Amid the hype around the Jubilee was a short article in the Sunday Times by Paul Donovan paul.donovan@sunday-times.co.uk which, when it didn’t have its tongue all the way up the regal arse, included some interesting statistics.
In 1953, an adventure series called Journey into Space was the last evening radio programme to command a bigger audience than an evening TV programme. ‘A watershed in national life,’ is how Donovan described it, and went on briefly to pose the question ‘how does radio survive - indeed, prosper - in the age of television’. Although no single radio programme can out-perform the best loved TV programmes for viewing/listening figures, radio still has a massive overall Share of the Ear. This little phrase is built from statistics covering all man-made sound devises which reach the nation’s ears...CDs, downloads, various radio sources and TV included. In fact, radio’s Share of the Ear is an impressive massive 83% overall (60% for under 35’s). http://www.radioacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/Chris%20Kimber.pdf
I read these statistics with interest because, for a high proportion of my adult life (about 83% of it, probably!) I’ve been a non-TV owner. In other words, my household generally had no television anywhere within it. Or, to quote my daughter’s friend when she came home from primary school for tea with Becki; ‘what, no telly? How am going to watch me cartoons?’
We knew we were in the minority - less than 10% of the population watch no TV within each week of their lives (and I’m actually surprise it’s that low, well done to the 8% who own a telly and choose not to watch it every single day). I know that, as the kids were growing, they missed being part of the TV playground culture. The answer my children came up with was to make sure they knew enough about each programme that was a hot topic with their friends...to have watched it once at least in someone’s house, so that they didn’t look ‘uncool’. But with no TV and only very early computers, I think they had great childhoods, doing the sorts of things that kids today are being encouraged to return to.
Having no TV in the house is a freedom and a joy. It allows you to plan your day without interference from a head full of soap characters. It means you look for a variety of evening entertainments that, in our house, include playing games, studying, writing, reading, taking walks, chatting on the phone and making music as well as listening to it.
We opted for no TV the day we moved into our first house in the seventies. We both agreed that watching telly was a banal occupation and waste of our time. We were already hooked on Radio Four, which we thought then (and it’s still true today, in my opinion) had the best current affairs and general interest programmes, and that the drama and book readings were superior to all the TV dramas, because you see the best pictures in your head. In any case, Radio Four has the very best of all soaps...The Archers. Like most soaps, this has had its up and downs, but I still maintain it holds poll position.
Radio has just had a further accolade; while in Britain, yesterday, Aung San Suu Kyi met up with Dave Lee Travis, specifically to tell him how she listened to his BBC World Service programme, A Jolly Good Show. During her long incarceration under house arrest, his banter and music had lifted her spirits, and, apparently, allowed her a link with real people that the news items could not. It’s not just it has the best pictures...TV is never as interactive as radio can be, with its phone-ins and request shows.
The trouble with TV - a trouble radio listening does not share - is that it is addictive. It’s easier than winking to flick the remote and switch it on. And once on, something holds the mind in a sort of thick, warm, sweet soup, as if ones’ thinking facility has gone into melt-down. Despite the fact that there are really good TV programmes, especially on BBC 2 & 4, the difficulty with actually owning a TV is stopping the watching when there’s really nothing on the box.
We knew this 30 years ago, when we were bringing up our kids television-less. I know this for sure now, because, at last, we do own a TV. We made the decision during the process of moving last year. Among the big discussion points that arise when you’re on the move; what will we do with all our extra furniture? When will the solicitor pull out their fingers? How can we get the vendor to bring down their price? Where is that certificate from the council they’re asking for...a Most Important Question arose...will we have a telly in the new house? Our old house wasn’t wired for TV reception, although we had taken to watching DVDs, to save cinema costs. Then Becki left us her HD TV when she went off to France. We took it with us in the move and set it up in our new lounge...and switched it on.
Instant entertainment. And, to Jim’s delight, instant 24hour news. So now I know absolutely just how addictive the TV is. We tried to have rules...no TV one evening a week, for instance...but we’re breaking them; by 8pm we are so brain-dead that a little TV viewing feels like the only thing we’re capable of...it’s just too tempting to sink into the warm, sweet soup. I guess I have learnt new things from some of the TV I’ve watched over the last year. But certainly no more than I learnt in any year listening to the radio.
Okay, we’re getting older and perhaps we deserve to settle down on the sofa for a couple of hours in the day. But at the moment, we do still have complete control over the on/off button. I know the rot will really set in...and I shudder at the thought...it will be when we are old enough to stop for a cuppa everyday just in time for Countdown. Hasn’t happened yet. Hope it never will.
This post also appears on my writer's blog; http:/www.kitchentablewriters.blogspot.com
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