Chris Birks – Presenter on the Hit Music Network, Global
So you have moved from Mansfield 103.2 to Globals Hit Music Network, how did the move happen?
It all came about in early January. I was on-air at Mansfield 103.2 at the time and I just happened to check my emails during an ad-break and found an email from Dick Stone. Dick is the Programme Director for Trent FM in
Nottingham as well as the Hit Music Network. To be honest I thought it was an email to say thanks, but no thanks. I had been fortunate enough to be invited to see Dick just before Christmas, when he heard something in my demo he obviously liked.
I was invited to record a few links in the Hit Music format and I thought it went badly. Very badly. So I gave up hope of hearing anything back because I really felt that I had blown my chances of working for the station I had grown up listening to. Fortunately the email I received in early January was another invitation to come back in and meet with Dick to discuss the links I had recorded. After talking about family, ambitions and radio of course, he put me back in the studio where I had another chance to record a few links and make a good job of it this time.
Twenty minutes later I was in Dick’s office being told that the brilliant Mark Dennison was leaving the company, which meant there would be a shuffle around. There was a show free and he was offering me a job. I sat there for a good few minutes without saying anything as I was just taken back by this amazing offer that had been thrown my way. I of course said yes and the ball started rolling from there. Pre-production had to be done, contracts had to be drawn up and signed and I had to keep working hard at Mansfield 103.2 whilst knowing all along that from March 29th I would be in a brand new job with a completely new level of responsibility and a much bigger challenge.
What are the differences between the shows you present now and the shows you presented on Mansfield 103.2?
The basics are still the same. You have to ID and sell the station and positioner well everytime and understand that your job as a presenter is to help listeners enjoy the music and their experience of the station more and it’s not simply a platform for an ego.
You have to have a real knowledge of the music that you’re playing and sell the content and format with passion. Being on a network though is a much bigger responsibility and means that you have to get out of those habits that you have always had. Mentioning places, landmarks and events just wont work due to the fact that my show goes out on six stations across the group. If I mention something happening in Darley Park in Derby, a listener in Crawley will find that a little weird. You have to make your show as entertaining and informative as possible for the defined target audience.
Talk about the music you play, any gossip relating to the artists, talking about your life and how you connect to your listener through shared experiences including relationships and life events. Plus you have to do it over a 7 second intro of Lady Gaga. It is a new challenge for me and there isn’t a show that goes by where I’m not truly nervous before my first link. The minute you lose the nerves is the minute you start taking your career and opportunity for granted. I had been at Mansfield 103.2 for two and a half years and loved every minute of it. The format let me talk for as long as I wanted and be ultra local. However I wanted to be on the next step of the industry ladder and was fortunate enough to have found a person who liked what I was doing and was willing to take me under his wing. A huge thank you to my new boss Dick Stone.
Your demo obviously impressed the right people at Global, what do you think it was in your demo that caught their ear?
It was a mixture of everything. You have to show real passion for the music you play whilst always reinventing the artist teases and content that you use. If you can tease a song that’s set to play in the next ten minutes rather than just listing the next three songs to play, then you will have an advantage over someone that does just do the basic stuff. Constantly strive to be entertaining and find ways to connect to your target audience through stories and observations.
As a rough guide for what to put on a demo, I always try to make sure I cover off the 4 main areas most PDs listen for;
• a music passion link / showing you can sell the music to a listener.
• a content or personality link where a PD learns something about you or what you think about something.
• a caller so a PD can hear how you interact with listeners.
• a live read or a sniff of some commercial activity.
Just work hard and listen to advice given to you from people already in the industry that you trust. I have four people in the industry that I trust to tell me when something is either really good or completely awful. They are responsible for me getting where I am and I hope they all know who they are.