| 1 | 1 | | Radio One's1) early morning disc jockey, Adrian John, may get up at 3.30 a.m. in |
| 2 | | order to be at work in time for his 5.30 a.m. show, but is the work he does as easy as it |
| 3 | | seems or does it take a lot of thought and care? |
| 2 | 4 | | 'There is a responsibility attached to doing the work that I'm doing,' said Adrian. |
| 5 | | 'Working at Radio One is fun, but it takes energy and hard work as well. Getting into |
| 6 | | radio is no easy matter either.' |
| 3 | 7 | | Adrian John had a lot of experience before he was 'discovered' - in discotheques, |
| 8 | | hospital radio, on a cruise ship, lots of London nightspots, and Top Shop in London. 'I |
| 9 | | was DJ-ing in the store to about 250,000 people a week, which was my first taste of |
| 10 | | broadcasting to people from all walks of life; it was the closest thing to radio I'd really |
| 11 | | worked in at that time, and I made contacts with Radio One there because people used |
| 12 | | to, sometimes, come into the shop and hear me DJ-ing. |
| 4 | 13 | | In the end, Radio One offered me a Saturday morning show and then a Saturday |
| 14 | | and Sunday morning show; and then what I'm doing now, which I've been doing for |
| 15 | | about five years.' |
| 5 | 16 | | One of the hardest aspects of DJ-ing is probably trying to do a show on a |
| 17 | | one-to-one basis, but Adrian manages to get this effect remarkably well! "That's how |
| 18 | | radio should be,' he said. 'You never refer to the audience collectively, you talk to them |
| 19 | | as if they are just one person.' |
| 6 | 20 | | What makes Adrian's show so different from most of the other shows is the serious |
| 21 | | side. Many of the subjects in his show are based on the opinions of politicians and other |
| 22 | | public figures. But mostly Adrian stresses travel safety. People may call him from their |
| 23 | | cars with a piece of news or an opinion, and forget they are in the fast lane on the |
| 24 | | motorway. So he constantly reminds them to move over to a place where they can stop to |
| 25 | | make their phone call safely. |
| 7 | 26 | | As a contrast to the serious issues, listeners are encouraged to choose records and |
| 27 | | to teil their views on news stories. This makes the show the listeners' as much as the disc |
| 28 | | jockey's and will keep them listening. But does it ever present Adrian with problems? |
| 8 | 29 | | 'I never know what's going to happen in the programme. It quite frightens me to |
| 30 | | feel that I am sometimes out of control in that respect. But I want listeners to feel they |
| 31 | | can trust me if they want to tell something that gets on their nerves, and I'll use it if I |
| 32 | | can. It really is their programme - as well as mine.' |
| 9 | 33 | | The hardest thing about work is when Adrian reads something in the newspapers or |
| 34 | | hears something on the news that moves him terribly emotionally. This presents him with |
| 35 | | a dilemma. 'If it's something which is a terrible injustice, I want to speak out about it and |
| 36 | | if it's something which is incredibly sad, then it can play on your thoughts quite a lot. |
| 37 | | However, it is not always in the interest of my listeners if I place too much emphasis on |
| 38 | | my own views.' |
| 10 | 39 | | So radio broadcasting is more complicated than it may seem. It needs to be |
| 40 | | thoughtfully and carefully planned. It seems to me that Adrian John does a very good job |
| 41 | | in planning and broadcasting his show and many disc jockeys could learn a lot if they |
| 42 | | listened to him more often. |
| | | |
| | | from 'Early Times', November 30, 1988 |
