It wasn’t quite a Twitter storm, more like a stiff Twitter breeze, but my thoughts on the future of local radio did bounce around social media for a time this afternoon after my interview aired on Heartland FM. They came after an enjoyable twenty minutes or so as station manager Alistair Smith led me skilfully through my career in radio and allowed me to describe how I came to write a book about it. I got to talk about that recovered footage of Let’s do the Show Right Here in Aberfeldy which I told you about a few posts back. We talked about music, transmitter blackspots on the A9 and a mythical Jacuzzi in the Heartland studio. Then just as we were wrapping up, we got into this whole business of how Ofcom was allowing big commercial radio companies to dilute local content and broadcast U.K. wide breakfast shows out of London. Well, I didn’t need to be asked twice. I used words like “shocking” and “outrageous” and said that the regulator Ofcom was left doing nothing except policing bad language.
Within minutes my words were being tweeted and re-tweeted and the Local Radio Group who are campaigning to save local content got in touch asking me to lend my weight (steady! I’m just wo days to my summer diet) to their efforts.
I happily agreed.
So, if you missed the interview, Heartland FM have made it available on this slick little podcast.
Jeff's Zones 