163 - Improving

 It's sometimes the little things that can make a difference. 

Back in the day, doing the supermarket run on a Friday (and taking my daughter to and from dance) for much of the journeys on Radio 2 was Simon Mayo and his All Request Friday... I did hear bits through the rest of the week, but it was always the Friday I listened to most. 

A while back, after the bosses at Radio 2 messed him (and the brilliant Jo Whiley) about, enforcing rubbish changes to his show he departed Radio 2 for pastures new, and a Ken Bruce clashing stint on a digital classical music station. 

And this week he's back on an FM radio station, Greatest Hits Radio, and his version of All Request Friday is back. 

Just listening to him in the car (and then after I got back home) just made me smile. It was like the old days. Albeit with rubbish adverts for scrap metal merchants etc.

I'm not ashamed to admit that when Enjoy Yourself started up just after 5, it brought a tear or two of joy to my eyes. In fact I was just beaming with happiness throughout the show. Heck, had some numpty requested Simply Red I'd not have minded I was that overjoyed to have the show back. 

And for the first time in quite a while it made me optimistic about the future; we're at about the year point since Covid sent the country in to a spiral that we've still not recovered from (I'll refrain from mentioning the government's incompetence), but Simon's show today, the All Request Friday, gave me a sense that (to quote that other show he does) everything will be alright in the end...

I just have to thank Greatest Hits Radio for giving Simon back the slot he so belongs in, and that he's able to do the show the way he wants. At a time like this it is everything. Thank you. 

That something as simple as a radio show can do this is incredible. It's the right show at the right time. We can get through this. It's not alright yet. 

But then it's not the end...