IT has only taken me 14 months, but I finally tuned into Scala Radio on the Bank Holiday for its “Mindfulness Monday”. Radio listeners in general tend to be creatures of habit so new ventures always have a fight to find an audience. But since it launched in March last year, Scala has attracted a quarter of a million listeners.
Some of them may well have followed Simon Mayo from Radio 2. His Scala morning show is a typically laidback, relaxed listen that proves the broadcaster is at home playing Chopin and Shostakovich as he was Culture Club and Snow Patrol.
Not really a surprise. Mayo has been a safe pair of hands since his days on Radio 1. He’s maybe more familiar now from his Five Live movie show with Mark Kermode (himself a Scala regular), but this is the day job, three hours a day, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 1pm.
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Mindfulness Monday saw him joking about pinatas and having a sly dig at Dominic Cummings (there were quite a few on Tuesday morning too), while chatting to psychologist Emma Kenny about mental health during lockdown and Adrian Thomas from the RSPB about bird song.
The musical choices are unlikely to scare the horses. Or the birds, for that matter. Bach’s Air on a G String, Kiri Te Kanawa singing Mozart, Boccherini’s Minuet, Benny Andersson playing Thank You For the Music on the piano. In the circumstances, Morecambe and Wise singing Positive Thinking stood out for its light entertainment brassiness. And that was a listener’s choice.
Still, it certainly feels like a programme that’s bedded in and at ease with itself. If you are looking for the aural equivalent of your favourite comfy cardigan, this probably will fit the bill. I’ll listen again.
Listen out for: Wean’s World, Radio 4, 11am. Broadcaster Audrey Gillan returns to Glasgow where she grew up to ask what life is like now for local children.
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