A load of hot air at Radio Festival dinner

The Radio Festival is over for another year. Where will it be next year? Manchester? Possibly. Brighton? Maybe. Monkey votes for Norwich. But wherever it ends up, please, please, please can they book a better venue for the gala dinner? This year's event was held at a hotel one delegate joked "used to be the poshest in Nottingham". It is fair to assume that it is not anymore. Plus the lack of air conditioning – either it didn't have any, it was broken, or they didn't turn it on – meant guests were running for the exit at the earliest opportunity. Well, they would have been running had it not been for the intense heat. Perhaps the venue was a reflection of the hard time the radio industry finds itself in. And there are a lot worse things to happen in life than a rubbish dinner. But it is supposed to be the highlight of the radio year, and it made the festival memorable for all the wrong reasons. Other than that, and the lack of a debate or keynote speech to kick things off, it was really rather good.