Blessed are the geeks...

About Emma

Emma Emma Clarke is a leading female voiceover and comedy/drama writer. She voices all kinds of things from advertisements to radio identity packages – but is best known as the ‘voice of the London Underground’.

My full profile

Previous postings

Monday
Jan 4 2010

Now I’m not being funny but the world of radio attracts geeks. I was the child who recorded hour after hour of ‘radio shows’ on my little cassette recorder to send to Kenny Everett. I was the child who taped jingles off the radio and catalogued them in a little exercise book with the dates in red and everything. I was the kid who loved the presenters and wanted to be like them when I grew up. Yes, reader – I was (and am) a radio geek.

But where will the new generation get their inspiration? These days British commercial radio sounds weirdly generic. The same songs, the same style of presenting…and a cloying sense of safety, as if all the staff in the radio station have been told to wear a hard hat and goggles before they’re allowed anywhere near a studio.

We live in an age where political correctness is prized by media corporations far more than a presenter’s personality. We hear stuff where media bosses implore their staff to indulge in ‘blue sky thinking’ (whatever that bloody means) but only as long as that sky isn’t clouded by controversy or inappropriate passion or daring creativity because somebody somewhere will almost inevitably be offended by something, probably. After Sachsgate, it feels as if we’re all too bound up with self-censorship to truly let our minds fly; we all know the risk of courting controversy and while the lure of notoriety might be appealing to would-be anarchists, the trauma of it all is too damn risky.

Last week Tom Binns lost his job at BRMB because he said the Queen’s Speech was boring. Whether you agree with him or not, he dared to express an opinion; he dared to be risky. I’m always reading in Broadcast about commissioners of entertainment shows urging new blood to be ‘edgy,‘ (whatever that chuffing means too) because ‘edgy’ is regarded as being cool, full of swashbuckling ebullience and a devil-may-care attitude to conformity. But actually, in the real world, media execs don’t really want edgy do they? Edgy scares the shit out of them because edgy provokes a response from a public that’s peppered with Daily Mail readers who just can’t wait for an excuse to get their pitchforks out. Was Tom Binns being edgy or just reckless? And what the hell’s the difference anyway?

So my hope for 2010 is that radio will find itself again. It will embrace the freaks, the geeks and the people who are brave enough to be themselves…even when they’ve been told to sound as if they’re wearing a biohazard suit.

This blog can also be read at Radio Today.

2 comments · add a comment · this blog is moderated

Emma Clarke takes no responsibility for any comments below, as these do not necessarily represent her views.

BoÂ?tjan Jerko
04 January 2010 at 08:45

Oh, you don't know how much I agree with you. But I guess we're just too fucked up as society that anything can be done. Do I think we should just give up? Hell, no. Fight, kick, scream...some might get something through the fog society creates. Just yesterday I've heard radio announcement that it is cold outside and we should dress something warm or even better not go outside. I mean, WTF. Are we stupid or what? What is going on with people these days? No risk taking, no pushing the boundaries. Maybe that's why I like geeks. They just don't give a fuck. It doesn't matter what area they work in. So, keep up the geek side of you and don't give up. More and more people like you will emerge and we'll prevail.

Glasgow Ceilidh Band
18 March 2010 at 09:51

Saying what you think is fine, so long as your job is designed to allow you to say what you think. *Bong* Welcome to the News at Ten. I'm Trevor McDonald. *Bong* Death toll rises in Afghanistan *Bong* I hate Fruit Gums *Bong* News at Ten is politically skewed and unreliable. *Bong* Cheryl Cole in iguana death probe :)

Blessed are the geeks...

About Emma

Previous postings

Archives