Page 107 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

96 ETHNOGRAPHY

than in terms of endearment or enthusiasm. However, Blackburn himself
obviously realizes the potential for fantasy relationships with his audience. When
he was suffering from a throat infection, which made his voice sound rather
husky, he said: ‘I hope I am not turning you ladies on too much. I know your
husbands have left for work, it’s you and I together, kids.’ (Recorded from Radio
1, autumn 1977)
Blackburn is a disc jockey whom it is impossible to ignore. Rather like
Crossroads, the women either like him or hate him, but rarely do they remain
indifferent to him. Blackburn himself provides interesting comments on his own
views on radio and pop music, describing his show as ‘a pleasant bit of
entertainment in the background if you like—inane chatter. I think there’s room
for a station that comes on and is full of a lot of people talking a load of
nonsense’. (Guardian, 9 January 1976)
Fortunately for him, he does not have to listen to his own programme for, as
he says, ‘It would drive me mad if I had to physically sit down and listen to
David Hamilton’s show, or mine, for that matter.’ (ibid) And fortunately for the
women in this study, they do not have to sit and listen either; they can treat the
programme as background chatter. But if by chance they happen to listen to what
Tony Blackburn has to say, they will be subjected to an onslaught of chatter
which definitely reinforces the ideology of the sexual division of labour and
places women firmly in their ‘correct’ place—in the home. It is in the direct
comments which he makes about the records and current topics of interest that
Blackburn reveals the depth of his conservatism. The ‘working man’, strikers,
punk rockers, women involved in divorce actions, (in the wake of his own recent
divorce) all warrant criticism from him. Women who are playing their traditional
role as housewives and mothers constantly earn praise from him. In one
programme in which he was promoting a record by Nancy Wilson (which was
supposedly sung by a woman who had enjoyed a ‘liberated’ life, yet still yearned
for the love and security of a husband and family and wanted to tell her ‘sisters’
of the truth of her misspent life), Blackburn fervently ‘plugged’ the record and
consistently reminded his listeners of the ‘truth’ of the theme, saying, ‘If you
understand this, ladies, you understand everything.’ In case his listeners did not
fully get the message of the song, he took the trouble to explain it, using his own
interpretation: ‘I hope you understood these lyrics. Nothing is more important, no
matter what the press and the media tell you, there is nothing more wonderful
than bringing up a child, nothing more difficult either.’ (Recorded from Radio 1,
autumn 1977)
Perhaps Tony Blackburn does represent an extreme form of the reinforcement
of the ideology of domesticity of the housebound listeners of Radio 1, but far
from providing background chatter which can be ignored, he obviously intends
his comments to be heard by his audience—and he knows who his audience is. The
reinforcement of the dominant ideology of domesticity is definitely a function of
the encoded media messages emanating from Radio 1.