Where Have The Great Radio Presenters Gone?
I’ve just had a drink with someone I used to love listening to on the radio. I remembered listening to his shows religiously, marvelling at how he put them together with imagination and flair. I got to wondering — where have all the great radio presenters gone?
I mean the truly great presenters. The ones that people talk about. I can’t remember the last time someone said to me “you’ve got to listen to this person on the radio, they are like no one else”.
In the early 90s, in the days before listening online and radio “news” sites on the internet I relied on word of mouth to find out what was good. I recall people telling me to listen to Nick Abbot on Virgin Radio because he was just talking to callers for ages, discussing things that people on the radio just didn’t talk about. I listened, and listened, and listened more to him.
Friends told me to listen to Robin Galloway on Northsound, he was talking to people on the phone at breakfast time! Steve Penk on Key 103, he was doing wind up calls. Chris Tarrant on Capital, The Phone-In on Radio Forth and more. For a while the Chris Evans show on Radio One became a soap opera, played out on air and in the newspapers. Radio couldn’t have had a higher profile.
In the 2000s it became easier to listen around. And still people were talking about radio presenters. Chris Moyles, obviously. Hirsty on Galaxy, Pete and Geoff on Virgin, Pete Price on Radio City and others. Again people doing radio that was different to what anyone else was doing. Radio shows that stood out and gave the listener a real experience.
Now, as I say, I can’t remember the last time someone told me there is a presenter I absolutley must listen to on the radio. Now and again I’ll hear about a feature (such as Innuendo Bingo) or a one-off show (like LBC’s Euro debate). Nothing about someone who is purely a great listen because their regular show is so different.
Where have they gone? Why have they gone? I could speculate on that for hours. Maybe I’ve just got a dull set of friends. Or maybe radio stations have stopped embracing the different, too scared of losing a vital listening hour.
I know some will say there are still great presenters around and I’m just missing them. Are you sure you’re not kidding yourself? Are they actually great or are they just good?
The thing is that the only difference in radio is the presenters. Serving up music tailored for your taste and lifestyle? Spotify can do that. Weather, news, local information? My phone can do that. Give me adverts? I can go online, search for what I want and have ads tailored for me. Entertain, amaze, sadden, gladden, spark imagination, inspire action — that’s where radio presenters come into their own.
The talent and the desire needed to be a great presenter can’t have disappeared, so where are they?
Without great presenters radio really is replacable.
If you’ve got an opinion or you want to point me in the direction of a truly great presenter, leave a comment at the side, get in touch on Twitter @euanmcmorrow or email euan@mcmmonline.com
