Creative Radio Partnership

R.I. and P Please Bob

2012-01-06T13:51:00.000Z

Bob Holness it was a pleasure to work with you. I worked with Bob on 'AM' the LBC Breakfast Show which made the management at the BBC sit up and listen and discover that commercial radio could offer a credible alternative to Radio 4 in the morning. I think it was both Bob and Douglas Cameron's meticulous way they worked - that gave me an insight on how a show should be presented.

One of the things that amused me with Bob is he would polish the studio - every morning about 30 mins before the show he would come in with a duster and Pledge the studio - lay out his scripts, set up his own personal yellow Sennheiser headphones and then Douglas would arrive and also set all his scripts up. Together they created a comfortable and creative space with which to do their show.

A true professional that was brave enough to return to LBC to celebrate 30 years of the radio station, despite the fact he had suffered a stroke he and Doug presented the Breakfast Show on LBC News that day in 2003 with style and panache, Bob Holness 12th November 1928 - 6th January 2012 RIP

A Naughty New Year

2012-01-04T08:45:00.000Z

Grey dull and boring, no not the weather but most of the the radio and TV I have listened and watched the last few days. It's all as if everyone at the moment is going through the motions and not really putting any effort in.

I think what I am longing for is the cheeky daft shows I have enjoyed in the past, just grabbing a couple of examples - on TV The Big Breakfast (pre Richard Bacon) on radio the daftness of Adrian Juste who did a lot more than just [sic] play comedy records and of course the supreme funny man Kenny Everett.

There's clearly an appetite for less grey more brighter broadcasting in the UK. On TV the stand-up comedians have taken the ratings by storm - I thought Michael McIntyre was quite brilliant with his Xmas Show, although we did try him on radio many years ago and he had trouble 'pulling back' his performance - but by the end of the week I had warmed to him both as a performer and as a person to work with.

So lets do something naughty, something fun are you with me?

A Messy Christmas

2012-01-03T15:26:00.000Z

Still trying to digest those left-over sprouts? Discovered that the box the decorations were in is now strangely not big enough to put your baubles back? The fag end of Xmas has gone a new wet and windy year has started and what a messy Christmas it was.

TV and in particular cable TV had some horrendous scheduling errors with trails for shows that had gone days before and tatty old Xmas imaging that should have dropped off the screen after Boxing Day.

It seems that an enormous effort is put into getting the Xmas schedule right, whether on TV or radio the shows are stuffed with extra content and celebs and festive music, but like that Aunt you wished you'd never invited over for Christmas - who is STILL making herself at home in your house in early January, the TV and radio programmers seem to forget about that bit after Xmas and before New Year proper.

Xmas Imaging - get rid of it after Boxing Day, give us something to look forward to in the New Year. What a perfect opportunity for a London radio station to promote the Olympics or the race for London Mayor this year. Even the advertisers are to blame still advertising their festive ware - well past their Yuletide sell-by-date.

I know some will say Christmas lasts a week here in the UK as many take the time off work during this period, but I still think TV and radio missed a trick and an opportunity to look forward rather than backward. Happy New Year

Do it with frequency

2011-10-20T08:54:00.000+01:00

How important is it to have a radio station's frequency on imaging and branding? I personally think that mentioning the frequency just aint important. As Folder Media's Matt Deegan wisely told me the other day - "Listeners don't care how they receive your station it's what's on the station." He is right, listeners are not interested in the technical way the radio station arrives at their ears it's all about what you do on the air.

Thinking about the way I listen to the radio I can honestly say I have not 'tuned' in a radio station by frequency for many years. I lie a little bit as I do have an old Normende Globetrotter in the shed but that can now only get Radio 4 and Classic FM (must be something to do with its age lol) The car radio, the Virgin Cable all tell me the name of the station by flag or EPG.

I remember when I worked for Essex Radio in the 1980s we had four different frequencies (am and FM but we also mentioned the medium wave metre frequency along with the am KHz) that were split into north and south and it took nearly 15 seconds to do a station identification and mightily confused the poor listeners and created a north south divide in the county, which if you ever been to Essex you might agree exists but it did no branding favours for the radio station.

So don't do it with frequency do it with brand and of course content.

For local people only

2011-09-26T17:46:00.003+01:00

BBC Local Radio to be hit hard by cost-cutting says the Guardian this week it would appear on the face of it that your local radio station will end up being anything but local. But scratch the surface of this story and you will find parallels with commercial radio and the way that the larger groups are evolving network shows with local content.

So what makes local programming? Is it that the DJ happens to be sitting round the corner from where you live, as they are in my case with BBC Essex (Why is there a golden transmitter mast in their front garden by the way?) Or is it the news shows and information like travel news etc that make it truly local.

If it is the latter and I believe to a an extent this is true then technology can allow complex local programming to be created with a networked framework. Very much the way Capital and Heart create their local identity within a networked show.

I have to say I'm not a fan of BBC Essex it is a very moribund sounding station the only question is will the DJ's expire before some of the very elderly callers do? Some more better crafted and compelling local content dropped into a network show sounds more appealing to me and would cut cost at the cost of course of jobs which is a whole different argument.

I have to say that my BBC local radio station costs more than some national commercial stations, they inhabit a large and comfortable looking building in a predominately, now, residential area and when I pass them on a Sunday afternoon a car park full of staff - I do sometimes wonder what they all could be doing as I can't hear the resources reflected in most of the weekend output?

Somewhere Special

2011-09-12T10:44:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday Essex Radio 30 years ago today I was just 20 years old and a week later I started my career with them, catching a bus to Southend (I couldn't afford the train) I remember walking through the park to the bus station and I was so nervous I was actually sick in the bushes.

Arriving at the radio station to work on the sports show I was met by Helen Rollason and newsreader Nicole Pullman then Roger Buxton the Sports Editor and Timbo the presenter. We were all in the same boat none of us had much experience of professional radio except Nicole who had worked for BRMB I think though that commonality drew us together and this was my first experience of working with a team. (And a brilliant team at that)

Essex Radio during those heady 1980s had an audience share of 55% and played a mix of older and chart records, how appropriate that the format that Heart Essex now plays is pretty much the 21st century version of our original format.

Happy birthday Essex Radio

The People's Friend

2011-08-30T19:18:00.002+01:00

We love the radio, it makes us happy according to some research carried out by the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) The research also talked about listeners who are connected to their radio by companionship. I will anecdotally vouch for that, having answered thousands of listener's calls over the years.

It astonished me how many callers trusted the radio station so much that they would tell you their innermost thoughts and anxieties - stuff they wouldn't normally tell a close family member let alone a complete stranger.

I got used to women happily telling me about their sex lives or that they fantasised about killing their mother-in-law (that used to crop up quite a few times) I also remember one octogenarian lady calling and explaining she still had 'womanly needs' and thought I was a nice sounding young man and she would very much like to ..... the rest is censored - but she graphically described how she would like to make love to me. It was one of those calls that when you think afterwards - why didn't I just hang up?

So why should you trust the radio? Why are we so connected to the wireless? I think the intimacy of the medium has a lot to do with it, also the majority of radio shows are presented by just one person and over time they become part of your extended family in a way that other media can't.

Who?

2011-08-26T12:53:00.000+01:00

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. So said Oscar Wilde. LBC Radio pulled of a bit of a coup this week in allowing Jacqui Smith former Home Secretary to stand-in for James O'Brien. The station has made the front pages of the national press and a quick search on Google news shows at least 227 articles about her and mentioning the name of the radio station.

To buy that kind of publicity would have cost thousands of pounds. But is it the kind of publicity the radio station wants? It was supposed to be Phineas T Barnum the 19th century American showman who said: "There's no such thing as bad publicity." and he is right. Sometimes taking a risk, hiring a controversial host can raise the profile of both the host and the radio station.

Recently working with a US Talk Show host has shown me the importance of getting the attention of the press in improving the awareness of the brand. But don't be tempted to try and generate publicity for publicity's sake. Most of us (journos included) see through those disingenuous marketing ploys.

Taking Sides

2011-08-25T10:00:00.000+01:00

South Africa have refused to recognise the TNC rebels of Libya because they say it would be 'taking sides.' The Libyans have asked for £3 billion of frozen funds to help rebuild the country. I guess what amused me about the South African stance is I remember during the height of Apartheid I had to take sides.

A South African fruit company was about to advertise on LBC and we had a meeting amongst the workforce and pretty much unanimously agreed to boycott the ad and not play it. An easy task as the commercials were recorded onto cartridge and not locked away on a computer.

Of course the first play of the advert was right at the start of one of my hours of driving LBC shows! I remember one of the management coming down to see me and asking what I was going to do? I said that I wouldn't be playing the advert. They disappeared and I thought that, as so often in my life, I would be the one getting into trouble by making a stand.

As it turned out about twenty minutes later word came down that the advert had been pulled and that LBC would not be accepting any more commercials whilst the Apartheid regime was in force. Looking back I am glad I took sides and as history records; things changed irrevocably in South Africa following the release of Nelson Mandela.

Celebrity Drunks

2011-08-23T12:50:00.001+01:00

Here are a few of our favourites: Keith Floyd turned up on his own very very drunk. Chris sat him down and loooked him in the eye and said "You are very drunk I am going to get a cup of coffee from the canteen and you will sober up and behave or I am not putting you on the radio." Keith surprisingly responded with "I am very sorry and I promise to sober up." He did and he was a good guest.

Fanny Cradock not only drunk but abusive to the man on security and the woman on reception. She didn't get as far as the Producer as the 'lady' was intercepted by staff in news information and thrown out of the building and banned from LBC.

Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins. Chris described as 'stinking of drink.' Again he was given a coffee with sugar which he stirred in with one of those plastic stirrers which he then threw on the floor. Incensed Chris picked the stirrer up plonked it back in his coffee told him "We have bins for that!" at the same time propelling through the studio door. (Pic credit Allan Warren)

Evil Twitter

2011-08-12T10:26:00.000+01:00

The Government have blamed the evils of social networking for the riots of the last week. At last an excuse to 'regulate' the internet and social media? Does it start with the blacking out of Blackberry's during riots and then end with the Internet controlled by the Government with sites blocked by a Government censor?

Face the music

2011-07-19T07:54:00.001+01:00

The most powerful media owner faces a Commons media committee and it will be a compelling watch this afternoon. My old boss Stuart Purvis was on SKY news this morning Stuart is Professor of TV at City University where, once a year I guest edit a sequence of their live radio shows. During the interview Eamonn Holmes asked an interesting question:

'How do you teach the students about the real world of journalism?' For instance that you might be offered a 'bung' in exchange for a story cover-up or your boss might encourage you to get in with the celeb crowd with an expense account that allows you to buy Class A drugs for them?

Purvis replied that at City they try and give the students real life scenario's and teach them how to cope with the situation. I can vouch for this, as guest Editor on the radio station you are told to pull no punches and treat the students as you would colleagues in the real world, I hasten to add that I reminded them that this was still an exercise whilst criticising a short run show that just used some fill-copy to the end of the sequence, a film review that gave too much away and during my editorial meeting someone who was eating a sandwich whilst staring at the TV. I told them in a real editorial meeting if you had done that in front of your Editor he would have thrown you out of the meeting, the poor kid looked shocked.

But you can only teach so much and in an environment where sharp practice is the norm it's hard to stick up for ethical practice when nobody around you has any ethics in the first place.

Cut it out

2011-07-13T14:55:00.001+01:00

Audio for audio sake. Don't ya hate it. The last few days I have heard some pretty mediocre use of audio in news bulletins. You know the kind of thing. So and so says it can't be good for the economy: CUT: "It can't be good for the economy." Erm didn't you just say that?

I have a sneaky suspicion that if you were a lazy journo shoving together a news bully you might well grab a bit of audio, never mind the quality but how long is it? Will it string out my badly put together bully?

Answer these questions: Does your audio add to the script? Does it bring colour and new information and features the voice of the person(s) immediately involved in the story? If the answer is no leave the audio languishing in RadioMan or Burli IN Q.

Here's how not to put a bully together click here

Secrets of a job in radio

2011-07-12T12:17:00.000+01:00

Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. The words President Kennedy spoke during his inaugural address are relevant to you if you are about to graduate from University and want a career in the media.

Put yourself in the mind-set of your potential employer. What are they looking for in you? Can you put together a CV that can demonstrate the capacity and business case for giving you the job?

Remember your C.V. will only get a quick scan so your key skills statement should contain only achievements relevant to the job you are seeking. Your Email or covering letter should also contain some of those key skills mentioned in narrative form.

Identify your weaknesses and address them. An employer will look at your C.V and think 'mmm too young or not experienced enough.' How will you deal with my on air talent who are older than you? What life experiences have you had that can demonstrate maturity and experience?

Spelling and names, get them right and find out who you should address the Email to?

If they are interested in you chances are they will Google you, have a look at your public Facebook profile and anywhere else you might pop up in the virtual world. Now is the time to take down those pictures of you drunk at the students union bar.

Before you send or attach your C.V. show it to a friend see if they think they would give you the job?

Let's be Frank

2011-07-09T04:06:00.001+01:00

Frank Bough I Took Drugs with Vice Girls - that was the headline in the News of the World that undid Frank Bough's cosy TV career and brought him to the door of LBC, where we welcomed him as he was an affable kinda guy and a bloody good broadcaster.

I have to say one afternoon we were having a cosy chat and he said something that has stuck in my mind all these years. He said: "You know it was The News of the World that ruined my career." I couldn't help thinking that it was probably the vice girls and class A drugs that did more damage and of course getting caught doing it.

There are always hidden costs when you run those kinds of grubby tabloid stories, the cost to the wife or in another case of a friend of a friend the cost to his career when his wife was jack booting it up with a well known racing boss. It cost him his career and he played a very important role in the security service so he was a very great loss to the country. I somehow think the loss of The News of the World will not upset the likes of Frank Bough, but don't get too complacent before The News of The Screws is cold in the grave the brand spanking new Sunday Sun will wing our way ...read all about it!

I wanna get into radio

2011-07-07T10:03:00.000+01:00

It's your dream job. I know how you feel because (some years ago) I wanted to get into radio too. But do expect friends and family to actively discouraged your dream. Don't give up though.

My dad used to say to me 'You'll never get anywhere mucking around with tape machines there isn't a career in it." My Grandfather who said "You need a proper job, an apprenticeship is what you need, I am going to help you get work at Marconi." To be fair he did and it was a brilliant place to learn a craft but not the career I wanted and I left after two years, he was disappointed but would have been heartbroken to see the world's first radio factory (where I worked) in a state of dereliction and decay.

Oh and the careers advice, at school - "There's a place for you working for the Gas Board" and at the Job Centre when the advisor popped out to get her cup of tea I had a quick peak at what she had written. "He has high-flying ideas of getting a career in radio."

At the time I thought I will never get there but funnily the negative remarks only made me more determined to succeed.

Thirty years later I'm still in the industry of my dreams, and you can get there too. Good luck and to quote Jho Harris my colleague at Linkedin Radio Professionals: "Be prepared to work hard and don't expect miracles."

A bunch of pluggers

2011-07-05T09:11:00.001+01:00

With celebs it's all want and no give. At least that's my experience. If they haven't got a book out, appearing in a film or panto season has arrived you are very unlikely to get a celeb guest just to 'pop' in to say hello.

I can't blame them. Most look upon publicity as a necessary evil of the business they are in. So when I was asked to produce a series called 'Pete Meets' a strand where celebs pop in and say hello, my heart sank. The idea, I was told by my Programme Controller was that a collection of his showbiz chums would come onto the show and talk in depth about their relationship with Pete (Murray) and share anecdotes about the business.

Well it took me months of tricky negotiation to get some of them on. My favourite was the old trouper Dora Bryan now a hospitalised very frail old lady but in the 1990s she was busy acting and running a hotel in Brighton.

"I'll come for forty pounds and I shall travel by train to London first class and you will pay for that as well." I remember asking my Editor to clear her expenses. "First class!" he said as if this was the most decadent thing a celeb had demanded since Ertha Kitt wanted a dozen red roses in her dressing room. (When we explained the radio station didn't have a dressing room Ertha's reply according to her P.A. was. "Well I'm still having the f*cking roses, if you want me.")

Anyway Dora duly arrived and she was worth every penny of that first class fare and £40 budget. I remember Chris sneaking into the live studio with a cup of tea for Pete and Dora mid question, stopped and said to Chris "Two sugars in mine love and make it a strong one." So I guess not all celebs are a bunch of pluggers.

Round like a circle

2011-06-29T08:55:00.001+01:00

Google + is a new social network from the Big G, hey didn't they have 'Buzz' for that? Google are obsessed with circles, they think that your family and your friends should never meet or be able to interact. So they have created a 'new' social network that will compartmentalise your followers and contacts.

If anything it is an indication that even mighty Google can't ignore The Social Network. The network that will eventually connect the world. And everyone that can afford the internet will be talking to each other, what a ghastly thought. It also gives credibility to the importance of social networking in the 'back' channels of mainstream media. Radio and TV shows should have social media connections that are as well-produced as the shows they represent.

They should run contemporaneously (bad radio word) with the show, look and feel the same as the show and most importantly say the same things as the show. So many of the social media and internet sites for Radio and TV look like cheap bolt ons looked after by the intern and that's frankly not good enough. Why the picture of a windmill? Go on you work it out?

Doggie Fashion

2011-06-26T19:46:00.000+01:00

You've got to treat people like dogs. Another one of those interesting chats at my health club. This from someone who is a team leader. Although it sounds like a quote from 'The Office' TV show, I think he is right. Anyone who has watched Cesar Millan will know that dogs like to be part of the pack, they like to know boundaries and like to be encouraged, much like people, we like to know we can trust our boss that they will encourage and reward our hard work.

"Peace, relaxation, trust, respect; that is my goal" That's what Cesar says about looking after your dog and again you could borrow that quote, albeit swap Peace and relaxtion for the word calm and you have the mantra of many of the business gurus of our age.

The radio station is very much a 'pack' it's a close-knit group of people, often working anti social hours in close proximity of each other. Within that pack there will be leaders, they should be assertive and create an environment where everybody knows their place but has the opportunity to succeed and improve. And there should be regular rewards, that doesn't just mean monetary.

So treat you really should treat your staff life dogs.

Love and Kisses

2011-06-25T04:06:00.002+01:00

The madness that was theatre critic Sheridan Morley. In a moving memoir of her husband his wife Ruth Leon is incredibly honest about the parlous state of affairs that Sheriden was in. I knew Ruth in the days when she was LBC's Theatre Critic. We both (Mr Lowrie and I) called Ruth 'Love and Kisses' an affectionate nickname for an affectionate lady who loved to hug and kiss you on arrival and departure.

We last saw Ruth at a theatre first night. She was accompanied by a sleeping Sheridan, this despite the fact he was still the Theatre critic of The Express. It was an open secret that Ruth was the engine that wrote his reviews. Another secret I share with you was that Ruth had an audio line to their home. (This was before ISDN) She would sometimes forget to switch the microphone off after interviews and we would often hear rows of such ferocity that I swear there were times that we feared for her safety.

Roger Lewis writing in the Mail describes as her as a saint, well she certainly had the patience of one to put up with the incredible Sheriden the man she loved and lost. But What Comes After by Ruth Leon is published by Constable Buy it on Amazon

Dino Time

2011-06-24T19:09:00.000+01:00

I have mostly been a dinosaur this week. Working on a series of radio features for Fun Kids and the Natural History Museum it's an epic production with two voice artists, Yannick male v/o and Alexander child v/o oh and plenty of sound effects. Trouble is nobody has ever heard a dinosaur and Mr Spielberg has kinda stolen the show.

You can actually buy the Spielberg effects, but I thought I would try some home-made ones. I have been crunching celery, slowing the recording down and altering the EQ and its sounding just like a 25 metre herbivore snacking.

Then I took some lion cub effects and slowed them down altered the pitch and got some very recognisable dinosaur effects - well actually they sounded just like the ones from Jurassic Park, funny that!

Fish'n'Chips

2011-06-22T12:38:00.004+01:00

We all love em' that's the view from my American colleagues with whom I am working with this week. I actually think curry is more popular, but it does remind me of a story about John Logie Baird, the pioneer of television, who developed 'mechanical' TV.' Imagine a thing like a circular saw with holes in and as it spun your persistence of vision fooled you into to seeing a number of scanned lines. In the end the BBC went with the superior GEC Marconi electronic method of TV.

But one of the things I like about John Logie Baird is he hated meetings, particularly those long worthy BBC meetings he had to attend in those early days of television. To break the monotony and to show his contempt he would bring fish'n'chips to the meetings, I guess heavily doused in vinegar they probably stank the whole place out.

I hate meetings too. I have attended quite a few worthy BBC meetings not to mention a gut full of power-point presentations from men in suits. Frankly I found my mind wandering from the boredom. So I am heartened to discover that there is a conference in September aimed at us short-attention span creatives'. Next Radio bills itself as a radio conference for radio people. A place to get inspired by new ideas, better still my favourite boss Matt Deegan is behind it along with James 'the future' Cridland so there will be plenty of fun. If you want to attend here is the link click here

Radio station puts staff in danger

2011-06-20T08:54:00.000+01:00

The reckless behaviour of one radio station is putting staff at danger. More than 100 staff were allowed on the roof of the building and allowed to stand around the transmitter mast. Being in such close proximity to the mast can be dangerous. A former colleague who once worked on a pirate radio ship told me he could walk along the ship with a florescent tube in his hand and it would light when you past the transmitter mast in the middle of the boat.

Further more the studio of this radio station is incorrectly wired I also noticed the jackfield in the control room had normalised connections connected to each other and the staff have clearly had no training in operating the equipment, I watched one presenter open up the sub mix 3/4 thinking she was fading some music up. And she was wearing her headphones (DT100s) round the wrong way!

It's not as if this radio station doesn't lack resources, they benefit from a massive government subsidy their parent company receiving £37 Billion pounds from the treasury recently. This probably explains the use of Neumann U87 microphones in the studio - expensively out of the reach for most radio stations.

I thought I might complain to OFCOM but I can find no listening for Radio Halifax so one presumes it can have no licence to broadcast and must be a pirate run by unscrupulous operators in it purely to make money and therefore should be shut down immediately.

Erectile Dysfuntion

2011-06-19T08:55:00.001+01:00

The day Sandi Toksvig got flashed at on a train. I dropped Sandi an email the other day pointing out that the Daily Mail described her as a 'highly offensive comedienne.' She replied that she thought the Daily Mail had afforded her their highest honour and felt very proud. This follows a quip she made during a recent Radio 4 News Quiz when she said 'It's the Tories who have put the 'n' into cuts." A joke that the fragrant Bel Mooney of the Mail described as 'scripted' but that I have heard Sandi use 'off the cuff' and against other political parties in power at the time.
Sandi is a mine of extraordinary stories, stuff is always happening to her. She told us once of trip she was taking to somewhere like Newcastle or some such similar ghastly northern enclave. She was on an almost empty train when suddenly the gentleman in front of her unziped his flies and got out his erect willy. Failing to attract Sandi with his appendage he shouted out at her. "Ere take a look at this darling."

It is important for you to know that Sandi is very short-sighted and she replied. "Hang on a moment I just need to put my glasses on, I think they are in my bag, could you hand it down to me?" With an astonished look the gentleman popped his now flaccid member back in his trousers and ran out of the carriage.

Truth and consequences

2011-06-17T17:47:00.001+01:00

Real life has a habit of biting you on the bum. I remember when I was a teenager working in a Petrol (Gas) Station and a guy came in to buy a car-wash token. I punched the amount into the till and gave him the token "That's 60p please." I said (Yes it was that long ago)
"60p!" He exclaimed. "Last time it was 50p, I'm not paying that."
"But I've put it through the till now." I said, he said he didn't care and threw the token back at me and walked toward the door. As he was leaving I muttered under my breath 'you bad tempered bastard.'

I have to say that I wasn't even aware of him walking back, but after he punched me in the face, knocked me clean off the stool I was sitting on, I realised he must have heard me. Well that was a consequence.

When you're in a cosy little radio studio, it's easy to forget the consequences of your actions. John Gaunt came a cropper in 2008 when he accused a local councillor of being a Nazi. There were consequences, he lost his job and today's High Court ruling over freedom of expression.

But there are times when the consequence comes knocking at your door. And here is a story I am still quite ashamed of. Some years ago on one of my many commutes home, somebody decided to throw themselves in front of a train at Shenfield railway station. In the event I wasn't much inconvenienced but all the same claimed a full hour delay, the voucher for £5 duly arrived and I thought nothing more of it.

Three weeks later taking calls on the Anna Raeburn Agony Aunt Show I answered a call from a Police Surgeon, he told me he wanted to speak to Anna and said although he was used to dealing with death he had found it impossible to come to terms with the recent death of his son who had somehow fallen in front of a train at Shenfield station three weeks ago. It was at that point he started to cry.

You can imagine how mean and small I felt, that my tribute to his dead son was to con £5 off the railway company. You see everything in life has consequences, just ask John Gaunt.

You couldn't make it up

2011-06-17T08:46:00.000+01:00

Unless you are the BBC Panorama show. I call it a 'show' because that's what it has become. The BBC are to apologise to Primark over 'faked' footage of child labour during an edition of Panorama three years ago. Since seeing that programme I stopped shopping in the store and now feel disappointed that the integrity of this programme and my trust has been compromised.

But Panorama is not alone in not always telling the 'absolute truth.' The minute you walk into an editing suite or sit down in front of Final Cut or on radio Audition or SADiE you are about to change the absolute truth.

We all want our work to stand out, sometimes the guest doesn't say just what we want them to or in the right order. So with a bit of judicial editing we can make them appear to be and say something they are not. Sure there are rules; the BBC Producers guide has pages of them. But who is going to know? What are the chances of anyone finding out?

I wonder just how many TV and radio shows have had their Panorama moment? Only they didn't get caught

From now on I don't think I will truly believe anything that the Panorama team broadcast. I am not sure I did anyway. Perhaps the show should be quietly led off to the knackers yard and put to rest.

The BBC waste money

2011-06-16T08:53:00.002+01:00

The astounding findings from a report into Radio 1 and 2 by former commercial radio executive John Myers. Here are my own thoughts. I think any big organisation 'wastes' money. More people, more infrastructure usually means more cost. Myer's report suggests that Radio 1 and 2 should share a management structure - sensible idea but then oddly he goes on to devalue the role of the Radio 1 and 2 Studio Managers and newsreaders.

He thinks that the Radio 2 presenters should all self-op, fine if you have the technical skills to do that, but a chunk of the Radio 2 output comes from what I would call non-radio people, the celebs and pop stars that present shows. Those celebs contribute to some of the best and worst of the output. (Barbara Windsor on Radio 2 bless her)

So to expect them to drive their own shows to save a few pennies, seems a bit ridiculous. He also got annoyed that all a Radio 2 newsreader does is read the news? Maybe they should do a bit of dusting between bulletins? Again you would save pennies by making them do other tasks.

There are better ways to trim the fat at the BBC I would start by taking a look at all those management offices oh and all the compliance people that, rather than protect the BBC have prevented Producers and Presenters make great radio. (Pic above: Babs learns that she has to back-time on split cans to the news whilst making live changes to Selector)

What makes a great radio commercial?

2011-06-15T09:52:00.000+01:00

There are a lot of crap radio ads, the ones where they shout at you, the ones that try and use humour (unsuccessfully) and the ones that irritate and bore you in equal measures.

So what makes a great radio ad. Martin Sims who is the Creative Director of Eardrum and former Creative Director of LBC Radio:

"For me, a good radio ad has to tick three boxes. One: engage or entertain the listener. Two: link it to the brand. Three: effectively communicate some sort of commercial message. If you tick all three of these boxes, then you're on to a winner. If you only tick two, then you'll generally have a very funny ad that's unrelated to the product or an ad that's very product-focused but as dull as dishwater to listen to.

"Creatives are getting more excited by radio. With reduced ad budgets and the proliferation of TV channels, creative teams are realising they can get noticed by doing two or three radio ads. It's an opportunity to shine."

(Originally from email comments in Campaign 2006)

Strip Tease

2011-06-14T17:44:00.000+01:00

Naked Radio? Well that's been done before and only really works if there is a webcam in the studio. No the strip I am talking about is the practice of stripping programmes at the same time. In radio this happens as a matter of necessity with the exception of well-resourced stations like Radio 4 who have a loyal audience who are attracted to the stations somewhat eclectic scheduling.

In Talk Format it is essential that shows are broadcast at the same time everyday and the weekend should also mirror this, albeit with a bit of tinkering at breakfast and in the evening to reflect listeners weekend lifestyle.

After the strip, the tease is probably the most important structure in radio. Telling your audience what you are about to do and when you are going to do it is paramount. Radio audiences do not like surprises they like the furniture to be in the same place, they like the regular features to be just that and they really hate it when a Presenter (host) dares to take a holiday (vacation)

In my next blog I will write about the secret of amassing untold wealth. Well that's a lie but it's a very good tease.

Why radio ? from David Tyler

2011-06-13T11:14:00.001+01:00

'Radio is a funny beast. Some get into it for the money and leave quickly when they realize there is no big pay day for the majority. Others get into it for the passion but are quickly drained of it because they don't fully understand the link between radio and their 'passion'. Yet others get into radio for all the 'free stuff'...but they usually have the least skill and are pushed out anyway.

Radio is an emotional medium. It's all about relationships...and requires a zeal for creating, building and maintaining relationships. (I'm talking about the intimate relationship between broadcaster and listener, not the off air political relationships of running a business, leave that to the managers)...

I got into radio to satisfy my selfish thirst for finding connection, a desire that I believe we all have, but that radio people have been able to turn into what we would call a broadcasting career.

If you're able to push out all of the distractions of 'doing radio' and focus on the intimate emotional aspect of relationship creating and building, you will flourish in it for as long as you choose to do radio.' David Tyler - David Tyler Communications Inc Canada

It's all about ME

2011-06-11T05:12:00.000+01:00

Human connection, that's what talk radio is all about. They will listen to issues that involve them. That's the view of Radio Consultant Valerie Geller. She also thinks humour plays a crucial role in that connection.

Me issues about health, money or stories that appeal to an emotion and that tell the truth. Whatever you do it should never be boring. Read more about Valerie Geller and her new book 'Beyond Powerful Radio.'

Social Media the future of radio?

2011-06-10T09:14:00.001+01:00

A Facebook page for a radio station why would we ever need that? This was the day I got into trouble when I created a Facebook page for my presenter and got her to mention it on air. By the end of the afternoon over 200 people had become friends, within a few weeks she had 1500 friends. This was less than 5 years ago and the first reaction from the management was that radio had nothing to do with social media, I am pleased to say they were wrong.

As broadcasters we have reached the next stage of social media and must now integrate it into our everyday programming. Jessica Davies from New Media Age thinks we could learn from the big brands who have discovered that social media is a great way to communicate with consumers. It also offers a two-way street where consumers can feel part of the brand. Read her article in New Media Age

And let's not forget the children "While children under age 10 still spend most of their media time watching television, they are increasingly being exposed to and growing more savvy at using a variety of digital channels. Kids are focused more on computers and mobile devices, engaging in an assortment of activities ranging from playing games and watching videos to social networking."

This follows a survey in the US by AVG that 70% of 6- to 9-year-olds are using children’s social networks. Read the whole article from eMarketer Mobile

Social Media, podcasting, having a website with streaming video and good visuals it's what your listeners now expect - are you giving them that?

JACK killed the radio star

2011-06-09T08:29:00.000+01:00

DJ's don't yer love em? Well it would seem quite a few of us do not want their prattle and endless diatribe of dribble and would rather hear the music. An interesting article in Radio Today thinks that stations like Jack FM are the future. So I had a quick listen. Apart from a live breakfast everything else pops out of the computer along with travel, news and other crafted local features together with blokey comedy that is shoe horned into the mix.

Jack has been a popular 'format' in the States and Canada, I say format because Jack isn't fussy about its music its a format that can fit any music format - if that makes any sense? It's more about the way they do things. Does the audience care that they are listening to a glorified jukebox? Well one guy loved the Oxford station so much he had their logo and frequency tattooed on his arm.

In the states there are few other stations that have given themselves a moniker, there is a Bob FM, a Dave (don't we have a TV station called Dave?) a Doug a Hank - who plays just country and finally a Sam. But where are all the girls? I think Caroline would be a great name for a station.. on second thoughts it would never catch on.

Rotten confession

2011-06-08T09:08:00.002+01:00

I did something really bad, it was a long time ago and this is #10confessions number 2. During the very early 1980s when I worked for Essex Radio there were just 18 commercial radio stations in the whole of the UK and every day the station was swamped with letters begging to get into radio. Well as a freelance this posed quite a threat to my livelihood BUT also as a freelance I was the first person to arrive in the office in the morning, just in time for the postman.

I think you have guessed the next bit, I opened the letters and tapes left a few but the majority I just pushed through the industrial shredder they had in the corner and threw the tape in the bin. If that was your letter I apologise it was a bad thing to do, kept my job though for three years.

The Wright Stuff

2011-06-07T20:24:00.000+01:00

A most embarrassing moment. I only lasted three weeks at Talk Sport, it was all a bit blokey for me. The rot set in when I arrived and found myself chatting away to a really nice guy in the newsroom. We were talking bath products, he always liked to take a bath or shower before coming into work.

He did look a bit familiar and I asked him what he did? He replied - I am Ian Wright I was a Premier League professional footballer mainly with Crystal Palace, and I co-present Drivetime with Adrian Durham. I was surprised I managed three weeks really.

Mneomic Plague

2011-06-06T08:22:00.002+01:00

A whole bunch of little acronym's to make great radio.

The first is NIT - nit is all about news BUT it can be applied to everything you do on the radio, whether you are a host, DJ or Journalist. When you decide whether to put a story in your bulletin or run a studio line in your show try Nit which stands for:

New - is this something that has just happened? Is this new information?

Interesting this is the tough bit of nit, is a story interesting to your listeners, does it apply to their geographical location? Does it appeal to their demographic? Is it interesting to them?

Finally and importantly is it True? And can you talk about it? That the story is not an active court case or might defame someone.

The second is Tell Em. Radio is the blind intimate medium you have to help your listener, guide them through a story or a promo. Tell you are going to tell em' - warn your listener that they are about to hear something of interest. Tell them - tell the story and finally Tell em again - recap on the story.

Kiss is whatever you do on radio Keep It Simple Stupid. Complex stuff, promos or lots of numbers or rules just fall flat on their arse (ass) so keep the ideas simple, one at a time and clear and easy but compelling.

Aida is a way of writing promos and to some extent bully pieces. Aida stands for A - attention = "win a holiday" I - Interest = "In the Caribbean." D - Desire = "The golden sand, azure blue sky." A - action = "Call us now on 12345." You can use this structure to fashion promos, trails and bulletins.

Secret of great radio

2011-06-01T07:18:00.000+01:00

Is easy, just stick with it. Working with Doug Urbanski the other week I got a real insight on how US radio functions. It's a billion dollar business. So the big question, what makes a great talk radio show? His answer was simple, just stick with it, and do it year after year after year.

He told me of a talk show on WOR 710 a station in New York that began in 1928 and when the host eventually died he was replaced by his son. The reason? The show did well and generations of New Yorkers had listened the host and then his son were part of the family.

There is a strong and quite intimate bond between listener and host in the talk format far more than some of the other music format stations. I guess that's because after a while you get learn about a presenter, their likes, dislikes and yes they do become part of the family.

A right-wing slut

2011-05-27T11:18:00.000+01:00

How far can you go? Great radio goes to the boundary but should never cross it. But how do you know when you have pushed that little bit too far? Mmmm I am not too sure. I have a kind of answer in it mostly comes from that kind of gut feeling that maybe we should not have said that on air.

Liberal Talk Show host Ed Shultz might be trying too hard to out shock-jock Rush Limbaugh and his like, as he decided to describe conservative radio host Laura Ingraham as a slut. Now the meaning of the word slut is prostitute and in the UK that would be classed as a vulgarism and when used personally against someone it would be considered defamatory and likely to get a radio station in more hot water than a simple let-slipped f word.

MSNBC who syndicate the show have removed Shultz for one week without pay and he has made copious apologies on TV, radio and social media. I dislike purely personal attacks. Be as rude as you like about policy and the things people do in their public life but make an attack at a private level and that is quite wrong.

You still should travel up to that border, make compelling radio and always run away from the bland 'BBC local radio drivel' the populates much of the talk shows here in the UK.

The Show Must Go On

2011-05-25T11:56:00.001+01:00

From a dose of the squirts to projectile vomiting the show went on. It's one of those things about our business that being ill does not always fit in with your on air schedule. It is time I heaped praise upon some of my past Host's who carried on in the face of adversity.

The first in my sick hall of fame must be Pete Murray who about 15 minutes before his show was violently sick in the loo and came out a nasty shade of green, noticeable because Pete always had a perma-tan completion. He thought he had a bad case of food poisoning and went into a great deal of detail about his bowel movements and how many times sick he had been. I suggested that he go home. "It's too late and I am not going to let you all down." he said. Armed with a Tesco carrier bag to be sick in and instructions to all staff to keep the nearest loo free, Pete carried on broadcasting.

The second distinguished member who was actually a guest on a recorded show, arrived looking a little green around the gills. It was a book interview with Host Therese Birch and she sat the guest down in the studio, the red light on and the tape rolling she asked her first question. "What gave you the inspiration to write the book?" With that the guest jumped up put his hand over his mouth and ran out of the studio.

Unfortunately for the newsroom that's as far as he got and he was very ill into the waste paper basket next to the IRN Editor who turned to the guest and exclaimed "Jesus, what kind of a grilling is she giving you in there?"

A quick admission of my own self-inflicted illness, after spending most of the previous night celebrating a major sponsor signing, I was very unwell the next day. As the Producer and Studio Producer I had to produce the days show in question and drive the desk (panel) As the one o'clock news approached I knew I could choose to be ill in the studio or in the toilet just behind it, I chose the latter and managed to hang on to the news.

Unfortunately the news was only three minutes long and I was rather unwell for about four minutes, when I returned I had missed the op and the news had finished and there was an eery silence in the control room, broken only by the Host screaming on the talkback, 'we're off the air, we're off the air!'

Finally Sandi Toksvig at a live OB (Remote) from the BT Tower in London. She spent most of the show running up the little flight of stairs at the top of the tower that led to the loo. Despite having a really unpleasant attack of the runs she carried on in front of a live studio audience and nobody except the production team knew the difference. Well as they say the show must go on.

The end is not nigh

2011-05-24T09:18:00.001+01:00

Family Radio wins this weeks best publicity for a radio station. Harold Camping the Preacher who predicted the end of the world last weekend is also a Host on Family Radio in the US - their logo and banners are plastered all over the British papers and post-rapture they are still very much on the air with I guess a much bigger audience.

If you were cynical you would be forgiven for thinking that this was all just a great big publicity stunt. But up until the 21st May (End of the World Day) Family Radio had on their website:

'Blow the trumpet ...warn the people.' Ezekiel 33.3 - Judgement Day May 21st 2011 - The Bible Guarantees It. - Was it just another useless guarantee not worth the paper it was printed on? Not at all it appears that there was something in the small print that means the actual end of the world will happen October 21st when to quote Harold Camping:

"The great earthquake and rapture and the universe melting in fervent heat will be happening on the last day - October 21st 2011."

When critics asked Cecil B DeMille why he was making a film about the Bible? (The Ten Commandments) He replied - "Why should I let 2000 years of publicity go to waste." ..well that Biblical marketing machine continues to roll .. or at least until October 21st.

Moderate Conservative

2011-05-23T15:47:00.001+01:00

Can the right ever be left leaning and successful? Across the political world stage we have seen the far right suffer quite substantially as voters shy away from their doctrine. I have always been a wishy washy liberal content to sit on the fence and I never could understand why the colour of a persons skin changes them inside?

Let's jump to 2012 our American cousins face a Presidential election, much of the world has hailed the current incumbent as a hero after Bin Laden's death, so already the Republican party has a tough job on its hands finding a possible candidate.

Working last week with Doug Urbanski the host of a coast-to-coast US talk radio show my knowledge of American politics was dramatically increased. He was discussing possible contenders for the Republican candidacy - I was taking a look at some of the hopefuls, most of them are as telegenic as The Addams Family and on a world stage would seem extreme and out of touch with 21st century international politics.

One guy I did quite the look of was John Huntsman Jr he is, rather oddly, Obama's recent envoy to China, the guy speaks fluent Mandarin and lived at one time in Taiwan. As a Republican he covers his brush with the Democratic leader with an 'anyone would be proud to serve their country and President' - I am not sure that will wash with the staunch right of the party? He is also a Mormon with family lineage that leads back to the founding of that religion. But to me, he looked the best of the bunch. I wonder if we will hear more from Mr Huntsman as the race begins?

Old Blue Eyes

2011-05-20T18:07:00.000+01:00

Maggie Thatcher had steely blue eyes, a stare toward you and you'd poop your pants with fear. She had incredible presence for a slight woman of not very great height. I met her only once. It was whilst I was at work, she came round to see us all, she spoke to my presenter but decided to ignore me with a forceful turn away when I came close to her.

So it was interesting to hear about a warm and cuddly side of Maggie. I have been Studio Producing The Doug Urbanski Show for Westwood One here in the UK. I have to say Washington were doing all the real hard work, with his Producer John sending me plenty of background to print for Doug.

It would seem that Doug was an old pal of Maggie. He had run into her whilst a Theatre Director in the west end. "No no." he said "You've got Maggie all wrong she was fun and a great person." He went on to tell me he did once have cause for concern. It was at the time she was moving into a new house having lost her Prime Ministerial one. She had been out looking at washing machines to buy and told Doug "I had no idea how expensive they were?"

Some years ago one of the national newspapers spent a jolly afternoon calling MP's and asking them if they knew how much a loaf of bread cost? Of course most have them had no idea.

It does make you wonder if the current malaise and disinterest we have in politicians is because they are out of touch with the needs and aspirations of the people they are supposed to represent. OMG I am sounding like a right-wing Talk Show host - and that would never do!

In The Mood

2011-05-18T17:15:00.001+01:00

Music is the key to a great talk show. Well what a bizarre thing to say? Here is an answer for you. When I worked with Sandi Toksvig we would often play the odd tune, maybe enjoy a slice of cake and a jolly good cup of tea during the daily programme meeting. It set the tone and helped the direction of the show.

I am working with a talk show host this week who does much the same thing, right now he's listening to Dinah Washington and that was followed by a bit of Buddy Holly, obviously not the bit they found to identify him after that terrible plane crash.

My Host says it sets the mood and tone for him and gets him in the zone. This is the second blog I have written in the last couple of days about show prep, but it is such an important thing and a badly prepared programme can rail-road a whole show.

Glenda Jackson nearly made me gay

2011-05-17T10:51:00.000+01:00

It was her pendulous breasts swinging around in Ken Russell's 'Women In Love' that nearly did it, not a pleasant sight and they seemed uncommonly large. Thank goodness the revolting wrestling scene with Alan Bates and Oliver Bates brought me back to reality with a thud.

So it was with trepidation that I invited Glenda onto a radio show quite a few years ago now. She had just got herself into politics at that time. I do remember that we had one of those smart make yourself a coffee machines in the green area and I said she could help herself, with that she picked up a plastic cup and offered it to me and said 'I don't make my own coffee, you do it, there's a dear.'

And as for her breasts well in real life they were quite inoffensive, I still would not have wanted her to whip them out, as she did in that film. Funny how childhood memories stay to haunt you through your life.

In The Zone

2011-05-16T17:59:00.000+01:00

Save it for the stage is a famous theatrical expression, I have worked with a lot of hosts that are pretty quiet almost morose before the show, some it's true like to have a jolly chat but all spend time getting in the zone, preparing for their show. It's important to give your presenter a bit of space. Feed them ideas but do not labour the point and most importantly find out what they want to talk about? What interests them?

There will be times when your host will flatly say 'I do not want to talk about that, I have no interest in this story.' There are two ways to deal with this, firstly if you think the subject should be covered or there are sponsor commitments then as our American cousins would say, you need to talk them round. Find some commonalty something that can link the subject with their personal life usually works best. Secondly if they really do not want to do the subject do not force them to do it.

I have forced subjects upon past presenters and they tend to behave like the petulant child, sulk and make a point of doing the topic badly. But the most important thing is to make sure the energy levels are there for the on air performance.

30 Years in the making

2011-05-10T18:00:00.002+01:00

It took me 30 years to get to attend The Sony Radio Awards - handy that they were also celebrating their 30th anniversary in the business. I still have a clear memory of the day I walked into Essex Radio in October 1981 as an enthusiastic 20 year-old kid. Have I lost any of that enthusiasm? Not a bit of it and I was proud to be part of the Fun Kids team last night winning a Sony Gold for Digital Station of the Year. Right back to work I have a mountain of audio to edit before bedtime and I need to find just the right kind of flushing toilet for a feature about Italy. Ciao Visit their website www.funkidslive.com

Under The Influence

2011-05-05T15:19:00.001+01:00

Or don't trust your audience. Ask yourself a question are the listeners that phone in, text, tweet and email, - your audience? If you answered yes I am afraid you're a bit wrong, not totally but you really haven't grasped just what phone-in shows are all about.

The kind of engaged listener who calls or uses social media to contribute to the show is an active member of your audience, in percentage terms about 10% of a Talkback radio format station audience will fall into this category which means a massive 90% are passive - content to listen to Dora from Penge who thinks she's just met Elvis serving behind the till at her local Londis store.

It is important that you don't, for want of a better saying, let the lunatics take over the asylum. You are falling into a deadly trap if you just pick topics and produce material that will appeal to the active 10% of your audience. By all means tempt them to call with a juicy little morsel that will make them call, but never think that tiny majority are actually all that are listening.

Socially Dead

2011-05-02T09:13:00.002+01:00

So Bin Laden had no phone or internet connection at his 'retreat' at Abbottabad? If he had Twitter he would have known within a few seconds that something was up. An IT expert living nearby Tweeted within moments of the US troops storming the compound:

@ReallyVirtual Sohaib Athar

A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S.

Apocryphal words as it probably will be the start of something nasty if there are reprisals for Bin Laden's death. This has definitely been a social media news story. We were woken up at just after 4am this morning London time with the SKY major news alarm text.

When I checked Google news at 04.15am just a handful of stories were appearing about Osama Bin Laden's death, but by 8am there were over thirteen thousand, Facebook pages had been set-up by Americans gloating over the death, Twitter was on meltdown and the printed versions of the newspapers - well they went to press too late for the story to break here.

Radio was doing a great job and my dear friend Steve Allen who usually presents a jovial mix of showbiz news and gossip had returned to his LBC news journalist roots and was presenting an informed show with some very interesting guests.

And will this be the start of something nasty? - I think we all hope not, Al-Qaeda's threat of a nuclear bomb in Europe if Bin Laden was killed should be taken very seriously by all of us.

Escape for Colditz

2011-05-01T09:44:00.002+01:00

Great radio starts with great stories. We all have memories and experiences that can be used to make great radio, they can be personal rather than private* glimpses that an audience can empathise with.
Here is a true story from my childhood:

It was a warm spring day and I was out playing in the garden when something caught my eye, it was a small bird hopping about amongst my dads rose bushes. As I approached it made no attempt to fly away, when I was closer I could see that the poor little bird was bedraggled - it was clear that a cat or something similar had mauled it.

I decided to rescue this poor baby blackbird and borrowed our next door neighbours old budgie cage and carefully cupped my hand round the little bird and put it in the cage. But what to feed it? Well when I looked up in the encyclopaedia I was horrified to discover that it preferred to eat live grubs and the like. We decided to call the bird Colditz, the show about the prison was on TV at the time and my mum said that he will make a bid for freedom at the earliest opportunity.

So each day we would forage around the garden to find live bugs for 'Colditz' to eat, I, using a pair of tweezers fed him wriggling grubs and within a few days he was fluttering around the cage.

I decided to let him out into the front room and he flew around the room rather awkwardly finally landing on top of my head - he then let me put him back in the cage. He seemed to feel safe when he was perched on my head and a few more days later and he was well enough to be set free.

The whole family gathered in the garden and I opened the budgie cage door and Colditz hopped out, took a look around and then flew off into the distance and that, we thought would be the last we would see of him. But a minute later he swooped down from nowhere and promptly landed on my head, pecked at my hair and then finally took off leaving us forever.

*Valerie Gellerism.

Wanna be in my gang?

2011-04-19T09:12:00.000+01:00

Gary Glitter and me. Was it right for Glee to do their own version of Glitter's Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) particularly as he receives royalties for the performance? It reminds me of a period of time when Michael Jackson's music suddenly disappeared from the playlists of radio stations all over the world. This was during the allegations of child abuse against him. And then suddenly as if by magic - well er his sudden death - every radio station in the world was belting out Billy Jean 24 hours a day.

I have an admission, many years ago we had Gary Glitter in as a guest on a radio show I was producing, he was charming, witty and engaging, he signed his CD and it's somewhere here at home, I wonder if its worth anything on ebay now, thanks to Glee?

I have a dream

2011-04-13T10:12:00.000+01:00

My dream radio - could it be the future? Had a strange dream last night (too much Costa Coffee at University I guess) I had invented the perfect radio I called it RiVo. It had good old FM on it but linked into Radio DNS it had DAB and DAB+ it was clever and could do software updates and receive HD radio it could also pick up streaming from its built in wireless, and record downloads to play later and make suggestions about what you might like to hear (Like TiVo which was also on my mind yesterday)

The clever bit was that it could talk to other similar radio devices. So the car radio when it was parked outside the house picking up our wireless network could talk to the kitchen radio, they could share information and the kitchen radio could send downloads and info to the car radio. Brilliant - now all I need to do is to turn the dream in reality.

April Fool

2011-04-03T14:05:00.001+01:00

The BBC and Commercial radio have got together and launched a widget that can find your favourite radio station on a PC or MAC. Launched on 1st April it must be an April fool, the BBC and Commercial radio have never worked together before? But a miracle happened and the UK Radio Player isn't an April Fool, it will be a one-stop place to find radion and on demand content.

It's not perfect - searching for the station I have been working for - 'Fun Kids' there is, as yet, no entry in the search or browse. It also needs an app for mobile phone and a way of using it on Virgin Media and Sky and on a PS3 but it is a very good start.

Now all the industry has to do is persuade car manufacturers to follow Ford's lead and fit DAB radios as standard into their cars ....!

The revolting working class

2011-03-28T10:07:00.000+01:00

A night of riots, fire-bombs and Myleene Klass. Had a very strange surreal evening working for Classic FM this weekend. It started in total darkness. As a respect to the disaster in Japan the Capital Radio Building was plunged into darkness (at least the front of the building was) and I had to fumble my way into the place with the reception lit by a torch.

I was Studio Producing Myleene Klass who had recorded her programme in anticipation of the arrival of her new baby son. (Hero, who was born on Friday afternoon) About an hour into the show I started to smell burning coming through the air-conditioning. Best I thought to visit the LBC studios next door see if they can also smell the burning. In their studio I looked into the street through the window and I had my answer to the burning smell - the street below was on fire.

Several Suffragettes (As the Labour leader has described them) had liberated a large bin which was on fire and further down the road by The National Gallery the plastic barriers had also been set on fire. Just below us there was the distant sound of breaking glass as some more apartheid freedom fighters (As the Labour leader described them) smashed the front window of Barclays bank.

Suddenly the road was awash with Police and their vans and the protesters ran into Trafalgar Square - I went back to Myleene. I returned a few hours later about 3-4 am in the morning - looking out on the street it was being swept clean, the police and protesters had just disappeared.

Leaving the building in the early morning though I had to pick my way through an amazing amount of vomit and lakes of pee, Barclays Bank had been remodelled and the ATM machines were smashed and the window of the bank broken, other smaller shops had also had some of their windows broken. In Soho I was told, protesters had, appropriately, broken the window of Anne Summers and a drunken reveller was standing at the smashed open window shouting 'Free dildo's for everyone.' - Oh well just another night of relaxing classic's with Classic FM.

Let It Snow

2011-03-22T19:42:00.002Z

Jon Snow one of our greatest journalists. Watching the intimate video diary of his experiences in Japan over the weekend I thought he did an excellent job at telling the story of a disaster that continues to grow and unfold in Japan.

It's been hard to tell this story, the enormity of the situation, the distance, cultural differences and finally language barrier make it even more complex.

I thought his economy of words and the footage of the ITN crew just riding around the streets and trying to do their job was a terrific insight into the way a news crew should handle such a story.

Having helped Jon with some of his charity work in the past, I can tell you he is a very decent person and a proper journalist. If you are thinking of embarking on a career in the media you couldn't go far wrong by emulating the Jon Snow way of working.

DAB is on the move

2011-03-17T11:41:00.000Z

Ford are going DABtastic. They are moving forward their plans to make DAB radio standard in all their cars. From Radio Today with RCS:

The Focus will get digital radio straight away, with the rest of the range coming joining within the next 18 months.

It is a looming issue, and we want to be well placed,' Ford of Great Britain managing director Nigel Sharp told WhatCar?. 'The fact is that the Focus's radio is future-proofed now, whereas those in our competitors' cars aren't.

'The plan is to extend that across every Ford model in the next 18 months or so. There are technical issues to overcome because, for instance, traffic alerts are broadcast only in FM at the moment, but we are confident we can achieve our goal.'

A Tsunami of news

2011-03-15T09:50:00.003Z

How do you tell the tragic story unfolding in Japan? Do you rush your top newscasters to the scene and plonk them in front of the twisted metal of smashed lorries and cars and then get them to live link the news from the epicentre? Or do you rely on fancy technology to show maps spinning in and out and little nuclear warning signs the pop up across the screen?

I don't like either option, both seem to trivialise the enormity of pain and suffering that the Japanese people are experiencing. What I do like, if that is the right choice of words, are the small stories of human endeavour that the Japanese TV station NHK News have been sending out to the world. They have good reporters on the ground, that can speak the language and understand the culture.

It's those little stories of mothers who have lost their children, the factory owner who is more worried about his missing workforce than his missing factory. This is the real story of this disaster not BBC newsreaders in Armani suits or fancy technology.

And if you want to hear exact details albeit again from NHK which is a state broadcaster you could listen to their English Radio news click here for RSS link for iTunes. Listen to the short Audio Boo on http://thecreativeradiopartnership.blogspot.com as a radio reporter from NHK gets caught up in the disaster.

You Muppet

2011-03-08T17:07:00.000Z

Her Ladyship was just 4 foot tall and smelled bad. I have to say it was an honour to meet Lady Penelope, and actually I thought she would be much smaller in real life. Her faithful butler Parker was looking the worse for wear with his mouth half open in a drunken scowl. We were told that the mechanism that made his mouth move was leather and the leather had rotted, poor old Parker.

As a child I was in awe of Thunderbirds, most childrens programmes in the late sixties had, shall we say, compromised production values and were shoddily put together, but these shows were different. Fast forward to last week when I caught the programme again on the TV and I was amazed just how good the show stood up against the world of HD and CGI.

Radio shows are a different matter, there are no sets, lights or cameras and it's easy to produce quite a shoddy show and get away with it. I have done my share of truly awful shows, but equally I have put time effort and love into other shows and they shine out and I can remember them well.

It's worth putting a little extra in everything you do as a Producer, take the time to look the fact up, make the Production a lot better by finding just the right sound effect. Read the book that the book guest has written. Take the time to get the edit right. One day you will look back and realise that they were your best shows, you might also be quite annoyed that you never kept copies of them, but then radio is the ethereal medium.

Sex and Angela Rippon

2011-03-02T09:26:00.002Z

Sex with Angela Rippon. She claims that viewers don't care about sex or age when it comes to presenters. I love Angela and worked with her for quite a few years at LBC, we had a fantastic nickname for her which I just can't tell you, apart from it had the initials T.T. But is she right, do we like to see beautiful people on TV? Does age work for or against you in TV and radio?

I think she is probably wrong, men like to see boobs and women beefcake and thus it always was. I still admire her not worrying about make-up in her latest TV foray. I would personally describe her as a tough old bird with a heart of gold. I remember walking down a side road in Nottinghill one day, years after Angela had left LBC and there was a screech of brakes beside me and it was Angela waving out of the window. "How are you?" She said. "I've just been playing tennis and I won." Yes Angela you are a winner and my favourite quote form you in today's piece in the Telegraph:

“It may sound like a morbid thing to say but I’m 66 – I don’t know how many years I have left. My father, who was a Royal Marine, was a huge influence on me. He always said, ‘I never want to die with the words “if only” on my lips.’” - Go for it Angela I hope to follow on in your shadow.

Press here for freedom?

2011-03-01T10:46:00.002Z

China has tightened its control on the foreign journalist. Banning them from a shopping centre in Beijing that was mentioned in a blog about peaceful protests. The interesting thing for the ruling Chinese Communist Party to comprehend is just who is a journalist these days?

In times past you could always spot a journalist, they were lugging a great big tape recorder or had a camera crew with them or were desperate to find a working phone booth to file their story back to the newspaper.

Now everyone with a smart phone is a journalist. With a phone you can take high res photos, HD movies, record good quality sound and be a first hand witness to any event however momentous however banal. You do not need a phone booth just an internet connection to file a story. I think that the Chinese authorities will face the same inability to 'control' the media, as Hosni Mubarak or Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Why? Because everybody is carrying the 'media' around in their pocket right now.

Twiggy was So Good

2011-02-25T08:58:00.002Z

Twiggy who still is the face of fashion although now for Marks and Spencer, ( I think that was a brilliant coup for the store as she is the perfect choice for their brand,) came into the studio - some years ago. Before she got her deal with M&S, she was promoting 'So Good' a soya alternative to milk.

It's interesting that most people of her celebrity standing would have an entourage around her, not Twiggy, she came down to the studio on her own lugging a great big cool box of the soya milk in one hand and in the other she had a copy of the Daily Mirror.

Like the professional she is, she had also turned up a good 30 minutes before her interview, so she plonked herself down beside me and after telling me I could keep the cool box, (which we still have, I lugged it back on the tube minus the soya milk) she started flicking through the Mirror. It was then that she began talking about some of the stories in the paper, she spoke in a most cogent way about her take on the news. I was really impressed, so when I heard a few months later she had been picked to co-present 'This Morning' the ITV daytime show I thought she would be really rather good at it.

Turned out I was wrong. I caught an episode of the show and it was a total car crash. I don't know why,? Maybe Twiggy wasn't comfortable about the mechanics of actually presenting live TV it might have been just too much for her?

Getting celebs to present radio or TV shows is often, in my experience, a big mistake. Great guests and celebrities don't always make the transition to being great presenters. So if you are a PD thinking about getting a celeb in ...maybe do a few 'dry runs' first just to see if they have the skills to do the job.

Let's Go Outside

2011-02-23T08:01:00.001Z

We've done it on a plane, in someones garden and up the BT Tower. There's nothing like a good OB or 'remote' as our American cousins like to call them. Trouble is most of them sound rubbish on the radio. True they are a great wheeze for all the staff involved. you usually get some expenses for lunch and you get out of the studio, but mostly OB's on the radio are crap listening.

In commercial radio most OB's are client led, that is to say a big spending advertiser says why don't you come along down to our car showroom and broadcast your show from there? And you are obliged to say yes and frantically think of some weak editorial reason why you might be there. The result? Pretty poor radio.

"Your" BBC Local will have a different agenda.. for instance it's national library week, let's broadcast from the local library. Excuse me while a have a short snooze - and yes you've guessed it three hours of turgid broadcasting with the local librarian - kill me now!

So my advice to the OB brigade is to stay at home and make better radio, just because you have a radio car or an ISDN link to the Town Hall, doesn't mean you should use it.

Oh and the broadcast from a plane - that was Chris from the cockpit of a Virgin Atlantic 747 (Pre 9/11) flying over Greenland - we still have the tape - great technical achievement - rubbish radio.

Britons are revolting

2011-02-12T05:17:00.000Z

Britons are revolting, well actually they aren't. It took me years to work out why we never had the kind of revolution that happened in France or even Egypt, the simple fact is that our weather just isn't good enough. You can imagine the down trodden surfs having a town meeting. "Right lads everyone in the street, we're not standing for this." Then someone from the back of the crowd shouts out "But it's still raining and rather chilly for the time of year don't you thin?" Everyone nods their heads in agreement and the revolution is put off to a week next Tuesday when the weather might improve.

This week we have witnessed another 21st century uprising. A regime change heralded, to begin with, by Twitter and Facebook where everyone becomes a journalist and dictators can no longer use Orwellian censorship to keep the masses in the dark about the truth. It's an event that has caught even the US on the back foot and will be an interesting topic of debate for many weeks to come as we see who will be the winners and losers of the removal of Mubarak.

Finally back to revolting Britons and I would like to thank the delightful British woman in the town last night, here in Samui for being so drunk at 7pm in the evening she fell into the road and lay in her own vomit as the motorbikes and cars drove round her. I guessed her age to be about 65-70 truly a revolting Great Briton.

Ghost in the machine

2011-02-04T09:27:00.002Z

I saw a ghost yesterday. It was a ghost from the past but I could touch it, see it and even smell it? Way back in 1981 I joined a brand new spanking radio station in Southend called Essex Radio. They had just spent 1.2 million pounds on a fantastic set of studios in a building they called 'Radio House' The studios were built two floors underground in what had been the printing press room of the local paper.

Well I left the station in 1984 to join LBC and have been back once since in 1988, but yesterday I returned to those old studios, now owned by Yellow Media. I suppose its like going back to your old school, first of all everything seemed a lot smaller than I remembered. But to my astonishment and a testament to the superb engineering skills of Essex Radio's Chief Engineer - Andy Gemmell-Smith the place is pretty much how I left it.

OK the studios had been refurbed by GWR when they owned Essex, but they still had the original second generation of mixing desks in the studio and they were laid out in the same configuration as the original studios of 1981and the racks room was exactly the same with the same equipment. Even the studio speakers were the original Tannoy Super Red 10B's!

A new DAB radio station starts broadcasting from the studios in a few weeks time Chance Radio and it will be great to see live programming come once again from those fantastic studios in the heart of Southend-on-Sea. (Picture above Chance Studio - old Essex CR2 studio with Eela Audio desks and BCX playout.) They are streaming now click here to listen.

The Day I Nearly Died

2011-02-02T11:31:00.000Z

I nearly died at the weekend, well almost because I had man Flu, the worst kind where you ache all over and feel very sorry for yourself. I was so ill I spent two days in bed, I couldn't be bothered to watch TV so had the radio on instead. Mostly Radio 7 that treasure trove of sometimes superb sometimes a little bit, er, crap programming from the BBC archives.

I also listened to Radio 4 that cosy middle-class radio station where the listeners cling on to it like a child to a comfort blanket. I remember falling asleep to some pretentious rubbish about something or other chaired by a very well-spoken BBC woman and her Chelsea or possibly Notting Hill clique. I woke up though to The Food Programme which was all about the future of the Irish food industry.

This was a superb programme, robustly presented with excellent contributors, proper and sparse use of music and effects, when the effects were there somebody was explaining what we were hearing - oh joy. Also the narrative drove the piece, it flowed effortlessly from one topic to another.

Also I heard the most amazing use of audio. The reporter talking to a farmer about his farm allowed the farmer to answer the question and then as the farmer drifted off topic, he took a fade and ran a voice over with the farmer still blabbing in the distance and then stopped his VO at the point where the farmer became interesting again. We were always told never to mix vocal with vocal but on this occasion it worked really well. So well done Radio 4 you are the best resourced station in the world and sometimes you produce the best programmes too.

The cold shoulder

2011-02-01T09:42:00.001Z

I hate cold calls, whether on the phone or at the door I am not going to buy from them on principle. I had a call last night from 3 network, usually I just tell them I am not interested thanks and hang up. This guy had such an attitude though. What annoyed me first was his disinterest in getting my name right, when I told him that the number was registered with the Telephone Preference Service he said, doesn't matter we've got all your details and proceeded to tell me my full name, address and birth date, "see I am right, aren't I." and when I said "It doesn't matter how much you know about me I don't buy from cold callers." he replied "Me cold, 'mate, I'm boiling." I then cut the call.

For some reason he really annoyed me, I didn't want to change phone companies and I didn't like his irritating attitude, he reminded me of the spot ads that you have put up with on commercial radio. They rarely have any relevance and are often irritating. The old argument that without them commercial radio radio wouldn't exist is running a bit thin. There are better ways to monetise your station than throwing a handful of shouting morons at us.

Sponsorship and in February the new rules of product placement begin which should allow operators to have a much closer relationship with their advertisers and offer subtle ways of getting that message over within a more relevant environment.

Back to 3 network, well I was so annoyed with that guy that I thought about contacting the phone company, I did an internet search and hit their website for info. Of course now all my banner ads and side bars are full of ads for the 3 network - so that's turned me even more against what is probably a good phone company with some very badly trained staff.

The diary of a somebody

2011-01-27T15:12:00.001Z

Be interested in everything (Linda Gage 1947-1995) When I was about eight years I had a voracious appetite for reading. At the library I remember picking up a book about someones diary and thought this would be fun to read. The girl who wrote it called her diary 'Kitty' and in my mind she was quite a precocious little madam.

For some reason I did not understand, she and her family had to hide away from some people I thought were called 'The Nasties ' then as I continued to read, it dawned on me that this was a 'real' story. I was really enjoying her adventures in the little attic rooms of Amersterdam, looking forward to the end of the tale, as I knew from reading other books, that it always ended with the hero escaping or the children getting home just in time for tea.

When I got to the end I remember reading the final paragraph at least twice before it dawned on me what happened to the little girl who called her diary 'Kitty' This was the ultimate consequence of vilifying a whole religion or race because of the actions of a few. A little girl died because she happened to be born Jewish. As humans we love to group people together and give them a label, forgetting that those people are all individuals. Today is National Holocaust Day a day to remember the little girl and her diary called 'Kitty.'

Embarassing Mistakes

2011-01-27T09:12:00.001Z

A tale of an embarrassing encounter with an ITN News reader. When I worked for ITN we had the most marvelous canteen, it is where the Channel 4 News comes from now. There was, everyday, freshly made sandwiches with at least three different types of roast, three main meals a vegetarian option, salads and a pudding area that would include things like spotted dick and treacle tart .. and all subsidised.

In the morning they served breakfast, from fruit salad to the full English everything was available. You had to make your own toast though, with one of those machines you get in hotels. Well the machine was always breaking down, and on this particular day I was getting toast for the whole breakfast team, so I was annoyed to see it was broken.

Luckily someone from the kitchen was standing by the machine, I remember saying to him. "What's wrong with it now?" He replied "I think it must be the motor as it's heating up but the chain drive isn't going round." I said "Well its about time someone fixed it, isn't it?" I glared at him and he gave me an odd look back.

It wasn't until a few days later that I saw the guy from the canteen again, this time reading the ITV morning news - it was Phil Gayle. I had assumed, by the colour of his skin that he was a canteen worker, at that time in the nineties the only ethnic faces around at ITN were cleaners or canteen workers, things have changed for the better. He must have thought I was a complete idiot speaking to him like that, well I was an idiot for assuming something that wasn't true.

That was a good practical lesson for me in journalism - that you shouldn't assume something to be true. For instance maybe the police have arrested someone for murder who seems a little odd, never married and was an interfering landlord. It doesn't give you the right to name him, prejudice a case and prevent the justice system from doing its job properly.

Hard on Soft Power

2011-01-26T11:21:00.000Z

It's not the BBC but it is the BBC but it will be the BBC in 2014. The World Service which is paid for by the Foreign Office will see more than 600 jobs go together with cuts in programmes. This has to be a sad day for British Broadcasting. Many peoples across the world have seen the 'BBC' as a trusted source of news, it is great cultural export for the country and has a value far beyond the walls of Bush House.

You can hear the BBC World Service on DAB in the UK I suggest you give it a listen, right now as I listen my good friend, colleague and neighbour (he lives a few doors down from us) is reading the news, I fear for his job and the impact it will have on his wife and teenage daughter if that happens.

Last year I was tutoring someone from the Chinese version of our world service. They are busy expanding their network, they must also realise what a powerful relationship listeners have with their radio, and how much listeners trust what comes out of their radio, far more so than TV. That trust is often called soft power and our government have gone stupidly hard on that soft power.

Don't drink and drive

2011-01-25T09:17:00.000Z

Peter Stringfellow to whom the Daily Mail describes as a Lothario is very good company, I think? Some years ago we invited him to do a series of shows on LBC. I was the studio producer and he would turn up with a collection of beautiful people (female and male) and five bottles of Bollinger Champagne, well I can certainly remember the first half hour of the show but after that it all gets a bit hazy.

The truth was we all, including the Producer, got completely smashed. I think it was during one of those happy but hazy programmes it was decided we should do the show live from 'Limelight' - then a cutting edge nightclub in London.

It was one of the most bizarre OB's I have ever attended. At the club there were the usual beautiful people interspersed with really quite elderly LBC listeners. For some reason we broadcast the actual show away from the nightclub area in the back of the building, which was an old Church.

We also had a bevvy of celebs, a man with a giant python and Sinitta who my senior manager here at home managed to tip into her lap a whole pint of beer. Happy if slightly weird times.

Speech Therapy

2011-01-24T09:38:00.000Z

I was coaching a celeb voice over a few days ago. He was very unsure about how to read scripts so we split the copy into marked sections and got him to concentrate on each one, then put the whole together. It took a lot of reassurance and practice but in the end the end he produced some good work.

Well blow me down with a feather - watching the 'The Kings Speech' over the weekend if Lionel Logue wasn't doing just the same thing. I guess there is a lot of synergy between speech therapy and getting a great voice-over performance. I highly recommend this film, Colin Firth is spectacular as the stuttering King George VI.

A change for the better

2011-01-18T12:45:00.002Z

Change can be good, a change of diet, a change of scenery the list goes on and it should include accepting change in the work that you do. Linda Gage my much missed Journalism Tutor used to say if you can't stand to be subbed, don't become a journalist. I have worked with people who have become so precious about their work that they shut themselves off to constructive improvement and change.

It has been my experience that when you are close to a project you sometimes, as the saying goes, 'can't see the trees for the wood.' It really helps to have a second pair of ears or eyes on any project your working on. I have just completed an HD wedding video, having sent a copy of to the bride she has asked for about three changes and now when I look at the changed video she is absolutely right, what she has suggested has improved the video.

So as a Radio Producer, when someone comes up to you with some of their own ideas on your project, don't get defensive, take on board what they have to say, try out their ideas.

Carry On Streaming

2011-01-14T13:16:00.001Z

I listen to the radio on the internet. Trouble is to do this I have to faff around on radio station websites to see where they might have hidden the listen now button only to discover that my mac doesn't support their player! But hooray we should only be a few weeks away from the UK RadioPlayer launching.

A small miracle has happened which in an odd way reminds me of the famous day during the First World War when the British and Germans got together in no-man's land to play a game a football. The BBC and UK Commercial Radio have got together to create a single internet player that will allow you to choose stations much like pushing the buttons on your car radio.

What will this mean for the industry? Well 4.5million people already listen to the radio through their computer, that's 8% of the radio audience.* For them it will mean a much easier interface to find what they want. But more importantly there is potential for new internet listeners to discover radio content and consume the product - which in this tough year ahead can only be a good thing.
*Rajar

Smacked on the bum by Marks and Spencer

2011-01-13T09:43:00.001Z

Parody can be fun but only if you are taking the mickey out of the original subject. Straight copies of a good idea is, er, well stealing an idea. I remember a few years ago when Marks and Spencer first brought out their food porn ads I wrote and gathered clips for a Sandi Toksvig version.

Well within in a couple of hours of it going to air the M&S PR department gave us a call to say they were 'very cross' and would like us to pull the promo, which we, er, didn't. I guess the fact it hit a raw note at M&S head office meant it worked? Judge for yourself with the SoundCloud clip above on www.creativeradio.com.

For the journey

2011-01-12T14:38:00.000Z

Your life is your story and everybody loves a good story. OK so we don't all have roller-coaster exciting lives but you will be surprised how a conversation with your daughter or a chat with a friend can be used as material. Here are a few points to ponder by the way you can take this structure to create phone-in topics, documentary's and programme pieces:

Draw your listener in with a well crafted headline.
This is the focus of your chosen subject and it always contains a relevant question to ask the listener. It will set the tone of the topic and the way you want a listener to react to it.

Get to the point
Once you've hit the ground running get to the point quickly and then fill in the details. See yourself as a hunter; hunting for an audience. You can put the trap out but if you don't set the bait you're not going to get your catch.

Empathy
My favourite word and remember it is a two-way street. Create empathy for the subject by using personal experience, create empathy for your listener by saying to yourself ..what do they want to hear?

Make em' laugh
As they once said in Hollywood. Even a serious topic can have light and shade even if the humour is irony.

And that's the way it is.
Give your audience closure. Sum up at the end of a topic, say what you think and give your listener something to go away and think about.

So finally take each of these points and use them to structure your next topic and enjoy your story telling.

The Next Big Thing

2011-01-12T10:07:00.000Z

Britain's next big TV star will be Charlie McDonnell - who the hell is that you ask.? In the last few days I have read quite a few stories in the press about where next the next big radio star will come from now there are fewer opportunities for broadcasters with commercial radio taking a pseudo-national path.

Well in the cold hard light of dawn the fact is the kids don't need local radio, there are now plenty of other opportunities of getting themselves seen and heard, aside from the X-Factor route of instant fame there are places like You Tube where if you get your content right you will get viewers.

Charlie McDonnell is an irritating kid, if you look him up on Wikipedia you get the sneaking suspicion that he has written his own entry but he is talented, funny and the future of broadcasting. Here are a few more cold hard light of dawn facts. Over 25 MILLION people have watched his videos, he is the most watched VLogger on You Tube - why? Well take a look for yourself at his latest You Tube vid on the left.

So will we full out of love with radio one day? I think not. Ten years ago if you wanted to get into the media you had a choice of the telly or radio now the internet has ripped open that idea and shoved it back in the booze on expenses ruddy faces of those TV and Radio Executives who are still very unsure how to deal with the Charlie McDonnell phenomena.

Back after this break

2011-01-11T08:58:00.000Z

Here is a public service announcement - there will be no more public service announcements. Spending on those ads for paying your tax or getting a flu jab fell by 52% last year (2010) the COI -'The Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications.' (Their words not mine) plan to make 40% of their staff redundant.

So what the hell does this have to do with Commercial Radio? Well for years the COI paid-for ads propped up revenues and now that COI revenue stream has run pretty much dry. Local commercial radio could also rely on a bit of council spending, this year we will see local councils financially squeezed by national government and as a consequence yet another stream of revenue will also run dry.

So where does that leave commercial radio? Well not completely grounded on the river bed because there are still the 'real' commercial radio advertisers. The government (OFCOM) has also started to deregulate the industry a bit more and allow consolidation to take place and there could be more of that to come.

But 2011 will be a tough year for the industry. For more on this story visit Grant Goddard's blog click here

Bob Monkhouse

2011-01-10T12:18:00.000Z

Bob Monkhouse the first celeb I ever booked. It was only a phone interview and I was just a kid working in local radio so it was very exciting to speak to his agent to set the interview up. He gave me Bob's private home number (this was before mobiles) and I duly rang the number at the appointed time and was kinda surprised that Bob actually answered himself. I was also surprised that he knew who I was, who was presenting the show and what we were talking about.

Years later when I was producing The Pete Murray Show, Bob was a live guest, again he turned up knew who everybody was and had a whole ton of notes with him. I remember asking if he needed to take the notes into the studio? I got a 'I most certainly do.' back from him.

Bob was clearly a man that learned everything by rote and it's a very useful skill to have if you are a radio or TV Producer, because you will be asked to do things that you might not have any personal interest in but you still need to know and understand the topic. Research is always king and will allow you to fashion an interview with relevant questions and information rather than a string of bland rubbish - and we have all seen or heard shows where that has been the case.

Bob Monkhouse is no longer with us, in fact I worked with his wife Jackie in 2007 on a campaign for prostate cancer (which killed Bob) she was a delightful woman who told me that Bob kept everything all his notes, copies of his TV and radio performances and much more. And another Jacqui, Jacqui Wilson my old LBC boss was his Producer on the BBC game show 'Wipeout.' So I feel an odd professional affinity with the man and his very precise and detailed way of working. Something we could all learn from.

Orville the Duck

2011-01-06T09:00:00.000Z

Orville the duck and Bobby Crush and an embarrassing moment. Some years ago I worked with Bobby 'tickle my ivories' Crush on a show that played the world's worst records - we stole the idea from Kenny Everett. During a half hour general showbiz strand we would play a couple of duff records and talk about the history behind them, how they got to be made etc.

Anyway - Bobby usually had the actual record, which I had to load into the computer from 'grams' This particular week he brought in Keith Harris singing Orville's song I started playing the track and it was truly dreadful. I turned to Bobby and said, 'This is utter sh*t I wonder who wrote this crap?' And he answered 'I did!'

Well I didn't know what to say and had one of those hot flush moments your mum gets when she's of a certain age. So I started to apologise. But he said. 'No I don't care because it was a number one and made me a lot of money and every time someone plays it I get paid and that's why I'm playing it today as your fee is so miserable.'

SO Bobby goes into my big book of celebs who actually get what showbiz is all about. I have to say the song is still sh*t though.

Lets network

2011-01-04T07:49:00.002Z

Consolidation is an ugly word but is it a beautiful thing? Capital Radio has now rolled out over the old Galaxy and Red Dragon, RAM and Leicester Sound networks, with a possible audience of around 6.5 million. GMG owned Smooth radio has done something similar,

But does this mean the end of local commercial radio? Consolidation could offer the smaller commercial stations a better usp. (Unique Selling Point) They could strive to be more local. If they give listeners more local news and information get involved with the community they could compete with the big guys, Whatever happens the RAJAR's this year will start to show if consolidation is really a beautiful thing.

Pay As You Go

2010-12-31T18:14:00.000Z

Pay as you go but it's free to listen. A few days ago I was talking to a guy who runs a streaming radio station I asked him how he made money? He said, "Just like the big guys, I don't, but I do break even." He gets some revenue from advertising gigs but the rest of the revenue comes from the DJs on the station, they pay him to be 'on the air' which pays for the PRS and MCPS licence and daily running costs of the station. It gives them a profile and a stage to get more 'real' work such as gigs and private DJing work.

It reminds me of another friend who runs a station in Portugal he expects his DJ's to work for next to nothing and create their own income either by sponsorship or advertising, which he takes a percentage or they can use the station for profile for their other work in clubs etc.

I can't see this model working in commercial radio in the UK. But in 2011 there will be some searching questions to be answered about revenue streams and commercial radios relationship to sad tired old spot adverting. OFCOM's new product placement rules could be part of the answer, who knows? I do think 2011 could be quite a bumpy ride.

Vince Cable

2010-12-22T10:37:00.000Z

Vince Cable is my favourite politician - at least he has the courage and or stupidity to say what he thinks. I love Vince mainly because I had his mobile number and he was one of the few politicians you could just call up and ask to take part in a show and he would give you a yes or no straight away.

Mostly when you book a politician you have to wade through the turgid world of the Party Press Office where they think they are doing you a tremendous favour by getting you some junior Minister to come and talk on the radio. And they always call you back just before your deadline so you never get the person you really want.

I remember working with Mike Carlton an Aussie firebrand who once presented breakfast on LBC, he was amazed that we had to seek the permission of the party press office to talk to politicians. He told me he had the direct number for Paul Keating (who was Australian PM at the time) and would call him directly and he said that if Paul didn't want to do an interview he would just say "'f*ck off Mike I'm busy mate."

I can well believe this to be true, maybe its time for politicians to stop hiding away and be a little more open? Did anyone really think the Lib Dems and the Tories were ever going to be much more than uncomfortable allies?

Brian Hanrahan

2010-12-20T10:43:00.000Z

In the late 1970s I found myself at Ford headquarters in London in the middle of an industrial dispute. My job as an audio-visual technician was to show a video to the union about what Ford was planning to do with their workforce.

Well things got acrimonious and I was chucked out of the meeting room and found myself sitting in a corner of another room with a BBC reporter who was covering the story; his name was Brian Hanrahan

We were probably hanging around for at least a couple of hours and even though I was not much more than a spotty teenager he was quite happy to talk to me and we chatted about all kinds of things from industrial relations to what I did for a living, he actually had a genuine interest in people and I think that was one of the reasons it made him a very fine journalist who will be sadly missed. (Brian Hanrahan 1949-2010)

Just Say No

2010-12-16T19:02:00.000Z

War of the Worlds with Jeff Wayne a brilliant spectacle and great music. We were invited to see the show at the 02 last Sunday and it is a marvelous piece of work, faithful to the original book with some of the original stars of the record and new performances including Jason Donovan doing a very passable David Essex impression, albeit with an Aussie accent.

In contrast to this is the recent film version of War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise which I personally didn't like very much. It was too American and seemed to have lost the charm of the original story. Back to Jeff Wayne - when the Speilberg/Cruise film was being planned Jeff got an invitation to see Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise who were keen to use the Wayne composed music for their film.

As a Radio Producer the hardest thing you can do is to say no. No to pushy PR people who promise all sorts of freebies if you cover their event. No to presenters who want to do something self-indulgent on air that has nothing to do with their show. And no to yourself when deep down you don't think a show is going in the right direction and you know you need to change it.

So Jeff Wayne meets Spielberg and Cruise and they outline the film for him and explain the revised plot. And Jeff had that feeling deep down. I guess he thought that their treatment of the WotWos was quite right for his music. If you have ever met Jeff Wayne you will know what a fantastic, decent man he is and also what a strength of character he also has, because he turned to Steven and Tom and said NO he wouldn't release the rights to his music.

I wonder if they were surprised? In hindsight Jeff did the right thing, I think his composition would have jarred with the film and I am glad Jeff had the courage to say NO.

Cassette is dead

2010-12-07T09:07:00.001Z

Cassette is dead the future is 8 track. They were the not so wise words of my dad when in 1972 he bought a 'stereo' music centre complete with Turntable FM stereo radio and 8-track player. We only ever had the one 8 track tape called the 'Tijuana sound brass' a poor copy of Herb Alpert. The player never worked and used to get stuck on one of the tracks, so the cartridge only played 'When The Saints Go Marching In.'

The turntable never ran at the right speed and of the half dozen records we actually had the musicians all sounded like they'd been on a heavy night of drinking before coming into the recording studio. We had one LP (Long Player Record) called 'A Stereo Space Odyssey' Which consisted of over panned stereo and an American gentleman saying 'Odyssey, odyssey' from left to right.

In the end I remember ripping the 8 track out, cutting a hole for a cassette machine and buying a tape deck from Tandy (Radio Shack) which worked quite well.

Ok so why am I tripping heavily down memory avenue? Because that stereo centre was our ONLY source for playing pre-recorded material - if you wanted to listen to music you had to get a record out shove it on the turntable and play it. Now at home we have at least a dozen devices that do the same, hold 1000s of tracks of music and HD video and I don't have to sit down anymore and listen to 'A Stereo Space Odyssey' which was, frankly a really crap record.

See You Next Tuesday Blooper

2010-12-06T19:45:00.000Z

See You Next Tuesday Blooper

Pole Position

2010-12-06T19:05:00.000Z

Interesting interviews, my top tips: Braved a chilly London Monday to interview a guy who was involved with Kid Jensen Racing. Now I have personally never followed motor racing but as a journalist you should be interested in everything and if you scratch the surface of any subject you always find interesting stories.

Motor racing is a high octane high flier sport for people with deep pockets and I have to admire Vincent Franceschini from Pole Ltd who set up Kid Jensen Racing in the late 1990s with his own money. There's something of the Richard Branson about Vincent except he's French and hasn't got a beard.

The purpose of this blog is remind any Producer, Journalist or Reporter that good interesting stories don't always come out on the balcony and shout themselves at you. You often have to go looking in the shrubbery and unearth them yourself.

Stream ON

2010-12-06T09:13:00.000Z

Why does Radio 2 sound so good? If you're expecting a critique of the station stop reading because this is a blog about a visit to my good friends David and Diane and whilst chatting in the kitchen, as you do, I noticed how good, technically, Radio 2 was sounding coming out of their kitchen radio.

Turns out they were listening on a Logitech Squeezebox to an internet stream of the station which sounds much better than FM and obviously better than grotty crunchy DAB. The internet radio could also play his music collection, get anything from BBC iPlayer play podcasts and had a whole range of other apps all in a neat little radio with a full colour screen and all for about £113.00

Yes there are a few things to think about before buying an Internet steaming set, the server either has to be on your home PC or NAS drive or you pick up the default servers in Germany and the US and it appears to be hard to switch easily between those options, which means if you have the server on your home PC or Laptop, they have to stay on all the time. But I was very impressed by this set. I did ask Dave why he didn't have a DAB - he laughed and told me they don't get any DAB signal where they live - well what a surprise!

Is there a doctor in the house?

2010-12-05T10:25:00.000Z

'Mad mean' Gillian McKeith, or why I regretted having her as a regular guest on a show I once produced. This was at a time when she had a regular TV show, speaking of regular she spent a lot of time looking at peoples poo to determine whether they were healthy or not. I thought she would be the ideal person to make up my healthy 'family' that I created for a daily change your life show I was producing.

After a lot of wheeler-dealing with her agent I negotiated a reasonable fee for a monthly appearance, as a value-for-money deal she would also record a few lines of wisdom that would be played during every show. I also got them to agree we could also use her image and create editorial on our website.

Her first appearance was good, she has a great passion for healthy eating and I was pleased with my decision. Unfortunately her next appearance coincided with the press hounding her about whether she was a Doctor or not, you can read the wikipedia entry for their carefully worded article about that.

I suggested that during her next appearance which was due the following day, she should clear up the matter, I would allow her to use her choice of words and any questions would be agreed as I still, at that point wanted her on board. Well I think mad rage would describe the response I got via her agents. "How dare I question her qualifications, how dare I say this or that about her." So we made a brave editorial decision to, frankly - dump Gillian.

Looking back it was the right thing to do, I just couldn't let her back on the air and ignore a whole week of press coverage about her qualifications and then have her talk about healthy eating. It is an important part of your job as a producer to be sure that your 'expert' is qualified to talk on their subject. That doesn't always have to mean academic qualifications experience also counts.

As a footnote had Gillian been more open about her Doctorate I would have welcomed her back as she is an engine for better healthier eating - check out her website for more click here

Freebies

2010-12-02T10:37:00.000Z

A free holiday to Mexico and a ladder. Sadly it was the ladder we got free. The wonderful world of freebies, where various companies and PR groups send you things. The holiday was procured by a Producer I overheard making a phone call to a travel company and asking if there were any 'facility' trips to Mexico as he worked on a travel show (lie) judging from the phone call they appeared perfectly happy to let him have a free holiday.

The free ladder was featured on a DIY show I Produced and somehow we managed to get it back to Essex in the company car. I remember I had to sit in the back seat as the thing filled the whole car up and made gear changing almost impossible - buy hey it was a freebie.

Journalists still get sent freebies and it can be very easy for some to be persuaded to give over airtime for a free hamburger or hamper of Christmas goodies - good journalists should never do this. The guy that got his free Mexican holiday, a few months later produced a very misguided show called 'Sex with Your Pets' it made the Sunday papers and got its own paragraph in the broadcasting code on bestiality and he of course lost his job straight away.

Jenny Eclair eats live maggot

2010-11-30T10:54:00.001Z

I watched Jenny Eclair rip the head of a witchetty grub and eat it, and felt sorry for it. The show was ITVs Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Jenny is one of the contestants. Having Produced radio shows with her she really is pretty much that kind of person you see on TV.

I remember my first encounter with Ms Eclair - I was standing in for the regular Producer who had timed his holiday to coincide with Jenny's week presenting the Sandi Toksvig show. Jenny greeted me with a 'Oh so I've got you have I?' as she knew I was the Assistant Producer I think she felt she was getting second best treatment.

I just allowed the comment to pass me by and we got on with the job of getting the show out on air. The week went well and Jenny is, as we have seen on TV, a complex lady but brilliant and funny and you can't help liking her.

Sometimes the talent will turn on you. As a Producer you have to deal with it. You need to remember they see you as the human face of 'their' show and working through their requirements and coming up with a conclusion which will suit both the needs of the show and radio station and the needs of the talent is an important part of your job.

Chris who?

2010-11-22T14:03:00.000Z

Chris Moyles talks b*llsh*t and that's official. In the unlikely event you believe anything the News of the World prints you would think that Chris Moyles is in talks with SIRIUS the US satellite radio provider, and what a surprise his contract with the BBC comes up in July next year.

Ask 307,006,550 American's just who Chris Moyles is and they will say Chris who? I do hope this isn't a ruse to screw more money from a cash-strapped BBC? Surely not?

Listen with mother

2010-11-17T10:40:00.001Z

I learned to listen to the the radio with my mother, sounds very middle class but somewhere after the BBC News and before Woman's Hour the Home Service (Radio 4) would put out Listen With Mother a rather middle class cosy view of a child's world with suitable stories and inane rhyme.

Radio today has turned its back on our children with one DAB station - Fun Kids and a half-arsed bit of Radio 7 called Big Toe. The kids will not care though, they have plenty of media diversions, from computer games - now the biggest part of the UK entertainment industry to scores of TV channels beaming shows just for them, and should they get bored of all that there is plenty of stuff on iTunes for them to download.

The trouble is, the kids of today are tomorrows radio listeners and if we don't get 'em young they will never get into the habit of listening. I have just finished working on a kids series for radio. 'Professor Hallux builds a body' 14x 8-10min episodes for Fun Kids and the Wellcome Trust, brilliantly written not by me but I produced the sound design and did nearly all of the post-production, save one episode.

To compete with the iPod generation a kids radio show has to have high production values, gone are the days when a child will happily listen to some old fart singing 'Five Currant Buns' which seemed to come round with annoying regularity on 'Listen With Mother'

So my plea to the radio industry is don't forget the kids because in about ten years time they may come back and bite you on the bottom.

Self-editing

2010-11-14T08:23:00.000Z

We screwed up Chris Tarrant, not literally but certainly technically. Part of an audiobook I am working on at the moment about the life of David 'Kid' Jensen included an interview with Chris Tarrant, when the person who did the recording came back to base we realised the whole thing was very off mic. So what do you do? Fudge it and shove it in the book anyway or take the brave decision to let Tarrant's agent know we needed to do the whole thing again.

We chose the latter and his agent was fine and set up another slot for us. So I toddled off into the rain and wind of Monday to interview him, this time on mic.

It's a good example of self-editing a really important if sometimes difficult thing to do. Ask yourself the question am I happy with this? And always answer yourself truthfully - it's easy to think 'oh well that will do,' or 'no one will notice.' But if you've noticed the chances are others will too.

Leave It Out

2010-10-09T00:53:00.001+01:00

It's all in the edit, great radio can be more about what you leave out than what you put in. If you are charged with editing an interview show you will often find that you just have too much material to fit the timing of the programme.

So what criteria do you use to make those edits? Ask yourself a question - what is the interview about and what do I want from it? Write the answer down on a piece of paper to remind yourself. For example I was chatting to my good colleague Matt who has edited a Nick Ferrari interview with Sir Michael Caine for Classic FM. The purpose of the interview was to find out about Michael Caine the person. One of the anecdotes involved Michael talking about his interest in unusual facts, which was kept in the interview. Caine then went on to give an example of a fact. Matt, rightly edited that bit out. Why? It didn't tell us anything about Michael it was just a story about how the word caddy go to be used in golf.

Michael also talked about the death of his father. Again Matt felt uncomfortable about what Caine had said, but he realised that this was a unique and emotional insight from the 'real' Michael Caine and he left the piece in, again a good call as todays (Saturday 9th October) newspapers are covering the story click here for more.

So in summary it's what you leave out as much as you put in. Always have a focus and always have a beginning a middle and an end and try and achieve light and shade; and above all listen to what the interviewer and interviewee are saying.

Keep it local even when it's national

2010-10-07T10:17:00.001+01:00

A local station for local people. I wonder why both the BBC and commercial radio/TV often fail to connect with their local audience? Having spent the last few days in Birmingham - which I discovered had benefited from some excellent re-generation, (I only hope now the city is blooming the frosty chill of the recession doesn't kill off all that hard work.)

But whilst in Birmingham I was exposed to the local media, in particular the BBC TV midlands news, read by a very posh lady of a certain age dressed in a powder-blue jump suit. She was busy leading on the possibility (not fact) that the local symphony orchestra might have to be cut back. Now I wonder how many people living in Brum were interested in that story?

On that same day massive benefit changes were announced in Birmingham at the Conservative Conference - surely there was a local angle to that story? I know the BBC opts are not allowed (normally) to lead with any story that is being covered nationally, which of course is typical BBC nonsense because there are some national lead stories that have a valid and different local angle.

Also the local paper The Birmingham Mail which is a great well written strong 'local' publication, was leading on the benefit story and its impact on Birmingham. There's clearly a demand for local news. It is one of the unique reasons that people watch or listen. In a network situation whether on TV with local news opts or on radio where a sustaining London service takes over in the evening - the local news and information should continue 24/7 it's one more very good way to keep your viewers and listeners.

End of the peer

2010-09-30T21:15:00.000+01:00

The great unwashed want to have a say in your radio station. I know it's ghastly and there was a time when the only way 'they' could interact with your radio shows was to call - and you could ignore them, or they had to write, usually on scraps of paper in green ink which you could file in the waste paper basket. Now they Facebook, twitter, text and speed dial until you eventually have to pick up the call.

So just what's going on? Here's an interesting quote from my old boss Steve Parkinson talking about the Kiss audience: "The big picture is they expect entertainment on demand, on multiple platforms, and they want to interact with their peers and favourite DJs in real time on mobile, by instant message and social media."

That's an awful lot of extra work. Providing on demand and interaction requires clever software and merging your IT content producers with your DJ's or Radio Producers. BUT is it worth it? I think a better question is can a business afford not to travel the two-way street where your listeners or customers get a chance to have their say.

Your job is to get that interactivity to work and departments to synergise with each other. I have been busy creating a series of Podcasts/Downloads they have their own web page, podcast page, twitter, facebook fan page, You Tube Channel and you can subscribe to them on iTunes. It's the future of your next piece of audio but it has increased our workload more than threefold.

Content is King

2010-09-29T14:17:00.000+01:00

Any old crap will do; there was a time when the poor old British public had just three TV channels, four national radio stations and if you were lucky or unlucky a BBC local radio station, then along came a handful of commercial radio stations. But let's face it if you didn't like what was on those handful of TV and radio stations the only alternative was to go down the pub or read a book.

The programme makers of that time knew that fact, I think it made them a bit lazy, sure there were some great shows but there was also a lot of dross - it didn't matter though because the audience figures were never that bad, because there wasn't any choice.

Now all that has changed and content is king, there are now 100s of TV and radio channels all competing with each other to get your attention. It's the same if you are presenting a radio show. Life used to be easy - grab a few records, the what's on file and shove together some half arsed competition like 'Beat the bleedin intro' and the hoards were listening avidly. Truth was they had no choice and put up with your crummy competition with a book token as a prize.

So what to do? How do you make your show shine? How do you make it different? The key is engaging and thoughtful and compelling content. You need to put effort in, do the research, do some decent pre-production, because slowly, slowly your audience is leaving you.

The old ones who can't work a computer are dying, the young ones are off with their iPods and the ones in between have started downloading audio books to play in their car, now they've realised what that plug thing is by the cigarette lighter socket does.

So think a little more about what you do and what you say. Put a bit of added value into your show and it will pay off in the long run.

Talent Management

2010-09-28T10:29:00.000+01:00

The Talent have feelings, ignore them at your peril. Victoria Wood who I recently blogged about is miffed at being sidelined and having to deal with the anonymous BBC management. Her example was they moved her Christmas Special from Christmas Day to Christmas Eve. Yes it was the right decision - it probably wasn't strong enough to play out on Christmas Day BUT why didn't anybody bother to tell Victoria?

I have never avoided situations with the talent I managed. It is ALWAYS best to keep them in the loop and be aware of their feelings, it's part of managing people generally. What a sad thing that at the BBC management hide behind the bureaucracy of the corporation and make decisions without thinking about the impact on the people who are involved.

So if there is a difficult decision to be made - a face-to-face open discussion is always the right thing to do.

As heard on radio

2010-09-22T09:49:00.000+01:00

Victoria Wood, gifted, talented and the couple of times she has been in doing interviews - shaky and shy. Comedians are a pretty miserable lot. I can remember I once tried to make small talk with Ernie Wise and got mortgage advice back. Wood is one of the 'worry too much' comedians but as a radio producer or presenter you could learn a lot from the way she operates.

Her love of language, her attention to detail. and if something doesn't work she changes it. She is a driven woman and focused on what she wants to do. I found this out from a recent biog on her life that I caught on iPlayer.

She also has an ego, essential if you are going to perform, but she tempers that with her insecurity. It's never a bad thing to ask yourself - Am I doing the right thing? Is this actually working on my show? Could I do better? Should I come at this from a different angle. It's easy to get lazy and comfortable - just listen to a lot of BBC local radio to hear that going on.

So take a leaf out of Victoria Wood's book and take a good hard look at your professional self.

Level Headed

2010-09-21T09:24:00.000+01:00

Crap speakers are the answer and the questions is .....? How do I know what I am recording for the radio (and TV and Podcasting etc) will sound ok and will cut through? Last night we were watching 'Museum of Life' on BBC HD nice pictures but the sound was tragic. The mix was wrong even in surround sound and the voice over work that had been done back at base was off mic and did not match (level-wise) the location audio. (It's why my mum moans she can't hear anything.) Here is my top tip for getting it right.

If you visit some of the finest recording studios in the country amongst the automated faders and whacking great studio monitors are usually a pair of crap speakers often the ones that come with p.c.'s.

Once they have finished mastering Kylie's greatest hits or whatever they will then listen to how it sounds on a pair of crap speakers - your typical way of listening at home. This is the acid test - does it sound as great and does it 'cut through' on a pair of average speakers? If the answer is no, then its back to the mix to make it sound better.