The first 2 hour show on Rivi FM passed in a flash. The night before I had spent ages on teletext searching for interesting stories we could talk about. I remember one story being about an elderly lady who went around giving out five pound notes to people on the streets. I had hand written it out in my neatest print; I even made two, one for me and one for Kim. We decided that we would do it at 9.10am and Kim spent from 8.15am rehearsing it; every single time getting it wrong. This was very frustrating, how on earth could she keep getting it wrong? It wasn’t exactly Shakespeare! Never the less she continued to get it wrong until 9.10am came around and she stuffed it up one final time, live on air. I jumped in once or twice to help her out, trying to add some banter to proceedings. Although Kim wasn’t the best person to banter with, it was still nice to have somebody to bounce off.
The Zoo format gets a hard time these days, it’s an idea we seem to have picked up from America in the 90’s. Pioneers of the Zoo format include Steve Wright on Radio 2 who does it very well indeed. Rob Ellis on Galaxy does it well; he has Wingman and Rachel ‘text on legs’ who add a lot to the show. It adds depth and it’s always going to be easier to make good radio when you have a team around you. Somebody else who understands the value of the Zoo is Chris Moyles, his show is based around the banter with his team and love him or hate him, its hard not to be entertained. To this day I’d much rather have somebody to work with on air than hold fort myself. Kim, however, couldn’t really handle the banter and just froze up. Kim was lovely, but maybe radio wasn’t her thing. A few months later I was speaking to her mum, another very lovely woman, she said how much she “had enjoyed the show” and that “it was great to hear her own daughter on the radio, when she could get a word in at least”. Well, maybe if your daughter opened her mouth once in a while you would hear more of her!
Naturally Rivi FM passed very quickly and I was back in my bedroom with Windows Media Player and an un-plugged microphone. But I was given a new lease of life. Now I knew how it worked and that I could actually do it I was even more enthralled in the whole process. Months of manic phone calling followed, trying desperately to get on air anywhere I could. I rang Bolton’s local radio station, Tower FM, and spoke to, presumably, the presenter on air at the time; he told me that I shouldn’t be so silly and that radio was the hardest industry to get into and that I’d probably fail anyway. How nice of him. I really wish I could remember who that was. So as you can imagine that took the wind out of my sail a little, but I wasn’t totally put off; prepared to wait my turn. I happily went back to my bedroom radio station and listening to Tony Wrighton on Century FM.
By the time I’d realised that radio was how I wanted to spend my life, I never had much doubt I would. It became inevitable in my mind that I would get a job in radio. Maybe that was a good thing. I know that in the past my confidence has got in the way, and at first I struggled to find a balance between being confident and cocky. I never set out to be cocky, but I’ve always had 100% confidence in myself. I believe, and rightly, that we can all do what ever we want if we put our mind to it. I think that I deal with it better now, but I went through a Chris Evans period early on that wasn’t good. Being good just takes practice. I knew I needed to be on air more to get better, and the situation is no different now. After the buzz of Rivi FM, bedroom radio would no longer cut it. I needed an audience and a better set up.
I was driving through town one Saturday afternoon when I noticed a sign that read “Bolton Market Radio”. I asked the person I was with, Suzanne, what it was and she told me about a radio station that broadcasts across the market on a Saturday afternoon for shoppers. Without a moments hesitation I dashed inside and introduced myself. I was met at the door by an older gentleman and what seemed to be his wife. She looked sophisticated and was smoking a cigarette at her desk, she said that they didn’t usually smoke in the office, but as it was a Saturday they would. Quite frankly she scared the life out of me. I asked the man what “Bolton Market Radio” was all about and he explained as Suzanne had. He said that a couple of guys do shows on Saturday afternoon and that there was a slot going if I wanted it. Did he really need to ask? The only problem was, a week later I was leaving for a month long holiday in New Zealand. I asked if he could keep the slot open for me and I promised I would take it on my return. He kindly agreed and I rushed back home to tell my mum that I’d got myself a regular radio show!
Little did I know, as I was about to take on a show on ‘Bolton Market Radio’, that within months I would be on the biggest radio station in the world…
To be continued…