With the passing of Terry Wogan, radio lost not just a broadcaster of genius but also a great voice. In the days following his death, senior radio figures recalled his years on the Radio 2 breakfast show, stressing how important it was to wake up to a voice that provided comfort and balm at a time of the day when the customers startle easily. Chris Evans (Weekdays, 6.30am, Radio 2) is a lot less abrasive than he used to be, though he’s still some way short of soothing. Comforting wouldn’t be the first thing you would say about Nick Grimshaw (Weekdays, 6.30am, Radio 1), who can never quite banish that tinge of petulance in his tone. Of the early morning presenters, John Humphrys on Today (Weekdays, 6am, Radio 4) is the only one you would say had a great voice, but we can never banish our worry that he may be about to pass on some bad news.
To compile a list of the great voices still to be found within the BBC, I consulted an old radio salt. We agreed that they tended to be the more senior presenters such as Jenni Murray from Woman’s Hour (Weekdays, 10am, Radio 4), Sue MacGregor and Bob Harris (Thursday, 7pm, Radio 2). The salt noted that, in Brian Matthew of Sounds Of The Sixties (Saturday, 8am, Radio 2), the Corporation still has a link with the days when radio presenters had the trained voices of former actors.
It was the Irishman George Bernard Shaw who pointed out that the English ear is so attuned to class that it’s impossible for one Englishman to open his mouth without another Englishman hating him. Presumably this is one of the reasons why Irish broadcasters such as Wogan have prospered here. The English ear finds them impossible to classify. My personal favourite of this euphonious breed is Sean Rafferty, who can happily be found fluting his way through In Tune (Weekdays, 4.30pm, Radio 3).
In JD Salinger, Made In England (Thursdays, 11.30am, Radio 4) Mark Hodkinson travels to Tiverton, Devon to retrace the footsteps of the reclusive novelist as he prepared to take part in the D-day landings in 1944, experiences that informed For Esme – With Love And Squalor. The programme also features the reminiscences of a 96-year-old former comrade. In Verdun – The Sacred Wound (Wednesday, 11am, Radio 4), David Reynolds tells the story of the battle which was “the Stalingrad of the first world war”. It cost the French hundreds of thousands of lives to hold off the German assault. Because the French commander Pétain rotated his forces to ensure that almost all the French army spent at least a short time defending it, the place became synonymous with the nation’s suffering during the war and inflicted a wound on the French psyche that was still fresh in 1939.
In 1987, a young reporter stood up at a press conference given by Gary Hart and put to him a question that no presidential candidate had been asked before. The question – “Have you ever committed adultery?” – was both specific and broad. The fact that it was being put shocked the room. Gary Hart’s eventual response – “I don’t have to answer that” – is the title of an absorbing episode of WNYC’s long-running series Radiolab (radiolab.org). This is put together with all its trademarks: many voices, some of which begin sentences that others finish; the gentle buzz of a music bed; the inclusions of the occasional off-stage noise; and a knack for narrowing and then broadening the narrative in an almost cinematic way. Like all Radiolab episodes, it can be streamed or downloaded.
