Shock and awe on the FM dial  Dead children, bad health and
paedophiles: government adverts on local radio are painting a
stunning  In the past year, I have become quite familiar with a
radio station that broadcasts along the south coast. Wave FM
plays a relentless stream of upbeat pop from the 1980s and 1990s
- just the job for leavening the journey to and from lectures
about global pensions systems. There is thankfully little talk
on Wave FM, but what there is consists of adverts. And that
means government adverts. You don't realise until you leave
London quite how many of these there are. They dominate local
radio.  And what adverts! Relentlessly plumbing the depths of
human misery, they project a vision of British life that is
entirely negative. If they are not patronising you, they are
trying to terrify. It doesn't help that, interspersed as they
are on Wave FM with happy, poppy stuff, the advertising jars so
badly. You've been trilling along to "Club Tropicana", South
Downs flashing by, lambs skipping i