Perks Of The Job

One of the things you find when you work in radio is that you get sent free stuff. I used to work in places where the free stuff was incredibly exciting and desirable. That's not really so much the case anymore. But now and then, something interesting and useful lands on my desk that I didn't part with any cash to receive.

Most of the time, though, the freebies are utterly and totally pointless. Just the other day, I noticed a little grey package in my pigeon hole. After checking it wasn't ticking, smelling of ladies perfume, or leaking a fine white powder, I proceeded to open it.

Inside was something that momentarily made me slightly excited. It looked like a little, grey radio. It was a package sent to me by a radio organisation that we do business with and we're about to use a new download of theirs, and this little grey radio with their logo on was sent to me to promote this new product.

Now, I own radios. I own several. Some of them (alright, one of them) are digital. But there's still something passably diverting about receiving a little one, for free.

So, imagine my consternation and disappointment when, upon ripping open the plastic wrapping that surrounded it, I discovered that it was, in fact, fake.

A fake radio. Made of sponge.

I imagine that it's meant to be some sort of stress relieving thing to squeeze, but is fundamentally pointless. In retrospect, it was always going to be so, as a seconds thought on my part would have concluded that it would be ridiculously expensive for this company to send out real radios to all their clients. But still, it was disappointing.

Ironically, I had to defuse my slight anger, by squeezing the radio in response to it only being a squeezable radio.

Ho-hum.