Going live: I've been on Radio London before. Way back in 1974, on my 9th birthday, legendary soul DJ Robbie Vincent played me and my Mum a record request on his Saturday Show. I can't remember what the song was, but I do remember being unexpectedly excited to hear my name read out live on air. There wasn't much radio in those days - no more than seven stations in the London area - so to appear over the airwaves was rather special. It's not so special today, with countless stations battling for decreasing audience share, which leaves a lot more airtime to fill. Yesterday I filled a few minutes.
RobertElms hosts an eclectic weekday radio show with a "hidden London" bent. He's been doing it for years, carried over from the station's GLR days, but thankfully the capital is both big enough and deep enough to merit such long-term introspection. I mean, where else in the media would anyone devote an entire day's output to the quirks of an obscure London location, or to the sights to be seen along the number 91 bus route? Yeah right. So I got invited onto the show to discuss the last mile of the London 2012 marathon, off the back of a Time Out article which you probably haven't read yet. Blimey.
BBC London is based down Marylebone High Street in a drab but functional building which used to be the corporation's Radio Times warehouse. Your licence fee is not being wasted on cutting-edge interior design here, I can assure you. I sat for 15 minutes in reception, where the reading matter provided was a miserly stack of BBC leaflets (one of these for the "Springwatch Survey 2006"). While I waited I listened to the show on which I was about to appear, and learnt more than enough about buying fish and the travel situation on the Westway. And then it was my turn to be ushered through into the inner sanctum of... oh, OK, just some office space and a couple of very ordinary studios.
Mr Elms and I had a lovely chat about the Lower Lea Valley... halfway through which he suddenly stuck his headphones on and started the interview proper. It wasn't as scary an experience as I might have expected - quite the opposite in fact (thanks Robert). And my "15 minute" interview felt like it passed in a blur. This, as it turned out, was because it had only been 7 minutes long. I still had so much more to say, so much more to tell, but there was never time to get round to it. I even forgot to mention that the marathon will run along the top of North London's largest sewer, and that Olympic demolition starts in as little 25 weeks time (so get down there quick). But hey, nobody listening to my over-prepared talk would have realised. What do you mean you never heard it?
