Sara Cox has revealed that melting minidiscs in the Balearic sunshine nearly forced her BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show off air in the early noughties. The presenter, who now hosts the breakfast slot on BBC Radio 2, said the weather almost caused chaos while she played a set outside in Ibiza.
Melting minidiscs in the heat
Speaking to the Mirror, Cox said she was grateful for how far technology had come since she started in the industry almost 30 years ago. She recalled: "We did the Radio 1 Breakfast Show back in the day, I think like in the year 2000, 2001, and I was using minidiscs back then.
"And some of them melted in the Balearic sunshine. Can you imagine? We nearly fell off air because all the minidiscs were melting. So now it is much easier. It is touchscreen, and, you know, my studio is pretty up-to-date and whizzy, which makes my job much easier."
A dream job on Radio 2
Cox described her current role as a "dream". She said: "What can I say? I'm really happy. I spring out of bed gazelle-like each morning, and I'm not even joking.
"I love it, because I spend the first three hours of the day essentially laughing and dancing around. So I think it's actually really good for me. But it's brilliant.
"We have all of Hollywood popping in and saying hi, but I've managed to keep the listeners at the heart of the show, which was always really important to me from the get-go."
Life without a phone
On technology advances, Cox said she could not live without her phone, despite a self-imposed ban on using it in the studio. She explained: "I can do my banking on there, I've got my maps on there, I can pay for my parking on there, I can pay for whatever I need on there.
"And I can take lovely photos as well, usually of me with one of my many pets. So I think it'd be my phone for sure."
Smart energy campaign
Her comments came as she joined a campaign encouraging households to switch out older smart meter hardware for new kit. She said the data showed how much easier technology makes life. Brits save around six hours every week on average by relying on seven devices, with smartphones crowned the top time-saving gadget.
Speaking of the campaign, Cox said: "It's sort of a celebration of technology, and about keeping your technology up-to-date. And smart meters are a brilliant example of how it's important just to keep up-to-date.
"The message is, if people are contacted by their energy supplier about switching older smart meter hardware for new kit, they really must make that appointment. It's not going to cost them anything."
