Andy Mitchell writes about the morning it all stopped

It is a measure of how much we rely on the radio, not just for entertainment , but for those signals that tell us what we should be doing at any one point in the day. The jingles, the features, the news....they all happen at a certain time by which you measure where you are in the morning’s schedule. No one has time to look at clocks.

I think we all work on these little audio triggers in the morning

So on the morning, when Radio 4 failed to open on time, the world was thrown into turmoil. Now as those who are up at 5.15am will tell you, by and large we are still asleep (even when we’ve woken up) and we work off automatic cues rather than considered decisions.

A friend of mine who is a Breakfast presenter on a radio station in Wigan found himself in a similar state of distress.

“I know exactly where I should be during a certain point in the shipping forecast” he said. Things are no different here... ‘Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Fiveways Roundabout, Bispham”. The delightful Susan Rae announces ‘Good Morning...this is BBC Radio 4...now News Briefing’.”

There’s no messing about with Sue... straight into the headlines so those of us on auto pilot can instantly grab a summary of the situation and discover that the World is still spinning, the weather, papers and the sport, so that when I first speak to you at half past six, I have a good idea of what YOU will be needing to know when you wake up.

But not the morning it all stopped. Someone hadn’t pressed a button in London and the world stopped briefly. It was like being abandoned in the night with no idea what was going on!

I think we all work on these little audio triggers in the morning.

When I was 8, I knew as soon as Terry Wogan played that “Radio 2 Goessss Racing!!!” jingle, it was 8.27 and time to set out for school.

You probably do the same even now as Scott and Tatum get to their next “audio signpost” in your morning. ..time to run for the bus!

I’m sure Susan Rae at Radio 4 felt our pain that morning. Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, B &Q.