeb does nothing like that anymore.

have you heard 'I'm sorry, I haven't a clue'? if you want silly, you need look no further

it's a pity that the last series was so short and finished a while ago