Welcome to the Pips newsletter. This is our opportunity to inform you of what has happened on the site recently and what is coming up in the course of the next few months or so.

THE FORUM

The biggest addition to the Pips of late has been our forum. We started this website with the idea of generating a online community that have the same dreams, desires and ambitions and allow you to communicate with each other. The forum is the place to talk about all radio - BBC, commercial, community, student, hospital and internet as well as keep up with the latest news and to talk about radio in general.  You can use the forum to promote what’s happening with you and your station, publicise your show ut up pictures… You can find the forum by clicking here.

STUDENT RADIO ASSOCIATION (SRA)

We have recently interviewed the chair of the SRA, David Walker, about the role of the SRA and the Student Radio Awards later this year. Although the deadline to enter this years awards has now passed you can still listen to David to give you information about the awards that may help you in the future. The Student Radio Awards themselves are held in London in November and will be hosted by presenters from Radio 1 including winner at the awards in 05, Greg James. The Pips is now officially a proud supporter of the Student Radio Awards and you can listen to David’s interview by clicking here.

“The Student Radio Association is delighted to be working with an organisation whose goals are so similar to our own. We hope that by working together we can create more opportunities for people from all walks of life to develop their skills and knowledge of the radio industry, so that they may carry them forward into their professional careers within the radio and wider media industries.” - Sarah Ghost at the SRA

GAYDIO

The Pips were delighted to interview Toby Whitehouse, co founder and station director of Manchesters newest radio station Gaydio. Toby spoke to the Pips about the development of Gaydio and where the idea first came from. Toby also speaks about the importance of community radio in todays media world and what he listens for in a demo that catches his ear. You can listen to Toby’s interview by clicking here.

DEMO TIPS

The Pips recognises that the demo is the hardest part of being a radio presenter. Hours of material needs to be cut down to 2-3 minutes that demonstrates to others your style and personality. It sometimes is almost “mission impossible” and there are a number of does and donts regarding the making of a demo. We here at the Pips are asking programme manager across the UK from different radio stations at different levels of radio to offer their own tips on what they think makes a good demo. Recently we were delighted to add the demo tips from Carl Hartley, programme manager from Bolton 96.5 Fm and Dave Asher, programme manager of Peak Fm in North Derbyshire. We thank them very much for their time and help and more will be added to the demo tips page which can be found by clicking here.

BLOGS

We are always adding new blogs and we would like to thank so far Darryl Morris for his brilliants blogs as well as those from John Isherwood, Chris Oakley and Terry Doyle whose blogs have been as equally brilliant. There will be more blogs from the aformentioned guys and more bloggers on the way, and we are always after more people to blog. So if you have a story to tell or an opinion you wish to shaer, please email us at info@thepips.co.uk and we will be in touch.

NEWEST MEMBERS

We would like to welcome to the Pips our newest members Adam Fawcett, Luke Marsden (yes, him from Big Brother) and Dotty McLeod. Every now and then we will pick on a members profile and publicise it on our Facebook profile which has over 1′500 “friends”, a number of whom work in full time radio and may well look and listen to the demo’s on the profile. We are actively publicising our database of talent to radio stations so if you have a profile right now and it hasn’t been completed then now is the time to do it. A full profile with text, picture and demo is naturally going to attract more attention than a profile which is only half completed so please remember to complete your profile the best you can.

THE FUTURE

So what is coming up on the Pips?! Well the first thing we will tell us is that we are currently in negotiations with a presenter from Radio 1 and another presenter from Capital Fm to be interviews by the Pips and that interview to be published and allow to read/hear what they have to say.

On top of that we have interviews lined up with other radio professionals who have a story to tell of how they got into radio and they each will offer their own advice and help on how you can do the same.

We are also in discussion with a few professional radio presenters who work at different radio stations across the UK to allow us to upload their demo onto our site for you to listen to and the presenter, in their own words, will tell you about their demo and the thought process behind it. We hope this offers an audio example of what to do with a demo which may help you in the future.

The Winds of Change by Darryl Morris.

“I always tell them I’m a History teacher” says Lawrence, my line manager at BBC Radio Manchester. A good solution to being asked what you do for a living. Working in an interesting job throws up many awkward questions when it comes up. I usually say I work in radio. It’s hard to say you’re a presenter. 50% of people don’t believe you, and think you’re making it up, they don’t always say it but you know they are thinking it; how could somebody so young be a presenter? The other 50% ask you awkward questions. Not conventionally awkward but awkward because you get asked them a million times a day.

“What do you say?”

“Do you pick the music?”

“Why don’t you play good songs?”

“Play this and people will listen”

“You play too many adverts”

Trying to explain radio to people who don’t know how it works is hard. On one hand it’s difficult because they don’t understand and on the other hand it’s hard because you want them to see it like you do; but they never really will.  For example, I’ve never really understood golf, my step father is mad on it, he spends hours and hours on the course and speaks of little more than “Par” “Birdy” “Bogie” and “Boosh”, maybe I miss heard that last one. He see’s golf in a way I never could. I find it the most excruciatingly dull sport ever invented and I’m pretty sure I always will. It doesn’t interest me in the slightest. I regularly find myself trying to share something brilliantly insightful about radio, something that would fascinate most enthusiasts and dazzle most anoraks, but it never really hits home with most of my mates. As magnificently interesting as it is to me, to them it’s something they have on in the background in the car or in the shower and their interest doesn’t reach much further than that. The ins and outs are often quite boring to them. It’s golf.

My mate Ste picked me up from the train station a while ago and after a stop off at KFC we sat eating our dinner in the car park. He put on the radio and up popped a well-known brand.

“Ah, this station is so yesterday” he said, with a smirk on his face. He was referring to a comment I’d made a while ago and one he won’t let me forget. I’d called this station… let’s call it Honest FM… a bit “yesterday”. He accused me, in that moment, of radio snobbery and I can see why. It wasn’t the best turn of phrase but it was one I used to avoid any detail, provoking awkward questions or boring the tits off the poor lad. Honest FM struggles in Rajar. It isn’t as highly regarded as it used to be and it doesn’t seem to appeal.

If radio is to succeed, it has to engage. It has to be more than golf. It has to be something people can relate to. It’s complacency that’s holding Honest FM back, it’s a belief that there will always be an audience for that brand and it doesn’t matter what you say or do it will never go away. Well it will and it is. You have to give your audience something to be passionate about, push their buttons. To simply play a nice mix of ‘hit music’ or the classics of the ‘90’s 00’s and now’ doesn’t cut the grade anymore. This is what I mean about some stations and indeed some presenters sounding a bit “yesterday”. I’ve worked with them in the past, the ones who think they can put up the mic and say whatever they want. It doesn’t matter what comes out of their mouth because the loyal audience will hang on to their every word. Lovely Mrs Jones who works at the post office and gives you a cheeky wink every time you go in, she might. Your mum or auntie, they might. But not everybody loves golf. To build an audience you have to keep them passionate about what you say. Every single word counts.

How many presenters do you hear producing content like “Let me know what you’re up to today?” “What do you think of the Kylie’s new haircut?” “Text me now with your favourite Manchester tune. So what’s next? You read out what Sally in Westbrook is up to today, or what she thinks of Kylie’s new hair cut or what her favourite Manchester tune is. It might have been well and good 20 years ago, when people cared. Now they don’t. They have many more interesting things to do and you need to keep them passionate.

I’m going to let you in on how I develop content. Let me give a simple example. “What’s your favourite colour?” I could simply ask this on air. I’m sure I’d get lots of texts from people eager to let me know their favourite shade of purple. But I want to develop some passion, something interesting to listen to, something that’s going to MAKE them pick up that phone and get in touch with the show. As much as it pains me to admit, John Gaunt was very good as this. Rather than “What’s your favourite colour?” How about “My favourite colour is blue and all other colours are rubbish”. You don’t need to be stupidly argumentative or objectionable (like John Gaunt) but you can give them a reason to get in touch, give them something they will really want to be a part of and can relate to.  If, like Honest FM, you want to go on making wallpaper radio, go for it. If you want to keep the music and ads flowing and forward sell to the competition on the website, go for it. But if you want to be a great, engaging radio presenter and stand out from the crowd, do something different to what the guy down the road isn’t doing. Then you have to be more than golf!

Welcome to the Pips newsletter. This is our opportunity to inform you of what has happened on the site recently and what is coming up in the course of the next few months or so.

THE FORUM

The biggest addition to the Pips of late has been our forum. We started this website with the idea of generating a online community that have the same dreams, desires and ambitions and allow you to communicate with each other. The forum is the place to talk about all radio - BBC, commercial, community,  student, hospital and internet as well as keep up with the latest news and to talk about radio in general. You can find the forum by clicking here.

STUDENT RADIO ASSOCIATION (SRA)

We have recently interviewed the chair of the SRA, David Walker, about the role of the SRA and the Student Radio Awards later this year. Although the deadline to enter this years awards has now passed you can still listen to David to give you information about the awards that may help you in the future. The Student Radio Awards themselves are held in London in November and will be hosted by presenters from Radio 1 including winner at the awards in 05, Greg James. The Pips is now officially a proud supporter of the Student Radio Awards and you can listen to David’s interview by clicking here.

“The Student Radio Association is delighted to be working with an organisation whose goals are so similar to our own. We hope that by working together we can create more opportunities for people from all walks of life to develop their skills and knowledge of the radio industry, so that they may carry them forward into their professional careers within the radio and wider media industries.” - Sarah Ghost at the SRA

GAYDIO

The Pips were delighted to interview Toby Whitehouse, co founder and station director of Manchesters newest radio station Gaydio. Toby spoke to the Pips about the development of Gaydio and where the idea first came from. Toby also speaks about the importance of community radio in todays media world and what he listens for in a demo that catches his ear. You can listen to Toby’s interview by clicking here.

DEMO TIPS

The Pips recognises that the demo is the hardest part of being a radio presenter. Hours of material needs to be cut down to 2-3 minutes that demonstrates to others your style and personality. It sometimes is almost “mission impossible” and there are a number of does and donts regarding the making of a demo. We here at the Pips are asking programme manager across the UK from different radio stations at different levels of radio to offer their own tips on what they think makes a good demo. Recently we were delighted to add the demo tips from Carl Hartley, programme manager from Bolton 96.5 Fm and Dave Asher, programme manager of Peak Fm in North Derbyshire. We thank them very much for their time and help and more will be added to the demo tips page which can be found by clicking here.

BLOGS

We are always adding new blogs and we would like to thank so far Darryl Morris for his brilliants blogs  as well as those from John Isherwood, Chris Oakley and Terry Doyle whose blogs have been as equally brilliant. There will be more blogs from the aformentioned guys and more bloggers on the way, and we are always after more people to blog. So if you have a story to tell or an opinion you wish to shaer, please email us at info@thepips.co.uk and we will be in touch.

NEWEST MEMBERS

We would like to welcome to the Pips our newest members Adam Fawcett, Luke Marsden (yes, him from Big Brother) and Dotty McLeod. Every now and then we will pick on a members profile and publicise it on our Facebook profile which has over 1′500 “friends”, a number of whom work in full time radio and may well look and listen to the demo’s on the profile. We are actively publicising our database of talent to radio stations so if you have a profile right now and it hasn’t been completed then now is the time to do it. A full profile with text, picture and demo is naturally going to attract more attention than a profile which is only half completed so please remember to complete your profile the best you can.

THE FUTURE

So what is coming up on the Pips?! Well the first thing we will tell us is that we are currently in negotiations with a presenter from Radio 1 and another presenter from Capital Fm to be interviews by the Pips and that interview to be published and allow to read/hear what they have to say.

On top of that we have interviews lined up with other radio professionals who have a story to tell of how they got into radio and they each will offer their own advice and help on how you can do the same.

We are also in discussion with a few professional radio presenters who work at different radio stations across the UK to allow us to upload their demo onto our site for you to listen to and the presenter, in their own words, will tell you about their demo and the thought process behind it. We hope this offers an audio example of what to do with a demo which may help you in the future.