A 5 minute writing prompt from Writers Forum magazine, April 2020:
'On this day in 1930, BBC radio announced that there was no news (none fit for its listeners anyway) and played piano music instead. What would you replace today's news with?'
I thought this 'no news' story would have stemmed from a time like this - when so much upset and distress was being broadcast and would continue to be broadcast for the foreseeable future, that the BBC just decided to take the evening off for once and give people a break. So at 8.45pm on the 18th April 1930 the newsreader apparently announced, 'there is no news' and then broadcast piano music for the rest of the segment. But no, Google tells me it was just that there was nothing new to report. This wasn't a response to an endless stream of bad news, a brief respite from the chaos of the outside world; it was just a slow news day. I don't think we have those anymore. Not in this age of wi-fi, live-stream, always on news-ness. It might be good for us though. Can you imagine, the 5pm CV-19 update with the PM just saying, 'we've no update today. Here's half an hour of cello instead'. They could have that young guy, Sheku, who played at the royal wedding, he was very good. That would maybe be what I'd pick if it was up to me. I think something like that would be nice for everyone.
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