Radio TechCon 2018 - Overview of the Day

There’s probably never been such an exciting time to be involved in radio technology since the medium was invented. What we do, who does it and how we do it is changing by the second, and technical teams across the world are addressing new challenges each day.

The level of change and innovation, and the energy with which it is being tackled was certainly evident today in this year’s Radio TechCon. It’s all in good hands was my conclusion.

Audio Transformation and the role of Public Service

The EBU, the European Broadcasting Union represents public service broadcasters in 56 countries. In the words of the keynote speaker, Judy Parnall (pictured), the EBU’s new Chair, it's all about "making public service broadcasting indispensable". Judy was keen to point our that their 'Europe' is not the EC from which we are poised to part.

She kicked off reminding us, lest lazy journalists forget, just how strong radio is, with 85% reach across Europe last year, and 82% of the challenging 15-24s. It’s true,of course, that loyalty has fallen appreciably amongst 15-24s over time. But it’s still better than folk think.

Judy set the scene for the day, with mentions of all the other ways audio is now consumed, reminding us that the UK enjoys 11% smart speaker penetration, accounting for 1% of listening - and the US stats suggest that a majority of people who have such things just listen to more audio.

After a wry ‘if 5G is the answer, what’s the question", we were reminded that trials are underway in the Orkneys, where islanders are lumbered with poor internet connectivity and no DAB - so it's a decent place to try something new. Dynamic shared spectrum access with parties from the ‘connective fishing industry’ to schools and ferries, this 5G ‘rural first’ DCMS-supported pilot will surely inform.

Norway goes Digital

Having personally just helped the fine team at Celador migrate their Town 102 audience in Ipswich from FM to DAB, it was fascinating for me to hear from Bjorn Aarseth from NRK in Norway who aided the task of taking Norway’s 5.3m population from analogue to digital. He clarified that it was more than an ‘FM to DAB’ transition.

Norway, we are told has awkward terrain, and FM on the road network is not good. It also costs $25m to transmit. Like the UK, they have a relatively young commercial radio industry, beginning in '81, with the first national station in '93.

The goal for DAB was 99.5% population coverage, with 95% for the commercial networks. The base figures suggested that half of the population had access to DAB in 2009, with 94 trials.

Now, they suggest plans are on target. Most stations are on DAB+ with the locals squatting on FM until 2023. Mind you, he conceded that some pirates were rebroadcasting the DAB service content on FM. How great to have someone else paying your simulcast fees.

A theme to recur later in the day reared its head, that of loudness, with Bjorn suggesting Norway’s DAB was normalised to -15 LUFS. He observed too that in Oslo all stations were +/-1 LUF - compared to the recalcitrant UK, where he claimed the comparable range was +/-10%! Radio listeners have a lower comfort zone for loudness changes than TV viewers, he reminded us.

Bjorn (which means 'bear' he told us) mentioned the importance of linear production, so everything is done in a consistent chain from production to airing, but suggested that his programmers knew pretty swiftly if something sounded odd.

There seemed no great enthusiasm for traffic flags; DAB’s vertical polarisation was a challenge; most DAB listening was mono; and cheap car dash cams from China interfered.

He suggested engagement with the audience was key - making sure you help them on the journey

What will happen to the FM spectrum when it's been emptied, asked one delegate. ‘Stuff’ was the reply. No-one had any real idea what sort of stuff.

Over coffee, several engineers suggested to me that the UK really does need to get on with a switch off/over date.

How LOUD should podcasts be?

Adrian Wisbey from the BBC highlighted research suggesting that 50% of listeners reacted when the change in loudness was greater than 3LU. That may mean switch you off.

He suggested normalising to -18 LUFS at production, and be aware that ‘broadcast’ channels such as Apple will change what you dispatch. He said YouTube reduces loudness if it's too loud, but doesn't trouble to lift it if it’s too soft. He pointed out too that many devices are limited as to output volume, so if your podcast is too quiet, then it may be impossible for a listener to correct it. Listen to how other podcasts in your genre are processed, he advised.


LEDs and DAB - not a happy marriage

My mum used to indulge in Waggoners Walk when Radio 2 was on Long Wave. All wonderful until Georgina next-door switched on her twin-tub and interference reigned. 

Now, it seems, LED lighting is the villain for DAB – according to Rob Webber from the BBC. Essentially, don’t trust cheapo lights - it’s the power converter that does the damage.

He displayed how the noise floor changes as floodlights were turned on near a DAB radio set, and, surprisingly, how a car’s DAB reception was affected by the DC hazard lights on a passing lorry.

Sadly, there were not many solutions. Indeed some consumers were showing much DAB suspicion, according to the Mumsnet page flashed up the screen. It’s just about advising listeners to check these things. Maybe there is a case for a bit more advice in this area to UK radio listeners, just as we used to be told where to point our FM aerials.

A new studio - in a month

Mark Farrington and Hannah Austin from Bauer were understandably chuffed with having built a new studio - in a month. A glass box in the corner of the office is now a useful studio which apparently Claire Sturgess loves, equipped with a specially selected Neumann mic. 

A touchscreen mixer lies at the heart - one which is beautifully resistant to tea poured down it. Now THAT is useful. The room turned out to sound better than they’d imagined. 3D printing helped establish prototypes for other facilities, including the headphone splitter. Problems? Well, people on the same floor clomping round like elephants. A stiff
management email will surely stop that instantly.

Lights, music, action

Just when we thought radio studios could get simpler and cheaper, along comes visualisation (It was fascinating, by the way, to talk to the gifted Global guys over coffee about the thinking that's going into the LBC studio look, with new ideas soon to debut).

Jeremy Roberts from ETC and Dan Aldridge from Stage Electrics reminded us that lighting is key. Their presentation kicked off with double Physics and Biology, reminding us that we see colour in mid-light, it is impaired by too much or too little.

Your eyes have cones and rods - just don’t overload the bloody rods. Eyes are most sensitive to amber and greens, which is why emergency clothing uses those colours. This is why I enjoy TechCon. Did you know that as Man evolved, he couldn’t see blue at first.

We then witnessed Jeremy wandering round - shining a huge light onto his tolerant colleague’s face, helping us understand the difference between poorly and well-lit. The placing and angle is critical too, from a height is good, and don’t illuminate the bits you don’t want. Light for the purpose too:  is this supposed to look like a TV studio, or something more casual? 

Watch the windows. Can you cover them up, or bounce the light back? Or prepare to light the subject’s dark side with equivalent brilliance.

Diversify or Die

Diversify or die, cautioned the Radio Academy’s new chair, Dr Yvonne Thompson. Whilst acknowledging the Ofcom depressing stats suggesting that 81% of radio's technical staff are men, there was evidence that attitudes have changed - and that shift in attitude will preface a change in behaviours. 

Diversity, of course, is about more than just appointing women, it’s about social class, ethnicity and sexuality. A healthy pre-prandial debate ensued.

It’s also worth pointing out how TechCon has changed in my many years hosting it. Once the province of highly-intelligent blokes, there is now, without doubt, a much greater diversity in the audience, aided too by the bursaries. The range of high quality speakers this year was incomparable. Delegates were urged again to sign up as a STEM ambassador to give talks on their world to inspire tomorrow's techies.

AI in Broadcast

Cordula Schellenberger from Veritone showed us the work flow of how they ingest audio material and transcribe it. Whilst a medically ‘trained’ bit of software will understand medical terms - and a sporting one will understand 'Man U' - their clever software uses multiple differently-trained engines from all sources. This collaborative approach raised correct transcription rates to 75%.

The session nodded to the use of voice-activated services; and showed how the software above can search words in audio content with enviable accuracy. 

Commercial programmers will delight at its ability to track down every mention of a client so you can pull off all random brand mentions with ease.  Alas, no time for questions. I was wondering what will be the best thing to call your podcast, if it’s going to be requested by voice - and I also worried how easily stations will be tracked down by lawyers now able to find out exactly what’s been said about their client on every station.

Hacking Festivals

Hacking’s a good thing. In this enthusiastic session, we were reminded that we need to agree on tech - and compete on content. Technologists should co-operate - and talk to anyone and everyone about their work.

We witnessed scenes from the Electromagnetic Field festival. Like a music festival, but people getting together in a field with three stages to listen to each other - and hack. The photos said it all, with real energy and discovery from makers, engineers and artists - a festival for the inquisitive. Kids loved it too - with their festival badges being a software defined radio. 

One result was shown, a voice-controlled radio which uses DAB, FM or online sources to deliver the requested station. Not revolutionary in its elements, you might argue, but it’s Apple-like simplicity and ease would have made a great gift for my old man. The hacking fraternity was able to deliver proof of concept.


Object-Based Audio

Object based audio has been a regular TechCon subject: how listeners can choose the mix of the sound elements of any programme. The audio objects are collected and metadata assembled - so we know what’s what - then rendered to the listener’s taste. How much chocolate do you want on your cake?

Headphones cause 'internalisation' it seems, where the mind thinks the sounds come from inside the head. 'Binaural auralisation' offers a remedy. In other news, speech intelligibility rises 12% when you can see the lips move. Try this one at home. But where the voice appears to come from makes a difference.

A demo on this session showed how a spatialised audio drama, using mobile phones, could generate immersive audio without the bother of 5.1 array.

Brilliant Students

Two incredible women from University Radio York showed off their app, in which students could save their university from an alien invasion.  It's a game, by the way.

This was full scale, physically interactive audio demonstrated by Rebecca Saw and Sienna Holmes, with students marching the campus and making decisions which affected the outcome of what they heard. 

The project had been a true collaborative effort across the disciplines, with much problem-solving and some degree of personal investment.  The TechCon audience liked the app, and warmed to its presenters, two energetic and highly capable women. I would have hired them tomorrow.

Emley Moor

A show of hands suggested that about three quarters of the audience had been up the Emley Moor 330m tower, the highest free-standing structure in the UK. 

The mast was built originally like a ball-point pen, with the antenna shoved through the mast and upwards like a ball point pen ink and nib, before the column was then filled with the necessary infrastructure to be able to ascend the mast.

But! Tony Mattera from Ofcom dropped by to explain how they’d had to build a second mast to replace old Emley to free it for work on the 700 MHz clearance programme.

The feat was illustrated with breath-taking footage of the helicopter flying in to deposit the latest section of the temporary mast, looming as high in the sky as its older sister. The video embedded above wasn't the actual helmet cam footage which made us feel giddy, but gives a sense of the task.

A skilled team from Helirig hovered over with a 2.5 tonne sections of the mast dangling, to be grasped by the determined team working at height in their fluorescent garb. Do Emmerdale viewers and Capital listeners really appreciate the risk to life and limb that their programmes require? 

The helicopters, apparently, often hail from Chile - as Chileans love BIG helicopters. Or Russian ones – given their double rotors.

Anyway, it’s up now, ready for the big frequency re-jig which needs antenna work on the main mast. This will take a matter of months  - but no-one will notice because Emley 2 stands poised. A brilliant job. They should show the erection video between programmes, frankly.

Small-scale DAB

Graham Plumb, Director of Spectrum Broadcasting at Ofcom updated us on Small Scale DAB, the new budget small DAB approach pioneered by Rash at Ofcom itself, and soon to be a home for community and smaller commercial radio operators.

The experiment was a success, with around 70 unique, mostly fresh, stations transmitted in ten areas – delivering real experience to ten small multiplex operators.

Expressions of interest are now in for the permanent  multiplexes, and Ofcom is beginning work with DCMS on the relevant legislation and process.  Technical guidance is being reviewed, and the plan is to draft it in such a way it can be easily understood. Ofcom will then work on frequency planning and consult on the licence award process. It is confident it has the resource, and has ‘lots of people’ working on it.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Aside from Stephanie Hirst’s traditional excellent ‘what can you remember about today’ contest, the last session was down to accomplished sound ‘imagineer’ Dirk Maggs.

Having created the original Hitchhiker's Guide in 1978, the BBC brought him back to create some 40^th anniversary material. 

Bubbling with enthusiasm as ever, Dirk shared stories of his conversations with Douglas Adams (“A 6 foot seven 10 year old boy”) and their shared dreams. He told of his plans years ago to create Dolby Surround sound, and how cautious engineers crossed the road when they saw him coming.

In short, here was an original premier-league sound creator who masters his craft to this day. As he saluted the technicians of today and yesterday - and gave them due credit for their contribution to UK radio creativity, it was a fitting end to a remarkable day. Tomorrow’s technology, discussed in the building where the BBC had made its tentative steps in the 1920s.

Congrats to Ann, Aradhna and all the TechCon committee who delivered this event this year. A real success . Thanks too to all the sponsors who made it happen – with Broadcast Bionics at the front of a committed queue. There's a debt too to Savoy Place, the IET's home, and a plug is warranted for the IET's Multi-media network.  

I am not a techie.  I was simply the host, wearing a silly suit. If anything is factually incorrect in this quick round-up, please drop me a line and I'll change it.

I work with radio stations around the world in a range of areas. From programme strategy to research, key brand work and marketing strategy. From presenter training to compliance, consultation responses and licensing. Talk to me via www.davidlloydradio.com

Grab my book 'Radio Moments': 50 years of radio - life on the inside. A personal and frighteningly candid reflection on life in radio now and then. The drama - the characters - the headaches - the victories. Available in paperback or ebook.

Also 'How to Make Great Radio'. Techniques for today's presenters and producers.  Great for newcomers - and real food for thought if you've been doing it years. Available in paperback or ebook.

Need a conference speaker? I'd love to work with you.

Bye for now, Jimmy Young

Presenters like to sing loudly with their headphones on.  Very few go on to huge chart success.

Jimmy Young did, hitting the 'top-spot' on the NME chart with ‘Unchained Melody’ and ‘the Man from Laramie’; and amassing an impressive string of other 50s favourites in the days when Number Ones sold millions.

He is best-remembered, however, for his radio. Hear, here, this unmistakable presenter, with his trademark Gloucestershire burr and catch phrases. He dominated daytime radio for decades, retiring reluctantly in 2002, aged 81, after 42 years at the BBC.

Jimmy had helped out in the family baking business, indeed he and his dad ended up in court when he was caught driving the family van in his early teens. 

His first love throughout was music. His mother taught him piano and encouraged his voice training. 

After a spell in the forces and as an electrician, a BBC producer spotted him playing piano at a swimming club.  Jim was duly handed his BBC Bakelite lanyard in August 1949.

His BBC career saw him hosting ‘Housewives Choice’ on the Light Programme for a few weeks in 1960, a successful run on weekend lates - and a few other offerings on Auntie's chill-out service. He was also to record  shows in London for the huge Radio Luxembourg. 

The broadcasting break had come not a moment too soon, as the ballads for which he’d been famous gave way to dirty rock ‘n roll.

Jimmy went on to appear daily on the fledgling BBC Radio 1, by which time he was already older than Moyles was when he left. Jim hosted its mid-morning show, broadcast, at least partly, on both Radio 1 and 2. 

'The JY Prog', as it became, migrated to a new home at Radio 2 in 73, with cautious programme management insisting that no interview begin until 15 minutes of the programme had elapsed. The programme's familiar sig tune, 'TownTalk' by Ken Woodman & His Piccadilly Brass, signaled the start of lunchtimes to 'seven and a half million housewives' in kitchens in the Home Counties.  

The vari-speeded ‘What’s the recipe today Jim’ was as much a part of national radio folklore back then as Ken Bruce’s PopMaster is now. 

Music-magazine programmes can work on radio, but only in the most capable of hands. Mixing real current affairs with jolly pop songs and chit chat is an art – and Jimmy had it - moving effortlessly from Carpenters to Cold War and colanders. The programme quickly acquired a reputation as the one politicians wanted to be on. In February 1975, Margaret Thatcher afforded her first interview as party leader to chirpy Jim.  JY’s show served huge audiences with insight into the issues of the day; albeit in a very different way from his successor, the excellent Jeremy Vine.

Little wonder his longevity in the national limelight and his reputation amongst those who matter earned him recognition at the Palace.  He was awarded the OBE in 1979, the CBE in 1993 and the Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to broadcasting.

This gentleman broadcaster was a quiet, professional sort, who achieved huge audiences with a consistently successful radio programme for which he will be long-remembered. 

Bye - for now - Jim.

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Pictures from the Past

Disc jockeys are meant to be heard not seen.  But these pictures from the Getty archives really do sum up a time and a place.

Enjoy here, one of the launch pics from the opening of Radio 1 in 1967. Sir Tony staring into the camera lens, griping onto a pair of those funny BBC headphones. And what a fine bit of woodwork there from the BBC joiner.

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Rosko was the rebel in those days, with his lunchtime show. Look, he's barely clothed here.  John Dunn famously introduced  his news bulletin in Rosko's show with: 'now the news. In English..."

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And on the station's first birthday, the presenters famously gather feet away from Broadcasting House, to return to the steps of All Souls Church.  For many of the characters, it is the closest they'll get to singing hymns. The assembly was a little diminished from the parallel shot a year before, not least because the fledgling Radio 1 policy was to hire everyone on four week contracts and see who worked out best.  Canny approach.

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Down the road at Capital, in a rare 1973 shot in his office at Euston Tower, Chairman Richard Attenborough is likely none too pleased as he peruses the company's early accounts. 

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And the early team at London's LBC were no strangers to challenging accounting. In this shot, a tech op watches as Janet Street-Porter and Paul Callan present 'two in the morning' (get it?) on that launch day in October 1973.  I'd prefer to have been the tech-op, as he got to hammer the buttons on the ITC triple stacks.

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Commercial radio, in a fashion, had been heard in the UK much earlier, thanks to the wobbly signal from Radio Luxembourg, after it returned following the War.  Its influence was sufficiently powerful to make stars of people like Pete Murray, later on Radio 2 and LBC. Even the Teddy Boys looked up to him. And Pete's suit looks a lot better than a sweat shirt with your name on which his descendants puzzlingly chose to wear.

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Back at Capital, surely 1974 mid morning host Michael Aspel does not surely need quite so many EQ channels on his mixer.

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And colleague, Kenny Everett, is evidently aghast at the contents of the Capital Radio manifesto.

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As Capital's Graham Dene celebrated 5 years with the station, a cake arrived. With Michael Aspel in it. Thank goodness those rumours of radio being rife with back stabbers are false.  Technics turntables were poised  - alongside the classic Neve desk which was a stranger to PFL.

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Kid Jensen arrived in the UK from Radio Luxembourg in 1975, lodging at Nottingham's Radio Trent for a year before graduating to Radio 1. Here he is, in a novel pose.  It is certainly better than clutching headphones, or pointing to an alarm clock or cheque. 

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By 1976, the cult of Wogan had begun; and this talented Irishman began to relax and enjoy it. Just keep your feet away from those Gates turntables, Terry. They were truly the best.

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Surprisingly little audio exists of Chris Tarrant, despite his long rule at the Capital London helm.  Maybe he was more of a listener's presenter than an anorak's - and there's little wrong with that. Thank goodness we have pictures though. Note how many more screens there are in this 2004 shot, compared with the 1960s BBC shots. 

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Frank Phillips is the name of a BBC newsreader better known than many before him. Not least as it was Frank who became the first newsreader to announce his name.  All part of making British broadcasts immediately recognisable as such in times of War.  The habit stuck, and now every contributor of travel, weather, whatever commences their broadcast with a smile and a proud namecheck.  Even though the War's over.

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You don't see many of those discussion booths now: minimalist acoustic rooms equipped with just a bouncy table, a mic and a talkback box, thanks to the show engineering happening 'through the glass'.  Pete Murray enjoyed himself here in October 1970, with a pair of those dinky little BBC cans clipped to his 'earoles. 

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The old BBC desks were industrial in style. Like cars before power steering, you had to pull these faders down with force when your needed the next jingle from the ITC cart machine.  It was no problem for good old JY, even with the future PM looking on and crashing the vocal in February 1975.

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You can always tell a jingle anorak when they  concentrate more on the cart labels in a pic rather than the person pictured. Try this Radio 1 shot from the early eighties. Ignore Adrian Juste at your peril, though.

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Thanks to all the photographers through the ages who have patiently witnessed our medium. We are grateful.  

One final shot.  How delicious is this. As the BBC moved premises in 1932 from Savoy Hill to the newly built Broadcasting House, a photographer paused to film the removal men at work. But why has than man got a crate on his head. And who is in the coffin?

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Grab my book 'How to Make Great Radio' from Biteback. Proceeds to the Radio Academy

The Psychology of Radio - 1935 style

“It has already grown from the insignificance of an embryonic idea in the minds of technicians to the stature of a Goliath in industry and public affairs. Vigorously endowed and shrewdly directed, it has developed sturdily, and with lightning speed has fashioned for itself a place in our national life” 

So says a 1935 book called ‘The Psychology of Radio’. 

The book was written in America, back in the days when radio was but a small child, and self-appointed experts were penning articles and posturing about it.  Just as they do about this digital thing nearly eighty years later.

It’s a fascinating read.  It makes mention of an impressive early experiment, conducted when there was an appetite to understand better this new fangled thing.  An evangelist gathered an audience and preached in a hall.  His sermon was relayed by sound only, as if a radio broadcast, to a neighbouring hall.  As the call came for the congregation to step forward and participate, the genuine assembly started to take action.  Members of the radio audience in the second hall were not motivated in the same way.  They stood there like lemons.

The author explained he felt this was not through some flaw in this otherwise miraculous medium, but simply because the vocal delivery on radio needed to be different.  In structure, it was said that a live speaker works for “immediate rather than long-run results, for emotional fervour rather than for future action”.  

He concluded:

“A radio spellbinder would have spoken quite differently. He would have used less bombast and more artistry, less brute force and more cunning. He would have directed his attention to the invisible audience and would have made each listener feel welcome as a member of the circle. He would have aroused the listeners' sense of participation in the occasion. "Friends, this is Huey P. Long speaking.."

All those years ago, the authors (Hadley Cantril  & Gordon Allport) had already recognised that radio was a one-to-one thing; and you had to address a single listener as you spoke if you really wanted to motivate.

The chapter observed that the voice on radio is different from a person addressing in real life in that:

• “In the minds of the listeners (radio) places music in the preferred position among radio program(me)s.
• It frees the listener from the necessity of conventional politeness toward public performers.
• It interposes a serious psychological barrier between the broadcaster and his audience through the destruction of the normal circular relationship.
• It virtually eliminates social facilitation among the auditors with the result that they are less crowdish, more critical and individualistic”.

Witness the medium’s educational prowess too. The publication suggests that radio improves the capacity of the average man to listen. And even “probably increases the vocabulary of the average listener”.

“It was discovered that the college student, with his long training in listening to lectures, is far better able than the untrained listener to understand and to recall what he hears. His advantage, furthermore,is discovered to be greater for auditory than for visual material. It appears, therefore, that intelligent listening is par excellence the mark of the educated man.”

“Although there is a prevailing tendency to use the radio as a background for other tasks, when the dial is turned to a specific program and when attention is directed fully to its message, an auditory training is provided for millions of people and its long-range effects may be exceedingly important. For increasing the world's population of "good listeners" radio deserves an extra star in its crown”.

So, if the boss ever tells you to stop streaming Gem 106 at your desk, just smile patiently and assure him that it’s training you to listen better to his wisdom.

Even back then there was a worry that radio might put people off their work

“Take, first, the case of the housewife or the student who is completely preoccupied with work. The loud-speaker emits its stream of sound, but it falls on deaf ears. The distraction is completely inhibited. As long as attention does not shift, the radio's effect, if it has any at all, is entirely subliminal. In such a case the effort required (and unconsciously exerted) to overcome the distraction may actually enhance concentration on the task in hand.... The stronger the potential distraction the greater is the compensatory attention”.

Attention, RAB! The article goes on to provide early thoughts on the topic addressed in more recent years by Saatchi & Saatchi's 1981/1995 'Ironing Board Study' and Classic FM’s/Bournemouth University's 1995 'Jigsaw study'. The theory that listeners zone in and out depending on what interests them:

“However, attention is at best a restless thing, always waxing and waning, and shifting from one focus to another. The sounds of the radio are seldom inhibited for more than a few minutes at a time.  The mind wanders from the task in hand to the distracting sound”.

Some things have come to pass:

“In certain ways radio is a dangerous competitor of the newspaper.”

And some prophetic observations on the delinquent use of radio’s immense power:

“The Nazi propagandist minister, Goebbels, uses it ubiquitously to spread the doctrines of Hitler and says that ''Some day the radio will be the spiritual daily bread of the whole German nation."

What about children though?

“About one-third of the children say that they lie awake in bed thinking of things they have heard over the radio. The same number report that they frequently dream of radio plots : three- fourths of these dreams are nightmares”.

Given American radio was, by then, already into commercial radio full throttle, the book also alludes to what later became ‘pester power’ in terms to children hearing advertisements and then lobbying poor Mama for said goodies:

“ The advertising appeal is ingenious and effective. It is directed toward the child's desire for physical superiority (victory at games and ''pep"). It comes just before the supper hour when hunger facilitates mental associations pertaining to food. It arouses the powerful motive of sympathy and compassion by asking the child to tell his mother about the product... Through repetition, tedious to the adult but interesting to the child, the association between the fantasy of the story and the product in question is indelibly established”.

Ah. Repetition builds reputation.

What of station formats?

• “a slight majority of this station's hours are devoted to network”
• “far more network programs are broadcast on Sundays than on weekdays;
• “the early morning hours (6-8) contain entirely local programs”
• “three-fourths of the programs broadcast during the best evening hours (7-10) are network relays;
• “the days when listening habits are least dependable (over the week-end) are filled with sustaining network broadcasts to keep the station on the air most economically..”

So, the truth is out.  In implementing 'The Future of Radio' in 2007, OFCOM just copied and pasted from this 1935 book for its Localness Guidelines.

By the way, according to the 1930 US census (which likely enjoyed jolly COI-type ads saying “fill in the form y’all”), there were suggestions that 70 per cent of homes were, were “supplied with radios”.  

If the behavioural assertions above are to be believed, the rest of the homes contained thick Americans with fairly chilled kids.

This is amazing. Average listening time was 19.6 hours a week. In 2014, it is 21.5.  The sample size was 507, by the way if Ipsos/Mori are reading this.  

Popular programme elements included ‘Dance Orchestras’ at Number 1 in the chart, followed by football and symphonies. Wow.  It’s commercial national radio. Absolute, Talksport and Classic.  Sports and old songs are in there too, in the next two positions, so thank goodness we have Smooth.  Least popular thing? “Advertising messages”.

How many stations in the listening repertoire back in the 1930s?

 “The average listener is not accustomed to tune in to all available stations. His habits at the dial are likely to be rutted: 5.6 per cent listen regularly to only one station while 76.6% per cent never listen to more than three stations”.

All these years later, the ‘habits at the dial’ of the average punter are much the same.

There’s some handy listener research, suggesting that 84% preferred music programming, with the remainder opting for speech. It also suggests that speech is used as foreground listening and music as background.

Forgive me for just lapping up the experiments on presenter voices, conducted by WEEI in Boston involving the tones of  twenty-four male (but of course) speakers and over six hundred judges. They sought to establish whether people could judge appearance by a voice.  We must try that trial again. A great contest for your breakfast show, maybe.

They  found that it was challenging to establish height from a voice, although some favourable results were uncovered owing “primarily to the case of a short fat man whose voice was thick, mellow, and "chuckling." . Give that guy a job on Radio 2.

Voices were matched to  handwriting “about one and a half times as frequently as would be expected by chance.”

Photos and voices were matched with some success as was political preference.  Close your eyes. Listen to Nick Ferrari and try to establish which way he votes.

I shall leave you with a brief glimpse into Chapter 7.

“Most people would rather hear a man than a woman speak over the radio. Yet few listeners are able to explain this preference: they can tell neither how the sexes differ in their vocal appeal nor why. Even the supervisor of broadcasting at the studio can seldom give reasons why his announcing staff is entirely male.”

I bet he can’t.

They resorted to another fab experiment with men and women reading articles into a microphone and  respondents were asked to score on various factors. 

"Women were found to be rated higher in some qualities and men in others. In general men are judged to be more natural and more persuasive. Except in poetry and abstract passages, the listeners felt that men took more of an interest in the material they were broadcasting. In four out of seven experiments, women's voices were judged as more attractive".

Before the analysis, 95 per cent of the listeners had already stated that men's voices were more attractive.  The conclusion states:

“This result shows a noteworthy difference between stereotyped and analytic judgments. It indicates that the preliminary judgment was based to a considerable degree upon mere prejudice”

How far have we really come in 80 years?

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