Welcome to The Listening Post, where each week we get an insight into the radio listening habits of a guest contributor. Once each person has made their picks, we ask them to nominate someone for the following week's Listening Post...
Last week Sean Thorne, a Breakfast Presenter on Fun Kids Radio provided us with his listening highlights. They included 'Generation Y' on Roundhouse Radio and 'The Club with Bex' on Fun Kids Radio. You can view his full selections here.
Sean has nominated Dave Cribb to provide this week's Listening Post. Dave produces Radio X's Weekend Breakfast show with Jon Holmes, Don’t Make Me Laugh for BBC Radio 4, Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast and The Leak with Tom Price for BBC Radio Wales.
Check out Dave's selections...
Read moreDon't listen in front of bald men...
1. Beef And Dairy Network Podcast
"This is my current favourite thing. It’s only published monthly, which is a travesty for my patience, but that does mean that it’s always super excellent. It’s basically On The Hour/The Day Today, but with a much, much, much, much, much, much, much more niche subject matter. It’s a spoof podcast covering all aspects of the Beef and Dairy industry, and it’s bloody flipping funny. Ben Partridge is the brains behind it, and it’s filled with brilliant little lines and throwaway details throughout but mostly, it’s laugh out loud funny. I nearly found myself in trouble with a large bald man on the tube the other day because I was grinning directly at him so much while listening to this without noticing."
>> Subscribe here
Bedtime Listening
2. Soul Music - BBC Radio 4
"This is a good just-before-bed one – it’s off of BBC Radio 4 but there’s also a podcast, which has the whole back-catalogue (all 21 series). Each episode covers a different song or piece of music (they’re very varied, from 'The Fairytale of New York' to 'Amazing Grace' to 'Don’t Leave Me This Way' to Elgar’s 'Nimrod') and features various people basically explaining what that piece of music means to them, or what their story involving that song is."
"My absolute favourite episode is Dire Straits' 'Brothers In Arms'. It features a heartbreaking story from a marine's chaplain about a young soldier who died in his arms, memories of performing it from the actual Dire Straits bassist, the story of how the song came to be used in a really poignant moment of The West Wing (told by the show’s music director Snuffy Waldon, probably the greatest name of any human that’s ever lived) as well as a music professor who talks us through the harmonies and chord progressions and how they contribute to the overall effect of the song. It’s a perfect combination of really involved stories and interesting musical analysis."
>> Listen here
For the American comedy fan in you
3. Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
"This is a WNYC production, a public radio service in New York that produces a load of the podcasts you may well already listen to (Radiolab, Freakonomics, The Sporkful etc). This one appeals to the American comedy fan in me – it’s hosted by Alec (the sanest of the Baldwins) and each episode is a long-form one-on-one interview (or sometimes one-on-two), not too dissimilar to Richard Herring’s excellent Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP)."
"Recent episodes have featured the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Paul Simon and Sarah Jessica Parker (it’s fairly eclectic) and the most recent episode is The Making of ‘Making A Murderer’ featuring Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos who made the series. I haven’t listened to it yet, so I can’t tell you if it’s good or not, but let’s presume it is. At the very least, it’s another nugget of Avery-based media to feast over in case you’ve finally got to the end of the internet."
"As I mentioned, the ones I am immediately drawn to are the episodes from the world of American comedy, and there are a load of them: Jimmy Fallon, Lorne Michaels, Jerry Seinfeld, Lena Dunham, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Paula Pell and Fred Armisen to name but a few. Alec Baldwin does have a slightly Jonathan Ross-esque tendancy to jump over his guests from time to time to squeeze in his own funnies, but if you can get past that, there are hours of interesting chats for your ears."
*I can’t pick RHLSTP for this list because I produce it, but that shouldn’t stop me elbowing a brilliantly subtle plug into the mix. You should listen to it, it’s great.
>> Listen to more
File under: 'I'll probably not stop listening to this'
4. Adam & Joe Archive on XFM and BBC 6 Music
"I like to listen to Adam and Joe, but I listen to the podcast (archive), not the live show (because it isn’t on anymore). This one can be filed under ‘I’ll probably never stop listening to this’. My absolute favourite radio show ever, and thanks to that fan page I’ve linked you to, it’s all there to aurally ingest into your earholes. There’s probably nothing I can say about Adam and Joe that you don’t already know, so this is mainly to point you in the direction of the extensive archive if you too have an Adam & Joe shaped hole in your weeks."
"But if you’re not au fait with it, A&J is basically a masterclass in how to do everything they teach you about radio completely wrong and end up with brilliant results. It’s a lovely little middle finger up to the radio ‘rules’ and those that enforce them so heartily. But it’s also testament to the sheer amount of production involvement in making a brilliant show – the hours they spent (Adam in particular) on jingles, songs and a host of other bits of audio is a properly good model to aspire to if you’re doing funny radio. And if you weren’t already aware, there’s an episode of The Adam Buxton Podcast from just before Christmas featuring Joe Cornish. That one is also ace. If you haven’t heard it already, then maybe you shouldn’t be living heeeeeeeeeere."
Grab your tissues
5. How My Sister Said Goodbye - BBC Radio 4
"Oh man, get ready to weep at this one. I first read this story in a Guardian article just before Christmas, by the journalist Jonathan Freedland. It’s the story of how his sister Fiona recorded her own edition of Desert Island Discs after being diagnosed with cancer, to give her family and friends something tangible to remember her by after she died. Reading it made me cry on a train. The radio programme is a half hour special featuring extracts from that recording, as well as contributions from Fiona Freedland’s husband and daughters."
"It’s so great, and so sad, and so uplifting and life-affirming all at the same time. I immediately called my little sister after listening just to have a chat and tell her how great she is. It’s one of those ones."
>> Listen here
Next Week's Listening Post:
"This week, my friend Chris Sawyer (Producer of Matt Edmondson on BBC Radio 1) and I worked out that it was exactly 10 years since we first met at URN, our student radio station in Nottingham. So what better anniversary present than to spring a blog on him that he knows nothing about until he reads this. So, Chris, dust off your writing quill, and put that English degree to some use. (And then I suggest you nominate Ian Chaloner in turn, as he was a whisker away from qualifying under the same reasoning. Sorry Ian.)"
Check back next week for Chris' selections...
