I'm still rather worried about my passionate side going out of control. I now understand how others find extreme happiness annoying but anxiety doesn't last for too long, especially after listening to the Arson Sam theme for the upteenth time.
To be more specific it's the latter half of the second verse that results in my face turning into a corpse. Oh, and the second line of the chorus is "and he slashes police tyres".
If I do get a daytime slot on Fresher's I'll have to make use of it possibly as part of a feature on the funniest things that have happened whilst being away.
That will show the Freshers that we aren't all do-gooders!
Actually that might be a bit dodgy to play on the first day having had similar incidents on campus throughout the summer.
On a nicer note I recived an e-mail from Hannah who used to work at college, and she's still travelling with her boyfriend, not planning anything too expensive so as to widen the amount of options.
She's just as crazy as I am about being passionate and I really valued having her to help me during the more agonising times, and that New York visit that we both went on really was that special.
There definitely needs to be more people like that at Uni and it seems that you're more likely to find them in the year below me than the one I'm in. Those who are always smiling but know how to deal with things sensibly and are understanding rather than agrrovating when things don't go to plan. It really isn't worth raising your temper unless it's intended to get a laugh.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
"Classical Gasbags" (Or "Don't Have Nightmares")
My continuing love for instant access shows no sign of stopping. Even if I hear a record mentioned on the radio I have to switch off and go into my MP3 folder to find it.
Still reading Moylesies musings, he mentioned Mason Williams (in a cynical manner obviously) and I felt the immediate need to put "Classical Gas" on. Now although I've got the record lurking about somewhere it's not in the M folder of my hard drive's music folder so I ended up sticking a more funkier easy listening track, "Whistle Bump" by Deodato.
I love Classical Gas however, mainly because of a part in the middle where the main tune disapears and in comes a fanfare that sounds like a news intro for a local radio station in the 70s/80s. And oh my, some of them weren't half scary including this one for Radio 210 in 1980 that I wouldn't want to hear in the middle of the night. The tinkly bit would make a good text message tone though.
I'm trying to think of some more but that 210 one is a tough act to follow for warrant of such a phrase. Swansea Sound by Sue Manning in 1981 although it's complemented by a rather funky extended theme. One of those things that you just don't want to end!
Oh yes, and Devonair from the mid-late 80s with the presenter and Andrea Simmonds thrown in for good measure!
I also found it creepy getting caught off guard whenever the reader announced "Independent Radio News" at the end of a bulletin, and was so relieved when they resorted to "It's 3 minutes past..." in September 2002.
But one of my favourite news intros that blends excitment with a hint of being sinister is from Capital Radio in 1987 from the legendary Music Power package.
Michael Jayston AKA The Valeyard from Doctor Who is on voiceover duties and this is one of the many things that defines living in London at an early age.
The jingle continued to be used for quite a while on Capital Gold as well which will be making it's bow this week so I'd see this as a fitting testament.
Hopefully it will make up for my not so brilliant attempt at emulating the station earlier in the year!
Still reading Moylesies musings, he mentioned Mason Williams (in a cynical manner obviously) and I felt the immediate need to put "Classical Gas" on. Now although I've got the record lurking about somewhere it's not in the M folder of my hard drive's music folder so I ended up sticking a more funkier easy listening track, "Whistle Bump" by Deodato.
I love Classical Gas however, mainly because of a part in the middle where the main tune disapears and in comes a fanfare that sounds like a news intro for a local radio station in the 70s/80s. And oh my, some of them weren't half scary including this one for Radio 210 in 1980 that I wouldn't want to hear in the middle of the night. The tinkly bit would make a good text message tone though.
I'm trying to think of some more but that 210 one is a tough act to follow for warrant of such a phrase. Swansea Sound by Sue Manning in 1981 although it's complemented by a rather funky extended theme. One of those things that you just don't want to end!
Oh yes, and Devonair from the mid-late 80s with the presenter and Andrea Simmonds thrown in for good measure!
I also found it creepy getting caught off guard whenever the reader announced "Independent Radio News" at the end of a bulletin, and was so relieved when they resorted to "It's 3 minutes past..." in September 2002.
But one of my favourite news intros that blends excitment with a hint of being sinister is from Capital Radio in 1987 from the legendary Music Power package.
Michael Jayston AKA The Valeyard from Doctor Who is on voiceover duties and this is one of the many things that defines living in London at an early age.
The jingle continued to be used for quite a while on Capital Gold as well which will be making it's bow this week so I'd see this as a fitting testament.
Hopefully it will make up for my not so brilliant attempt at emulating the station earlier in the year!
In The Annual Tangle
I recieved an e-mail from the Undergrad office on the Harrow Campus asking me if I'd received a letter informing me that two of the modules I had chosen clashed. I wasn't fully aware of this but judging by how they've acted in the past, I was expecting it and sent a response saying that I hadn't recieved the letter and if they could e-mail me the details.
The got back to me saying that they'd send off another letter.
Nice to know that they're being helpful as normal then.
On a different note, Chris Moyles's book is ever inspiring prompting me to dig out an old record from the early 90s, Candy Flip and their cover of the Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever".
Comedy Dave has to be responsible for starting the bandwagon of many 90s revivals and that record became part of many "Six O'Clock Moments" where every week, Chris and the team would feature one song over 5 days of a has been 80s/90s pop act such as Sonia, Big Fun or Five Star.
Back to Candy Flip and their cover of "Strawberry Fields" reminds me a lot of Scritti Politti, who in turn joined forces with Shabba Ranks for a cover of "She's A Woman".
That record and the video will always remind me of the day we left London and moved to Canterbury when I'd seen the video for the song on TV-AM that morning.
I'm worried however that my posts are turning into lectures which is making me feel uneased. But then again I probably look back at my posts more than anyone else so I must be doing something right. I hope I don't end up doing anything really ridiculous in the near future.
The got back to me saying that they'd send off another letter.
Nice to know that they're being helpful as normal then.
On a different note, Chris Moyles's book is ever inspiring prompting me to dig out an old record from the early 90s, Candy Flip and their cover of the Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever".
Comedy Dave has to be responsible for starting the bandwagon of many 90s revivals and that record became part of many "Six O'Clock Moments" where every week, Chris and the team would feature one song over 5 days of a has been 80s/90s pop act such as Sonia, Big Fun or Five Star.
Back to Candy Flip and their cover of "Strawberry Fields" reminds me a lot of Scritti Politti, who in turn joined forces with Shabba Ranks for a cover of "She's A Woman".
That record and the video will always remind me of the day we left London and moved to Canterbury when I'd seen the video for the song on TV-AM that morning.
I'm worried however that my posts are turning into lectures which is making me feel uneased. But then again I probably look back at my posts more than anyone else so I must be doing something right. I hope I don't end up doing anything really ridiculous in the near future.
Business "In Hand"
Whilst listening to Jerry Scott on Radio York last night, he mentioned that he was going to get Sooty as a guest on tonight's show who's currently on tour on a summer season across the lovely coastal part of the county. I'll try and avoid going on a tangent about the North Yorkshire coast but it's bloody gorgeous.
Anyway, I asked Ricky how such a thing could work on radio but in MSN talk he just smiled and seemed confident that it would!
On a smilar note I managed to find an old episode from the series, the first one produced by Granada after Thames lost it's franchise and I can say with pride after watching this that Matthew Corbett's a genius.
I fully understand now why he wanted to retire at 50 as he put himself up for so much mess but always managed to cope with it all and spoke to the viewer as if he knew them, with superb music skills to match. This episode is no exception where long time collaborator Connie pays a visit to explain how "the customer is always right".
Notice how Soo isn't in the same scene as Mo from the market!
I'm sure I'm not the only one, but when seeing this first time round in 1993 I was too busy wetting myself (and doing the same now to an extent, when watching this) to understand the messages conveyed and I'm rather gutted we didn't have a VCR at the time, because after enough viewings I would have been able to understand them a bit more.
If I'm being honest this is what should be shown to anyone starting a job in a similar location of any scale as when I was at ASDA there were people there who made even worse mistakes (and probably still do) than the ones shown here, which have involved a lot more dangerous water incidents than that of firing a water pistol in someone's face.
But then again I doubt many of those immature ones who work there or any place similar will be reading this, so I guess it's a case of loving them and leaving them.
Overall don't let any corporate fuckers get in the way as they're not the ones smiling.
It's up to those who don't let their backstabbing and changes for changes sake get in the way and carry on smiling and I mean genuine smiles. I've seen too many fixed grins in such places.
Anyway, I asked Ricky how such a thing could work on radio but in MSN talk he just smiled and seemed confident that it would!
On a smilar note I managed to find an old episode from the series, the first one produced by Granada after Thames lost it's franchise and I can say with pride after watching this that Matthew Corbett's a genius.
I fully understand now why he wanted to retire at 50 as he put himself up for so much mess but always managed to cope with it all and spoke to the viewer as if he knew them, with superb music skills to match. This episode is no exception where long time collaborator Connie pays a visit to explain how "the customer is always right".
Notice how Soo isn't in the same scene as Mo from the market!
I'm sure I'm not the only one, but when seeing this first time round in 1993 I was too busy wetting myself (and doing the same now to an extent, when watching this) to understand the messages conveyed and I'm rather gutted we didn't have a VCR at the time, because after enough viewings I would have been able to understand them a bit more.
If I'm being honest this is what should be shown to anyone starting a job in a similar location of any scale as when I was at ASDA there were people there who made even worse mistakes (and probably still do) than the ones shown here, which have involved a lot more dangerous water incidents than that of firing a water pistol in someone's face.
But then again I doubt many of those immature ones who work there or any place similar will be reading this, so I guess it's a case of loving them and leaving them.
Overall don't let any corporate fuckers get in the way as they're not the ones smiling.
It's up to those who don't let their backstabbing and changes for changes sake get in the way and carry on smiling and I mean genuine smiles. I've seen too many fixed grins in such places.
Back On The Ground But Not Discouraged
Ooh dear, I've now gotten on to the next chapter as Chris is speaking about something that I've referred to quite a lot on the blog; "great radio".
Whilst I have a love for it, I'm going to have to cut down on the amount of times I use that phrase as it's becoming too overused and sometimes beyond proportion.
Although that may not be the case as far as the current state of radio is going at the moment and there will still be plenty of blog posts waxing lyrical on why many different areas of life overall are great. It's just that radio plays a very big part in it and I've gone a bit bonkers with it recently.
I'm actually rather annoyed that I didn't buy any fizzy fruity stuff in Morrisons this morning in favour of a rather bland granary loaf and this weeks Radio Times. I haven't read it just yet but by the way I'm going, I could ending writing the whole magazine in the next post!
I may as well head downstairs to get a glass of water. Perfect unexpensive therapy.
Whilst I have a love for it, I'm going to have to cut down on the amount of times I use that phrase as it's becoming too overused and sometimes beyond proportion.
Although that may not be the case as far as the current state of radio is going at the moment and there will still be plenty of blog posts waxing lyrical on why many different areas of life overall are great. It's just that radio plays a very big part in it and I've gone a bit bonkers with it recently.
I'm actually rather annoyed that I didn't buy any fizzy fruity stuff in Morrisons this morning in favour of a rather bland granary loaf and this weeks Radio Times. I haven't read it just yet but by the way I'm going, I could ending writing the whole magazine in the next post!
I may as well head downstairs to get a glass of water. Perfect unexpensive therapy.
No Excuse For Not Laughing
OK, so let's set the scene. It's just after Christmas, nearing the beginning of 2002, Ant & Dec have left SM:tv due to their Pop Idol commitments in favour of the wooden James Redmond, and Channel 4 have announced they are pulling the plug on The Big Breakfast.
The presents I got were a back catalogue of Bernard Manning videos and having watched all of them I'm rather disapointed that the same jokes are repeated again and again.
In the long term this leads to six months of depression letting stupid things get to me, with the passion for what I really want to be doing down the plughole because of this.
I really wish I had developed other interests back then but to be honest I wouldn't have been able to stick to them because of all the reasons written above.
But as of now I still manage to find the time to try something new and quite often really stupid. I've just made a start on re-reading "The Gospel According To Chris Moyles" and reading it out loud as well trying to get myself into the saviour's frame of mind. And to be honest it's impossible to do without cracking up because Chris is brutally honest about his first experience of ringing up a radio station and how desperate they were with their Christmas Day competition of "Guessing The Christmas Song".
If you're a member of an amateur dramatics club, when getting a script for a play you'll be acting in, reading the script aloud in your spare time is the best way to learn not just your lines but the entire dialogue. I've never done it myself in all honesty but I reckon that it would make things a hell of a lot speedier.
Any excuse to join the Westminster Drama Society next year.
The presents I got were a back catalogue of Bernard Manning videos and having watched all of them I'm rather disapointed that the same jokes are repeated again and again.
In the long term this leads to six months of depression letting stupid things get to me, with the passion for what I really want to be doing down the plughole because of this.
I really wish I had developed other interests back then but to be honest I wouldn't have been able to stick to them because of all the reasons written above.
But as of now I still manage to find the time to try something new and quite often really stupid. I've just made a start on re-reading "The Gospel According To Chris Moyles" and reading it out loud as well trying to get myself into the saviour's frame of mind. And to be honest it's impossible to do without cracking up because Chris is brutally honest about his first experience of ringing up a radio station and how desperate they were with their Christmas Day competition of "Guessing The Christmas Song".
If you're a member of an amateur dramatics club, when getting a script for a play you'll be acting in, reading the script aloud in your spare time is the best way to learn not just your lines but the entire dialogue. I've never done it myself in all honesty but I reckon that it would make things a hell of a lot speedier.
Any excuse to join the Westminster Drama Society next year.
Swelling Up
As Arnold Schwarznegger once quoted "I'm Not A Pervert!"
After reading a few more past print outs from Media UK and a discussion about Vibe FM's takeover by GWR, a commment about presenter Nikki Elise elaborates on why I love female radio presenters. Not just because they are attractive but also funny and welcoming on air.
I'd imagine that's the exact reason for Martin setting up Radio Babes as anyone with any intelligence will know that they genuinely love talking and showing enthusiasm on air.
Anyone passionate about wanting to get into radio should not just listen to a lot of radio but a lot of great radio and ask themselves why it's so good? And the same for not so great radio asking why it's a load of tosh.
But then reading these discussions has lead to the final straw of working with annoying egotists as I've learnt from personal experience that every company, classroom and even University course will have at least one. Arguing with them will just make things worse but if you either try to talk to them one to one in a friendly manner then they may be put down to size. And if they don't want to co-operate then they won't get very far at all in the long term.
I've been a right bastard myself at times and it saddens me to think that shit people can stop good people doing what they're genuinely good at. A recent example being the
Big L management Vs Opal Bonfante who resigned on air after Chris Vesey, Mike Read etc tried to tinker, sorry, fuck about with the format of her show.
But it's not just radio that has burst boots in their rubbish bins, as there are so many pricks AKA A&R people who just don't have the guts to listen to genuine talent and really sweet music. I can only speak with Jocelyn Brown's "Unreleased" compilation playing as I type this post with gems such as "She'd Call" and "Forever". OK the song titles don't stand out but neither did "Everyday". The melodies are really delightful and whenever I've played something like that to either a classroom assistant or an equally enthusiastic/passionate friend it affects them emotionally.
That's the signifier as to whether a product of any sort works. If it has me in tears then it's done the job, whether it would be a hilarious gag from Richard Herring or Jill Scott's stunning vocals.
Anyone who applies for a treasured position who doesn't have any understanding in their mind shouldn't be doing the job.
After reading a few more past print outs from Media UK and a discussion about Vibe FM's takeover by GWR, a commment about presenter Nikki Elise elaborates on why I love female radio presenters. Not just because they are attractive but also funny and welcoming on air.
I'd imagine that's the exact reason for Martin setting up Radio Babes as anyone with any intelligence will know that they genuinely love talking and showing enthusiasm on air.
Anyone passionate about wanting to get into radio should not just listen to a lot of radio but a lot of great radio and ask themselves why it's so good? And the same for not so great radio asking why it's a load of tosh.
But then reading these discussions has lead to the final straw of working with annoying egotists as I've learnt from personal experience that every company, classroom and even University course will have at least one. Arguing with them will just make things worse but if you either try to talk to them one to one in a friendly manner then they may be put down to size. And if they don't want to co-operate then they won't get very far at all in the long term.
I've been a right bastard myself at times and it saddens me to think that shit people can stop good people doing what they're genuinely good at. A recent example being the
Big L management Vs Opal Bonfante who resigned on air after Chris Vesey, Mike Read etc tried to tinker, sorry, fuck about with the format of her show.
But it's not just radio that has burst boots in their rubbish bins, as there are so many pricks AKA A&R people who just don't have the guts to listen to genuine talent and really sweet music. I can only speak with Jocelyn Brown's "Unreleased" compilation playing as I type this post with gems such as "She'd Call" and "Forever". OK the song titles don't stand out but neither did "Everyday". The melodies are really delightful and whenever I've played something like that to either a classroom assistant or an equally enthusiastic/passionate friend it affects them emotionally.
That's the signifier as to whether a product of any sort works. If it has me in tears then it's done the job, whether it would be a hilarious gag from Richard Herring or Jill Scott's stunning vocals.
Anyone who applies for a treasured position who doesn't have any understanding in their mind shouldn't be doing the job.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Nocturnal Discussion
Ah this is nice, in bed with a bag of midget gems whilst listening to Jerry Scott on
BBC Radio York after being prompted by a certain Ricky Marshall who's B.A.ing the show!
The rest of the night has been spent chatting to a few others including Pippa ST who's having a birthday do at her West Hampstead flat just over a month away. I also got a few things off my chest about my anxieties about Uni which she's equally irritated with including people who think they are bigger than they actually are.
Lee and Herring may have took the piss out of the punchline but the retort
"and that was just the teachers" has never been so true.
On a lighter side of things Head of Music Chris back in Harrow has managed to build up a big list of pluggers adding to the excitement and it turns out that he's more passionate about radio than ever before. I'm really looking forward to hearing what him and
Phil H have got on offer when they bring back their Wake Up Call to the airwaves.
I just want August to disapear completely, I'm ready for the rush of September.
BBC Radio York after being prompted by a certain Ricky Marshall who's B.A.ing the show!
The rest of the night has been spent chatting to a few others including Pippa ST who's having a birthday do at her West Hampstead flat just over a month away. I also got a few things off my chest about my anxieties about Uni which she's equally irritated with including people who think they are bigger than they actually are.
Lee and Herring may have took the piss out of the punchline but the retort
"and that was just the teachers" has never been so true.
On a lighter side of things Head of Music Chris back in Harrow has managed to build up a big list of pluggers adding to the excitement and it turns out that he's more passionate about radio than ever before. I'm really looking forward to hearing what him and
Phil H have got on offer when they bring back their Wake Up Call to the airwaves.
I just want August to disapear completely, I'm ready for the rush of September.
"Terrrific!"
Yet another of the Comedians has passed on, Mike Reid better known as the man who played the ever-returning car salesman Frank Butcher in Eastenders.
Although the man will have a place in my memory for two things, being the host of the popular children's physical/general knowledge game "Runarrouund!" or his very witty take on "The Ugly Duckling".
I can remember when Mike Read the disk jockey appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks in early 2003 where Mark Lamarr made a few predictable jokes about the confusion resulting in the wannabe impressionist giving his own rendition of the song about the mallard.
This prompted Lamarr to suggest that Mike Reid the actor was in a pub asking people questions about popular music "who ad an hit called turn it in!..."
Overall it's a shame that we had to lose the crafty cockney first, but at least the confusion gave a good reason for gags beyond his stand up routine.
Although the man will have a place in my memory for two things, being the host of the popular children's physical/general knowledge game "Runarrouund!" or his very witty take on "The Ugly Duckling".
I can remember when Mike Read the disk jockey appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks in early 2003 where Mark Lamarr made a few predictable jokes about the confusion resulting in the wannabe impressionist giving his own rendition of the song about the mallard.
This prompted Lamarr to suggest that Mike Reid the actor was in a pub asking people questions about popular music "who ad an hit called turn it in!..."
Overall it's a shame that we had to lose the crafty cockney first, but at least the confusion gave a good reason for gags beyond his stand up routine.
Vocally Lilting
The myth, no; fact that people responsible for great radio know a thing or two about jingles can be proved here with a version of cut 2 from JAM's "The Beat 92" as done for KMFM's programme director Steve Fountain when he was at Great Yorkshire Gold several years ago!
And I can honestly say that despite the flaky tape audio quality it's actually better than my version of the cut I've been using although it's mainly because he used a
richer sounding 7 voice vocal group complete with Jim Clancy supplying the bass vocals!
I'm sure I've got their mid 90s jingle package somewhere which consisted entirely of resung Radio 1 jingles from the 70s including the traffic jingle based on the Beatles "Drive My Car" "Beep Beep, Beep Beep, Yeah!"
I reckon that by the end of the summer my head's going to explode with all this random nonsense coming from nowhere but I should bear in mind that it's been inside there for a very long time and I haven't had the guts to open it.
And I can honestly say that despite the flaky tape audio quality it's actually better than my version of the cut I've been using although it's mainly because he used a
richer sounding 7 voice vocal group complete with Jim Clancy supplying the bass vocals!
I'm sure I've got their mid 90s jingle package somewhere which consisted entirely of resung Radio 1 jingles from the 70s including the traffic jingle based on the Beatles "Drive My Car" "Beep Beep, Beep Beep, Yeah!"
I reckon that by the end of the summer my head's going to explode with all this random nonsense coming from nowhere but I should bear in mind that it's been inside there for a very long time and I haven't had the guts to open it.
"Wasted On Radio..."
A certain theme has been running within the blog for a few days now and this has resulted in the long established website Radio Babes added to my links.
This is basically a whos who in the most radient of radio presenters including quite a few local faces such as the desirable Claire Lawson at Invicta FM, Kirstyn Read at KMFM, and of course our very own Westminster stable represented by Sam, and the equally desirable Maz Lopez who's finally got a presenting gig at Hert's Mercury FM.
But this is no site for sleaziness, the majority of those featured on the site have been more than happy to be interviewed and the advice they offer is spot on, particuarly Kirstyn's comment about being thick skinned in the business.
Although to be honest I seem to be acting like that all the time despite Dad's discouraging comments about my "washing up habits".
I can remember listening to Kirstyn on what was then known as Neptune Radio from Dover, and she was particuarly brilliant with the requests, with the exception of one incident when they were unable to find the song "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi so they ended up playing the Dr Albarn song of the same name!
In fact I've probably still got one of her early Sunday shows on KMFM on minidisc, which she still does today although this was from October 2003 when Neil Fox was still doing
Hit 40 UK and I was very depressed.
Says it all really, I had completely forgotten how life could be so good, due to a poor start on my HND Course.
In all fairness it was very heavy handed with one assignment after another and two seperate modules rolled into one. That and lecturers turning up late, and a student union dominated by chavs.
The thing for anyone starting a college or university course in September to keep in mind:
Don't worry about being disorganised, because some of the lecturers are fucking worse than you'll ever be.
This is basically a whos who in the most radient of radio presenters including quite a few local faces such as the desirable Claire Lawson at Invicta FM, Kirstyn Read at KMFM, and of course our very own Westminster stable represented by Sam, and the equally desirable Maz Lopez who's finally got a presenting gig at Hert's Mercury FM.
But this is no site for sleaziness, the majority of those featured on the site have been more than happy to be interviewed and the advice they offer is spot on, particuarly Kirstyn's comment about being thick skinned in the business.
Although to be honest I seem to be acting like that all the time despite Dad's discouraging comments about my "washing up habits".
I can remember listening to Kirstyn on what was then known as Neptune Radio from Dover, and she was particuarly brilliant with the requests, with the exception of one incident when they were unable to find the song "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi so they ended up playing the Dr Albarn song of the same name!
In fact I've probably still got one of her early Sunday shows on KMFM on minidisc, which she still does today although this was from October 2003 when Neil Fox was still doing
Hit 40 UK and I was very depressed.
Says it all really, I had completely forgotten how life could be so good, due to a poor start on my HND Course.
In all fairness it was very heavy handed with one assignment after another and two seperate modules rolled into one. That and lecturers turning up late, and a student union dominated by chavs.
The thing for anyone starting a college or university course in September to keep in mind:
Don't worry about being disorganised, because some of the lecturers are fucking worse than you'll ever be.
Torture Defined!
More offerings from DJFairbourne, a montage of endcaps from the generic era of ITV circa 1989/1990 and this really does leave you wanting more. Especially as there's a rarely seen Ulster one from the end of an episode of Ghost Train in 1990, but on an even scarier note there's an ITN one from the end of News At Ten! However it does also include the intro to the ITV Weather with namesake Alex Hill.
I was however pleased to find this other offering from what I believe could be a pitch on how ITV wanted the generic look to be implemented containing unused endcaps for Anglia and TVS and clean versions of the Sports and Children's idents.
I can always remember Tommy Boyd humming along to the end of the children's one and it really gives you the excitement of how it sandwiched the end of TV-AM and the beginning of either Motormouth or Ghost Train.
I may as well go into town and get that cheque cashed in although it's looking a bit overcast outside.
I was however pleased to find this other offering from what I believe could be a pitch on how ITV wanted the generic look to be implemented containing unused endcaps for Anglia and TVS and clean versions of the Sports and Children's idents.
I can always remember Tommy Boyd humming along to the end of the children's one and it really gives you the excitement of how it sandwiched the end of TV-AM and the beginning of either Motormouth or Ghost Train.
I may as well go into town and get that cheque cashed in although it's looking a bit overcast outside.
More Crazy Ideas
Early start as always with Steve Ladner on BBC Radio Kent where he was playing "Moondance" by Van Morrison. Being me at that time of morning I thought it was Nina Simone but it reminds me of two years ago when a lovely support assistant at college who was also called Hannah brought my attention to his latest release which I dismissed as being too "bluesy".
However I'm tempted to give that and the rest of his repertoire a listen having been brought up on "Bright Side Of The Road" and the ever lovely "Have I Told You Lately".
I was rather gutted that Hannah didn't take the advice she gave me before I left London about enjoying myself as much as I could, as she went to University and quit after a few months and ended up doing various odd jobs such as a cafe employee and a painter/decorator.
And like most people I know, she would be great on radio as well!
I'll admit it when I say that I've kept a photo that I had taken with her at the NBC studios in New York on my bedside since moving to London and I'd love to find out what she's up to now.
As I type I'm having a listen to a techno mix from someone equally
enthusiastic as Miss Hinton, Liz Cirelli AKA Ms. Deckstress who has to be one of the best specialist presenters we've had at Smoke Radio.
One of the tunes included which has nothing to do with the Madonna tune of the same name being "Isla Bonita" by Mario Piu.
If you don't remember him, he had a chart hit at the tail end of 1999 with "Communication (Somebody Answer The Phone)" which was an inventive blend of techno beats with the putt-putting of a mobile phone.
Ideas for Freshers however are still coming thick and fast, hopefully not leaning towards the former! Well, in the case of the next example probably so.
I've been getting a bigger craving to wanting to do daytime as the last couple of posts show and an idea if I was reunited with Ms Impey would be a feature based on a very old competition that Gary Davies used to do which had the name of "Willy On The Plonker".
The original had callers trying to identify what producer Paul Williams was trying to play on a piano lurking in Egton House although in our case we'd do it live even if it does resort to us buying a cheap CASIO from the nearby ASDA or Toys 'R' Us.
In Simon Garfield's cracking book "The Nation's Favourite" Andy Kershaw looks back on a complaint from someone who was offended by the name of the feature and fellow producer Doreen Davies' response saying "it's not called "Willy On Your Plonker" or "Willy On His Plonker"".
Anyway back to where I started, the name of the feature? Impey's Ivories!
And I'd reckon she would do a much better job than my mum ever could!
I've even found a really nice piano swirl drone within my large selection of noises so it looks as if making the feature stand out is covered.
I reckon that I've reached a point where I could just ask anyone with a good vibrant and infectious personality to come in on a radio show and they would just sit back and relax (well not exactly relax) and they would be part of the insanity from the word go.
If a move to daytime was to go ahead, then the best idea would be to have the soul show on between 7-9 on the Friday of Freshers as in the last two years, Fridays on that week have sounded like we have been giving up and thinking "oooh no, we've got lectures next week.."
I'd love to include possible items alongside the music such as "Central in 60" or "Harrow In 60" which I'll admit was inspired by Danny Cox on BBC Oxford, where details could be given of gigs and clubs to go out to in London without getting in the way of the music.
And once again production counts!
To be honest, Friday might be an ideal timeslot for the regular hour long soul shows as with the right promotion it could actually help to make Friday's on campus exciting as they should be!
Not like a bleeding graveyard.
However I'm tempted to give that and the rest of his repertoire a listen having been brought up on "Bright Side Of The Road" and the ever lovely "Have I Told You Lately".
I was rather gutted that Hannah didn't take the advice she gave me before I left London about enjoying myself as much as I could, as she went to University and quit after a few months and ended up doing various odd jobs such as a cafe employee and a painter/decorator.
And like most people I know, she would be great on radio as well!
I'll admit it when I say that I've kept a photo that I had taken with her at the NBC studios in New York on my bedside since moving to London and I'd love to find out what she's up to now.
As I type I'm having a listen to a techno mix from someone equally
enthusiastic as Miss Hinton, Liz Cirelli AKA Ms. Deckstress who has to be one of the best specialist presenters we've had at Smoke Radio.
One of the tunes included which has nothing to do with the Madonna tune of the same name being "Isla Bonita" by Mario Piu.
If you don't remember him, he had a chart hit at the tail end of 1999 with "Communication (Somebody Answer The Phone)" which was an inventive blend of techno beats with the putt-putting of a mobile phone.
Ideas for Freshers however are still coming thick and fast, hopefully not leaning towards the former! Well, in the case of the next example probably so.
I've been getting a bigger craving to wanting to do daytime as the last couple of posts show and an idea if I was reunited with Ms Impey would be a feature based on a very old competition that Gary Davies used to do which had the name of "Willy On The Plonker".
The original had callers trying to identify what producer Paul Williams was trying to play on a piano lurking in Egton House although in our case we'd do it live even if it does resort to us buying a cheap CASIO from the nearby ASDA or Toys 'R' Us.
In Simon Garfield's cracking book "The Nation's Favourite" Andy Kershaw looks back on a complaint from someone who was offended by the name of the feature and fellow producer Doreen Davies' response saying "it's not called "Willy On Your Plonker" or "Willy On His Plonker"".
Anyway back to where I started, the name of the feature? Impey's Ivories!
And I'd reckon she would do a much better job than my mum ever could!
I've even found a really nice piano swirl drone within my large selection of noises so it looks as if making the feature stand out is covered.
I reckon that I've reached a point where I could just ask anyone with a good vibrant and infectious personality to come in on a radio show and they would just sit back and relax (well not exactly relax) and they would be part of the insanity from the word go.
If a move to daytime was to go ahead, then the best idea would be to have the soul show on between 7-9 on the Friday of Freshers as in the last two years, Fridays on that week have sounded like we have been giving up and thinking "oooh no, we've got lectures next week.."
I'd love to include possible items alongside the music such as "Central in 60" or "Harrow In 60" which I'll admit was inspired by Danny Cox on BBC Oxford, where details could be given of gigs and clubs to go out to in London without getting in the way of the music.
And once again production counts!
To be honest, Friday might be an ideal timeslot for the regular hour long soul shows as with the right promotion it could actually help to make Friday's on campus exciting as they should be!
Not like a bleeding graveyard.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
"Put Yourself On The Hot Spot!"
From the same fella who uploaded one of the Motormouth clips from earlier, a selection of continuity from TSW in December 1989, the highlight being near the end with the original opening titles to Blockbusters!
I'm rather confused however as the titles set in that fancy metallic city were surely being used by then although these earlier ones did make more sense as to the programme's format with a hexagon with Beethoven coming into vision as the theme tune makes use of the opening bars of his 5th symphony!
As the man himself's not too far from campus and I'm feeling a bit more confident,
I'm going to try my best to get the cult hero that is Bob Holness on Smoke Radio and even if he's getting on a bit I'm sure he'd want to speak to us one way or another!
It's a case of planning ahead and not just relying on events such as Fresher's Week or the Summer broadcasts as excuses to get guests.
I'm rather confused however as the titles set in that fancy metallic city were surely being used by then although these earlier ones did make more sense as to the programme's format with a hexagon with Beethoven coming into vision as the theme tune makes use of the opening bars of his 5th symphony!
As the man himself's not too far from campus and I'm feeling a bit more confident,
I'm going to try my best to get the cult hero that is Bob Holness on Smoke Radio and even if he's getting on a bit I'm sure he'd want to speak to us one way or another!
It's a case of planning ahead and not just relying on events such as Fresher's Week or the Summer broadcasts as excuses to get guests.
Ever Inspired
It may be approaching early August but I'd go as far as saying that this is the best summer I've had in a long while.
I've actually made use of all the spare time I have to think about all my faults and more importantly happier times and ask myself, how do I continue feeling this way?
Well it's very simple when you've got instant access to all your favourite possessions!
I reckon tomorrow will be a similar story, adding more from my jingle shrine onto my hard drive. To be honest it may take a while with the MDs and don't get me started on the cassettes!
Luckily with the large amount of USB lifesavers I may splash out (when a bit more better off) on an external sound card although now I've thought about it, it may involve attaching it to one of the other computers in the house so as to avoid any confusion with my computer's own soundcard.
External hardware really is the way forward as my DVD burner can get CDs/DVDs sorted in 2 minutes rather than 2 hours and the fact that I'm able to carry an entire radio production studio in the palm of my hand is definitely something!
Having recently acquired the Lucasfilm series of sound effects I'm sure Stoobie will be delighted at having those to play with!
Looking at this in perspective, I've never realised how short the summer break from school really is compared to this. Olly's just finished his first year in Sixth Form and will be giving mum a hand at the Playscheme which is a summer activities scheme for toddlers and young children.
I don't know how I'd cope but at least unlike ASDA they are in care of people who can cope with little children unlike their often equally dimunitive parents who just make bad situations even worse!
Anyway that's all behind me now and will remain that way.
I've actually made use of all the spare time I have to think about all my faults and more importantly happier times and ask myself, how do I continue feeling this way?
Well it's very simple when you've got instant access to all your favourite possessions!
I reckon tomorrow will be a similar story, adding more from my jingle shrine onto my hard drive. To be honest it may take a while with the MDs and don't get me started on the cassettes!
Luckily with the large amount of USB lifesavers I may splash out (when a bit more better off) on an external sound card although now I've thought about it, it may involve attaching it to one of the other computers in the house so as to avoid any confusion with my computer's own soundcard.
External hardware really is the way forward as my DVD burner can get CDs/DVDs sorted in 2 minutes rather than 2 hours and the fact that I'm able to carry an entire radio production studio in the palm of my hand is definitely something!
Having recently acquired the Lucasfilm series of sound effects I'm sure Stoobie will be delighted at having those to play with!
Looking at this in perspective, I've never realised how short the summer break from school really is compared to this. Olly's just finished his first year in Sixth Form and will be giving mum a hand at the Playscheme which is a summer activities scheme for toddlers and young children.
I don't know how I'd cope but at least unlike ASDA they are in care of people who can cope with little children unlike their often equally dimunitive parents who just make bad situations even worse!
Anyway that's all behind me now and will remain that way.
"You Can't Sing, You Can't Play, You'll Go A Long Way!"
Last night I gave a listen to KMFM's Dance Show with Toby Mackenzie which like the rock show isn't your average Saturday night barrage of "dance anthems". Toby definitely knows quite a lot about the music played and brought out a track that doesn't get played too often by Clubhouse called "Light My Fire". However whenever I hear that tune it will always remind me of Boyzone's TV debut on The Late Late Show as looked at by Angus Deayton on BBC 1's "Before They Were Famous".
It just goes to show how desperate Louis Walsh really was and still is, and it's difficult not to laugh at 16 year old Ronan Keating's dance moves!
Whilst everyone in London seems to be gelling together, I'm rather concerned as to what I'm doing presenting wise. Sam asked me yesterday if I wanted to present with her again on a daytime show as suggested and I told her that Goodlass and Marshall wanted me to do more OBs, which I'm now having second thoughts about.
I'd love to do a regular daytime slot having tried it on and off last year, and I reckon that with the right selection of features and an unscripted approach it would go really well.
I've even got an idea of how the show could be trailed:
RB: "I'm Blammy"
SI: "and I'm Sami"
RB: "I'm from Canterbury"
SI: "I've lived in Thatcham"
RB: "I'm a Blues boy"
SI: " Come On Spurs"
RB: "I'm looking for women.."
SI: "and so am I!"
Paula Abdul's words are definitely ringing true, in most cases opposites attract.
I'm even considering suggesting a move for the station that's worked wonders on
Miss Impey's old residence Blast 1386 of repeating the specialist shows overnight.
It's a tough job but I reckon that if I put the time and effort in then it would be perfect and ensure us even more listeners!
Freshers Week would be the perfect time to try this out to see if it really could work.
And if there's time I'm very tempted to start campaigning for the radio facilities to be left open overnight. The fact that they are key coded is important as only radio people and those linked with Smoke know how to get in so what harm is it going to do for the security people on campus?
It's not like we're going to start fires as well!
Once again it's all about moving forward.
It just goes to show how desperate Louis Walsh really was and still is, and it's difficult not to laugh at 16 year old Ronan Keating's dance moves!
Whilst everyone in London seems to be gelling together, I'm rather concerned as to what I'm doing presenting wise. Sam asked me yesterday if I wanted to present with her again on a daytime show as suggested and I told her that Goodlass and Marshall wanted me to do more OBs, which I'm now having second thoughts about.
I'd love to do a regular daytime slot having tried it on and off last year, and I reckon that with the right selection of features and an unscripted approach it would go really well.
I've even got an idea of how the show could be trailed:
RB: "I'm Blammy"
SI: "and I'm Sami"
RB: "I'm from Canterbury"
SI: "I've lived in Thatcham"
RB: "I'm a Blues boy"
SI: " Come On Spurs"
RB: "I'm looking for women.."
SI: "and so am I!"
Paula Abdul's words are definitely ringing true, in most cases opposites attract.
I'm even considering suggesting a move for the station that's worked wonders on
Miss Impey's old residence Blast 1386 of repeating the specialist shows overnight.
It's a tough job but I reckon that if I put the time and effort in then it would be perfect and ensure us even more listeners!
Freshers Week would be the perfect time to try this out to see if it really could work.
And if there's time I'm very tempted to start campaigning for the radio facilities to be left open overnight. The fact that they are key coded is important as only radio people and those linked with Smoke know how to get in so what harm is it going to do for the security people on campus?
It's not like we're going to start fires as well!
Once again it's all about moving forward.
Real Saturday Leisure!
Despite my unluckiness with the last video post on the blog, I've found a few more extracts from Motormouth, both of a seasonal nature.
First of all from 1989, Neil Buchanan reveals Fuzzbox as the star guests in a Xmas special coming from a circus tent. I've always found the concept of a live television programme coming from such a location to be rather unnerving, with the early editions of The National Lottery Live being a prime example.
Also, from one year later, this offering features Andy Crane who had been poached from the BBC to try and help ITV beat Phillip and Sarah in the ratings which they succeeded in a few times but with TVS's franchise loss, it didn't last long. This time thankfully they decided to keep things in the Maidstone studios with special guest appearances from Frank Carson and Gordon Burns who's never been afraid to send himself up on television.
And if you're watching the clip with headphones listen carefully for a seasonally tinged version of the Motormouth theme in the background, for which I can remember the opening titles starting off with the animated mouth singing the "Gloria" line instead of the infamous scream!
Composers Mr Miller and Mr Porter definitely made the effort at Xmas to add extra sparkle to their themes with Motormouth's successor "What's Up Doc?" being another prime example.
I'm sure I've still got the Xmas themes for SM:tv lurking about somewhere as well, oddly enough.
First of all from 1989, Neil Buchanan reveals Fuzzbox as the star guests in a Xmas special coming from a circus tent. I've always found the concept of a live television programme coming from such a location to be rather unnerving, with the early editions of The National Lottery Live being a prime example.
Also, from one year later, this offering features Andy Crane who had been poached from the BBC to try and help ITV beat Phillip and Sarah in the ratings which they succeeded in a few times but with TVS's franchise loss, it didn't last long. This time thankfully they decided to keep things in the Maidstone studios with special guest appearances from Frank Carson and Gordon Burns who's never been afraid to send himself up on television.
And if you're watching the clip with headphones listen carefully for a seasonally tinged version of the Motormouth theme in the background, for which I can remember the opening titles starting off with the animated mouth singing the "Gloria" line instead of the infamous scream!
Composers Mr Miller and Mr Porter definitely made the effort at Xmas to add extra sparkle to their themes with Motormouth's successor "What's Up Doc?" being another prime example.
I'm sure I've still got the Xmas themes for SM:tv lurking about somewhere as well, oddly enough.
The Jingle Collecting Rant (After A Few Paragraphs)
It's Jo's 49th birthday today but she wasn't the only one getting presents as her mum had also sent me a belated cheque towards funding for books at Uni. At least it's something to lighten the overdraft. I also managed to find the CD I brought a couple of days ago on Ebay which was released back in 1990 by London Weekend Television and contains some really good themes from around that time.
These include Brian Bennett's superb theme to "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries" as produced by TVS and of course the theme to another show from the Southampton (well it was made in Maidstone) stable "Motormouth".
I can remember about a year ago when Benedict Smith on Invicta FM was reminiscing about being in the audience for that show when he was younger and one of the guests was the legend that is Terry Nutkins.
Having looked at his profile on the website it turns out that fellow presenter Andy Walker was also a fan of both that and it's predecessor "Number 73" which was slightly before my time but had quite an impressive cast including Sandi Toksvig, Neil Buchanan and Andrew O'Connor.
Not forgetting Nick Wilton who went on to become the voiceover man on Double Dare with Peter Simon! "you get to take home your Double Dare T-shirt and trainers!"
Overall it goes to show that in the case of Motormouth, 73 and even Catchphrase in it's early years, those programmes made you feel proud to live in the TVS region and I reckon quite a few of the others who have worked for Invicta FM and KMFM to an extent all shared the same thing in common of wanting to get into showbusiness at an early age.
Hannah Dorey's photo of her with Rod Hull and Emu being a prime example! Although I'd prefer gloss over those photos of when I met the Blue Peter team back in 1994!
The opening to an edition of Motormouth from December 1989 can be seen in this rather interesting selection but unfortunately it gets cut off way too early in the titles themselves!
But another interesting addition on the CD that is making me kick myself for not buying it when I was younger, was the extended version of the ITV generic theme introduced in September 1989. Composed by top jingle writer David Dundas this really made me understand the link between ITV and the regions as both Thames and LWT adapted it although TVS stayed clear having just brought MTM and getting a bit too ambitious with their money, which resulted in an underserved franchise loss.
Asides that I've been copying my CDs of jingle packages onto my hard drive to make things easier to access but one thing that has pissed me off since getting into this jingle hobby is the cageyness and arrogance of some of the collectors. But then again I suppose they'd be just as annoyed with the large amount of people that come hassling them for packages that it took them an arm and a leg to get hold of.
And I'm fucking glad we didn't have internet access at home back then because I would have pissed off a lot of people if I weren't careful and I'm very grateful for those who took the trouble to send me CDs and even re-create the covers!
The next time there's a Jingle Mad.com meet up (which I believe is in Newcastle of all places) I am bringing my laptop and hard drive over once again and between now and then I'm going to attempt (hoping that I will succeed) to transfer all my CDs and MDs of jingle packages onto my hard drive and also label them with the audio quality levels because I know some collectors are very fussy about audio quality!
People of that sort should remember back to why they got into jingle collecting and not let annoying so and sos keep pestering them. If they continue to do so, they should just explain to them lightly how to go about this hobby and give them a jingle package to get them started as you never know who may not have what they've got!
And I've had my fair share of traders who have been complete lying bastards including one who used to have a website showing off his wide collection but refused to get back to me and not sending what I'd asked for, but instead sending me things that could already be downloaded easily from the net.
I can't believe the amount of excuses he used such as "a honeymoon" and "reccuperation from a kidney operation" and if you want to know who I'm talking about then you're more than welcome to send me an e-mail.
Just to ensure that if you're a wannabe jingle collector, you know the right sort of people to deal with.
And if I'm being honest if I hadn't gotten into this hobby then there's no way I'd be doing the radio course and trying to convert those who can't stand jingles into loving them!
If they can do the same with me for their music, then we're all one happy family (to used a tired phrase).
These include Brian Bennett's superb theme to "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries" as produced by TVS and of course the theme to another show from the Southampton (well it was made in Maidstone) stable "Motormouth".
I can remember about a year ago when Benedict Smith on Invicta FM was reminiscing about being in the audience for that show when he was younger and one of the guests was the legend that is Terry Nutkins.
Having looked at his profile on the website it turns out that fellow presenter Andy Walker was also a fan of both that and it's predecessor "Number 73" which was slightly before my time but had quite an impressive cast including Sandi Toksvig, Neil Buchanan and Andrew O'Connor.
Not forgetting Nick Wilton who went on to become the voiceover man on Double Dare with Peter Simon! "you get to take home your Double Dare T-shirt and trainers!"
Overall it goes to show that in the case of Motormouth, 73 and even Catchphrase in it's early years, those programmes made you feel proud to live in the TVS region and I reckon quite a few of the others who have worked for Invicta FM and KMFM to an extent all shared the same thing in common of wanting to get into showbusiness at an early age.
Hannah Dorey's photo of her with Rod Hull and Emu being a prime example! Although I'd prefer gloss over those photos of when I met the Blue Peter team back in 1994!
The opening to an edition of Motormouth from December 1989 can be seen in this rather interesting selection but unfortunately it gets cut off way too early in the titles themselves!
But another interesting addition on the CD that is making me kick myself for not buying it when I was younger, was the extended version of the ITV generic theme introduced in September 1989. Composed by top jingle writer David Dundas this really made me understand the link between ITV and the regions as both Thames and LWT adapted it although TVS stayed clear having just brought MTM and getting a bit too ambitious with their money, which resulted in an underserved franchise loss.
Asides that I've been copying my CDs of jingle packages onto my hard drive to make things easier to access but one thing that has pissed me off since getting into this jingle hobby is the cageyness and arrogance of some of the collectors. But then again I suppose they'd be just as annoyed with the large amount of people that come hassling them for packages that it took them an arm and a leg to get hold of.
And I'm fucking glad we didn't have internet access at home back then because I would have pissed off a lot of people if I weren't careful and I'm very grateful for those who took the trouble to send me CDs and even re-create the covers!
The next time there's a Jingle Mad.com meet up (which I believe is in Newcastle of all places) I am bringing my laptop and hard drive over once again and between now and then I'm going to attempt (hoping that I will succeed) to transfer all my CDs and MDs of jingle packages onto my hard drive and also label them with the audio quality levels because I know some collectors are very fussy about audio quality!
People of that sort should remember back to why they got into jingle collecting and not let annoying so and sos keep pestering them. If they continue to do so, they should just explain to them lightly how to go about this hobby and give them a jingle package to get them started as you never know who may not have what they've got!
And I've had my fair share of traders who have been complete lying bastards including one who used to have a website showing off his wide collection but refused to get back to me and not sending what I'd asked for, but instead sending me things that could already be downloaded easily from the net.
I can't believe the amount of excuses he used such as "a honeymoon" and "reccuperation from a kidney operation" and if you want to know who I'm talking about then you're more than welcome to send me an e-mail.
Just to ensure that if you're a wannabe jingle collector, you know the right sort of people to deal with.
And if I'm being honest if I hadn't gotten into this hobby then there's no way I'd be doing the radio course and trying to convert those who can't stand jingles into loving them!
If they can do the same with me for their music, then we're all one happy family (to used a tired phrase).
The Genuine Nut House
I've managed to come across a video posting from Stoobie of him and the rest (bar one) of the housemates at the place I went to stay in London last week where they give a grand tour.
And having been in the house myself I can honestly say that it really is like that with an untidy kitchen and general pissing about
Part 1
Part 2
Notice the copy of Essential Radio Skills on the desk in Chris's bedroom!
I really hope I get to see Phil H in the near future as he was back in Bristol whilst I was in London last week but he seems to be getting on OK, especially as he's going to Oz in August.
I reckon I'm going to be making quite a few visits to that house next year but it should be a good laugh whenever and I might be able to do something about that messy kitchen!
And as for their internet problems, they could simply switch to BT Broadband which has been working wonders for us since we transferred last December.
And having been in the house myself I can honestly say that it really is like that with an untidy kitchen and general pissing about
Part 1
Part 2
Notice the copy of Essential Radio Skills on the desk in Chris's bedroom!
I really hope I get to see Phil H in the near future as he was back in Bristol whilst I was in London last week but he seems to be getting on OK, especially as he's going to Oz in August.
I reckon I'm going to be making quite a few visits to that house next year but it should be a good laugh whenever and I might be able to do something about that messy kitchen!
And as for their internet problems, they could simply switch to BT Broadband which has been working wonders for us since we transferred last December.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Cutesy Calamities
I'm still in a position where after discovering the amusing find on Youtube, I can't listen to or even sing the tune to "Arson Sam" without cracking up. However I must admit that even the real thing has made me laugh but with the knowledge of never to act in such a juvenile way in real life, especially in this particular episode where Norman decides to make a prank call to the fire service.
You have to feel sorry for him in the end when he gets stuck between the rails and isn't Rosa the cat sweet?
I can remember one lunchtime in the Autism Unit when this episode came up in conversation and I could barely stop laughing then, although Susan who I interviewed for my NAS podcasts, told us about someone she knew who commited a similar offence and had to pay a visit to the fire station and apologise to those whose time had been wasted.
We need a nearby team of firefighters on the halls of residence, as with the amount of times the fire alarm goes off at night, the porters are absolutley useless at responding.
I bet they can't even find the digit 9 on a telephone keypad!
You have to feel sorry for him in the end when he gets stuck between the rails and isn't Rosa the cat sweet?
I can remember one lunchtime in the Autism Unit when this episode came up in conversation and I could barely stop laughing then, although Susan who I interviewed for my NAS podcasts, told us about someone she knew who commited a similar offence and had to pay a visit to the fire station and apologise to those whose time had been wasted.
We need a nearby team of firefighters on the halls of residence, as with the amount of times the fire alarm goes off at night, the porters are absolutley useless at responding.
I bet they can't even find the digit 9 on a telephone keypad!
Wasted Talent
I switched on to BBC Essex as planned although Leechy happened to be on an hour earlier and just for an hour too! Why?
That's no way to treat a broadcasting legend and to make things even more complicated he said at the end that next week would be the final one in the series but it's not all bad news as he's still at Time 107.5 on weekdays.
This man's been getting out a bit since leaving Clifftown Road all those years ago.
Dad's got back early from WOMAD after problems with torrential rain and having to deal with dimunitive hitchhikers in time for Mum's birthday tomorrow. It's brightening up here in Canterbury with the ice creams vans feeling the need to chime "Popeye The Sailorman" once again.
And Hannah's responded to me on Facebook and she's been doing really well for herself at Red Bee Media and now at the BBC's Comedy and Ents department.
Definitely one of the nicest and enthusiastic people I've ever met and I'm gutted that I didn't get to know her a lot better asides our monthly meetings all those years ago.
She definitely played a part in the transition from school to college and it's made me realise that they're definitely more people of her type in this area, who I never got in either places apart from a few classroom assistants of similar personas.
I seem to remember asking her why lots of teenagers of her generation had such a thing for Bob Holness and she was only more than happy to explain! Nowadays even Olly ends up explaining jokes to me at the best of times.
It's saddened me that a lot of people at University such as Joey have been outgoing for most of their life with extracurricular stuff, but I reckon that I should be more lucky that I've managed to achieve all of that within a very short space of time. Just a case of keeping it that way really.
That's no way to treat a broadcasting legend and to make things even more complicated he said at the end that next week would be the final one in the series but it's not all bad news as he's still at Time 107.5 on weekdays.
This man's been getting out a bit since leaving Clifftown Road all those years ago.
Dad's got back early from WOMAD after problems with torrential rain and having to deal with dimunitive hitchhikers in time for Mum's birthday tomorrow. It's brightening up here in Canterbury with the ice creams vans feeling the need to chime "Popeye The Sailorman" once again.
And Hannah's responded to me on Facebook and she's been doing really well for herself at Red Bee Media and now at the BBC's Comedy and Ents department.
Definitely one of the nicest and enthusiastic people I've ever met and I'm gutted that I didn't get to know her a lot better asides our monthly meetings all those years ago.
She definitely played a part in the transition from school to college and it's made me realise that they're definitely more people of her type in this area, who I never got in either places apart from a few classroom assistants of similar personas.
I seem to remember asking her why lots of teenagers of her generation had such a thing for Bob Holness and she was only more than happy to explain! Nowadays even Olly ends up explaining jokes to me at the best of times.
It's saddened me that a lot of people at University such as Joey have been outgoing for most of their life with extracurricular stuff, but I reckon that I should be more lucky that I've managed to achieve all of that within a very short space of time. Just a case of keeping it that way really.
At The Wrong End Of One Thousand
Yes, this is blog post number 1000 since transferring onto Blogger just over a year ago and things today so far have been interesting.
Up pretty early as always and after hearing Mo Dutta on Radio 2 utter the much overused phrase "welcome to the weekend" I switched over to Radio 1 where Nihal was looking after things and wanting to know from listeners about the best adrenalin rush.
He also spoke about the "perils" of Facebook and recieving countless e-mails informing him of friend requests and wall posts. One answer to that solution, go into your profile control and choose the option that stops e-mails being sent!
I also had a chat to co-head of programming Sam on MSN this morning and I'm really pleased that she's feeling the same way that I am about looking forward and not backwards as far as next year goes. She's not an easy one to impress and doesn't take kindly to backside licking neither. But overall she's very confident and I'm really looking forward to hearing how she's getting on when I'm next back in London.
Looks like the Rasmus Faber track is doing the job!
It hasn't all been good however as I've just wasted £13 on a line in cable that won't work properly due to a two headed jack that refuses to plug in. However I've taken the advice of Ant's "Captain Justice" character from SM:tv and have kept the reciept safe so I'll be returning that lazy lead, later on this afternoon.
On a lighter note, KMFM Rocks! was brilliant last night with tracks such as Alice Cooper's "Fire", late 80s rockers Skid Row with "Youth Gone Wild" and Feeder's "Just A Day".
There were a few indie rock tracks such as "Do You Want To" by Franz Ferdinand which watered things down a bit, but even if you got a track like that, you could guarantee that the next one would be brilliant.
Richard's definitely nailed it perfectly covering the whole spectrum of rock music and
I'd go as far by saying that this is currently one of, if not the best music show on UK radio.
I also need to make sure I'm about at 6pm as I really want to get round to hearing the legend that is John Leech on BBC Essex.
A long standing presenter on Essex Radio/Essex FM and even a stint on Invicta FM in the early 00s, this guy really knows his stuff about soul and dance music and has many gongs to prove it!
And after looking through his old profile from the Essex FM website it just goes to show that he had some great influences including Scott Shannon over in the US,
the late Roger Scott from Capital Radio and later Radio 1, and the equally influential
John Peel.
That shows how the greats can really give wannabes the right ideas.
Up pretty early as always and after hearing Mo Dutta on Radio 2 utter the much overused phrase "welcome to the weekend" I switched over to Radio 1 where Nihal was looking after things and wanting to know from listeners about the best adrenalin rush.
He also spoke about the "perils" of Facebook and recieving countless e-mails informing him of friend requests and wall posts. One answer to that solution, go into your profile control and choose the option that stops e-mails being sent!
I also had a chat to co-head of programming Sam on MSN this morning and I'm really pleased that she's feeling the same way that I am about looking forward and not backwards as far as next year goes. She's not an easy one to impress and doesn't take kindly to backside licking neither. But overall she's very confident and I'm really looking forward to hearing how she's getting on when I'm next back in London.
Looks like the Rasmus Faber track is doing the job!
It hasn't all been good however as I've just wasted £13 on a line in cable that won't work properly due to a two headed jack that refuses to plug in. However I've taken the advice of Ant's "Captain Justice" character from SM:tv and have kept the reciept safe so I'll be returning that lazy lead, later on this afternoon.
On a lighter note, KMFM Rocks! was brilliant last night with tracks such as Alice Cooper's "Fire", late 80s rockers Skid Row with "Youth Gone Wild" and Feeder's "Just A Day".
There were a few indie rock tracks such as "Do You Want To" by Franz Ferdinand which watered things down a bit, but even if you got a track like that, you could guarantee that the next one would be brilliant.
Richard's definitely nailed it perfectly covering the whole spectrum of rock music and
I'd go as far by saying that this is currently one of, if not the best music show on UK radio.
I also need to make sure I'm about at 6pm as I really want to get round to hearing the legend that is John Leech on BBC Essex.
A long standing presenter on Essex Radio/Essex FM and even a stint on Invicta FM in the early 00s, this guy really knows his stuff about soul and dance music and has many gongs to prove it!
And after looking through his old profile from the Essex FM website it just goes to show that he had some great influences including Scott Shannon over in the US,
the late Roger Scott from Capital Radio and later Radio 1, and the equally influential
John Peel.
That shows how the greats can really give wannabes the right ideas.
Friday, July 27, 2007
"Not Invincible"
Another offering from Andrew O'Connor's Objective stable was on the proceedings for tonight's viewing, the second series of Star Stories profiling Take That in a not entirely inaccurate send up.
I was more or less laughing throughout at the fast paced programme which contained a few familiar faces including Steve Edge from Phoenix Nights as Gary Barlow, Kevin Bishop as Robbie Williams, and Trevor Lock playing the part of Guy Chambers.
Trevor known to many comedy fans as either the male half of the duo "Trevor And Nathalie" on Lee and Herring's This Morning With Richard Not Judy, or as one of Russell Brand's right hand men on his Radio 2 show.
As planned I'm having a listen to Richard on KMFM Rocks! which it's opening says
"More Attitude Than Anne Widdecombe". Very good stuff and has been much needed on Kent's airwaves for too long. I'd say that along with the vintage episodes of the Chart Show and a certain Stanmore resident, it's reinforced my love for rock music, mixing enthusiasm without sounding forced.
That lie in this afternoon was definitley worth it as I'm more active than normal for this time of night.
I was more or less laughing throughout at the fast paced programme which contained a few familiar faces including Steve Edge from Phoenix Nights as Gary Barlow, Kevin Bishop as Robbie Williams, and Trevor Lock playing the part of Guy Chambers.
Trevor known to many comedy fans as either the male half of the duo "Trevor And Nathalie" on Lee and Herring's This Morning With Richard Not Judy, or as one of Russell Brand's right hand men on his Radio 2 show.
As planned I'm having a listen to Richard on KMFM Rocks! which it's opening says
"More Attitude Than Anne Widdecombe". Very good stuff and has been much needed on Kent's airwaves for too long. I'd say that along with the vintage episodes of the Chart Show and a certain Stanmore resident, it's reinforced my love for rock music, mixing enthusiasm without sounding forced.
That lie in this afternoon was definitley worth it as I'm more active than normal for this time of night.
"Finally Found" (As The Honeyz Once Sang)
Well it turns out I wasn't thinking, I did a search on Facebook and managed to find Hannah on there with a lovely photo where she's seen with the late but very real
Rod Hull and Emu.
It appears that she's working for the BBC as well and I'm hoping she gets back to me as it really has been too long. I reckon that this weekend's going to involve a lot of reminiscing and embarrasing audio on this blog as it's important to remember why I wanted to do all these ridiculous things.
And no, I will be keeping my phone call from The Carwash away from this site as I quite frankly find it embarrassing especially with Mr Stewart sticking a violin under me when saying that I was going to miss the show on it's demise!
However there are a few other things such as a send up of a popular children's programme in which I tried my very worst to play the part of it's host who 8 years later I ended up meeting for the second time nonetheless!
Be very afraid...
Rod Hull and Emu.
It appears that she's working for the BBC as well and I'm hoping she gets back to me as it really has been too long. I reckon that this weekend's going to involve a lot of reminiscing and embarrasing audio on this blog as it's important to remember why I wanted to do all these ridiculous things.
And no, I will be keeping my phone call from The Carwash away from this site as I quite frankly find it embarrassing especially with Mr Stewart sticking a violin under me when saying that I was going to miss the show on it's demise!
However there are a few other things such as a send up of a popular children's programme in which I tried my very worst to play the part of it's host who 8 years later I ended up meeting for the second time nonetheless!
Be very afraid...
"If You Listen In, We Think You'll Agree They're Appalling!"
Following on from the last post I decided to endure in a bit of Googling and came across an old thread on Digital Spy about Invicta FM after GCap enforced it's programming style on the station in September '05 which is still present today.
This was around the time I fully realised that there were a load of dickheads posting obnoxious messages including one in response to mine which was the final straw and made me want to cut down on forum posting unless it was really necessary. Thankfully those who made the negative comments have now been banned. Mwahahahah!
Anyway besides the point, I happened to mention Miss Dorey in that very thread and another slightly more sensible member mentioned that Supergold's breakfast presenter Dave Asher "had a thing for her". Around this time Dave and Caroline
AKA "Dasher and Dawn" had made the national papers after they protested over PC Sandy Beech's policy on chairs being removed from the studio when presenting.
This was also the time when over on Invicta FM the "Morning Zoo" was introduced as a way of bringing an end to seperate breakfast shows on all the stations frequencies with Neil Francis and fellow radio enthusiast Simon Beale. "Neily and Bealey" as the jingles suggested.
And even that show made the newspapers as on it's launch in 1995 Neil woke up late and ended up doing the show from his mobile on the way to work!
I'll have to have a search for those rather amusing jingles including one which was based around Blur's Country House!
This was around the time I fully realised that there were a load of dickheads posting obnoxious messages including one in response to mine which was the final straw and made me want to cut down on forum posting unless it was really necessary. Thankfully those who made the negative comments have now been banned. Mwahahahah!
Anyway besides the point, I happened to mention Miss Dorey in that very thread and another slightly more sensible member mentioned that Supergold's breakfast presenter Dave Asher "had a thing for her". Around this time Dave and Caroline
AKA "Dasher and Dawn" had made the national papers after they protested over PC Sandy Beech's policy on chairs being removed from the studio when presenting.
This was also the time when over on Invicta FM the "Morning Zoo" was introduced as a way of bringing an end to seperate breakfast shows on all the stations frequencies with Neil Francis and fellow radio enthusiast Simon Beale. "Neily and Bealey" as the jingles suggested.
And even that show made the newspapers as on it's launch in 1995 Neil woke up late and ended up doing the show from his mobile on the way to work!
I'll have to have a search for those rather amusing jingles including one which was based around Blur's Country House!
"We're Just Ordinary People"
I had another lie in this afternoon but even that was inspiring as I kept on questioning the scenarios I was dreaming about. On doing this I discovered an e-mail from Matthew asking if anyone's interested in helping out at an RSL called Hayes FM which I immediately responded too.
Well almost, as I spent the next two hours re-editing my radio demo and here's the latest attempt.
As ever it's a case of work in progress but I'm always open to constructive comments on how it can be improved and I reckon that there's a wide selection of moods in this selection.
I'm hoping that whatever happens, if I get to lend a hand it will be good fun and I'm gutted that I haven't lent a hand to any RSLs here in this lovely county.
I once joined a befriending scheme many years ago and was paired with a lovely woman called Hannah who coincidentally enough used to work at Invicta FM, first of all on work experience in 1995 in the "News Centre" with Jane Hill who's now at Lincs FM, and the second time round two years later on the much missed Invicta Supergold after winning their "Search For A Star" competition.
She also helped out at a few RSLs including one with Dave Bethell who's done really well to follow in the footsteps of his dad Barry of Slim Fast fame!
I'd love to find out what she's up to now as I really didn't make the effort to find out what she was doing after she went over to Tenerife five years ago and I let negative situations and people take over. And I'm certain that despite never hearing Hannah Dorey present on air, I'm certain that with a personality like her's she'd definitely go far in radio.
Now Playing: BBC Radio 4: The Now Show
Well almost, as I spent the next two hours re-editing my radio demo and here's the latest attempt.
As ever it's a case of work in progress but I'm always open to constructive comments on how it can be improved and I reckon that there's a wide selection of moods in this selection.
I'm hoping that whatever happens, if I get to lend a hand it will be good fun and I'm gutted that I haven't lent a hand to any RSLs here in this lovely county.
I once joined a befriending scheme many years ago and was paired with a lovely woman called Hannah who coincidentally enough used to work at Invicta FM, first of all on work experience in 1995 in the "News Centre" with Jane Hill who's now at Lincs FM, and the second time round two years later on the much missed Invicta Supergold after winning their "Search For A Star" competition.
She also helped out at a few RSLs including one with Dave Bethell who's done really well to follow in the footsteps of his dad Barry of Slim Fast fame!
I'd love to find out what she's up to now as I really didn't make the effort to find out what she was doing after she went over to Tenerife five years ago and I let negative situations and people take over. And I'm certain that despite never hearing Hannah Dorey present on air, I'm certain that with a personality like her's she'd definitely go far in radio.
Now Playing: BBC Radio 4: The Now Show
The Legend Comes To The Garden!
Oh I'm excited about this, Tony Blackburn is to join KMFM presenting a show that will be going out on Sunday afternoons broadcast on all of it's stations around the county!
This really shows how the network has evolved in the last 10 years and despite a few rough patches it's now understanding of what can make great radio with programmes like the rock show on Fridays and the dance show on Saturdays.
It's a far cry from the uninspiring sound of 106 CTFM almost 10 years ago now, and most of the guys there have really come a long way bringing in a few pros such as Rik Scott and Tim Stewart, the latter of whom being my equivalent of a "bed covers DJ" when listening to him on Invicta FM back in 1993.
What all three of those people mentioned have in common is that they have a love of jingles!
Tim Stewart being one of the key figures in making sure that Invicta's 1990 package from Century 21 was perfect in terms of punch and pronunciation, and Rik having one of the most recognisable imaging voices heard on radio stations throughout Europe.
And they all seem like really lovely fellas too!
This really shows how the network has evolved in the last 10 years and despite a few rough patches it's now understanding of what can make great radio with programmes like the rock show on Fridays and the dance show on Saturdays.
It's a far cry from the uninspiring sound of 106 CTFM almost 10 years ago now, and most of the guys there have really come a long way bringing in a few pros such as Rik Scott and Tim Stewart, the latter of whom being my equivalent of a "bed covers DJ" when listening to him on Invicta FM back in 1993.
What all three of those people mentioned have in common is that they have a love of jingles!
Tim Stewart being one of the key figures in making sure that Invicta's 1990 package from Century 21 was perfect in terms of punch and pronunciation, and Rik having one of the most recognisable imaging voices heard on radio stations throughout Europe.
And they all seem like really lovely fellas too!
Acknowledgment Where Neccesary!
I've been having a look back through even more Media UK print outs from all those years ago and the rubbish I added to their discussion boards. Then again, there are three categories of forum posters in these circumstances
Some gorgeous tracks on there too including the beautiful and lyrically superb "Another Day" with Jill Scott on vocals and "Hold It Down" with brilliant Rhodes piano.
My productiveness has been non-stop as well and after listening to the rest of the interview with Bluey from Solar last month, there's nothing wrong with adapting ideas from others as long as you keep them in mind.
In this case I've made a few more presenter IDs based around those from BBC Radio 1 in the early 90s or 1FM as they were known back then.
I've put two of them as adapted for Smoke and the end result is, shall I say, questionable.
I'll try not to give too much away as there's still loads to come until September but I had to upload this music demonstrator I've done for my own show which I'll admit was inspired by Richard Walters on KMFM Rocks! Oh, and that's on tonight as well so I'll need to make sure I'm still awake after 10pm.
There's no better way of keeping listeners than actually letting them hear what's still to come rather than just telling them obscure names which mean nothing. Of course it has to be on a show where the presentation matches the music, which I've no idea how or
if I can actually do so.
I've even resorted to making hand gestures of pulling down the faders which is crazy but I'm sure the likes of Pat Sharp and even JK and Joel have done it sometime in their lives!
- Those who delibarately come on to slag off a radio station or presenter
- Anyone who tries desperately to defend those attacked or slagged off
- Those who try to be constructive and suggest reasons for and against the above.
Some gorgeous tracks on there too including the beautiful and lyrically superb "Another Day" with Jill Scott on vocals and "Hold It Down" with brilliant Rhodes piano.
My productiveness has been non-stop as well and after listening to the rest of the interview with Bluey from Solar last month, there's nothing wrong with adapting ideas from others as long as you keep them in mind.
In this case I've made a few more presenter IDs based around those from BBC Radio 1 in the early 90s or 1FM as they were known back then.
I've put two of them as adapted for Smoke and the end result is, shall I say, questionable.
I'll try not to give too much away as there's still loads to come until September but I had to upload this music demonstrator I've done for my own show which I'll admit was inspired by Richard Walters on KMFM Rocks! Oh, and that's on tonight as well so I'll need to make sure I'm still awake after 10pm.
There's no better way of keeping listeners than actually letting them hear what's still to come rather than just telling them obscure names which mean nothing. Of course it has to be on a show where the presentation matches the music, which I've no idea how or
if I can actually do so.
I've even resorted to making hand gestures of pulling down the faders which is crazy but I'm sure the likes of Pat Sharp and even JK and Joel have done it sometime in their lives!
"Push My Button!"
Oh, yes I've been waiting for quite a while to find this online,
David Walliams pre-Little Britain as "The Lift" on the popular 90s CBBC series "Incredible Games". One of the highly underrated shows from that era that still sticks in mind of many people I've spoken to.
This particular edition was the final one from the first series where Phillipa Forrester, Keith Chegwin and Roland Rivron took the places of three youths who would normally be in their position but this didn't mean that David Walliams wasn't as crazy and full of innuendos as normal.
I can remember when the show was featured on Take Two and some smart arsed viewer wrote in saying how much they loved "swimming to be an integral part of one of the games" but overall this really ticked all the right boxes.
And looking at the credits they'd definitely got the right people behind the scenes, with the format being devised by Stephen Leahy and Andrew O'Connor, the latter of whom now behind the production company producing Peep Show.
And the theme tune and incidental music is spot on with orchestra hits (yes!) as composed by Steve Brown who later went on to write the theme for SM:tv Live and the many parody songs in Dead Ringers.
The show got promoted from it's Sunday slot to a Tuesday afternoon slot in the second series but David didn't survive the move being replaced by a slightly less wacky American android.
I'm pretty sure however that the Dark Knight made a re-appearance on Jonathan Ross's "It's Only TV But I Like It" where contestants had to identify a Silurian from a line up of monsters in Doctor Who. And I'm certain Keith Chegwin had appeared on that show as well getting a bit of stick from one of them after trying to be smart arsed.
David Walliams pre-Little Britain as "The Lift" on the popular 90s CBBC series "Incredible Games". One of the highly underrated shows from that era that still sticks in mind of many people I've spoken to.
This particular edition was the final one from the first series where Phillipa Forrester, Keith Chegwin and Roland Rivron took the places of three youths who would normally be in their position but this didn't mean that David Walliams wasn't as crazy and full of innuendos as normal.
I can remember when the show was featured on Take Two and some smart arsed viewer wrote in saying how much they loved "swimming to be an integral part of one of the games" but overall this really ticked all the right boxes.
And looking at the credits they'd definitely got the right people behind the scenes, with the format being devised by Stephen Leahy and Andrew O'Connor, the latter of whom now behind the production company producing Peep Show.
And the theme tune and incidental music is spot on with orchestra hits (yes!) as composed by Steve Brown who later went on to write the theme for SM:tv Live and the many parody songs in Dead Ringers.
The show got promoted from it's Sunday slot to a Tuesday afternoon slot in the second series but David didn't survive the move being replaced by a slightly less wacky American android.
I'm pretty sure however that the Dark Knight made a re-appearance on Jonathan Ross's "It's Only TV But I Like It" where contestants had to identify a Silurian from a line up of monsters in Doctor Who. And I'm certain Keith Chegwin had appeared on that show as well getting a bit of stick from one of them after trying to be smart arsed.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Creative Chaos
I've been up to more work on Audition once again, this time making some new ideas with the large amount of FX and speech extracts I've got at my disposal. I know that it's just over a month away before things really get started but I'm really feeling the buzz and want to prove that I can give any show on the station it's own identity and so far have come up with a few things for my own show and Tudor Rock.
I'm going to resist the temptation to put them on this post however as I'd rather add a bit of suspense although I'll make sure people get to hear what I've done for them before they go on air so as to avoid incidents like Tudor cracking up after hearing the infamous "TV Tudor" jingle for the first time.
And besides, my latest efforts might not be that funny at all.
But without mentioning names I get really annoyed when I've produced a tagged bed or anything similar, only for the presenter to dip it as low as possible when they start talking.
I'm going to have to get a bit more serious when asking people specifically about what jingles they want and this will go for the advanced project as well.
My major aim is to get the IDs to say something about the shows and their hosts and I use that word operatively as presenting a radio show is like being a host at a party if you want to ensure listeners will stay tuned.
It's not called "imaging" for nothing you know!
Apart from that I need to buy Mum her present for her 49th birthday on Sunday, and for what seems like the 10th year running dad's away at WOMAD for the occasion. I've heard it's pretty muddy down there in Wiltshire where the festival's been held so it may tempt him to stay in Canterbury next year for when both himself and mum reach nifty fifty!
I'm going to resist the temptation to put them on this post however as I'd rather add a bit of suspense although I'll make sure people get to hear what I've done for them before they go on air so as to avoid incidents like Tudor cracking up after hearing the infamous "TV Tudor" jingle for the first time.
And besides, my latest efforts might not be that funny at all.
But without mentioning names I get really annoyed when I've produced a tagged bed or anything similar, only for the presenter to dip it as low as possible when they start talking.
I'm going to have to get a bit more serious when asking people specifically about what jingles they want and this will go for the advanced project as well.
My major aim is to get the IDs to say something about the shows and their hosts and I use that word operatively as presenting a radio show is like being a host at a party if you want to ensure listeners will stay tuned.
It's not called "imaging" for nothing you know!
Apart from that I need to buy Mum her present for her 49th birthday on Sunday, and for what seems like the 10th year running dad's away at WOMAD for the occasion. I've heard it's pretty muddy down there in Wiltshire where the festival's been held so it may tempt him to stay in Canterbury next year for when both himself and mum reach nifty fifty!
"Clooser To Yoouuu"
I've been having another trawl through my jingles and have managed to discover a demo from Alfasound demonstrating a package they produced for Radio 210 in Reading back in 1980.
This was around the time that Bob Harris was the head of presentation for the successful station and if you can remember the Bastard Brothers demo posted a few weeks ago then you can understand exactly what they were trying to send up!
I've also managed to find a selection of audio courtesy of the guys at This Is ILR giving a genuine perspective of how local radio sounded back then and this montage features a certain Simon Blaxland forgetting what the time is! I'm really gutted that when he came in to give the lecture on radio commercials I didn't think to play him that extract but I'm sure he would have seen the funny side!
Four years later the station introduced a more orchestral sounding package from David Arnold with the tagline "Sounds Of Your Life" and it was during this period that
David Hamilton joined from BBC Radio 2 as the breakfast presenter promising
"More Madonna and Less Mantovani".
By 1989 the IBA had enforced their "use it or lose it" policy which resulted in the station splitting it's AM frequencies becoming 210 FM on it's stereo frequencies and for me one of the finest jingle packages produced by Century 21 in Dallas with a mixture of many styles and sounding punchy but sweet at the same time.
This continued into 1992 with a resing of "New York's Best Mix" with the tagline
"More Hit Radio" and I won't lie when saying that the above packages have been a slight influence on my own jingles!
Unfortunately this wasn't to last as around this time new owners GWR let its men in suits with no regards for musical jingles, come in and rapidly reformat the station becoming 2-Ten FM which it's still known as today.
But despite helping Steve Wright and Mike Read in their careers, I'm certain that 210 will have a place in the hearts of many a radio fan.
This was around the time that Bob Harris was the head of presentation for the successful station and if you can remember the Bastard Brothers demo posted a few weeks ago then you can understand exactly what they were trying to send up!
I've also managed to find a selection of audio courtesy of the guys at This Is ILR giving a genuine perspective of how local radio sounded back then and this montage features a certain Simon Blaxland forgetting what the time is! I'm really gutted that when he came in to give the lecture on radio commercials I didn't think to play him that extract but I'm sure he would have seen the funny side!
Four years later the station introduced a more orchestral sounding package from David Arnold with the tagline "Sounds Of Your Life" and it was during this period that
David Hamilton joined from BBC Radio 2 as the breakfast presenter promising
"More Madonna and Less Mantovani".
By 1989 the IBA had enforced their "use it or lose it" policy which resulted in the station splitting it's AM frequencies becoming 210 FM on it's stereo frequencies and for me one of the finest jingle packages produced by Century 21 in Dallas with a mixture of many styles and sounding punchy but sweet at the same time.
This continued into 1992 with a resing of "New York's Best Mix" with the tagline
"More Hit Radio" and I won't lie when saying that the above packages have been a slight influence on my own jingles!
Unfortunately this wasn't to last as around this time new owners GWR let its men in suits with no regards for musical jingles, come in and rapidly reformat the station becoming 2-Ten FM which it's still known as today.
But despite helping Steve Wright and Mike Read in their careers, I'm certain that 210 will have a place in the hearts of many a radio fan.
Regional Pleasure
I've managed to find a very interesting thread on Digital Spy, looking at what programmes fellow members associate with particular station idents.
Examples include Rainbow being preceeded by the famous Thames ident, the same going for Minder, or Supergran being preceeded by the of it's time ident for Tyne Tees.
It's the first time in quite a while that I've contributed to a thread on Digital Spy but anyone I've known will have their favourite ident whatever their generation. And there's no shame in waxing lyrical about it neither. It's just these people at the top who don't realise how much a channel's regional identity can mean so much to a viewer and if enough people start speaking then I'm sure it will return to how it was.
Examples include Rainbow being preceeded by the famous Thames ident, the same going for Minder, or Supergran being preceeded by the of it's time ident for Tyne Tees.
It's the first time in quite a while that I've contributed to a thread on Digital Spy but anyone I've known will have their favourite ident whatever their generation. And there's no shame in waxing lyrical about it neither. It's just these people at the top who don't realise how much a channel's regional identity can mean so much to a viewer and if enough people start speaking then I'm sure it will return to how it was.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Denting The Knife
I haven't been that productive today apart from mucking about in Audition and making silly noises out of square waves that wouldn't sound out of place on an 80s gameshow a la Paul Daniels' Every Second Counts.
I never realised how easy it was to replicate such ridiculous sound effects but hopefully it will come in handy sometime.
But despite that and a winning bid on Ebay for a CD that contains the theme to the Saturday morning show "Motormouth" on it, I'm actually feeling rather down after an argument with Dad about my attitudes towards others behind their backs.
Whilst Dad needs to learn how not to speak until I've finished speaking,
I need to relax my; no, put a stop to my backstabbing as it really isn't fair on others.
Especially as I'm just as consicious about it happening to me. But I get increasingly agitated with those who don't answer their phones when I ring them and I guess that's something I need to get to grips with.
I just need to realise that not everyone has a great passion for getting out there.
I also need to understand that not everyone can get to grips with multiple ways of communication, especially at one time. Although around this time last year Ricky only just started using Windows Live Messenger after using it to keep me up to date whilst preparing in the run up to Freshers Week. Now I reckon he's fully converted!
I really just want to have a lot of fun in my final year at Uni and yes there will be a few changes upon returning. I just don't want negative feelings from others to stop me and I need to do my very hardest to ensure I don't end up doing the same to others who really aren't deserving of it.
I never realised how easy it was to replicate such ridiculous sound effects but hopefully it will come in handy sometime.
But despite that and a winning bid on Ebay for a CD that contains the theme to the Saturday morning show "Motormouth" on it, I'm actually feeling rather down after an argument with Dad about my attitudes towards others behind their backs.
Whilst Dad needs to learn how not to speak until I've finished speaking,
I need to relax my; no, put a stop to my backstabbing as it really isn't fair on others.
Especially as I'm just as consicious about it happening to me. But I get increasingly agitated with those who don't answer their phones when I ring them and I guess that's something I need to get to grips with.
I just need to realise that not everyone has a great passion for getting out there.
I also need to understand that not everyone can get to grips with multiple ways of communication, especially at one time. Although around this time last year Ricky only just started using Windows Live Messenger after using it to keep me up to date whilst preparing in the run up to Freshers Week. Now I reckon he's fully converted!
I really just want to have a lot of fun in my final year at Uni and yes there will be a few changes upon returning. I just don't want negative feelings from others to stop me and I need to do my very hardest to ensure I don't end up doing the same to others who really aren't deserving of it.
Kandi Floss
I've been going through all my Hed Kandi compilations and adding them to my hard drive and there's plenty of stuff on there that didn't see the light of day with wider audiences for up to 5 years since being featured on Mark Doyle's stunning compilations.
This include "Destination Unknown" by Alex Gaudino, "Nasty Girl" by Inaya Day and Stonebridge who were probably Hed Kandi's first major success story in the mainstream.
Doyle never stuck completely towards trends and always put a few classic tracks on the Disco Kandi and Disco Heaven compilations such as a brilliant remix of "Down That Road" by Shara Nelson from 1993 and Francois K giving a brilliant spin on "High" by the
Lighthouse Family.
I can't wait until I reach my "Back To Love" compilations featuring several other vintage gems such as "Why" by Carly Simon and "Cross The Tracks" by Maceo and the Macks.
The latter I remember hearing on the show of all shows "The Carwash" and has to be the most enthusiastic I've ever heard Peter Stewart talk about any record! To be honest I wasn't as impressed at the time as it sounded like the same guitar riff over what sounded like the noise a telephone would make when left off the hook.
After listening back to my show from last Fresher's I've finally made a start on writing a Word document of notes for what could be possible things to say on air come September. I won't give anything away but without being controversial there are things about Uni that just have to be said so it won't feel bad for anyone starting at the same time.
A good tip for scriptwriting or cue writing to an extent is to allow the font to look like how you want the words to be said and I've written mine in the Rockwell font for obvious reasons!
The visit to Radio 1 showed that there's absolutley nothing wrong with bringing a script on paper to do your bulletins with Dominic Byrne being a prime example.
Once again there's that old saying "Whatever floats your boat". Just a task of making sure everyone is in that very same one.
This include "Destination Unknown" by Alex Gaudino, "Nasty Girl" by Inaya Day and Stonebridge who were probably Hed Kandi's first major success story in the mainstream.
Doyle never stuck completely towards trends and always put a few classic tracks on the Disco Kandi and Disco Heaven compilations such as a brilliant remix of "Down That Road" by Shara Nelson from 1993 and Francois K giving a brilliant spin on "High" by the
Lighthouse Family.
I can't wait until I reach my "Back To Love" compilations featuring several other vintage gems such as "Why" by Carly Simon and "Cross The Tracks" by Maceo and the Macks.
The latter I remember hearing on the show of all shows "The Carwash" and has to be the most enthusiastic I've ever heard Peter Stewart talk about any record! To be honest I wasn't as impressed at the time as it sounded like the same guitar riff over what sounded like the noise a telephone would make when left off the hook.
After listening back to my show from last Fresher's I've finally made a start on writing a Word document of notes for what could be possible things to say on air come September. I won't give anything away but without being controversial there are things about Uni that just have to be said so it won't feel bad for anyone starting at the same time.
A good tip for scriptwriting or cue writing to an extent is to allow the font to look like how you want the words to be said and I've written mine in the Rockwell font for obvious reasons!
The visit to Radio 1 showed that there's absolutley nothing wrong with bringing a script on paper to do your bulletins with Dominic Byrne being a prime example.
Once again there's that old saying "Whatever floats your boat". Just a task of making sure everyone is in that very same one.
Slap Head And Tickle
After revisiting my last show from May, and the novelty hit "Suntan" by Stan, it's made me want to listen to more of my Right Said Fred records and they really were a great pop band who got it right when it came to music and lyrics.
Especially with their 2001 hit "You're My Mate" which Steve Ladner then at Invicta FM said he wasn't too sure about but after an appearance at their live concert "Paarty In The Daaaark!" they ended up being part of the playlist and continuing to be popular with Kent's listeners.
Steve's now doing the early show on BBC Radio Kent and clearly defines the perfect breakfast presenter with a great personality and reassuring relaxed voice. Very similar to Glenn Thompsett who's wife Julie "Jambuster" Maddocks now presents afternoons on the station.
My sister once met Steve at a party in nearby Wingham where he happened to be spinning the disks and he came across exactly as nice he was on air.
That's what radio needs more of, although lots of presenters who try to copy that style end up being bland and patronising. The epitome of a stereotypical hospital radio presenter which in all fairness doesn't cover the whole spectrum.
I'm not sure what today has in store, Oh I need to put that cheque for my credit card bill in an envelope to send off and then that's all my debts cleared for the summer. Apart from one great big one but I'll wait for the Autumn loan to arrive, provided that they don't fuck it up like they did last year. And if they do I know I'm not the only one.
Especially with their 2001 hit "You're My Mate" which Steve Ladner then at Invicta FM said he wasn't too sure about but after an appearance at their live concert "Paarty In The Daaaark!" they ended up being part of the playlist and continuing to be popular with Kent's listeners.
Steve's now doing the early show on BBC Radio Kent and clearly defines the perfect breakfast presenter with a great personality and reassuring relaxed voice. Very similar to Glenn Thompsett who's wife Julie "Jambuster" Maddocks now presents afternoons on the station.
My sister once met Steve at a party in nearby Wingham where he happened to be spinning the disks and he came across exactly as nice he was on air.
That's what radio needs more of, although lots of presenters who try to copy that style end up being bland and patronising. The epitome of a stereotypical hospital radio presenter which in all fairness doesn't cover the whole spectrum.
I'm not sure what today has in store, Oh I need to put that cheque for my credit card bill in an envelope to send off and then that's all my debts cleared for the summer. Apart from one great big one but I'll wait for the Autumn loan to arrive, provided that they don't fuck it up like they did last year. And if they do I know I'm not the only one.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Need For Instant Access
I've spent the majority of today burning my CDs onto my hard drive and am finally getting to grips with using iTunes as a music player. Then again I doubt that will stop me using Goldwave for playing all my audio with a pitch control which works in the same way as a volume control.
In fact when listening to songs at a 20% or so pitch increase you really get the same feeling as hearing a song first time round.
Whilst I've been burning I've been listening to Annie Mac standing in for Zane Lowe and although I don't normally tend to have my Bug switched on at this time of day, it proves that evenings on Radio 1 really have been given a kick up the backside since
Steve Lamacq was ousted from the slot.
Whilst he's got a great knowledge in music and is still at the station, I always found
The Evening Session rather too niche for my liking although I used to like the jingle they played at the end which had the "Goodbye!!" part of "Public Image" by the band of the same name. I bet the founder of the show Mark Goodier would now be cringing at the amount of student radio stations who are now using that title for their own shows in the same timeslot!
Annie's guest was a phone interview with Scroobius Pip and we got to hear the new single "The Beat That My Heart Skipped". Whilst it's not as witty as "Thou Shalt Always Kill" it's got a great beat and hook to it and I'm hoping to hear more from him and Dan Le Sac if it's of a similar style.
I can just picture Annie inside the studio with the large blue lights and it's no surprise how she manages to bring the fact she's enjoying what she's playing to the listener and adding the "rollercoaster" element to radio.
In fact when listening to songs at a 20% or so pitch increase you really get the same feeling as hearing a song first time round.
Whilst I've been burning I've been listening to Annie Mac standing in for Zane Lowe and although I don't normally tend to have my Bug switched on at this time of day, it proves that evenings on Radio 1 really have been given a kick up the backside since
Steve Lamacq was ousted from the slot.
Whilst he's got a great knowledge in music and is still at the station, I always found
The Evening Session rather too niche for my liking although I used to like the jingle they played at the end which had the "Goodbye!!" part of "Public Image" by the band of the same name. I bet the founder of the show Mark Goodier would now be cringing at the amount of student radio stations who are now using that title for their own shows in the same timeslot!
Annie's guest was a phone interview with Scroobius Pip and we got to hear the new single "The Beat That My Heart Skipped". Whilst it's not as witty as "Thou Shalt Always Kill" it's got a great beat and hook to it and I'm hoping to hear more from him and Dan Le Sac if it's of a similar style.
I can just picture Annie inside the studio with the large blue lights and it's no surprise how she manages to bring the fact she's enjoying what she's playing to the listener and adding the "rollercoaster" element to radio.
Does Creativity Count?
I've managed to have a listen to Ken Bruce's temporary replacement for Popmaster, "Celebrity Popmaster" where today's contestants were Beverley Knight and Sophie Ellis Bextor. Basically it was 20 minutes of guffawing and giggling but at least it showed how much Beverley really knows about music when under pressure, after seeing her endless tangents about Bowie, Marvin Gaye and many other performers as a talking head on several music documentaries.
Still enjoying her "Music City Soul" album though.
I've had a bit of a tidy up in my room and have come across a load of print outs from Media UK when Essex FM was taken over by GWR which saw the sacking of John Leech and the departure of the Sunday Night Carwash. Paul Chantler had left before he was pushed and in his place was Aussie programmer Jeff O'Brien who only the previous year had the same job at Invicta FM!
There's loads of arguments between forum members for and against the takeover and looking back at it I have to say that I'm still in favour of those against. I'm more than happy to listen to the station now on and off as a listener but nothing can beat the excitement and passion of the "Hotter and Fresher" days and I was put off wanting to get into radio for quite a while as every single station I listened to just ended up being compared to the popular Southend station and sounding weaker in comparison.
Especially Canterbury's 106 CTFM who had relaunched in November 2000 and I'm rather gutted that I didn't write to them or send suggestions on how it could be better without sounding like a moaner.
But to me this shows how the majority of radio stations in the UK are run by people who know fuck all about the medium itself and on seeing an interview with Chantler from 2003 I'm glad that people like him feel the same way.
This extends to hospital radio and RSLs, as lots of people on the radio course gave up BXFM last December after just one shift because they let the inexperienced ones get to them. To be fair though I knew exactly what I wanted to do when approaching them and tried to sound adaptable.
But do these so called experts have the personality to make great radio?
I won't answer that for fear that they may be reading, but co-ordinator Lawrence's charm and Heena my co-presenter as well as most of the other presenters gave me the buzz to continue and I'll keep going by trying not to let station politics get in the way of what I'm happy with.
And I'm more confident now about asking people what works and what doesn't but people need to be given time to find their feet before deciding how things can be improved.
Take SM:TV Live with Ant & Dec for example. They're more than happy to admit that their first series was rubbish but it did evolve by introducing original and fun features such as "Challenge Ant" and "Chums" and let the support from their families and close colleagues keep them going.
The same was the case for Saturday Night Takeaway as when that started as "Slap Bang" they were trying too hard to bring SM:TV to the evenings and they realised that what may be funny at 9:25 on a Saturday morning doesn't quite work in the same way at 6:30pm in the evening.
And that's the way to continue, not being afraid to try new ideas but not flogging the same old rubbish constantly unless it's a feature that can stay consistent. And even with the rather raucous celebrity contestants, I doubt I'll be tuning away from Popmaster for quite some time.
Still enjoying her "Music City Soul" album though.
I've had a bit of a tidy up in my room and have come across a load of print outs from Media UK when Essex FM was taken over by GWR which saw the sacking of John Leech and the departure of the Sunday Night Carwash. Paul Chantler had left before he was pushed and in his place was Aussie programmer Jeff O'Brien who only the previous year had the same job at Invicta FM!
There's loads of arguments between forum members for and against the takeover and looking back at it I have to say that I'm still in favour of those against. I'm more than happy to listen to the station now on and off as a listener but nothing can beat the excitement and passion of the "Hotter and Fresher" days and I was put off wanting to get into radio for quite a while as every single station I listened to just ended up being compared to the popular Southend station and sounding weaker in comparison.
Especially Canterbury's 106 CTFM who had relaunched in November 2000 and I'm rather gutted that I didn't write to them or send suggestions on how it could be better without sounding like a moaner.
But to me this shows how the majority of radio stations in the UK are run by people who know fuck all about the medium itself and on seeing an interview with Chantler from 2003 I'm glad that people like him feel the same way.
This extends to hospital radio and RSLs, as lots of people on the radio course gave up BXFM last December after just one shift because they let the inexperienced ones get to them. To be fair though I knew exactly what I wanted to do when approaching them and tried to sound adaptable.
But do these so called experts have the personality to make great radio?
I won't answer that for fear that they may be reading, but co-ordinator Lawrence's charm and Heena my co-presenter as well as most of the other presenters gave me the buzz to continue and I'll keep going by trying not to let station politics get in the way of what I'm happy with.
And I'm more confident now about asking people what works and what doesn't but people need to be given time to find their feet before deciding how things can be improved.
Take SM:TV Live with Ant & Dec for example. They're more than happy to admit that their first series was rubbish but it did evolve by introducing original and fun features such as "Challenge Ant" and "Chums" and let the support from their families and close colleagues keep them going.
The same was the case for Saturday Night Takeaway as when that started as "Slap Bang" they were trying too hard to bring SM:TV to the evenings and they realised that what may be funny at 9:25 on a Saturday morning doesn't quite work in the same way at 6:30pm in the evening.
And that's the way to continue, not being afraid to try new ideas but not flogging the same old rubbish constantly unless it's a feature that can stay consistent. And even with the rather raucous celebrity contestants, I doubt I'll be tuning away from Popmaster for quite some time.
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Largest Swimming Pool
Once again, it's pouring it down in Canterbury and things aren't feeling fantastic.
I've had to resort to borrowing my sisters ear pieces as my normal ones have buggered and they're a bit too bassy for my liking. I reckon it will be a rather long day in town tomorrow replacing them and buying quite a bit of savoury stuff too, as there's barely any bread downstairs.
I may also buy more of that delcicious sultana and rye bread provided Morrisons are on good form tomorrow but as long as nothing breaks the bank I'll be happy.
Right now I'm trying to lighten things up by listening to Bluey guesting on Solar Radio from last month which I didn't hear first time round but it's pretty good so far, even if the man himself sounds rather jet lagged! Not too sure about the presenter using
"Still A Friend Of Mine" as a bed with vocals in the background which probably shows a few things about radio of this sort.
If they need any instrumental ones then I'm always happy to supply the goods!
I've had to resort to borrowing my sisters ear pieces as my normal ones have buggered and they're a bit too bassy for my liking. I reckon it will be a rather long day in town tomorrow replacing them and buying quite a bit of savoury stuff too, as there's barely any bread downstairs.
I may also buy more of that delcicious sultana and rye bread provided Morrisons are on good form tomorrow but as long as nothing breaks the bank I'll be happy.
Right now I'm trying to lighten things up by listening to Bluey guesting on Solar Radio from last month which I didn't hear first time round but it's pretty good so far, even if the man himself sounds rather jet lagged! Not too sure about the presenter using
"Still A Friend Of Mine" as a bed with vocals in the background which probably shows a few things about radio of this sort.
If they need any instrumental ones then I'm always happy to supply the goods!
"Waggling My Joystick"
Another 90s revival, this time the Gamesmaster Xmas Special from 1995 looking back at the bizarre moments from the last 5 series.
Dominic Diamond's more than happy to take the mickey out of himself from the first two series including a rather embarrassing singalong at the end of the Xmas show from
series 2 and this shows how the programme ended up becoming more irreverent as it progressed.
There's also a few moments from the rather embarrassing third series where
Dexter Fletcher took over as host and not being able to fully understand irony at the time, I ended up using his interview technique of repeating what the person says.
On a serious, dare I say geeky point there's a run down of the 5 games that changed the world including the ever superb Sonic on the Mega Drive, Super Street Fighter II on the SNES and the stunning and rather emotional Mario 64 which just has it all,
superb gameplay, graphics and a lovely soundtrack.
Overall a fitting testament to one of the finest shows from the 90s which grabbed me since the beginning despite not actually owning a console until about a year after the show had finished!
Dominic Diamond's more than happy to take the mickey out of himself from the first two series including a rather embarrassing singalong at the end of the Xmas show from
series 2 and this shows how the programme ended up becoming more irreverent as it progressed.
There's also a few moments from the rather embarrassing third series where
Dexter Fletcher took over as host and not being able to fully understand irony at the time, I ended up using his interview technique of repeating what the person says.
On a serious, dare I say geeky point there's a run down of the 5 games that changed the world including the ever superb Sonic on the Mega Drive, Super Street Fighter II on the SNES and the stunning and rather emotional Mario 64 which just has it all,
superb gameplay, graphics and a lovely soundtrack.
Overall a fitting testament to one of the finest shows from the 90s which grabbed me since the beginning despite not actually owning a console until about a year after the show had finished!
Letting Inspiration Go Too Far
One of the main issues on the whiteboard last week was for Smoke Radio next year to avoid trying to be Radio 1 and be itself. I can actually remember being sat in on planning meetings and suggestions such as "there was this great thing on Colin and Edith a few weeks ago...".
But in all fairness I was just as guilty, as this Still 2 Come promo has obvious shades of the
ITV Chart Show with an overdose on fast forward noises.
I think I'll stick to just using impacts next year, as it will also save time.
However I can't resist trying to recreate the experience at home and have found myself searching for songs in the key of C to hear what they'd sound like preceeded by the legendary Top 10 intro!
Of course like most jingles and stuff of a similar nature it sounds a lot better as part of a flow.
But with a few exceptions it can be rather amusing especially with this example from Tudor Rock based on an old Tommy Vance jingle. Although in this case the man himself was fully aware that Tommy Vance was one of the greatest music broadcasters, and never took the comparison too seriously.
I've got a few ideas for the show's idents next year although it may involve going through a few vintage episodes of "The Trap Door".
But in all fairness I was just as guilty, as this Still 2 Come promo has obvious shades of the
ITV Chart Show with an overdose on fast forward noises.
I think I'll stick to just using impacts next year, as it will also save time.
However I can't resist trying to recreate the experience at home and have found myself searching for songs in the key of C to hear what they'd sound like preceeded by the legendary Top 10 intro!
Of course like most jingles and stuff of a similar nature it sounds a lot better as part of a flow.
But with a few exceptions it can be rather amusing especially with this example from Tudor Rock based on an old Tommy Vance jingle. Although in this case the man himself was fully aware that Tommy Vance was one of the greatest music broadcasters, and never took the comparison too seriously.
I've got a few ideas for the show's idents next year although it may involve going through a few vintage episodes of "The Trap Door".
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Unpleasant Concoptions
Whilst some combinations such as chicken stir in sauce used with spaghetti bolognaise
work well, I've realised that the same doesn't really work with pork stir in sauce when making a chicken stew.
I've just about lost my appetite and am dying of thirst as a result of the fizzy orange going walkabout despite buying it earlier today.
Looks like I'll have to extend the post-it notes to being used at home.
Aside that, barely anything interesting's happened today although I'm still coming to terms with being back in Canterbury. At least unlike last year I don't have the thought of returning to work to get me down but as I write this I'm feeling rather tired.
I don't want another night like yesterday so I'm trying to avoid nodding off until midnight at least although I may end up waking up at any ungodly hour regardless of the circumstances.
Ooh, I've just had some fizzy orange and feel a lot more perkier. If any sort of liquid can have that effect then I'll be able to balance my budget.
Now Playing: James Taylor Quartet "Sweet Lover"
work well, I've realised that the same doesn't really work with pork stir in sauce when making a chicken stew.
I've just about lost my appetite and am dying of thirst as a result of the fizzy orange going walkabout despite buying it earlier today.
Looks like I'll have to extend the post-it notes to being used at home.
Aside that, barely anything interesting's happened today although I'm still coming to terms with being back in Canterbury. At least unlike last year I don't have the thought of returning to work to get me down but as I write this I'm feeling rather tired.
I don't want another night like yesterday so I'm trying to avoid nodding off until midnight at least although I may end up waking up at any ungodly hour regardless of the circumstances.
Ooh, I've just had some fizzy orange and feel a lot more perkier. If any sort of liquid can have that effect then I'll be able to balance my budget.
Now Playing: James Taylor Quartet "Sweet Lover"
Unsteady Circumstances
Ooh, I've been having a rather rotten night and letting ridiculous things get to me and taking it all a bit too personally. To elaborate on the phrase "eliminate the negative" I ending up deleting my copy of the first MP3 file from the previous post on my computer as it's not worth getting upset about things that happened a very long time ago. Although my biggest worry is to make sure that such a thing isn't repeated in the third year and I guess it's up to me to make sure of that regardless of the obstacles.
This was after going to bed at 9pm, waking up at bleeding 3am and then falling asleep again three hours later.
I'll admit it, I'm missing London and everyone there, although I did have short chat to Stoobie via Windows Live who in turn is having second thoughts about giving away the ending of the new Harry Potter novel to certain individuals.
I may consider removing my copies of shows from the last year of Smoke that remind me of bad times at University as it just doesn't move me on at all.
I may even consider buying a portable keyboard for halls in the third year
(with headphones of course!) as in between coursework, presenting and boozing I want something different to keep me occupied without the knowledge of people hearing me. That's what put me off learning the piano when I was younger as it was in the dining room and mum sat with me as I really didn't want to learn at all.
However, a copy of Herbie Hancock sheet music will hopefully turn things around when things get depressing in the third year.
This was after going to bed at 9pm, waking up at bleeding 3am and then falling asleep again three hours later.
I'll admit it, I'm missing London and everyone there, although I did have short chat to Stoobie via Windows Live who in turn is having second thoughts about giving away the ending of the new Harry Potter novel to certain individuals.
I may consider removing my copies of shows from the last year of Smoke that remind me of bad times at University as it just doesn't move me on at all.
I may even consider buying a portable keyboard for halls in the third year
(with headphones of course!) as in between coursework, presenting and boozing I want something different to keep me occupied without the knowledge of people hearing me. That's what put me off learning the piano when I was younger as it was in the dining room and mum sat with me as I really didn't want to learn at all.
However, a copy of Herbie Hancock sheet music will hopefully turn things around when things get depressing in the third year.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Positive Flow (Or The Blammy and Sami Show)
Three years ago I was sat in a media theory lecture on my HND course looking at "flow" within television. I never realised how important it would be now and that I would be partly responsible for the overall flow of Smoke Radio but I now know that it's absolutley vital whenever we broadcast live.
To illustrate a point made from an earlier post, this piece of audio from early January shows just how the community element of the station was more or less nonexistant during Refresher's Week.
In this extract presenters Phil H and Sam can be heard finishing their "Dinner Party" rather hastily, followed by the 7pm news bulletin with that infamous endline.
After which there's Ross Powell, who's unsure about what track to start on for a last minute extended edition of the Live Variety Show, without Paul Calvert.
The abrupt ending is genuine as I stopped the recording in RP1, went home and was more or less in tears as it was a very stressfull day with no atmosphere in the radio rooms
and things just seeming rushed with nobody knowing what was going on or who was in the schedule. I was actually very pissed off at the time about not being allowed to print out studio schedules without the station management's permission but I'm glad they realised it made sense in the end.
By May things had certainly changed as can be heard in this selection, from the end of Goodlass and Marshall's show into the news followed by my Sun Sea and Soul special.
This time round things were a lot more livelier with greater emphasis on forward promotion and where I reckon I finally met my match in getting Sam to lend a hand with presenting. This really shows how far she had come and was willing to lend a hand despite having a job during the day and the same can be said for Steve doing the news at the top of the hour.
I will definitely say this was the best show I've ever done on Smoke Radio as I had been waiting to find a female co-host who wasn't just enthusiastic about the music played but willing for it to come across on air and Sam ticked all the right boxes with the sense of humour to match.
Come September I want to go solo for Freshers to give the show a good introduction but I'd love to have "Blammy and Sami" reunited on air later in the year. To be honest she's very similar to Roni O'Brien from Solar Radio who's passion comes across equally on air and was partly responsible for me wanting to have a go at it myself.
I've definitely realised that all of this blends in well together and you can be brave enough to admit liking things without getting embarrassed by negative people.
To illustrate a point made from an earlier post, this piece of audio from early January shows just how the community element of the station was more or less nonexistant during Refresher's Week.
In this extract presenters Phil H and Sam can be heard finishing their "Dinner Party" rather hastily, followed by the 7pm news bulletin with that infamous endline.
After which there's Ross Powell, who's unsure about what track to start on for a last minute extended edition of the Live Variety Show, without Paul Calvert.
The abrupt ending is genuine as I stopped the recording in RP1, went home and was more or less in tears as it was a very stressfull day with no atmosphere in the radio rooms
and things just seeming rushed with nobody knowing what was going on or who was in the schedule. I was actually very pissed off at the time about not being allowed to print out studio schedules without the station management's permission but I'm glad they realised it made sense in the end.
By May things had certainly changed as can be heard in this selection, from the end of Goodlass and Marshall's show into the news followed by my Sun Sea and Soul special.
This time round things were a lot more livelier with greater emphasis on forward promotion and where I reckon I finally met my match in getting Sam to lend a hand with presenting. This really shows how far she had come and was willing to lend a hand despite having a job during the day and the same can be said for Steve doing the news at the top of the hour.
I will definitely say this was the best show I've ever done on Smoke Radio as I had been waiting to find a female co-host who wasn't just enthusiastic about the music played but willing for it to come across on air and Sam ticked all the right boxes with the sense of humour to match.
Come September I want to go solo for Freshers to give the show a good introduction but I'd love to have "Blammy and Sami" reunited on air later in the year. To be honest she's very similar to Roni O'Brien from Solar Radio who's passion comes across equally on air and was partly responsible for me wanting to have a go at it myself.
I've definitely realised that all of this blends in well together and you can be brave enough to admit liking things without getting embarrassed by negative people.
Long Distance Call
I've been brought up to date with Kate's goings on in America and she's getting on pretty well and finding it very enjoyable. She's due to start travelling even further, although I'll only get to see her for a week before returning to Uni. And judging by how things are going with regards to the planning of Freshers it might not be a great deal, but I'm really happy that she's having a good time.
She's even getting to visit New York City and having only been there in the winter I'm certain it will be absolutley superb.
I've been having a listen back to one of my early soul shows from December and oh my,
I sound fucking awful! Links that sound very scripted and pompous and in fact, if you ever listen to one of Mo Dutta's links on Radio 2 at weekends and then listen to one of mine from that show then you won't be able to tell the difference.
One particular example "that's Carmen Lundy, and her cover of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic "My Favourite Things" (fades track up for two seconds)
"and this is definitely one of my favourite things of 2005...."
At least I'm not the only one as when Ross Goodlass and Tudor did the Basic Radio Module whilst I did TV, Matthew marked Ross down for "sounding too much
like Tony Blackburn".
Luckily my off mic persona wasn't the same but I learnt to realise that I had to try and adapt my real personality for behind the mic and seeing others in action such as Joey, and even Suse at Lantern FM gave me a clearer idea of how to handle everything when presenting on radio.
I was listening to Suse and Rachel Knight on Lantern a couple of Sundays ago and found myself enjoying their banter. Although to be honest I developed a soft spot for Suse before I even visited Lantern FM which probably shows something.
She's even getting to visit New York City and having only been there in the winter I'm certain it will be absolutley superb.
I've been having a listen back to one of my early soul shows from December and oh my,
I sound fucking awful! Links that sound very scripted and pompous and in fact, if you ever listen to one of Mo Dutta's links on Radio 2 at weekends and then listen to one of mine from that show then you won't be able to tell the difference.
One particular example "that's Carmen Lundy, and her cover of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic "My Favourite Things" (fades track up for two seconds)
"and this is definitely one of my favourite things of 2005...."
At least I'm not the only one as when Ross Goodlass and Tudor did the Basic Radio Module whilst I did TV, Matthew marked Ross down for "sounding too much
like Tony Blackburn".
Luckily my off mic persona wasn't the same but I learnt to realise that I had to try and adapt my real personality for behind the mic and seeing others in action such as Joey, and even Suse at Lantern FM gave me a clearer idea of how to handle everything when presenting on radio.
I was listening to Suse and Rachel Knight on Lantern a couple of Sundays ago and found myself enjoying their banter. Although to be honest I developed a soft spot for Suse before I even visited Lantern FM which probably shows something.
Continuous Drive
Back safely in Canterbury now and more or less taking it easy after the rather eventful happenings of the last week or so. Oddly enough it was actually the Bakerloo Line that was screwed due to strikes at Kenton station and the Met Line was working with no problems whatsoever.
On returning I discovered a lovely surprise in my Facebook inbox from none other
than Paul Chantler who came across my recent post about the stations he controlled (well in his case "controlled" seems too strong a word), enhanced shall I say, throughout the 90s, and the jingles that he commisioned for them.
I'm definitely going to buy his book on Basic Radio Journalism although I hear that him and Peter Stewart are working on another updated version and there's rumours that another book in the same style as ERS will be published pretty soon from a different author.
The way I look at it, more and more people at the top are realising that individuals are put off wanting to get into radio because of attitudes and ego, and they're trying to make it accessible which it obviously is, if you've got the passion.
It's just that when you're working with someone who think's they're better than everyone else, you're afraid to suggest any opposing opinions because they just
won't have any of it.
But to be honest, the thing to remember is that those with the big egos are the ones who are really scared of potential consequences because they're not prepared for them.
I've also started to understand that there's nothing wrong with getting annoyed with people who use words such as "afraid" and "fear" when they don't really mean them by definition.
It's been a major aim of mine never to use those two words or anything similar in the
final link of any radio show I've done, as it downbeats the otherwise uptempo nature of the programme.
Anyway, overzealousness had marred what could have been an otherwise nice team relationship for Smoke Radio last year that only came to place at the end of the year with SO4S although the attitudes were reflected by how quite a lot of people felt at the awards and who they were given to.
I know it was meant to be light hearted and I was really pleased with my dedication award, but when I collected it, Ricky asked if I wanted to make a speech and I responded rather ironically with "the less said, the better".
However at least Ricky was prepared to ask me questions about programming decisions he wasn't sure about before making them, and my major aim is to ensure that the team spirit continues as I really don't think that certain members of the comittee, especially programming are aware of how important it is.
And that's not a snide remark, it's just that I've now realised that I'm probably a better people person than I thought I was. That and how I've used radio to get to know individuals and then later on get to know about them as people, which has been a crucial part of my time at University.
And another excuse to use a song quote, John Legend clearly states
"We're just ordinary people"
I want to get that across to those in charge next year so I can start to wean off, although there's no way I'm going to leave altogether.
It just makes you even more of a miserable bastard.
Once again the C-word is vital in any industry: Communication.
On returning I discovered a lovely surprise in my Facebook inbox from none other
than Paul Chantler who came across my recent post about the stations he controlled (well in his case "controlled" seems too strong a word), enhanced shall I say, throughout the 90s, and the jingles that he commisioned for them.
I'm definitely going to buy his book on Basic Radio Journalism although I hear that him and Peter Stewart are working on another updated version and there's rumours that another book in the same style as ERS will be published pretty soon from a different author.
The way I look at it, more and more people at the top are realising that individuals are put off wanting to get into radio because of attitudes and ego, and they're trying to make it accessible which it obviously is, if you've got the passion.
It's just that when you're working with someone who think's they're better than everyone else, you're afraid to suggest any opposing opinions because they just
won't have any of it.
But to be honest, the thing to remember is that those with the big egos are the ones who are really scared of potential consequences because they're not prepared for them.
I've also started to understand that there's nothing wrong with getting annoyed with people who use words such as "afraid" and "fear" when they don't really mean them by definition.
It's been a major aim of mine never to use those two words or anything similar in the
final link of any radio show I've done, as it downbeats the otherwise uptempo nature of the programme.
Anyway, overzealousness had marred what could have been an otherwise nice team relationship for Smoke Radio last year that only came to place at the end of the year with SO4S although the attitudes were reflected by how quite a lot of people felt at the awards and who they were given to.
I know it was meant to be light hearted and I was really pleased with my dedication award, but when I collected it, Ricky asked if I wanted to make a speech and I responded rather ironically with "the less said, the better".
However at least Ricky was prepared to ask me questions about programming decisions he wasn't sure about before making them, and my major aim is to ensure that the team spirit continues as I really don't think that certain members of the comittee, especially programming are aware of how important it is.
And that's not a snide remark, it's just that I've now realised that I'm probably a better people person than I thought I was. That and how I've used radio to get to know individuals and then later on get to know about them as people, which has been a crucial part of my time at University.
And another excuse to use a song quote, John Legend clearly states
"We're just ordinary people"
I want to get that across to those in charge next year so I can start to wean off, although there's no way I'm going to leave altogether.
It just makes you even more of a miserable bastard.
Once again the C-word is vital in any industry: Communication.
Muddled Moods
Still here in London after the tube problems yesterday although I'll be on my way back to Canterbury pretty soon. The Met line's down again for evergoing engineering works so it's probably going to take longer than I thought.
But the tube journey to Radio 1 yesterday was pretty interesting and all through that morning's issue of Metro. You really have to take time into account as one of the articles was about how Whitby had the best fish and chips, and reading that around 8:50 in the morning made me feel sick. Another case of wrong place at the wrong time.
However I moved on to the television pages and there was a photo of Amy Winehouse without the beehive, to accompany a preview for a documentary on soul music that was on BBC 2 later that night which immediately got her stunner "Tears Dry On Their Own" stuck in my head. I wanted to sing it as I was leaving Great Portland Street station but couldn't remember the words and just ended up singing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
Earth Wind and Fire were spot on;
"When you feel down and out, Sing a Song, it'll make your day".
I even took notice of the posters in the street and bearing the Joseph and Grease talent shows in mind I noticed that the posters for Joseph have taken a creative turn with a rather rugged looking colourful font showing orginality. The posters for Grease on the other hand were not too different to the ones that have been used for the last 15 years.
Last night myself Chris, Stoobie and Siobhan went to Wetherspoons in Kenton to see Pete in action and if I was being honest it wasn't really a great night.
However that was partly due to me being bloody tired and that Chris left us early to go to Aoife's to read the new Harry Potter book, which Stewart has been teasing about the ending.
However I'm more or less set to get back to Canters and try and go about the next month without spending a penny. It can be done and I know I'm not the only one.
But the tube journey to Radio 1 yesterday was pretty interesting and all through that morning's issue of Metro. You really have to take time into account as one of the articles was about how Whitby had the best fish and chips, and reading that around 8:50 in the morning made me feel sick. Another case of wrong place at the wrong time.
However I moved on to the television pages and there was a photo of Amy Winehouse without the beehive, to accompany a preview for a documentary on soul music that was on BBC 2 later that night which immediately got her stunner "Tears Dry On Their Own" stuck in my head. I wanted to sing it as I was leaving Great Portland Street station but couldn't remember the words and just ended up singing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
Earth Wind and Fire were spot on;
"When you feel down and out, Sing a Song, it'll make your day".
I even took notice of the posters in the street and bearing the Joseph and Grease talent shows in mind I noticed that the posters for Joseph have taken a creative turn with a rather rugged looking colourful font showing orginality. The posters for Grease on the other hand were not too different to the ones that have been used for the last 15 years.
Last night myself Chris, Stoobie and Siobhan went to Wetherspoons in Kenton to see Pete in action and if I was being honest it wasn't really a great night.
However that was partly due to me being bloody tired and that Chris left us early to go to Aoife's to read the new Harry Potter book, which Stewart has been teasing about the ending.
However I'm more or less set to get back to Canters and try and go about the next month without spending a penny. It can be done and I know I'm not the only one.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Hearing The Great News
I've just returned from a rather exhaustive journey back from Central, but more importantly an enjoyable and valueable visit to Radio 1's Newsbeat.
I got to sit in the control room where technical assistant Derek ensured that all the audio and live feeds went out as planned. This guy's just brilliant when it comes to audio production in terms of speed and making everything sound good with Audition and when I asked him how long he'd been interested, he told me that he used to muck about with mixing audio tapes together many years ago!
After hearing a package on the Simpsons movie, Derek also mentioned that he still had BBC 2's Simpsons Night on VHS as recorded back in 2000 with the brilliant documentary about Matt Groening's "Wasted Life". One to revisit when I get back to Canterbury which I'm not sure when it will be as far as transport goes, due to the torrential rain.
Overall this was a great opportunity to see the guys at the UKs finest radio news team do their job and it's their passion for it overall that made me feel part of it all on the visit. I'm really grateful for Ross T for letting me inside Radio 1 and we'll see how it all goes from now with loads of fresh ideas for the third year of my radio course, provided I don't overdo it!
Just one of the best visits to a radio station I've had.
I got to sit in the control room where technical assistant Derek ensured that all the audio and live feeds went out as planned. This guy's just brilliant when it comes to audio production in terms of speed and making everything sound good with Audition and when I asked him how long he'd been interested, he told me that he used to muck about with mixing audio tapes together many years ago!
After hearing a package on the Simpsons movie, Derek also mentioned that he still had BBC 2's Simpsons Night on VHS as recorded back in 2000 with the brilliant documentary about Matt Groening's "Wasted Life". One to revisit when I get back to Canterbury which I'm not sure when it will be as far as transport goes, due to the torrential rain.
Overall this was a great opportunity to see the guys at the UKs finest radio news team do their job and it's their passion for it overall that made me feel part of it all on the visit. I'm really grateful for Ross T for letting me inside Radio 1 and we'll see how it all goes from now with loads of fresh ideas for the third year of my radio course, provided I don't overdo it!
Just one of the best visits to a radio station I've had.
The Definitive One Opportunity
Oh my, I never thought I'd be writing a blog post in the building of one of if not the world's greatest and longest established radio stations! The visit really has been relaxed and down to Earth where I've managed to see Jo, Moyles and even controller Andy Parfitt in the flesh and it's just really laid back and am loving it here. Ross T's been showing me round the building and explaining how tightly everything's run round here but as much as he says he's nervous, he's actually very competent with it all to be honest.
I also got to fulfill an ambition of sitting in on a bulletin, the 10:30 one nonetheless with Dominic Byrne and he's just like he is on the mic when the red light's switched off.
Ross was a bit perplexed when during a 20 second voice piece, Dom asked if he could say an unscripted "thank you".
That's how fast moving and organised it is round here and it's given me loads of ideas for things to try out at Smoke next year production wise. I just need to be aware that people don't like to be forced into things and just explain to them lightly how everything operates.
For now though I'm in awe and it's such a great opportunity to visit the insides of a station that I've been listening to for the best part of nearly 20 years.
And it's just like any other friendly working environment really.
I also got to fulfill an ambition of sitting in on a bulletin, the 10:30 one nonetheless with Dominic Byrne and he's just like he is on the mic when the red light's switched off.
Ross was a bit perplexed when during a 20 second voice piece, Dom asked if he could say an unscripted "thank you".
That's how fast moving and organised it is round here and it's given me loads of ideas for things to try out at Smoke next year production wise. I just need to be aware that people don't like to be forced into things and just explain to them lightly how everything operates.
For now though I'm in awe and it's such a great opportunity to visit the insides of a station that I've been listening to for the best part of nearly 20 years.
And it's just like any other friendly working environment really.
Overall Optimism
I'm bloody glad I'm back here in London as the sorting out for the submissions has been chaotic. Little pieces of required paperwork etc have gone missing and not everyone can be in the same place at the same time. Looks like an early visit for me into Central London this morning as so I can ensure that everything gets handed in properly.
But the problem of everyone in the same place at the same time was something myself Chris and Pete were "discussing" shall we say, last night and how favouritism gets in the way of people who really can do a top job. Of course that's a common occurence in working environments but at the same time you need to make sure that those people are pulling their weight and in all respects, I'm not sure if the guys running the station are fully aware that I'm trying to be laid back but involved at the same time.
But they also understand where I'm coming from like no one else has although even Ricky has been asking me to make sure that the new comittee is bonding well together.
Having a long interest in radio does have it's setbacks but I'm determined to pull through and I'm sure a few polite phone calls will provide reassurance as I really don't like to be one sided.
I just want to see people rewarded for creativity and not licking backsides and I know that in the long term, creativity in any shape or form, gets you further.
I've let people's discouraging comments get to me for too fucking long.
But the problem of everyone in the same place at the same time was something myself Chris and Pete were "discussing" shall we say, last night and how favouritism gets in the way of people who really can do a top job. Of course that's a common occurence in working environments but at the same time you need to make sure that those people are pulling their weight and in all respects, I'm not sure if the guys running the station are fully aware that I'm trying to be laid back but involved at the same time.
But they also understand where I'm coming from like no one else has although even Ricky has been asking me to make sure that the new comittee is bonding well together.
Having a long interest in radio does have it's setbacks but I'm determined to pull through and I'm sure a few polite phone calls will provide reassurance as I really don't like to be one sided.
I just want to see people rewarded for creativity and not licking backsides and I know that in the long term, creativity in any shape or form, gets you further.
I've let people's discouraging comments get to me for too fucking long.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
London Town Baby!
So nice to be back in Harrow again, I'm stopping off at the "Big Gay House" occupied by the otherwise straight Stoobie, Chris, Pete and Phil H.
Phil's away in Australia however so I'm occupying his bed but everyone's really determined as far as Freshers Week goes.
It was quite exhaustive getting there this morning as I stopped off at Ross T's house where flatmate Nana collected my entry parcels and that's that kaput! Well until I found out I forgot to give the Marketing CDs as well after unpacking them but Stoobie's going to drop them off on the way to work.
When Pete and Chris get back from work we'll have a proper chat about our plans and I've already been at work with a few new jingles which I reckon will sound great on air blending the sung IDs with the station sound, with examples for Chris and Stoobie. I'm not sure how the guys themselves will react when they hear them but I know they won't sound out of place with the records if used correctly.
Stoobie's still around as I type playing his rather raucous record collection at full blast whilst getting ready for his shift at O'Neils with Lion's version of the Transformers theme followed by "We Are The Champions" by Freddie and the boys.
And I'm really pleased to see that Chris owns a copy of Essential Radio Skills and most of the other housemates look set to follow suit and buy their own copies!
As an aside Stoobie brought my attention to "HTML Goodies" by Joe Burns which is the equivalent of ERS for HTML web design. I.E you don't have to read the book cover to cover to find the part you're looking for and it's written in a very conversational manner.
Phil's away in Australia however so I'm occupying his bed but everyone's really determined as far as Freshers Week goes.
It was quite exhaustive getting there this morning as I stopped off at Ross T's house where flatmate Nana collected my entry parcels and that's that kaput! Well until I found out I forgot to give the Marketing CDs as well after unpacking them but Stoobie's going to drop them off on the way to work.
When Pete and Chris get back from work we'll have a proper chat about our plans and I've already been at work with a few new jingles which I reckon will sound great on air blending the sung IDs with the station sound, with examples for Chris and Stoobie. I'm not sure how the guys themselves will react when they hear them but I know they won't sound out of place with the records if used correctly.
Stoobie's still around as I type playing his rather raucous record collection at full blast whilst getting ready for his shift at O'Neils with Lion's version of the Transformers theme followed by "We Are The Champions" by Freddie and the boys.
And I'm really pleased to see that Chris owns a copy of Essential Radio Skills and most of the other housemates look set to follow suit and buy their own copies!
As an aside Stoobie brought my attention to "HTML Goodies" by Joe Burns which is the equivalent of ERS for HTML web design. I.E you don't have to read the book cover to cover to find the part you're looking for and it's written in a very conversational manner.
No Higher Positivity
Ooh, tonight's been a busy one. I spent longer than I wanted to in the cellar printing off my entry forms for the deadline on Friday which goes to show that it's tougher than you think when things aren't working correctly.However with all the preparation done I decided to reward myself by having a rare indlugence (which it will have to be as it's that good) of The Chart Show from the
14th of January 1989 as sent to me on DVD around my birthday.
The second one broadcast on ITV nonetheless where changes were still continuing on the lead up to when the channel ended up being part of the show's name!
The specialist chart that week was the Rock Chart and there were some definite headbangers in this particular rundown from the likes of Onslaught, Status Quo and Helloween.
They didn't show them in full however, opting for Pat Benatar and Bon Jovi.
I once got sent out of a drama lesson for headbanging when the teacher wanted us to see how we reacted to different types of music and I decided to take things
a bit too seriously.
For some reason I lost the passion for acting not long after.
The highlight of the show however had to be an exclusive from the JoJo of her day,
12 year old Tracie Spencer with "Symptoms Of True Love" which somehow completely missed the official UK charts. One of many that was featured on the Chart Show then.
I'll admit it when I say that this programme has been a key influence in the last year through what I've done in radio allowing me to make things pacier and exciting whilst being balanced at the same time. Only in this case presenters are involved!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
"Whack Whack Oops!"
On a dark day for phone in competitions I thought it would be ideal to have some escapism and I've managed to dig out Joe Haddow and Chris Jones on their final show for Smoke Radio where they decided to do for Battleships what DLT did for snooker and darts, and make it radio friendly with sound effects where appropriate!
I can remember being in the studio when this was being done unable to stop laughing but listening back to it really proves that when done right, competitions on the radio can sound great.
This was such a great way to say goodbye to some of the established figures of
Smoke Radio and we decided to finish with one of one of ex-student
Alistair Ryder's "Crap Music" IDs from the early days of the station.
Yes, we really were infants back then.
The alumni won't be gone for long as I've still got some rather naughty prize descriptions as recorded by Dan P, which I will definitely use when I get back in September.
Actually now that my interview at Next wasn't so succesfull I may be making more the one visit tomorrow. I've just got to do my very hardest not to forget why I enjoy this little thing called "radio".
I can remember being in the studio when this was being done unable to stop laughing but listening back to it really proves that when done right, competitions on the radio can sound great.
This was such a great way to say goodbye to some of the established figures of
Smoke Radio and we decided to finish with one of one of ex-student
Alistair Ryder's "Crap Music" IDs from the early days of the station.
Yes, we really were infants back then.
The alumni won't be gone for long as I've still got some rather naughty prize descriptions as recorded by Dan P, which I will definitely use when I get back in September.
Actually now that my interview at Next wasn't so succesfull I may be making more the one visit tomorrow. I've just got to do my very hardest not to forget why I enjoy this little thing called "radio".
"Lines Closed"
The timing for my visit on Friday couldn't be more interesting as the BBC have suspended all phone in competions from tomorrow as a result of the increased amount of editorial problems resulting in fake winners.
The way I see it has affected how I would deal with making sure that everything that I say or do on air is genuine and having been involved in similar incidents myself last year
I know that it doesn't pay if you bullshit through a link, and the quote from Jono Coleman as mentioned on an earlier blog post is spot on.
This goes as far as commercial radio with their Christmas "Top 500" countdowns
and I know now that their definitely isn't a "lucky line 99".
On a personal note this is going to have an effect on jobs within the corporation including Joey who gets the callers sorted for Ken Bruce's Popmaster.
Not to a severe extent hopefully, but I'm now fully aware that mistakes are unacceptable and that similar incidents on any TV or radio programmes should not be glossed over.
However for now I need to continue sorting out audio and making sure everything's packed to go up to London tomorrow. Right, that's entry forms, plastic wallets, cheques, CDs. I may as well take the whole bedroom.
The way I see it has affected how I would deal with making sure that everything that I say or do on air is genuine and having been involved in similar incidents myself last year
I know that it doesn't pay if you bullshit through a link, and the quote from Jono Coleman as mentioned on an earlier blog post is spot on.
This goes as far as commercial radio with their Christmas "Top 500" countdowns
and I know now that their definitely isn't a "lucky line 99".
On a personal note this is going to have an effect on jobs within the corporation including Joey who gets the callers sorted for Ken Bruce's Popmaster.
Not to a severe extent hopefully, but I'm now fully aware that mistakes are unacceptable and that similar incidents on any TV or radio programmes should not be glossed over.
However for now I need to continue sorting out audio and making sure everything's packed to go up to London tomorrow. Right, that's entry forms, plastic wallets, cheques, CDs. I may as well take the whole bedroom.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
End Of Term Spirit
Almost reaching the end of my aural journey and the latter half of S(4)S where we were literally just mucking about. Goodlass and Marshall's show ended up including a voicemail sent from Ross G to Ricky at 4:30am in a badly drunk manner requesting he didn't want to record their show for the Friday at 10am!
Also on offer was Steve's final Sports Show rounding off the season with all the correspondents and followed by a really well produced look back at the Rimini tour from the previous month.
Well that was the plan, but unfortunately half the guests turned up after the live half hour as they'd been delayed on the tube on the way up to the campus!
Overall this show managed to reinvent itself this year as a showcase for the Sports teams on campus and gave them a voice which I'm hoping will continue into next year.
The Shuffle boys also made their bow that Thursday evening with a "Sunny Side Up" special with the final song being "Holidays In The Sun" by the Sex Pistols. The whole excitement and participation did lead to things getting rather emotional towards the end of the week but I reckon I pulled through.
However in the last month I've been working my way up to what I reckon was the best show I've ever done, "Sun Sea And Soul" which was partly due to Sam being a top notch co host who has to be the best I've worked with to date.
It could have been totally different as I was going to have the baby girl of the team,
Kelly helping out but after hiding in a cardboard box on the courtyard that afternoon, by 7pm she was terribly knackered. However Sam told me she liked the music I was playing in the Undercroft on the Monday and it was only fair that she had some sort of on air role that week.
Having a studio full of balloons definitely added to the proceedings and we decided to deal with them in the noisiest way possible!
I'm also sure I caught Miss Impey softly humming the brass riff from "Everyday" when I played the record towards the end of the show!
The final record played happened to be the first one on that dreaded Refreshers Show right at the start of the year; Mistura and "Think Positive" which is simply incredible and I'd say is one of the most important tunes played on the show.
If I get round to it I'll probably put a few of the links from that show on a future post so you can hear just how irritating we really were.
Overall it's evident that most of the presenters sounded really sad to be finishing their shows for the academic year but that's a good thing. It proves that we had people who really cared about their shows even if some of them only lasted around 5 weeks towards the end of the year (not including the 6 week break between April and May).
It will be our job as a team to continue this next year and we'll do our best to make sure that no one will be left in the dark.
Also on offer was Steve's final Sports Show rounding off the season with all the correspondents and followed by a really well produced look back at the Rimini tour from the previous month.
Well that was the plan, but unfortunately half the guests turned up after the live half hour as they'd been delayed on the tube on the way up to the campus!
Overall this show managed to reinvent itself this year as a showcase for the Sports teams on campus and gave them a voice which I'm hoping will continue into next year.
The Shuffle boys also made their bow that Thursday evening with a "Sunny Side Up" special with the final song being "Holidays In The Sun" by the Sex Pistols. The whole excitement and participation did lead to things getting rather emotional towards the end of the week but I reckon I pulled through.
However in the last month I've been working my way up to what I reckon was the best show I've ever done, "Sun Sea And Soul" which was partly due to Sam being a top notch co host who has to be the best I've worked with to date.
It could have been totally different as I was going to have the baby girl of the team,
Kelly helping out but after hiding in a cardboard box on the courtyard that afternoon, by 7pm she was terribly knackered. However Sam told me she liked the music I was playing in the Undercroft on the Monday and it was only fair that she had some sort of on air role that week.
Having a studio full of balloons definitely added to the proceedings and we decided to deal with them in the noisiest way possible!
I'm also sure I caught Miss Impey softly humming the brass riff from "Everyday" when I played the record towards the end of the show!
The final record played happened to be the first one on that dreaded Refreshers Show right at the start of the year; Mistura and "Think Positive" which is simply incredible and I'd say is one of the most important tunes played on the show.
If I get round to it I'll probably put a few of the links from that show on a future post so you can hear just how irritating we really were.
Overall it's evident that most of the presenters sounded really sad to be finishing their shows for the academic year but that's a good thing. It proves that we had people who really cared about their shows even if some of them only lasted around 5 weeks towards the end of the year (not including the 6 week break between April and May).
It will be our job as a team to continue this next year and we'll do our best to make sure that no one will be left in the dark.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)