Radio One More Time: Blue Jam

I can't see too well because I pawned my corneas

There was little truth in the claim that comedy was the new rock and roll - after all, it's not like comedians ever wake up, like rock stars, to discover bloated corpses floating in their swimming pools, is it? But, for a brief while, comedy did challenge pop as Radio One's stock-in-trade. Like one of Amos Brearley's short-lived obsessions, Radio One decided it was a comedy station, too.

Experience before the And it did have quite a claim to be doing it seriously, with a 9pm comedy slot which challenged Radio 4's 6.30 prominence in radio humour. And, with the likes of Radio Tip Top, also had as many duff shows as Radio 4 manages. But when it was hitting, it was a thing of beauty - The Mary Whitehouse Experience; Lee and Herrings Fist of Fun; Armando Iannucci's slightly awkward attempt to combine being a satirist with playing enough records to convince people tuning idly in that they were on the right station. This he did by means of aping the Chart Show's information boxes over the top of the songs.

Then, of course, the work of Chris Morris. The late-night (really, early morning) Blue Jam was one thing: a stumbling-out-the-club soundtrack coupled with Andrew Morton being asked to comment on spurious stories about Diana-themed video games. But better yet was the Christmas Day when - for reasons we've never quite understood - Morris ended up hosting the afternoon show.

It must, surely, have been an administrative error, mustn't it? Presumably Adrian Juste took delivery of an envelope the same day asking him to produce a late-night comedy show.

Suddenly, though, Radio One abandoned comedy altogether - presumably it was while playing the Mary Whitehouse Live At Wembley show that someone realised this was the future held: punchlines ripped from their contexts and bleated back by baying crowds; wit abandoned for slight characterisations; the frightening thought of teenage girls throwing knickers at Punt and Dennis. Something had to give.

Radio One returned to what it used to do before it employed comedians and scriptwriters, and instead got teams of researchers to stand in the studios guffawing at the daytime DJs every bon mot.

[Part of Radio One More Time]