Saturday, 20 June 2009
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Return of the Chris
Yo,
I'm back. I know you missed me. I've not written for over three weeks, this is due to the fact that I have had to write my dissertation over the last few weeks, and I didn't want to spend my off time from writing, by writing, if you get me!
But it's all done now, handed in, and I am officially 8 and a bit days away from finishing university for good. I have one essay to write, which I will spend tomorrow doing, after I get in from work, 3 sports blogs to write, an investigative sports reports and a log of my activities within the sports journalism module. Then I'll go home for a while and chill out before starting work in the pub full time over the summer, whilst I find something else.
It's exciting and scary at the same time. I can apply for any job, and do anything I want. Incredible.
As for tonight, I am going to bed in about an hour as I have to be up at 3.30 again for work at Classic, driving the Brighter Breakfast show, from 6 - 8. It's strange being wide awake at 8am, with the rest of the day ahead of you. It's been great fun though...
Anyway, I thought I'd update you briefly on my life and hopefully I'll get back into the swing of blogging things.
Cheers!
Friday, 3 April 2009
My New (Geeky) Venture
Howdy Pardners!
This evening has seen one of most geeky moments to date, and after the fantasy radio station, and the comparison between UK and US radio, I bet you thought I couldn't get any geekier - well, you were wrong.
I have recently joined the Digital Spy Radio forum, but its been going so long that I found it hard coming in as a noobie, and I felt that a new forum would be a good idea. So today, I have set up a new radio forum, for all fans of radio to discuss their opinions on, and discuss everything radio in. I'm very excited about it, and although, of course, it's quite a long process to set up a successful forum, I, assisted by Pete, Steven and Robin, will be doing my upmost to make a success of it! I basically felt there were a lack of places where I could adequately discuss my feelings about radio, and when I was at high school, before the proliferation of MySpace and Facebook, me and all my mates spent hours on a forum that a friend created, and it was fantastic, so I'm looking forward to the many hours of enjoyment this forum could bring. And if you are reading this, with even just a passing interest in radio, then I advise you to get involved and register. The forum can be found here - http://chatradio.proboards.com
Yes I know there's hardly anybody on it at the moment, but all things start small! Give me a hand in launching this, why don't you?!
Right I'm off to bed, a full day of dissertation work and then a night shift beckon!
Ta Ra
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Forgetful Me
I didn't bloody post did I? And after promising all those enticing subjects as well?
Sorry to all.
Anyway, today has been a struggle, as I've spent most of it transcribing my interview with John from IPSOS yesterday, which was a great interview, which meant more transcribing. Oh well, it's done now, and I can switch off for the day more or less now. I just hope my wrists don't start hurting again. They've been fine today.
So where did I leave off yesterday?
OK, the Church of England. I now do some freelance work for the Church of England, which not only could get me excommunicated, but coupled with Classic FM, makes my CV look like it belongs to a man of 50. It is bizarre. The job is tech-opping their studio for client training days, where they just need me to set up levels and record them basically, and there's a little bit of camera work as well, which I've done before, so that's interesting. The work is very irregular, with some weeks being quite busy, but then there being nothing for 3 weeks, but the pay is pretty good, and anything that keeps me out of the pub can only be a good thing!
Last week, also saw Denis and I going to the impressive Northwood FC, to see Watford Ladies v Arsenal Ladies. Interesting, to say the least. Despite us watching a football match, we spent more time talking about how fit the Arsenal keeper is/was. Arsenal won 1-0 and that was their 108th game unbeaten. This incredible run was stopped abruptedly on Sunday when they lost 3-0 at home to Everton.
I did my first shift at Capital last week too, starting at a lovely 2am, which was really 1am due to the clocks going forward. This produced some entertainment in the form of the analogue clock having to go at double time to catch up, and finally telling the right time at 3am! The shift was all right, and I'd like to do more if the opportunity comes up!
I also mentioned I would speak about Birmingham. Well, other than the fact that it's England's second city, I'm not gonna mention what I was gonna talk about. Not yet anyway.
On Monday on this week, I spent the day with Joe Rudd, and we were actually in Dunstable studio that used to house Chiltern Radio, but is now a Heart station. Joe's studios in MK are being sorted out because they have structural problems! It was call to sit in on his show, help with show content, and hang out with him. Whilst I was there I was able to do three interviews for my dissertation, which was awesome.
Right, next, traffic and travel - I have applied for a job to present traffic and travel news at Trafficlink, and I'll see if I hear back from there soon.
Final point to make is the fact that I'm gonna have to get up at 3.30 for work at the end of this month as I cover the Brighter Breakfast at Classic. It's quite a busy show, with a live presenter, but down ISDN, which will be interesting.
Right, that's you up to date. I will endeavour to blog again later.
Take it easy
Sorry to all.
Anyway, today has been a struggle, as I've spent most of it transcribing my interview with John from IPSOS yesterday, which was a great interview, which meant more transcribing. Oh well, it's done now, and I can switch off for the day more or less now. I just hope my wrists don't start hurting again. They've been fine today.
So where did I leave off yesterday?
OK, the Church of England. I now do some freelance work for the Church of England, which not only could get me excommunicated, but coupled with Classic FM, makes my CV look like it belongs to a man of 50. It is bizarre. The job is tech-opping their studio for client training days, where they just need me to set up levels and record them basically, and there's a little bit of camera work as well, which I've done before, so that's interesting. The work is very irregular, with some weeks being quite busy, but then there being nothing for 3 weeks, but the pay is pretty good, and anything that keeps me out of the pub can only be a good thing!
Last week, also saw Denis and I going to the impressive Northwood FC, to see Watford Ladies v Arsenal Ladies. Interesting, to say the least. Despite us watching a football match, we spent more time talking about how fit the Arsenal keeper is/was. Arsenal won 1-0 and that was their 108th game unbeaten. This incredible run was stopped abruptedly on Sunday when they lost 3-0 at home to Everton.
I did my first shift at Capital last week too, starting at a lovely 2am, which was really 1am due to the clocks going forward. This produced some entertainment in the form of the analogue clock having to go at double time to catch up, and finally telling the right time at 3am! The shift was all right, and I'd like to do more if the opportunity comes up!
I also mentioned I would speak about Birmingham. Well, other than the fact that it's England's second city, I'm not gonna mention what I was gonna talk about. Not yet anyway.
On Monday on this week, I spent the day with Joe Rudd, and we were actually in Dunstable studio that used to house Chiltern Radio, but is now a Heart station. Joe's studios in MK are being sorted out because they have structural problems! It was call to sit in on his show, help with show content, and hang out with him. Whilst I was there I was able to do three interviews for my dissertation, which was awesome.
Right, next, traffic and travel - I have applied for a job to present traffic and travel news at Trafficlink, and I'll see if I hear back from there soon.
Final point to make is the fact that I'm gonna have to get up at 3.30 for work at the end of this month as I cover the Brighter Breakfast at Classic. It's quite a busy show, with a live presenter, but down ISDN, which will be interesting.
Right, that's you up to date. I will endeavour to blog again later.
Take it easy
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Busy, Busy & My Apologies
Wow! A blog entry - it's been a while, far, far, too long in fact. I'm very sorry for this, but the truth is I've been bloody busy these past 9 days. I haven't really stopped to tell you the truth. The main thing that I've been up to is, of course, the dissertation, which has taken up rather a lot of my time of late. Since I lasted posted I've done four more interviews, all in the last 3 days. The rest of the time has consisted of meetings, transcriptions and general progress. In terms of word count, I've not dramatically upped it, but it is coming together nicely, and my tutor says it reads well and is interesting, so that can only be a good thing!
One of the best and most exciting things that I've done over the last week must be the creation of the tentatively titled 'Tuesday Club' where I have finally started seeing Pete reguarly. The general idea of the club is that every other week (except these last 2 Tuesdays) we will meet up in central london. It doesn't even have to be a Tuesday, just whenever we are both free. We meet up in a pub, have a few beverages, talk about radio, move to a Wetherspoons for food and cheap drinks, and talk about more radio. This week, for the second meeting, we had a guest, something which we aim to do each week, in the form of Mr Steven McIntosh, who met us in a pub in Great Portland Street, as he'd been at Newsbeat all day. We discussed life, radio, music and radio. It gives us all a chance to chat away geekily that we don't otherwise have. There are very few people who I can talk about radio to in depth who is as interested or as geeky as me! It truly is the highlight of my fortnight, especially at the moment with all this dissertation work.
I'm at work at the moment, and I must have done a lot of writing recently cos my wrist is hurting as I type this. This may well cut short this rather necessary blog. I blame the tiny keyboard in the studio.
I have hundreds of things to discuss, but alas I am in too much pain. Maybe I am out of practice. I'll tell you what, I'll write when I get back home, and I can tell you such exciting things as my trip Heart Milton Keynes, the Church of England, Birmingham, Traffic and Travel News, Finishing University, Capital FM and getting up at 3.30 am to go work.
All that, and more, later on.
Cheesy end.
You love it.
Ok, you don't.
Bye
One of the best and most exciting things that I've done over the last week must be the creation of the tentatively titled 'Tuesday Club' where I have finally started seeing Pete reguarly. The general idea of the club is that every other week (except these last 2 Tuesdays) we will meet up in central london. It doesn't even have to be a Tuesday, just whenever we are both free. We meet up in a pub, have a few beverages, talk about radio, move to a Wetherspoons for food and cheap drinks, and talk about more radio. This week, for the second meeting, we had a guest, something which we aim to do each week, in the form of Mr Steven McIntosh, who met us in a pub in Great Portland Street, as he'd been at Newsbeat all day. We discussed life, radio, music and radio. It gives us all a chance to chat away geekily that we don't otherwise have. There are very few people who I can talk about radio to in depth who is as interested or as geeky as me! It truly is the highlight of my fortnight, especially at the moment with all this dissertation work.
I'm at work at the moment, and I must have done a lot of writing recently cos my wrist is hurting as I type this. This may well cut short this rather necessary blog. I blame the tiny keyboard in the studio.
I have hundreds of things to discuss, but alas I am in too much pain. Maybe I am out of practice. I'll tell you what, I'll write when I get back home, and I can tell you such exciting things as my trip Heart Milton Keynes, the Church of England, Birmingham, Traffic and Travel News, Finishing University, Capital FM and getting up at 3.30 am to go work.
All that, and more, later on.
Cheesy end.
You love it.
Ok, you don't.
Bye
Monday, 23 March 2009
Life and Local Listening
All right all? It's been a while. My apologies. Saturday was a busy day and Sunday wasn't. Nevermind I am here now.
On Saturday, I went to the Harrow game I mentioned previously. A bumper crowd of 174 (including me and Denis) saw a boring goalless slog between Boro and Tooting and Mitcham, and we then were asked to write a 500 word match report about it. Fun(!) Before that though we went to O'Neills to watch the rugby and in an incredibly tense game the Irish overcame the Welsh to win the Grand Slam. Fair play to them.
With this mention of sport, I feel I should express my intense concern at the current form of United. A 4-1 defeat last week followed by a 2-0 embarassment at Craven Cottage this weekend has seen those scummy Scouse bastards move within a point of us at the summit. We do have a game in hand mind, so it's not all doom and gloom. I can just see them edging us though. It is a worry.
Yesterday, as I said, I did nothing. It was a tough day, being Mother's Day and spending it with Aoif, but we got there and ended up watching Dumb and Dumber, Mulan, Aladdin and 40 Days and 40 Nights all in a row. The last film in that list offended me to the core however. If you are familiar with the film then you will know that Josh Hartnett is essentially raped towards the end by his crazy ex-girlfriend. How? Well, he's asleep and she just hops on and he's not really aware what's going on until the climax when he wakes up. Now, it maybe silly, but had that scene shown the reverse with a man sleeping with a woman who was asleep, there would have been public outcry and the film would probably have been banned. I am therefore pissed off. Bloody ridiculous.
Anyway, that's enough of my anger towards rape. Today saw the second Heart attack in the UK, with the south and sotuh west stations becoming Heartified. It's another sad day for radio, and it makes me frustrated that all of this history is just glazed over in an instant. I'm not sure that the Heart network even works, seeing as GWR has to play at least 66% worth of songs from the last two years in it's output, which isn't the Heart style. Global received a warning from Ofcom recently about this and they have now rectified this.
On another radio point, I have spent a good 5 or 6 hours today listening to 'The station that pays your bills' 95.8 Capital FM and it's been brilliant. Now I know that I have a reputation as being 'the commercial one' amongst a few of us in the class, and I seem to be the official spokesman and defender of the sector whenever we have debates, but today was even better than I even believed. At the moment, Capital are running a 'Pay your Bills' competition at the moment, which whilst is not original appears to be going incredibly succesfully, as their website crashed earlier. I was listening during The Bassman covered drive and the thought the way he dealt with callers who had won was brilliant. On one occaison, at the end of the call, he asked he caller 'Who pays your bills?' and the very pleased winner shouted '95.8 Capital FM' which is a great way of instilling the brand, and reiterating the idea behind the competition. It sounded fantastic. Also, something else that impressed me immensely is a little trick that Capital uses to keep listeners during ad breaks. They played two or three ads and then a little trail comes in informing listners that the traffic and travel is coming next, and then another advert is played. This little five second trail probably keeps listeners who are thinking of switching off, from doing so and catching the latest news. Very impressive, and something I've never heard of before.
I'm currently listening to Rich Clarke and Kat Shoob at the moment. Rich is a great jock and Kat Shoob is well hot, so it's a pretty well rounded show. Safe to say that at the moment, Capital is by far my favourite station.
Gonna chill out with my Xbox for a while now.
Laters!
On Saturday, I went to the Harrow game I mentioned previously. A bumper crowd of 174 (including me and Denis) saw a boring goalless slog between Boro and Tooting and Mitcham, and we then were asked to write a 500 word match report about it. Fun(!) Before that though we went to O'Neills to watch the rugby and in an incredibly tense game the Irish overcame the Welsh to win the Grand Slam. Fair play to them.
With this mention of sport, I feel I should express my intense concern at the current form of United. A 4-1 defeat last week followed by a 2-0 embarassment at Craven Cottage this weekend has seen those scummy Scouse bastards move within a point of us at the summit. We do have a game in hand mind, so it's not all doom and gloom. I can just see them edging us though. It is a worry.
Yesterday, as I said, I did nothing. It was a tough day, being Mother's Day and spending it with Aoif, but we got there and ended up watching Dumb and Dumber, Mulan, Aladdin and 40 Days and 40 Nights all in a row. The last film in that list offended me to the core however. If you are familiar with the film then you will know that Josh Hartnett is essentially raped towards the end by his crazy ex-girlfriend. How? Well, he's asleep and she just hops on and he's not really aware what's going on until the climax when he wakes up. Now, it maybe silly, but had that scene shown the reverse with a man sleeping with a woman who was asleep, there would have been public outcry and the film would probably have been banned. I am therefore pissed off. Bloody ridiculous.
Anyway, that's enough of my anger towards rape. Today saw the second Heart attack in the UK, with the south and sotuh west stations becoming Heartified. It's another sad day for radio, and it makes me frustrated that all of this history is just glazed over in an instant. I'm not sure that the Heart network even works, seeing as GWR has to play at least 66% worth of songs from the last two years in it's output, which isn't the Heart style. Global received a warning from Ofcom recently about this and they have now rectified this.
On another radio point, I have spent a good 5 or 6 hours today listening to 'The station that pays your bills' 95.8 Capital FM and it's been brilliant. Now I know that I have a reputation as being 'the commercial one' amongst a few of us in the class, and I seem to be the official spokesman and defender of the sector whenever we have debates, but today was even better than I even believed. At the moment, Capital are running a 'Pay your Bills' competition at the moment, which whilst is not original appears to be going incredibly succesfully, as their website crashed earlier. I was listening during The Bassman covered drive and the thought the way he dealt with callers who had won was brilliant. On one occaison, at the end of the call, he asked he caller 'Who pays your bills?' and the very pleased winner shouted '95.8 Capital FM' which is a great way of instilling the brand, and reiterating the idea behind the competition. It sounded fantastic. Also, something else that impressed me immensely is a little trick that Capital uses to keep listeners during ad breaks. They played two or three ads and then a little trail comes in informing listners that the traffic and travel is coming next, and then another advert is played. This little five second trail probably keeps listeners who are thinking of switching off, from doing so and catching the latest news. Very impressive, and something I've never heard of before.
I'm currently listening to Rich Clarke and Kat Shoob at the moment. Rich is a great jock and Kat Shoob is well hot, so it's a pretty well rounded show. Safe to say that at the moment, Capital is by far my favourite station.
Gonna chill out with my Xbox for a while now.
Laters!
Saturday, 21 March 2009
No emails = No idea what's going on!
Morning all.
Just over two thirds of the way through my shift here at Classic. It's been pretty uneventful, although I did watch 3000 miles to Graceland earlier and Courteney Cox looked stunning. I don't normally think of her as fit, mainly due to the fact that in Friends, Monica is not a sexy character.
This week at 30 Leicester Square, the email sever has gone kaput, and whilst now the backup is working, it means that any emails that were sent/received a few hours before the server went down and between the time the server went down and the backup was switched off, have probably been lost forever. This obviously includes the on air ones as well as our office emails. It's a bit of nightmare. It hinders my job, because I'm not aware how long the ad breaks are, and whether or not we have news links because I can't get to my emails to print out the ad log. It's a bit of a pain! The sheer scale of the problem though is quite incredible if you think of all the stations in the building and none of them having full email access. Crazy.
I saw my dissertation supervisor, Barbara, yesterday afternoon, and my main gripe was towards transcription, and of course, she responded, rather predictability 'you should have done it two months ago!' which is true, and I understand it's standard academic practice, but it's still a bit rubbish! We discussed the whole thing and I now feel fairly in control and I think it will come together.
I'm feeling pretty knackered, and have done all week. Today, I won't get home until about 10am, and then I have to be up again by 1pm to go to the Harrow Borough game for sports journalism, so we can do our second match report. Denis and I will have a chance to hold a press conference with the manager too, so it will be a cool experience but I really could do with some sleep.
I'd like to take this opportunity to laugh at the West Indies and particularly their coach John Dyson and say a very simple 'haha!'. If you follow sport, and especially cricket, then I'm sure you agree, but if not, it's about yesterday's One Day International that ended in a farcical win for the England team. Great stuff!
Right I'm off, chat to you laters!
Just over two thirds of the way through my shift here at Classic. It's been pretty uneventful, although I did watch 3000 miles to Graceland earlier and Courteney Cox looked stunning. I don't normally think of her as fit, mainly due to the fact that in Friends, Monica is not a sexy character.
This week at 30 Leicester Square, the email sever has gone kaput, and whilst now the backup is working, it means that any emails that were sent/received a few hours before the server went down and between the time the server went down and the backup was switched off, have probably been lost forever. This obviously includes the on air ones as well as our office emails. It's a bit of nightmare. It hinders my job, because I'm not aware how long the ad breaks are, and whether or not we have news links because I can't get to my emails to print out the ad log. It's a bit of a pain! The sheer scale of the problem though is quite incredible if you think of all the stations in the building and none of them having full email access. Crazy.
I saw my dissertation supervisor, Barbara, yesterday afternoon, and my main gripe was towards transcription, and of course, she responded, rather predictability 'you should have done it two months ago!' which is true, and I understand it's standard academic practice, but it's still a bit rubbish! We discussed the whole thing and I now feel fairly in control and I think it will come together.
I'm feeling pretty knackered, and have done all week. Today, I won't get home until about 10am, and then I have to be up again by 1pm to go to the Harrow Borough game for sports journalism, so we can do our second match report. Denis and I will have a chance to hold a press conference with the manager too, so it will be a cool experience but I really could do with some sleep.
I'd like to take this opportunity to laugh at the West Indies and particularly their coach John Dyson and say a very simple 'haha!'. If you follow sport, and especially cricket, then I'm sure you agree, but if not, it's about yesterday's One Day International that ended in a farcical win for the England team. Great stuff!
Right I'm off, chat to you laters!
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