It just sense doesn't make.

Some years ago I was working as a cover teacher. The Year 11 class (5th form in old money) were in a computer room and they were working on a project. As is customary in these situations, the pupils were allowed to listen to the radio. "It makes us work better, sir!" was the reason given by the pupils.

I remember putting on an Australian radio show to try to get the cool surf vibe that showed the youngsters how hip I was (knowing full well that the last sentence shows you just how hip I am!)

The Australian DJ spoke, he played a song, an advert for double glazing followed. The stations jingle then played.

The pupils were getting agitated.

This wasn't their usual radio show. "Why are we listening to this sir? It's rubbish." I turned the radio off.

"Come on sir, we want the radio on. But we want our normal station." I put on the local advert-heavy radio show for them.

Out of the speakers came the voice of the DJ. He was Australian. He played a song. It was the same song! An advert followed. Yes, it was for double glazing. The familiar station jingle followed.

I asked the pupils if this station was better, knowing full well that they hadn't spotted the similarities.

"Yeah, that's better. That other station was rubbish."

It just goes to show that it isn't the content that people are interested in sometimes, but the familiarity of the brand identity.

In education, that means having something consistent so that pupils can deal with the variety that naturally occurs when learning about a subject.

You do have to question the lack of imagination in commercial radio though!

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