San Francisco Bay, one of many locations listeners are transported to via Radio 4's Further Tales of the City
When I joined the BBC back in 2005, I wanted to be on the radio. That was why I joined. The tutor on my radio production course in central London had said I'd be a natural just as I started writing on the tutor evaluation form. That anecdote kickstarted one or two ambitions.
It wasn't to be. I got distracted by online in my first role at the BBC and before I realised just how much time had passed, the boat for Radioland had departed without me. From time to time I see my radio production tutor and he asks me the inevitable question about what I'm working on now. When he tuts, shakes his head and comments that I'm not in radio, I answer him back with a variety of other excuses. These include "they brought Home Truths to an end" and "PM is Eddie Mair's, no doubt about it". On one ocassion I offered, "I have been on 5 Live for a few minutes."
I was thinking all of this (and voicing this blog post at the same time) as I lay in the bath listening to some of my favourites listed in my iPlayer Radio app. Alongside Choral Evensong, Archive on 4, (the brilliant but sadly no longer available) Battle for the Airwaves and Armistead Maupin's Further Tales of the City, is 1914 Day by Day, my latest 'squeeze'. The expertly curated 5 minute podcasty-type broadcast tap into my weakness for radio packages and obsession for historical narratives. Like the three episode Month of Madness series on Radio 4 a couple of weeks back, the gobbit-sized programme is appointment to listen stuff for me. It's something special.
Yesterday's episode - and its back-anno - reminded me of an additional thing. A memory thundered around my head as a result. "1914 Day by Day was produced by Russell Finch. It was a Somethin' Else production for Radio 4." I'd known that already - I've listened to every episode. Instead it was the back-announcement which reminded me of one of the reasons I wanted to work in radio. It wasn't as I've recently thought that I wanted to hear myself on the radio necessarily (although maybe, deep down, I think that would be nice). Rather, it was the idea of hearing the name of my own radio production company (if I'd set one up) in a back announcement. During the course I'd enrolled on, my thought had been that one day if I did set one up, it would be called… Thoroughly Good (hence my eventual Twitter ID). "Imagine hearing that," I recall once saying to my parents, "'that was a Thoroughly Good production for Radio 4."
One day.
Jon Jacob is Editor, About the BBC Blog and Website
- 1914: Day by Day is broadcast daily at 4.55pm on Radio 4. An omnibus edition is broadcast on Sunday evenings.
