Heaven In '07

In what will probably be my last post of 2006 looking back it hasn't been too bad a year really. The majority of it has been spent away from Canterbury in the more vibrant settings of London which has been the main reason why the whole blog came about apart from it being the ideal way to mention things that would sound absolutley ridiculous in normal everyday conversation.
The ever expanding web has taken over parts of my life especially with MySpace and Youtube becoming everyday activities. I've even set up a Facebook profile which appears to be all the rage despite being a bugger to set up.

Whilst the last few months have been very stressfull and irritating I'm planning to start afresh next year trying not to worry about what I'm incapable of and concentrating what I am or can do to achieve good results and hopefully add to long term success. My main aims (well I can't really call them resolutions) for the new year are to learn how to drive, and to be more active and confident and try not to let others intimidate me. I may also see if I can build stronger bonds with the first year radio students especially as some of them have been staying in halls for most of Christmas and have got rather bored with the emptiness. Best to enjoy it while it lasts, I feel I'm still a first year student at heart which isn't a bad thing at all.

It's going to be rather tough getting lathered tonight however as I've drunken all the tropical flavoured VS (that's not a typo just shows the lack of originality between Vodka manufacturers) so I may head over to the new years eve party that my parents will be going to if I get really desperate. Apart from that, Happy 2007!

Tired Of Hanging...

Still rather uneventful here in lovely Canterbury, I've just come up from watching the "Viewer Of The Year" on ITV1, a rather desperate look back of the televisual highlights of 2006 and oh my, quite a lot of those contestants were very much on the weighty side.
On an aside the execution of Saddam Hussein has turned a few heads but being someone who can't make up their own opinion without reading others it's only after looking at the comments on the BBC website that the American's appear to be just as ruthless as to this day remorseless killings are continuing in Iraq under their responsibility. The two wrongs analogy certainly comes to light.

Even more controversial are the recipients of the New Year honours for 2006. Rod Stewart getting a CBE is bad enough but June Sarpong's MBE is even more shocking. It appears that you need big gobs in order to get attention these days and quite a few people back in Harrow are more than worthy of being in future honours lists!

The Ideal Birthday Present!

I decided to spend the money that can't be put into my bank account by getting two sets of recordable DVDs with the Virgin gift card that my brother gave me as a Christmas present.
Was rather surprised to find in town that the Ottakars has been turned into a Waterstones which made me ponder as to whether in around 15 years all the high street stores will be owned under one brand. Certainly looks the way forward as television and radio seems to be showing.

I've also been looking up the various offers of Sky Digital as that would be an ideal birthday present this year costing only £18 pounds a month with free installation. This was after I found out that the Vault this morning were showing The Chart Show from January 1991 with classics such as "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice and I'm feeling really left out once again for being unable to see it! Honestly though it would benefit for everyone in our house rather than just allowing me to make Saturday Mornings worth getting up again. I know Olly would be addicted to the movie channels having spent heaps of money on his DVD subscriptions and I'm certain that dad would want to see quite a few of the historical documentaries.

I'd probably just get a normal Sky box for free than pay £99 for Sky+ as I'm pretty skint as it is but a monthly subscription is actually cheaper than the amount I spent on wares (and booze) at uni per week!

Time To Get Refreshed

My work is completely cut out as soon as I return to Uni as Ricky's just sent out the Refresher's Week schedule which starts on the 8th of January. It looks set to get the second semester of to a positive start and as expected I'm going to be involved quite a bit.
Ricky's asked me to alternate with Pete on the Request Show on Tuesday and Thursday which I'm looking forward to doing and furthering my "straight" presenting style. However that doesn't mean I won't be doing my show as normal on the Thursday which will be only one hour long this time although I'll be occupied with other things anyway.

How I'm going to cope with this, my essays and my dental appointment is going to be a daunting task but it will certainly be motivating, if at times rather tiring. Overall it will add a bit of liveliness to the post Xmas proceedings which is what was lacking last year, save from the constant flat parties in Flat 31!

In The Swing Of Things

Haven't done too much since getting back apart from go through my Myspace Messages and updates on my Youtube subscriptions. This one took my fancy the most, an edition of Room 101 featuring Tony Slattery from August 1994. The clip also includes a trailer for Radio 1's UK Top 40 showing how "7 million people do it" in the days when Radio 1 was starting to fall into decline. Coincidentally one of Slattery's first choices is "Our Tune" which I'd imagine had been dropped by the station by now.
As I type I appear to have found another gem from Central South CBBC from 1990 into The Really Wild Show!. Never was the same after Terry Nutkins left.

My afternoon was spent listening to Steve presenting the final Grooveline of 2006 counting down his 20 favourite tracks of the year. Was really impressed to find Mistura with "Think Positive" in there at number 2 with Incognito and there cover of "That's The Way Of The World " taking the top spot. If I had it my way I'd have stuck Mistura straight in at number one despite being a reissue and that will definitely be the first track on my show next year.
Speaking of countdows, as I'm in Canterbury I may see if I can find the audio tape of me and a few mates at college doing an early 90s Radio 1 style Top 40 rundown complete with the jingles but making sure that Gary Glitter was at Number 1. The less said the better eh?

A Longer Stay In Canterbury?

Well I'm back from our holiday house in South Creake and I've survived! It wasn't really that eventful to be honest but it was nice to see everyone again and get a few nice presents. Only I didn't actually get any presents apart from a new set of pants and a new set of socks from my parents. Everyone else gave me money which has made me realise that rather than blow money on things at University it may be an idea to actually ask for presents next year.

It wasn't that cold in my bedroom this time round, quite the reverse as it got rather warm at times and having a fold up bed that kept on collapsing didn't really help. I took quite a lot with me as well including all the books that I needed to help me complete my propoganda essay. Although in reality the books only came in useful for when I needed support to prevent my laptop from overheating. I was rather down that we didn't visit Thursford as hinted in an earlier blog post but I didn't realise this until we went past a sign towards it on the way back this morning. A visit to the old fashioned fairground rides would certainly not go amiss if we are to go to the same house next year. However we did go on a short walk at a nearby beach which was really pleasant and not as windy as the blizzard that happened at a similar location the year before!

For now though it's nice to be back in Canterbury and I'm considering staying a bit longer rather than go back on New Year's Day just to save a bit of bob. However with the dentists appointment coming up shortly I'll definitley be back within the first week of January.

On Home Turf

I'm back safely in Canterbury now after what has been a rather exhaustive journey back. There's an awful lot to get done as well before going up to Norfolk including wrapping up presents, buying new trainers and putting in the cheque for travel expenses that Lawrence at BXFM gave to me today.
It was more relaxed there today as there were fewer people in but don't worry, there were still the usual moments with me messing up my words when reading out the competition details. Although it's been rather hectic there I'm going to miss quite a lot of the guys down there especially Heena my co-presenter. One of the most fun and vibrant stations I've been to overall and being in such a busy place gives you more of a buzz than in the many secluded studios I've been to.

The trek from there to Canterbury was pretty long wounded and I felt rather depressed on the bus going through Kilburn up to Oxford Circus. The train journey back however went more quickly with the Xmas Radio Times at hand on what must be the only train journey I've been on without being asked to show my ticket. Now I'm back in Canterbury in my ever comfortable bed I'd best enjoy it while it lasts. I reckon by next week I'll be suffering from pneumonia judging by the conditions of my bedroom in Norfolk.

Everything Plus The Kitchen Sink

It's probably the first time I've remembered to pack my phone charger when sorting out what to take back to Canterbury with me. Whether there will be enough room to fit the holdall into the goldfish bowl in Brent Cross is another story but I'll make sure I can get there extra early to avoid the traffic and to actually have a gander round the shopping center itself to buy my last few presents.

It's fair to sum up this semester as being dismal compared to last year partly because I've looked at everything in a rather negative light and am starting to realise that I can't work at the same level as everyone else when it comes to ideas for programmes, features etc. I'm also stuck at the decision as to if I should move into a house next year or stay in halls, I can barely hold an interesting conversation with my flatmates or even know where to start for that matter. If you were to put a waxwork in my position you'd barely notice the difference. It may be an idea just to get reborn and go through everything in life for a second time only this time I should learn how to communicate with other people properly which would be very helpful in getting me further.

Some of the highlights however have included Freshers Week where I got my first taste of Intermission and met the legend that is Dave Benson Phillips! Just a shame he didn't bring his glove puppet Chester along with him. And it was really lovely to see Kim in Blandford when I and a few others suprised her for her 21st birthday. Ross T even managed to get it recorded onto a Marrantz for the feature he was submitting which luckily didn't get damaged with all the decorations around it. I think the Marrantz recorders have been the only technical improvement to things this year, what with the poor internet in halls and the computers in the radio rooms being controlled from the library resulting in them being less functional.
And the best gig I went this semester had to be Level 42 at the Albert Hall where Mark and the guys gave an explosive performance of old and new material accompanied by some fantastic lighting.

Overall it's been quite an adventure. And I face another one pretty soon from Harrow to Canterbury via Brent Cross.

Below Zero

Today has been insane, I was late arriving at BXFM because of of the dreadful bus journey beforehand. There were long delays near Wembley Park station which slowed me down and then to put the cherry on top, the driver decided to stop at Neasden just 10 minutes before I was due to go on air, meaning I had to change to get another bus. Luckily the Oyster card reader was bust so I didn't have to pay any extra money.

I ended up only doing two hours as Marc and Dee stepped in to cover for my first hour although newsreader Rashmi ended up getting into a fit of giggles during her bulletin for that hour after a jingle got miscued. It was her last day as well bless her but Heena's in tomorrow for my last day so I'm hopefully going to bow out gracefully. As for todays show I spoke about the over political correctness that's dominant including why blackboard can't be called blackboards as they apparently intone racism. What are you supposed to call it now? An easel?

Packing what I want to take back to Canterbury tomorrow is a nightmare. It's a bugger getting all my books into the same bag but thing thing I'd love to take back most is the radiator. That would be the welcome addition to the room I'm sleeping in at our holiday house in Norfolk.

In Need Of A Hot Water Bottle

Winter has well and truly arrived. No snow as of yet but the temperature is below freezing and it's very misty outside.
The words of the Specials song are certainly ringing true, it's like a ghost town here on the Harrow Campus and it's deflating me to some extent. Luckily it didn't have any effect at Brent Cross this afternoon where I did my first solo show and felt slightly more relaxed although a few of my links did slip up. I was planning to talk about an item found in the Metro about an 80s obsessive on Myspace but having skimmed through the article I later found out that he was one of the suspects of the Suffolk murders! Luckily that didn't make it on air.

There was also a bit of fuss about the website photos which Phil has been altering throughout our broadcasts. Dee wasn't too happy with her's that were taken yesterday whilst in the studio instead choosing to opt for some more summery looking ones shot in black and white. To be honest it can't be bad as my mugshot which can be seen on the preesnter page at the BXFM website.

More of the same tomorrow I guess, although on my to do list I need to decide what I'm bringing back to Canterbury and to get Olly's present completing the Christmas shopping for this year. Not such a big chore really.

Wiiillmaaa!

No major teeth problems last night which must mean that the tablets are doing their job. I've only just found out about the death Joseph Barbera at 95 years old. This man was one half of the animation duo Hanna-Barbera who created Tom and Jerry and went on to form their own company who brought us The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Top (or Boss) Cat, oh and the Smurfs.

The Tom and Jerry cartoons that the duo made were in my opinion their funniest material and I have a suspicion that one of them must have done the voice of Tom's scream; "AAAAAAAAAA!"
Most of the material they produced after that didn't really have the same sort of laugh out loud humour but it was very much a part of growing up.
However at the end of the day being me, this is normally the first thing that springs to mind on the mention of Hanna-Barbera.
Aah, the memories!

RIP Joseph Barbera "I'm smarter than the average bear!"

At Last! No More Dental Pain!

With the help of dad back at home I've mananged to get an appointment at the Kenton Dentist to sort out my Wisdom teeth. Until then I've been prescribed to painkillers once again and luckily my teeth didn't get the better of me at BXFM this afternoon.
It went a lot better than last week as I actually spoke a bit more slowly but that didn't stop a few of my links from containing that extra bit of cheese; "...where we play the best music in North London and to prove it, here's the Spice Girls and Who Do You Think You Are".

The studio was full of free supplies from the various shops around the centre including some chocolates from Thorntons which Phil one of the presenters wasn't impressed with having gone for the lemon filled truffle! There were also quite a few vegetarian pizzas about as well which Dee and Heena were pleased about. It got rather distracting towards the end when we had a brass band performing outside the studio but we soldiered on. I'm flying solo until Thursday but I doubt that I will be the only one on mic judging by the amount of visitors we have.

Oral Relief

I've managed to sort out a dental check up and with the help of dad this may result in a possible operation to remove the pain from my teeth. Well it may cause a bit of pain for a few hours but hopefully it will be the last of my dental disruptions. There's a bit of confusion however as I was referred to a Dental Practise in Kenton two months ago but was never given a specific appointment date but this should all be sorted later today. Also the internet's now connected in my room so I won't have to suffer in the library anymore. I really can't understand why those people in there have to make so much noise, it's a library for goodness sake.

I really hope that this doesn't affect things at BXFM as I'm there today and for the next three days doing 4-7 again. I'm hoping that today won't be as intimidating as last week but I'll try and develop a telepathy with Heena as she sounds more confident and enthusiastic than I am.
I've no idea what I'm letting myself in for and I could really do with some feet to think on.

Painful Discouragement

I'm up to here with my dental pains as they decided to come back at the most innapropriate time. Because of this I ended up leaving the Gcap building 2 hours earlier than planned which I was gutted about as I was getting into the swing of answering the phones for those either making bids or sending out dedications. It got a bit noisy in there at times when big bids were announced but it all added to the exictement and there I even got a glimpse of some of the prizes on offer from the Classic FM teatowels to a selection of Rolf Harris albums!
I'm particuarly gutted that I left too soon as Lucio from Hit 40 UK started answering the phones after I'd left and I would have been more than happy for him to unleash more four letter words at me.
However I managed to go past the studios for both the Capital London stations and Classic FM and the lift even had Johnny Vaughan as the voice!

I'm in the library now as the Village Idiots have decied to switch the internet off in my flat where I'm having to put up with people playing Indian or Buddhist chanting on their computers. I reall can't cope with those who think they need to make themselves heard and in a library! They even feel the need to belch really loudly!
Still all that aside I will see if I can make an emergency appointment at the dentist tomorrow. I've got a crap sleeping arrangement where we're staying this Christmas anyway so I don't want it to be any more painful.

Bidding Up

In preparation for later today I've had a listen to Classic FM's Christmas auction where they've put the music to one side in order to encourage listeners to bid for money can't buy items including a day out with the Time Team and an hour long piano lesson from presenter Myleene Klass. I'm rather gutted that I didn't choose to come in earlier on in the day as I would have had a better chance of getting eye to eye with the woman.

I may take the opportunity to get my Xmas shopping completed in Central, time permitting but overall this opportunity will make up for having to miss the Gcap visit that I was invited to before the SRAs due to important lectures being scheduled on the same day. Some of the presenters lined up to continue are David Mellor who's on air now, and Henry Kelly, the presenter of the erstwhile daytime gameshow Going For Gold, known for asking everlasting questions starting with "What am I?".

They've picked the ideal time to do this event when I'm overdrawn and especially as one of the lots up for grabs is a Nintendo Wii. Definitley a prize that would get me standing up for longer considering how lazy I am. A perfect stress reliver too!

Longer Limelight For Leona

Having avoided it for weeks I managed to end up watching the Grand Final of tonight's X-Factor with Ray battling against Leona. Tim was chatting to me via MSN about the performances and intially we had opposing opinions on who would win.

As they came to perform the song they would be releasing as the single I was barely impressed by Ray's rendition. However when Leona came on she took it to another level. If I was to hear it on the radio I would be convinced that it was an unreleased Whitney or Mariah track from the early 90s which is certainly not a bad thing. However lyrically and musically it wasn't too different to the other records released by previous winners along the lines of "I've made it so far" and "I'll make this moment last" and the great big key change when all the backing vocalists come on stage.
There's something special about Leona though, and she's from Hackney which isn't too far from my birthplace!

Myleen Klass was one of the presenters on the outside broadcast from Hackney and if I'm lucky enough I may bump into her at the Classic FM Xmas auction tomorrow where she's presenting alongside breakfast presenter Simon Bates! Hopefully Simes will be forced into doing a special Our Tune as part of the event. Thanks to the likes of Chris Moyles the feature seems to have stuck in mind as whenever anyone at Uni tries to get others to feel bad for them, someone will start humming that music!

A Novice Amongst Pros

That's how I feel after having a trawl through some of some of the stuff made by people from the BAMS course this semester who have been kind enough to put it online.
First of all a selection of short films made by the second year TV students in the promotional shorts module:

Binge Drinking PIF

Crystal Maze Trail

Suspect Packages PIF

Battlestar Galactica Trail

Safe Sex Ad

My personal favourite has to be the Crystal Maze trail featuring Miles playing a low rent Richard O'Brien! There's also the Safe Sex ad in which I'm not sure if that's Lawrens sat next to Ross G or a dummy.
Lawrens also has a small role in this short drama made for Smoke Screen TV called Kangaroo Fluid. This was made by a few film and TV students in our year about the trials and tribulations of a band similar to Spinal Tap but with a very witty ending. When that particular lyric came on screen I could see it coming but it turned out to be very amusing!

I've also managed to stumble across Jacko's third year radio feature "Send In The Clowns" which looks behind the scenes with the performers at Zippo's Circus. I've tended to shy away from circuses and patomimes for that matter but after hearing this and seeing Joey and the gang in Cinderella at Area that may not be the case for much longer. Listen out for a version of "Chameleon" by Herbie Hancock played by the big top's house band!

"The People Down Below Are Sleeping As I Fall"

Another busy morning, sorting out the washing, going into Harrow to do more Xmas shopping and getting books out of the library despite finding that a lot of them have been taken out. Thankfully some of the ones on New Media are on the Key Text shelf so it's not all doom and gloom. Just several long hours in the library trying to make sense out of the garble that's inside these books.

This gave me a few chuckles, an ad for Irn Bru sending up "The Snowman" giving a cruel but witty twist on the famous flying scene. Unfortunately they've put the words up next to the video which kind of ruins the comedy element so it's best to cover the left part of the screen up if wanting to enjoy the ad to it's full potential.
You have to love the flickering colours of the animation itself very similar to the original film. You could say it looks like a polished version of Roobarb and Custard. On that same subject I seem to remember the animator on Roobarb, Bob Godfrey getting rather miffed when Richard Madeley said that "whoever animated Roobarb ought to have been on drugs".

And everyone though the Magic Roundabout was as suspicious. Not surprising that those series and Sesame Street ended up as rave records in 90s clubs. I'm sure there was a rave remix of Orville's Song too which got banned as there were claims that it was promoting ecstasy with the lyrics "E-E look at me, look at me I'm flying"
Not as shocking as finding the single of his version of "White Christmas" in my parents record boxes a few years ago which I have kept quiet until now.
"Aahh hate that duck!"

Booze Free, Dubbed Out

I managed to find my oven gloves in the kitchen of Flat 23 who had borrowed them from me. It would have been nice of them to ask or even return them when finished but it's not too much hassle really.

Another house party was the state of things tonight, this time at Martin's Xmas/Birthday do, as along with the late Kenny Everett his birthday happens to be on the 25th of December.
As I'm really skint I decided not to buy any booze to bring with me opting for the bottle of fizzy orange from the flat expecting to mix it with a few alcoholic drinks but I didn't really feel the urge. It was still a good laugh to start with anyway particularly when either Martin or Emma one of the guests, told me about the man decided to light up at Northwick Park tube station only to be humilated by the voice on the tannoy asking him to put the cigarette out! The wonders of closed circuit television eh?

About an hour before I left most of us were in the room of Lawrence one of the other housemates where there was a lot of smoking and dub reggae music playing in the background a la King Tubby. I feel as if I've been converted into liking the latter although it's difficult to tell the difference between each track, as they start off quiet and are then followed by percussion and a very dominant bassline. All very bizarre in those sort of surroundings.
I made my way back after around midnight in order to avoid forgetting the way home, although I very nearly did after ending up outside Tesco's rather than going in the direction of the nearby St Anns Center.

It maybe an idea to get a new mobile and one that allows me to use internet road maps especially.

Stop Nicking My Gloves!

Two weeks ago my oven gloves went on walkabout from our kitchen in halls for no apparent reason. Now my new ones have disapeared as well which has raised my temperature. It may have been because I'd not put them back in the cupboard after using them but if the cleaners have taken them, they could have at least left a flipping note explaining why.

As promised earlier here is the final edition of Newsbelt which is the one we're being assesed on. Not too many cock-ups except for Clara "revving up" on air and getting her Ross's mixed up! I sound pretty faint when doing the travel with the bed drowning me out slightly although they never bothered to check my mic levels before going to air. Could be worse though, I could have ended up popping although one of our sweepers has a pop within it! "Keep your finger on the PPulse"

Whilst it's been an interesting module I couldn't really do news reporting in professional radio. I wouldn't mind taking the role of a sports reader in future assignments however although Ross Powell excelled at that role for this assignment. For now though I'm fully prepared for module assessor Charles Carroll to give me such a slating as I don't think I've been productive as I could have been. This is mainly because I didn't produce any wraps or packages in any of our bulletins and didn't really make any suggestions during our meetings. However I think it should be acknowledged that we're not all pros and we've certainly fought some obstacles.

I think a stress reliever would be my ideal Christmas present for next year's assignments!

Seasonal Opportunities

It's all rather depressing reaching the end of the semester. Especially after walking through the radio studios here where all the lights and electrical equipment have been switched off, apart from the computers that are vital to keep Smoke Radio running. Just as well that I managed to get the promos for Refreshers Week completed in time after Ricky asked me at short notice. That probably confirms that we will be doing another week of live shows at the beginning of next semester which I think is a really good idea as we barely did anything last year until lectures started properly in semester 2.

There's still quite a few radio related stuff going on before I go back to Canterbury next Thursday including four consecutive shows on BXFM, but what's even more exciting is that I will be helping out at Classic FM on Sunday with their charity Christmas auction. I think it's a brilliant opportunity to be helping out at one of the UK's successful radio stations
and I'm looking forward to lending a hand answering the phones and helping out behind the scenes. I may even see if I can get a bit of insider gossip on "The Jazz" which has just started their test transmissions on DAB.

I've been told to be more relaxed when dealing with stressfull issues in radio during the News and Magazine module and Classic FM should be the perfect starting point.

Audio Blog: Belted Up

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Audio Blog: Restless Reporting

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A Sweaty Xmas

Area was in full swing by the time I arrived, although there weren't too many second year radio students about as they decided to skip the proceedings in preparation for the news/magazine shows tomorrow. Those who followed my example included a certain Jo Cave along with her flatmates and other half Joey. The night started of with "BandOke" where the mentals got up on stage and started singing on stage although they could barely be heard due to the crap microphones. That's not to say that they weren't entertaining however as Ross G and David Jackson got on stage to entertain us with "Living On A Prayer" and there was a rather entertaining rendition of the Kaiser Chiefs from Chris Belson.

Ricky and Chris (first year radio) were on the decks after the caterwauling finished where Slade and Mariah Carey were played at least twice during their set although things got very pear shaped when Bar Manager Chris stuck Agadoo and forcing everyone to do the conga to it. The record didn't get played for long but even UWSU president Salima was joining in! There wasn't a snow machine as hoped for, more the opposite as it was pretty warm in there and the odours produced weren't the best of aromas. Thankfully the dry ice machines alleviated this.

I'm not sure if it's worth going to sleep now as I need to be up in around 5 hours to be on time for our final news programme which is being assessed. I'm not as nervous for this as the magazine show but I'm more concerned about my lack of productivity. Maybe worth listening to 5 Live to be enlightened. Well unless DOtun AdeBAYO is on, one of the most irritating and uncomprehensilble radio voices around.

RP1's Rush Hour

Never has RP1 been so rammed, the MAJI students and the other half of our radio group were on the computers all day making the preparation of our magazine show very tense. CK managed to get back from interviewing Nurse Bunny and despite a bit of confusion with who was editing what the Health Hazards made it into the the show. I was a bit more confident than last week and am really happy with everyone's contribution to the show. Especially the drama featuring Kiki seducing Jon Lamb!
The show itself can be found here.
Whilst this has been an interesting experience I wouldn't want to do this sort of programme again so if we're including any magazine shows in the Third Year Advanced module then I'm staying out of it for the good of myself and the rest of the group!

After the debriefing Matthew treated us to a few drinks at the Undies where Ross T started getting a bit too excited and launching into the Macarena and "Oops Upside Your Head". Also Matthew told us about a few exciting guests that may be popping in to help us with the Music Radio module next semester and that's just for starters.
As predicted I ended up doing two hours playing what I referred to on air as "the positive picks of 2006" including a terrible introduction to a Level 42 track where I did what sounded like an impression of Jack Black in School Of Rock.

Despite that, it's put me in the mood for Area tonight which is covered in winter decorations and I'm hoping that there'll be a snow machine! I'll probably wear my red and white T-shirt I got for free in Venice, which can be seen in my mugshot at the top of this blog.

Audio Blog: Early Start

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James2001 You Legend!

I'm feeling better now after finding that James2001 has made another contribution to Youtube, The Chart Show from the 26th of August 1989!
(Anorak On) This edition is particulary interesting as it was the last one before the show became the ITV Chart Show fitting in with the channels corporate re-branding which took place the following Friday.
According to James this edition had the last Chart File Update and from September 1989 there was no rewinding.
I'm embargoing this in my room until after Friday when we've got all the radio stuff out of the way, but I'm certain I can actually remember watching this on it's original transmission when I lived in London, and have "fond" memories of seeing Big Fun's cover of "Blame It On The Boogie".
(Anorak Off)

For some reason this period or this day in particular reminds me of when my dad helped me to build a Duplo train set where we had sultanas inside the carriages instead of coal! That would make my viewing experience complete. I would be even sadder to think that the idea came from the edition of "Ghost Train" that preceeded the colourful rollercoasters.
Yes the late 80s early 90s can never be matched as far as TV or Radio goes.

Arrrrrrgh!

I couldn't be in a more stressfull position, I've spent a whole day getting everything together in order to get the "Health Hazard" inserts prepared for the magazine show only to find that one of the important pieces I recorded has not saved properly. This means I need to get CK in again to record the voiceover which despite the fact it's just the one line. To make things even more aggrovating my mobile phone's stopped working by going completely dead after asking me to re-insert my SIM card. Hopefully this will only be a temporary phase and if it's not working by tomorrow morning I'm screwed.

In spite of all this palava I'm confident about tomorrow's show and everyone's been pulling their weight with interviews and inserts. It's just the live stuff that I think we've been lacking on especially as we haven't done any run throughs. In all fairness it would have been impossible to do so as the studios have been occupied all day particuarly with the Smoke International team bringing a Christmas tree into Studio 6! I'm hoping they will be on top for at the Area Xmas do tomorrow which will be following my final show of the year which I've still yet to sort out, especially as I'm unsure whether I'll be doing an extra hour like last week. However sorting it out has made me realize that their actually have been some tuneful releases this year and I'm looking forward to playing the more colourful side of 2006!

Audio Blog: "By The Power Of Greyskull!"

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The Drama Society Dames

The much awaited pantomime from the Drama Society took place tonight and I was present for the second performance. I'll get a few things off my chest first, it was bloody boiling inside Area and they could do a few things about the speakers as we had to put up with earth hum coming from one of them for the first few minutes of the play. Not helped by the lack of microphones on stage. Despite that everyone gave a great performance, standout points for me included Martin playing Milly one of the ugly sisters, Seb really showing his acting as the fairy Godfather and Kit playing the Prince, a rather camp character with a lisp.

Audience participation knew no boundaries as Dan P playing Buttons managed to get ex student/barman Jim Chapman on stage to perform "I Will Survive" although Jim was didn't bother to sing a note! Also in attendance were Sarah the VP of Activities at the student union as well as Rob Watson the former coms officer who had to put up with the many digs about the downsides to uni life including the catering and the fire alarms in halls!
They even had a house band lead by Eleri on piano and she looked really gorgeous as always.
I'm slightly embarrassed however walking back with my t-shirt smelling of tomato as a result of Chris sat next to me who was encouraged to throw them at housemate Pippa on stage who played one of the princes jesters. God knows how they'll cope performing in Central.

I'm suffering once again from writer's block as I've been asked to help Clara with her "10 Health Hazards Of Christmas" for our magazine show. We've got to write some witty introductions to introduce short interviews about depression, drinking etc in the style of "The Night Before Christmas". Actually that reminds me of a rather dirty version of the poem that someone showed me whilst at secondary school. I guess you need to be truthful about the seasonal side effects.

Cabbage Patch Cave

I'm feeling rather left out and unsure of what's happening as far as the magazine project goes. This is partly because we're not doing a proper run through until Thursday morning that I'm not happy about although in all fairness there are several inserts that need producing.
My heart just hasn't been in this assignment at all, mainly because of my lack of knowledge and motiviation with health issues or overall because I'm just useless.
It wasn't all doom and gloom however as Jo Cave one of our presenters popped in to sort out the "Healthbelt" and everyone starting laughing when I told Jo that they should make dolls of her. Steve said the same to Ali which didn't really work in the same way although I think she's tiny enough to be one already!

Moving on swiftly here's a selection of what I got up to yesterday at BXFM where you get some of the most crazy people making requests. Especially when they come into the studio with a giant smiley faced balloon and start bashing men on air!

Overcrowded At The Underpants

Tonight at the Undercroft was pretty sparse to start with although not as empty as last night. This was partly because most of the regulars were at the first performance of the Drama Society's Cinderella and after around 10pm they started packing the place out, some of the cast members had make up on! I won't say who just to avoid spoiling things.

All the usual atendees were there Ricky, Ross G, Steve and Pippa Chapman who's face looks very similar to that of the plasticine character Morph! Especially when walking with a bag between her legs. The music was the same as last week i.e too much R&B. It even turned into a mosh pit when they started putting the Bhangra on at the end of the night which was when I thought it would be the best time to head home. It took quite a while though as myself and first year radio boys Chris, Phil H, Stewart and Pete stopped off in Flat 53 where things got even more rowdy.
Phil was mucking about with a lighter that was more like a flame thrower judging by the height of the light and Pete defaced a Guardian sheep poster with a marker in a rather juvenile manner. There was also quite a lot of Yorkshire puddings involved as well.

At times like this I feel rather better about being idle in the company of others although it's quite difficult to avoid cracking up at the same time! If anyone in halls is reading this, enjoy it here while you can. Or if you can depending on your point of view.

Audio Blog: Chemistry And Blammy Don't Mix

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I Hate Mornings!

Ugh, I've gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, I've got to see David Gauntlett to discuss my Media Consumption essay and an appointment with Sue at CANDA a couple of hours later to put me on a straight line as I know there are going to be several dead ends with this weeks magazine show.

I overslept partly because I spent the later hours of last night on Youtube watching the Chart Show 1986 Special! Now The Vault on Sky Digital have said that these episodes won't be repeated as they are on 1 inch videotape that they don't have the facilities to play. Or possibly because the tapes themselves have been worn out after being rewound and fast forwarded too much!
Quite a good year for videos actually including "Walk This Way" by Run DMC with Aerosmith, "Living Doll" by Cliff and The Young Ones, and "Kiss" by Prince.
Also featured are The Housemartins with "Happy Hour" as the Best New Act, which lead singer Paul Heaton won again in 1989 when he went on to form the Beautiful South. As well as Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel who won the Best Video of The Year title twice, the second time being for the eye catching "Kiss That Frog" in 1993.

A few odd choices of tunes however, why on earth is "On My Own" by Patti Labelle and Michael Mcdonald in the Dance Singles Chart?! And in the albums rundown quite a few compilations such as "Now" made the top 10 before they were omitted from the charts in 1989.
I always assumed Michael McDonald was black until I saw him on television performing his Motown album a few years ago. I'm not sure who beared the more shocking resemblance, him or Rick Astley.
I'm just as muddled with music as I was 20 years ago.

"The Clue Is In The Question"

Nervous thoughts were on the mind of Ricky and Ross about the planned quiz tonight due to a lack of attendees at the Underpants. However a few of their mates started arriving slowly but surely, despite this part of the semester being very tight for deadlines and so the quiz went ahead.
As we were refused to do a heads up game we decided to split into teams of two where I got paired with Ross G's flatmate Miles who got booed during the Science round when he was trying to defend his point about humans being the fastest thing on two legs!

Rather ironically it was a team of four that won tonight who were none other than first year radio students Chris, Pete, Phil (Harris) and Stewart. They really seem to be becoming the best year doing the course as they're even taking Matthew out for a meal next week! Why didn't we put the effort in the first year? Just goes to show in terms of this years Freshers that it's the quiet ones you have to look out for.

Uncovering The Dirt

M-Block was pretty packed for a Sunday as lots of people are still working to get their final projects completed and it doesn't help by having a lackluster computer network in the radio studios. What irritates me is that it's now even difficult to find the extra elements to illustrate audio pieces as the shelves with all the library and sound FX CDs were removed at the beginning of the semester for no apparent reason meaning that I usualy end up supplying most of them to people via my hard drive. I particuarly felt sorry for one girl who spent an hour going through the unlabled folders of sounds on the network drive only to find what she was looking for after I was able to give her the chosen audio.

These changes have been part of the reason why I feel that this semester hasn't has been as good as last year which moves onto the Digital Village issue. This is covered in a report for Smoke Radio voiced and co-produced by first year student Steven McIntosh along with Emma Hudson, investigating Digital Village's shallow waves for internet surfing.

Just to get a few things clear with the e-mail, the 56k speed isn't the one I'm actually tied up to officially but that's the speed it was running on at the time when it was meant to be higher.
Also in all fairness the halls staff themselves aren't directly responsible for the problems that Digital Village have caused but what I don't understand is why they have no communication with the provider. This really needs to be more consistent especially as I get intimidated when things don't work as they should do and the halls staff should be the nearest port of call.

Anyway asides that I only did one hour of my own show which was quite a challenge, I accidentally deleted all the music that was meant to be played at 2:00 which meant I had to schedule the hour myself. Whilst I didn't stick to the normal rota it was fun to spin a few seasonal tracks including the 1989 version of "Do They Know It's Christmas" featuring Kylie, Sonia and Cliff! The plan after that was to meet Ross Powell and James at the Moon on the Hill bar in Harrow but I ended up getting caught in all sorts of things making sure pre-recs were scheduled properly and giving a few others a hand that could be solved quicker if we had the appropriate resources.

Anyway it's Quiz Night again at the Undercroft tonight and probably the last one of the semester so it looks set to be very festive. Ricky wasn't too impressed with how I plugged it on the show earlier today "make sure you get over by 8pm although to be honest it may not be that busy there..."

That's friendly encouragement for you.

Audio Blog: "Yeah, Straight Up.."

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More Innapropriate Changes

I made the decision to upgrade my Blogger where it apparently allows me to change the template more easier amongst other features. However it's removed the function which allow me to blog in a pop up window which isn't the most convinient of changes. The only welcome pop up window on my computer as well.

The internet decided to reconnect itself 5 minutes after I arrived back at the flat although I doubt I'll be using it that much tonight as Lucie's invited me to her place again for a game of Monopoly, only this time I'll be able to stay for longer! I'll probably bring some lesser expensive drinks this time round even if it means a long walk to Sainsbury's to get Red Russians. I need to try cutting costs.

Right now I'm watching All Star Family Fortunes which seems to be rather over the top for my liking. Especially with Vernon Kay presenting, who has to yell "Our Survey SAYS!" after every single question! Not too sure about the fancy graphics either. I've got a clip somewhere of Les Dennis' first show back in 1987 when he was known for his impressions and used his introduction to make a few swipes at preceeding presenters Monkhouse and Bygraves; "Biiig Moneeey!"

Spring Cleaning And A Thirst For Nostalgia!

I've decided to sort out all my rubbish on my hard drive and attempt to sort them into order from all the downloads of radio and TV material I've had over the last few months. The only problem is I can never be bothered to keep my folders organised so before long I end up creating another mess so is there really any point? You can never decide where to store things on, CDRs become unplayable, hard drives aren't exactly reliable although my one still hasn't bit the dust just yet.

This video in spite of the rather jumpy quality grabbed my interest, a snippet from "No Limits" around 1986 or '87 in which Jenny Powell travel's to New York's Z100 to find out why Radio 1's jingles sound exactly the same to their's! As some of my earlier jingles from JAM had the exact tune as Z100 it's further proof that nothing I've ever made or produced has been original!

On a similar tangent I was rather annoyed to find out that The Vault on Sky Digital were this morning showing an edition of the ITV Chart Show from June 1991 featuring Kylie Minogue! If anyone reading this owns a Sky Digibox that can pick up channel 456 and doesn't mind me lounging their front room on for an hour on a Saturday morning, then I will be only to happy to hear from you! I'll even make the mugs of tea! (thank's Mum for showing me how)

"Talkin' All That Jazz"

I've lost access to the outside world in my room in halls once again so I've taken refuge in the Harrow library much to my inconvinience. I'm really bad at being specific at things, especially as when I'm using the internet I like to be lying down although on the seating areas here you can just about get away with it if you lie on your stomach.

Eighteen months after Jazz FM bit the dust a new station is set to launch on DAB called "The Jazz". It's a national station that's set to do for jazz what Classic FM did for classical music although I'm positive that it will be more successfull than the original Jazz FM as it's broadcasting across the UK rather than London and the North West. It sounds as if it's going to look at the full spectrum of the genre from Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderly, to more contemporary performers such Pat Metheny and David Sanborn. Oh and Jamie Cullum.
I'm hoping they'll introduce specialist shows with smooth instrumental jazz such as George Benson and Lee Ritenour although it looks as if they're going to be covered on the station's own Myspace.

As for Smooth FM the London station has been given the green light from OFCOM to change it's format to change it's format to cater for the over 50s with an easy listening format.
Bearing in mind TheJazz is taking Primetime's channel on DAB the timing's lucky despite that the fact that London's Smooth FM still hasn't made any profit and has lower listening figures than it did when it was still Jazz FM.

OFCOM seem to be allowing any format changes to take place in radio nowadays which I'm certain the IBA wouldn't have allowed back in the days they were in charge.

Acoustic Indulgence

At around 9:30 I realized that I'd left a few things on the network folders in the radio studios so I thought I'd risk heading up their in hope that they were still open. Turns out I wasn't the only one up there as a few third years were still in the building editing their advanced features that are due in next week.

Despite being without a bag or jacket I headed over to the Undercroft where Poulter and Ali were having there along with Mart and Chris the bar manager where I saw fit to comment on Bongo forgetting the way to her own house!
It was acoustic night as well where one of the performers was Dave a third year CMP student who's given many impromtu guitar/vocal performances at a few house parties I've been to in Harrow. Only this time I was sober enough to let him perform without me joining in raucously!

None of us were too sure why there were flyers given out advertising forthcoming gigs at the Barfly in Camden. To be honest I doubt the Undercroft will be that packed in the week up to Christmas anyhow but you wonder how those who work there during the day cope with the deadness of the place.

"Keep Your Finger Off The Stabs"

Once again, today we did two more live news shows which can be heard here:
Show 1 - 12:30
Show 2 - 16:00

As usual there are the regular hiccups of beds being miscued and mics not being switched on at the right time but I think we're getting there now, CK is certainly increasing her confidence as the presenter. Next week we're only doing one show which will the assessed show but that means we get half a day off afterwards! I'm hoping the we can get Charles Carroll to go with us for a few drinks at the Undercroft!

I'm in Studio 6 just getting a few shows scheduled for tonight on Smoke with one of Ali's "exs" on LBC playing on the DAB radio. Yes, it's Jon Holmes who said some very polite things to me at the SRAs last month.
I reckon I'll have another lying in weekend in preparation for the manic magazine programme we'll be working towards next week. I don't know what I'm doing apart from studio managing but I may want to drop a couple of my slots at Brent Cross next week partly because I won't have Heena presenting with me on the Tuesday and Wednesday!

May be an idea to start preparing next weeks soul show playlist now, so I can avoid having to sort out a random playlist in half an hour like last week!

Scoopy Poopy

As promised here is the pilot edition of "The Weekend Treatment" our supposed health magazine show for BBC Radio 1. My Wi-Fi feature can be found around 12 minutes in, although the highlight has to be the drama in which fellow student Paul Calvert can be heard playing a "doctor" in a drugs trial which I doubt would impress the NHS!

However one of my major bugbears which which has messed up many a live studio assignment this semester is the Scoop reporter. This piece of equipment can make outside broadcasts very tricky by cutting off at the most innapropriate of times as well as being a nightmare to operate. What also irritates me is that I can't speak directly to those on location unless the mics are live.
You can hear the evidence (and the frustration) on our outside broadcast item on junk food.
In all fairness I do need to be more motivating during the show and giving encouragement, rather than just panicking and hoping that we're running to time. Certainly not the sort of job I would be likely to get in professional radio!

The debriefing went well past five o'clock as it took quite a while to decide on next week's running order. This meant I barely had any time to prepare for tonight's soul show despite the fact I ended up presenting for two hours as Seb and Jon were too exhausted to do their show after todays proceedings.
Some really interesting tracks as well, it was really good to play the full version of Inner Life's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which has to be one of the definitive releases from the Salsoul Label.
I guess I'll need to find some of the finest material of 2006 for next week's show although I'll try not to make it too much of a review show. Maybe a few seasonal jingles will be included too!

Audio Blog - The Perfect Pilot?

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A Year's Supply Of Pro Plus Needed?

Christmas has certainly arrived here on the Harrow Campus as I was busy adding a selection of Christmas tunes onto RCS for most of today much to the excitement of Goodlass and Marshall who were on air today with according to Goodlass had one of the funniest chats with his Nana Glover! Still a few more tunes to add that weren't on the CD that Ross G gave me including Wham's "Last Christmas" and Boney M's cover of "Mary's Boy Child".
I'm still trying to decide whether to feature Band Aid II as the Bubblegum Soul for my final show of the semester featuring the likes of Lisa Stansfield, Bros and Jimmy Somervile!

We've just about got everything sorted for the magazine pilot tomorrow, it's just that we haven't had a proper run through in preparation just to get presenters Jo and Josie relaxed into the running order. This was partly because I was so knackered by 7pm when we were meant to start and nobody likes to be put into agony in the later hours of the day.

Instead I went down to the Underpants where I failed to get hold of tickets for the Drama Society play due to the staff being unable to get them without the bar manager telling them where they were. I can't understand why you can't just pay to get in on the door like before, and posters are up everywhere advertising the play.
Steve, Ali and Tom were drinking pints from a large jug of blackcurrant flavoured Carling whilst watching the Man U V Benfica game. The excitement however went rather too high when Mr Wales knocked over Tom's glass after Man U scored their first goal! Being one who normally ends up with cherry stains I offered to take the blame for when Tom got back from buying the next jug!

Can I make a suggestion for inflatable chairs to be put into Studio 6 tomorrow? I'm starting to have a few second thoughts about the Studio Manager role and a few bright blow ups may make the job more bearable. I was originally going to suggest a punching bag...

Desperate Treatment

Today's been chaotic, we've all been working very tightly in preparation for our pilot magazine show "The Weekend Treatment". I was only told this morning that my feature on Wi-fi would be extended to 4 minutes rather than three which put me into panic once again. Especially with group members disapearing for long periods of time without proper explanations.

However I managed to edit down the interviews and the vox pops that I had down to around 3:40 and just need to put the music in that I'm going to use. Even if it does get a ribbing on Thursday it will put me on the right road should I get asked to do another feature for the assessed programme.
I really would have preferred to have done an entertainment/what's on based programme however which is what the other group are doing after we fought them to doing the health show. Especially as they get to go to the slides at the Tate Modern and promote features such as Nitin Sawney at the Jazz Cafe!

Ooh, I hate new challenges!

Rain And Radiation

Our magazine production meeting started off this morning with just about everyone turning out in good time, although I had to head off quicky into a very wet Central London to get my interview recorded with the Wi-Fi engineer for the University of Westminster on the Cavendish Campus.

The interview went quickly but I was very impressed with the information he gave on how wireless internet works as in the e-mail he sent me he mentioned that he wasn't that knowledgable of the radiation rumours.
I've got another interview to get done this evening after I've met up to discuss the my Propoganda essay. I may base it around political speeches and how the words that are used within them can itone or suggest propoganda.

This video below certainly inspired me, a book by John Stauber on America's embarrasment in Iraq and over reliance on public relations:
"The Best War Ever"

Tight Squeeze

Same sort of Monday at the Undercroft after last week's Smoke invasion , i.e less cheese and more RnB being played.
Still a good turn out including "Poulterguiest", Gemma and Lucie, who was very throaty by the end of the night comparing herself to sea witch Ursula from the Little Mermaid!
Actually she doesn't look too different to the maiden that Ursula disguises herself halfway through the film to tempt the prince away from Ariel! The one with black hair if you can't remember that clearly.

It all got a bit too out of hand towards the end especially when Seb started grabbing me and getting to close during "Hot Hot Hot". However that's just one of the many things about University when new meanings become associated with popular party tunes, especially if they remind you of rejection!

Audio Blog: Seasonal Disruptions

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Never Hire For Interview Work!

I had a pretty sleepness night yesterday with all the pressures of the Wi-fi feature and my essays getting to me. Luckily I'm seeing one of the people from CANDA this afternoon to hopefully put everything onto a horizontal line as opposed to vertical diagonal.

It's also the first of my shows at BXFM 87.7 this afternoon which will be very challenging especially as I'm not really sure what is involved within the three hour slot I'm helping out with although I am confident that it will speed by. I'm looking forward to meeting Heena as well and to see whether any chemisty will generate! A bit too hopeful eh?

Tinsel Filled Trivia

Quiz night took place once again at the Undercroft were I eventually managed to wrangle myself onto a team with Steve, Chris Jones, Alex and Tudor. We managed to come second although I'm certain we would have wone the money if they'd bother to listen to me saying the Monica Seles was the tennis player who got stabbed, during the sports round!
Not the only controversial decision as Tudor was convinced that the License To Kill was the first Bond movie not to be based on Ian Fleming's novels or short stories.

A Christmas theme was present tonight despite it being the early end of December in which Goodlass and Marshall gave what I'd imagine will be a taste of the sort of things I'll be having to play to the shoppers of Brent Cross from tomorrow!
Quite a lot of customers weren't happy when Ross Goodlass refused to play "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Macca and whilst I find the song to be pretty sickly myself I couldn't help but join in the jeering.

Ali popped over towards the end of the night where she was rather irritated towards all the Xmas proceedings and we all agreed that this time of year just isn't the same without the Coca Cola ads "Holidays are coming, holidays are coming" and so on. I've not managed to see the new Coke xmas ad that's replaced it despite having downloaded it just over a week ago!

Another "I'm Not Going To Live" Moment

That's what I see things turning into, I returned from Sainsbury's after hastily explaining to Smoke listeners about Carl's absence from his show, only to find Digital Village down again. With all this stress running round me I decided to have a mid afternoon nap only to be woken a couple of hours later by a text message asking me if I was around to help out in the studios an hour after they had shut down!
Why they need to be closed after 5 at weekends is just bollocks, especially when the third year students need to get their final projects completed.

Anyway I'm back online now (god knows how long for) which has allowed Lucie to give me more details on the Monopoly game from last night which I am a tiny bit jealous of missing.
When comparing each other to glue I'm like an empty Prit Stick as I can never stay attached to an activity or game for long enough.

Audio Blog - Hastily Filling

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Reconnect Me Back Now!

I'm in the Harrow library as my laptop is refusing to log me onto the internet even though it says it's connecting to the Digital Village site. If they have suspended my account I'm not going to be happy as all I did was switch my computer off in between my escapades in Harrow last night. I really cannot cope with this at all I would actually like to speak to someone from the internet provider in person and get questions answered that I've failed in doing so when ringing them up.

Aside from that, last night was good fun. I stopped off at Ross T's flat just opposite Nando's where I found out about the ventures of "Percy Lou's" Gemma and Lucy's business plans for a brothel and fast food restuarants with their rather saucy sounding drinks! Before it things started to get really exciting I headed to Jess and Linzi's party at Northwick Avenue where just about everyone from last night turned up including Pippa, Chris, Tudor and even Maz was rumoured to be around just before I arrived.

I can't really go into great detail on what happened as I had drunk so many WKD's that I brought with me but there was a lot of cavorting with a large inflatable VK bottle! Also Dave a third year CMP student managed find a rather hideous looking doll on a unicycle from the "forbidden room" on the top floor which after a load of drinks isn't the most friendly sight.

It could make "Dungeon Dosh" at the Undercroft a more pleasant experience!

Discouraged By Dead Ends

The planning for the Wi-Fi item hasn't exactly taken off at broadband speed, I failed to get any interviews from Game in Harrow or PC World making the planning that extra bit stickier. However Jon's sent out a running order for the show which means my role as studio manager will be easier than anticipated. Whether I'll find any consumer experts in time for the pilot remains to be seen.

Asides that I'm heading over to two places tonight, the first being Ross T's flat, slap bang in Harrow town centre where a game of Monopoly will be involved and then I'll make my way over to Jess and Linzi's for their do which they have been hassling me to go to after failing to turn up last time when my dentures more or less paralysed me.

Quite a lot of people at Uni are poorly at the moment, it's certainly not the most motivating time of year. Especially when I need to get all the presents brought for Christmas as my only my sister has been kind enough to ask what I want this year!

The Truth Comes Out

Last night was insane, there were loads of nutters about at Holly and Chris's joint birthday party especially after around 2am when I was completely knackered. From what I can remember Lawrens was stuffing balloons under his jumper and bursting them, and Chris had a load of birthday cakes brought in consistently with one looking as if it would set the whole place alight!
If that wasn't mental then god knows what tonight's going to involve at Jess and Linzi's.

However that's the least of my worries as I recieved an e-mail from Digital Village warning me that they would restrict my internet to dial up speed if I continued excessive downloading.
That's ironic really considering that I can barely run any media applications at broadband speed and because of this I sent a reply back explaining my disapproval of the service.

And guess what happened, my mail got returned.
Another nail added to what I hope will be become the coffin of the internet problems in halls.

Changes For Changes Sake

This mainly relates to the computer system on campus and Harrow Halls to an extent as they certainly haven't changed for the better.
The network of computers in the radio studios is now ran from the University itself as opposed to on its own, and the machines can be very petty about plugging in USB drives. This resulted in one of our items failing to get produced for our afternoon bulletin due to Audition failing due to a Marrantz overload.

Despite that this afternoon's bulletin went slightly better than this mornings although we need to get the techincal bit right. Charles is considering doing only one bulletin next week so we can practise the postioning of beds jingles etc in order to produce a tighter sounding show. Just goes to show that everything on radio doesn't operate by itself. Unless your on a tight budget of course.

Today's shows can be found here:
12:30 Bulletin
16:30 Bulletin

I'm not too worried about the news programmes themselves it's just getting people for the feature on the magazine show that's stressing me. However that can all be put to one side tonight as I'll be heading to the first of two parties this weekend for Holly and Chris's joint birthday party. I've seen their flatmate Pippa about today and she's dyed her hair purple for the occasion!

Best head over to get the colourful boozy bottles!

Broken Backtiming

I've been constantly told off by everyone for reading the travel too quickly in the afternoon bulletin of our "Newsbelt". It doesn't really help with having my back facing the clock in the booth where we're presenting from and they never run in sync anyway.

I'll let you judge for yourself later when todays shows are uploaded but it was techincal screw ups that let us down. The big problem has been playing all our stings off of one fader resulting in jingles crashing over each other. This is because the other RCS faders are linked to the Master Control playout which is needed to run Smoke Radio, and all the music on there has to be scheduled to exact time which Charles our module leader isn't too happy about.
And to make things that extra complicated we can only run Master Control from one studio at a time.
Hopefully this afternoon's show will go ahead more smoothly and steadily but my main concern is the Wi-Fi feature for next week's magazine pilot. It's all because I'm very nervous about just ringing people up and asking them for interviews as one of the things I need to build more confidence in is being able to continue with the job if things don't go to plan.
I may ask someone from Game in Harrow about the Nintendo Wi-Fi if they are happy to talk about it, and hopefully there will be a spokesperson for PC World or anywhere similar that sells Wi-Fi to talk about their alleged health hazards.

It doesn't help with certain other radio students just acting like idiots and making fun of me when I'm asking general questions to them. I'd love to find out what they are drinking.

Chill Pill

I felt a lot more relaxed after doing tonight's show, in terms of getting various tasks done for both the magazine show and Smoke overall. Possibly it was because most of the music was rather chilled for most of the show, especially Roy Ayers who I was chatting to Jon about just before the show.

Jon was flying solo tonight before me as Seb's been rehearsing for the Drama Society's production of Cinderella. I won't say who he is playing as it will ruin the jokes and reveal the many twists that the play has in store! What I can say is that on the way to the main campus I saw Joey, Dan P and Chris Jones carrying what looked like a rolled up rug. Maybe there is more than one fairy tale in this pantomime, it all builds together!

I'm hoping that I'll be able to hot foot it from Brent Cross to see the performance taking place at Area 51. Not as classy as the lecture theatre but the place does need to be used a lot more. I was even asked to DJ there tonight by Ross G but I'll favour the lava lamp and soft surroundings tonight ahead of the party at Pippa and Holly's house tomorrow night! More Red Russians will be available to guests!

Audio Blog - Wi-fi And Radiation

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Overworked As Always

Grrr, I'm badly starving, I've barely eaten today and my kitchen is taken by a load of Chinese students which is preventing me from getting any cooking done.

I've been off my feet constantly today, a lot of people needed to get their promos recorded and all the studios were being used. We nearly ended up recording one of them on a Marrantz! Luckily Sarah and Khalia let me borrow the studio they were using as they weren't happy with how their show was sounding. I am more than willing to put a motion for a whole day spent being desk trained on the BAMS radio course rather than 15 minutes.
They should also install special machinery into the studio that electrecutes people through their headphones whenver they are distorting!

Some of the ideas for the promos are really good, Chris and Phil took a "boredom alternative" approach to their's, whilst Sam and Phil (Harris) from the Dinner Party decided to shout "It's Dinner Time!" adding extra cheese to proceedings.
I'd imagine "Phil" has taken over from "Ross" as the common name for the first year BAMS students. With the latter I always remember getting liners back from Tim Ley unsure if Ross was prounced as "Roz".

And I thought "Blamires" was a bumpy ride.

Audio Blog - "Ponce!"

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Soul Extensions

I'm listening to the Capital Gold tribute to Alan Freeman and from all the anecdotes I've heard, there was no nicer guy in radio. Even allowing himself to be sent up on comedy shows such as "The Young Ones" and Harry Enfield you cannot fault the knowledge and passion he had for music of many styles.

It's been quite a day for me, I managed to get a few IDs recorded with the delightful Hannah Shoggy-Bola where she finally got my name pronounced correctly! Not only does she have the perfect imaging voice but she has the perfect image. It did get a bit embarrassing though, when Dan P popped in and started talking about her hair extensions, a topic which has always confused me to how it's really done. Posh Spice being the most obvious example.

I also recieved an e-mail from Jon about our magazine project where he's asked me and Ricky to research for a feature on junk food. It's a topic I'm interested in although I'm hoping I don't have to actually eat any of the stuff! I'll see if we can sort out a division as I think Ricky's really good at getting hold of people who will be good contributors. However it's important to try out new things although it seems as if I'm trying to conquer fears at the same time!

Never Hung Over

It's been a rather relaxed state of affairs today after the hi-jinks of the succesfull Undercroft night yesterday. I only ever seem to get close to a hangover when I've drunken liquids other than alcopops which makes me question whether beers and wines are delibaratley made to taste bitter.

The tributes to Fluff are coming in with an interesting anecdote on The Chris Moyles Show earlier this morning. Always one to reminisce about his career in radio, Moyles mentioned how Fluff defected to Radio 2 from Capital Gold by walking into a board meeting held by then group director Richard Park and announced his resignation in a matter of seconds!
On that same subject I'd best remember to record a special documentary that Capital Gold are doing in tribute of the radio god at 7pm tonight.

Otherwise just a normal day really, I've got to sort out my tutorial for my propoganda essay next week, which I got a few books out of the library for. The problem is, I feel more relaxed after hiring them out, but I'm too lazy to read them. If all books were written or laid out in the style of David Gauntlett's seminars then I'd be more keen to read them. I'm so jealous that the first year BAMS have got him for the Social Theory Module this year.

Farewell To The King Of Countdowns

First of all, the Smoke Undercroft night. Just superb, it was a walk in the park with the equipment during my set and I was really pleased it had pitch control on the CD players allowing me to beatmatch my music! It was also flattering to have a Japanese attendee coming up to me asking about the MAW remix of Incognito's "Always There". Which reminds me, I must feature some more Japanese jazz on the show this week. For those who missed it here's what I had to offer:

1. Heatwave - Boogie Nights
2. Incognito - Always There (Masters At Work Remix)
3. Inner Life - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
4. Freeez - Southern Freeez
5. Rose Royce - Is It Love You're After
6. Savanna - I Can't Turn Away
7. Ramsey Lewis - Spring High
8. Webster Lewis - Barbara Ann
9. Shalamar - Take The To The Bank
10. Slave - Just A Touch Of Love
11. Loose Ends - Hangin' On A String (Contemplating)
12. Tavares - Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel
13. Van McCoy - The Hustle

The rest of the night went really well with sets from Ross T, Joey, and Goodlass and Marshall rouding it all off with a stunning set including "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Final Countdown".

Just as I got back into the flat I noticed an instant message from Tim informing me about the death of Alan "Fluff" Freeman. Although it was inevitable it's a rather sad end to an otherwise fantastic night.
I'll never forget many a Sunday lunchtime listening to him counting down the charts of yesteryear on Radio 1 with snippets of the Trout Quintet and Bizet's Carmen in between the songs!
I'm hoping Tudor will do something in recognition of the great music enthisiast on his show tomorrow as Fluff was one of the finest rock presenters ever to grace the airwaves. Might be an idea to stick the legendary theme music onto Hotkeys!

RIP Fluff "Not Arf!"

Audio Blog: Shabba!

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Searching For Fabrication

I went for an appointment at CANDA this morning to discuss the potential ideas for my Propoganda essay. As it's a subject that I'm not heavilly knowledgeable on, I decided to put Corporate Propoganda and Photography And Propoganda as potential case studies. The tutorial's not until next week but I'm certain there are several examples of the latter to focus on such as Piers Morgan's dummy disaster that cost him his job at the Mirror a couple of years ago.

Everything's sorted for tonight although I have absolutley no idea how the equipment that I'm using tonight works or if I'm playing off CDs or a laptop. They really need to sort out the speakers however as the treble and bass levels are appalling at the worst of times. I'm wondering if it's all run off batteries? Or solar power for that matter?

Moving on swiftly, this sketch from the underrated BBC 2 series "Big Train" features Simon Pegg as a pun-filled local radio disk jockey and gives what I believe to be the truth on how they come up with quick witted lines! Not for the easily disturbed.

Take The S From Swanky...

Our unbeaten record came to an end tonight at the Undercroft Pub Quiz possibly because of a change of team name. As Lawrens was on our team this week we decided to adapt the name "The Lord And His Ladies", a move that probably wasn't ideal.

There was a controversial decision made about a question in which we had to explain why Eric The Eel got his name in the 2000 Olympics. Our team said that he was a rubbish swimmer but Goodlass and Marshall wouldn't have that, oh no.
They would only accept answers that gave specific details of the record for the slowest swimming time so a bit of heckling ensued! That and the Gaelic music that was playing throughout the quiz leading to Ricky and Ross making constant jokes about the answers being "hidden in the music".

Luckily I didn't spend too much money on booze and only divulged into one can of Fanta. I'm saving the strong stuff for our big night tomorrow! Speaking of which I was rather flattered on the way back to find out that the dad of Pete, one of the first year students reckons our playlist is better than both Radio 1 and Capital! Where else are you going to hear Fedde Le Grand followed by The Beatles?

Video Tasties: Visual Evidence!

Just to back up an earlier posting this weekend, here's the trailer for the repeats of The Chart Show starting on the Vault.
Notice that they've removed the ITV logo at the end!
And it's on Saturday mornings as well! No time like the past.

However I'm sure that some of the colourful stings and graphics will make their way onto Youtube soon after although a Sky Digibox or a new house even would be the perfect Xmas present! I can only dream...

Audio Blog: Stressfull Sunday

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Audio Blog - Repositioning

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(All previous audio blogs should be working now, on Smoke's unwanted webspace!)

Vertical Horizon

I've just spent that last few minutes moving my bed and the cabinet so that the bed is facing towards the shelf meaning that I can actually lie down on my back whilst using my laptop, rather than on my side.
After moving it I realised how many plastic bags have been left under my bed since moving back into halls but at least it provides a liner for the bin in my bedroom.

I'm still feeling rather nervous about the Brent Cross presenting gig and that timing wise I may not get to see the Drama Society's production of Cinderella. I don't know too much about this play but it doesn't sound like a normal pantomime from what has been hinted! To be perfectly honest I think we've got enough dames as it is on the radio course!

From Glasgow To Northwick Park Via The Ghost Train

15 years before appearing in Green Wing, Mark Heap appeared as part of alleged comedy double act "The Two Marks" on ITV's Ghost Train in the early 90s. This clip from Youtube features the duo performing a "Boo" on a football fan from Glasgow, although I don't understand why it's the person who's sent the letter that gets splatted! One of the many eccentricities of the erstwhile Saturday morning show.

I seem to remember the Two Marks coming to Canterbury to perform a Boo on an unsuspecting victim just after we'd moved to the city. This was done in a car park near the Castle Ruins and seeing the familiar locations on television was quite something at the time. Interesting considering that part of Green Wing was shot around the Harrow Campus near Northwick Park Hospital.

The concept of the show was that the presenters were travelling around the country with the Ghost Train to escape from Barry Mafia. If you think that's twisted then the storyline has to be the most pretentious within a children's programme judging by the comments I've found on Youtube:

(Quote from Pippo)
"Right the premise was thus:
Frances actually dated Barry for a while, Barry duped Frances grandmother to giving him the Ghost Train. She found out dumped Barry and along with Sabra and Paul stole the Ghost Train (Very first episode)"

Part 2:

They meet up with Nobby in a field (from where the first ep. was broadcast IIRC) and find Gerrard lurking in the shower on the Ghost Train (he was actually an unwilling slave of Barry Mafia)

Barry then spent every ep. trying to steal the Ghost Train back. Barry succeeds (with the help of a rather treacherous Nobby) in series 2 and keeps possesion for about half of series 3 before Nobby betrays him.

Part 3...

On the very last episode Barry Mafia dupes the gang once more (he offers a truce) and steals the Ghost Train and banishes Frances forever on the plabet Zajax (which they had previously visited). End of story, no coming back."

This was a Saturday morning kids show for fuck's sake! I could barely understand the plot-line back then and still can't now. Maybe this was a desperate attempt to make the show different from predecessor "Get Fresh" which featured snot ridden alien Gilbert travelling with a mulleted Gareth "Gaz Top" Jones around the UK in "The Millennium Dustbin".

However the wittiness of Nobby the Sheep and the attractiveness of presenter Frances Dodge made the show memorable for me. Probably just as well they kept Nobby on when the show evolved into the studio based "Gimme 5" with the even more charming Jenny Powell!
That's kind of coincidental considering the clip above steals the jumping video effect from "No Limits" when the girl gets splatted!

Video Tasties!

Just over a month after discovering the 1989 ITV Chart Show special on Youtube, I was pleased to find the final edition of The Chart Show from August 1998, especially as I accidentally taped over my own copy several years ago.
The Amiga esque graphics had been ditched in favour of more up to date looking captions at the bottom of the screen giving a chance to let the videos take center stage although on screen interviews had introduced by this time including one in this show with the Manic Street Preachers.

The highlight has to be in part 5 with Stardust's appropriately titled "Music Sounds Better With You" where on the absence of their own video, a montage of the various graphics from the Chart Show's 12 year history takes it's place! Also included at the end is the first ever video played on the show with the original HUD graphics featuring the Channel 4 logo as the show was originally a fill in show for "The Tube" before switching to ITV in 1989.

It seems that these Youtube postings have turned a few heads as "The Vault" on Sky Digital channel 456 plan to show vintage editions of the Chart Show from next month!
Now that would be a good reason to move from the satellite free Harrow Halls!

Entertaining The Rush

My ever helpful flatmate May helped to me to find out why the heating in my room wasn't working as it turned out that I hadn't found the switch behind the radiator! Why this wasn't the case in flat 31 I'm not sure but I'm guessing the buttons were put on for a reason to stop the fire alarms going off as a result of radiators being left on constantly.

I also received a call from the man behind BXFM 87.7 at Brent Cross Shopping centre, asking me to co-present the 4-7 slot with a woman called Heena. It's certainly a challenge but at least I'll get to do a bit of Christmas shopping at the same time. I'm due to start next Monday continuing on and off until the 21st of December timing it perfectly for when my family are heading up to Norfolk.
Overall I'm looking forward to it and being responsible for making the shoppers feel that extra bit more stressed!

No time like the present however there's another hole to fill between 2 and 3 tomorrow afternoon on Smoke, and I need to sort out what I'm playing at the Undercroft on Monday. And no, "The Conga" by Black Lace (or anything else by Black Lace for that matter) won't be featured if Ross T is reading this!

"Tiny" Mistakes

I decided to have a look on Blackboard to find out a bit more about next semester's modules, in particular the one on Internet Radio and Podcasting. It says that we have to produce a group website and an individual website that streams audio which sounds simple enough although I expect they'll be a few catches to it bearing in mind it takes up the remaining 6 weeks of the semester.

However the one thing that's got me through the course this semester is knowing what's going to be thrown at you, as it always turns out to be not as bad as you expect things to be. It's just ridiculous little things that can be solved easily that mess me up such as having to re-send an essay because it didn't have the correct title on it almost resulting in me getting marked zero.
That's what happened with my Media Consumption essay earlier this week although to be fair I was in a rush to get it done having been slowed down by my toothache pain.

As promised earlier our two Newsbelt bulletins from today can be found here:
12:30 Bulletin
16:30 Bulletin
Personally I think if Clara becomes more confident during the assignment she'll end up being our answer to Moira Stuart! I doubt Sally Traffic will have anything to worry about though, if she hears my efforts.

Audio Blog: Predictable Passings

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The Invisible Refurbishment

Nothing appears to be different at the newly relaunched Area 51. Well not on the inside anyway, but it didn't stop tonight from being a blast to open the club. So many people were there including a rather over excited Lamby and even Rayhan was there who helped to re-open Area.

The night started off with a cover band "The Austin Beats" playing a selection of 60s covers getting a good reception from their renditions of Monkees songs! Then Goodlass and Marshall took over with their fine selection of student anthems including a few unexpected choices such as "Since You've Been Gone" by Rainbow and "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" by Belinda Carlisle.
It all seemed to be going so well until they decided to finish off with Tom Jones and "Delilah" when the CDs started mistracking! Knowing how well the equipment at the Undercroft tends to fair on Pound a Pint night this was just a minor hitch!

So another long news day awaits tomorrow with the second set of our "Newsbelt" bulletins. I'm really enjoying the immediacy of the module but I really need to start contributing actual ideas and have a more colourful but simple way of writing cues. I'm starting to wish I was reborn with a more active and varied look on life and to feel more motivated without being intoxicated beforehand!

Audio Blog-Magazine Medicine & Area 51

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Audio Blog: The Long Wounded Side Of Media Law

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Loaded With The Hits

Variety appeared to be a key word on the mind of Ricky and Ross G as they needed several tunes to be burned onto CD for the big relaunch at Area 51 tomorrow night. It seemed like a mammoth task made that extra bit stressfull from Goodlass's interruptions and general mucking about but we managed to burn no more than 9 CDs in an hour packed with student classics. Oh, and the theme to Ghostbusters.

Seriously it will save them a lot of time having to hastily produce playlists for live events and I'm certain that tomorrow night at Area's going to be a blast.
Speaking of which my slot at the Undercroft next week has been moved an hour to 8pm meaning I don't have to hot foot it from my Media Consumption lecture! I still haven't sorted out what I'm going to play, especially as some of the tracks I've considered have ended up in Goodlass and Marshall's musical plethora.

The rest of the day has been spent sorting out Paypal payments from being delivered in the wrong currency and I managed to book tickets for Incognito on the 23rd of January, just two months away from today! I'm considering booking tickets for the Sunday gig as well just to spoil myself if I'm not too overdrawn.
Having never been to the Jazz Cafe on a Sunday it will certainly make a change from the Quiz Night at the Undercroft. Steve told me that he's planning a motion to drop the music round from the quiz just in order to show how poorly Team Swanky will fair as a consequence!

From Team Swanky To Widow Twankey

I've been in such a daze for most of today. Half of the day was spent editing promos and all sorts for Smoke on Audition which is a dreadful weakness for me. The great thing about that application is that the special FX on there can make even the not so radio friendly voices sound professional, judging by those who get people to record voiceovers at the last minute!

Speaking of which we managed to have our first proper group meeting with all the new and established team members, where there was talk about our night at the Undercroft next Monday and the possiblility of a radio pantomime being produced for Christmas! Ricky and the two Ross's have a few roles in mind for certain members and hinted at me playing the role of Cinderella!
I also managed to buy one of the spangly Smoke Radio t-shirts which along with the wrist bands and the calendar look set to add to our continuing merchardise range! I imagine a few appearing on E-Bay before long, especially as we've run out of small sized shirts. Guess that means Pryor's missed the boat.

It appears Tudor took my comments literally last week and introduced his show with "Take It Off The Top" the theme to the late Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show for many years on Radio 1.
Turn's out he's not the only one as I've taken a cue from Robbie Vincent in the trailer for my show. "If It Moves, Funk It!"

Fisticuffs Galore!

Ooh, it's been a pretty tough night on Harrow campus. On arriving at the Undercroft I ended up on the wrong side of an argument with fellow radio student, subjected to personal insults about my obsessive interest in radio and worries about people stepping on my toes. Luckily we managed to sort things out as he'd had a bit too much to drink on my arrival and was more understanding.

I'm not sure if I should be proud or guilty of having an obsessive interest in radio and audio imaging, and not exapanding my interests to other things. I've never been a huge cinema fan and am very timid about joining other clubs or societies, especially in Canterbury.

However that was the least of my worries as towards the end of the night as everyone was heading to Flat 22 as it was someones birthday whose name I can't remember. This lead to a few unauthorised people turning up in a rather packed flat corridor, as well as the police soon after by the time I'd got back to my room.
It makes me question why the same didn't happen last year when I was in the same situation in Flat 31 with the many unauthorised flat parties that took place. But it's tough enough getting an explanation from the security guards on duty to explain things in a simple sentence.

The Harrow Expedition

Another typical Monday really. I decided to eventually get my hair cut this morning although a more important thing I need to do is to go to the opticians and have my eyes checked as everything is becoming really distorted visually as well as just in general.

Right now I'm having a bit of a lie down before heading to Pound a Pint at the Undercroft having just returned from giving helping out with the live shows that have gone out tonight. Pippa actually came prepared with a few notes, whilst Paul and Ross on the Live Variety Show finished off their show with the He Man theme for the second time running!

Paul actually arrived late due to his train being delayed from his home all the way down in Richmond. You have to admire his dedication for getting here, although a few people on my HND Media course at college travelled as far as Southampton and even Essex to Canterbury every day.
Then again it's a bit of a journey from the halls to the main campus, especially in the wet weather we've had today.

Listen Simultaneously!

My continuing obsession with radio being a visual medium lead to this interesting compilation of ILR television ads from the mid 80s provided by North East radio enthusiast David Barras. This selection includes ads for LBC, Chiltern Radio, BRMB and Capital Radio.

Capital back then appeared to be trying rather too hard with the Graham Dene Breakfast Show ad being a fine example of mediocrity disguised as quality. Even more embarrassing the second one featuring Chris Tarrant around the time he took over the breakfast show in 1987 and who would have thought that one of the many "gimmicks" done on the show would have gone on to become a worldwide success with WWTBAM?
Apparently Chris will be making a surprise visit to Kent's airwaves presenting with his daughter Fia on KMFM this Christmas. Definitely one of many presenters who despite the large amount of television exposure still sounds more natural on t'wireless.

If Smoke was to go into television advertising I can imagine many cheesy costumes and set ups provided by Mr Ricky Marshall and Ross Goodlass! I'd probably stay away from such things if my photo on the calendar's anything to go by!

Team Swanky's Unbroken Record!

Another succesfull night for myself and Marc and Joe at the Undercroft pub quiz managing to win £40 betweeen us.
Alanna helped us out by doodling the answers and attempting to cover them up at the same time! One question that irritated us throughout the whole game was to name the American state which doesn't contain any letters from the name of George W Bush.
The answer was Indiana but there was a lot of confusion within the teams as to the differences between American cities and states.

Goodlass and Marshall presided over the questions accompanied by an inspired selection of 60s Cuban music on the PA, the same sort heard in the Guinness advert with the snail race. It certainly added to the preceedings of how random the game can get with those two in charge.

Speaking of which Smoke Radio's got another night at the Undercroft a week tomorrow and I've been asked to help out with the CD spinning between 7 and 8pm. I won't have much of an audience but it may be worth it, adding to the list of things I think I can do but inevitably can't. I'm definitely looking forward to it though, bringing the first of many rare groove nights to Westminster!

Audio Blog: Disabled Mouth Syndrome

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Petty Protection

Once again it was another struggle getting into the radio studios this morning as Ross T was having trouble getting the security to let us in. Apparently we have to have a permission letter from Matthew to the Security every week to let us in at weekends which is absolute nonsense. But then again it's not very suprising considering our history with the security on Harrow Campus and I'm sure it's the same at many other Universities.
Anyway we managed to get in before Ross went on air with his news roundup, and Ricky's given me permission to cover for an hour before Carl gets in for his gospel show. I'm not that loaded with material but it will certainly be interesting to see what it's like to work with Selector.

I have a suggestion for something to be added to the second floor of M-Block: a drinks machine. That's because it gets absolutley boiling in the radio studios and the machines downstairs are useless, swallowing money up and having bottles lying inside instead of standing vertically which means that they can't get out of the machine.

Or even better how about a electric massage chair? It will be ideal for us during the producing of our news and magazine programmes and I doubt I can see Matthew turning down the idea!

The Animation Attic

I have always had a soft spot for 5 minute long animations that are heavily missing from television nowadays.
I was lucky enough to find a piece of BBC 1 continuity from the 1984 into an obscure animation called "Out Of The Inkwell".
Whilst I wasn't that familiar with the cartoon, the names in the opening credits are including Max Fleischer who created Betty Boop and Hal Seeger who gave us Batfink which I understand CBBC is still repeating today.

I'm not sure if "The Inkwell" would fall into the category of political incorrectness in the present day with the fake Italian accents that are present in this cartoon. Then again it may be just as well that Mimo gets interrupted halfway into "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo" considering this animation was made in the early 60s.

What makes this clip particuarly interesting is that the programme is introduced with the BBC 1 globe decorated for the 1984 Olympics, although I believe the BBC got into a bit of deep water for not getting the IOC's permission to use the Olympic rings!