Summer Holiday

‘TV is not simply a superior version of radio.

Get him back on radio – NOW!

For a start, the non-beautiful people can look good on radio. As can Tony Blackburn’s hair. And his T-shirt, which pictured in the Mirror commands: ‘JOCK ‘TIL YOU DROP.’

Radio is also a place where you can be spared Cliff Richard. If it rains during the radio coverage of Wimbledon, radio DJs can play any record they like to cover the break in play – so long as it’s not Cliff.

But last week, the paper says, Blackburn broke one of the golden rules of radio and played a Cliff Richard tune.

And on Monday he played another. And yesterday he played three more of what the Mail calls ‘classics’ – Move It, We Don’t Talk Anymore and The Young Ones (mainstays in any soundtrack to a mid-life crisis).

And he broke the rules banning any Cliff songs from being broadcast on Capital Gold when his manager, John Baish, was on holiday.

So on Monday, it was left to the station’s Head of Programmes, Paul Baker, to order Blackburn to stop it.

As we’ve noted, Blackburn ignored the directive, going as far as ripping up a printed version of Baker’s email (‘He [Cliff] doesn’t represent out brand values…you must stop playing him’) and filing it under ‘bin’ live on air.

And the result is that Blackburn has been suspended. As he tells the Mirror, ‘I want to resolve our differences, but at the moment it’s a bit of a cliff-hanger.’

And therein lies the rub. With Blackburn off air and out of his little box, he’s able to talk to the papers.

He’s even being photographed, the one thing no radio DJ should ever be subjected to.

So let’s campaign to get Blackburn back in his soundproof box and back on the radio. You wouldn’t want him doing something stupid would you – like turning up on the telly…’

Posted: 24th, June 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink