Speaking Clock

One of the skills broadcasters who 'go live' tend to polish and pride themselves on is talking to time - whether it's DJs speaking over the introductory bars of a song and stopping just as the singer gets going or hitting the top of the minute so the news starts on time, as we have to at the BBC World Service.

I'm not sure if there have been some spectacular failures so the technicians thought we needed help, but there is now a very clever new clock on our desk in Studio S39, where many of the programmes like World Update come from.

I don't think it's really a clock at all - it's a computer pretending to be a clock. Because it not only offers analogue ticking hands and green digital timekeeping, it also gives you a bit of script you can read to get the time exactly right.

How long can it be before it actually does the whole job and makes the announcement? As a crusty old radio hand once warned me at his retirement party: "All they need is the voiceprint, son, and you're history..."

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