Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Radio Active Airwaves

In my last job I was surrounded by mindless zombies in a basement with no natural light and no interesting conversation. I’m now in another basement (but this time with a window!) in an office environment where the radio is on constantly. I'm now in more convivial company, still getting used to having the radio on while I'm trying to work. The general rule is Kiss FM in the morning and X FM in the afternoons. Neither radio station is to my liking, bit I tolerate it. In any case I'm not in the office all the time. Kiss FM (bloody awful rap/hip-hop/R&B dirges - or what gets called "Rhythm & Blues" these days, but is a far cry from the likes of John Lee Hooker, BB King, Howling Wolf, etc) and X FM (contemporary rock and pop including the likes of Manic Street Preachers, The Fratellis, The View, Arctic Monkeys, Snow Patrol and whoever else young people listen to these days - and occasionally older stuff from as far back as the ‘80s like The Smiths and the Pixies).

I've gradually become converted to the spoken word CD myself. The classic radio comedies like The Goons, The Navy Lark and I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue or BBC radio series of Sherlock Holmes can now help while away a sleepless night. Listening to Gregorian chant (or as my girlfriend calls it "howling monks") can also be very therapeutic if you're having a dark night of the soul.

An audio book if I can’t be arsed reading it can sometimes do the job. I get less time to read nowadays - in my previous job I used to spend the best part of 2 hours every day on a train so got plenty of reading done - but in the new job I’m based out in the sticks so now I drive to work.

Anyway, getting back to the radio theme, I was brought up on a steady diet of BBC Radio Ulster. My father would have it on every morning before school at breakfast I was subjected to the dulcet tones of Michael Nesbitt, Wendy Austin and Gerry Anderson. Then it was back home from school just in time to hear George Jones putting on a silly accent phoning some innocent member of the public and pretending to be from the Gas Board only to revert to his normal voice and wish the victim happy birthday. They don’t make them like they use to. Then during my stuent days I would amuse myself of an afternoon listening to all the crazy callers on Talkback.

It’s now 9 years since I left Norn Iron/the Pravince/Occupied 6 Counties/the Land of No/Over There (Civil servants in the said entity’s Department of Regional Development delete where appropriate) for the “Mainland”/Across the Water/England’s green and pleasant land, so have been hearing a lot less of the above.
Many would say this was a blessing, but I have to admit you couldn’t get much worse than Kiss (the radio station that is - not the labial mark of affection or the heavy metal band who used to wear a lot of make-up). No disrespect to my nameless work colleague who insists in having it on in the morning. I'm not an advocate of the radio in the workplace anyway as it can be too much of a distraction. So I’d rather have it off all day.

No pun intended of course.

3 comments:

David Todd said...

You're starting to remind me of an old boss of mine who every time he walked past the radio he'd say 'Turn that hurdy gurdy down'. Of course we did and when he left the room turned the volume up again, just like dj-ing when there were requests to turn the volume down it normally ended up in cranking the volume up and nobody seemed to notice. Anyway it looks like those radio stations played at your work are working "I’d rather have it off all day" ;-)

CW said...

Yes, Cybez it's a well known fact that the radio is not conducive to a productive working day, so you're better having it off ;-).
Ooh-er, Mrs! Welcome to "Carry on Blogging" starring Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor - coming to a websitenear you.

Lady Fotherington-Smethers said...

Jaysus Chroist - all this having it off at work. Perhaps you should stop that kind of carry on and listen to Virgin radio instead ;-)