SIMple Inconviniences

I thought my mobile phone was on the way up until I switched it on and it asked me to re-insert my SIM card. I did just that and now it's not bothering to either switch on or power up. I'll give it another day hoping it will recover although if it fucks up again then I'm getting heading into Harrow to find the rock bottom replacement if in stock.

I managed to find out a bit more about our studio situation last Wednesday evening as those engineers who managed to screw everything up turned out to be portable appliance testers who are contracted by the University to come in on occasional evenings to check the portable electrical equipment in practical media departments. However the on site techncians weren't informed about this beforehand.
To make things worse the P.A.T. testers messed everything up with the stack for switching studios over, and also leaving a plug in a place that could cause a fire hazard.

For now though things are looking relaxed, the show's nearly sorted and I'll be heading over to what was formerly known as Bar Footsie although I very much doubt they'll have the flat screen TVs back in order to show the bargains. I hope there's some sort of special offer on as I don't want to end up drinking only orange Fantas tonight.

Slow Recovery

My visit into Central consisted of a ghost hunt of a slightly different kind and it wasn't that succesfull. I didn't manage to find the DVD of "Ghostwatch" in any of the places I went to in Central so it looks as if Tudor's my last resort who also happens to be going in the same direction with his Events essay. Whilst all this was going on I had the rather catchy refrain "Vaaya, Vaaya" stuck in my head after hearing the said track by the Earth Wind and Fire vocalist. Quite a lot of hardcore EWF fans seem to get annoyed with Phil Collins getting all the credit for his duet on "Easy Lover" as Philip Bailey was listed first on the label. I seem to remember Phil Collins managing successfully to su-su-sue a few of the musicians from the band over unpaid royalties for the gigs which they performed at in the early 90s which adds more salt to the wound.

Despite being unsuccesful in Central I got back to find that my mobile phone has finally started charging meaning that I don't have to splash out any cash to get a new one although some of them come pretty cheap at around £25. I may as well start sorting out tonight's playlist and hopefully this week I'll be back in spacious (well compared to studio 4) settings of Studio 6.

Dead Communication

No that's nothing to do with me as a person, but the fact that my mobile phone still isn't switching on after my accident earlier today. I'll sleep on it tonight but if it isn't working tomorrow then I will start worrying.

Helping to contribute to the run up for the UWSU elections in March, I came up with this promo voiced by Jon Lamb which for me has to be one of the worst promos I've put together. However I haven't played it to Ricky yet so hopefully he'll be slightly more optimistic than me but I guess it gives a relaxed attitude rather than sounding too "in your face". For once I'm quite interested to see who will be running for the posistions on offer, not least the VP Communications and Campaigns which involves supplying the bob for Smoke Radio. However I know that current occupant Rayhan will find something to be involved in after giving the postion over this summer.

Over in radio an unexplained absence meant that Tudor did a 2 hour rock show where we had such delights from Cream to Ofra Haza. Just before going on air we had a short chat about the "Time" short as posted here a couple of days ago and how the lecture assessing it criticised it as it looked as if they were just doing it for the sake of mucking about. Although this week it's going under the eyes of Geoffrey Davies one of the most complementary people on the Media Course at this University bar none.
Seriously if Alan Sugar decides to quit "The Apprentice" then Geoffrey would be the perfect replacement.

For now though I'll spend the rest of tonight on WedigTV.com and getting some shut eye before heading to Central to see if I can find the DVD of Ghostwatch for my Media Events essay.

Accidents A Plenty

I immediatley set to work on finshing my Critical Report for the Music Radio module this morning, although just after completing it at around 10am I realised that I hadn't gone into switch the RCS playout back to Studio 4 from Studio 6 as planned two hours earlier. This resulted in me rushing over from my room and dropping my mobile phone rendering it bust and I've no idea when it's going to start working again. Having been in this situation before, I really hope it's sorted out by tonight at least.

In the meantime I finally got round to listening to last week's edition of Grooveline that I recorded last Friday which featured a superb track by EWF vocalist Philip Bailey from his debut solo album "Continuation". This was a catchy but very sweet number called "Vaya" which I'll admit made me break down although this had nothing to do with the album being an absolute bugger to get hold of. Eespecially as it's never been released on CD to date.

For most of the afternoon however I have spent a very large amount of time sampling the pleasures on offer from a site called WeDigTV.com.
In the same line as the very addictive broadband version of Bullseye the guys behind it have given the same treatment to gems such as Blockbusters featuring the voice of Pinner resident Bob Holness, Catchphrase which I am finding terribly addictive with Roy
Walker's suave tones and Family Fortunes which for some reason has the inferior Vernon Kay taking proceedings rather than Les Dennis. Then again it could be worse if it Andy Collins was hosting.

I can see this site becoming a really bad weakness over the next few days.

Slightly Hung Over?

I'm always happier when I'm busy with things provided that they don't cause anxiety and yesterday was pretty much that agenda. I was up in radio until around 9pm sorting out the rest of the promos for our Red Nose Day broadcasting marathon where Seb, Jon and Aussie Dave were struggling to write their critical reports, Jon in particular suffering from writers block trying to evaluate his role as the newsreader which for a music show is pretty minimal.
I always feel more comfortable writing essays or other written documents in the confines of my flat on my bed which may not be the most orthodox method but it's certainly more relaxing.

Later that evening I headed down the Undercroft where I think I was the only second year radio student present. Decio was on the decks spinning mid 80s grooves on my arrival although most of the stuff that got spun was predominantly R&B with some short bursts of cheese. I didn't spend too much bob on drinks although I ended up choking on one of them as a result of drinking it a bit took quickly. This resulted me in feeling a bit queasy for the rest of the night although luckily it didn't end in anything too drastic. As we were leaving, Impey was effing and blinding her way back to the flat over jokes about getting herpes whilst hugging random fellas in the car park. I really needed to have a nice lie down although for the third night running the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night which may result in me permanently putting my duvet cover in the shower room for a quieter night.

Addicted To Cancer Sticks

After another Media Technology lecture that went on longer than it should have done I got a text from Ricky asking me to pop up to the studios to write and record some scripts promoting our 24 hour broadcast for Comic Relief taking place in a couple of weeks. However we had to record them twice as a result of me leaving one of the faders up causing a bit of distortion although I didn't realise that until I'd got back to the flat and listened to them!
Ricky seems to be wanting to use anything related to the number 24 in these promos so one of them's based round the obvious example featuring Keifer Sutherland, and one of the others rather bizarrely includes a dig at BBC News 24. I'll have a look at getting a few uploaded here when they're done.

Earlier this morning I also found a rather disjointed but very interesting compilation of various extracts from the early days of The Krypton Factor including the full titles from the 1984 Grand Final. The titles themselves are definitley adventurous although the theme music from that era is nowhere near as catchy as the Art Of Noise theme that many people around my age grew up with.
Presenter Gordon Burns also makes an appearance in this extract from the ITV Night Time series "In Bed With Medinner" where he is seen in a clip from a programme allegedly designed to encourage people to give up smoking. However three quarters of the way into the clip it tends to take a step back in more than one way, that could only be done in the early 1980s.

It reminds in a way of Tilley's speech at the SRAs when he asked Jo if she could still resist smoking to which Jo nervously replied "Yes!" despite having a few drags before going on stage!

A-Ha!

Last night was spent watching the first two episodes of the 1989 series of The Krypton Factor on Ftn, where by that time then it had become an essential part of Monday night viewing in our house. The first episode was a treat as the Observation round involved spotting the continuity errors in a specially made edition of the gameshow Treasure Hunt featuring Kenneth Kendal and Anneka Rice and that superb theme tune still seeing light from it's daily outings courtesy of Chris Moyles.
It also featured appearances from Steve Coogan taking the place of Andrew O'Connor as comic relief for the Observation rounds, both of whom have gone on to have very succesfull comedy careers. O'Connor in particular now of course being the executive producer of Peep Show and the magician film that Mitchell and Webb are about to star in although we'll try and forget his stint as a gameshow host including that rather appalling clone of "Bob's Full House" called "One To Win".

I've finally managed to get my Media Technology essay sorted out although I may take it to Sue when I go to see her for my appointment this afternoon just to get it proof read. Whilst I don't think it's completley coherent the overall aim of the first essay is to iron out the problems that can be avoided in the second essay. Provided the lecturers can hand it back with a fair amount which this year has been rather poor as far as theory modules go.
I'd best get a can of Red Bull ready for today's lecture.

Resisting The Money Magnets

I really need to start going easy on spending money especially after last nights rather disapointing outing into Central. I'll try to avoid buying anything that's less than a pound at the Undies which shouldn't be too difficult provided that it's only on Monday night that VKs are £1 per bottle. I've even had to resist the temptation to a special gig in April in tribute to the late Paul Tubbs Williams which will be featuring performances from Central Line, Orphy Robinson, Beggar and Co and Junior Giscombe amongst many others. Although I thought Bluey and the guys did a very fitting tribute of their own to him at the Incognito Jazz Cafe gig back in January.

I found out tonight that it really wasn't worth buying that large bag of easy cook rice from ASDA last week as it was very dry, and had a rather strong wheaty taste which wasn't good alongside the mince I made it with. Either that or I should have waited longer than 20 minutes for it to cook but it's one of the things I'll definitely be bringing back to Canterbury and leaving it there. Even really tiny things such as rice and pasta taste different here than they do at home.
Luckily I've still got some mince left over for tomorrow so I'll probably use it alongside some delicious pasta bows.

Moving onwards I managed to find an episode of a vaguely remembered chidren's series, "Noah And Nelly" from the same stable as Roobarb. This shares many similarities to the escapades of the green dog including the wobbly animation, white backgrounds and a rather farty sounding theme tune.
Richard Briers is on narration duties once again, alongside the late Peter Hawkins responsible for many voices including Ben from the Flowerpot Men and the Chief from Jimbo and the Jet Set.
For some reason it gives a terrible craving for wobbly jelly yoghurts along the lines of the Munch Bunch.

Forget The Oscars (Or the Sonys For That Matter)

I've uploaded the "highlights" of the Retro Room show from last Friday which I think is the best practical piece of work I've helped to work on as part of the BAMS radio course although as you can probably hear we're not professionals at reading important information.
Even more amusing is this offering from the TV students "The Times They Are A Changing" done as part of their Creative Video module featuring one of our ex students David Jackson travelling forward in time but with the silent movie element staying present throughout.
Ross Goodlass's girlfriend is also seen as the woman Jackson's after although my initial thoughts on seeing this was that it was Goodlass dressed in drag!

Once again it was an early start for me as I wanted to get my Media Technology essay out of the way. I nearly acheived that aim although the word count is a tiny bit low so I may add an section looking at the social factors of the telephone as that's probably the only invention before the Second World War that I think I'm confident about analysing.

I then headed up to the radio rooms where it was empty for most of the day until Phoebe showed up to record the Dry Ice show for tomorrow and Carl arrived to do this weeks live Gospel Show. It was the first time Phoebe had presented the show on her own as the other girls were off home this weekend but it seemed natural enough as she put's the most work in to preparing every show!
Her words not mine, but it manages to sound perfectly chilled every week with a very eclectic selection. This week some of the highlights included a chilled Ibiza version of "Riders On The Storm" by the Doors and a track from Mr. Scruff's "Keep It Unreal" album, the name of which escapes me.

Ideally I'd love to do a one off show for Smoke possibly towards the end of the year where I get to play wide weird range of records that wouldn't usually be played on my normal show such as Tracy Chapman, 808 State, Count Basie and even Napalm Death where appropriate. It may even make Mum and Dad want to listen.

Trapped In A Tight Center

A birthday do was in order of tonight's proceedings as Joey had asked as many people as possible to turn up in Central to give Jacko a surprise evening out for his 21st birthday. I'd say we'd almost achieved the aim as the Leicester Square/Picadilly Circus area isn't the best place to go out on a Saturday. We still had a fair amount of people turning up including Dan P, Ricky and Pippa, Pippa Selleck Taylor and a few of Jacko's housemates where our plan was to go for a meal a TGI Friday's followed by bowling at the Trocadero.

TGI's however had a 90 minute wait for a table catering for the 10 of us so we headed down to Chiquito's in Leicester Square which was bearable. I went for the Chilli Con Carne which I finished pretty quickly depsite the mince being a rather spicy and the rice being a tiny bit sweet for my liking. We then went over to the Trocadero where there was a long wait for bowling so we headed downstairs and had a cavort on the dodgems and I spent money on just about every physical based arcade machine I could find such as the electric chair, the punchbag and so on.

After struggling to find a bar in the area that wasn't rammed and had somewhere to sit down, we decided to head home although getting the past the barriers and the escalator was a nightmare as they were more rammed than any of the bars or restuarants by the looks of things.
I started to get a bit depressesed on the tube from Baker Street to Northwick Park as Jacko and Dan P started going on about how they weren't happy about favouritism getting in the way of good marks with practical projects and whether they plan to stay in London after their degree.

With the way things are going with regards to sorting my C.V. and I would feel better having a job in radio back in Canterbury or nearby rather than London as I'd probably find it a bit too manic for my liking in the long term.
I'm actually thinking about coming back to Canterbury just for a weekend or so, before this semester ends mainly to help lighten the load for mum and dad by taking a few possessions back that I barely use in halls.
I suppose it's best feel depressed about the possible outcomes of the third year now so it won't feel as bad when the time actually comes.

All Work, No >PLAY>

A very early start for me this morning as I was continuing with my Media Technology essay which is due in for next Friday. I've said it before when in this situation but what I've written down is definitely the biggest load of bollocks I have come up with because the question is asking about the "social factors in the development of mass media technology" and I've only really answered it in one paragraph amongst several other just explaining about the development of the inventions themselves. Still I always look at it with the "own medicine formula" as I've had to endure the lecturers going on for hours about these theories which barely make sense to me and I fancy doing the same to them with my essays.

One person who noticed me being up at this unusual time was Sam AKA Skimpy Impey, who MSN'd me whilst on air presenting breakfast at Mix 107 in South Bucks, prompting me to listen in. First time I've heard her present solo and she sounds fantastic, kind of reminiscent of Jakki Brambles when she was at Radio 1 all those years ago. The show's broadcast as part of the station's strand "The Big Fun Weekend" which to me could suggest that they constantly play delights such as "Can't Shake The Feeling", "Handful Of Promises" and of course their cover of "Blame It On The Boogie". Ooh in an ideal world eh?

Luckily I've managed to get halfway with my essay thank goodness and am a bit more positive after receving a few welcome gifts in the mail, namely DVDs of all the episodes of the Chart Show broadcast on the Vault so far, thanks to the lovely and very generous James Hadfield who's probably just as passionate about it as I am. He's also included his own attempt at an episode as featured on this blog not long ago which I look forward to seeing in crystal quer, sorry clear quality (little in joke for those in my Retro Room group) although I'm preventing myself from watching them until I've got all the written stuff done at least.

Whilst it's fun watching the episodes being broadcast in it's original Saturday morning slot they seem more entertaining when watching them after getting back from the Undercroft on Pound A Pint night. In fact I crave to hear the musical stings from the show being played in a DJ set at the Undies in between Kanye West and Justin Timberlake or even have them displayed on the video screens! If there were any in the bar of course.

I'd best continue with the Critical Report for the Retro Room show and I reckon I'll be critical of myself more than any other member of the group as they probably had more sense than me and my idea of what how music radio should be done is about 15 years behind their perspective.

Silver (Hair) Anniversary

One of the features within todays show involved me giving details on events in popular culture that took place on this day in years gone by. However I had no idea that one of them was the 25th anniversary of Phillip Schofield's first appearance on television and judging by this video extract from today's This Morning neither did the man himself!

This highlights package looks back on the many different periods from the multi-talented man's career who for me is the finest male broadcaster bar none with his lively personality and cheeky sense of humour which comes into play during the clip of his first appearance on This Morning with the late Caron Keating.
One of the finest moments involving the Schof which oddly enough didn't make it into that montage was when he was presiding over the Live Line feature on Going Live! when he got the wrong number of the participant and ended up with a rather nervous sounding young fella on the line who wasn't the best of speakers. When finally getting through to the chosen caller it turned out that she knew the boy who had made it to air prompting Phillip to ask her "Is he thick or something?!"

Only Phillip could get away with such lines as that because of his charm and wide popularity with viewers. This of course being the man who spent a large amount of his career involved in a relationship with BBC producer Paul Smith's hand.
Overall to do our live assessed radio show 25 years to the date of his first television appearance is definitely something. Even if it is that trivial.

Solid Mould

I had another accident with the bedside lamp whilst sleeping last night meaning that I had to buy some more bulbs from Woolworths this morning. This seemed like the better option than the electrical store in Kenton considering I brought a set of 4 bulbs for £1.99 rather than pay £3.99 for an energy efficient bulb. Not ideal in terms of saving energy but for now I'd best stick to saving money.

The long awaited Retro Room show went ahead as planned this afternoon where I felt more confident than last week although I'm not sure if I sounded more relaxed. We had the addition of a phone in competion this week which I really enjoyed although during the debriefing Matthew suggested that I could have built up more tension whereas I was more like Bruce Forsyth on Play Your Cards Right;

Me: "OK, so in which year did colour TV make it's debut in the UK and The Beatles release their album Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band?

Caller: "I think it could be 1967?"

Me: "1967 you say.."

WINNER SFX

Me: "Well done, that DAB radio is coming your way"

I'd imagine Mick Brown's breakfast show is to blame through it's feature "Play Your Charts Right".

I also got told that I spoke more often than I should have done throughout the programme especially with the overblown programme menus. And whilst technically the show flowed well, we were told that there wasn't really a flow with the mood of the music throughout the show as there were too many uptempo tracks and we could have used more downtempo tracks which would have fitted in well with the acoustic style of our live band who we had performing. However the biggest laugh came when Dave Baldwin our O/B producer suggested "why don't we have the Doors on the show?" to which I replied "Isn't one of them dead?" thinking he was suggesting that we got them to perform live!

I'll get a few of my links from the show uploaded later in the weekend but in the meantime a selection of the ads that were played in the show including Ross Tilley playing it camp in an ad for Local Broker and one about preventing the use of mobile phones while driving which near the end sounds more like a bollocking from a headmaster rather than a radio advertisement.

After our debriefing we headed up for a few drinks at the Undercroft where Matthew brought us a round. Also joining us were Steve and Ricky from the other group along with Steph one of the journalism students and Jo's flatmate adding to the fun. I spent quite most of my spare coins in the jukebox which has been mended although there was a limited selection of songs meaning we had to endure "Vogue" by Madonna and the same Lisa Stansfield track played twice within an hour!

At the time of writing I've got a critical report to get done for next Thursday as well as my Media Technology which is due in the day after which I'm really nervous about. I'll give both of them a shot tomorrow although in the evening I need to be in Central for a special occasion which I'll probably revealing every detail about come Sunday morning.
Overall I'm really happy that I got to take the presenting role as part of an assessed module on the course and it has been useful in learning that radio isn't always adlibbed as it sounds on air.

The Retro Refresher

Another long day spent sorting things out for tomorrow's show and once again the facilities were rammed. Thankfully they sorted the stack issue from last night meaning that Studio 6 was working again meaning I could listen to the other groups Funk Soul Nation show. Overall it went well as Ricky sounded a lot more relaxed and technically things went pretty well most of the time. One key difference was that this week they used genuine phone calls for the competitions where after the previous caller had failed to guess the correct answer in their competition they got Mal the Radio Journalism lecturer to play the part of a caller called "Steve" although it was heavilly overracted and Ricky ended up naming the caller as Mal on air!
The music contained a bit more funk alongside the soulful stuff although I thought there could have been more contemporary songs included and Matthew wasn't sure about the inclusion of songs by the Drifters and "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals.
It felt good however when after playing a Kenny Thomas track Ricky mentioned that he was the support act for Level 42 on their tour last year!

All the jingles and commercials have been completed for my group as has the running order which contains a brilliant selection of tunes with artists as diverse as The Mersey Beats and Talk Talk, and we finally managed to find out how to set the rules for Selector, i.e no more than 2 male artists back to back etc.
I'd best make get writing the critical report which to be honest I should have started weeks ago but that's how things are for me when it comes completing vital tasks.

Let Me In NOW!

I'm not in the best of moods this morning due to the petty porters on Harrow Campus refusing to let me go into M-Block until 8:15 for some non-specific reason. This is in spite of the doors to the courtyard being open making it look easy to get in which is rather annoying as I've got to get the logging done for the music used in the branding. Not just for my group but the Soul Funk Nation team as well as I supplied the beds they used to make their IDs and have all the publishing and composer details.

Last night's Bar Footsie was non-existant due to all but one of the flat screen monitors being stolen from the bar the previous night meaning they couldn't display the prices of drinks going up and down. However this didn't stop a fair amount of people from turning up including a weird fella who got a bit too tipsy and started grabbing on the metal bars as if they were monkey bars to playful encouragement. The majority of the first years were also there as was Ricky, Pippa and Chris Jones who ended up in a few playful arguments with Chris Chilvers from the first year. However my major problem was that I wore a rather comfortable t-shirt resulting in my sweating really badly towards the end of the night so I now know what I shouldn't be wearing on that sort of night out.

Technically Challenged. For Once

Oh my, today was a nightmare in terms of getting stuff done for our assessed show on Friday. There's a bit of confusion within both groups of using functions on Selector that we weren't taught to do but apparently have to use for our final show. Despite several phone calls to RCS we were continuously put on hold and this will certainly be an issue that gets put through to the next course comittee meeting as it's ridiculous having RCS taught by two radio students rather than getting a professional within the industry to explain how it operates.
Or even better, Matthew Linfoot the senior lecturer in radio could be given a crash course on RCS and all the other computer equipment that he doesn't know how to use, just to make things a lot less stressfull for us and to have a member of staff who is readily available to give us a hand if we don't know how to use a specific function of the software.

That was the least of my worries by 7pm as a couple of "helpful engineers" checking the electricity in RP2 had done something to the stack in which stopped us from switching studios meaning that Smoke International started 15 minutes later than scheduled and had to come out of Studio 4 or as I like to call it The Broom Cupboard. Natasha was on her own this week although I gave her a hand with operating the poorly organised desk in the studio which I also used to do tonight's soul show, along with a CD player that had an LCD display that was bust! What irritated me when leaving the studios was that the engineers had said that they would go to check inside Studio 4 tomorrow evening which means that everything could go kaput as far as the station's concerned.

It wasn't all bad however as the photo shoot for Smoke took place where quite a lot of the presenters were present to have their mugshots taken. Some of the highlights included Ina attempting to pose as Grace Jones and Tudor making use of the wind generator for his shot. I on the other hand had photos taken at every angle possible including the obligatory lying down shot, although this time I was lying on my front!
It may be the first cheery photo taken of me wearing glasses.

"Givin' It Up, Givin It Up"

Media Events today was made up of an analysis of how the war in Vietnam was covered and a seminar discussing the arguments between rolling news or normal bulletins. Trendy Hendy was also kind enough to give us a photocopy each of a chapter from one of the texts relating to fear and panic by Joanna Bourke which will really be a welcome addition to getting the essay done. If only the same could be done with Media Technology, a module that I'm starting to regret choosing.

Afterwards I headed up to radio where Josie, Stevie and Tudor were also sorting things out for their shows. We had a little chat about whether we would be giving anything up for lent and Josie seemed very unsure as she'd given up crisps one year and booze in another if I remember correctly. Funnily enough earlier today I was watching the Father Ted episode where Ted, Dougal and Jack were trying to give up fags, rollerskating and alcohol respectively and the moment when Father Jack finally becomes sober has to be a very witty piece of comedy.

Pretty busy tomorrow as more stuff needs to be sorted for our assessed Retro Room show on Friday, having my photo taken for the Smoke Radio presenter photos and Natasha's asked me to give her a hand with the International show before my soul show, which looks like a challenge but we'll see how things go. On the plus side there's Bar Footsie and Buzzocks as the ideal reward at the end of a rather busy Wednesday.

A Lower Level

A bit of a lie in this morning although I eventually decided to get up and make a start on my Media Events essay about television and radio broadcasts that have cause fear and panic. I've luckily managed to get hold of an MP3 copy of the CBS radio broadcast of "War Of The Worlds" which I know I won't be the only one analysing and may consider getting the DVD of the controversial "Ghostwatch" broadcast on BBC 1 in 1992. The infamous mockumentary in which Michael Parkinson presided over the paranormal goings on at a house in Northolt which many viewers believed to be genuine.

Some light amusement here, Level 42 making an appearance on the first episode of the Fast Show in 1994 performing their recent hit "Forever Now" only to be told by Paul Whitehouse to "piss off". I'm not sure how that sketch came about but ironically the band split up shortly after the show was aired. Now back together of course, I'm hoping they return to do at least one more date in London before I finish Uni. Definitely an experience when in the presence of "Thunderthumbs"!

Deck Damage

Another Monday night at Pound a Pint where nowadays it's pretty sparse at around 10 and it's not till after 11 when things really get going. It was DJ-less when I arrived although Chris and Phil filled that empty hole not long after their arrival. Their stint on the decks didn't last long however as two fellas who looked around 13 years old took control of DJing and they couldn't mix a pack of cards. There were records finshing with dead air and very poor crossfades which didn't go down too well with the attendees so the dynamic duo took control for another hour or so. The guy that took over before closing time wasn't as bad as he'd brought a few vinyl pieces with him consiting of hard house remixes of "Tainted Love" and "The Power" by Snap! amongst other floorfillers.

Also there were the Kilburn lot consisting of Jo, Joey, Steff and Becky and I had to endure a conversation with Joey and Tom saying how the first year was so much better than how things are now and how they barely know anyone when visiting the bar. That saddened me slightly although living in halls has it's perks as I've got people to lean on to in the first year when those in my own year either get big headed or turn into miserable so and sos. I'm still struggling on long term bonds with people as I'd never be able to find someone who I can click well with and want to move in with if I was to move into a proper house.

Overall, University for me is just something to put a nervous breakdown on hold for three years.

Battling With Barcodes

I seem to be very lucky with getting out library books recently as I've always managed to get the last avaible copy that's on shelf. This turned out to be the case again after getting another book to help me with my first Media Technology essay which I've managed to get as far as writing down the introduction, and even that was tricky enough. I may do the same with my Media Events essay tomorrow just to make me feel more relaxed that nothing hasn't been left out completely.

I spent the best part of today helping Nina to log the music and add barcodes for our assessed Retro Room show for Friday where we managed to add a few tracks including Tainted Love by Soft Cell, Invisible Touch by Genesis and Part-Time Lover by Stevie Wonder which Nina was very enthusiastic to put on!
Also added were various tracks by Queen, Phil Collins and even Level 42!
We managed to get feedback from Matthew who had listened to the pilot in record time after I'd uploaded it to him. Whilst I need to avoid giving specific details on release dates, the main concern we have is the scheduling of music and why we weren't taught on how to alter the rules on Selector to make sure that a fair quota of male and female artists get played for example.

I know that it's never going to be possible to learn everything technical on this course.

Same Old Store

I made a visit to an old haunt this morning, well almost. The ASDA in Wembley was my port of call to get a few extra wares and the inside barely looks any different from the one in Canterbury. I may not be shopping there that often whilst I'm here, although I did take the advantage to buy some proper conchiglie shell shaped pasta, and a large amount of easy cook rice which hopefully will be nicer and less dry than what Sainsbury's have to offer.

I then went up to radio where we had a few problems with the Selector computer in Studio 6 shutting down constantly during the Crossway show which was in the hands of Poulterguiest and Ross Powell. Whilst I found it pretty intimidating it started to behave itself after an hour or so when Carl arrived to present his Gospel show for this week.
Two of the Dry Ice girls came up as well to record their show for tomorrow which featured some interesting selections by Joni Mitchell, 4hero and even Black Sabbath bizarrely enough.

No Media Technology lecture tomorrow thank goodness as it's reading week so I may see if I can make any attempt to start my essay due in a week on Friday. As long as I get the introduction done I'll be happy.

2s Company

Tonight's double bill of Bullseye was worth watching as it was the finale of the 1988/89 series and the opening of the 1989/90 series. Barely any difference really between the two of them except that the animated Central endcap had been dropped by the start of the 1989 series due to the corporate ITV logo being introduced across the network. Despite it being one of the most memorable (and rather scary) idents from my younger days I didn't realise that it had a short run on air as it wasn't introduced until around halfway through the 1988 series of Bullseye.
It was also amusing to here how Jim Bowen pronounced Kenya as "Keenya" which was the star prize hiding behind Bully in both shows, won and lost respectively.

On the subject of idents, BBC2 unveil their new set from tomorrow and from the still images that I've seen it looks like they're returning to the wide range of 2s that graced our screens before they all had to be done behind yellow backgrounds. The concept involves the 2 being the "window on the world" as taken from the shots on the BBC Press Office site.
Then again it also appears to taking cues from the current Channel 4 idents by having the logo shot in peculiar postions.
With all these idents on the terrestrial channels being shot in far flung locations with expensive designs, it's an example of evidence as to why programming content is sinking lower.

"Auntie Knows Best"

I recently stumbled over a blog posting made by CMP lecturer and one half of the Shuffle boys, Adam Hodgkins speaking about his disgust of the BBC and their treatment of experimental and specialist output made even more notable by the axing of Mixing It on BBC Radio 3.
The comments made on the BBC's current radio output are spot on, but even more relevant is the fact that the BBC rely heavilly on their archive of material from the last 30 years, and how the material they are producing now won't be regarded as fondly in years to come.

Whilst Adam's post covers experimental music, the same issues are just as relevant to other areas of the corporations output.
This came to mind over Christmas when they broadcast the Swap Shop programme celebrating 30 years on Saturday morning television and how shows such as "The Saturday Show" and TMi won't be as well remembered as Swap Shop and Going Live!

On a similar subject I stumbled across this clip of Going Live! from 1990 where Cliff Richard lends his hand into helping out with the prize picks which until the introduction of e-mail and texting was an integral part of that show and in Live And Kicking in it's early days. It was certainly the era when bobs were in fashion as shown by Emma Forbes and Sarah Greene in the above clip and I demand that hairstyle to be brought back into fashion!

Library Record Timing

I made a visit to the Harrow campus library this morning where I was lucky enough to get hold of the last copies of the very key texts for both the Media Technology and Media Events modules. The next step is to start reading them and although it may be a struggle I'm certain that the Brian Winston's book on Media Technology will be ten times more inspiring than the lectures on the module.

Having said that, last week there was a moment of light relief when they showed a photo from 1954 of what they expected the home computer to look like 50 years later.























Convienience summed up perfectly.

Apart from that it's been pretty quiet, save from me accidentally knocking over my lamp last night and having to buy a new bulb. It's rather big as it actually goes above the lampshade so my room probably won't look as erotic as it could. Then again I also need to get another extension lead as I have to use my existing one to plug my TV and Freeview box into the kitchen plug in order to record the delights offered by Ftn and tonight's no exception.
I may also finally get round to watching The Brit Awards from Wednesday although I'll only be watching it really for the rather dodgy jokes made by awards host Russell Brand.

Fingered By The Fuzz

Before heading over to see Hot Fuzz, myself, Chris, Phil, Stoobie, Pete and his girlfriend Siobhan headed over for a few drinks at the Underpants. It appears that radio isn't the only part of the Uni where the equipment is stuffed as I was struggling to use the touch screen function of the bar jukebox which resulted in me choosing Jive Bunny and Sonia to be played in the Harrow water hole.

We headed over to the VUE at around 9 where I managed to smuggle my way into screen 3 with no problems at all. It turns out that we weren't the only Uni students present as about 3 quarters of Flat 307A in Harrow town centre turned out as well including Poulterguiest, Gemma and Lucie. We even managed to spot Irish charmer Sean Curran as we were walking out who is always surrounded by women whenver we see him.

The film itself was brilliant, pretty violent in places but done in a very witty manner. This was supplemented by a superb cast, a who's who of British Comedy including Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan, Adam and Joe, Bill Bailey, Kevin Eldon and Paddy Considine of Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes fame. Not forgetting lead actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in personas not too different to their zom-com.
I was also rather surprised to see ex Bond Timothy Dalton in there as well playing the owner of a supermarket!

As we were going out of the VUE and along the footpath a few of us were rather annoyed to see a genuine police car driving across which nearly prompted me into angrily chasing the vehicle in a joking manner. Just sums up the hypocrisy of big organisations where they try to break their own rules. It was actually pretty noisy on the roads as we went past the Watford roundabout near the main campus which may suggest the film itself has had an inspiring effect on the Metropolitan Police. A must watch overall if you're not too squeamish.

Raucously Retro

The pilot for the Retro Room took to the skies and was a great opportunity for us to see what could work and what wouldn't work as well as it could for our assesed show next week. The first few links were rather nervous with Selector only playing the final 10 seconds of the tracks that were scheduled which messed up our running order for the first hour. During the feedback Sue suggested that rather than mention the artist and song title before and after a track, I should tease the listeners by starting the song off by saying something along the lines of "do you remember this one from 1982?". I had opposing views to making my links sound as contrived as that but I do need to be slicker with my segueways.

The main talking point was the live link up to the band performing in the basement as they weren't the greatest of interviewees and the mics were set up incorectly for one of the songs. There was also the debate on making sure there would be better communication between the studio and the live room as studio producer Ina got into a bit of a panic when I moved one of the songs earlier in the running order due to my mishap with Master Control meaning that we had to cut one of the OB links to two minutes.
The positive feedback we got included the brilliantly produced and put together ads which fitted in well with the Capital Gold format and there should be more to come by next week in time for the assesed show.

I need to spend more time however liasing with Ina and the music producers to make sure there's a fairer quota of male and female artists so I'll meet up with one Nina, one of the music producers on Monday to give her a hand adding a few late 80s tracks to the playlist along the lines of Level 42, Bananarama, Yazz and Lisa Stansfield. Overall I thought todays effort was superb.

Just returned from Harrow where I've managed to book tickets for Hot Fuzz. I also managed to bump into Heena from BXFM whilst waiting at Northwick Park station and she's doing OK, still working in Levis at Brent Cross. Hopefully she hasn't had any more nasty experiences getting her feet trapped in storage boxes.
A bit of a dilemma has arisen regarding Hot Fuzz at the VUE as my tickets are booked for 9:30 at Screen 4 although Chris, Phil etc have are booked in at the same time but in screen 3! We may head over early however to see if I we can pull a few strings if we arrive early enough as there are no seat reservations on the tickets. Not before yet another visit to Flat 68!

Lock And Key (With A Few Top Hats And Tiaras Thrown In)

After a couple of mobile calls from Chilvers, I headed over to the Undercroft where I planned just to have a couple of drinks in an attempt to avoid going to Area. This of course wasn't to be and by 11pm we made it to the Lock and Key night where all the guys were given keys and the girls were given padlocks. My key managed to fit into that of Sarah, one of the first years although by the end of the night she ended up in the care of a certain Sebastian Sears.
A few top hats from last night were still on offer although I'm regretting wearing one now as some idiot decided to crush it playfully on my head whilst nearly runing my glasses just three days after a similar incident took place at the Undercroft.

Whilst it wasn't completely rammed it got a fair enough turnout and the music was pretty much on top form with Desio on the decks. It got exciting nearer the end of the night where we got 30 second bursts of tracks such as "I Feel Good" by James Brown and "Great Balls Of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis and I was impressed by the way the DJ was able to move from one track to another by using a fast forwarding noise. That pleased me for obvious reasons!

However for about 20 minutes Bar manager Chris and co-worker Martin took control of the music with their own dosage of cheese although it got really annoying with them constantly playing the beginning of Gina G's "Just A Little Bit" throughout Take On Me by A-Ha. Chris obviously had quite a lot to drink before going on.

After closing time at 3am we headed back to Phil's flat were both him and Sam had to drag a rather drunk Daisy back to her flat whilst we were joined by the company of Chris and Pete who had managed to get 1200 words of his News Media essay done whilst we were at Area much to Chris' irritation. Sam and Phil arrived back where Phil challenged just about everyone to an arm wrestle to limited success. I also found out that Sam used to present at Blast 1386 in Reading where Grooveline comes from and she's rather suspicious on how I know so much about the previous stations she's worked at!

God knows how much sleep I'm going to get tonight as I need to be up pretty early to go to VUE in Harrow and attempt to get tickets for Hot Fuzz tonight, before heading back to proceed with our show pilot which I've been anticiapting.

Live Planning

Very busy day in radio, I was up in RP1 between 9am and 9pm but the main difference today was that I actually managed to achieve something out of it!

I spent the morning getting all the audio for tomorrows pilot and listening to the other groups pilot of Soul Funk Nation which took place between 12 and 2. There show was done in the style of 102.2. Smooth FM and whilst everything technically flowed smoothly, the music side of things was rather laid back with not enough funk tracks which didn't flow too well alongside Ricky's slick and enthusiastic presentation style. The ads produced by the group however were impressive including an ad for Madame Tussauds done in the style of Family Fortunes but the highlight had to be this sung ID for the show which could have been used a lot more!

Around late afternoon early evening myself and Ina started to work on the show running order from our schedule on Selector which we finally got sorted with the help of Ricky. It took us about three hours to finally complete it accurately with the timings although we were told not to rely on it too much as last minute changes can happen within a live show. However overall I'm really confident about the pilot show tomorrow after practising a few links including a rather overblown intro!

Kelly from the first year popped up to the radio studios earlier this evening along with a few mates and was encouraging me to go to tonight's Lock and Key night at Area although I'm still undecided on whether I should go. The majority of the nights at Area this year with a few exceptions have been an absolute disaster which is probably due to the club shutting down for the alleged refurbishment at the beginning of the year. Even the Uni venues manager was on Goodlass and Marshall's show on Smoke yesterday attempting to plug tonights event but I'm not sure if it's worth paying the rather steep price. Far gone are the days when attending Area on a Thursday night was compulsory which is a pity.

I may be tempted to go for free drinks at Phil's flat beforehand for the second night running, only this time going easy on the flour!

Taking A Step Back

After looking at the comments on Digital Spy I feel rather bad about referring to Ed, the guy from the audience brought on to replace Preston on Buzzcocks last night as "gormless". At least he made an effort to smile unlike the ex-Big Brother contestant. And all Simon did was read extracts from his wife's autobiography, although in fairness it was probably the way he read it that resulted in the empty contestants chair.

Anyway today looks like it's going to be another traffic jam in the radio rooms as the Funk Soul team are doing the pilot for their two hour show and as things stand now for my group we don't have a full running order for ours tomorrow which makes things a bit difficult for me.
My main concern is the outside broadcast as whilst those organising it are confident there isn't as much communication between them and the other group members which is a tiny bit worrying. Overall it's certainly gone very quickly leading up to this part of the module.

Flour Power

I decided to make a return to the Undercroft at around 11 only this time it was pretty packed to the point it took me 15 minutes to get a drink. They were dealing out a lot of top hats and tiaras, the former I managed to blag myself one of although by the end of the night it ended up in other hands.

At around 1am myself, Chris, Cat and Stoobie managed to wrangle our way up to Phil's flat where we got a few more vistors including Skimpy Impey, Nanna, and Neal and Matt a couple of commercial music students. Amongst the chaos we managed to get through the fire alarms going off for 10 minutes and a visit from the Chinese security guard where everyone was trying their very best not to crack up. This of course wasn't helped by Matt playing the theme from the Twilight Zone on a guitar that was lurking within the room.

Following onwards, things got even more messier with Phil Harris' tendency to mess about with any inaminate object which in tonight's case was a bag of flour. This resulted in quite a few people getting covered with Stewart being the key victim. When things had calmed down a bit myself Matt and Nana started hinting about going on stage in the student comedy contest taking place at the Undercroft last week and did a few impromtu routines. Me being the weakest decided to go for the "Love Juice" joke which I am more than happy to tell if asked and if you're prepared for a bit of lateral thinking in order to get the punchline.

All this flour has actually tempted me to have a go at making either gingerbread people or Parkin pigs which we used to have on bonfire night and mum always used quite a bit of flour on them along with delcious raisins and cherries. That's definitely one of the things I miss from Canterbury despite it being at least 5 years since indulging in such delights.

Not Exactly Planned

Typical Wednesday night really, I managed to get the show done and dusted with before heading down to the Undercroft where Bar Footsie was in action, only everything was pretty dead so I only had a blue VK and had a go on Trivial Pursuit on the games machine. I really don't like the way most of the questions are numerical for example if you landed on the history category you'd get something like "how many years seperate the reign of Henry VIII and James I?

All well and good back at the flat, I caught the long awaited edition of Never Mind The Buzzcocks where Preston walked off after Simon Amstell read extracts from his wife's autobiography in his rather sardonic manner. All in all it just sums up the prententiousness of non-entities releasing autobiographies. What was also amusing for me however was fellow guest Anne Charleston AKA Madge from Neighbours, and Simon's constant playing of the soft version of the Neighbours theme used at the end of any episode when a death has taken place.
I'm certain that when Helen Daniels died back in 1998 someone actually sent a letter to Points of View saying how happy she was about her passing!

Rather less amusing was the gormless bloke from the studio audience brought on to replace Preston although at least I know that teammate Ed Byrne is the man responsible for those irritating Carphone Warehouse ads featuring "Mobly".

Studio Hogs

Todays been a struggle as far as studio access has been going. One has been taken up by a couple of film and TV students who have been there for about five hours and another is being used by a couple of journalism students who are making it difficult for us to schedule music and jingles for the shows that are going out in the next couple of days for our assessed module. My group are unsure on how to schedule on Selector for our show with the correct music whilst the Soul Funk team have been a bit more successfull although there's a bit of debate on whether to start the show with the classic "Stand By Me". Not really an hour opener in terms of uptemponess.

Most of the shows that have been going out on Smoke have been relishing of Valentines Day material although I'm trying to stay clear of that on the soul show tonight, with a rather appropriate track to open the show "Who Needs Love" by Incognito.
All should be going out at 8pm provided I have access to a studio!

In the meantime I was rather pleased to find a DIY version of The Chart Show on youtube from James2001, mixing the videos of 2007 with the Chart Show stings of 1997, and a nice touch on the fast forward graphics!
In an ideal world I'd love it if it used the fairground graphics from the early 90s although I can understand that would be difficult to edit, as in the original shows the stings used to start off by overlaying the video preceeding it i.e. the screen gets covered by balloons etc.
And it's ever informative with the reccomendation of avoiding the dreadful cover of Run DMC/Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" by Girls Aloud and The Sugababes.

Speaking of which I must remember to tape the Brits before my show tonight as I'll probably end up getting a few VKs down me at Bar Footsie later on!

Precise Backtiming

A bit of light emerged amongst the problems with the internet in halls which I believe has now spread to the premium towers. I managed to recieve my ebay purchase along with a nifty looking t-shirt from Cuba and the payment for my eye test and glasses.

Things are still pretty chaotic in radio as there are plenty of nerves ahead of the pilot shows on Thursday and Friday for the respective groups. Ina got a few members of my group in to do a run through which went OK although I will definitely need to bring a few notes with me on the show itself and Ina's pretty nervous about backtiming to make sure things go out on time. I'd never thought I'd be the one actually uttering the saying I've been opposed to for such a long time "it's only radio".

Josie on the other hand who's doing Ina's producer role for the Soul Funk show is more worried about an area close to my heart, branding. I've had a listen to some their stuff which sounds really good including a few sung IDs with a rather silky vocalist who Clara brought in, one such example consisting of "Youure listening to Riicky Marshaaal, on Funk Souul Naatioon" which Josie has been repeating constantly along with "America" by Razorlight and "Mmmbop" by Hanson. The way I see it, there's no better stress relief cure.

Less Chart More Cheese

That's what I would have preferred hearing at the Undercroft last night although by the end of the night it was the case of the latter.
I was one of the only second years about yesterday so if any one else from that year is reading this I'll tell you what you missed. And oh my there were quite a lot of fancy outfits present including a fella wearing a horses head, someone dressed up as Craig David from Bo Selecta with a really accurate mask, and Skimpy Impey from the first year was dressed up as a dalmation although she looked more like a cow when people starting clambering onto her on the way back.

And as always the journey back from the Undercroft to Halls was not in haste partly because Kelly, one of the first years ended up losing one of her boots in all the excitement, but the highlight had to be a car driving into a lamppost which Impey managed to get rather faint looking photos of. Although it wasn't that destructive it probably goes to show the idiots who think it's OK to get in front of the wheel after they've had a few.

As for now I'm not exactly 100% as the internet in my room isn't working properly again and it probably looks like another long day in M-Block the way things are going. I've had a chat to Ricky about podcasts for the station so with a few new ideas and if I can find some decent enough content they should start coming back on the site more reguarly. Then again being someone who has always been cynical about the idea of podcasts due to restrictions on what can and can't be used, it would be good to give someone else a go, ideally someone who's never had a go at making them but would be interested. Overall you don't know the outcome of ideas until they're tried out.

Always Mundane

After managing to get through my Media Technology lecture I headed up to radio to get more stuff sorted for the Retro Room pilot on Friday and oh my, it's a bastard to get access to a studio. I'm also pretty annoyed that my parcel still hasn't arrived from Canterbury which contains a few ebay purchases and a t-shirt that my Dad brought me from Cuba.
I'll keep trying until Wednesday as I can understand it's a rather large amount to deliver but I've heard things from former halls occupants about the bad handling of mail and I hope that I'm not about to end up on the recieving (well not actually recieving anything) end of things.

For now though I'm going to indulge as always in the sweet flavoured vodkas at Pound a Pint where Chris and Phil will once again be DJing with their eclectic selection of cheese.
And that apple strudel will certainly be the perfect post drinking antidote tonight as there's about three quarters left from what I started earlier today.

Distasteful Darts

With the vintage episodes of Bullseye on Ftn continuing to lighten things up for me in halls, I was very pleased to find this rather naughty edition from the 1983 Central Television Christmas tape containing many predictable but witty innuendos. This of course was from around the time where anyone would make jokes about Channel 4's leanage towards rather suggestive programmes.

One of tonight's editions of the Krypton Factor would be pretty interesting for any gameshow enthusiast as it featured the appearance of a certain Trevor Montague as one of the contestants. Better known to others as the man who appeared twice on Channel 4's Fifteen to One and had to return his prize vase after being sued by the shows producers. This was the result of an eagle eye viewer who spotted him appearing under the name of "Steve Romana" after being eliminated on a previous edition under his real name. The rules apparently stated that losing contestants could not re-enter.

Funnily enough Montague's appearance on television's toughest quiz wasn't exactly triumphant having been pipped at the post in a tie break at the final General Knowledge round.
I seem to remember a Carling Black Label advert taking the mickey out of that particular round off the Krypton Factor where one of the contestants would buzz in continuously with the correct answer after the host had uttered just one word of the question.
Cut to Steve Frost and Mark Arden watching:
Steve: "'Ere, I bet he drinks.."
BEEP
Contestant: "Carling Black Label"

Sunday In Spoons

I felt rather left out this morning after seeing photos posted on Facebook of a pirate party in halls where most of the first year radio students were last night. The images of Phil Harris wearing earrings are a sight to be desired!
Still there's Pound a Pint tomorrow night so I'll probably see them there and give them a light bollocking.

I stayed in for most of this morning sorting out my C.V. amongst other things before heading to Sainsburys where I finally bought a baking tray so I can actually cook the apple strudel I bought a few days ago! Then it was up to the radio rooms graced by the presence of Ross T and Lucie who were going on about the albums they had recently got hold of including Mika's debut "Life In Cartoon Motion" which isn't too bad. The Lollipop track has to be the next single off there.
We then headed off to the Wetherspoons in Harrow for Sunday lunch and were joined by Ross Powell and Gemma and Stewart.
Not sure if anyone agrees with me but I reckon Stewart looks rather like Simon Amstell when he presented Popworld. Had to get that one out eventually.

The Ireland Vs France game in the 6 Nations tournament was on the television whilst we were there which brought to mind why the referee had a microphone near him during the game. It certainly made things more interesting and amusing to an extent. We also spoke about the horrors of computer training schemes at work which myself Lucie and Gemma have all been through at ASDA, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer respectively. And if vegetarians eat fish does that still make them vegetarians? That's a question I asked in response to both the Ross's opting for the nut roast meal. Probably a question for Kim to answer as she's reponsible for drawing Ross T's appetite to nut roasts.

Tonight's not too different really, Bullseye and The Krypton Factor on Ftn and trying to play down then anxiety of tomorrow morning's Media Technology lecture.

Ever Humdrum

Not really that eventful this weekend as is normally the case. I've only really got as far as getting my clothes washed and backing up a few shows from Smoke up in the radio studios just in case anyone wants to submit stuff for the SRAs. Very doubtful in the long term but it would be a shame to let this work go to waste.

I found out a bit more about the axing of Radio 3's "Mixing It" and according to this article from Radio Today it turns out that they may be rellocating to Resonance FM which would be an ideal move provided that the station gets enough money by August to continue operating. Unsurprisngly the controller of BBC Radio 3 was quoted saying that he wanted the show's exit from the station "to fade away quietly" rather much like the rest of the stations output.

On a lighter note I've just booked tickets to go and see Richard Herring's latest stand up tour "Menage A Un" at the end of March. I'm not sure if it will be as funny as his previous performance "Someone Likes Yoghurt" which had me in tears throughout but I doubt there hasn't been a time I've laughed more than twice at his stand up routines.

In Working Order

Not too different from yesterday really, preparation was continuing for our pilots for next week getting features, jingles and adverts recorded. I was asked to voice the part of an office boss for the other group in an ad for "Go To My PC.com" which like most of the others took quite a bit of time to record but it doesn't help having only one working pair of headphones in the booth opposite the studio.
It's still pretty busy now as both Ross Powell and Ms Deckstress have recorded their shows for tonight and Poultergueist and a few other lads are around recording the Crossway show for this Sunday. The show so far has had a good line up of guests such as Simon Mayo's favourite Christian rock act Delirious although the long term aim is to get an interview with Sir Cliff Richard! I'll say no more.

Probably another laying it down weekend with Ftn providing the nostalgic goods and hopefully actually getting some nice pastries from Sainsbury's as they've been lacking in decent ones whenver I've been in recently. Actually I may head over to the nearest Morrison's just to indulge in the wholemeal bread I'm used to back in Canterbury which has a lesser chance of going stale! I hate myself for being so specific sometimes.
Also, Facebook has been confusing me recently as according to my profile status, I now apparently owe someone a gift for Valentine's day. Who would assume I'm that generous? I may try and make my move this year although at Pound a Pint on Monday I may feel less nervous in doing so!

Radio Slavery

The cold weather didn't put anyone off from turning up as RP1 for the majority of the day was rammed, not just with radio students but also BAMS Journalism students working on the radio module. If anything needs to be improved with that module it's more detailed training on Audition as I've lost count on the amount of times either myself or anyone else from radio has been asked to give anyone a hand and the pathetic multiple soundcard situation doesn't help either.

Anyway rant over, we continued work on planning our Retro Room show for next weeks pilot by getting a few voices recorded including Kiki whose American voice will be fantastic for the shows IDs. I also helped out with sorting the music where we added quite a range of tracks to our library from Fleetwood Mac, Duran Duran and surprisingly a track from Donald Fagen's "Nightfly" album which managed to creep up within the CDs Ina had brought in. Definitely an excuse to add some Steely Dan to our selection.
The Soul Funk team were pretty busy as well adding some equally good choices including "Float On" by the Floaters best known for it's use in a Cadbury's Creme Egg advert 15 years ago! I'm not sure if my glasses are that sharp as I thought that a track by Fred Wesley that got added was by Fred West with the unfortunate title of "House Party".
To be honest it was probably my rather juvenile mind.

I was pretty busy towards 9 O'Clock helping out a couple of third year film students record their first show which included a bizarre feature on an spoof Olympic event with Keith Chegwin against Billie Piper. It saddens me that most of the future students may not share the same taste in cult figures as they seem to be getting as lower as Sam and Mark and Lizo Mzimba from Newsround!

Extra Layers

As predicted it is covered with snow outside but I'll brave the low temperatures to get in pretty early and continue preparing for our pilot next week.
About half an hour after getting back from the Undercroft one of the first years starting ringing me questioning my absence from Bar Footsie. I considered heading back but then realised that I'd made plenty of visits there already that night and should spend my money in a more constructive way.

This allowed me to see this weeks edition of Buzzcocks featuring a foot curling performance by Donny Tourette's who was able to prove that he is less believable as a comedian let alone a punk rocker. Especially as you've got three genuine funnymen around you who can knock you down flat including host Simon (Toby Anstis) Amstell who has put much needed energy back into the show since Mark Lamarr's departure. Also appearing on the show was Noel Fielding from the Mighty Boosh who's appearance was overshadowed by the idiotic Big Brother contestant which was bit of a let down but unlike Tourette, he can act like an idiot but actually make it genuinely funny rather than embarrassing.

Best start searching for my hat and gloves, provided they're not 60 miles back at home!

The Future's White

Loads of predictions that the next couple of days will see a large downpour of snow up to 4 inches so I can see quite a few absences on the way for those who aren't brave enough to venture to Uni from distances further from halls.

All that aside, this afternoon/evening was filled with all sorts of things including the Smoke Radio meeting which took place to a "select" shall I say audience. Things are looking pretty good in the long term with a special broadcast for Comic Relief in the pipeline although there were still a few issues raised mainly to do with the website. It appears that I'm not the only one who doesn't approve of the spinning pop up for the radio player and there was a bit of debate about the disapearance of the vinyl decks in the studios. What irritates me was that nobody knew that we could borrow needles for the record players and if that was made more clearer then I'm sure some of the specialist shows would have benifitted really well as I can imagine most of them own a fair bit of the old vinyl. However overall things are looking positive and having these meetings helps to show the team effort that goes into making the station as good as it is.

Steve and Ali arrived late, in fact after the meeting had finished but it didn't stop me from joining them, Chris and Phil from going for a few drinks at the Undercroft before tonights show. I did have a few drinks there which resulted in me sounding a bit more keen on air than normal but don't worry, this didn't mean I could give precise information about the tracks without having to look at the computer monitor halfway through my links.
I headed back to the Undies straight after the show where Ali was still present although in place of the boys was fellow third year Tom, watching the second half of the friendly between England and Spain. A pretty appalling game overall as barely anything had happened in the first half and Spain took the lead about 10 minutes in. I decided that time waited for no man and decided to head back to the flat to indulge in making a chicken stew which is warming up as I type.

I'm rather undecided as to go for a few drinks at Yates in Leicester Sqaure tomorrow evening as there's a meet up for those who helped out at the Classic FM auction last December. A good way to possibly get a foot in the door although the amount of times I've been to GCap in the last couple of months should add up to something.

Essential Teamwork

I had another lie in this morning and didn't get into Uni until this afternoon where Jo and Lamby were sorting more stuff for the Retro Room show.
This module certainly has sped by as the pilot's due to be done next week and we really need to get the big practical parts sorted such as the outside broadcast but I'm confident that it's all going to flow well. Nina and Khalia are sorting out the music to be played alongiside a mountain of logging forms and it looks as if we'll have the perfect playlist.

Asides that I've got the show for tonight ready, just need to burn the tracks onto CD. The International team before me are here too with Atilla looking very dapper in his suit! It surprises me with the amount of people in radio who try to look their smartest although webcams are very much an essential part of the listening experience. If you listen that religously.

Dental Reassurance

I made my way to the dental surgery at Northwick Park hospital this afternoon in which the check up itself didn't go too badly. I just got quietly intimidated in the waiting room with one or two annoying toddlers in the same room. How I stayed calm I'll never know but at my age I now understand why certain pubs have restrictions on letting children in for the same reasons.

Anyway besides the point, I managed to get everything completed in time to go to my Media Events seminar although there was one little problem being that there was nobody there in the seminar room. After checking on the many floors of A block I headed over to the radio studios to give Jo and Lamby a hand with sorting out the branding for our show. Jo came up with the bright idea of the possiblity of getting Kiki from Journalism to do a few liners for our Retro Room show. Hopefully it will all go ahead as it's not often you get sweet female American voices popping up on the wireless.

A bit of a muddle with tonights shows on Smoke as Tudor recieved a text from Josie saying that she completely forgot about tonight's show and went to the cinema instead! He's on air as I type actually and has a rather big rant about imigration alongside the raucous rock music that makes up the show. Speaking of which we've got a radio meeting tomorrow where hopefully we'll find out about some of the future plans for the station this year and how we can build around a few loose ends. Shouldn't be too difficult to get an audience as the International team are preparing their show which preceeds mine and quite a lot of second year students will be about continuing preparation for our two hour music shows.

Radio's far from a one person job round here.

More Surprise Bookings

I only found out yesterday through an e-mail from Dad that I have an appointment at the Northwick Park hospital this afternoon at the Maxillo Facial Surgery which I'd imagine is to do with my denture problem from last semester.
This means I have to miss this weeks Media Events lecture although I've been lucky enough to get this weeks lecture notes which happen to be about the moon landing which is nearing it's 40th anniversary.

I hope that this appointment won't be too temperamental although I'll need to point out to them that I've had the deadly dentures removed and hope that there won't be too much of a misunderstanding. Other than that I've got to show Paul how to stick stuff into Selector later today and get a few more people to record short little teasers for their shows just to make the evening schedule on Smoke stand out a bit more. So far I've only got one from the legend that is Joe Haddow! Just goes to show that you have to keep going under rather uneasy circumstances which I feel the station is currently in. However, it hasn't put me off planning my show for this week which will be including the latest release from 4hero as this month's featured album. Possible contender for one of 2007's finest I reckon.

Nowhere To Move

Another fantastic Pound a Pint night with Smoke Radio taking control of the musical side of things.
I kicked it all off just after 8pm although as always there were a few technical issues with the pitch control not working on one of the CD players. Didn't disrupt the proceedings and got a few complements on the tracks I played from a guy in the bar who happened to be over 50 and was very keen on what he referred to as "gay disco music" and wasn't too happy when Seb and Jon took over from me! I then proceeded to get more than a little tipsy with VKs being £1 until 11 and got a bit miffed when the two guys on the decks nicked one of the songs from my set "And The Beat Goes On". I wasn't really annoyed though as they span a few other gems including "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield and rather oddly "In The Mood" by Glen Miller.

Some of the other people in attendance for our big night included Ross T, Gemma, Lucie, Ross Powell and even Ina turned up resulting in plenty of hilarity!
First year DJs Chris and Phil ended up taking the whole proceedings until closing time as Ricky and Ross had to leave early as they need to be up tomorrow to shoot a commercial for a product that I can't really mention here in these sort of circumstances! We ended up being endured with classics such as "Reach" by S Club, "Kiss" by Prince and even PJ and Duncan's "Let's Get Ready To Rhumble" which I could almost recite word for word!

After closing time a few of us headed up to Flat 53 occupied by Kat and Charlotte where Sam clad in a sailor's hat looked as if she was going to fall over and a few of us were distracted by a scrap going on outside. Luckily I'm back in my own flat and should be getting a well deserved lie in prior to tomorrow's Media Events lecture. Funnily enough, as tempting as it may seem I have avoided eating the rest of the chilli from earlier tonight, so at least I'll have something to fill me up with little effort tomorrow. I may even treat myself to a strudel as well if I can brave the freezer section of Sainsbury's. The stuff I come out with after a visit to the Undercroft is definitely the most out of context material you'd expect on this blog.

Aural Assistance

I thought I would be able to have a bit of a rest before my set tonight but that turned out not to be the case. The Dry Ice girls needed a hand to set up the audio recorder on Selector and having to do it over the phone isn't the easiest of tasks. However I got them up and running and headed over to the studios shortly after to burn the CDs for tonight's set. Joey was also up there too recording this weeks Jazz Club and hopefully it won't be too long before Lesley Douglas gives him the chance to finally go in front of the mic at BBC Radio 2! Hopefully Joey's missus will make an appearance at the Undercroft tonight in full flow!

I also got a call from fellow radio student Paul who hasn't been too well recently bless him, and was asking me about showing him the ropes of Selector as he's one of the music producers for the Soul and Funk show. I'd imagine that when that role comes up in the third year people will be fighting for it! Then again it may be wise to have at least two people looking after music for that sort of assignment as it can be very tricky having to spend hours on end inserting music and composer details into RCS.

That's the least of my worries for now though as in a few minutes I shall be kicking off what I hope will be another succesfull Smoke Radio Undercroft night! Let's hope my beatmatching's still up to scratch.

A Sharper Perspective

Today started off with an ever-entertaining Media Technology lecture looking at the development of television with a slight American bias. Fellow student Richard told me that a good way of staying awake or at least active in one of these lectures is to drink a can of Red Bull throughout the lecture but not before. I'm tempted to have a go at that myself despite not being a great fan of that drink.

I went to Specsavers as planned to have my eyes tested and it turned out that I needed a new pair of glasses. And things have never looked better really, I didn't realise how out of focus everything was until I put them on. It's difficult to wear them whilst using my laptop however as the lenses are too small to view the screen at my distance but that doesn't matter as I'm close enough to see everything on their with nothing getting in the way.
I'd imagine there will be a fair confused looks at the Undercroft tonight.

On that same subject tonight's playlist is sorted and contains a few old favourites such as Willie Bobo's "cowbell remix" of Always There and Sun Goddess by Ramsey Lewis with Earth Wind And Fire. Hopefully the equipment will be actually there on time and I may head over there slightly earlier just to make sure. This time last year the bar would have been packed at 7 with the earlier closing hours. Nowadays by 11pm on a Monday you've got people queuing to get in.

Sticking To Routine

Another average Sunday really. I was up in the radio rooms burning CDs and saving storage on my hard drive. You'd be surprised at the people who are at Uni on Sunday, particuarly the London International Faith Centre are in the main lecture theatre. I also had to show someone the way to the television studios which were actually open oddly enough.
James came in along with flatmate Gemma and her boyfriend and proceeded to give them a demonstration of how everything worked in studio 5 although we've got a problem in studio 6 with the eject button jammed in it's hole in one of the CD players. Looks as if I'll be using Audition to play out half of my show this week if they don't sort it out which will at least save me an extra CD-R.

I was the last out of the studios once again as the presenter of the gospel show was unable to show up for the second week running. Commitment isn't a strong point of the radio station as is evident by a few presenters but I'd imagine this is the same sort of thing that would happen at any non-profit station. However I'm starting to go up to the radio rooms less often than normal as nearly everyone's getting the hang of recording their shows without me having to help out.

I'm dreading tomorrow's Media Technology lecture and am unsure about the seminar afterwards as I may risk being late for my appointment at the opticians at 1:20. For now though, I guess I'll be finishing the rest of the sultana fingarellas I brought yesterday which are delicious and terribly addictive.

Just An Illusion

Not too bad a night really, save for the fire alarms going off at 2am. Thankfully they haven't been as constant as last year as the halls manangement have finally seen sense into reducing the building's sensitivity to heat.
FTN were showing the grand final of the 1987 Krypton Factor last night which was the first to have three female contestants and the first female winner who had her trophy presented to her by then Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan. It turned out that said winner Marion Chanter ended up working in television from the introduction to the 1988 series which followed immediately after although her current whereabouts 20 years later are unknown.

One of the highlights of the first show of the 1988 series was the Observation round featuring a send up of illusionist David Copperfield (a bizarre but saner David Blaine figure from back in the day) and Terry Wogan performed by actor Andrew O'Connor fresh from his "success" as one of the performers on the BBC's Saturday morning summer show
"On The Waterfront".
I can vaguely remember the programme which most remember for it's send up of French drama "The Flashing Blade" where they re-dubbed the dialogue with hilarious results.

The title of this blog post reminds me that I must include some Imagination in my set tomorrow night and I'm thinking of spinning one of their lesser tracks called "Burning Up". Let's hope the CD decks don't end up in that situation with my constant playing with the pitch.

"Breaking" Into Harrow Halls

There always appears to be broken glass on the grounds outside the Halls of Residence which I am becoming fed up with and the amount of boy racers who speed past the buildings every night which I am guesssing is the cause of all this. Haven't these idiots got anything better to do with there time and do they even go to the University?
Very doubtful.
Luckily my bedroom isn't facing that direction outside, so I don't have to put up with them or the tubes and trains that go past throughout the day. I suppose the boy racers are making up for the noise overnight normally provided by Transport for London during the daytime hours.

On a lighter note I managed to by some sultana fingarettes from Sainsburys this afternoon which aren't too different from the Madeline bars that dad would always bring back from France after a Christmas booze cruise. There's more than enough to keep me going this weekend and they aren't too steep neither considering the amount of them.

Always Active

I was up pretty early this morning, well 8:50 is pretty early when you get to my age. Nothing majorly eventful so far today, I put together another whooshy promo thingy for the specialist output on Smoke mixing together the Arctic Monkeys with Gil Scott-Heron. That's how far our musical output tends to stretch out on the station especially when you've got people such as the Shuffle boys as part of the team.

Adam was telling me during their show last Thursday that he'd written a letter to BBC Radio 3 complaining about the axing of their show "Mixing It" and that Late Junction is to be shortened in length. The letter also mentioned that he wasn't happy about the corporation's attitude to experimental music and they should donate a large amount of their funds from the government to community stations such as Resonance FM in London who are more than willing to give time to leftfield genres. One of the fellow students on my radio course helps out with a Swedish comedy show on Resonance and even Matthew presents a show there on Sunday afternoons which covers all sorts of interesting and peculiar topics.

I went in to the studios just before 12 to put the promo on the system and give Steve a hand switching studios as he's covering for Ricky on the chart this week. If anyone can switch studios and make the transition sound seemless then there's no one slicker than Steve. Apparently we've got a Smoke meeting on Tuesday which I really think we need more of because there seems to be a lack of motivation between each other than there was last year, and it's good for others to get encouraged and for all of us to know what's going on more reguarly.

Learning From The Advanced

It's more or less a quiet weekend ahead as always although I may take advantage of the time to see if can make an early start on my critical report by analysing radio programmes and particuarly presenters of shows similar in style to the one we'll be doing. I have in mind Mick Brown's breakfast show on Capital Gold and Jo Whiley's mid morning show on Radio 1, the latter essentially because the Live Lounge section of the show.

I'm currently having a listen to Steely Dan, a band I doubt we'll be featuring on the show but certainly wouldn't complain if we did, as it really takes me back to the summer of 2003. Not a great summer really as I was stuck in ASDA for the majority waiting for them to change my shifts to coincide with the start of my HND course which eventually happened.
I'd imagine Radio 2 were to blame for my interest for the duo and Donald Fagen has one of the most recognisable voices in classic rock music.

I'd definitely reccomend British act Talc to more established Dan fans as they take a similar approach with clever lyrics and a mixture of rock and funk. Whilst it would be great to see them perform live, one band I've never seen since moving to London are the Steely Dan tribute act "Nearly Dan". They often make an appearance at the Jazz Cafe at least twice a year and I may make it one of the aims of the third year provided they don't do a spot there again this year.

Work In Progress

Friday morning was spent planning ideas and features for our Retro Room show and making a start on sorting out the music despite a problem with low storage space, again. Jo and Lamby have come up with having a connections based game and incoporating concert reviews but it looks as if we'll progress further in the coming weeks especially as Lamby pointed out that ideas don't just happen.

The afternoon consisted of a lecture about PRS/PPL licenses and station branding, where for the former it ended up with us going on a tangent about pubs having to have PRS licenses and the muddles that can prevail from those issues. Matthew also told us about him knowing a lawyer who deals with those sorts of issues to which Dave Baldwin responded "how can you hang about with a man like that?!"
When we looked at branding I volunteered to help read a script for a Kiss 100 "Smoove Grooves" promo sponsored by Nik Naks in which the script described the product as "little freaks". Luckily I didn't have to read that line out. We also had a listen to some rather forgetfull sung jingles for stations such as Key 103, Vibe FM, and Radio City.

I didn't leave until just after half 6 as I had to get Liz's techno show recorded and scheduled for tonight and the music producers in my group were still around as I was leaving. It didn't sound like they were planning however as James was telling Ina his views on the War in Iraq and how you should help someone if they've been knocked down by a vehicle. He wasn't all that keen on people who just say "yeah I might help them out" or "not sure", but his ideal response was for the one lifting the body to assure them that he or she would go to a better place. At this time now anywhere would be a better place than my bed in halls.

"This Is What You'll Get"

In the last couple of days I've been brought to the attention of Radiodread; an album containing dub reggae covers of tracks from Radiohead's "OK Computer" album performed by the Easy All-Stars. Joey played the cover of "Karma Police" from it yesterday whilst recording his jazz show and Seb and Jon managed to get hold of the album from him to play on their show earlier this evening.

I managed to find out a bit more goss from them about the other group's soul and funk show in the Music Radio assignment and have found out they've got Ricky to present. I'm certain that at his expertise, the show will sound better than any of the soul shows I've done in the last 18 months!
I'm really looking forward to hearing their effort although I don't want it to overshadow my groups attempt and I know overall that Ricky's better than me at running a desk and just want to give it my best shot. I found myself listening to a bit of Paul Coyte's drivetime on Capital Gold this afternoon so I'd best keep at it.

It's superhero night tonight at Area but I'll be staying clear of that after the antics of last nights Bar Footsie. And partly because I've got a gut feeling that the club will be dead with people just sitting on the tables that are spread out around the place.

"Greetings Pop Pickers!"

The roles for our two hour music show were sorted out this morning after a rather lengthy debate on who should do what. I've ended up as the presenter of a show which we're calling "The Retro Room With Robin Blamires" which we have to assume is going out on Capital Gold and is what we're basing our station style on. James and Ina are both assistant producers for the show and Jo and Lamby are dealing with branding although as the case normally is, I may end up giving an extra hand. Khalia and Dave Baldwin are working on our live music O/B whilst Aussie Dave and Carolina our working on our ads.
One of the major aims that James had at the top of our meeting was to get ourselves a Facebook group after the other group made a similar move! We also spent the rest of the morning listening to Kid Pension on the station itself and how the really tiny bits such as news and adverts were done on air.

This afternoon we split into two groups to be trained how to use RCS and the group I was in were shown by Joey. I made sure I avoided giving any hints to those asked to use certain features of the software for the first time but Joey made it enjoyable particularly when we had to insert a song by Grinderman that was basically just a rant with no hooks whatsoever! It turns that our RCS system has rules set by itself so we can guarantee that each hour starts off with a belter. If the show producer agrees that is.

I'll probably need to spend extra time in there tomorrow with the studio producer when both Joey and Jacko will be giving refreshers on how to use the playout software. For me it's pretty straightforward as I just have to start and stop stuff on air but it's good to get those who have never been near such software to have a go. I'm certainly looking forward to how both groups shows are going to sound on air.

Flushed At Footsie

Wasn't really impressed with last nights show on a technical level. Not only were the bulbs for the on-air light not working but I sounded rather faint in the first three quarters of the show due to me not having the EQ switched on my microphone. Quite a good response on the shoutbox however as those listening liked the George Benson and Al Jarreau cover of Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers. That's definitely the highlight of that album and I'm sure Ron Isley will actually be able to hear it sometime after they release him from his cell!

After the show I headed over to Bar Footsie at the Undercroft were there was a good turn out including Charlotte who promised not to drink anything after Monday night, both the Phils; Harris and Landers, and Sam and Kelly were also there after being too ill to come down on Monday. I spent quite a bit on VKs using the spare change to put some interesting choices on the bar jukebox including Eternal, Lisa Stansfield, Vanilla Ice and even Betty Boo! Shortly after midnight I headed back where before I could even get some sleep I was constantly wheezing and as I type now I'm still not great. I may splash out on some Strepsils after Joey offering me one yesterday although I doubt I'll ask for the lemon and honey flavour.