Paul Gambaccini gives first 2009 News International Broadcast lecture
28 Jan 09
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Paul Gambaccini, radio and television presenter and Oxford alumnus, gave his first lecture as Oxford University’s News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media last night (27 January 2009).
Professor Gambaccini’s lecture was entitled Face The Strange and it gave a history of music on television and radio from the first radio broadcast to the present day. Claiming he was going to fit in 'forty years of experience into four lectures', the Radio 2 DJ joked that his lectures would be a 'feat of editing'.
During the lecture, which is affiliated to Green Templeton College and the English Faculty, Professor Gambaccini began by discussing the pioneer Reginald Fessenden who in 1906 made a Christmas Eve broadcast to ships at sea. He touched on everything from the influence of Joseph Goebbels, who used radio for more sinister reasons, to the influence of his great friend the late DJ John Peel, and the creation of MTV and YouTube.
Professor Gambaccini raised his concerns about the demise of the DJ and the “transplantation of television presenters into radio studios” as he believes it requires a completely different skill set. He praised DJs Jonathan Ross and Chris Evans who he said were successful local DJs before going into television and back to radio, as well as television presenter and Radio 2 DJ Dermot O’Leary who he said was a ‘quick learner and a hard worker’.
He will be giving three more lectures on Tuesday 3, 10 and 17 February. The second lecture will be called So you wanna be a Rock ‘n’ Roll star and will look at the decline of the top 100 and the UK chart and the evolution of other forms of new media. The third lecture, Money (that’s what I want), discusses how the industry is struggling due to fewer new releases by major artists, more hits from artists without albums and therefore fewer touring acts. And the final lecture, entitled Sex and drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll, discusses the evolution of gender roles in pop music and how there is always room for teen idols in the industry.
The lectures will take place at 5.30pm at St Anne’s College and anyone is welcome to attend.