The Camera Never Lies

Do radio stations still produce ‘photocards’ for their presenters, or is this a part of radio life that has now gone forever? After all, if you want to see what your favourite presenter looks like this can easily be done on the station’s website. There’s no longer a need to turn up at the station’s reception or send a stamped addressed envelope in the mail.

Actually those last two are also not as common as they were. The reception area at one client station has no receptionist but does have a couple of farily comfy sofas and a coffin! Really! It was used about four years ago as part of a publicity stunt and nobody really knew what to do with it afterwards. I should point out that it is unoccupied.

Anyway, I digress.

While photocards would vary from station to station there seemed to be some unwritten rule that required the presenters to be photographed with a pair of headphones round their neck or even, on occasions, wearing them ‘properly’. Even at a time when branding was not as important as it is today, some stations made sure their logo was in the photo; even if it was just the presenter wearing a station t-shirt.

Something else that some of those old photos show is how people – and fashions – have changed over the years. Whether it’s mullets or big glasses, there’s no escaping the fact that such photos still exist.



When it came to getting press coverage for the station it seemed to be another unwritten rule that all radio presenters are ‘wacky' and must, therefore, be photographed in that way.  So we would have photos of a new breakfast jock with obligatory alarm clock or, if someone was moving off breakfast, seen ‘smashing’ the clock. Similarly a new late-night presenter would often be seen in a nightshirt and cap carrying a candle or a mug of cocoa.

Another example of a 'wacky' photo is demonstrated here by the legendary Les Ross who was celebrating winning a Sony in 1989 (or it might have been his excitement at learning I would be joining BRMB/Xtra for a couple of months in summer 1993!).

The station photocards may have been 'killed off' by the web but at least many examples can still be found online  - for example Geoff Lumley's website has a very large selection of LBC presenters from the 70s and 80s.

I was also interested to find a signed photocard for former BRMB presenter John Slater being auctioned on eBay - available at the 'Buy It Now' price of £12.99!

Finally, having probably embarrassed a number of people, including several friends and former colleagues, in this blog post maybe it’s time to come clean on something.

This week marks the 25^th anniversary of Comic Relief.  At the time of the very first Red Nose Day in 1988 I was working as a presenter at Ocean Sound in Hampshire and the local press carried this ‘wacky’ shot.

Oh dear!

PS. This is one of my favourites. It was from a series of presenter cards produced by Capital and was a marked departure from the usual.