"WHY I LIKE RADIO"
Radio is unique.
It's intimate, like a friend in the room,
or wherever you want to be entertained, taught, or informed.
You can do other things too, surrounded by a friendly wall of sound,
whether by yourself or with others around.
Remembering childhood, hearing 'Radio Caroline' and Luxembourg,
with crackling, whistling and fading sound.
Up all night with the talk shows, where I learnt so much.
Listening to the music that was to become the backdrop to my life.
Being inspired by Kenny Everett and others, to make up my own stories.
Recording on cassette and editing together with scissors and tape.
Being creative and learning by mistakes.
But there's a worrying trend happening so much today,
of putting webcams in studios to show what is there.
For me, this defeats the whole point of it all.
Radio is radio, it's not a visual, image-driven, TV free-for-all.
Radio is different to the television screen.
It's a place to use imagination and build your own scene.
Where voice and words are all that there is,
so you can imagine and create whatever you wish.
It's not about how the presenters may look,
but about the pictures they conjure with the words that are used,
the images created, the stories they tell,
and by the music that's played and the memories recalled.
Radio crosses borders and cultural divides.
It can pass on the truth in a world full of lies.
It can bring hope to hostages, cut off from the world,
and help people to live when they feel so alone.
Talking to people, in a group or alone,
to one person in a bedroom, or to the rest of the world.
Human communication in its direct, basic form.
By talking to each other, friendships can flourish, develop or be born.
Copyright: Gordon Warren, 2014
Can be heard at: http://bit.ly/1odpoD5
Radio is unique.
It's intimate, like a friend in the room,
or wherever you want to be entertained, taught, or informed.
You can do other things too, surrounded by a friendly wall of sound,
whether by yourself or with others around.
Remembering childhood, hearing 'Radio Caroline' and Luxembourg,
with crackling, whistling and fading sound.
Up all night with the talk shows, where I learnt so much.
Listening to the music that was to become the backdrop to my life.
Being inspired by Kenny Everett and others, to make up my own stories.
Recording on cassette and editing together with scissors and tape.
Being creative and learning by mistakes.
But there's a worrying trend happening so much today,
of putting webcams in studios to show what is there.
For me, this defeats the whole point of it all.
Radio is radio, it's not a visual, image-driven, TV free-for-all.
Radio is different to the television screen.
It's a place to use imagination and build your own scene.
Where voice and words are all that there is,
so you can imagine and create whatever you wish.
It's not about how the presenters may look,
but about the pictures they conjure with the words that are used,
the images created, the stories they tell,
and by the music that's played and the memories recalled.
Radio crosses borders and cultural divides.
It can pass on the truth in a world full of lies.
It can bring hope to hostages, cut off from the world,
and help people to live when they feel so alone.
Talking to people, in a group or alone,
to one person in a bedroom, or to the rest of the world.
Human communication in its direct, basic form.
By talking to each other, friendships can flourish, develop or be born.
Copyright: Gordon Warren, 2014
Can be heard at: http://bit.ly/1odpoD5