Hmmmm... if memory serves, the original HHGTTG book was a transcription of the radio series, not the other way around. That was before it turned into a major multi-volume opus. But whatever, when I first heard it on the radio, I had to sit in near darkness and tune in a distant static filled AM station at an early hour every weekday morning, just to hear a short serialized segment of the original radio version of HHGTTG, after which the station would ask skill testing questions about the previous day's episode that emphasised the hilarity- all of which was bound to to keep the interest up.

I think it was in the later books in the same series that Adams had some harsh things to say about pipe bands. I could forgive him, but my girlfriend at that time, who played in one, was not amused when friends called her up to read her those segments, of course between gales of laughter.