RADIO VERSUS TELEVISION

Time for a wee rant. I was immersed in radio during my twenties, as that was the medium in which I was working. Before that I rarely watched television. It was only nearing my thirties, taking a Sunday lunchtime break from BBC Radio Humberside, in the pub across the road, that the country music presenter Tex Milne ( yes Tex was not the name his Mum and Dad gave him ) offered me a non-working GEC hundred-foot wide wooden box thing. I accepted, got it operational and then was able to see wonderful colour pictures as I listened to Pink Floyd. No, that's not the rant yet. On moving from radio to tv I kind of lost touch with radio. On a couple of occasions I returned to it while temporarily without a tv. Then, a few years ago I gave up television, seemingly for good ( okay, didn't last, not my choice ) but I discovered an incredibly intellectually satisfying world. One that had not suffered in the way that television has over the years. I find some of the thinking behind many television programmes weird in the extreme. They're obviously aimed at the youth market but I have yet to meet anyone in this age group who watches them. I would make a special mention for Big Brother. From my anecdotal experience the only people watching this programme are the 40-70 generation hoping for a glimpse of something shocking, who presumably don't have access to the net. While we're on the subject, how can viewers possibly identify more strongly with characters from Eastenders than the people they live and work with? They do, believe me, they do. I'll soon post my other Tex Milne story: Tex and the Weapons of Mass Destruction. No, it's got nothing to do with either The Middle East, as I believe Tony Blair would like us to say when referring to Iraq, or nukes.