Let it snow
Posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 8:34am. #
I’m an award-winning radio presenter.
Well, an award was won by a radio programme that I presented on.
Okay, so a radio programme that I presented a small part of won an award.
The programme, The Pulse Snow Special, was in 1994, when a heavy snow fall came down in Bradford in the afternoon – paralysing a city which is built at the bottom of a number of hills: leaving the city meant driving uphill, and thus the city descended into gridlock. We “suspended regular programming”, as the brilliant programme director, Steve Martin, made me repeat regularly, and went into all-speech mode.
This morning, it’s heavily pouring with snow in London – a city which isn’t used to snow. All the characteristic red buses have been withdrawn; many trains aren’t working; and even if we make it into work, we’ll not make it home again as there are more snowfalls forecast for later in the day.
LBC 97.3 is, somewhat amusingly, calling itself “your official snow station” – and the only thing the station is doing is snow updates. They’re not making an attempt to communicate school closures (that’s what a website is for these days); they are communicating the situation – one that was communicated so successfully that within ten minutes, I’d texted my team making it clear that, if they could, they should remote work today. They’re interviewing commuters at rail stations – one of whom has just slagged off the BBC for lack of information.
And that’s the point. This is what local radio is all about. National radio (BBC and commercial) will be broadcasting their usual fayre of national news, sensitive to criticism that the London-centric view of the media will lead to complaint if they make too much of the comparatively light dusting that has paralysed London. They simply can’t cover it with the depth that local radio can.
I remember the first time I listened to local radio: my parents were snowed in, in Somerset, in a terrible snowstorm that ended up being the genesis of the local radio station BBC Somerset. It’s still part of people’s psyche to “tune in to your local radio station” in case of heavy snow, flood, or power cut.
This is your station’s chance to shine. And, just like that programme back in 1994, this is the time your station will get a whole lot more listeners who aren’t aware of what you do; will broadcast tremendous programming; and be part of your local community.
Or, of course, you could fade up the network feed, and get more music variety. Which, today, would be a criminal thing to do.
Ben
Japan Snow
It’s a nice thought, but sadly most local radio stations are local by name, networked by output. I wouldn’t expect that a local PD could ‘opt-out’ of the network feed, even if they wanted too.
It’s a shame, “local” radio doesn’t really exist now in most areas.