Mike Hosking: Why radio is king of the hill - it engages, infuriates, provides insight and laughter and it challenges

I don't know if you would call yesterday a bittersweet day for this wondrous industry we call radio.

The first of the year's ratings were out and it was a stark reminder of just how resilient and well received, if not loved, this business is. The shine, perhaps, not quite as bright, given all that this country and world is going through and the very difficult economic realities that come with it.

The media's plight in general was well canvassed last week at the Epidemic Response Committee. Viewership, readership, and listenership are up, in fact up through the roof. And yet the money that supports the jobs, the investment, and the profits is in short supply right now.

But on the basic principle that we are here for, the basic business we love, that is well and truly intact. In fact, prior to the virus let us not forget that the media in general sadly already had trouble. But it was radio that was defying that. And it's still growing, excelling, doing all it's ever done in its simple and yet highly effective form.

Free-to-air television in this country is against the wall. Newspapers and magazines have had a long and well documented battle for any sort of future. But radio is in embarrassingly robust health.

Part of it may well be that all the upheaval the rest are facing from the likes of Google, Netflix, and Facebook was dealt with by radio decades back, when FM was set loose and any man and his dog could buy a frequency, and so we ended up with more radio stations per head of population than anywhere in the world.

Some lasted, some didn't. Most got consolidated into a couple of large players who dominate the industry today.

The quintessential brilliance of it all though is only truly understood when you've hung about the place for a while like I have, and realise that what I did 38 years ago in 1982 as a 16-year-old is pretty much the same as what I do in 2020 as a 55-year-old.

Turn a microphone on and say some stuff. It engages, it infuriates, it provides insight and laughter, it challenges, it inquires. You're still in your car, kitchen, or bathroom. Radio is as portable as it ever was. You might hear this via an app.

But it's me to you at the same time each day. And you pretty much go about your day the way I've gone about my work. It hasn't really changed, and that is why radio is king of the hill.

This is not the time to blow too many individual trumpets. But in a small clue from yesterday's ratings, this programme has never seen an audience like it. What we are doing works, and it works because of the brilliance of the medium, and because of you.

And for that we celebrate, and we are truly grateful. We are grateful to be a part of it, and grateful for the continued success.