For better or worse, Radio 4 has (unwittingly) served as the auditory backdrop to much of my existence, with the comforting journey through the headlines, the papers, thought for the day, weather and sport, and the enduring race against the pips characterising my mornings for as long as I can remember.
While some argue that, at 27, I am far from a seasoned listener, I do think that this experience gives me some skin in the game when it comes to the BBC’s flagship Radio 4 show.
It is based on this experience that I was shocked to read that, of all the things to unpick about the Today programme, Francis Bown (Letters, 19 March) had opted to deplore its “distracting” and “noisy” items on “unpleasant” pop music, framing them as unserious. To suggest a collective lack of interest and knowledge about “the subject” is to not only do a disservice to Today’s younger audiences, but it also serves to stifle and limit the horizons of its “typical” listeners.
This representation is emblematic of how points of culture and interest which are deemed to pertain to younger people become characterised as trivial, cast as antithetical to the important or consequential items of politics and global affairs. This drives a pointless wedge between the interests of audiences and denies the political currency that mainstream culture can possess in the modern world.
Moreover, to suggest that a lack of knowledge on a subject renders it unimportant simply exposes how gaps in our knowledge are created and preserved, and I think that we can all stand to benefit from hearing stories about subject matter that we otherwise may not encounter.
It might be the case that this has all got a little bit serious, though, and perhaps Francis Bown and I ought to Shake It Off.
Eve Orange
Sheffield
• Francis Bown is right to mourn the departure of Jack de Manio from Today in 1971. He was famous for both his relaxed broadcasting style and his inability to announce the time accurately on air. The programme has, in my view, never recovered.
Henry Fryer
Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire
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