Why I'm listening to more radio in 2025
It's like an algorithm for your ears
Can I shock you? I was a bit of a nerd as a teenager. I know. You can hardly believe it.
But it’s true.
In fact, I was such a nerd that I used to spend a lot of my day at boarding school, when I wasn’t playing corridor cricket, listening to the radio. I would wake up to Terry Wogan on Radio 2, then it would be Steve Wright in the afternoon, Chris Evans at “drivetime”, Radcliffe and Maconie during the evening before switching over to Radio 4 Extra and some suitably intellectual comedy before bed.
I’m willing to accept I was not a normal 16-year-old. But I do think I was on to something, and in 2025 I determined to resurrect that particular element of my teenage self - although the guyliner and the skinny jeans I think I will leave in the Noughties.
In the modern era, radio is a fading force. Even car and lorry drivers, once the central pillars of any decent radio station’s listenership, are now more likely to fire up a podcast on Carplay or hook up a Spotify playlist via Bluetooth.
But radio is such a unique format. As a talk radio presenter - which for a very brief period I was on the now defunct Love Sport Radio - you are the governor of the soundtrack to someone’s day, perhaps their only company for those few hours. It is a huge responsibility, and takes tremendous skill to do it well. I, a slightly troubled teen, genuinely felt like Terry Wogan was the avuncular form tutor I wished would replace Mr Dakin and his distinctly confrontational teaching style. (In later years, I realised I was the confrontational one, and “Dakos” was merely caught in the crossfire of my hormonal rage. If you’re reading, sorry Tony.)
In that sense, radio presenters and producers are the original algorithm: they are the ones who decide what content you consume, how often certain themes return and what works and what doesn’t. Of course, they work with far less data than your TikTok account (the radio ratings system is laughably outdated) - but that is the beauty of it: most producers will put together a show they think will give the listeners a decent experience, not, as most algorithms do, try to get them addicted to the platform through a heady cocktail of dopamine, hate-watches and clickbait.
When it’s my turn to walk the Troublesome Hound in the morning (-4 this morning, neither of us were keen…), I will be listening to the radio this year. On Friday, it was the Today programme, which while not entertainment, is a perfect example of the above. In the space of a 40-minute jaunt around a frosty park, I was presented with the latest from South Korea, a grilling of the Evri CEO about their delivery record, analysis of the Government’s new adult social care plans, and a segment about the shortage of foster parents for training guide dogs. (Also the darts, but I don’t “love the darts”.)
I struggle to believe I would have chosen those four topics, given my own free choice, and Much as I enjoy classic cricket highlights, Asian fusion “cook with me” and observational comedy skits, I doubt whether my Instagram Reels feed would have given me such an eclectic mix either.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?