C O N T E X T 1 2 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 37 Notes from the chair Our very own dedicated airwaves: why not? I recently heard of a report that concluded that listening to the radio makes us happy. I assume there is some robust scientific research behind this assertion but I am convinced already. At the moment we could all do with a little extra happiness, so possibly we should all try to tune in a bit more. This certainly works for me. The Evans household has a radio in every room, even the bathroom. However I am not sure happiness is the sensation I feel when Radio 5 is too loud and the commentators are getting over-excited. This started me thinking about what I particularly enjoy and what I would miss if denied my favourite medium. I know my dream job (apart from being Tony Bennett’s musical advisor) would be to be the director general of the BBC or the controller of Radio 3 or 4. So, here I have my two great loves (apart fromTony Bennett): the radio and the IHBC.What better combination than Radio IHBC, with me as the programme controller? What would my schedule look like in a world where we have our own dedicated conservation and historic environment programming? Naturally we would need to start with a weather forecast.Would the weather that day be suitable for working at height on a scaffold or too cold for the lime mortar to go off? Warm sunshine would mean an excellent day for conservation area reviews, perhaps. Then of course we would go straight into the news and current affairs. No John Humphries. Not anywhere. Not in my radio world. But lots of JustinWebb and George Alagiah (I know he’s on TV, but humour me). This IHBC Today programme could be an aural version of the IHBC Newsblog. Our director could front interviews about current news stories and the branches would supply the regional perspectives. Naturally we absolutely have to include Thought for the Day. The president and past presidents will give a few minutes of profound bon mots which will start in a rambling but amiable way, and will wander all around the subject, never mentioning conservation or the historic environment, and in the last few moments will effortlessly bring together the threads to provide a thoughtful, uplifting and invigorating message for us all. Woman’s Hour is going to be a problem. I had thought,Workman’s Hour instead. Interviews from sites: the plasterer’s perspective, the archaeologist up to his knees in mud in a cold dank trench, a mason dangling from a gargoyle? Law in Action is much more straightforward. James Caird, our consultations consultant, will present a roundup of legislative changes and policy trends, and carry out interviews with star contributors from the consultations panel. Desert Island Designs should be obvious. Eight designs to take on your desert island and a luxury object. Mine would be Tony Bennett and a packet of shortbread biscuits. The Film Programme is going to be difficult. Can anyone think of films connected to our work? Those featuring fabulous townscape and shots of buildings will not do.We need content as well. I can only think of ‘The Belly of an Architect’. However, given this is a film about an obsessive who becomes convinced he is being poisoned, perhaps not. There is a film about a town planner in north London, with Stephen Rea, but it’s all very earnest. So I might have to cut the Film Programme. I will have no such problem with the Moral Maze. This should be no problem for us.We have members with strongly held opinions and a trenchant approach to their work, so I see no shortage of panel members and witnesses. I think we could make Michael Buerk’s programme seem a little tame. David Starkey would hesitate to cross some of us. In the Psychiatrist’s Chair used to be one of my favourites. My vision for the Radio IHBC version sees the president peeling away the layers of conservation personalities until he reaches the inner conservation being. Along the way there can be cathartic revelations about the mistakes that might have occurred, paperwork mislaid (the cat ate it?) and the burly builder the interviewee reduced to tears on site after criticising his work. Naturally this all has to be done in a RADIO IHBC
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