Londons Biggest Conversation (News Direct 97.3 FM)

Member Name: garymarsh6

Product:	News Direct 97.3 FM
Date:	24/08/09 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Up to the minute news and traffic reports Interesting topics.

Disadvantages: Sometimes callers annoy you with their daft ideas.

LBC 97.3.FM.

LBC is a 24 hours a day news and chat radio station based in London and serving London and around the London Area and has been in existence for over thirty years. It used to be known as London Broadcasting Company but now it is referred to as London's Biggest Conversation. It is the sister station of the LBC news station which can be found on 1152 FM so the standard of news information is up to date and of very good quality. Sometimes they are the first radio stations to report on events in the news for example the Michael Jackson reported death.

Quite often the programmes may be rescheduled as a major event happens for example when Princess Diana died LBC were the first radio station to announce it and carried on talking about it for the rest of the night into the early hours and that of course carried on for days. The other notable time in more recent times was during the morning of the London bombings on the underground and on the bus. It was first reported about ten minutes after it happened that there was an incident and as the morning went on the full scale of what had happened was broadcast. The presenters are exceptional in the way they present the programmes.

The concept of the Station is that it is a station about London for Londoners however it attracts a wide and varied audience including expats and casual listeners. The audience are encouraged to ring up and talk about the various topics being discussed and there can be some quite interesting diverse and controversial views expressed and aired. The topics are those usually current subjects in the news affecting not only Londoners but also others in the UK.


A day in the life of LBC.

The presenters and their programmes.

There are a wide variety of permanent presenters but also guest presenters who appear from time to time especially when the presenters are on holiday.

05.00 AM - 07.00 AM - The Steve Allen Show- this man is the bitch of all radio stations and although not many people get the opportunity to ring him he takes email messages and text messages. He normally has guests in the studio with him and talks about a wide range of subjects including various so called television celebrities who he runs into the ground with his witty remarks who are appearing in the news that day either on the television or in the newspapers. He also chats about new gadgets, health topics usually his own and about muggers shoplifters bad shopping experiences all with his witty bitchiness He rarely takes holidays and works 6 days a week finally presenting a show on Sunday mornings. His tongue is razor sharp and witty.

07.00AM - 10.00AM - Nick Ferrari. He is the anchorman of the station and broadcasts his show during the drive time into work. He is quite controversial and will argue the toss with politicians and has regular guests on his show including the mayor of London and even the prime minister. Nick does not pull any punches and goes straight for the jugular putting speakers on the spot usually about news events of the day. He has won awards for his show. He also has regular callers who he can be quite playful with and suggestive. Annoyingly he sometimes talks over people trying to express his views and sometimes he wont accept anyone having opinions he does not agree with.

10.00AM - 13.00AM James Obrien. He presents a reasonably interesting show and is quite good at putting people on the spot especially those who have racist views or those that disadvantage others. He can also be a bit school boyish at times.

13:00 - 16:00 Jeni Barnett the larger than life actress but the now mumsy presenter who is and has always been somewhat gobby and controversial. She is actually quite entertaining and discusses all kinds of topics from cooking to theatre, health topics to books and religion throughout the afternoon programme.

16.00PM - 19:00PM. James Whale drive time show. James is particularly amusing and talks about controversial news items of the day and becomes quite irate about things especially hooligans and yobs, muggers, driving, manners in society and all kinds of subjects. He is stubborn in his views and rants on. If he had his way he would make an excellent judge and by Jove if you were unlucky enough to be up in front of Judge Whale God Help you, you would be banged up and the key would be thrown away for ever.

19:00PM - 2200 PM Petri Hoskins is a delightful young lady presenter who has different expert guests in with her through the week for example lawyers doctors and MP's. People are able to ring in with queries and very useful and helpful advice is given out over the air. She also becomes irate at the generalisation of women and the perception that single women parents can not bring up children well on their own. She sounds like a very nice rounded woman and a credit to LBC.

2200 PM - 01:00AM Clive Bull has been a presenter on LBC for years. He does not suffer fools gladly and used to be quite abrupt but he has changed his presentation and is much more amiable which is a shame as I quite enjoyed his banter saying that he is still a very interesting presenter and talks about issues of the day for example people who park on double yellow lines and get towed away or a ticket he will tell them in no uncertain terms its their own fault so woe betide you if you are looking for sympathy because you wont get it from him.

01:00AM - 05:00AM Bill Buckley or Anthony with an 'Haitch' Davis as he likes to be known!
The graveyard shift but they have quite a following and regular callers who are quite entertaining. They talk about all kinds of things that have happened in the day or on a variety of subjects of things that happen in daily life.


Other regular presenters include: -

Ken Livingstone. General London issues and gardening.
Simon Calder. The holiday travel clinic.
Bill Buckley The food programme.
Cristo Foufas. Show business .
James Max. Financial advice.
Andrew Pearce. General chat.
Jim Davis. Sex in the city.

Guest presenters:

Anne Widdecombe.
Carol Thatcher.
Edwina Curry.
Frank Dobson
Diane Abbot.


Past presenters include

Janet Street Porter, Mathew Kelly, Frank Bough, Jeremy Beadle, Sandi Tosvik, Marcus Churchill and Anna Raeburn to mention a few.


The Audience.

You used to only able to pick up the signals in the London area but since the start of DAB radio the listening audience can be found not only in the UK but also via the Internet from far away as America, Australia, Spain and South Africa.

There are of course some regular callers who seem to have an opinion on every subject and in fact become quite interesting with their bizarre views for example a woman rings up regularly to spout off her views based on her religious beliefs. Nutty as a fruit cake she is but very entertaining. There used to be a wonderful woman who had very bizarre ideas who used to ring up regularly despite her saying she didn't have a television and wouldn't let her children watch certain programmes but she knew all the programmes as they were being discussed. She was quite pompous in her views and argumentative with the presenters and was a right fruit loop but she no longer phones in. one more example was a woman who was completely deluded who used to ring up and express her views and would think that she had a huge fan base. She actually had a very personal argument on air with another listener now neither are heard of these days. There are some very nice people who ring in and are regular callers to LBC and very entertaining with their ideas.


The good thing about LBC is that there is traffic reports every 15 minutes and news every half an hour. It is particularly useful to help keep London on the move. The only minus side is as it is a commercial radio station it relies on advertising and adverts interrupt the programmes throughout the show which is a bit annoying.

Interesting and controversial topics are discussed throughout the day which are very interesting and can be helpful to other people. Whilst I have mentioned the main parts of the show there is a lot more interesting subjects discussed.

Check it out at the following web site:-

http://www.lbc.co.uk/

Summary: Topical news programmes of issues affecting Londoners.