The Radio Academy Awards nominations
Podcasting: The First Ten Years (R4) | iPlayer
Bunk Bed (R4) | iPlayer
The Radio Academy awards nominations were announced this week, with only slightly less fanfare than usual. This is impressive, given that Sony withdrew their sponsorship of the awards last August after 32 years – though, to be honest, like the Perrier and the Mercury awards, Sony's name is now so wrapped around the awards that sponsorship seems almost silly. The job is done. I mean, what phrase will replace "winning a Sony award", given that "winning an Academy award" is very much taken?
Anyhow, the supposed headline was that Nick Grimshaw didn't make the shortlist for his Radio 1 breakfast show, though personally I was more shocked that 6 Music's Lauren Laverne wasn't mentioned in the music radio broadcaster category. What more does that woman have to do to get a gold? (As a side point, a quick glance over the shortlists revealed a couple of categories where all five nominees were men – speech radio personality, specialist music programme – or where the only woman nominated was as one half of a two-person team – music radio personality, best entertainment programme. In no category at all were there more women than men shortlisted. And yes, I know I keep banging on about it, but it does matter.)
Still, it was nice to see some of my favourites acknowledged: XFM's Scroobius Pip, 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs and station-mate Guy Garvey, David Quantick's Blagger's Guide and Bridget Christie in the comedy section, as well as great programmes such as PM, Call Clegg, The Digital Human… You can see the full list here. Get annoyed or get happy as you wish.
There doesn't seem to be a podcast award any more, which is an oversight. There are now 250,000 podcasts being punted out to the world: not bad for a medium that was only invented a decade ago. If any of you still aren't getting at least some of your audio delight in this modern manner, then Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann went on Radio 4 last Friday to tempt you into their brave new world with Podcasting: The First Ten Years. Zaltzman and Mann have been making their Answer Me This! podcast for seven years now, and introduced us to Ben Hammersley, the journalist who actually came up with the "pc" word. He did it almost by mistake 10 years ago, at the end of an article, when he was told he needed another sentence. Now he travels round the world listening to audiences go "ooh" when he's introduced as the man who invented the word podcast. He said: "I really hope I do something else before I die," which made me laugh.
Zaltzman and Mann gave us quick blasts of all the greats, from Marc Maron's WTF through Radiolab and the Bugle, to Betty in the Sky With a Suitcase and Grammar Girl. They chatted to various podcasters and it was all very sweet. Nothing to get that excited about if you already know about the programmes, but as a primer for the uninitiated it was excellent (and there's part two next week). Also, I do love the dynamic duo's wry presentation style. You didn't use to get so much of that on mainstream radio before podcasts.
And I don't think that Radio 4 would have gone for Bunk Bed, a new Wednesday late-night series, in a pre-podcast era. It is such a strange premise. Essentially, it's broadcaster/director Peter Curran and playwright/actor Patrick Marber, late at night, lying in bunk beds, chatting. (I know! Can you imagine the commissioning process?) In the first programme, the conversation moved from the insincerity implicit in the phrase "I love you too", through Citizen Kane to Virginia Woolf. It was strange, funny, silly, enchanting, beautifully put together. Perfect late-night listening. Perfect podcast-ery. I really loved it. Even though we never found out who is top bunk dog and who lies beneath.
