I initially woke up this morning at 5am. Steve Allen has just begun his second hour of discussion on LBC while Vanessa Feltz kicked off her Radio 2 early morning breakfast show. 5 Live have just finished their 'Up All Night' coverage while Radio 4 would still be following the World Service for another twenty minutes. Even Classic FM is hosted by Sam Pitts for another hour, even though he's been presenting since 1am.
I fully woke up at 7am. By now, Nick Ferrari has kicked off his flagship breakfast show, though Tim Lihoreu would already be into his second hour. Zoe Ball is busy on Radio 2 selecting the best tracks to wake people up, while two excellent Today presenters on Radio 4 are busy interrogating the individuals making the day's news. This would match 5 live, currently dominated by Wimbledon coverage but still managing to fit in its breakfast show, co-hosted by Nicky Campbell. As for Vanessa Feltz, her day of radio didn't finish at 6.30am when Zoe Ball took over; indeed, as Big Ben chimed 7am, her BBC Radio London breakfast show had just started. Are you spotting a trend here? I appear to know most of the weekday early and normal breakfast presenters for a number of national stations. Of course, this is only a drop in the water compared to the number of regional and worldwide stations (or pirate radio stations featured in the fine 'People Just Do Nothing'). My mind has become permanently tuned to the radio schedule of multiple stations. These include stations I would never possibly dream of listening to, like Radio 1 Extra! I don't know how long this has been the case. For a while, I have been interested in radio and podcasts. The concept of listening to something informative while getting on with other things - like the unpaid domestic labour we all have to endure - has always appealed to me. In a sense, it means certain mundane tasks that have to be completed are not wasted, as the individual would have been intellectually enlightened during the process. For news and documentaries, the radio is far superior. You could discover the latest trends in politics or economics, examine the long term effects of a historic battle or the varying interpretations of a Shakespeare play all while doing the washing or cleaning! With this plan in mind, I downloaded both the Classic FM app - which allows you to listen to other Global radio stations and the BBC Sounds app, which includes all of the BBC's radio coverage. Though I previously listened to radio programmes on my laptop - and still occasionally do, for I have no radio! - I think downloading those two apps, which surely use most of my battery, was the catalyst for my scheduling obsessions. There are just so many tools at one's disposal: seeing the radio schedule, catching up on programmes, bookmarking programmes, downloading programmes to enjoy without wifi (which has recently become an obsession of mine walking into town). The options are so broad. I wonder whether the knowledge of scheduling comes from my autistic tendencies. While never fully diagnosed as autistic, the medical team many moons ago did argue that I possessed certain traits associated with autistic people. One of those was having obsessions. And boy have I had those. Whether its cranes, Deal or No Deal, Minecraft YouTubers, Harry Potter or swimming pool depths, I have had interests that, temporarily, grab my attention at the expense of anything else. Perhaps, the chance of being able to see the schedules and memorising certain presenters is just another. It's a phase, a fad and it will pass. Often, the schedule of radio presenters dominated my day. Strangely, this happened to be the case during revision. When I would spend long days off my phone attempting to revise, I saw the process as a challenge. Look at your phone briefly at the start of the day, just before Ferrari starts on LBC at 7am. Then look at your phone for a few minutes when Iain Dale is broadcasting at 7pm. Throughout the day of revision, my achievements were measured by thinking how many radio presenters I had gone through without revising. It's 1pm, Shelagh Fogarty would have just started on LBC, it's 2pm, Steve Wright's now on Radio 2, it's 4pm, Eddie Mair's Drivetime show would have started. The process was strangely rewarding, as I enjoyed the ignorant bliss of escaping from news while being aware of who was presenting. However, this trend has continued even when I should be tuning out of the news world. On holiday in wonderful Spain, where the clocks were an hour faster, I was constantly thinking about which presenters were on air. Whether it was relaxing by the pool, reading a book or eating some delicious Spanish omelette, I was constantly thinking about who happened to be on air. Why this was the case I know not. Presumably most of the radio stations wouldn't have been available to enjoy overseas. Perhaps it is just that consistency of routine - in an otherwise fast paced speedy world, that brings some satisfaction. We all have our routines. One of mine, strangely, is to check every Monday morning what the radio schedule is for the following week. That way, I am able to see presenters who have weeks off and which individuals are sitting in for them. It is a quirk, an oddity that encompasses a broad part of my life. We all have them, certain tics that, whatever the context, we like to use to provide some certainty. For now, radio scheduling happens to be mine. As I finish the first draft of this blog, it's coming up to 9am. Today on Radio 4 and Nicky Campbell on 5 live will have almost concluded, while many breakfast shows carry on until 10am. While I endeavour to tune out more in the future, it may be one of those things that is easier said than done.
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