RoyII

Most radio can usually be categorised as either 'talk based', for example LBC, or be 'music based', like Virgin Radio, but all that is set to change as the dawn of the Digital Era has spawned a new style of radio broadcasting - there is now a digital station that broadcasts nothing but bird song!

It may sound like a load of old bird droppings but it is actually true, and what's more, the audience figures show that its popularity is spreading faster than Avian Flu. It seems that there is nothing more the general populace loves than hearing the sound of twittering through their Hi Fi Tweeters. The programming potential for this kind of thing seems to me to be kind of limited though, for example, would a chart show have things like;

"...and new in at number five, it's...a sparrow!"

The only other features they could usefully do would be in the 'Nigella's worm feast' or 'Jamie's Bird Seed Bonanza' type of vein. As you can tell, the possibilities are not endless.

The popularity of this station has been attributed to people finding bird song soothing and relaxing, which is something that is not true in my case. Whilst I have no serious problem with our feathered friends, their habit of dumping on my car is not very endearing, and the only memory associations their warblings invoke in me is the task of cleaning my Rover.

Broadcasting bird song is basically a creative cop out, as it is very easy to do - it literally is a case of doing radio on the cheep.