DOES anyone actually listen to the radio on Christmas Day? For most of us, I suspect, it’s just a background noise to the present-opening and the cooking of Christmas dinner. As a result most music radio stations just throw on a few Christmas tunes and read out the odd festive message.
“Listen, we’re not making it complicated this morning,” the Reverend Kate Bottley admitted on Good Morning Christmas on Radio 2.
“We’re keeping it ever so simple.We’re going to have some texts, we’re going to have some shout-outs, we’re going to have loads of Christmas music,” before, inevitably, mentioning sprouts and turkey.
To be fair, you don’t turn on the radio on Christmas morning expecting anything too challenging.
Still, Bottley is a bright radio presence and the show didn’t completely retreat into a world of carols, Pogues tunes and Christmas dinner chat. During Pause for Thought “His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols” even brought up the conflict in Gaza, and made a call for peace.
Before long, though, it was back to Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters crooning Mele Kalikimaka.
Over on 5 Live, Naga Munchetty was also discussing Christmas dinner in a rather low-key pre-recorded show from 9am. For anyone recovering from a Christmas Eve session this was probably a pleasant enough introduction to Christmas Day. But for those who had turned on early it was hard to ignore the energy dip from Colin Murray who had been on just before.
And that’s not all to do with the fact that Murray always brings a Duracell Bunny-level energy when he’s on the radio. Truth is, there was a crackle to Murray’s live show that Munchetty’s pre-record couldn’t match.
By Boxing Day you could be forgiven for having had more than enough of Christmas tunes on the radio.
Tuning into Clyde 1 for the morning show, Lynsey Gibson, sitting in for George Bowie had the decency to dilute the seasonal songs with a more than fair smattering of Sia and Craig David.
Radio Clyde is 50 years old tomorrow. There will – understandably – be extensive celebrations on the station.
I can’t say I’ve been a regular listener since the days of Billy Sloan and Tiger Tim (ie, not yesterday), but tuning in for a couple of hours this week it was obvious why it remains successful.
It’s slick, contemporary, and talk is kept to a minimum. Apart from the adverts obviously. It didn’t sound anything like the station I used to listen to back in the day, which is as it should be. Actually, it was the ads that most linked then to now.
It’s good to know that Barrhead Travel still pops up regularly on Clyde and that Sterling Home is still going strong in Tillicoultry (and other places too, it seems) even though Dougie Donnelly has moved on from voiceover duties.
Best thing I heard this Christmas? Well, perhaps unexpectedly, Uninsurable Planet (Radio 4, Christmas Eve), Felicity Hannah’s investigation of the impact of climate change on the insurance business was both fascinating and frightening.
But the real highlight came on Radio 4 on Christmas morning when The Reunion brought together some of the stars and supporting actors behind Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? charity single, which was recorded in response to the famine in Ethiopia in 1983.
It’s a familiar story, but, whatever you think of him, Bob Geldof is always quotable and the programme jumped adroitly between the horror of the famine and pop star egotism, balancing both admirably.
Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp was honest enough to admit to the depth of the rivalry between Spandau and Duran Duran. “We hated each other,” he said.
Both bands were in Germany the night before the recording of the single. Drinks were taken and then they each decided to charter planes to get back to London in time.
We then spent the whole flight with the pilot trying to race each other across Europe,” said Kemp.
But the radio programme never lost sight of the cause behind Do They Know It’s Christmas? and by the end there were tears being shed. And possibly not just in the studio.
Because Geldof’s final words went straight to the heart. Well worth catching on BBC Sounds if you missed it.
Listen out for Clyde 1 - The First 50 Years, Clyde 1, midday, tomorrow
As mentioned above, Radio Clyde has a significant birthday to celebrate this weekend. This two-hour show looks back at the station’s history since its first broadcast on December 31, 1973.
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