IIn January 1993, there were 10 websites. Not 10 websites dedicated solely to changing the transmission fluid in a Lexus LS 400 sedan, nor 10 websites dissecting the moral universe of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. Ten websites, as they say in America, period. It was the whole Internet.
Fast forward to March 1994 and the new border was being hastily settled. Look through the list of websites registered that year – Microsoft, BBC Online, Yahoo, and of course Bianca’s Smut Shack and Sex.com, which, if we’re honest, were definitely on the right track – and you’ll feel like of an empire. rising in the shadows, the architecture of a vast new world quietly falling into place.
Few people noticed it at the time. The most important British media event of March 1994 was the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live, the country’s first easily accessible, 24-hour news and sport channel, an anniversary which the BBC demonstrated with impressive dedication to be announced this week.
It’s understandable. Everyone has to earn a living, and this is all necessary self-advertising. Although in this case it has to come in that familiar BBC cult tone, as if we were talking about the birth of a miracle talking horse, as opposed to a platform for live sport, controversial news and Gordon of Egham. who wants to talk about terminals.
Is 5 Live really as beloved, as vital, as culturally important as 5 Live seems to think? Probably not. But it has undeniably been a success, expert in organizing big shared moments as well as smaller ones, a high-quality platform for women in sport behind and in front of the mic, and a finishing school for really good broadcasters.
Among the current team, John Murray is a master of football presentation, providing affectionate and insightful coverage that is also non-partisan, non-joking and non-editorial. Victoria Derbyshire could present anything from the resignation of a Prime Minister to the Parmesan Grating World Championships and it would just be really good, involving and informed.
Otherwise, while it’s hard to have many strong feelings about 5 Live, it’s also hard to ignore the feeling that his birthday means something. Mainly because its entire lifespan coincides with what actually happened over those three decades, namely the rise of the Internet as the most powerful cultural medium in the world. And because it is above all an opportunity to dwell on the founding paradox of 5 Live, the beautiful lie which underlies its existence.
Radio lore states that the idea for a dedicated news and sport channel arose initially from the popularity of the BBC’s continuing coverage of the Gulf War. There was then a general feeling of ground to be conquered: new platforms, satellite television, digital rights, the growth of sport as a light entertainment product, with the feeling that sport would also be at the heart of the holy grail of an incessant “interactive” dialogue. .
This is the central myth of 5 Live: the idea that it could, via a series of in-depth BBC focus group sessions, locate the emotional center of Middle England, that there really is a Middle England capable of having an emotional center, and that would be a good thing. Somewhere in the white heat of this new dawn (that is, medium wave radio) was a place where Yaris Woman meets Ginsters Man, a village square of a tolerant but also unchanging Britain, a place where someone will offer you a glass of Ribena. when you fall off your bike in front of their house, where Tony Blair will fix everything by not wearing a tie, where your grandparents were probably racist but aren’t anymore because of meetings with Daley Thompson.
Where this gentle, quiet center is accessible via the radio equivalent of sitting on a bench outside a motorway service station eating a coronation chicken baguette and talking about the need for a national public register pedophiles. And that, yes, we can access this place, this secret garden, by broadcasting David Mellor’s post-match opinions on football every Saturday for 10 years.
A beautiful dream. But it also turns out that it was too good for this world. What really happened during this period was, of course, the rise of the Internet and social media, 5 Live’s super-villain cousin. It turns out that the debate within today’s nation is relentless, atomized, angry, divisive and almost completely incoherent.
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The contribution of sport in this regard has been significant. He provides the tonal quality of that voice, the one that never stops, sports as joke, tribalism, meaningless debate over toxic non-issues, the voice of a man with a pork pie stuck in his mouth , shirtless in front of a Nisa venue, shouting incorrect statistics about VAR-based refereeing plots.
This represents a terrible development for the BBC, which is supposed to be anything other than the loudest voice and the hottest take, which is simultaneously incapable of pursuing a fully commercial direction while fearing losing its reach. 5 Live grew from 5.5 million to 5.25 million listeners in its anniversary quarter. GB News Radio is online. TalkSport and TalkRadio are on the rise (Radio X Classic Rock is, by the way, going gangbusters).
These latest numbers were accompanied by Mandarin talk about choice and the need to provide what people want, or think they want, which always seems like a terrible idea. The BBC should not be doing any of this. Be more Derbyshire. Fewer jokes. Inform and educate. This is what he can still do.
On the other hand, this shared digital space seems wild, scary, difficult to read or respect. But it’s also a pretty scary idea, the ability to instantly hear and see the thoughts of seven billion people, filtered through an algorithm that bounces the most alarming ones right into your field of vision. No wonder we can see ghosts and monsters, a London full of rats who want to stab you, thousands of incels masturbating furiously, the woke mob – a real authentic mob – coming for your buns hot.
In this context, the lost dream of 5 Live and its village square might well be closer to fashion, or at least a good place to hide. Lie to me some more. Give me Chris Sutton’s gentle teatime scoldings and a phone call about bin collection times. Talk to me about sausage rolls while the world burns.
