January exam season was everywhere
Scott and Chris were hearing from university students revising in libraries around the country.
One listener described library hopping, moving between different libraries while preparing for exams.
Scott compared it with a pub crawl where absolutely none of the fun parts had survived.
The messages gave the January programme a familiar post-Christmas atmosphere.
Everybody was back at work or university.
Nobody particularly wanted to be.
Britain’s Biggest Mug kept growing
The enormous novelty mug remained unclaimed.
More listeners nominated themselves for behaviour which made them feel foolish.
Scott wanted the stories to remain self-confessions rather than revenge on an ex.
The prize had become a physical symbol of saying:
“Yes, I was the mug here.”
The final award was still several days away.
Georgia reviewed her first Live Lounge
Georgia had completed her first Radio 1 Live Lounge and joined the show to hear it back.
She admitted she had been genuinely terrified beforehand.
Scott and Chris had become interested in asking artists to self-assess their performances rather than simply accept presenter praise.
The artist often heard details nobody else noticed.
Georgia’s nervousness had not stopped the session sounding confident to the audience.
That gap between performer anxiety and listener experience was exactly what the feature exposed.
Funny Business reached Bedroom Athletics
Tuesday also meant Funny Business.
Scott or Chris called Bedroom Athletics, a company whose actual products included slippers and loungewear.
The business name already made the call difficult.
Then the man answering introduced himself as Howard Wetter.
Scott and Chris could hardly believe their luck.
The conversation was still supposed to sound like a normal customer enquiry.
They asked what Bedroom Athletics got up to.
Howard explained the products completely professionally.
Then the presenters began drifting into whether the company might expand into watersports.
Mr Wetter remained professional
Howard handled every question far better than the presenters.
Yes, his surname really was Wetter.
Yes, the company was called Bedroom Athletics.
No, none of this seemed remotely as funny to him as it did inside Radio 1.
The collision of a respectable business, an unusually convenient surname and the show’s deliberate immaturity made it one of the stronger Funny Business calls.
The title wrote itself.
“Are you into watersports, Mr Wetter?”
January had found a call almost too perfectly designed for the feature.
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