It’s fair to say reading about radio is a great hobby of mine. The first I remember devouring on the subject was ‘Emperor Rosko’s DJ Book’ by the man himself (a legendary radio figure of yester-year) which my dad found for me at a charity second hand book fair we used to go to each year. Published in 1976, by the early 2000s when I read it, the pages were already brown and it had that disgustingly fabulous ‘old book’ smell. The best part was his advice about how to get in to radio, featuring instructions about producing your demo cassette!
Since then, I’ve been drawn to many works in this field, ranging from academic textbooks (perhaps designed as an excellent companion for a degree) to gossip about the industry, historical texts about the BBC (which surely remains the world’s greatest broadcaster), a few more autobiographies and insiders’ guides to what makes great radio.
The image accompanying this blog post shows a handful of the books I’ve enjoyed reading over the last 20 years or so. ‘Radio Production’ by Robert McLeish and ‘Essential Radio Skills’ by Peter Stewart are wonderful bibles when it comes to the what, how and why of radio. I loved ‘Team, It’s Only Radio’ by the late John Myers (not pictured as I read that on my Kindle) for its first-hand anecdotes of launching radio stations and advising the great and good of the radio world how to be better.
My most recent read is David Lloyd’s ‘Radio Secrets’ which was brilliant. He speaks with authority on all radio matters and I picked up some more useful tips which I hope will make me a better presenter. He focused on the importance of, above all else, homing in on the way you want to make a listener feel, and remembering that through every link. He has just launched a new radio station – Boom Radio (the radio station for boomers) – and it will be interesting to see if all its presenters live up to his words of wisdom.
My next radio read will be ‘Voice Over Man’, the autobiography of Peter Dickson, best-known as the booming sound of X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more radio reading to follow. Do leave any of your own suggestions below if you’ve got something to share.
Presenter, Podcaster and Voice Over Artist 