I wanted to do this so much. It was fast becoming my main passion and this was a massive chance for me! I stopped listening and instead began to build up an argument in my head, that I was poised and ready to fire back at her when she broke the bad news. And then it came, the point she was building up to making, with a deep breath she revealed that having consulted with the organiser of Rivi FM, Mr Laycock, they both decided that, given my efforts and ability in drama, I should be fast tracked through the auditions and offered a place in the Rivi FM team. I wasn’t to tell anybody it had happened this way and if anybody asked I had auditioned along with everybody else. I almost cried. At last, after all the time I had spent dreaming of being a real radio presenter on a real radio station, I had finally got my big break!!
For weeks we trained on the equipment and practiced our presentation skills with the help of a company called The Radio Surgery. The Radio Surgery was a local company that helped schools develop and run their own radio station. My hours spent doing bedroom radio paid off and I showed myself to be, actually, quite good. With only a week to go, the final on air team was announced and much to my delight, I was offered the Breakfast Show with a female co-host called Kim. We knew that the breakfast show was the biggest one on the station and that we would have the biggest
amount of listeners. While this did nothing but excite me, Kim was a bit more concerned by the pressure and almost dropped out on several occasions. Kim was quite a shy girl who always seemed to be upset about something, not exactly the type of person I would have put down as a radio presenter, but not to worry, I was sure she would be fine!
The first day of Rivi FM was a bit of a haze if I’m honest, it was only on for 3 days so I was trying to make the most of every second. Being on the breakfast show I was to be the first voice on the station, my very own Tony Blackburn moment. I turned up at 7.30am ready to go live at 8. I was absolutely bricking myself; Kim was already there as were a few of the people from the lower years drafted in to help out with news, weather and traffic. I was busy gearing myself up when Dave, the guy who ran the radio training and the technical side of things, rang me and said he was stuck behind a tractor and that I would have to get it going on my own. The team was ready with the latest weather; all I had to do was take it off the auto overnight thingy and into the news… All on my own… Cheers Dave. So as the clock ticked down from 07.59 I took a deep breath and took my first step into the world of radio…
To be continued