Articles tagged Radio:
A Tribute to Steve Wright
- 14 Feb 2024
It was just before 5pm. I was interviewing Lord Bilimoria for my ALL TALK podcast when I caught sight of a news alert on my phone. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Steve Wright had died. My brain went in several different directions. But I had to keep interviewing Lord B...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 72: Corpsing
- 19 Oct 2019
We all do it from time to time. Something happens and we just start to laugh uncontrollably. Sophie, my producer unearthed this clip from last year. The context is that around 6.30pm each day, she and I disappear into a recording booth to record a 10 second trail, which is the...
For the BBC, Danny Baker was Easily Expendable
- 12 May 2019
It's been a busy week on LBC, given I also covered a show on Saturday afternoon as well as my regular weekday and Sunday shows. One of the subjects we covered was Danny Baker's sacking by the BBC. I hadn't intended to talk about this as in the scheme of things I thought it ...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 67: So I'm a Soft Interviewer, Am I?
- 5 May 2019
I've never quite understood why some people continue to think that I am a soft interviewer. It's true that I tend not to shout or get aggressive. It's true that if I get a bit shouty, I do it with a smile, but that does not equate to 'softness'. I prefer to do conversational s...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 66 - Behind the Scenes of an Election Night Show
- 3 May 2019
Click on the above and you can rewatch the entire 6 hour show! Preparing for an presenting a live six hour election night show is probably one of the most complex things that we ever do. There is a tremendous opportunity for things to go wrong. And given we stream the w...
If You're Free on Sunday Mornings for the Next Seven Weeks...
- 13 Apr 2019
"Can I have a word," said James Rea. "Is it going to be another of those 'adult conversations'," I said, smiling? Last time this happened, I discovered I was being moved from Drive to the Evening Show! The long and short of it was that James wondered if I'd be intereste...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 50: Pleasing Gillian Reynolds
- 10 Feb 2019
There is no one who works in radio who doesn't know who Gillian Reynolds is. She is what is known in the trade as a "doyen". She writes about radio every week in the Sunday Times Culture Magazine, having joined the paper eighteen months ago having spent several decades doing t...
My Most Memorable Interviews & Calls on LBC in 2018
- 24 Dec 2018
This will be my last blogpost before Christmas, so can I wish everyone who reads my articles on this site, and all my LBC listeners a very Happy Christmas. It's been great to have you along for the ride in 2018. 2018 has been an odd year for me in some ways. In September I ...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 63: Interviewing Michael Foot
- 20 Sep 2018
Thirty five years ago, in the middle of the 1983 election campaign, I was heckling Michael Foot at a packed election meeting in a disused church in Norwich. He, of course loved it, and I helped turned a pedestrian election speech into a humdinger. I wrote to Michael Foot af...
Ten Podcasts I Listen To... (And Why Few Of Them Are Political)
- 16 Sep 2018
The term “podcasting” was first invented by Guardian columnist Ben Hammersley in February 2004. But podcasts didn’t really take off in any meaningful way until years later. I only really started listening to podcasts around four or five years ago. Nowadays, they can be big bus...