"It's always a bit like eavesdropping."

August 17, 2016 1:50 AM

The Guardian talks to four British late-night radio presenters about their unique medium and why it persists in the age of online social media.
posted by winterhill (7 comments total)

A million years ago, I had a weekend job at a MAJOR Los Angeles radio station screening telephone calls for an overnight talk show block - a 3-hour show and a 4-hour show (this was before the Rush Limbaugh era of rough political radio, even before Art Bell took off, although one of the talkers I worked with later was associated with Bell). In spite of a signal that covered a population area over 10 million people and a good audience share therein, the actual participants were often few and far between, with the host sometimes having no more than 4 callers on the air per hour, so my job was two-fold: making sure the ones who got through were worth talking to and keeping them on hold for a half-hour or longer until the host got around to them. So often with literally one or two callers waiting, I was doing a parallel 'private talk show' with them while the host was doing his thing. The hosts were good at keeping the conversation going and there was one Plan B we discussed before each show - if NOBODY was calling, I'd 'phone' in on an in-studio line on a topic he hoped would generate some reaction. My own identity was well known to the audience (I'd been a caller before I became a screener) so I had to take a different identity and 'voice'... in 7 months working there, we never needed to use "Lee from Long Beach", but I was nervously ready.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:23 AM on August 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm particularly fond of Late Junction on BBC 3 even though it airs 6-7:30 EST. They play some great music.
posted by Kitteh at 6:11 AM on August 17, 2016

You can always listen to Late Junction after it airs, in the appropriate nocturnal time slot of your choice. Also, the Freak Zone and the Freakier Zone on 6 Music are staples hereabouts.

I've done a few late-night phone-ins as presenter's friend, and you always have back-stop strategies for when the punters aren't there, Some are obvious to the listeners - you choose some news stories to discuss beforehand - and others are, well, you don't want to let too much sunlight in on the magic, right?

But it is very depressing when none of the switchboard lights are flashing... for hoursm It's a bit different these days with social media, alhough far I haven't been on anything where the hashtags stay dark.
posted by Devonian at 6:34 AM on August 17, 2016

Late Junction is great. So is Through the Night on R3, and with iplayer you can just leave it playing on sunday afternoons while you read the paper. Perfect.

In other news, wtf has happened to Iain Lee's face? He's turned into an ewok.
posted by tinkletown at 10:14 AM on August 17, 2016

Iain Lee mentioning Clive Bull caused me an immediate Proustian rush back to listening to Through The Night on LBC as a teenager. Babs from Bermondsey!

To my lasting shame I never realized at the time that Sven from Swiss Cottage was Peter Cook; although I do remember the escalating surrealism of those calls.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:48 AM on August 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sven from Swiss Cottage
posted by Grangousier at 10:56 AM on August 17, 2016

Really good article. Thanks for the tip!
posted by old_growler at 9:42 PM on August 18, 2016