Yes I know several people have been using that as a nickname for the paper but I really can't give a bollocks as they are taking things too far.
This article has been published where they've decided to moan about a repeat of
"Mock The Week" shown on Wednesday originally broadcast in January last year and Frankie Boyle's contribution to the final round where they had to give suggestions for "What The Queen Didn't Say In Her Christmas Message".
Anyone who is anyone should know that Mock The Week is known for being over the edge and this is a completely different league to the Andrew Sachs incident as this wasn't an invasion of privacy or other.
It's just wannabe Mary Whitehouses like John Beyer at Media Watch who want to take away programmes like this from our screens which they have the choice of viewing or not so.
The incident was even "serious" enough to be discussed on Newsnight yesterday in an interview with Mark Thompson but I really didn't think it was appropriate for presenter Emily Maitlis to repeat Frankie's exact words. In fact I thought it was just a non story overall, especially for a programme like Newsnight.
And just for a laugh and to upset any more sensitive Daily Mail writers and readers,
here is that part of the episode (6.55 to be more specific).
That will result in Mary Whitehouse exploding in her grave.
Friday, October 31, 2008
"The Decision Is Yours"
TV talent show judges aside, the figure that I appear to bear most resemblance to has to be Mr. Bean.
This is shown perfectly in a sketch made for Comic Relief in 1993 where he appears as a contestant on Blind Date, mainly beacause of him making snide but amusing comments made about the other contestants, especially the Scottish one who happens to be played by a young Alan Cumming.
If I was in the same sort of situation I would be really rubbish on a date on the converstational side of things but I would happen to be in the same sort of mind as
Mr. Bean as illustrated by many of his mannerisms shown in the sketch.
I also talk in the same way as him according to others but I wouldn't go that far.
It now appears according to the BBC's 6 O'Clock News that standing in for Jonathan Ross on Saturday will be up and coming presenter George Lamb from BBC 6 Music which should add a touch of freshness to things a bring him to a wider audience. I've only really seen him on television but he should be irreverant enough to fit in on that timeslot.
However with all the palava that's been going on this week and to complement the jingle post I wrote below, I thought it would be appropriate to upload a few gems used by Jonathan in the past such as this one made by TM in 1988 when he presented on the ILR overnight service "The Superstation", and from 1990 his John Wells voiced presenter ID for Radio 1 when he used to do stand in shows there.
Maybe a few new jingles should be made if he returns to Radio 2 as he's been using the same ones for almost 10 years since joining the station and he would it wouldn't be too difficult to afford them in his case.
This is shown perfectly in a sketch made for Comic Relief in 1993 where he appears as a contestant on Blind Date, mainly beacause of him making snide but amusing comments made about the other contestants, especially the Scottish one who happens to be played by a young Alan Cumming.
If I was in the same sort of situation I would be really rubbish on a date on the converstational side of things but I would happen to be in the same sort of mind as
Mr. Bean as illustrated by many of his mannerisms shown in the sketch.
I also talk in the same way as him according to others but I wouldn't go that far.
It now appears according to the BBC's 6 O'Clock News that standing in for Jonathan Ross on Saturday will be up and coming presenter George Lamb from BBC 6 Music which should add a touch of freshness to things a bring him to a wider audience. I've only really seen him on television but he should be irreverant enough to fit in on that timeslot.
However with all the palava that's been going on this week and to complement the jingle post I wrote below, I thought it would be appropriate to upload a few gems used by Jonathan in the past such as this one made by TM in 1988 when he presented on the ILR overnight service "The Superstation", and from 1990 his John Wells voiced presenter ID for Radio 1 when he used to do stand in shows there.
Maybe a few new jingles should be made if he returns to Radio 2 as he's been using the same ones for almost 10 years since joining the station and he would it wouldn't be too difficult to afford them in his case.
"Fearing Of A S**** Christmas"
Christmas this year really isn't going to be Christmas for several reasons.
Earlier this week there was the annoucement that the BBC won't be doing an Christmas Day edition of Top Of The Pops, and it's now been announced that Jonathan Ross has decided not to host the comedy awards earlier on in the month which I'm gutted about.
I can understand his decision however where he's stated his reasoning for doing so is not wanting to overshadow those who will be winning the prizes on the night itself.
The question is who they are going to get to stand in his place with suggestions including Simon Amstell and Jimmy Carr which I wouldn't mind, although others have suggested Alan Carr which I wouldn't be too keen on for such an event.
It may also mean that Channel 4 won't be showing their annual "Big Fat Quiz Of The Year" as it's produced by Ross's production company Hot Sauce and each year relies heavilly on Jonathan being a part of the programme as one of the team members and in more recent years Russell Brand alongside Noel Fielding.
To be honest I reckon Noel's a lot funnier when paired with Russell Brand as opposed to Julian Barratt in The Mighty Boosh.
All aside, that show has been the saving grace of an otherwise dull Christmas holiday for quite a few years although with Jonathan's heavy involvement producing the show I can understand why it would be rather tricky.
More closer to home I found out from Phil Dave, one of my colleagues from BXFM that broadcast from the Brent Cross Shopping Centre to the North London area each Christmas that they won't be going on air this year, because apparently the shopping centre "forgot to sort out the license". I found this out through Chris in the radio rooms chatting to Phil via Facebook as Chris helped out on the station last year as a presenter and to think that the shopping centre would forget about sorting such a thing out after being on air each December for four years running is ridiculous.
I may still make a visit to the shopping centre though and although it's likely they'll be playing the likes of Mariah, Slade and the Pogues in the stores themselves, it really won't be the same sort of atmosphere without the radio station being present.
At least the brass band won't complain about them getting in the way of their annual performance at Brent Cross.
Earlier this week there was the annoucement that the BBC won't be doing an Christmas Day edition of Top Of The Pops, and it's now been announced that Jonathan Ross has decided not to host the comedy awards earlier on in the month which I'm gutted about.
I can understand his decision however where he's stated his reasoning for doing so is not wanting to overshadow those who will be winning the prizes on the night itself.
The question is who they are going to get to stand in his place with suggestions including Simon Amstell and Jimmy Carr which I wouldn't mind, although others have suggested Alan Carr which I wouldn't be too keen on for such an event.
It may also mean that Channel 4 won't be showing their annual "Big Fat Quiz Of The Year" as it's produced by Ross's production company Hot Sauce and each year relies heavilly on Jonathan being a part of the programme as one of the team members and in more recent years Russell Brand alongside Noel Fielding.
To be honest I reckon Noel's a lot funnier when paired with Russell Brand as opposed to Julian Barratt in The Mighty Boosh.
All aside, that show has been the saving grace of an otherwise dull Christmas holiday for quite a few years although with Jonathan's heavy involvement producing the show I can understand why it would be rather tricky.
More closer to home I found out from Phil Dave, one of my colleagues from BXFM that broadcast from the Brent Cross Shopping Centre to the North London area each Christmas that they won't be going on air this year, because apparently the shopping centre "forgot to sort out the license". I found this out through Chris in the radio rooms chatting to Phil via Facebook as Chris helped out on the station last year as a presenter and to think that the shopping centre would forget about sorting such a thing out after being on air each December for four years running is ridiculous.
I may still make a visit to the shopping centre though and although it's likely they'll be playing the likes of Mariah, Slade and the Pogues in the stores themselves, it really won't be the same sort of atmosphere without the radio station being present.
At least the brass band won't complain about them getting in the way of their annual performance at Brent Cross.
Critically Challenging
There's been a lot of fuss with regards to the deadline of our Live Advanced Radio critical report which is only two days after the final live show has gone out. I've already made a start with mine but I understand that others aren't in such a position and I've already messaged Steven who's our rep for the course comittee about this.
The main annoyance is that two years ago and possibly last year, those who were doing the module were given a week to do their critical reports and we've been given a ridiculously shorter amount of time. The same applies to our feature module and I know that last year they were given until after Christmas to get their critical report done whereas we've got literally a day.
On the positive side, Chris has emailed Dave Sharp about the issue who will hopefully try to sort something out whilst Steven plans to send Facebook messages to the rest of us and get in touch with Matthew about it as well.
I'm aiming to spend most of the weekend working on the critical report hopefully to the point of getting all the listening reviews done and the factual report about how we worked as a group overall. Luckily I don't have any other commitments although my main problem I have is the need to fall asleep in the middle of the day which is quite a hinderance but as I have a habit of wanting to get work done as early as possible it shouldn't be too much of a struggle.
The main annoyance is that two years ago and possibly last year, those who were doing the module were given a week to do their critical reports and we've been given a ridiculously shorter amount of time. The same applies to our feature module and I know that last year they were given until after Christmas to get their critical report done whereas we've got literally a day.
On the positive side, Chris has emailed Dave Sharp about the issue who will hopefully try to sort something out whilst Steven plans to send Facebook messages to the rest of us and get in touch with Matthew about it as well.
I'm aiming to spend most of the weekend working on the critical report hopefully to the point of getting all the listening reviews done and the factual report about how we worked as a group overall. Luckily I don't have any other commitments although my main problem I have is the need to fall asleep in the middle of the day which is quite a hinderance but as I have a habit of wanting to get work done as early as possible it shouldn't be too much of a struggle.
"All The Cuts!" (In Both Senses)
One of my favourite websites is Jinglemad.com where many people discuss radio jingles past and present and upload their favourite cuts.
However there appear to be quite a few people on that site who appear to be living in the past and I was rather upset to find a thread posted about
the resignation from Lesley Douglas quitting her position as controller of Radio 2, and as a result this would possibly mean new jingles for Radio 2 ideally from JAM.
To give a clearer background JAM provided many jingles for both Radios 1 and 2 for over 20 years although despite breaking many grounds in jingles overall, the behind the scenes staff at the BBC decided to ditch them and not in a very fair manner from what I've heard.
What irritates me is that the thread was started by member Len Groat who spent the best part of two decades running Radio Trent/Trent FM and latterly GEM AM, commisioning some stunning jingle packages along the way.
Without wanting to be disrespectful, most of his posts come across as being very pompous and bitter about the current radio and jingle industry
(especially as they are written in bold type) and a thread like this is rather innapropriate despite many members agreeing with him.
Digressing slightly, Len made a return to the airwaves in 2007 hosting a Sunday afternoon show on the East Midlands Smooth Radio where he decided to use his own set of JAM jingles as opposed to the rather weak sounding Bespoke ones used on the rest of the network.
This didn't go down with the bosses and resulted in Len resigning all because of a fuss over jingles.
Then again from personal experience there's a real buzz about using JAM jingles on air and they were the main reason I wanted to get into radio. Luckily whilst I'm still on Smoke I'll have the chance as in the impossible situation of getting a job in proper radio I'd have no chance.
I also like how Len in his profile photo is stood next to Jon Wolfert holding a tape box of JAM's "Fresh KIIS" demo which is my favourite JAM package and I had a cut from that resung a few years ago which I still use.
Thankfully fellow member and ex Head of Presentation at Radio 2 Chris Stevens makes a very good point about "grave dancing" and I had to respond with a comment below.
I don't actually have the Whitney Houston jingle which was done in the style of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", although here are a selection of the others that Jim Moir commisioned on joining Radio 2 in 1996 that elaborate my point.
And it has to be said that the current Radio 2 jingles despite being used for just over 10 years still get sung by many people as a result of it's catchy melody logo that I imagine is the most known in the UK currently.
Although if less money was spent on people like Jonathan Ross, maybe they would be able to spend more of it on commisioning superb IDs which in Radio 2's case does need a bit of a refresh now and again. Now would probably be a good time actually.
However there appear to be quite a few people on that site who appear to be living in the past and I was rather upset to find a thread posted about
the resignation from Lesley Douglas quitting her position as controller of Radio 2, and as a result this would possibly mean new jingles for Radio 2 ideally from JAM.
To give a clearer background JAM provided many jingles for both Radios 1 and 2 for over 20 years although despite breaking many grounds in jingles overall, the behind the scenes staff at the BBC decided to ditch them and not in a very fair manner from what I've heard.
What irritates me is that the thread was started by member Len Groat who spent the best part of two decades running Radio Trent/Trent FM and latterly GEM AM, commisioning some stunning jingle packages along the way.
Without wanting to be disrespectful, most of his posts come across as being very pompous and bitter about the current radio and jingle industry
(especially as they are written in bold type) and a thread like this is rather innapropriate despite many members agreeing with him.
Digressing slightly, Len made a return to the airwaves in 2007 hosting a Sunday afternoon show on the East Midlands Smooth Radio where he decided to use his own set of JAM jingles as opposed to the rather weak sounding Bespoke ones used on the rest of the network.
This didn't go down with the bosses and resulted in Len resigning all because of a fuss over jingles.
Then again from personal experience there's a real buzz about using JAM jingles on air and they were the main reason I wanted to get into radio. Luckily whilst I'm still on Smoke I'll have the chance as in the impossible situation of getting a job in proper radio I'd have no chance.
I also like how Len in his profile photo is stood next to Jon Wolfert holding a tape box of JAM's "Fresh KIIS" demo which is my favourite JAM package and I had a cut from that resung a few years ago which I still use.
Thankfully fellow member and ex Head of Presentation at Radio 2 Chris Stevens makes a very good point about "grave dancing" and I had to respond with a comment below.
I don't actually have the Whitney Houston jingle which was done in the style of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", although here are a selection of the others that Jim Moir commisioned on joining Radio 2 in 1996 that elaborate my point.
And it has to be said that the current Radio 2 jingles despite being used for just over 10 years still get sung by many people as a result of it's catchy melody logo that I imagine is the most known in the UK currently.
Although if less money was spent on people like Jonathan Ross, maybe they would be able to spend more of it on commisioning superb IDs which in Radio 2's case does need a bit of a refresh now and again. Now would probably be a good time actually.
Halloween Howlers
The Halloween do at Area went really well although I didn't really do that much on the drinking side despite getting a free drink after winning on the apple bobbing stand. However I did manage to save more money as well as a result of being on the Smoke guest list getting me in for free.
The music played was more or less on good form starting off with Chris and Phil playing a mixture of current chart stuff and a few good dancers such as Dizzee Rascal's "Pussyole" and Justice's "D.A.N.C.E.". After them was Joachim playing a mixture of hip hop tunes from N.E.R.D and Usher, followed by JonJon with a weird selection of dance remixes of tunes such as "Nightswimming" by R.E.M., "Mr Brightside" by the Killers and even Frank Sinatra's "New York New York". Finishing the night off was Synamatix playing real records on decks ranging from Jay Z to our very own Joachim, finishing the night off with R.Kelly's "Bump And Grind".
Those in attendance included Spikey G, JC who was wearing a flashing mouth guard, Denis, Barry and their Irish mates, Nana Charlie who I haven't seen for a long time, Stewart who was dressed as a pirate, Oli P who came dressed as a mummy but by the end of the night hardly had any bandages, first year radio student Matty who was wearing a cowboy hat and Bracey who looked as if she was dressed as Noddy.
I imagine that those I was with really were drinking a lot as at one point Phil Harris started making inapropriate moves towards me and yelling out "spit roast" for no apparent reason. There were also a lot of photos taken of all the antics which will hopefully be published online pretty soon.
Things got even more chaotic as we were leaving as Chris was rather concerned about Alice who was spending a bit of time with second year journalism student Tom who was one of my flatmates last year. Chris was trying to get them away from each other in fear of them "getting S.T.Is" much to Alice's annoyance and then started mucking about with Stewart which once again resulted in them running across the car park and falling into a bush taking them about 30 seconds to get up.
It's been very rare I've been able to get back from Area in less than 10 minutes but it eventually has me bursting out with laughter as a result of those making complete idiots of themselves.
The music played was more or less on good form starting off with Chris and Phil playing a mixture of current chart stuff and a few good dancers such as Dizzee Rascal's "Pussyole" and Justice's "D.A.N.C.E.". After them was Joachim playing a mixture of hip hop tunes from N.E.R.D and Usher, followed by JonJon with a weird selection of dance remixes of tunes such as "Nightswimming" by R.E.M., "Mr Brightside" by the Killers and even Frank Sinatra's "New York New York". Finishing the night off was Synamatix playing real records on decks ranging from Jay Z to our very own Joachim, finishing the night off with R.Kelly's "Bump And Grind".
Those in attendance included Spikey G, JC who was wearing a flashing mouth guard, Denis, Barry and their Irish mates, Nana Charlie who I haven't seen for a long time, Stewart who was dressed as a pirate, Oli P who came dressed as a mummy but by the end of the night hardly had any bandages, first year radio student Matty who was wearing a cowboy hat and Bracey who looked as if she was dressed as Noddy.
I imagine that those I was with really were drinking a lot as at one point Phil Harris started making inapropriate moves towards me and yelling out "spit roast" for no apparent reason. There were also a lot of photos taken of all the antics which will hopefully be published online pretty soon.
Things got even more chaotic as we were leaving as Chris was rather concerned about Alice who was spending a bit of time with second year journalism student Tom who was one of my flatmates last year. Chris was trying to get them away from each other in fear of them "getting S.T.Is" much to Alice's annoyance and then started mucking about with Stewart which once again resulted in them running across the car park and falling into a bush taking them about 30 seconds to get up.
It's been very rare I've been able to get back from Area in less than 10 minutes but it eventually has me bursting out with laughter as a result of those making complete idiots of themselves.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Area Graveyard
As expected the Russell Brand episode of Buzzcocks wasn't shown this week and from what I've heard may not be shown at all which is more than a shame. However they did show the following episode with Gavin and Stacey's James Corden as the guest captain and he managed to do pretty good even though the other guests were rather weak.
With Germaine Greer being one of them they thought it would be appropriate to include an INXS song in the Intros Round, that being "Suicide Blonde" which had been done on the show before. This was when they had Australian comedian Adam Hills as a guest and he had to identify it through Aqualung's Matt Hales doing a load of monkey noises.
I didn't realise that one of the other guests Gabriella Climi was also Australian but overall it wasn't too bad a show mainly because of James Corden being involved.
He's definitely come a long way since appearing in Shane Meadows' "Twenty Four Seven" over 10 years ago and apparently he's lined up to host the 2009 Brit Awards with co-star Matthew Horne.
I plan to head down to Area tonight for the Halloween party as organised by Smoke Radio which looks set to be similar to that of the school disco from last month. Hopefully they'll be a few good tunes played and I may use the night as an excuse to have quite a lot of drinks.
It should be quite a night.
With Germaine Greer being one of them they thought it would be appropriate to include an INXS song in the Intros Round, that being "Suicide Blonde" which had been done on the show before. This was when they had Australian comedian Adam Hills as a guest and he had to identify it through Aqualung's Matt Hales doing a load of monkey noises.
I didn't realise that one of the other guests Gabriella Climi was also Australian but overall it wasn't too bad a show mainly because of James Corden being involved.
He's definitely come a long way since appearing in Shane Meadows' "Twenty Four Seven" over 10 years ago and apparently he's lined up to host the 2009 Brit Awards with co-star Matthew Horne.
I plan to head down to Area tonight for the Halloween party as organised by Smoke Radio which looks set to be similar to that of the school disco from last month. Hopefully they'll be a few good tunes played and I may use the night as an excuse to have quite a lot of drinks.
It should be quite a night.
Cosy Cover Ups?
With the news of Lesley Douglas's resignation from the BBC it appears that rather drastic actions are being taken to put the fuss over Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to one side.
It's being shown by the fact that in Jonathan's place on his Radio 2 show this Saturday will be Richard Allinson, whilst Russell Brand's slot will be looked after by Alex Lester which shows how they want to have less edgy broadcasters covering the mess left amongst what has been happening.
It may be a case of them not wanting to have someone like Mark Lamarr covering for those slots and have proper radio broadcasters in their place with those at Radio 2 finally realising that having too many people who get on the radio who weren't originally destined for that career path.
As I write this I'm in RP1 with the BBC News Channel on the television and they've announced that Jonathan Ross will be suspended for 12 weeks with a deducted pay, which I think is a well deserved punishment for a stupid juvenile remark that could have been easily avoided.
It has to be said however that there will be an empty hole left in the Friday night schedule and I'm hoping that it doesn't put a stop to edgy broadcasting overall.
However I do wish those idiots who read the Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday would stop complaining about the issue when I assume a lot of them weren't even in a position to hear the broadcast itself.
Although if someone like Chris Moyles or Scott Mills were in the same position I would probably be eating my own words.
Overall with badly handled phone competitions, mis-edited trailers, the BBC in the last three years has just been digging itself even deeper into a hole of corruption.
It's being shown by the fact that in Jonathan's place on his Radio 2 show this Saturday will be Richard Allinson, whilst Russell Brand's slot will be looked after by Alex Lester which shows how they want to have less edgy broadcasters covering the mess left amongst what has been happening.
It may be a case of them not wanting to have someone like Mark Lamarr covering for those slots and have proper radio broadcasters in their place with those at Radio 2 finally realising that having too many people who get on the radio who weren't originally destined for that career path.
As I write this I'm in RP1 with the BBC News Channel on the television and they've announced that Jonathan Ross will be suspended for 12 weeks with a deducted pay, which I think is a well deserved punishment for a stupid juvenile remark that could have been easily avoided.
It has to be said however that there will be an empty hole left in the Friday night schedule and I'm hoping that it doesn't put a stop to edgy broadcasting overall.
However I do wish those idiots who read the Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday would stop complaining about the issue when I assume a lot of them weren't even in a position to hear the broadcast itself.
Although if someone like Chris Moyles or Scott Mills were in the same position I would probably be eating my own words.
Overall with badly handled phone competitions, mis-edited trailers, the BBC in the last three years has just been digging itself even deeper into a hole of corruption.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Television Domination
It's been a rather long day although there's been nothing involved in it that's G Radio related.
I did my show as planned managing to shrug off the fact that Russell Brand has resigned from his Radio 2 show, although from a personal point of view and putting everything that's happened aside I actually think he's better on radio than on television and his stand up performances which is rather rare for a lot of people.
Anyway, I pretty much enjoyed the tracks I was playing having not actually listened to them before going to air, them being the title track of Don E's album "Natural" and 20-20, an of its time track by George Benson from the mid 80s.
Everything went pretty smoothly as I was in the bigger studio although it may be a different case next week as the second years will be in and out trying to complete their features. Here's hoping it won't be too chaotic.
After getting back to the flat I watched this year's NTA's where amongst the highlights were a surprise victory for Strictly Come Dancing in a viewers vote for the best talent show although technically it's not really a talent show as such. It looks as if Bruce however has really got his work cut out in terms of jokes this week with all the fuss over Jonathan Ross although I doubt he really dislikes him as much as his jokes suggest.
There was also a special recognition award for Simon Cowell which I'm probably going to get a lot of stick for tomorrow due to my "likenesses" to him but one of the stand out moments was when winner of Best Actor, David Tennant announced he was to quit the role of Doctor Who after 2009.
The audience were appreciative of his reasons for doing so, and I'm looking forward to seeing how he makes his exit although the list of replacements is interesting including David Morrissey, and Patterson Joseph who plays Mark's boss in Peep Show.
A few years ago I thought that Paddy Considine would be ideal for the role as there were elements in his portrayal of Richard in Dead Man's Shoes that reminded me of Christopher Eccleston's Doctor around the same time.
If Paddy actually got the role it may be a case of changing the title to
"Doctor WHO Yer C***!"
A reference to one of the more infamous lines from DMS.
I did my show as planned managing to shrug off the fact that Russell Brand has resigned from his Radio 2 show, although from a personal point of view and putting everything that's happened aside I actually think he's better on radio than on television and his stand up performances which is rather rare for a lot of people.
Anyway, I pretty much enjoyed the tracks I was playing having not actually listened to them before going to air, them being the title track of Don E's album "Natural" and 20-20, an of its time track by George Benson from the mid 80s.
Everything went pretty smoothly as I was in the bigger studio although it may be a different case next week as the second years will be in and out trying to complete their features. Here's hoping it won't be too chaotic.
After getting back to the flat I watched this year's NTA's where amongst the highlights were a surprise victory for Strictly Come Dancing in a viewers vote for the best talent show although technically it's not really a talent show as such. It looks as if Bruce however has really got his work cut out in terms of jokes this week with all the fuss over Jonathan Ross although I doubt he really dislikes him as much as his jokes suggest.
There was also a special recognition award for Simon Cowell which I'm probably going to get a lot of stick for tomorrow due to my "likenesses" to him but one of the stand out moments was when winner of Best Actor, David Tennant announced he was to quit the role of Doctor Who after 2009.
The audience were appreciative of his reasons for doing so, and I'm looking forward to seeing how he makes his exit although the list of replacements is interesting including David Morrissey, and Patterson Joseph who plays Mark's boss in Peep Show.
A few years ago I thought that Paddy Considine would be ideal for the role as there were elements in his portrayal of Richard in Dead Man's Shoes that reminded me of Christopher Eccleston's Doctor around the same time.
If Paddy actually got the role it may be a case of changing the title to
"Doctor WHO Yer C***!"
A reference to one of the more infamous lines from DMS.
Paying The Price
The news of Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand being suspended from the BBC is a well deserved action on the pair for what they did, although I'm hoping that it won't cause too much damage in the long run of things to come.
I've already had my two cents on the issue although it appears to be and will be the main talking point on Smoke this afternoon, and judging by what others have been saying about in RP1 there was nothing libellous or slanderous said at all as Brand did actually have a relationship with Andrew Sach's granddaughter.
It was just the stupid juvenile nature of the call that could have easily been avoided that irritates me about the incident overall.
I'm hoping that this won't have any long term effects on the careers of both presenters, especially as the BBC rely on Ross as one of their biggest personalities.
Then again judging by how long it took to deal with the phone in competitions issue which is still ongoing to an exent, it could be quite a while before the two return to Auntie's airwaves.
I've already had my two cents on the issue although it appears to be and will be the main talking point on Smoke this afternoon, and judging by what others have been saying about in RP1 there was nothing libellous or slanderous said at all as Brand did actually have a relationship with Andrew Sach's granddaughter.
It was just the stupid juvenile nature of the call that could have easily been avoided that irritates me about the incident overall.
I'm hoping that this won't have any long term effects on the careers of both presenters, especially as the BBC rely on Ross as one of their biggest personalities.
Then again judging by how long it took to deal with the phone in competitions issue which is still ongoing to an exent, it could be quite a while before the two return to Auntie's airwaves.
A More Normal Wednesday
Despite a few snow storms last night it's now rather bright outside although I expect the temperatures will still be in single figures.
The plan for today has been altered slightly as the woman I'm meant to be seeing for help with study skills is unwell, so this gives me a few opportunities to get one or two things out of the way.
One of them being to go into Harrow and get my medication and possibly some CD wallets as I'm completely full up.
The rest of the day will probably be spent up in the radio rooms in preparation for my show, and there's quite a lot of other shows on before me, namely Lottie and Eric's "Razzle Dazzle" which all seems very last minute but entertaining, and new boys Chas and Dave "Not Thee Chas and Dave" who have the advantage of having an actual stand up comedian in their presenting team.
I may record some extra audio to analyse for my critical report although I'm annoyed that a lot of the computers in RP1 don't have Real Player installed on them. Thankfully the BBC are starting to realise the way forward and with the iPlayer more or less in full flow it's made listening to or watching back stuff more easier.
As for tonight it's the 2008 National Television Awards where both David Tennant and Catherine Tate are up for awards for their performances in Doctor Who. Knowing this to be a rather mainstream awards ceremony voted for entirely by viewers it can be guaranteed that one of them will win although it has to be said that Catherine's really shown her range of acting to a wider audience through the series.
And despite their rather sticky year, it's likely that Ant and Dec will win something entertainment related.
The plan for today has been altered slightly as the woman I'm meant to be seeing for help with study skills is unwell, so this gives me a few opportunities to get one or two things out of the way.
One of them being to go into Harrow and get my medication and possibly some CD wallets as I'm completely full up.
The rest of the day will probably be spent up in the radio rooms in preparation for my show, and there's quite a lot of other shows on before me, namely Lottie and Eric's "Razzle Dazzle" which all seems very last minute but entertaining, and new boys Chas and Dave "Not Thee Chas and Dave" who have the advantage of having an actual stand up comedian in their presenting team.
I may record some extra audio to analyse for my critical report although I'm annoyed that a lot of the computers in RP1 don't have Real Player installed on them. Thankfully the BBC are starting to realise the way forward and with the iPlayer more or less in full flow it's made listening to or watching back stuff more easier.
As for tonight it's the 2008 National Television Awards where both David Tennant and Catherine Tate are up for awards for their performances in Doctor Who. Knowing this to be a rather mainstream awards ceremony voted for entirely by viewers it can be guaranteed that one of them will win although it has to be said that Catherine's really shown her range of acting to a wider audience through the series.
And despite their rather sticky year, it's likely that Ant and Dec will win something entertainment related.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Drowning Auntie
With all the fuss about Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and the BBC in deep water for the pair's prank phone calls to Andrew Sachs, I decided to spend tonight listening back to the show from the podcast that I downloaded just in time a few days ago.
From a personal point of view I found parts of it hilarious such as Russell talking about how Jonathan spent time reading his vast collection of comics and the sushi eating shenanigans and so on.
The actual answerphone message itself however was rather childish especially when Jonathan decided to launch into the vernacular all of a sudden, and even if most of his act relies on being saucy and irreverent it went a bit too far.
They only dug themselves deeper by leaving more messages on Andrew Sachs answering machine that tried to take everything back but ended up getting worse and I can understand why this is a big deal as this is dealing with invasion of privacy and upsetting people in person who aren't deserving of it.
I'm rather mixed about the whole issue overall but Russell's show still stands out as one of the music based (even if there's little of it) programmes on the radio that's actually funny.
A few of us were talking about it on the tube to Central last night and Denis mentioned about one of his gigs where he got into trouble by getting the police in to arrest who he said was a murderer that was in the audience watching him on stage. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened but I wouldn't be too surprised.
I'm hoping BBC 2 will still be showing his appearance on Buzzcocks this Thursday even though it was recorded last week before all the fuss started to come up about the incident.
Although what irritates me most is that the complaints are pilling in now and I doubt that those who have wrote in even listened to the programme as not many people would listen to the radio at 9pm on a Saturday, it hasn't been on the iPlayer since last week, and that they just want to get rid of Jonathan and Russell altogether.
Those who would regularly listen to Russell Brand's show live would know what they are getting judging by the edgy content, but overall the answerphone messages did overstep the mark to an extent.
From a personal point of view I found parts of it hilarious such as Russell talking about how Jonathan spent time reading his vast collection of comics and the sushi eating shenanigans and so on.
The actual answerphone message itself however was rather childish especially when Jonathan decided to launch into the vernacular all of a sudden, and even if most of his act relies on being saucy and irreverent it went a bit too far.
They only dug themselves deeper by leaving more messages on Andrew Sachs answering machine that tried to take everything back but ended up getting worse and I can understand why this is a big deal as this is dealing with invasion of privacy and upsetting people in person who aren't deserving of it.
I'm rather mixed about the whole issue overall but Russell's show still stands out as one of the music based (even if there's little of it) programmes on the radio that's actually funny.
A few of us were talking about it on the tube to Central last night and Denis mentioned about one of his gigs where he got into trouble by getting the police in to arrest who he said was a murderer that was in the audience watching him on stage. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened but I wouldn't be too surprised.
I'm hoping BBC 2 will still be showing his appearance on Buzzcocks this Thursday even though it was recorded last week before all the fuss started to come up about the incident.
Although what irritates me most is that the complaints are pilling in now and I doubt that those who have wrote in even listened to the programme as not many people would listen to the radio at 9pm on a Saturday, it hasn't been on the iPlayer since last week, and that they just want to get rid of Jonathan and Russell altogether.
Those who would regularly listen to Russell Brand's show live would know what they are getting judging by the edgy content, but overall the answerphone messages did overstep the mark to an extent.
Worth The Early Starts
The second of our live shows for G Radio went well to the point of lecturer Dave Sharp referring to the show in the debriefing as "great listening". There were a few hiccups, mainly an outside broadcast to a homeless centre failing due to the ever unreliable Scoop refusing to cooperate but I thought that in terms of content it all went really well.
We weren't allowed to talk about X-Factor this week which had been a popular discussion point of the show from our early pilot programmes but we did have quite a lot of talk about the High School Musical movies and a really good feature from Sarah looking as to why they are so popular.
In addition to that was an entertaining package from Caroline about a group of gay people in search of ghosts although it could have possibly done without the use of the Ghostbusters theme towards the end. Mainly because as I've mentioned many times before it's difficult to think of that song now without the lyrics
"We're not scared of Bob Holness".
We had another guest in to analyse the programme, Simon Poole from Unique Broadcasting and gave very interesting comments. One of them was about the branding and suggested that it could be taken to the next level possibly by using more whooshes and FX within it and possibly making a set of music sweepers as well.
The latter has mainly been an area I've wanted to avoid but I may take that suggestion on board for the final show as it would be a good way of showing how what G-Radio has to offer is more wider than a station such Gaydar.
And it would be definitely be something to write about in my critical report.
As barely anyone turned up last Wednesday we've more or less been given tomorrow off although I need to be in at around 10am to see one of the study skills tutors and later on I've got my own show to sort out. Hopefully one of the bigger studios will be available as Studio 4 is completely messed up with only one microphone working. It will be even worse if the Shuffle boys on before me have to present from there as I've heard Adam say in the past that if they have to present from there again or more often than normal, then they will leave the station.
And in all fairness I wouldn't blame them at all due to the badly arranged equipment.
Let's say that we've got a long way to go in recieving the Student Radio Award for "Best Technical Achievement".
We weren't allowed to talk about X-Factor this week which had been a popular discussion point of the show from our early pilot programmes but we did have quite a lot of talk about the High School Musical movies and a really good feature from Sarah looking as to why they are so popular.
In addition to that was an entertaining package from Caroline about a group of gay people in search of ghosts although it could have possibly done without the use of the Ghostbusters theme towards the end. Mainly because as I've mentioned many times before it's difficult to think of that song now without the lyrics
"We're not scared of Bob Holness".
We had another guest in to analyse the programme, Simon Poole from Unique Broadcasting and gave very interesting comments. One of them was about the branding and suggested that it could be taken to the next level possibly by using more whooshes and FX within it and possibly making a set of music sweepers as well.
The latter has mainly been an area I've wanted to avoid but I may take that suggestion on board for the final show as it would be a good way of showing how what G-Radio has to offer is more wider than a station such Gaydar.
And it would be definitely be something to write about in my critical report.
As barely anyone turned up last Wednesday we've more or less been given tomorrow off although I need to be in at around 10am to see one of the study skills tutors and later on I've got my own show to sort out. Hopefully one of the bigger studios will be available as Studio 4 is completely messed up with only one microphone working. It will be even worse if the Shuffle boys on before me have to present from there as I've heard Adam say in the past that if they have to present from there again or more often than normal, then they will leave the station.
And in all fairness I wouldn't blame them at all due to the badly arranged equipment.
Let's say that we've got a long way to go in recieving the Student Radio Award for "Best Technical Achievement".
"I Wanna Spend All Your Money"
Tonight's goings on at the Ku Bar for our G Radio event went pretty well although having only just got back from there, it's difficult to give a precise account of what actually happened.
Quite a few of us arrived there at 7:30pm where we started inflating G Radio branded balloons and donning our G Radio t-shirts and the bar staff at the Ku Bar were kind enough to give us stickers offering free shots to put onto our G Radio flyers.
This allowed a few of us, namely me, Sam, Denis and Sirin and her mates from Croydon to go around the Soho area attempting to hand them out to potential customers.
The only problem was however that most of them were coming out of other bars and with G.A.Y. being not too far from us we had to make sure that we didn't hand out any near there.
Quite a few people turned up including Dave Sharp where I spoke to him about our Canterbury connections, the amount of cart machines that Steve Wright used to use and his interests of the Radio 1 jingles used around the mid 80s. That definitely proves that we had both had quite a bit to drink.
After around 10pm most of the second years had arrived such as Dean, Alice, Sophie and Amy as well as a few first years including Rob, Jade, and the other Alice with everything in full flow.
A few of us, namely myself, Chris, Phil H, Denis, Stewart and Sam decided to head off around 11pm although Phil Landers decided to stay around in order to do "more research".
We managed to get the tube back to Northwick Park from Picadilly Circus but not before making my second visit to a McDonalds as I had been to one earlier in Harrow with Sirin and Sam. I didn't order anything from either however as I want to finish last night's lamb stew back at the flat.
And this is all after 12am in the morning for goodness sake.
Hopefully none of this will stop me from being up at 9 to get the important jobs done to ensure a smooth running show. Once again it will all be available to listen to via Gradiolondon.co.uk from 12pm tomorrow so you can hear if I'm technically comptent or not.
At least you won't have to actually hear my voice.
Quite a few of us arrived there at 7:30pm where we started inflating G Radio branded balloons and donning our G Radio t-shirts and the bar staff at the Ku Bar were kind enough to give us stickers offering free shots to put onto our G Radio flyers.
This allowed a few of us, namely me, Sam, Denis and Sirin and her mates from Croydon to go around the Soho area attempting to hand them out to potential customers.
The only problem was however that most of them were coming out of other bars and with G.A.Y. being not too far from us we had to make sure that we didn't hand out any near there.
Quite a few people turned up including Dave Sharp where I spoke to him about our Canterbury connections, the amount of cart machines that Steve Wright used to use and his interests of the Radio 1 jingles used around the mid 80s. That definitely proves that we had both had quite a bit to drink.
After around 10pm most of the second years had arrived such as Dean, Alice, Sophie and Amy as well as a few first years including Rob, Jade, and the other Alice with everything in full flow.
A few of us, namely myself, Chris, Phil H, Denis, Stewart and Sam decided to head off around 11pm although Phil Landers decided to stay around in order to do "more research".
We managed to get the tube back to Northwick Park from Picadilly Circus but not before making my second visit to a McDonalds as I had been to one earlier in Harrow with Sirin and Sam. I didn't order anything from either however as I want to finish last night's lamb stew back at the flat.
And this is all after 12am in the morning for goodness sake.
Hopefully none of this will stop me from being up at 9 to get the important jobs done to ensure a smooth running show. Once again it will all be available to listen to via Gradiolondon.co.uk from 12pm tomorrow so you can hear if I'm technically comptent or not.
At least you won't have to actually hear my voice.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Additional Jobs
Once again it's been a very busy day sorting things for tomorrow's programme where I've ended up being slightly more occupied than I had planned to be. As well as putting together the packages with listeners requests, I've managed to rope myself into editing a feature based around an interview with Justin Bond who is currently starring at the Soho Theatre and was interviewed on our pilot show.
Eric was smart enough to bring a Marantz recorder to where the O/B took place and managed to record the answers that Justin gave to Sam and Phil back in the studio and I've repackaged them into a re-edited interview minus the ums and ers and Eric asking the questions.
With the amount of time I had to complete the package I found it quite a task but
Dave Sharp mentioned that I could offer to help out other people with their features by looking after the music they use whilst they concentrate on editing the actual speech.
I doubt the feature on Justin Bond would be a good example though as I rather hastily inserted Kate Bush's "King Of The Mountain" over the interview itself which Justin has performed in one of his shows, and in the finished package itself it sounds rather rushed.
I may have time to change that if I can think of a similar, preferably instrumental track to use.
We're more or less sorted to make our way to the Ku Bar although everyone seems to be going at different times and Sam really wants help in carrying two helium tanks for the G Radio balloons.
We've covered them in plastic bags so they don't look too suspicious although people would think we would be carrying vases.
I'm hoping it will be worth all the effort in the end.
Eric was smart enough to bring a Marantz recorder to where the O/B took place and managed to record the answers that Justin gave to Sam and Phil back in the studio and I've repackaged them into a re-edited interview minus the ums and ers and Eric asking the questions.
With the amount of time I had to complete the package I found it quite a task but
Dave Sharp mentioned that I could offer to help out other people with their features by looking after the music they use whilst they concentrate on editing the actual speech.
I doubt the feature on Justin Bond would be a good example though as I rather hastily inserted Kate Bush's "King Of The Mountain" over the interview itself which Justin has performed in one of his shows, and in the finished package itself it sounds rather rushed.
I may have time to change that if I can think of a similar, preferably instrumental track to use.
We're more or less sorted to make our way to the Ku Bar although everyone seems to be going at different times and Sam really wants help in carrying two helium tanks for the G Radio balloons.
We've covered them in plastic bags so they don't look too suspicious although people would think we would be carrying vases.
I'm hoping it will be worth all the effort in the end.
Ku Flu
Today's a rather important night for us as G Radio will be taking over the Ku Bar in Central London tonight, with Chris, and Phil Harris doing a DJ spot during the night itself. We're hoping to get photos and possibly a few vox pop recordings which will help to put a few extra voices for the station giving an idea of it's audience.
I've been told not to get too over-enthusisatic by others, who are worried that I may attract a lot of louder personalities present in the bar but with just about every alcopop possible in there to drink it will be quite a task. Then again I've had worse nights resulting in taxi rides back to Harrow Halls and I've still been able to attend a lecture early the next morning.
A lot of people, namely Sarah have some sort of flu, and considering my mouth hasn't been feeling too good I'm concerned that I may get worse by tomorrow which will put a bit more pressure on me whilst driving our second live show.
Definitely not good when in a rather cramped room.
I've been told not to get too over-enthusisatic by others, who are worried that I may attract a lot of louder personalities present in the bar but with just about every alcopop possible in there to drink it will be quite a task. Then again I've had worse nights resulting in taxi rides back to Harrow Halls and I've still been able to attend a lecture early the next morning.
A lot of people, namely Sarah have some sort of flu, and considering my mouth hasn't been feeling too good I'm concerned that I may get worse by tomorrow which will put a bit more pressure on me whilst driving our second live show.
Definitely not good when in a rather cramped room.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
"SeVEN!"
It's been another rather lazy Sunday with only a visit to Sainsbury's being the amount of walking I have done. Other than that I've spent the day listening to Robbie Vincent's show on Jazz FM which included a tune from a band called Special Efx who I don't know too much about, but are from a record label that produced plenty of great material in the late 80s early 90s, GRP.
I'll definitely have a look into more of their material although with lots happening this semester I barely find time to listen to anything new, or new to me anyway.
On the plus side it means that I'll have a lot to keep me occupied after Christmas so that the dissertation isn't too much of a struggle.
As well as that there's been the tonight SCD dance off which featured a performance from the musical "Jersey Boys" based on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I wouldn't mind going to see that although I would have liked to have heard one of the bands earlier songs being performed on the show as opposed to "Oh What A Night".
And with everyone referring to me as the "Simon Cowell of Smoke Radio" I reckon
Craig Revel Horwood would be a better comparison who barely has a good word for anyone and is likely to give out the lowest score out of those on the Strictly judging panel.
It's an early start tomorrow as I need to buy some envelopes and stamps so I can send Mum her money in the post and the rest of the day will be spent preparing for our second show for G Radio. I've been working on some more production stuff which isn't too special although Chris our editor wants me to create a special G Radio branded introduction for The Saturday's current single "Up" which is what we plan to start the show off with.
I'm not sure if "Up" really is the appropriate word for the band but then again that word was the same name for Right Said Fred's debut album.
I'll definitely have a look into more of their material although with lots happening this semester I barely find time to listen to anything new, or new to me anyway.
On the plus side it means that I'll have a lot to keep me occupied after Christmas so that the dissertation isn't too much of a struggle.
As well as that there's been the tonight SCD dance off which featured a performance from the musical "Jersey Boys" based on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I wouldn't mind going to see that although I would have liked to have heard one of the bands earlier songs being performed on the show as opposed to "Oh What A Night".
And with everyone referring to me as the "Simon Cowell of Smoke Radio" I reckon
Craig Revel Horwood would be a better comparison who barely has a good word for anyone and is likely to give out the lowest score out of those on the Strictly judging panel.
It's an early start tomorrow as I need to buy some envelopes and stamps so I can send Mum her money in the post and the rest of the day will be spent preparing for our second show for G Radio. I've been working on some more production stuff which isn't too special although Chris our editor wants me to create a special G Radio branded introduction for The Saturday's current single "Up" which is what we plan to start the show off with.
I'm not sure if "Up" really is the appropriate word for the band but then again that word was the same name for Right Said Fred's debut album.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
X Hits The Spot
Tonight's X Factor really got into "the swing" of things with a Big Band special which was more or less on top form throughout. My favourite performance this week was
Laura White giving a superb take on the song "God Bless The Child" which is a song I've never really been a fan of before but both her and the live band made it absolutely stunning.
Also standing out were Diana with her take on the song "Smile" which I seem to remember being performed in the first series by Steve who ended up winning, and Rachel Hylton's rather silky version of Nina Simone's "Feelin' Good".
The second half of the show was let down however by a dreadful performance of all the finalists covering Mariah Carey's "Hero" to be released in aid of Help For Heroes rasing money for those who have been injured whilst in the services. They really could have put more effort into the song choice and arrangement considering the powerful film that was shown before the song itself.
The acts who ended up in the vote off were both Daniel from the over 25s and Scott from the boys with three of the judges deciding that Scott should make his bow.
Whilst I thought Scott's performance in the main show wasn't the best, that being a rather weak version of Sinatra's "That's Life", I thought he didn't do too bad a version of "I Can't Make You Love Me" although that's not to say it's better than George Michael's take on the song.
As for Daniel it's rather surprising he's made it this far in the series and it's good to have someone on there who stands out amongst everyone else even if it does look out of place at times.
Next week's theme however is Disco which I'm really looking forward to although I'm hoping there won't be too many covers of songs from Saturday Night Fever.
I'm gutted that I've never actually been to see a live transmission of the show whilst I've been at University considering it's filmed not too far from here at Wembley's Fountain Studios. I suppose the tickets would be a nightmare to get hold of although Ali O'Boyle one of our alumni managed to get in the audience for one of the shows in the first series when the likes of Tabby, Rowetta, and Steve Brookstein were competing.
I heard that another of the acts competing in that series with the imaginative name "Voices With Soul" were responsible for inspiring Expansion Records to release a superb compilation of music by 80s American soul group The Perri Sisters which I'd say is the best thing overall to come out of the show.
Laura White giving a superb take on the song "God Bless The Child" which is a song I've never really been a fan of before but both her and the live band made it absolutely stunning.
Also standing out were Diana with her take on the song "Smile" which I seem to remember being performed in the first series by Steve who ended up winning, and Rachel Hylton's rather silky version of Nina Simone's "Feelin' Good".
The second half of the show was let down however by a dreadful performance of all the finalists covering Mariah Carey's "Hero" to be released in aid of Help For Heroes rasing money for those who have been injured whilst in the services. They really could have put more effort into the song choice and arrangement considering the powerful film that was shown before the song itself.
The acts who ended up in the vote off were both Daniel from the over 25s and Scott from the boys with three of the judges deciding that Scott should make his bow.
Whilst I thought Scott's performance in the main show wasn't the best, that being a rather weak version of Sinatra's "That's Life", I thought he didn't do too bad a version of "I Can't Make You Love Me" although that's not to say it's better than George Michael's take on the song.
As for Daniel it's rather surprising he's made it this far in the series and it's good to have someone on there who stands out amongst everyone else even if it does look out of place at times.
Next week's theme however is Disco which I'm really looking forward to although I'm hoping there won't be too many covers of songs from Saturday Night Fever.
I'm gutted that I've never actually been to see a live transmission of the show whilst I've been at University considering it's filmed not too far from here at Wembley's Fountain Studios. I suppose the tickets would be a nightmare to get hold of although Ali O'Boyle one of our alumni managed to get in the audience for one of the shows in the first series when the likes of Tabby, Rowetta, and Steve Brookstein were competing.
I heard that another of the acts competing in that series with the imaginative name "Voices With Soul" were responsible for inspiring Expansion Records to release a superb compilation of music by 80s American soul group The Perri Sisters which I'd say is the best thing overall to come out of the show.
"Ten" 4
Today's notable for two anniversaries of revolutions in broadcasting.
Well almost. The first of which being 20 years since BBC GLR was launched to redefine local radio from the BBC in the London area. With Matthew Bannister in charge they launched the radio careers of many new faces including Chris Evans, Emma Freud, Chris Morris and Danny Baker who I never realised hadn't done radio before starting at GLR despite being a familiar face to viewers of LWT's "6 O'Clock Show" which by then had come to an end.
There were also a few old pros such as Johnny Walker and Tommy Vance presenting but even them could show how rather dated and out of touch Radio 1 appeared to be with the likes of Gary Davies and DLT still broadcasting to the masses.
Unsurprisingly Matthew Bannister became the controller of Radio 1 five years later with mixed results although that strays away from the main issue of Greater London Radio.
Another of their presenters happened to be Matthew Linfoot who presented "The Lavender Lounge" a weekly gay and lesbian magazine programme that ran for around 7 years and Charlie Gillet was also brought back to radio in 1995 via GLR after leaving Capital FM five years earlier.
Although it wasn't too succesfull as far as ratings went, it had it's fans and is still regarded more fondly than BBC London 94.9 today.
There's an interesting article about the station with containing more background information at Media Guardian.
The other anniversary is that of T4 the brainchild of Andi Peters which launched today in 1998 and it really doesn't feel that long at all. Back then it was hosted by Ben Shepard and the rather attractive Fran Lee who had previously appeared on "Wise Up", Channel 4's magazine programme presented by children and teenagers covering important issues and putting them face to face with celebrities they disliked.
Back then the programmes shown included Johnny Bravo, Sister Sister, and rather oddly the Waltons a programme that had been on Channel 4's Sunday schedule for as long as I could remember. This didn't go down well with regular viewers due to T4's on screen logo in the top left hand corner of the screen and in the end it was removed from the T4 strand entirely.
There were also rather cool looking idents which featured a weird spaceman character and hi-energy stings that went into the ad breaks such as "NEXT! Hollyoaks!".
Later on saw the arrival of Dermot O'Leary and Margharita Taylor and T4 became more popular than ever with popular programmes such as Dawson's Creek which I became quite addicted to. Especially when they had a "Dawson's Creek Day" in early August 1999 with the final three episodes of series 2 shown back to back and a selection of over programmes taking over the Channel 4 schedule up to 9pm broadcast live from Windsor Castle.
I may still have the links from that day on VHS back in Canterbury.
One of my personal highlights was when the New Radicals were meant to be performing their ever superb tune "You Get What You Give" on the show but they were unable to do so due to work permits running out so instead they had members of the crew miming to the song as "The Newer Radicals" which made it into Heat magazine.
Nowadays with Steve Jones and Miquita Oliver hosting and the programme being produced by an independent production company, it doesn't really excite me as much especially with the Hollyoaks omnibus taking up half of the day.
I thought a one hour was long back in 1998, although I'll avoid commenting about the person doing the sign language at the bottom of the screen.
It still pulls in the viewers however and according to the T4 website they'll be celebrating on the 9th of November. Hopefully the likes of Ben and Dermot will make an appearance although it's doubtful they'll get June Sarpong to keep her gob closed.
Well almost. The first of which being 20 years since BBC GLR was launched to redefine local radio from the BBC in the London area. With Matthew Bannister in charge they launched the radio careers of many new faces including Chris Evans, Emma Freud, Chris Morris and Danny Baker who I never realised hadn't done radio before starting at GLR despite being a familiar face to viewers of LWT's "6 O'Clock Show" which by then had come to an end.
There were also a few old pros such as Johnny Walker and Tommy Vance presenting but even them could show how rather dated and out of touch Radio 1 appeared to be with the likes of Gary Davies and DLT still broadcasting to the masses.
Unsurprisingly Matthew Bannister became the controller of Radio 1 five years later with mixed results although that strays away from the main issue of Greater London Radio.
Another of their presenters happened to be Matthew Linfoot who presented "The Lavender Lounge" a weekly gay and lesbian magazine programme that ran for around 7 years and Charlie Gillet was also brought back to radio in 1995 via GLR after leaving Capital FM five years earlier.
Although it wasn't too succesfull as far as ratings went, it had it's fans and is still regarded more fondly than BBC London 94.9 today.
There's an interesting article about the station with containing more background information at Media Guardian.
The other anniversary is that of T4 the brainchild of Andi Peters which launched today in 1998 and it really doesn't feel that long at all. Back then it was hosted by Ben Shepard and the rather attractive Fran Lee who had previously appeared on "Wise Up", Channel 4's magazine programme presented by children and teenagers covering important issues and putting them face to face with celebrities they disliked.
Back then the programmes shown included Johnny Bravo, Sister Sister, and rather oddly the Waltons a programme that had been on Channel 4's Sunday schedule for as long as I could remember. This didn't go down well with regular viewers due to T4's on screen logo in the top left hand corner of the screen and in the end it was removed from the T4 strand entirely.
There were also rather cool looking idents which featured a weird spaceman character and hi-energy stings that went into the ad breaks such as "NEXT! Hollyoaks!".
Later on saw the arrival of Dermot O'Leary and Margharita Taylor and T4 became more popular than ever with popular programmes such as Dawson's Creek which I became quite addicted to. Especially when they had a "Dawson's Creek Day" in early August 1999 with the final three episodes of series 2 shown back to back and a selection of over programmes taking over the Channel 4 schedule up to 9pm broadcast live from Windsor Castle.
I may still have the links from that day on VHS back in Canterbury.
One of my personal highlights was when the New Radicals were meant to be performing their ever superb tune "You Get What You Give" on the show but they were unable to do so due to work permits running out so instead they had members of the crew miming to the song as "The Newer Radicals" which made it into Heat magazine.
Nowadays with Steve Jones and Miquita Oliver hosting and the programme being produced by an independent production company, it doesn't really excite me as much especially with the Hollyoaks omnibus taking up half of the day.
I thought a one hour was long back in 1998, although I'll avoid commenting about the person doing the sign language at the bottom of the screen.
It still pulls in the viewers however and according to the T4 website they'll be celebrating on the 9th of November. Hopefully the likes of Ben and Dermot will make an appearance although it's doubtful they'll get June Sarpong to keep her gob closed.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Genuine Intense Pressure
Tonight's Have I Got News For You was an improvement on the rather weak first episode with Fern Britton hosting, where this week Alexander Armstrong made another welcome return to watch over proceedings.
There were plenty of jokes made at him over the possiblity of him taking over as host of Countdown although if he does get the job I hope it doesn't stop him from making occasional appearances on HIGNFY as there's always something in a show with him presenting that will have me in stitches.
One of them in tonight's show being a clip from a South African news programme interviewing financial chairman Nhlanhla Nene and the result of really being under too much pressure.
It was also probably the first time I have laughed at all three of the pictures shown at the end of the programme with the last one being a joke about the New York Bank situation.
I won't give too much away although it's currently available on the iPlayer.
Apparently Tom Baker is hosting next week which may end up being the same sort of episode as when Brian Blessed hosted in the last series although Tom has been a guest on the show before back when Angus Deayton was hosting and he has a long standing habit of reading other comedian's scripts and being able to generate laughs as a result.
There were plenty of jokes made at him over the possiblity of him taking over as host of Countdown although if he does get the job I hope it doesn't stop him from making occasional appearances on HIGNFY as there's always something in a show with him presenting that will have me in stitches.
One of them in tonight's show being a clip from a South African news programme interviewing financial chairman Nhlanhla Nene and the result of really being under too much pressure.
It was also probably the first time I have laughed at all three of the pictures shown at the end of the programme with the last one being a joke about the New York Bank situation.
I won't give too much away although it's currently available on the iPlayer.
Apparently Tom Baker is hosting next week which may end up being the same sort of episode as when Brian Blessed hosted in the last series although Tom has been a guest on the show before back when Angus Deayton was hosting and he has a long standing habit of reading other comedian's scripts and being able to generate laughs as a result.
Keen To Look Forward
I had a bit of a lie in this morning and didn't arrive at Uni until around 11am.
There weren't that many people around however with only Emma working on the ads, Stewart sorting the website out and Chris our editor turned up shortly after.
There wasn't much productiveness happening although Chris decided muck about by stealing Alice's shoes and hiding them in the SADiE editing room and then Phil Harris decided to hide them in the boys toilets which resulted in general messing about in the corridors between the radio and journalism rooms.
Chris also decided to start a "Ban Robin Blamires" campaign after I said that I wasn't looking forward to this years Student Radio Awards as it was my least favourite year at Smoke Radio, despite us getting 5 nominations.
In all fairness though, if we do when the all important Best Station prize, I can't exactly get drunk to celebrate as there's fuck all there to drink that I actually like as they only provided Red Stripe lager at the last two ceremonies. To be honest I'm very much prepared to smuggle my own drinks to the ceremony and am just as prepared to risk getting thrown out.
Tonight I'm hoping to catch up on last night Buzzcocks which I didn't see due to the Level 42 gig, and at the weekend I'm hoping to make a start on writing the critical report for the live part of the Advanced Radio module (fingers crossed).
I'll probably only get as far as evaluating the output of existing stations which I've managed to record audio of.
One of which being Gaydar itself so I hope to get a thousand words written at least.
There weren't that many people around however with only Emma working on the ads, Stewart sorting the website out and Chris our editor turned up shortly after.
There wasn't much productiveness happening although Chris decided muck about by stealing Alice's shoes and hiding them in the SADiE editing room and then Phil Harris decided to hide them in the boys toilets which resulted in general messing about in the corridors between the radio and journalism rooms.
Chris also decided to start a "Ban Robin Blamires" campaign after I said that I wasn't looking forward to this years Student Radio Awards as it was my least favourite year at Smoke Radio, despite us getting 5 nominations.
In all fairness though, if we do when the all important Best Station prize, I can't exactly get drunk to celebrate as there's fuck all there to drink that I actually like as they only provided Red Stripe lager at the last two ceremonies. To be honest I'm very much prepared to smuggle my own drinks to the ceremony and am just as prepared to risk getting thrown out.
Tonight I'm hoping to catch up on last night Buzzcocks which I didn't see due to the Level 42 gig, and at the weekend I'm hoping to make a start on writing the critical report for the live part of the Advanced Radio module (fingers crossed).
I'll probably only get as far as evaluating the output of existing stations which I've managed to record audio of.
One of which being Gaydar itself so I hope to get a thousand words written at least.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
"Holy Grail Or Holy Cow"
Tonight's performance at the Albert Hall went down really well and sped by.
Before Mark King and the band came on stage themselves we had an acoustic trio called The Mercurymen who have been supporting the band on the UK tour as well as supporting acts such as Deacon Blue and Sinead O'Connor.
They went down well and managed to get the crowd into quite a frenzy even though only half of those for the gig itself had turned up.
The main gig itself was stunning and probably even better than when I saw them two years ago as they included songs in their set that weren't performed last time including "Forever Now" which was the song I first associated with the band back in 1994, "Turn It On" from their early brit-funk days and "Take Care Of Yourself" from 1989 back in a time which Mark King described as when "inflation was on the increase, house prices were rising and everyone hated the Prime Minister".
Some things haven't changed then.
All the band were on top form including Mike Lindup on keyboards and falsetto vocals, Gary Husband on drums who this time kept both his sticks intact, and the sax player who gave some great solos on a wind synthesizer.
The lighting was really good too all set specifically for each individual song and the crowd got involved as per usual.
I was sat at a higher level (pardon the pun) than last time at one of the higher rows of the Albert Hall although sat there it still doesn't look as big as it does on television. There weren't that many people dancing either where I was sat although later on a few people decided to stand up and strut their stuff and I gave in as well prompting a girl to come up who spotted me from down below and we had a bit of a boogie together during towards the end.
The main set finished with the song that started off the 2006 gig "Dive Into The Sun", the highlight of the "Retroglide" album from the same year but they came back for an encore where they performed "The Chinese Way" and "Hot Water" which really had me going.
Mark said at the end that they would be performing at the IndigO2 in March next year so I'll definitely make sure I go to see them there as I doubt I'll still be living in London in 2010 when they are meant to be returning to the Royal Albert Hall.
It would probably be a good excuse to include this clip of the band performing "Forever Now" on the first episode of the Fast Show back in 1994 with a less than impressed Paul Whitehouse.
Rather ironically, shortly after that episode aired the band decided to call it a day although bear in mind that's the Take That method of calling it a day.
Before Mark King and the band came on stage themselves we had an acoustic trio called The Mercurymen who have been supporting the band on the UK tour as well as supporting acts such as Deacon Blue and Sinead O'Connor.
They went down well and managed to get the crowd into quite a frenzy even though only half of those for the gig itself had turned up.
The main gig itself was stunning and probably even better than when I saw them two years ago as they included songs in their set that weren't performed last time including "Forever Now" which was the song I first associated with the band back in 1994, "Turn It On" from their early brit-funk days and "Take Care Of Yourself" from 1989 back in a time which Mark King described as when "inflation was on the increase, house prices were rising and everyone hated the Prime Minister".
Some things haven't changed then.
All the band were on top form including Mike Lindup on keyboards and falsetto vocals, Gary Husband on drums who this time kept both his sticks intact, and the sax player who gave some great solos on a wind synthesizer.
The lighting was really good too all set specifically for each individual song and the crowd got involved as per usual.
I was sat at a higher level (pardon the pun) than last time at one of the higher rows of the Albert Hall although sat there it still doesn't look as big as it does on television. There weren't that many people dancing either where I was sat although later on a few people decided to stand up and strut their stuff and I gave in as well prompting a girl to come up who spotted me from down below and we had a bit of a boogie together during towards the end.
The main set finished with the song that started off the 2006 gig "Dive Into The Sun", the highlight of the "Retroglide" album from the same year but they came back for an encore where they performed "The Chinese Way" and "Hot Water" which really had me going.
Mark said at the end that they would be performing at the IndigO2 in March next year so I'll definitely make sure I go to see them there as I doubt I'll still be living in London in 2010 when they are meant to be returning to the Royal Albert Hall.
It would probably be a good excuse to include this clip of the band performing "Forever Now" on the first episode of the Fast Show back in 1994 with a less than impressed Paul Whitehouse.
Rather ironically, shortly after that episode aired the band decided to call it a day although bear in mind that's the Take That method of calling it a day.
A More Shallow Balance
My student loan for this semester has finally arrived so I won't have to worry about being careful with what I spend, until Christmas at least.
With just about everything being more expensive than last year it will be a bit of a struggle but at least I'm not eating like I was this time last year as a result of the drugs I was taking.
Today started off with a dissertation lecture on content analysis which wasn't that exciting but on the positive side, I managed to sort out the issue with dissertation groups and was given the choice of which one to go to. I decided to go to the one between 11 and 12 midday where people in there included Denis, Steven and Maz.
Basically the session involved us being put into groups of three and quite naturally I went with Steven and Denis where we talked about a few potential ideas but in the end went on about shows such as Buzzcocks and The X Factor, and how Girls Aloud are quite possibly better than the Spice Girls.
It was poorly organised however as we had to move rooms twice and the fire alarm went off near the end of the lecture resulting in us taking 5 minutes to get down the stairs in the University's A Block.
I decided to hot foot it immediately to Northwick Park tube station to head over to Denmark Hill for the final time where it was rather chaotic there as well.
With half term approaching, two of the pupils weren't around for the first 20 minutes as they were helping out on a cake stall which Mark who organised the sessions wasn't too happy about.
However those present throughout the whole session did well again and it's been quite an experience coming over to Lyndhurst to show their pupils the basics in making station idents which they have gotten the hang of very quickly.
Right now it's not long to go before I head over to The Royal Albert Hall and Level 42 which looks set to go down really well.
Here's hoping for an adrenaline filled bass solo.
With just about everything being more expensive than last year it will be a bit of a struggle but at least I'm not eating like I was this time last year as a result of the drugs I was taking.
Today started off with a dissertation lecture on content analysis which wasn't that exciting but on the positive side, I managed to sort out the issue with dissertation groups and was given the choice of which one to go to. I decided to go to the one between 11 and 12 midday where people in there included Denis, Steven and Maz.
Basically the session involved us being put into groups of three and quite naturally I went with Steven and Denis where we talked about a few potential ideas but in the end went on about shows such as Buzzcocks and The X Factor, and how Girls Aloud are quite possibly better than the Spice Girls.
It was poorly organised however as we had to move rooms twice and the fire alarm went off near the end of the lecture resulting in us taking 5 minutes to get down the stairs in the University's A Block.
I decided to hot foot it immediately to Northwick Park tube station to head over to Denmark Hill for the final time where it was rather chaotic there as well.
With half term approaching, two of the pupils weren't around for the first 20 minutes as they were helping out on a cake stall which Mark who organised the sessions wasn't too happy about.
However those present throughout the whole session did well again and it's been quite an experience coming over to Lyndhurst to show their pupils the basics in making station idents which they have gotten the hang of very quickly.
Right now it's not long to go before I head over to The Royal Albert Hall and Level 42 which looks set to go down really well.
Here's hoping for an adrenaline filled bass solo.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Soulful And Sporty
There were a lot of antics going on in the radio rooms tonight which resulted in a few hilarious moments. Most notable was Lottie making the fatal mistake of not logging out of Facebook before going home which lead to Phil Landers, Sophie and Alice altering her profile to look exactly the same as Ross T's.
Not to mention using Facebook messenger to talk to one of the other fellow radio students in the second year and ask a few personal questions.
On finding out Lottie rang Phil and sounded pretty livid although I doubt she was too serious about the issue as everyone has a habit of altering Facebook statuses when backs are turned.
The Shuffle Show returned to the airwaves tonight with just Adam on his own where this week's theme was "Heavy Metal", literally. This involved a lot of tracks with metal instruments being played for long lengths of time with the final track leading well into my show being "Can You Feel It" by the Jacksons because of heavy use of bells in the chorus.
My show went well with no major problems apart from struggling once again to pronounce the name of Brazilian vocalist Eliane Elias who's cover of Bob Marley's "Jamming" I played.
There was also a new feature "The Positive Pairing" which isn't the most original feature but as it's my final year on the soul show I thought it would be good to each week play two personal favourite tracks by an artist normally associated with the show and this week it was Earth Wind and Fire.
After the show I headed down to the Undercroft and the Sports Party where those present included Kelly and Danielle as well as Irish Mickey from the rugby team and JP and his mates who earlier on were recording their first show that will be on air this weekend.
JP had good things to say about my show, as did Kelly about being part of this year's advanced project although I still think the group would benefit with her being involved.
DJ Ska was spinning the tunes which ranged from just about anything with "Rolex" in the title to garage anthems and novelty tunes such as The Foundations and The Proclaimers.
The bar even stayed open beyond it's 11pm closing time although the outdoor section got closed off and I decided to head back after a while, mainly because I had some mince cooking in the kitchen back at the flat and need to get something down me before going to bed.
Once again it's an early start tomorrow for the dissertation lecture where hopefully I will have sorted out the issue of what group I'm in for the dissertation ideas. Then it's off to South London for the final time where I will be helping the children at the Lyndhurst Primary School finalise what they've produced for Grove FM over the last few weeks,
and later on it's a journey to The Royal Albert Hall to see Level 42 which I'm sure will be superb.
It really is busy times.
Not to mention using Facebook messenger to talk to one of the other fellow radio students in the second year and ask a few personal questions.
On finding out Lottie rang Phil and sounded pretty livid although I doubt she was too serious about the issue as everyone has a habit of altering Facebook statuses when backs are turned.
The Shuffle Show returned to the airwaves tonight with just Adam on his own where this week's theme was "Heavy Metal", literally. This involved a lot of tracks with metal instruments being played for long lengths of time with the final track leading well into my show being "Can You Feel It" by the Jacksons because of heavy use of bells in the chorus.
My show went well with no major problems apart from struggling once again to pronounce the name of Brazilian vocalist Eliane Elias who's cover of Bob Marley's "Jamming" I played.
There was also a new feature "The Positive Pairing" which isn't the most original feature but as it's my final year on the soul show I thought it would be good to each week play two personal favourite tracks by an artist normally associated with the show and this week it was Earth Wind and Fire.
After the show I headed down to the Undercroft and the Sports Party where those present included Kelly and Danielle as well as Irish Mickey from the rugby team and JP and his mates who earlier on were recording their first show that will be on air this weekend.
JP had good things to say about my show, as did Kelly about being part of this year's advanced project although I still think the group would benefit with her being involved.
DJ Ska was spinning the tunes which ranged from just about anything with "Rolex" in the title to garage anthems and novelty tunes such as The Foundations and The Proclaimers.
The bar even stayed open beyond it's 11pm closing time although the outdoor section got closed off and I decided to head back after a while, mainly because I had some mince cooking in the kitchen back at the flat and need to get something down me before going to bed.
Once again it's an early start tomorrow for the dissertation lecture where hopefully I will have sorted out the issue of what group I'm in for the dissertation ideas. Then it's off to South London for the final time where I will be helping the children at the Lyndhurst Primary School finalise what they've produced for Grove FM over the last few weeks,
and later on it's a journey to The Royal Albert Hall to see Level 42 which I'm sure will be superb.
It really is busy times.
Prescriptions Lead To Positivity
It was another earlier start as I had to go to the Kenton Medical Centre to sort out a prescription for my tablets. It took quite a while to get it sorted but I now have a prescription and a document to show them at the surgery if I need to get any more.
The plan for today was to have a meeting to sort out planning for next week's show but due to a lack of group members, one of which had decided to spend the day at Thorpe Park, we didn't really get very far as we would have liked to. This was disapointing considering Sam and Sirin had travelled quite a way to get in, and that the time wasn't used constructively.
On the plus side we had an arrival from one of our ex radio students Kelly, who's now up in her home town of Lincoln completing her degree there, although she's come back tonight for the Sports Teams Welcome Party at the Undercroft later tonight which I might go to.
We really could do with Kelly as part of the team at this time due to certain group members not pulling their weight and not being present at vital points.
As for the rest of tonight I will be doing the first of my regular soul shows of the year which I'm looking forward to as always where I'll be bringing back a few of the old features such as Bubblegum Soul and so on.
I also hope to make a rather nice mince and pasta dish on getting home which considering I've barely eaten for most of today will be much deserved.
I'd imagine this will be the case every Wednesday for the rest of the year.
The plan for today was to have a meeting to sort out planning for next week's show but due to a lack of group members, one of which had decided to spend the day at Thorpe Park, we didn't really get very far as we would have liked to. This was disapointing considering Sam and Sirin had travelled quite a way to get in, and that the time wasn't used constructively.
On the plus side we had an arrival from one of our ex radio students Kelly, who's now up in her home town of Lincoln completing her degree there, although she's come back tonight for the Sports Teams Welcome Party at the Undercroft later tonight which I might go to.
We really could do with Kelly as part of the team at this time due to certain group members not pulling their weight and not being present at vital points.
As for the rest of tonight I will be doing the first of my regular soul shows of the year which I'm looking forward to as always where I'll be bringing back a few of the old features such as Bubblegum Soul and so on.
I also hope to make a rather nice mince and pasta dish on getting home which considering I've barely eaten for most of today will be much deserved.
I'd imagine this will be the case every Wednesday for the rest of the year.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
16 And Over
There's a mini white board in the kitchen of our flat (although the background of it is actually silver) that has a list of the people who live in Flat 16 and a "witty description". These include "Alice the Palace", "Caroline, She's Mighty Fine" and "Suzette, the dyke from Essex" which she changed to "is f***ing amazing".
Mine was "Robin the acronym" which I don't know exactly what it means although was at St Martin's Hospital last August I did spend an awful lot of time in the recreation room writing my own acronyms of crushes, and doodling.
There was also a computer in there, minus internet access which seemed to be the only place I could listen to music and luckily Mum and Dad had brought a few CDs over including some smooth jazz compilations and albums by Incognito and Dianne Reeves amongst others. I'm pretty sure they're still on there as I burnt them onto the computer itself which a few of the other people in the hospital were appreciative of rather surprisingly.
I've just heard that the recording I was planning to go to at the BBC Radio Theatre on Monday has been postponed which means I'll be able to be there for all of the G Radio party at the Ku Bar in Leicester Square which will be a good excuse to go a bit crazy with the drinks, even if it does mean being up at 9am the next day prior to live transmission.
The show in question was a special edition of Ivan Brackenbury's spoof Hospital Radio show for BBC Radio 2 which will now be happening in November, so fingers crossed I'll get tickets for that performance.
The only problem is that the tickets for Monday will be waiting in Halls reception by now but I'm not too down about that as there's quite a lot going on this week including
Level 42 at the Royal Albert Hall this coming Thursday.
As for tonight I'll try to be laid back and continue my trawl through EWF's albums where I'm now up to one of my personal favourites "All 'N' All" from 1977 which contains the track "Runnin' that I plan to feature on my show tomorrow which I've sorted out the playlist for.
I'm definitely looking forward to it and have got Bob the US voiceover guy to do some new liners which should provide added value or silliness to the show depending on which way you look at it.
Overall as said many times before there's nothing better than getting the buzz from playing a record on t'wireless which is why I try to avoid playing certain tunes too many times before a show.
Here's hoping it goes well and with the added bonus of getting away with screwing up, not that I want it to happen of course.
Mine was "Robin the acronym" which I don't know exactly what it means although was at St Martin's Hospital last August I did spend an awful lot of time in the recreation room writing my own acronyms of crushes, and doodling.
There was also a computer in there, minus internet access which seemed to be the only place I could listen to music and luckily Mum and Dad had brought a few CDs over including some smooth jazz compilations and albums by Incognito and Dianne Reeves amongst others. I'm pretty sure they're still on there as I burnt them onto the computer itself which a few of the other people in the hospital were appreciative of rather surprisingly.
I've just heard that the recording I was planning to go to at the BBC Radio Theatre on Monday has been postponed which means I'll be able to be there for all of the G Radio party at the Ku Bar in Leicester Square which will be a good excuse to go a bit crazy with the drinks, even if it does mean being up at 9am the next day prior to live transmission.
The show in question was a special edition of Ivan Brackenbury's spoof Hospital Radio show for BBC Radio 2 which will now be happening in November, so fingers crossed I'll get tickets for that performance.
The only problem is that the tickets for Monday will be waiting in Halls reception by now but I'm not too down about that as there's quite a lot going on this week including
Level 42 at the Royal Albert Hall this coming Thursday.
As for tonight I'll try to be laid back and continue my trawl through EWF's albums where I'm now up to one of my personal favourites "All 'N' All" from 1977 which contains the track "Runnin' that I plan to feature on my show tomorrow which I've sorted out the playlist for.
I'm definitely looking forward to it and have got Bob the US voiceover guy to do some new liners which should provide added value or silliness to the show depending on which way you look at it.
Overall as said many times before there's nothing better than getting the buzz from playing a record on t'wireless which is why I try to avoid playing certain tunes too many times before a show.
Here's hoping it goes well and with the added bonus of getting away with screwing up, not that I want it to happen of course.
Hitting The G Spot
Today was our first live show for G Radio and I'd say it went well although I felt it wasn't as good as last week's pilot in terms of flow. This was mainly due to a rather tense atmosphere in the studio where I was operating the desk and things could have been dealt with a bit more calmer when certain incidents happened, such as items being played too soon, starting and stopping and so on.
Presenters Sam, and Phil Landers were superb once again keeping it all together and Steven got really good comments on how he read the news from two guests that came in this week to analyse the show. I can't remember their names which has more or less broken a few rungs on the ladder, but they were from CBeebies and produce programmes for their radio shows that go out on BBC 7. They were also impressed by the branding both on and off air and oddly enough the thought the presentation went well too.
I haven't actually listened back to todays show so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
I would much prefer it if things were dealt in a more relaxed manner with less attitude and I won't be bound to make so many mistakes with the buttons and so on.
As far as items went, there was a very good package on blood donors although we spent far too much time on the item lasting up to 20 minutes although it got a good reaction from listeners.
There was also a really good outside broadcast from the 20th Century Theatre in Westbourne Grove which Stoobie and Eric worked on and it also helped that Scoop was behaving itself.
The debriefing that took place with our guests was constructive with one of the main issues for next week being to make sure that both the presenters mic levels are the same as for most of today's show one was louder than the other.
A lot of the debriefing was also focused on the website which in fairness does need alterations in terms of content by giving details of what's happening on this week's show rather than just providing a generic blurb.
Stewart who's been designing the site did point out that he only got an E for his I.T. GCSE saying that it was mainly spent learning how to use Microsoft Office, putting it into as own words as "Fuck me that was boring".
Overall though it looks as if everyone will be working hard over the next week to make sure that show 2 builds on the positive points achieved from our first live show.
Presenters Sam, and Phil Landers were superb once again keeping it all together and Steven got really good comments on how he read the news from two guests that came in this week to analyse the show. I can't remember their names which has more or less broken a few rungs on the ladder, but they were from CBeebies and produce programmes for their radio shows that go out on BBC 7. They were also impressed by the branding both on and off air and oddly enough the thought the presentation went well too.
I haven't actually listened back to todays show so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
I would much prefer it if things were dealt in a more relaxed manner with less attitude and I won't be bound to make so many mistakes with the buttons and so on.
As far as items went, there was a very good package on blood donors although we spent far too much time on the item lasting up to 20 minutes although it got a good reaction from listeners.
There was also a really good outside broadcast from the 20th Century Theatre in Westbourne Grove which Stoobie and Eric worked on and it also helped that Scoop was behaving itself.
The debriefing that took place with our guests was constructive with one of the main issues for next week being to make sure that both the presenters mic levels are the same as for most of today's show one was louder than the other.
A lot of the debriefing was also focused on the website which in fairness does need alterations in terms of content by giving details of what's happening on this week's show rather than just providing a generic blurb.
Stewart who's been designing the site did point out that he only got an E for his I.T. GCSE saying that it was mainly spent learning how to use Microsoft Office, putting it into as own words as "Fuck me that was boring".
Overall though it looks as if everyone will be working hard over the next week to make sure that show 2 builds on the positive points achieved from our first live show.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Above The Waistline
I'm being referred to as the Simon Cowell of the radio course as it appears I always have to criticize things, especially if it's related to popular music.
It's safe to say that I really don't think I'm cut out when it comes to liking most of the acts around today although Chris said it was wrong of me to come across as positive on my soul show and negative the rest of the time.
I try to have a bit of fun with it however although there is a heavy amount of mediocrity around from the likes of Adele, and if anyone has the guts to describe her as "soulful" once more I doubt I'll be able to control my rage.
With regards to my comments on last weeks X-Factor, a few people in the radio rooms were watching clips of the performances on Youtube earlier today including Ruth Lorenzo's so called "stunning" performance of Prince's "Purple Rain". I've never really been a fan of that song and oddly enough I actually agree with Simon in wanting to see more of Ruth's "Spanish side" in her performances.
This probably leads on to a list of things I found on Radio 1's Chart blog of
"How To Improve The X-Factor" and with Peter Kay's "Winner's Song" beating Leon in the charts, maybe the producers of the show should take this hints to heart.
The rest of the day has been spent working on pacakges, trails and audio for tomorrow's show and in the evening a few of us went into a very wet Central London to the Soho area to distribute flyers around the various bars. I went with Chris and Denis whilst others going round were Sirin and Sarah, and presenters Sam and Phil Landers.
We also went into the Ku Bar itself near Leicester Square where we will be holding our promotional night next Monday and it's a rather small place although there is a room upstairs where I imagine all the action will be happening. Well a DJ set from Chris and Phil H at least.
We then headed off to a TGI Fridays nearby where I had a rather delicious penne and chicken dish which despite the cheese topping and the hidden vegtables was very filling and well deserved after what was a rather busy day.
It didn't stop there however as I went to the Undercroft bar immediately after getting back to Northwick Park, where the tunes this week mainly consisted of metal classics old and new from the likes of Guns 'N' Roses, The White Stripes, and one I thought was impressive "Dr Feelgood" by Motley Crue from 1989.
Denis, Stoobie and both the Phils arrived later on and a few of the first years were present too although I reckon they moved onto the Junction in Harrow just before closing time.
At this point Mattie was spinning the tunes which included a weird remix of Daft Punk's "Robot Rock" and it finished with a bizarre mix of Rage Against The Machine, ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and once again, "My Way" which people were still singing as we came out of the bar.
It's an early start again as everyone needs to be in at 9 although in all fairness there's a lot which I'm very keen to get sorted before we go on air at 12pm.
It can all be heard by clicking the Listen Live button on the rather stylish website that Stewart and Eric have worked hard on over the last few weeks so if you hear any records being played at the wrong time you'll know who's responsible.
It's safe to say that I really don't think I'm cut out when it comes to liking most of the acts around today although Chris said it was wrong of me to come across as positive on my soul show and negative the rest of the time.
I try to have a bit of fun with it however although there is a heavy amount of mediocrity around from the likes of Adele, and if anyone has the guts to describe her as "soulful" once more I doubt I'll be able to control my rage.
With regards to my comments on last weeks X-Factor, a few people in the radio rooms were watching clips of the performances on Youtube earlier today including Ruth Lorenzo's so called "stunning" performance of Prince's "Purple Rain". I've never really been a fan of that song and oddly enough I actually agree with Simon in wanting to see more of Ruth's "Spanish side" in her performances.
This probably leads on to a list of things I found on Radio 1's Chart blog of
"How To Improve The X-Factor" and with Peter Kay's "Winner's Song" beating Leon in the charts, maybe the producers of the show should take this hints to heart.
The rest of the day has been spent working on pacakges, trails and audio for tomorrow's show and in the evening a few of us went into a very wet Central London to the Soho area to distribute flyers around the various bars. I went with Chris and Denis whilst others going round were Sirin and Sarah, and presenters Sam and Phil Landers.
We also went into the Ku Bar itself near Leicester Square where we will be holding our promotional night next Monday and it's a rather small place although there is a room upstairs where I imagine all the action will be happening. Well a DJ set from Chris and Phil H at least.
We then headed off to a TGI Fridays nearby where I had a rather delicious penne and chicken dish which despite the cheese topping and the hidden vegtables was very filling and well deserved after what was a rather busy day.
It didn't stop there however as I went to the Undercroft bar immediately after getting back to Northwick Park, where the tunes this week mainly consisted of metal classics old and new from the likes of Guns 'N' Roses, The White Stripes, and one I thought was impressive "Dr Feelgood" by Motley Crue from 1989.
Denis, Stoobie and both the Phils arrived later on and a few of the first years were present too although I reckon they moved onto the Junction in Harrow just before closing time.
At this point Mattie was spinning the tunes which included a weird remix of Daft Punk's "Robot Rock" and it finished with a bizarre mix of Rage Against The Machine, ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and once again, "My Way" which people were still singing as we came out of the bar.
It's an early start again as everyone needs to be in at 9 although in all fairness there's a lot which I'm very keen to get sorted before we go on air at 12pm.
It can all be heard by clicking the Listen Live button on the rather stylish website that Stewart and Eric have worked hard on over the last few weeks so if you hear any records being played at the wrong time you'll know who's responsible.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Lack Of Busyness
A very empty day once again, with barely anything happening at all resulting in me spending most of the afternoon in bed.
I've just finished watching this week's Strictly Come Dancing results show which was notable mainly for Mark Foster's rather dreadful see-through shirt exposing his well rounded (not in a positive way) man breasts which was off putting to quite an extent.
Thankfully he didn't get put into the dance-off where it was actor Don Warrington who got the boot this week.
Tomorrow will be the reverse of today hopefully as I'll be helping prepare for our first proper live show on Tuesday which should keep me busy throughout. It's also the first day of live shows on Smoke as well with the return of shows such as "Preloaded" and
"You Heard It Here First", the latter of which have managed to grab two weekly hour long slots.
I'm not too bitter however as it would be a bit too much work doing more than my hour long show each week, especially with the Advanced Radio module being a priority in the first semester.
I still need to sort out the show running order for this week and not having access to iTunes in halls is a pain making it harder to get hold of the newer tunes, because I'm too lazy to head all the way up to places such as Soul Brother in Putney where they have
all the good stuff.
Let's hope I can handle it all.
I've just finished watching this week's Strictly Come Dancing results show which was notable mainly for Mark Foster's rather dreadful see-through shirt exposing his well rounded (not in a positive way) man breasts which was off putting to quite an extent.
Thankfully he didn't get put into the dance-off where it was actor Don Warrington who got the boot this week.
Tomorrow will be the reverse of today hopefully as I'll be helping prepare for our first proper live show on Tuesday which should keep me busy throughout. It's also the first day of live shows on Smoke as well with the return of shows such as "Preloaded" and
"You Heard It Here First", the latter of which have managed to grab two weekly hour long slots.
I'm not too bitter however as it would be a bit too much work doing more than my hour long show each week, especially with the Advanced Radio module being a priority in the first semester.
I still need to sort out the show running order for this week and not having access to iTunes in halls is a pain making it harder to get hold of the newer tunes, because I'm too lazy to head all the way up to places such as Soul Brother in Putney where they have
all the good stuff.
Let's hope I can handle it all.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
'Cha Moan
Tonight's X-Factor was rather disapointing in terms of song choices, as the theme was Michael Jackson but most of the contestants chose to sing his inferior ballads as opposed to his more livelier tunes.
One of the exceptions to this was JLS who gave a rather good performance of "The Way You Make Me Feel" from the "Bad" album, and I reckon they're still one of the stand out acts in the competition.
During one of our presenter run through's for G Radio earlier in the week Sam said they reminded her of 90s boy band Ultimate Kaos, although they've got potential to be even better if they go even further in the competition.
The vote off this week was between Girl Band once again, and Spanish seducer Ruth with the latter staying on as the result of the public vote as the judges couldn't make up their minds again.
To be honest Girl Band aren't exactly the prettiest of people as they're a bit weighty and one of them bares a resemblance to Nadia, the Pourtuguese transexual who won Big Brother in 2004.
Tomorrow will be a rather empty with the morning spent in bed listening to what has to be the jewel in the crown of Jazz FM's schedule, Robbie Vincent who was spinning some superb tunes last week from the likes of Julia and Company, Incognito, Marcos Valle plus many others which I can't remember off the top of my head.
I wish they would sort the website out and put playlists on there as it would make it a lot easier for me and many other listeners to find out more about the gems on offer on the many shows that the station has to offer.
It's fair to say it's the perfect station from a personal level even if the Jazz FM brand is misleading to others.
One of the exceptions to this was JLS who gave a rather good performance of "The Way You Make Me Feel" from the "Bad" album, and I reckon they're still one of the stand out acts in the competition.
During one of our presenter run through's for G Radio earlier in the week Sam said they reminded her of 90s boy band Ultimate Kaos, although they've got potential to be even better if they go even further in the competition.
The vote off this week was between Girl Band once again, and Spanish seducer Ruth with the latter staying on as the result of the public vote as the judges couldn't make up their minds again.
To be honest Girl Band aren't exactly the prettiest of people as they're a bit weighty and one of them bares a resemblance to Nadia, the Pourtuguese transexual who won Big Brother in 2004.
Tomorrow will be a rather empty with the morning spent in bed listening to what has to be the jewel in the crown of Jazz FM's schedule, Robbie Vincent who was spinning some superb tunes last week from the likes of Julia and Company, Incognito, Marcos Valle plus many others which I can't remember off the top of my head.
I wish they would sort the website out and put playlists on there as it would make it a lot easier for me and many other listeners to find out more about the gems on offer on the many shows that the station has to offer.
It's fair to say it's the perfect station from a personal level even if the Jazz FM brand is misleading to others.
More Nearby Arrivals?
It's open day here on Harrow Campus where many people are being shown round the different facilities and will hopefully choose us as their pathway to success, or just to have a good time overall with a lot of drinking involved.
Fellow radio student Danielle has been showing people round M-Block and I went up to the radio rooms to see one group of people look at the studios themselves. One of them happened to have done work experience at the BBC's Kent and Sussex studios and at KMFM in Tonbridge which I thought was pretty impressive. One day I'll get there, athough I've heard things about the Canterbury staff being moved to Ashford pretty soon although most of the programming is becoming shared within all the stations.
Then again when Invicta FM rebrands itself to Heart, KMFM will have a great opportunity to make itself the most succesfull station in the county especially with it's Rock Show and Chill Out Show at weekends not to mention having Tony Blackburn on board.
As it sounds almost similar to Invicta at it's prime, they should have the guts to use the name on their stations and bring back the "Steamroller" jingles by TM Century or TM Studios as they are now known.
They're currently airing a resing of the company's Viking FM custom on the station so financially it would make sense.
It would certainly bring back a buzz that's been missing from Kent's airwaves although to be fair it's not the most exciting part of the world.
Fellow radio student Danielle has been showing people round M-Block and I went up to the radio rooms to see one group of people look at the studios themselves. One of them happened to have done work experience at the BBC's Kent and Sussex studios and at KMFM in Tonbridge which I thought was pretty impressive. One day I'll get there, athough I've heard things about the Canterbury staff being moved to Ashford pretty soon although most of the programming is becoming shared within all the stations.
Then again when Invicta FM rebrands itself to Heart, KMFM will have a great opportunity to make itself the most succesfull station in the county especially with it's Rock Show and Chill Out Show at weekends not to mention having Tony Blackburn on board.
As it sounds almost similar to Invicta at it's prime, they should have the guts to use the name on their stations and bring back the "Steamroller" jingles by TM Century or TM Studios as they are now known.
They're currently airing a resing of the company's Viking FM custom on the station so financially it would make sense.
It would certainly bring back a buzz that's been missing from Kent's airwaves although to be fair it's not the most exciting part of the world.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Decisive Diary Dates
It's all starting to get rather complicated as on returning home I had an e-mail from home saying that a letter had arrived to me from the BBC. I'm guessing that they are tickets to a recording of a radio comedy at Broadcasting House due to take place on Monday the 27th of October which is the same date as our G Radio publicity party in Soho.
I'm rather tied up as which to prioritise on but Broadcasting House isn't too far from the Soho area and I reckon I could divide my time between the two of them.
I'd best make sure I bring an extra t-shirt with me as I don't think it would be very bright entering the BBC Radio Theatre with a G Radio t-shirt in full flow.
On a similar note, Media Guardian revealed a few days ago that the British Comedy Awards will be on television again this year after being pulled from our screens last year due to phone vote rigging issues. It should also be returning to a Saturday night slot after god knows how long although in all honesty I haven't seen the awards since starting University due to being occupied with several other things.
I do remember one of my fellow presenters at BXFM not being happy about a joke that Jonathan Ross did about Paul O'Grady's heart attack at the 2006 awards that took place around the time we were both helping out at the rather chaotic station providing entertainment for those shopping at the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
I doubt I'll have much time to lend a hand this year although I'd love to make a visit before the semester ends as it was a really good atmosphere there.
I'm rather tied up as which to prioritise on but Broadcasting House isn't too far from the Soho area and I reckon I could divide my time between the two of them.
I'd best make sure I bring an extra t-shirt with me as I don't think it would be very bright entering the BBC Radio Theatre with a G Radio t-shirt in full flow.
On a similar note, Media Guardian revealed a few days ago that the British Comedy Awards will be on television again this year after being pulled from our screens last year due to phone vote rigging issues. It should also be returning to a Saturday night slot after god knows how long although in all honesty I haven't seen the awards since starting University due to being occupied with several other things.
I do remember one of my fellow presenters at BXFM not being happy about a joke that Jonathan Ross did about Paul O'Grady's heart attack at the 2006 awards that took place around the time we were both helping out at the rather chaotic station providing entertainment for those shopping at the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
I doubt I'll have much time to lend a hand this year although I'd love to make a visit before the semester ends as it was a really good atmosphere there.
Pulling In The Crowd
A few people have been absent today whilst preparing for next week's live show but those present have been working hard and pulling their weight and it's even lead to some good results.
One of them being a party at the Ku Bar in Central London, near to where we did our market research last week which is taking place before our second live show in just over a week away, and we're hoping to have t-shirts made for everyone with the G-Radio logo on them.
We also had another presenter run through which included a phone interview with Phil Harris playing "the head of Madonna's fan club" where his accent kept changing from Liverpool to West Country which resulted in Chris our editor being in stitches. I also thought I wasn't as slick as I was on Tuesday because I sometimes put the mics up too late, but I don't really get the urgency and the buzz when it's not being done live.
Not a great deal needs to be done over the weekend apart from making more idents and beds, although I need to work with our music producers to sort out how long the intros are in order to give the presenters talk up time in advance and to possibly create sweepers to play over them that fit in with their length.
Not a lot of the paragraph above would make sense to anyone who isn't as obsessed with radio but they would know they would notice difference if there were more pregnant pauses on air due to a lack of production.
It definitely pays off in the end.
One of them being a party at the Ku Bar in Central London, near to where we did our market research last week which is taking place before our second live show in just over a week away, and we're hoping to have t-shirts made for everyone with the G-Radio logo on them.
We also had another presenter run through which included a phone interview with Phil Harris playing "the head of Madonna's fan club" where his accent kept changing from Liverpool to West Country which resulted in Chris our editor being in stitches. I also thought I wasn't as slick as I was on Tuesday because I sometimes put the mics up too late, but I don't really get the urgency and the buzz when it's not being done live.
Not a great deal needs to be done over the weekend apart from making more idents and beds, although I need to work with our music producers to sort out how long the intros are in order to give the presenters talk up time in advance and to possibly create sweepers to play over them that fit in with their length.
Not a lot of the paragraph above would make sense to anyone who isn't as obsessed with radio but they would know they would notice difference if there were more pregnant pauses on air due to a lack of production.
It definitely pays off in the end.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Worthy Of A Gold Badge?
Today started off with this week's dissertation lecture where we looked at various methods of research such as production plans and arranging focus groups and interviews. Whilst there are several different ways of using research, we were told that we didn't have to use every single one of them and could only use one if we wanted.
That would come in particularly handy for me as it would be difficult to find people at University who could remember television from the late 80s/early 90s for a focus group. Then again I may choose something a bit more up to date in the end but I'll see how things go.
I later headed off to Denmark Hill and my penultimate week at the Lyndhurst Primary School where the children I was working with were still continuing with making their own feature idents for Grove FM although they all seemed to be distracted by the weird visual effects on Windows Media Player which they spent at least 10 minutes using.
We should be nearing to a succesfull finish although I need to think of something to make the last week really count.
On returning to Uni there wasn't really anything happening in the radio rooms so I went back to the flat and spent the time watching the 50th Anniversary special of Blue Peter. It wasn't too nostalgic or spectacular, but I doubt it's current target audience would be too interested in looking back at the past.
What really grabbed my interest was the latest version of the programme's theme tune which has just been introduced although it's based more on the actual "Sailor's Hornpipe" tune itself rather than "Barnacle Bill" that has been used for since the beginning in one form or another. However in the last couple of weeks they've put a couple of bars from Barnacle Bill towards the end of the tune although overall I think it sounds like the Fratellis have had a go at re-arranging the theme.
I also noticed before the programme that Newsround has recently had a makeover too although they've also re-introduced the theme used during John Craven's reign on the programme and made it sound "more modern". They've even brought back the little "plinkety plonky" musical sting that they had at the end of the original programme which is difficult to describe but instantly recognisable for those who are old enough to remember.
I seem to remember Jon Holmes on the Now Show saying that piece of music would improve the Today Programme on Radio 4 or what could probably be
"John Humphrys' Newsround".
That would come in particularly handy for me as it would be difficult to find people at University who could remember television from the late 80s/early 90s for a focus group. Then again I may choose something a bit more up to date in the end but I'll see how things go.
I later headed off to Denmark Hill and my penultimate week at the Lyndhurst Primary School where the children I was working with were still continuing with making their own feature idents for Grove FM although they all seemed to be distracted by the weird visual effects on Windows Media Player which they spent at least 10 minutes using.
We should be nearing to a succesfull finish although I need to think of something to make the last week really count.
On returning to Uni there wasn't really anything happening in the radio rooms so I went back to the flat and spent the time watching the 50th Anniversary special of Blue Peter. It wasn't too nostalgic or spectacular, but I doubt it's current target audience would be too interested in looking back at the past.
What really grabbed my interest was the latest version of the programme's theme tune which has just been introduced although it's based more on the actual "Sailor's Hornpipe" tune itself rather than "Barnacle Bill" that has been used for since the beginning in one form or another. However in the last couple of weeks they've put a couple of bars from Barnacle Bill towards the end of the tune although overall I think it sounds like the Fratellis have had a go at re-arranging the theme.
I also noticed before the programme that Newsround has recently had a makeover too although they've also re-introduced the theme used during John Craven's reign on the programme and made it sound "more modern". They've even brought back the little "plinkety plonky" musical sting that they had at the end of the original programme which is difficult to describe but instantly recognisable for those who are old enough to remember.
I seem to remember Jon Holmes on the Now Show saying that piece of music would improve the Today Programme on Radio 4 or what could probably be
"John Humphrys' Newsround".
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A Night On The North London Tiles
There will always be something written or spoken that I fully agree with, only that I'm too stupid to put into my own words. The latest of these being a review of a James Blunt concert in The London Paper which described him as "a modern day Chris De Burgh".
It's difficult to say who's worse although I doubt I could enjoy hearing "You're Beautiful" even if I'd had a lot to drink.
As planned I went up to the North London Tavern in Kilburn where Ross Powell was celebrating being 22 years old with his younger brother Sean who's studying film at Thames Valley University and a few of his other mates. Those who also turned up included Steven and Caroline, Tudor, Paul Calvert, Tobi one the TV alumni and Ricky.
Also present on one of the tables outside was Jo who I haven't seen since the dissertation deadline day this year with Immy, Rebecca, Stef, and her sister who I haven't seen since Jo had her 21st birthday do in Camden over 18 months ago.
As the night went on Ross got more and more drunk and everyone was taking shots although I decided to stay out of the proceedings. The drinks on offer weren't brilliant either as there were no alcopops sold so I spent the majority of the night drinking glasses of lemonade.
Then again I don't want to be living too dangerously during this rather intense period of University but I'm managing to balance work and having fun quite well at present.
Having to be up before 10am on most days however has made me look forward to weekends more than ever in quite a while which is good although whether that will still be the case in a few months remains to be seen.
It's definitely the closest I'll have to a real job in radio whilst I'm here.
It's difficult to say who's worse although I doubt I could enjoy hearing "You're Beautiful" even if I'd had a lot to drink.
As planned I went up to the North London Tavern in Kilburn where Ross Powell was celebrating being 22 years old with his younger brother Sean who's studying film at Thames Valley University and a few of his other mates. Those who also turned up included Steven and Caroline, Tudor, Paul Calvert, Tobi one the TV alumni and Ricky.
Also present on one of the tables outside was Jo who I haven't seen since the dissertation deadline day this year with Immy, Rebecca, Stef, and her sister who I haven't seen since Jo had her 21st birthday do in Camden over 18 months ago.
As the night went on Ross got more and more drunk and everyone was taking shots although I decided to stay out of the proceedings. The drinks on offer weren't brilliant either as there were no alcopops sold so I spent the majority of the night drinking glasses of lemonade.
Then again I don't want to be living too dangerously during this rather intense period of University but I'm managing to balance work and having fun quite well at present.
Having to be up before 10am on most days however has made me look forward to weekends more than ever in quite a while which is good although whether that will still be the case in a few months remains to be seen.
It's definitely the closest I'll have to a real job in radio whilst I'm here.
Back Into Action
We didn't go into Soho in the end, mainly because there weren't many of us about that and also because it looked as if it would rain which inevitably it didn't.
I personally think that a better idea would have been to have a focus group during the pilot itself like they did with the year above me two years ago although I heard that Danielle who's responsible for looking after the budget has sorted one out for today elsewhere in London.
Sirin and Emma were bobbed down in sorting the adverts out whilst Stoobie and Eric continued with sorting out the website whilst I had a look through for some more things that could be adapted as part of our on air presentation although there aren't really any major problems at present.
Next week sees not just the first live broadcast for G Radio, but Smoke also launches it's regular schedule for the rest of the semester on Monday with a few old favourites as well as some promising new shows from the Freshers including the two lads from Leeds Matt and Rob, and a pair called "Chas And Dave" who are definitely not the cockney musicians from the early 80s.
I'm back as well with the soul show on Wednesdays between 8 and 9pm which fits in well for the year, although Lottie also asked me if I wanted to do daytime which I gave a miss but wouldn't mind having a go at again in the new year when I'm not too occupied with other things.
It all looks promising and if we get a few prizes at this year's SRAs then it will add to the excitement.
I personally think that a better idea would have been to have a focus group during the pilot itself like they did with the year above me two years ago although I heard that Danielle who's responsible for looking after the budget has sorted one out for today elsewhere in London.
Sirin and Emma were bobbed down in sorting the adverts out whilst Stoobie and Eric continued with sorting out the website whilst I had a look through for some more things that could be adapted as part of our on air presentation although there aren't really any major problems at present.
Next week sees not just the first live broadcast for G Radio, but Smoke also launches it's regular schedule for the rest of the semester on Monday with a few old favourites as well as some promising new shows from the Freshers including the two lads from Leeds Matt and Rob, and a pair called "Chas And Dave" who are definitely not the cockney musicians from the early 80s.
I'm back as well with the soul show on Wednesdays between 8 and 9pm which fits in well for the year, although Lottie also asked me if I wanted to do daytime which I gave a miss but wouldn't mind having a go at again in the new year when I'm not too occupied with other things.
It all looks promising and if we get a few prizes at this year's SRAs then it will add to the excitement.
Further Demographics
A few of us have turned up this morning to continue with preparation for the first live show taking place next week. The downside is that our editor has asked us to go into Central London again this afternoon to undertake more market research but with a revised questionaire.
A lot of us are reluctant to do so, mainly because those who were more succesfull at getting people last time aren't around for today.
Later on I may be heading up to the Kilburn High Road where one of our alumni Ross Powell is having a few drinks for his birthday tonight at the North London Tavern. A few others should be going as well including fellow student Paul Calvert who co-presented with Ross on their show on Smoke during their time at Westminster and if he's about I will be interested to find out how he's getting on and if he's been to any good live acts recently.
However I'm hoping that this will be the last time we have to do any market research on location.
A lot of us are reluctant to do so, mainly because those who were more succesfull at getting people last time aren't around for today.
Later on I may be heading up to the Kilburn High Road where one of our alumni Ross Powell is having a few drinks for his birthday tonight at the North London Tavern. A few others should be going as well including fellow student Paul Calvert who co-presented with Ross on their show on Smoke during their time at Westminster and if he's about I will be interested to find out how he's getting on and if he's been to any good live acts recently.
However I'm hoping that this will be the last time we have to do any market research on location.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Playing Catch Up
Tonight was made up of quite a lot of drinking although I managed to stay fairly sober throughout.
My first stop off point was Kenton Spoons where all the lads from Chris's house and Phil Landers were there where they had all ordered meals although I'd already eaten before arriving.
Later on myself, Stoobie, Denis and Phil Landers went up to the Junction where most of the second years and a few of the first years were but Phil had unfortunately left his ID behind so he left me, Denis and Stewart to go in ourselves. Amongst the second years present were Lottie, Dan, Alice and Amy where Amy took part in an impromptu Intros Round with Dan and Alice peforming intros to songs and Lottie was meant to be playing the part of Simon Amstell making "witty comments".
Later on everyone was involved in the infamous "Word Association" game, followed by
"I Went To The Shop And Bought..." where some of the items included a tree, a life size cut out of Bruce Forsyth and Gary Glitter. It all got rather tense and with a lot of drink involved rather chaotic as well.
Lottie spent quite a lot of the night talking to some more new people wanting to join the station who wanted to present during the day but weren't too sure about having to be told what music to play and so on. At this point I decided to head back with Stewart, Will and Troy where they started messing about near the road and acting like Morecambe and Wise at the end of one of their shows by jumping up and tapping their legs together.
On the plus side, I don't have to be up until 11am tomorrow where we'll be having a meeting about next week's live show for G Radio which may be one of the rare opportunities that I don't have to be up before 10am on a weekday.
As an aside, with the Channel 5 version now in full flow I've found the 1992 Grand Final of Going For Gold with Henry Kelly at the helm. Nothing's too different to the version on Five although the graphics aren't as fancy and the rounds aren't as strung out as they are on Channel 5 due to the BBC version being only half an hour long.
Plus it also includes the rather embarrassing waves to camera in the intro from the contestants that in all fairness would be rather off putting nowadays.
Definitely the finest daytime quiz show on television.
My first stop off point was Kenton Spoons where all the lads from Chris's house and Phil Landers were there where they had all ordered meals although I'd already eaten before arriving.
Later on myself, Stoobie, Denis and Phil Landers went up to the Junction where most of the second years and a few of the first years were but Phil had unfortunately left his ID behind so he left me, Denis and Stewart to go in ourselves. Amongst the second years present were Lottie, Dan, Alice and Amy where Amy took part in an impromptu Intros Round with Dan and Alice peforming intros to songs and Lottie was meant to be playing the part of Simon Amstell making "witty comments".
Later on everyone was involved in the infamous "Word Association" game, followed by
"I Went To The Shop And Bought..." where some of the items included a tree, a life size cut out of Bruce Forsyth and Gary Glitter. It all got rather tense and with a lot of drink involved rather chaotic as well.
Lottie spent quite a lot of the night talking to some more new people wanting to join the station who wanted to present during the day but weren't too sure about having to be told what music to play and so on. At this point I decided to head back with Stewart, Will and Troy where they started messing about near the road and acting like Morecambe and Wise at the end of one of their shows by jumping up and tapping their legs together.
On the plus side, I don't have to be up until 11am tomorrow where we'll be having a meeting about next week's live show for G Radio which may be one of the rare opportunities that I don't have to be up before 10am on a weekday.
As an aside, with the Channel 5 version now in full flow I've found the 1992 Grand Final of Going For Gold with Henry Kelly at the helm. Nothing's too different to the version on Five although the graphics aren't as fancy and the rounds aren't as strung out as they are on Channel 5 due to the BBC version being only half an hour long.
Plus it also includes the rather embarrassing waves to camera in the intro from the contestants that in all fairness would be rather off putting nowadays.
Definitely the finest daytime quiz show on television.
Room For Occasional Accidents
The live pilot for G Radio went ahead this afternoon and didn't go too badly in terms of flow and on-air consistency. I managed to do reasonably well operating the desk and was told that the idents were well produced. I hope to expand on that as we go along, maybe getting a few voicers with e-mail and text info.
This happened to be one of the main areas where we got a bit of criticism, for not being interactive enough and including listeners phone calls as opposed to reading e-mails. Which were of course made up.
We were also told to be more creative as this is such an important module, and there weren't that many items within the show that showed off individuality although there a few highlights such as Steven's package on banned adverts following the Heinz gay kiss ad from a few months ago, and the presenters Sam and Phil L talking about spiders with the theme from Jaws playing in the background.
During the de-briefing however, Steven got a bit of stick for making a slip-up during his entertainment report where he accidentally referred to the lead singer of Led Zeppelin as "Jimmy Plant".
Although I'm happy with how it went, there's still a lot of work to be done and the plan is to meet up tomorrow at 11am to discuss what we'll be doing for our first proper show. I'd still like to get a better idea of what is meant by "creative" although I fully appreciate us having to be individual in comparison to what has been done before.
It can only get more challenging.
This happened to be one of the main areas where we got a bit of criticism, for not being interactive enough and including listeners phone calls as opposed to reading e-mails. Which were of course made up.
We were also told to be more creative as this is such an important module, and there weren't that many items within the show that showed off individuality although there a few highlights such as Steven's package on banned adverts following the Heinz gay kiss ad from a few months ago, and the presenters Sam and Phil L talking about spiders with the theme from Jaws playing in the background.
During the de-briefing however, Steven got a bit of stick for making a slip-up during his entertainment report where he accidentally referred to the lead singer of Led Zeppelin as "Jimmy Plant".
Although I'm happy with how it went, there's still a lot of work to be done and the plan is to meet up tomorrow at 11am to discuss what we'll be doing for our first proper show. I'd still like to get a better idea of what is meant by "creative" although I fully appreciate us having to be individual in comparison to what has been done before.
It can only get more challenging.
Nearing The G-Ahead
Getting up wasn't too much of a problem and I arrived in Uni at around 9am where one or two people were around. Ironically Chris and Phil H hadn't arrived despite being the most senior members of the group, blaming their delay on Stoobie who was lagging behind them.
Everyone seems focused towards what's happening although I haven't actually been given a running order so I don't really know what is happening as far as the show itself is concerned.
Then again it will make things more exciting and when it's all happening live there's more immediacy.
One thing that I am sure about is that Scoop is working OK as I tested out with Stewart although that was only in the other room and both Stewart and Eric are taking it all the way to Soho.
They've not got long however and things need to start moving although all I've really got to worry about is making sure the right buttons get pushed.
Overall however I really should be making more of a contribution within the team although I've done all I can as far as branding is concerned. I'll see what happens after the de-briefing later today.
Everyone seems focused towards what's happening although I haven't actually been given a running order so I don't really know what is happening as far as the show itself is concerned.
Then again it will make things more exciting and when it's all happening live there's more immediacy.
One thing that I am sure about is that Scoop is working OK as I tested out with Stewart although that was only in the other room and both Stewart and Eric are taking it all the way to Soho.
They've not got long however and things need to start moving although all I've really got to worry about is making sure the right buttons get pushed.
Overall however I really should be making more of a contribution within the team although I've done all I can as far as branding is concerned. I'll see what happens after the de-briefing later today.
Monday, October 13, 2008
"Yes Paul!"
Tonight's goings on at the Undercroft were nothing too special but an enjoyable night to say the least. All the usual people were there including Stewart, Denis and his Irish mates and both the Phils whilst the boys from "You Heard It Here First" were spinning the tunes.
Mattie playing a selection of current indie and rock tracks as well as some classic rock and roll from Chuck Berry at one point whilst Mike was playing mainly hard house and trance tracks that is expected of his new show due to start on Smoke under the title of "The UK Sound".
The dancefloor didn't really get packed until half an hour before closing time where we got some really good belters such as Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up Look Sharp" and the Chemical Brothers and the night came to a rather raucous end when Mattie played the first verse of "My Way" and then took it off and played Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" which was really chaotic.
It didn't take me too long to get back this time round as I went back with Denis, Barry and Jay behind the main campus as opposed to going past the library which didn't take as long as it normally does to be honest.
I stumbled across another impressive find on Youtube after getting back, an episode of what I'd say has to be one of Paul Daniel's finest television series "Every Second Counts".
This happens to be the first episode of the 1992 series where as Paul mentions,
the set has had a bit of redecorating but that doesn't mean that the questions and answers aren't as silly as ever and the women contestants go first in answering the questions.
One of the rounds is based on characters from "The Archers" in which one of the contestants thinks that "Jethro Tull" was the name of someone in the long running soap opera.
Another round has extracts of songs from musicals which rather embarrasingly I knew a few of as a result of Mum having the soundtracks to many of them.
Having seen the relaunched version of "Going For Gold" on Five earlier today with John Suchet, I'd imagine this show would work pretty well today although I'm not sure if anyone else other than Daniels could carry it off making fun of the contestants responses.
Tomorrow's going to be quite an early start as it's the pilot programme for G Radio and we all have to be in at 9am. What I'll actually be doing is anyone's guess but I'm hoping I'll pull through it all.
Mattie playing a selection of current indie and rock tracks as well as some classic rock and roll from Chuck Berry at one point whilst Mike was playing mainly hard house and trance tracks that is expected of his new show due to start on Smoke under the title of "The UK Sound".
The dancefloor didn't really get packed until half an hour before closing time where we got some really good belters such as Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up Look Sharp" and the Chemical Brothers and the night came to a rather raucous end when Mattie played the first verse of "My Way" and then took it off and played Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name" which was really chaotic.
It didn't take me too long to get back this time round as I went back with Denis, Barry and Jay behind the main campus as opposed to going past the library which didn't take as long as it normally does to be honest.
I stumbled across another impressive find on Youtube after getting back, an episode of what I'd say has to be one of Paul Daniel's finest television series "Every Second Counts".
This happens to be the first episode of the 1992 series where as Paul mentions,
the set has had a bit of redecorating but that doesn't mean that the questions and answers aren't as silly as ever and the women contestants go first in answering the questions.
One of the rounds is based on characters from "The Archers" in which one of the contestants thinks that "Jethro Tull" was the name of someone in the long running soap opera.
Another round has extracts of songs from musicals which rather embarrasingly I knew a few of as a result of Mum having the soundtracks to many of them.
Having seen the relaunched version of "Going For Gold" on Five earlier today with John Suchet, I'd imagine this show would work pretty well today although I'm not sure if anyone else other than Daniels could carry it off making fun of the contestants responses.
Tomorrow's going to be quite an early start as it's the pilot programme for G Radio and we all have to be in at 9am. What I'll actually be doing is anyone's guess but I'm hoping I'll pull through it all.
Nearing The Pilot Stage
It's been another rather exhaustive day where on the plus side I've managed to finally get my enrollment form filled in.
We also had a practise for tomorrow's pilot in the studio where things seem to be going reasonably well although from a personal point of view it could be more relaxed and the studio is in dire need of air conditioning.
I really don't understand why they've never bothered to have it installed here to the studios at Westminster whilst I've been here as it would be really useful especially in important projects like this one.
We've also had another addition to our class, that being "Northern Dave" as he's known who was in my year last year whilst I was absent as it turns out he has to retake the module. I'm not sure what role he has been given but I'm hoping it will all go succesfully within the team.
As for tonight it will be another visit to the Undercroft where the boys from "You Heard It Here First" are DJing, that being Mattie and Mike who will hopefully be bringing their raucous behaviour back to Smoke Radio before too long. I'm hoping for some belters tonight and a few classic rock tunes as well that would be expected from the people who won the "Most Rock And Roll" prize at last year's Smoke Awards.
I may go easy on the drinks however just to be careful with my money.
We also had a practise for tomorrow's pilot in the studio where things seem to be going reasonably well although from a personal point of view it could be more relaxed and the studio is in dire need of air conditioning.
I really don't understand why they've never bothered to have it installed here to the studios at Westminster whilst I've been here as it would be really useful especially in important projects like this one.
We've also had another addition to our class, that being "Northern Dave" as he's known who was in my year last year whilst I was absent as it turns out he has to retake the module. I'm not sure what role he has been given but I'm hoping it will all go succesfully within the team.
As for tonight it will be another visit to the Undercroft where the boys from "You Heard It Here First" are DJing, that being Mattie and Mike who will hopefully be bringing their raucous behaviour back to Smoke Radio before too long. I'm hoping for some belters tonight and a few classic rock tunes as well that would be expected from the people who won the "Most Rock And Roll" prize at last year's Smoke Awards.
I may go easy on the drinks however just to be careful with my money.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
In The Spotlight Of Send Up
Peter Kay's extensively titled show on Channel 4 tonight was different to his previous material and the man himself wasn't really on screen as much. Nevertheless it was a superb send up of The X Factor where they'd visually got it spot on in terms of graphics and the studio set with Cat Deeley as host alongside Nicki Chapman, Pete Waterman and Neil Fox playing the judges.
The performances themselves were the funniest part depending on your point of view, which consisted of rather embarrassing medleys, one of which starting off with "Return To Innocence" by Enigma and finishing with "There's No One Quite Like Grandma".
There was also a rather impressive guest list with Rick Astley, Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs, Sir Paul McCartney, Lionel Blair, and Andi Peters.
It was also good to hear references to now defunct ITV regions such as Border
and Tyne Tees.
The finest part however was towards the end when Cat Deeley did what I'd imagine anyone would want to do to an over hyped audience.
I won't say what it was just in case anyone missed it.
I noticed in the credits that Chris Power was one of the directors who has has worked on shows such as Saturday Night Takeaway which may explain why the show visually looked identical to The X Factor, Pop Idol and so on.
The response on forums such as Digital Spy has been mixed and although I wouldn't say it's one of his best it's still one of my television highlights of this year.
The performances themselves were the funniest part depending on your point of view, which consisted of rather embarrassing medleys, one of which starting off with "Return To Innocence" by Enigma and finishing with "There's No One Quite Like Grandma".
There was also a rather impressive guest list with Rick Astley, Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs, Sir Paul McCartney, Lionel Blair, and Andi Peters.
It was also good to hear references to now defunct ITV regions such as Border
and Tyne Tees.
The finest part however was towards the end when Cat Deeley did what I'd imagine anyone would want to do to an over hyped audience.
I won't say what it was just in case anyone missed it.
I noticed in the credits that Chris Power was one of the directors who has has worked on shows such as Saturday Night Takeaway which may explain why the show visually looked identical to The X Factor, Pop Idol and so on.
The response on forums such as Digital Spy has been mixed and although I wouldn't say it's one of his best it's still one of my television highlights of this year.
From The Hot Spot To Hilarity
This was another impressive find on Youtube, the first edition of Blockbusters from almost exactly 25 years ago in 1983.
It was very much a big deal back then as it was one of the first daily quiz shows on television and it definitely looked appealing to all age ranges which resulted it being very succesfull for many years.
Bob Holness manages to establish himself as the suave host amongst the nervous contestants taking part which became part of the show's popularity although not many of the catchphrases now associated with the show are present in this first episode. I'm sure the letter P is chosen at least once however.
I also reckon those who watched the show thought that a Gold Run was possibly the most nervous thing to have to go through although it did provide tension and excitement at least once in an episode. And it's fair to say that the prizes that are on offer really are of their time.
As for the rest of tonight I'll be watching something that I've been looking forward to in quite a while in the form of Peter Kay's new show on Channel 4, the first proper one he's done in four years where he gives a send up of the many talent shows that are on our screens.
I'm hoping it will be worth the wait even if it is a one off although the fact that part of it is being shown from 8pm means that it may not be as naughty as many will be hoping.
It definitely looks well observed from what I've heard about it although I've tried to avoid any spoilers that may be about.
It was very much a big deal back then as it was one of the first daily quiz shows on television and it definitely looked appealing to all age ranges which resulted it being very succesfull for many years.
Bob Holness manages to establish himself as the suave host amongst the nervous contestants taking part which became part of the show's popularity although not many of the catchphrases now associated with the show are present in this first episode. I'm sure the letter P is chosen at least once however.
I also reckon those who watched the show thought that a Gold Run was possibly the most nervous thing to have to go through although it did provide tension and excitement at least once in an episode. And it's fair to say that the prizes that are on offer really are of their time.
As for the rest of tonight I'll be watching something that I've been looking forward to in quite a while in the form of Peter Kay's new show on Channel 4, the first proper one he's done in four years where he gives a send up of the many talent shows that are on our screens.
I'm hoping it will be worth the wait even if it is a one off although the fact that part of it is being shown from 8pm means that it may not be as naughty as many will be hoping.
It definitely looks well observed from what I've heard about it although I've tried to avoid any spoilers that may be about.
Souled Out Sunday
Last night's X Factor was worth staying in for if not exactly spectacular. One or two performances had a few predictable song choices such as JLS performing a Boyz II Men song, and Alexandra singing Whitney, although there were a few performers who's mentors had chosen completely the wrong song. Thsese were notably Scott Bruton giving a rather dreadful performance of "Yeh Yeh" by Georgie Fame or Matt Bianco, and even worse was Rachel Hylton being given Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat" which was even more ridiculous.
There was also a performance by last year's winner Leon Jackson, and I'm convinced he's related in some way to Mark Jackson, one of our Westminster Radio alumni who bares a rather striking resemblance. I don't know how he'd take to that.
The vote off came between two of the groups where Girl Band and Bad Lashes went head to head with Bad Lashes losing out undeservedly. Personally in terms of their song choices Girl Band seem to be stuck in the 80s with their song choices whilst Bad Lashes gave a unique version of "Wonderwall" which they definitely made their own.
I like the new twist this series however where those in the vote off perform a different song to what they performed earlier in the show.
Next week they are performing Michael Jackson songs which should definitely be worth viewing.
As for today I need to get my washing sorted although that's being delayed slightly as Robbie Vincent's back on the airwaves with a new Sunday morning show on Jazz FM which is sounding superb despite a rather silent start. I hope they start to put tracklistings on the website soon as there are a lot of tunes that will just go straight past me as a result of forgetting their names.
I bet I'm not the only one in favour of that idea.
There was also a performance by last year's winner Leon Jackson, and I'm convinced he's related in some way to Mark Jackson, one of our Westminster Radio alumni who bares a rather striking resemblance. I don't know how he'd take to that.
The vote off came between two of the groups where Girl Band and Bad Lashes went head to head with Bad Lashes losing out undeservedly. Personally in terms of their song choices Girl Band seem to be stuck in the 80s with their song choices whilst Bad Lashes gave a unique version of "Wonderwall" which they definitely made their own.
I like the new twist this series however where those in the vote off perform a different song to what they performed earlier in the show.
Next week they are performing Michael Jackson songs which should definitely be worth viewing.
As for today I need to get my washing sorted although that's being delayed slightly as Robbie Vincent's back on the airwaves with a new Sunday morning show on Jazz FM which is sounding superb despite a rather silent start. I hope they start to put tracklistings on the website soon as there are a lot of tunes that will just go straight past me as a result of forgetting their names.
I bet I'm not the only one in favour of that idea.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Disastrous Diversion
Still a rather empty day but it's more or less needed after what's been happening earlier this week.
I've spent part of it watching more of the US version of the Office with one of the episodes involving a Diversion Day where Michael gets a guest speaker to give a seminar on diversion within different minorities in the work place and Michael tries to take over, in the same way as David Brent in the UK series with the motivational speaker.
I'm about halfway through the series now so I'm certain it will get even funnier and more embarrassing as it goes on.
As for tonight it's the first of the live finals in the X Factor and with the show lasting two hours, I'm not sure if I'll be able last the course. Then again, if I could do it last year with the slightly lesser memorable acts such as Same Difference and Leon Jackson, then tonight should be a doddle as it's a more stronger set of finalists.
I'm pretty certain that a lot of people will be watching, just to see what Cheryl Cole's wearing.
I've spent part of it watching more of the US version of the Office with one of the episodes involving a Diversion Day where Michael gets a guest speaker to give a seminar on diversion within different minorities in the work place and Michael tries to take over, in the same way as David Brent in the UK series with the motivational speaker.
I'm about halfway through the series now so I'm certain it will get even funnier and more embarrassing as it goes on.
As for tonight it's the first of the live finals in the X Factor and with the show lasting two hours, I'm not sure if I'll be able last the course. Then again, if I could do it last year with the slightly lesser memorable acts such as Same Difference and Leon Jackson, then tonight should be a doddle as it's a more stronger set of finalists.
I'm pretty certain that a lot of people will be watching, just to see what Cheryl Cole's wearing.
Friday, October 10, 2008
The American Workplace
An ideal way when creating any piece of layered audio is to spend time on it, then take a break to think about it whilst involved in other things and listen to it again deciding where changes should be made. That's the approach I've taken whilst sorting out the idents for G Radio earlier today although I don't want to jump the gun too much as it's only the pilot show and we can make changes afterwards if needed.
I just hope that I don't get asked to change the voices as Maz really is one of the best we've got who's around on campus and very approachable. I'm hoping she'll get back involved with Smoke again when the work starts to die down later in the year although what she'll be like without former co-presenter Tom giving her a hard time will be interesting.
I haven't been up to much apart from that tonight although now that I've brought back my DVD player, I've began watching the DVD of the American version of The Office that Sirin's lent me.
It's been adapted by Greg Daniels who is best known as a writer for The Simpsons and King Of The Hill although creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have had a hand overseeing the production of the show as executive producers.
The plot and the appearance aren't too different to that of the UK version although the characters are slightly more wackier and there's more an emphasis on the relationship between the characters based on Tim and Dawn earlier on, from the first episode in fact.
I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops and how it eventually became as well recognised as the UK version with Steve Carrell managing to do well in the lead role of Michael Scott.
As for tomorrow I'm hoping to get my hair cut and get some well earned rest after another exhaustive week but I can rest assured that there won't be that many long journeys for quite a while.
I just hope that I don't get asked to change the voices as Maz really is one of the best we've got who's around on campus and very approachable. I'm hoping she'll get back involved with Smoke again when the work starts to die down later in the year although what she'll be like without former co-presenter Tom giving her a hard time will be interesting.
I haven't been up to much apart from that tonight although now that I've brought back my DVD player, I've began watching the DVD of the American version of The Office that Sirin's lent me.
It's been adapted by Greg Daniels who is best known as a writer for The Simpsons and King Of The Hill although creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have had a hand overseeing the production of the show as executive producers.
The plot and the appearance aren't too different to that of the UK version although the characters are slightly more wackier and there's more an emphasis on the relationship between the characters based on Tim and Dawn earlier on, from the first episode in fact.
I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops and how it eventually became as well recognised as the UK version with Steve Carrell managing to do well in the lead role of Michael Scott.
As for tomorrow I'm hoping to get my hair cut and get some well earned rest after another exhaustive week but I can rest assured that there won't be that many long journeys for quite a while.
Is DAB Really A "Bug"?
My stay in Canterbury went alright although I felt really tired for most of it.
It didn't help having to get out of bed before 8am this morning due to a plasterer coming in to work on the room I was sleeping in.
I went for my psychiatrist's appointment as planned although I then had to go up to the hospital for another blood test. Luckily there weren't too many people waiting and I was able to go back and collect my things in order to get my train back to London at 10:20 as planned arriving in London by half 12.
It's just as well I'm back in London as I had a scan on my DAB whilst in Canterbury and it appears that I'm unable to recieve Jazz FM there although I'm still able to hear it online of course. It's still not getting any better as far as radio in Kent is concerned as it appears that James Heming at Invicta FM is getting a reprieve as host of the breakfast show which looks set to continue after the Heart rebrand where he's hoping to break the 10 year mark in his position as the show's host.
To be fair, the time has shot by since he took over from Neil Francis back in January 2000 although if you have actually listened to the show every day I doubt it would have gone as quickly. I've never understood his appeal although he was better when he was on drive.
However in terms of DAB it doesn't appear to be getting any better as Channel 4 have ditched their plans to launch their set of radio stations that have been mooted for god knows how long.
Earlier in the year one of their consultants and former Invicta FM programme controller Andrew Phillips came in to University to talk about the plans and what opportunities it could have for the future of radio. Now it looks as if radio, especially on DAB barely has a positive future.
The weird thing is however that I'm one of the very few who makes use of a digital radio on a regular basis and I doubt I've touched a proper radio since getting my bug.
If they weren't so expensive then maybe more people would own them and realise that there is more or could be more on offer than the dirge that's around on analogue.
On the positive side I've began to make progress on G Radio's audio branding
by enlisting the help of Maz to record some things for us and is definitely one of the best female voices we've got on campus who is very adaptable and understands what changes may need to be made as we go along.
I've produced some idents already although I hope to get more done over the weekend when I'm not surrounded by other radio students yelling and swearing at each other.
Oddly enough they mange to get the tasks done eventually.
It didn't help having to get out of bed before 8am this morning due to a plasterer coming in to work on the room I was sleeping in.
I went for my psychiatrist's appointment as planned although I then had to go up to the hospital for another blood test. Luckily there weren't too many people waiting and I was able to go back and collect my things in order to get my train back to London at 10:20 as planned arriving in London by half 12.
It's just as well I'm back in London as I had a scan on my DAB whilst in Canterbury and it appears that I'm unable to recieve Jazz FM there although I'm still able to hear it online of course. It's still not getting any better as far as radio in Kent is concerned as it appears that James Heming at Invicta FM is getting a reprieve as host of the breakfast show which looks set to continue after the Heart rebrand where he's hoping to break the 10 year mark in his position as the show's host.
To be fair, the time has shot by since he took over from Neil Francis back in January 2000 although if you have actually listened to the show every day I doubt it would have gone as quickly. I've never understood his appeal although he was better when he was on drive.
However in terms of DAB it doesn't appear to be getting any better as Channel 4 have ditched their plans to launch their set of radio stations that have been mooted for god knows how long.
Earlier in the year one of their consultants and former Invicta FM programme controller Andrew Phillips came in to University to talk about the plans and what opportunities it could have for the future of radio. Now it looks as if radio, especially on DAB barely has a positive future.
The weird thing is however that I'm one of the very few who makes use of a digital radio on a regular basis and I doubt I've touched a proper radio since getting my bug.
If they weren't so expensive then maybe more people would own them and realise that there is more or could be more on offer than the dirge that's around on analogue.
On the positive side I've began to make progress on G Radio's audio branding
by enlisting the help of Maz to record some things for us and is definitely one of the best female voices we've got on campus who is very adaptable and understands what changes may need to be made as we go along.
I've produced some idents already although I hope to get more done over the weekend when I'm not surrounded by other radio students yelling and swearing at each other.
Oddly enough they mange to get the tasks done eventually.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Exhausted But Not Damaged
Surprisingly I managed to wake up at a good time and was one of the only ones from radio who made it to this mornings dissertation lecture. It was worth it as well as they explained about how to write a literature review and overcoming the problem of having a topic but not knowing what books to read, with an example last year being someone who based their dissertation on television coverage on the hanging of Saddam Hussein.
When I got up to the radio rooms there were a lot of people who still hadn't arrived from my year as well as a few of the main protagonists from last night, in the year below including Sophie, Alice and Lottie who we weren't sure had got back from Dulwich or wherever it was she went off to.
Sophie and Alice according to their housemates Fiz and Spike were still in bed as they were banging on their doors earlier in the morning and yelling "We Are The Boys!" which sounded as if it was being sung to the same tune as Ant and Dec's rather embarrassing "We're On The Ball" from the 2002 World Cup.
I headed off to South London shortly after where the people I was working with really were keen this week and wanted to stay for longer editing audio although I had to get back to Victoria station and get the train over to Canterbury. I was asleep for most of the journey although I as I got to Faversham I made sure I was awake until I got into Canterbury.
Pretty soon after arriving I went with Mum into town to buy a new jacket and new trainers although we end up just buying the trainers as I couldn't find a jacket that I liked compared to the one I've got which has a tear in it, and the tear itself could just be sewn up.
Quite a lot has happened whilst I've been in London as Olly's managed to get a job in BHS where we happened to see him whilst shopping and there's a Spanish guest called Hugo staying in my bedroom who is currently doing a few things at Christ Church University College.
Hopefully I should get my psychiatrists appointment tomorrow morning done with as soon as I can so I can go back and to London and get anxieties out of the way such as the enrollment forms and the branding for G-Radio.
I'm sure it will all be sorted before long.
When I got up to the radio rooms there were a lot of people who still hadn't arrived from my year as well as a few of the main protagonists from last night, in the year below including Sophie, Alice and Lottie who we weren't sure had got back from Dulwich or wherever it was she went off to.
Sophie and Alice according to their housemates Fiz and Spike were still in bed as they were banging on their doors earlier in the morning and yelling "We Are The Boys!" which sounded as if it was being sung to the same tune as Ant and Dec's rather embarrassing "We're On The Ball" from the 2002 World Cup.
I headed off to South London shortly after where the people I was working with really were keen this week and wanted to stay for longer editing audio although I had to get back to Victoria station and get the train over to Canterbury. I was asleep for most of the journey although I as I got to Faversham I made sure I was awake until I got into Canterbury.
Pretty soon after arriving I went with Mum into town to buy a new jacket and new trainers although we end up just buying the trainers as I couldn't find a jacket that I liked compared to the one I've got which has a tear in it, and the tear itself could just be sewn up.
Quite a lot has happened whilst I've been in London as Olly's managed to get a job in BHS where we happened to see him whilst shopping and there's a Spanish guest called Hugo staying in my bedroom who is currently doing a few things at Christ Church University College.
Hopefully I should get my psychiatrists appointment tomorrow morning done with as soon as I can so I can go back and to London and get anxieties out of the way such as the enrollment forms and the branding for G-Radio.
I'm sure it will all be sorted before long.
When Good Results Go Too Far
The rest of today has been really eventful with positive things happening throughout although by the end of the night they were overshadowed by a few other issues but I'll come on to them later.
Earlier on today we had a special edition of Preloaded were Dan interviewed comedian and musician Bo Burnham who had flown from Boston in the USA and had come in specially to talk about his forthcoming performance in Leicester Square and opening for Joan Rivers. He also performed some of his very amusing songs including my favourite "Rehab Center For Fictional Characters" and was a really great guy overall.
We happened to be the first out of clients who have got him for interviews including Five News and London Tonight so it's a really good achievement.
Shortly after I headed over to Inter:mission in Marylebone for the annoucement of this years Student Radio Awards where just about everyone from Smoke was present from the freshers who have just joined the station to alumni including Tudor, Goodlass and Marshall, and Ross T who was outspoken as ever and not afraid to give his opinions on the current state of the station with regards to the logo change and so on.
That aside, the annoucement of the nominations themselves went really quickly and Smoke was nominated for 5 categories, the most we've ever acheived in one year.
We managed to be nominated for Best Marketing and Branding, Dan Roberts was up for Best Newcomer, Goodlass and Marshall finally got nominated for an award with their Danny Wallace interview being one of those in the Best Interview category, The Election Coverage was nominated in the journalism category and we once again got chosen in the running for Best Station which I helped compile the audio entry for.
The antics at Inter:mission itself were rather chaotic in my case were I slipped over the floor quite a few times in true Peter Simon style and I felt that at one point I really had to take it easy.
However by closing time at 11pm a lot of us were to head down to Cheapskates in Soho were whilst going through the complicated area of London we lost each other and had to resort to sat-nav on Dan's I-Phone to find our way round.
We got in eventually although it was really crowded and waiting to get served was like waiting at the bleeding Undergraduate Office. By 1:30am myself, Chris, Phil and Stoobie decided to head back home with Sophie tagging along with us although Chris and Phil decided to stop off at the Leicester Square McDonalds before getting a cab back to Harrow.
This is where things got complicated as we ended up going right past Harrow and towards Watford. As if things couldn't get more complicated the exit to Harrow was closed off due to roadworks we had to go through Perivale which no one else appeared to have heard of apart from me as it was Ace's hometown in the original series of Doctor Who.
At one point we ended up on a dirt track which looked similar to a road with no street lamps like you'd get outside Canterbury or in Norfolk as Chris pointed out whilst we were going through.
Eventually we got to South Harrow and then Harrow itself where we got off near the VUE cinema where the fare was £72 but we managed to get it lowered to £60.
Then things started to get even more complicated as we found out that Lottie had managed to meet up with someone in Cheapskates and had gone back with them to Dulwich leaving Alice on her own in Soho although I imagine a few of the Freshers were still around as well.
Chris and Sophie were irritated about what had happened however although I'm hoping it will have calmed down by tomorrow although they sounded pretty serious about it.
I'm currently reheating last night's mince and boiling some rice to go with it as I'm absolutley starving after tonight despite the hours being really antisocial.
I doubt I'll be up in time for my dissertation lecture tomorrow morning but I need to be around the radio rooms by 11am and head off to South London and the Lyndhurst Primary school later on.
Then I'm making a return visit to Canterbury for the night as I have a psychiatrists appointment on Friday morning before heading back to Harrow immediately after.
This really is one of the busiest semesters I've had here although I hope it doesn't get to the point of being too stressfull.
Earlier on today we had a special edition of Preloaded were Dan interviewed comedian and musician Bo Burnham who had flown from Boston in the USA and had come in specially to talk about his forthcoming performance in Leicester Square and opening for Joan Rivers. He also performed some of his very amusing songs including my favourite "Rehab Center For Fictional Characters" and was a really great guy overall.
We happened to be the first out of clients who have got him for interviews including Five News and London Tonight so it's a really good achievement.
Shortly after I headed over to Inter:mission in Marylebone for the annoucement of this years Student Radio Awards where just about everyone from Smoke was present from the freshers who have just joined the station to alumni including Tudor, Goodlass and Marshall, and Ross T who was outspoken as ever and not afraid to give his opinions on the current state of the station with regards to the logo change and so on.
That aside, the annoucement of the nominations themselves went really quickly and Smoke was nominated for 5 categories, the most we've ever acheived in one year.
We managed to be nominated for Best Marketing and Branding, Dan Roberts was up for Best Newcomer, Goodlass and Marshall finally got nominated for an award with their Danny Wallace interview being one of those in the Best Interview category, The Election Coverage was nominated in the journalism category and we once again got chosen in the running for Best Station which I helped compile the audio entry for.
The antics at Inter:mission itself were rather chaotic in my case were I slipped over the floor quite a few times in true Peter Simon style and I felt that at one point I really had to take it easy.
However by closing time at 11pm a lot of us were to head down to Cheapskates in Soho were whilst going through the complicated area of London we lost each other and had to resort to sat-nav on Dan's I-Phone to find our way round.
We got in eventually although it was really crowded and waiting to get served was like waiting at the bleeding Undergraduate Office. By 1:30am myself, Chris, Phil and Stoobie decided to head back home with Sophie tagging along with us although Chris and Phil decided to stop off at the Leicester Square McDonalds before getting a cab back to Harrow.
This is where things got complicated as we ended up going right past Harrow and towards Watford. As if things couldn't get more complicated the exit to Harrow was closed off due to roadworks we had to go through Perivale which no one else appeared to have heard of apart from me as it was Ace's hometown in the original series of Doctor Who.
At one point we ended up on a dirt track which looked similar to a road with no street lamps like you'd get outside Canterbury or in Norfolk as Chris pointed out whilst we were going through.
Eventually we got to South Harrow and then Harrow itself where we got off near the VUE cinema where the fare was £72 but we managed to get it lowered to £60.
Then things started to get even more complicated as we found out that Lottie had managed to meet up with someone in Cheapskates and had gone back with them to Dulwich leaving Alice on her own in Soho although I imagine a few of the Freshers were still around as well.
Chris and Sophie were irritated about what had happened however although I'm hoping it will have calmed down by tomorrow although they sounded pretty serious about it.
I'm currently reheating last night's mince and boiling some rice to go with it as I'm absolutley starving after tonight despite the hours being really antisocial.
I doubt I'll be up in time for my dissertation lecture tomorrow morning but I need to be around the radio rooms by 11am and head off to South London and the Lyndhurst Primary school later on.
Then I'm making a return visit to Canterbury for the night as I have a psychiatrists appointment on Friday morning before heading back to Harrow immediately after.
This really is one of the busiest semesters I've had here although I hope it doesn't get to the point of being too stressfull.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)