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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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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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