In response to various queries, general offers of help, etc, I’ve decided to install this page to let you know what kind of information I’m after to improve the site.  To begin with, there are some very general notes; at the bottom, I’ve made a list of the specific details I’m keen to sort out at the moment.  This will hopefully be updated as and when I remember things.

Missing shows
One aim behind the radiohaha site is to compile a listing of all British radio comedy shows since 1980 (other than panel games: sorry, but trying to trace all of these really would make the site unmanageable).  My guess at the moment is that I’m at least halfway there — but the list is heavily skewed towards the 1990s, and also towards Radio 4 as opposed to 2.  (The listings for Radios 5 and 1 are all but complete, since comedy enjoyed only a short flowering on either network).  If you can recall any shows that I haven’t dealt with, even if you know nothing about them, let me know: I won’t actually do a profile if there’s nothing to say, but I’ll make a note of the title and see if I can pick up any further information

Show details
Of the shows that are covered, a great many — again, mostly 1980s shows and Radio 2 shows — have decidedly meagre entries and series/date info which bristles with query symbols.  Of course, I don’t want to know every last particular and detail of every show — no, honestly, I really don’t want to know — but it’s fairly obvious which profiles need fleshing out, and if there’s anything you can contribute, it’ll be most welcome.  In a perfect world, each profile would contain as a bare minimum the show’s name, station of original broadcast (and rebroadcast, if different), number of series, series lengths and year of original transmission (not the repeat details, unless they’re very strange, and definitely not the exact broadcast dates — I know specialist fans of particular programmes sometimes like to know these, but I’m not bothered myself, and with three hundred-odd different shows to deal with, all those figures and dots and slashes would drive me to my grave); and in the description text, a rough categorisation of the programme (sitcom, sketch show etc), basic plot notes, names of the main performers and all of the writers (except for additional material contributors on shows with long credits lists).  Absence of any of these indicates a gap that wants filling.  The majority of shows are probably not worth going into in any more detail than that — but I am, of course, happy to give far more coverage to the more challenging, successful or historically interesting shows.

Links, books, tapes and things
I’m always on the lookout for other sites relating to any of the radio shows mentioned here and their participants: these are generally listed at the ends of the profiles.  Let me know if you find one I haven’t listed, or are planning to set one up, or discover that a link’s not working any more.  Same goes for books, commercially-released tapes, records (not unknown in the eighties, apparently), etc.  I can’t be bothered to go around checking all the ISBN and catalogue numbers myself, but if you send them to me I will print them.

Behind the scenes
If you were involved in the creation of any of the programmes discussed here, by all means get in touch, whether it’s to correct the doubtless numerous flaws in my explanations and assumptions (it’s incredibly easy to make mistakes — how often, for instance, have you heard discussion of "a comedy show produced by Radio 4", when institutionally such a thing doesn’t exist?) or to pass on nuggets of information which would otherwise have been missed (because let’s face it, everyone likes a bit of behind-the-scenes info…)

Writers’ names
One blindingly obvious drawback of radio is that you can’t see how anything is spelt.  It’s usually possible to pick up performers’ names from listings magazines, but writers quite often don’t get a mention (being, as they are, born to suffer).  Sometimes, it’s hard to work out from the spoken end-credits what the names actually are.  The following, for instance, have been writers on recent shows, and some have already been entered into the Name Index -- in some cases, I suspect, wrongly.  Let me know if you can make any corrections:
Anthony Bryan, Bash Doran, Steve Sinicola
(List presently depleted thanks to the efforts of Simon, Simon and Mel -- cheers.  There will be yet more confused monstrosities at some point in the future)

Week Ending credits
Keep those names of well-known comedians who used to appear tucked away at the end of the Week Ending writers’ credits coming in...