Is it me?

One of the things I really miss about the UK is the standard of broadcasting - not only on the television (Australian TV is pretty dire!) but also on the radio! Seems like the main qualification to be a radio presenter here is to have been an ex-footballer or a friend of someone famous - imagine David Beckham, or Victoria's Beckham's bridesmaid presenting on the radio, and you're probably already 100% better than the choices here!

The best station I've found that doesn't make me get to the end of a car journey with tightly gritted teeth (usually) is ABC News Radio - I listen on 972 am - an Australia-wide network that plays a lot of programmes from both the BBC, an American Station called NPR, and a German one called Deutsche Welle Radio. I miss spoken word comedy stuff on the radio though, so still use the internet at home to listen to lots of stuff like Radio 4's The News Quiz and The Now Show, as well as my dirty, guilty little secret - The Archers Omnibus edition!

Driving home from Port Adelaide this afternoon though, listening to ABC, and had to consciously restrain myself from yelling at the radio! Now I'm not highly educated, don't have a doctorate or even a degree, and the highest qualification I hold is in bi-lingual travel and tourism, but even I can hear that this is wrong: .... "we need to ensure we come out of this recession better than what we went into it".... and a little later "stronger than what we were before".... aaarrrgggghhhh, enough with the "what"!! Once I could understand, the nerves of being interviewed on radio, the strong wish to get a message across, but this, or similar (each with that aberrant "what") was repeated five - count them - five times! Who was the interviewee? The "Federal President of the Australian Education Union" - I give up...........is it me????

On a brighter note, the local library has an excellent stock of books on tape/cd, available to borrow free of charge, so I shall be saving my blood pressure in future and listening to Terry Pratchett books whilst driving instead (I've tried Jodie Piccoult, but have found it's difficult to drive whilst crying and some of her books are soooo harrowing).