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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!

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

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

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

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!

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!

Progress and Pressure

Evening all.

I've finally done my first interview for my dissertation - and it's a corker! I went into London this afternoon, just off Old Street for the chat with Matt Deegan, a guy who seems to know a hell of a lot about radio, and someone I have immense respect for, particularly after today when he took 90 minutes out of his busy schedule to chat to me. I recorded about 50 minutes of discussion with him and his colleague John about RAJAR, and it's alternatives and it was thoroughly interesting. I then sat and chatted with Matt about radio and starting a career and he offered me plenty of advice and people to contact. Unfortunately, the biggest piece of advice he had was offering to work for free, which is now something I'm not really able to do anymore due to the need of making money. However, he was great to chat to and I hope we can do so again. The only downside to this fantastic interview is the ridiculous rule in our dissertation which says we have to have full transcriptions of every interview or focus group we do. We're also supposed to do 4-6 focus groups, and 10 interviews AT LEAST. Unbelievable. This would mean writing over 100,000 words of stuff that isn't even marked. Two words: FUCK THAT! University is bollocks sometimes, well, in fact, more often than not. I love the fact that I will be £27,000 in debt as a result of it as well. AND they want to charge more? Honestly, it's disgusting.

That's reminded me - Barry is set to interview the new SU president that I mentioned last week about his no-alcohol stance, and could very well be taking it to the Daily Mirror on Friday. National exposure is what we need!

A hour or so ago, Robin wrote a rather emotional blog that seemed to come from somewhere deep within him about the end of year broadcast on Smoke Radio and whether or not some of us third years will return to the station. He also mentioned how very good friends that we've become (not me personally, the group of us) which couldn't be any truer. On the return Smoke issue, my position is that I'd love to do a show with either Phil, or on my own, just for an hour a day or two two hour shows as a send off to something that has given me such pleasure during my university life.However, I don't think I fit into the station anymore, I'm not sure I want to present with that music selection (however, I can get past that) and I'm not sure how much freedom I'd get. I also feel as though I should work that week instead of present. So what do I want? Honestly? I'd love an hour a day with a different presenter each day (yes I know it's been done, but to hell with it) and have a laugh like we used to. Quite relaxed and fun. I know for a fact that once the course is finished and the diss out of the way, I will spending as much time in those studios as possible, something that I regret I didn't do in my first two years, just playing around, practicing links and dubbing minidiscs, whilst I still have chance. So, I guess my answer, is, yes, I'm open to a return to Smoke before the end of the year. I'll guess you'll have to watch this space.

I'm a bit pissed off with the fact that the sports journalism module is so heavy right during the critical stage of the diss - I have class tomorrow and a deadline on Friday. Then me and Denis have to go to watch a Harrow game on Saturday and write about it. I can't be bothered and it's very much an unwanted distraction.

I thought I had more to talk about than this tonight but I feel I've exhausted myself now, so I'll call it day.

Until next time, you stay classy Robin Blamires!

Top O' The Morning To Ya

I've just got in from a mental night at the 'croft. It was, of course, Paddy's night and the croft was heaving. Potentially more so than at one of Phil's Big Phat parties, although I'm sure he'd dispute that.

Phil and I arrived at around about 9.30 to find the pub quiz for the second year film students in progress. They were due to finish at 10, but went on on until about 10.35. It was very shoddily run and we never heard the answers. I didn't care though, I just wanted to get on with the DJing. We took a break whilst Dean Threadgold had his hair shaved all for his third year project - true dedication! We then continued through until 1am, and I think, judging by the reactions of the large crowd dancing in front of us on the 'floor, we did an awesome set. We managed to play Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag, Billie - Because We Want To, Undertones - Teenage Kicks, Dr Dre - The Next Episode and Kid Cudi - Day 'N' Nite all in the same set, which I think is an achievement. There were of course a few token Irish songs in there as well; we finished with Boyzone and The Corrs. Not to everyone's taste but it was an Irish celebration and the hardest songs to choose are often the last couple.

I'm in LOVE with Ciara's new tune, featuring and produced by Justin Timberlake. It's called Love, Sex, Magic, and it's awesome. I heard it for the first time a few weeks ago on Z when I was in New York and it's now made it's way over here, and it's brilliant. Phil wouldn't let me play it tonight, or Chris Cornell. Grumble. It's songs like those that make me wish I was still head of music at Smoke, because I'm so keen on the Ciara record in particular, that despite only downloading it today, I'm confident it'd already be getting some plays on the Smoke playlist right now, and it would be easily on the A list, with a heavy rotation. I used to love doing that. If I really loved a record I'd put it on straight away and not wait until I the rest of my weekly updates. I remember when Wiley's Wearing My Rolex came out within 5 minutes of me hearing it for the first time, it was playing out on the station. Perhaps not the most professional approach but I loved it. And I was almost OCD about making sure we were about 4 or 5 weeks ahead of when a record was released. I remember on a few occasions beating Capital and Radio 1 to playlisting a record, something I'm very proud of.

Anyway, I'm sat at Aoife's right now, she's still cleaning up the bar bless her. We'll watch the latest episode of Horne and Corden on the iPlayer when she gets in and then head to sleep. I need to get up early (10am-ish) so I can charge up the marrantz and make sure I'm prepared for my first interview tomorrow with Matt Deegan, creative director at Folder Media, who's commented on this blog before. I'm particularly excited about this interview because he works in the office next to a company who deal with processing RAJAR info for radio stations, which was unbeknownst to me and therefore is a bit of a double whammy. I'll be able to get some info about the alternatives methods that have been proposed for my lit review and my first interview for my analysis. Brilliant!

I hope those who had a listen to the two pieces of audio I posted earlier, enjoyed them. I spoke to Robin and he said that he could hear my influence within Adam and Ruddy's aircheck, something which pleased me immensely. The prank phone call with their mate is the item in question taken from me and Pete's Prank a Presenter from January last year. I'm pleased Robin mentioned this and I think particularly key seeing as potentially I could be working directly on their show soon.

Speaking of Pete, I spoke to him on Sunday night for the first time in ages, whilst I was pissed at Wetherspoons. I didn't tell you about my alcohol fuelled weekend did I? Probably best if I don't. But anyway, I think Pete and I are meeting up for a pint (of coke) next week sometime, when I will definitely be proposing the reformation of Chris and Pete (Sorry Robin!). 

Steven has been the latest geeky radio fiend to jump on the fantasy radio bandwagon, although he wasn't taking it quite so seriously as I was. That must just show I'm geekier than him. Not something to be proud of, of course!

I also decided today that I wished I hadn't chosen RAJAR as my subject for my dissertation, but alas, I did and I'd best get it on with, with only 5 weeks remaining til the deadline. Christ!

In other news, I bought a pussy yesterday for £6 - much cheaper than I'd anticipated. And the say the sex trade is a multi-billion pound industry! I am of course, joshing. I bought a little nodding cat for Aoife, seeing as we can't have a real one, and it came up on the till as 'pussy' much to my amusement. One day I'll grow up.

I've written far too much, and I could go on, but I'd best not. Still waiting for Aoife mind. However, I will say good night to all!

'The Next Big Thing?'

Now that I'm the practice of uploading audio, I'm sure there were a few who were unfamiliar with the names Adam & Ruddy when you saw my radio station this week. Well, have a listen to this and see what you think. Maybe you'll then understand why they made it into my daytime line-up. Brilliant!

Historical Hysterics

I'm busy doing my dissertation after finally sorting out my first interview for tomorrow, so I'm not gonna write anything of any value just now. I will do before the day is out though I'm sure.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to post up some audio from about 3 and a half years ago from sixth form, when my media studies class were invited to make a hour's worth of programming for a community station in Norwich. We split up into 4 groups and made 15 minutes each. Bog and I hosted a local music programme, which took us about 15 attempts, as we did it as live, and kept making each other laugh.

I just thought you might like to hear my FM debut - check it out:

Exchange Radio

Please forgive the poor production values, we were in a tiny rubbish studio using CD players for the music. It was good fun though!

My Radio Station

Whilst I was in New York, I started wondering what I would do if I won the lottery. I decided that I'd start my own radio station. It would be a national Contemporary Hit Radio station, and wouldn't carry advertising (because I wouldn't need to make money) so would finally offer real competition to Radio 1. This then got me thinking about the schedule and which presenters I would want on my station. So I gave myself a challenge, and later extended it to Robin Blamires as well. The challenge was simple: come up with a full seven day/24 hour schedule for a CHR station, that didn't carry advertising. That was rule number one - it had to be a national CHR station. I decided this because that kind of station is my favourite and also because Robin would otherwise have chosen soul jocks and I wouldn't have known any of them! The only other rule was that any presenter that was 'signed' to your station must be offered a job of equal or greater status than their current position. For example, signing Chris Moyles to weekend overnights would not be allowed, but he could do the breakfast show. A rule that I've added in myself is, well, it's not really a rule, more of a policy: the schedule must give opportunity to new and upcoming talent with the aim to break new presenters. These are generally people that I've been to university with, and I've even given myself a two hour slot. Oh come on, you would, wouldn't you?! It's taken me five attempts, but I've finally gotten to the point where I feel I can unveil the line-up of MY radio station. This is the fifth and final (I hope) version.

MONDAY - THURSDAY
12AM Joe Haddow (worked as a cover jock on BBC Berkshire)
3AM Pete Cooper (former University of Westminster)
6AM The Danny Wallace Breakfast Show (Has presented on Classic FM, XFM and 6Music)
10AM Emma B (from Heart 106.2)
1PM Adam & Ruddy (Key 103 - watch this space!)
4PM Greg James (Radio 1)
8PM Russell Howard (6Music)
10PM Alexa Chung (TV presenter - T4)

I picked both Joe and Pete as part of the station's pledge to support new talent, and because they are two of the best presenters I've come across since being at uni. The slots they've been given are obviously at night and so gives them a great chance to start their career and develop their skills.
I think Danny Wallace is one of the funniest and genuinely nicest guys in the media industry at the moment, and has leapt to the heights of national celebrity. He is of course a radio boy and has never really had a proper chance to show this side of him off, and so I feel he could do that with this show. Would have a side kick.
I would love to say Emma B was picked because I think of her as a great talent, but I can't. I don't think there are many, if any, really good female jocks in the market at the moment, and so I've picked Emma because she's quite good, and because I felt I should have a woman in this slot, rather than on merit. George Lamb was going to have this slot originally.
Adam & Ruddy are a new duo who have an evening slot on Key 103 on Sundays. Expect big things from them. They're brilliant.
I think Greg James is fantastic. I would actively make an effort to listen to Radio at any slot if I knew Greg was on. He's still pretty raw but could well be a brilliant broadcaster in years to come.
Russell Howard is hilarious and was great on 6Music. As you'll see, I've made a point of having a comedian in that slot 6 nights a week, which I think will provide entertainment in a slot that struggles with competition from things like television and the cinema.
Alexa Chung was chosen, partly due to the problems that I had with decided upon female presenters, but also because she's good on TV and I think she'd be good on this station. It'd be good to hear another female voice at this stage too.

FRIDAY
12AM Joe Haddow
3AM Pete Cooper
6AM The Danny Wallace Breakfast Show
10AM Emma B
1PM Adam & Ruddy
4PM Greg James
8PM Alexa Chung
10PM Des Paul's Dance Show (95.8 Capital FM)

The only real change here is Alexa moves into an early slot, making way for Des Paul to present his dance show. I was in two minds about having a dance show, but decided to go with it. It'd be an experiment and we'd see how we got on. Des Paul was chosen due to my lack of knowledge of dance presenters.

SATURDAY
12AM Sam Impey (Mix 107 and University of Westminster)
4AM Robin Blamires (University of Westminster)
7AM Stephen Sullivan (95.8 Capital FM and Invicta FM)
10AM Ryan Seacrest (95.8 Capital FM, American Idol, and thousands of US stations)
12PM Horne and Corden (Comedians, Actors, TV presenters)
2PM Alex James (Classic FM)
4PM Goodlass and Marshall (Former University of Westminster)
8PM Michael McIntyre (Comedian)
10PM Des Paul Dance Show

Sam(mantha) Impey would give the station another female voice, and along with Robin is another off the Westminster production line to present the weekend overnights.
Stephen Sullivan is experienced in a variety of different slots on Invicta and Capital and is a solid jock, whose links are very tight.
Ryan Seacrest is an interesting choice I know. He did a few shows for Capital (and presumably the One Network) a few years back, and I heard him on z100 whilst I was in New York, and thought he'd suit a nice two hour block on a Saturday morning, and therefore the show has a big name (certainly in America).
I've taken a rather large risk with Horne and Corden. So far their TV presenting career has been hit and miss, as has their sketch show, but I still don't think that this detracts from the fact that they're hilariously funny men, and would be interesting to see (hear) how they got on, especially as I'd tell them to calm down and stop going OTT. It would also mean less of Corden's stomach would be seen by the nation.
Alex James is simply a great broadcaster. Great voice, and reputable as he was in Blur.
Goodlass & Marshall are a fantastic double act straight from university once again, who would follow where Horne and Corden left off. I did think about having a sports show, but decided against it in the end.
Michael McIntyre, the nice guy of comedy, who doesn't swear and generally seems a nice bloke. Possible the most famous comedian in the UK at the moment, he would continue in the 8pm comedy slot.

SUNDAY
12AM Sam Impey
4AM Robin Blamires
7AM Stephen Sullivan
10AM Richard Hammond (Local BBC and BBC Radio 2, TV presenter)
12PM Holly Willoughby (TV presenter)
2PM Alex James
4PM Goodlass and Marshall
8PM Simon Brodkin (stand-up comedian)
10PM Chris Chilvers (me)

Although a bit older than the rest of our team, Richard Hammond is considered a very cool older man and is another nice guy who is a radio guy at heart. A great broadcaster.
Holly Willoughby was chosen because: a) she's female b) she's a great TV presenter c) she's cool.
Simon Brodkin is a hilarious stand up comedian who has done some TV work and hasn't had his big break yet. Hopefully this would help.
And well, you'd have to give yourself a show hey? It's only 2 hours after all.

Right well there it is, my ideal station schedule. What do you think of it?

Fantasy Radio

Last week I mentioned that I was in the (geeky) process of putting together my dream radio station programming line-up. I thought I had finished the task I had set myself last weekend, but I'm currently on version five, and I think, I think, I've come up with the finished article. The biggest problem that I've had with it is the presence (or lack) of female jocks in my schedule. This is simply because I can't think of one single woman who I really like on radio. Therefore, I've picked a couple because I felt I should have women on the station, its always good to have a mix of male and female voices, rather than because they are the best people for the job. I've only used four women in total, two off of television and one from student radio, and so it's shows a lack of decent female talent around the country at the moment. Or, at the very least, shows that they aren't on any stations that I listen to.

As for premiering this fantastic schedule, I could just write it now, but I want to effectively anaylse it and explain my decisions in a level of detail that right now I can't really be bothered to go into. That said I'm not too sure when I will have time. It's certainly very unlikely this weekend, and the weeks are filling up with work. Hmm. Tell you what. I'll finish this post here now, have a bit of a rest (my wrist is hurting) and I'll attempt to get it done this morning before I finish at 9. How's that?

My Take on the 'No-Alcohol' Stance of Westminster's New President

Today was a pivotal day at the University of Westminster, as this week has been election week and the results were announced today. Unfortunately, Phil wasn't chosen to be our new Vice President of Campaigns and Communications. I feel truly sorry for Phil as that's two years running now that he's run for a position on the Student's Union committee and been unsuccessful. This, despite two years of putting on the best and most successful nights in uni and often going uncredited for such things. The big scandal of the elections today is the rumour doing the rounds that the newly elected President, Omar Hussein, plans to ban the bars at uni from selling alcohol as he is a strict Muslim and therefore doesn't drink and doesn't want to offend other Muslims by continuing to have alcohol served on university premises (If I've got my facts wrong in any way, then please do inform me, and apologies if I'm incorrect and cause offence in anyway). This is, as I say, a rumour, but one that I have on good authority. Or rather, the person who told the person who told me has it on good authority! Now, if I don't handle my 'commentary' on this matter very delicately, then I could probably offend an entire religion, or anyone that isn't White British, and this website could suddenly become a media hotspot, as political commentators and Islamic groups pore across my every word, just to check how racist I've actually been. That is, of course, not my intention, but when discussing an issue of race and religion, it becomes very difficult to say what you want to say, as anything you say can be contentious and be deemed politically incorrect.

My first thought on this issue, and perhaps the most important in terms of how it affects me and the university around me (although, admittedly, I will have left by the time any potential changes come into affect) is that even though this motion is thought to be have been mooted as an idea by our new president, it will never see the light of day (and if I did, I'd give up my radio career, and become a political campaigner camped outside the university 24/7). The reasons for my confidence that this is a non-starter? Well, firstly, the two bars at uni, Inter:Mission and the Undercroft make a lot of money for the Student's Union, and I'm sure that without those revenue streams the SU would struggle for funds even more than it currently does. Secondly, I literally do not think that it would be possible, due to public opinion and, if necessary, action. I cannot see an entire body of students accepting this quietly and moving on. There would be all sorts of trouble if the SU tried to mess with the will of students. Thirdly, and perhaps crucially, I don't think the university would allow this to happen. What 18 year-old would look at his options for university, notice that Westminster doesn't have any bars that sell alcohol and still be interested in attending. Therefore, Westminster wouldn't be getting the numbers of students it requires and wouldn't make enough money. This is a potentially interesting area where the university and the SU could clash, and it would be particularly interesting, because, and this is rare, the student body would be supporting the uni and not the people would exist to make their student life the best it possibly could be.

Now, this is only a university debate, that might not actually be an issue, and might result in nothing happening whatsoever. But it's the wider context that this issue sits in that worries me, and this is where I'm gonna to work very hard to be as PC as possible.

This is England. This is (still) a Christian country. Whatever the actual church attendance is like in this day and age, and whether or not religion is at the heart (or even shoulder) of our community, this is not a Muslim country. We don't practice Sharia law, and our women are treated equally. So why, when elected into a university (that place where kids go for sex and drink, and then maybe a degree if they're lucky) Student's Union as the president -the man responsible for ensuring the entire student body is happy and represented - would the first thing a Muslim man plans to do (not mentioned in his manifesto, of course!) be to ban the bars from selling alcohol. Something that students love and give you most of your income? Well, apparently it's because it's against the Muslim way of life. Okay, that's fine. I can understand that. I'm not gonna criticise individual religions here. But when you are in a foreign country, or if you live in a country that has a majority that you aren't part of, as is the same in any multicultural society, then I believe you should adapt into their culture. After all, why would you move somewhere unless you liked aspects of that country? If you didn't like the country, the way it works, the culture, then why would you move there? For example, I've been thinking about moving to America. I will (hopefully) never begin to say words such as 'sidewalk' and 'sneakers' but, I suppose I will have to tip waiters and taxi drivers. I don't really want to, but it's what happens over there and as an immigrant I should be expected to do as the Americans do, because it is after all their country. I wouldn't go over there and say you can't drink just because me and 100 English people decided we didn't like it. You have to embrace the culture in which you live, and if you don't like it, go somewhere else. Even within cultures we like, there are things we don't like. I don't like Eastenders, but I don't watch it and so it doesn't affect me. It's something that worries me on a large scale about immigrants who come to England and then don't seem to embrace the nation. Our entire national identity as been watered down so much that I'm not sure what being a Briton is all about. And, for some reason, we can't say anything against anyone who isn't white for fear of being called un-PC or a racist, which is pathetic. I may well discuss this in further detail one day, but I think you get my point.

So, if Mr Hussein, if you don't like alcohol and bars, that's fine, don't go to one, don't have a drink, but let those of us who do have the opportunity during the best years of our lives, hey?

At work!

Morning all. It's been a busy week and apologies for my lack of posting over the last 6 days, I've been rather busy, and sometimes these posts can take about 30-45 minutes to write and I don't always have that period of time available, or the appeal of bed is just too great for me to resist. Ahh, bed - how I'd love to have that option now. Unfortunately, I'm not even half-way through proceedings here at Classic FM. I've literally just got into the start of Matthew Stiff's show, having just heard our first Sky news bulletin at 4am.

I've just finished watching the Comic Relief coverage, which I didn't really see until I got here at 12, save for a few moments and the TOTP special. As of this moment, they've raised a whopping £57million - a staggering amount, nearly 50% more than in 2007, and nearly the equivalent to every one in the country giving just a £1. A fantastic effort, and especially considering we're in the middle of this recession. Makes me very proud to be British - an increasingly rare thing I think.

Also in the process as I speak, is the Smoke Radio 26 hour broadcast. At least I'm not in only one up at this silly hour. For 'political' reasons, shall we say, I'm not going to comment on Smoke Radio or anything that it does, certainly not whilst I'm still a student. Those close to me will know exactly how I feel and others get the general impression I'm sure but it's not as clear cut as some think and I'd love to have the opportunity to express my feelings on the subject one day.

For ease of navigation, my comments on the no-alcohol stance of the new SU president have been moved to a sperate post (above.)

Ireland: Retaliation Ahead?

So 6 soldiers have been shot in Northern Ireland, 2 fatally. What does this mean? Are we on the brink of yet another civil war? I really hope not. Now for whatever reason (and I’m not saying it’s right), NI is part of Britain, and so when British soldiers are attacked, the very least I’d expect to happen is the number of military in the area to increase. This will, understandably, anger and upset the locals. All of a sudden, if we aren’t careful, we’ll be back where we were 40 years ago, in NI, and no one wants that. I severely hope that it’s not the restart of action from the IRA or anyone like that and that it’s a one-off incident. For a start, I’m not sure how Aoife and I would get along with our countries having such large scale disagreements! I’d like to be able to return to Derry in the near future too. We’ll see what happens.

Very Angry

Morning all. I'm at work again, and I wanted to write a nice post about my life: how I'd got on at the Robin Hood casting session or something else positive but my sister Katy, who's currently at home in Lynn for the weekend has informed of something that has made my blood boil. Honestly, I'm livid.

Apparently, a group of people have destroyed the fence panels in the driveway at my parent's house in Lynn. Now this may not seem so bad on the surface, but when I explain that they have absolutely ruined the place you may start to understand. Now, I've walked back from the town centre pissed on a number of occaisons, and I have never once wanted to vandalise anything. I can understand stealing road signs and traffic cones, and I've knocked over people's wheelie bins before. But those aren't bad things to do. The traffic cones can be replaced and doesn't affect anyone and the bins can be picked up with very little effort. Now, I'm not defending myself - I'm not proud of these things. What these people did tonight have really pissed me off.

The story goes that my sister pulled into the drive from wherever it was that she had been to find the driveway in an utter ruined state. Apparently, the first four wooden fence panels were no longer there and there was debris and bits of the panels all over the drive. There were wooden shards on the opposite of the road. There was a fence panel in the neighbours drive. So they dragged this stuff all over the place. They apparently also smashed the glass in the bus shelter down the road. They must have been doing this for some time, and must of really been laying into these fence panels.

The neighbours on one side heard the commotion, and apparently my mum heard it but didn't think it was in our driveway. The problem is though, that in the society in which we live, even if my mum or dad, or my neighbours were well aware of the situation whilst it was taking place, I doubt they could have done anything for fear of being attacked themselves. I certainly don't think I would have said anything.

It just shows you the world we live in. We aren't safe in our own houses and we can't do anything to protect ourselves or one another. Let me ask you a question - If you were walking down the road and you saw someone getting beaten up, would you help or would you ignore it? Because, as ashamed as I am, I think I would ignore it for fear of being hurt myself. There is no sense of community in this country anymore. Something that I think our American 'cousins' still seem to have. Is the church a factor? I don't know. But I know for one thing, there is no way that I will bring up kids in this country.

It still may only seem like a few fence panels to you, but it's really my Dad who is the victim in all of this. He runs his own business, and works 7 days a week just to ensure that he makes money. He hasn't it easy over the last few years, and as we're reminded daily, we are in the middle of a recession, which can't be easy when running your own business. Particularly when that business is a luxury business and not a necessity-based one. So, tomorrow, he will get up and have to spend his day and his money on fixing this situation. He shouldn't have to be doing that and it's really pissed me off.

Apologies for the rant and believe me I could go on, but I won't. Although, Katy said she may get me some pictures of the damage to show you.

More from me later.

It's 5am

I thought I'd go for a very simple, matter of fact title for this post.

I'm plugging away at work, mid way through Matthew Stiff's show. I've made a list of things that I want to talk about in my blog but most of them could almost be entire blogs in themselves. One thing I will mention though is my great frustration that my dad has today acquired an iphone. He doesn't know how to use it and it's wasted on him. I'm very jealous. He always out geeks me on technology. Grr! Oh well.

I've been chatting to Robin throughout my shift tonight because for some crazy reason he is in the library and has been since about 1am. I don't know how that man does it! Anyway, something I've been thinking about a lot over the last few days, is that if I won the lottery, and I don't mean the UK one, I mean the Euro Millions or the New York lottery (it was $210million) last week, then I'd set up my own national radio station that didn't carry advertising, that could finally challenge the BBC. It took me some time but I have finally come up with my entire presenter schedule. I'm not gonna present it just yet, because I want to spend some real time on it and really introduce the station and explain the decisions I've made. It will be my geekiest blog yet!! I have now challenged Robin to do the same, and he is busy beavering away as I type, coming up with his own new station. Will be interesting to compare. I predict Sunday as the day I post this new radio station to the world. Yes it's geeky and a tad silly, but it's my ultimate dream to run a radio station, and so, why not, just for a bit of fun, hey? Think of it as fantasy radio, as opposed to football - now, THAT's an idea. I think I may have just invented something.

Just to let you know that I'm currently halfway through Yes Man by Danny Wallace. It's taken me far too long to read this book. I read Join Me 2 and a half years ago, but now, spurred on by the film I am loving the book. Mister Wallace is a legend.

Right, back to work. I still have that list of bloggable items to complete over the weekend, so in the words of the 2nd coolest politician in America, "I'll Be Back!"

Back in the British Isles and back to normality!

All right all? Been a few days since I last posted - it was snowing in New York on Monday morning when I last had chance to pop a few words in this here box. Well, as the title of this blog would suggest, I'm back home now. We arrived back on Wednesday morning, after a surprisingly empty flight, on which, as we have now moved in March, there were a brand new selection of movies to watch, including Quantum of Solace which I decided to give a go. It was better the second time, but I still can't claim to be impressed. The flight was also practically empty, meaning we had plenty of room, which was grand. Unfortunately we didn't sleep, which left us both feeling terrible as we landed. There was nearly an hour's wait for our baggage too, as the lock of the baggage hold of the plane had frozen!

We eventually got home, and I slept all day, which I think has contributed to the fact that I have no concept of time at the moment, and feel as if I'm very jetlagged. I didn't sleep at all well last night, but then again, it could have just been one of those nights.

I'm at work currently, at Classic. Wondering how this potential jetlag will affect me tonight. Especially as I'm here again tomorrow night (or Sunday morning). I've also got the complication of a meeting with the Casting Collective at 10am tomorrow, which hopefully I won't be dead for! It's basically about becoming an extra in a 'major motion picture' which Aoife seems to think is Nottingham, with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. It's also being directed by Ridley Scott. Not bad for my first screen outing hey? Aoif's in the know being a film student and also having worked for this company for a few months. It's pretty exciting all right, we'll see what happens. The funny part is, that I applied for a job at the company months ago and it seems the only job they can find for me is that of a scruffy, beardy bloke. Think I can just about do that.

Today, I had a very cool experience. The sports journalism module that I'm taking started today. Wasn't a bad start - a tour of the Emirates stadium. The stadium is awesome, and although I'd been before, the tour we had was incredible. We visited the Director's restaurant and box, the entrance that the players and manager use and also the dressing room (which had the kits laid out for Sunday's FA Cup game against Burnley. I can tell you that Fabregas will be on the bench). We saw the press conference room and we also walked out of the tunnel and sat where Arsene Wenger sits for every game. It's some stadium. Just a shame about the team hey? We also found out today that on Tuesday night we have tickets for the Watford v Forest game at Vicarage Road, and will be seated in the press box and will attend the post match press conference where will have chance to interview Brendan Rodgers and Billy Davies, who are the managers of the respective clubs. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity (well unless I become a sports journalist, I guess) and I am well excited.

Right, back to work. I'm here 'til 9am though, so there could be more from me yet!

Winter in NYC

A couple of photos taken from our apartment this morning showing the wintry conditions!

Arctic America

It's snowing at the moment in NY. The news promised 12 inches of snow, but at the moment it's not really settling, as it's very wet, but I'm sure by morning they'll be a carpet of white outside. I bet it'll make the snow we got in England look like nothing as well.

It's been pretty chilled here over the last day or so, with tiredness really hitting us after a couple of very busy days. Yesterday, we relaxed in the apartment for most of the day before heading out into the evening to explore further. We soon found ourselves on Broadway once again, it's flipping huge, and before long were at Madison Square Park, home of the greatest burger establishment in the world, the Shake Shack. Trust me, it's incredible! From the park, we had a cracking view of the Empire State Building, which we were hoping to climb tonight, but apparently it's $20 to do so and we're not feeling that! On the way back to the apartment we saw the FDNY out in force as there was a fire in an apartment. Out of pure morbid curiosity, we stayed to watch for a while. A fireman had to climb up a huge ladder and hopefully the person in the apartment was saved.

As for today, I headed to Nevada Smiths, which is a very cool American soccer bar to watch the Carling Cup Final. I expected to be the only person in the bar, or at least the only Englishman there but I couldn't have been more wrong. I couldn't get to the bar until half time and I literally couldn't move for most of the match. There were red shirts everywhere, mainly worn by Americans and a lot of the terrace chants were being shouted at the tops of people's voices. There were a couple of English guys there too, and it was a very cool experience. This afternoon, we walked to 5th avenue to check out the posh shops and visited the Rockefeller centre again (photos to come).

This evening I had a McDonalds for the 1st time since I've been here and I have bad news - it wasn't great. For one, it was cold which I can't blame America for, but the interesting part of it all is that the chicken nuggets are REALLY salty, to the point that I couldn't eat them. Also, a medium chicken nugget meals comes with 10, yes 10, nuggets. Incredible.

Tomorrow, we're meeting Joe Conyers, who was one of my 1st good friends at uni, when he was on a study abroad at Westminster back in my semester, so will good, if not surreal, to meet up. He's taking us to a cool burger bar in Brooklyn and giving us some advice about the possibilities involved with moving to New York. Should be nice. We're also gonna check out central park, as it's our last full day and we want to spend it wisely.

Until then, goodbye. I hope the snow doesn't affect our flight...

Photos

I've been to Radioshack and purchased a USB data transfer cable for my camera, so here goes:

Aoife in our apartment.

The view from our apartment (Note - the famous yellow cab - they are literally everywhere!)

Times Square - It's mental!

Celebrate St. Patty's Day - Stupid 'Mericans

Me at Madison Square Garden for the Knicks game!

They are just a sample of the photos that I've taken. I'm worried about making this blog too slow to load if I upload many more. The full collection is available at http://profile.imageshack.us/user/chrischilvers  and on Facebook also.

Enjoy!

De-Fence!

Just in from an awesome night at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately the Knicks lost 103-108, but it was a cracking match and it had a very tense finale. The atmosphere inside MSG was incredible. This was helped by the fact that every time Philadelphia had possession, we were encouraged to shout DE-FENCE in time with the beat. It was awesome. A hugely different experience from any sport in the UK. Before the match we had to stand for the national anthem, and during the time outs the cheerleaders danced, the Tumblers did their acrobatic stuff, there were games such as Musical Chairs and other things like that. I also saw John McEnroe there which was very cool. I had an awesome evening, and it was very cool that Aoife got really into sport - a rare thing! We bought a foam finger and had a hot dog - the true 'ball experience.

We also went on the ferry to Staten Island today, which passed Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, which was cool. I took plenty of pictures don't you worry, and I aim to purchase a USB transfer cable tomorrow if I can find one. We saw Wall St this morning, which is where George Washington was sworn in as the 1st president and there are millions of American flags! We visited Ground Zero which is indescribable. Breathtaking. They have started rebuilding, but they are only back up to ground level, so I'm sure they will take a while to complete Freedom Tower.

Feeling knackered now as we've walked really far today. Gonna hit the hay very soon. The plan for tomorrow is unknown, but I'm sure it'll be grand.

Loving New York - Good Night!

Have A Nice Day!

Morning all. It's a lovely Friday morning here in NYC, despite forecasts to the contrary. The plan today is to head to Staten Island to get a cool view of Manhattan, and wander around near Wall St and Ground Zero, before heading to Madison Square Gardens for the Knicks vs. 76ers, which I'm very excited about!

Have found out that the Elvis Duran show I analysed yesterday is networked across New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Cleveland, which may explain why the presenter made no reference to the music that was being played, as it could potentially be different music on the different stations, and would explain the fact that the beds crashed the end of songs! On Z right now is 'your American Idol host' Ryan Seacrest, who is also 'live' on Kiis in LA at the moment. Isn't pre-recording great? The content of the show is much more entertainment based, as the obsession with celebrity is much greater in the States than in Blighty. The music is much newer, after the breakfast show that Robin rightly described as being stuck in '2002' - today there was Like I Love You and My Own Worst Enemy by Lit, which was cool.

Anyway, enough of my radio ranting. I'm off to enjoy more of this cool city!

Laters homies!

1st Day Downtown

So we've completed our first 24 hours in the US. We've had a very busy and very long day. As I've written before we were up very early. We left the apartment at 9.30, and headed over to Times Sq. To do this we had to navigate our way round the extremely complex subway system, which is bloody hard to get around. It's pretty quick though, even if the cars themselves look like tin foil boxes! It's strange to think that Americans are supposedly not as intelligent as us Brits and have short attention spans, but can use the subway with no problem!

We got to Times Sq, after detouring past the Chrysler Building and through Grand Central Station. My initial reaction to Times Sq was 'wow' but I quickly decided that it was loud, bright and looked good, but there wasn't really any substance to it. There was almost so much there that there was in fact nothing. I have a picture of an example of it, but I didn't bring my camera cable to transfer pictures. I may look to purchase one from a Radioshack tomorrow. We went to Virgin Megastore, which is closing down, and the M&M store. We walked round some more, and then headed to Macy's. Ridiculous. It's a department store, with 8 floors, and so why is there no floor plans or maps anywhere? I got very annoyed about this and this shortened our stay. During our trip to Macy's I noticed a group of Irish clothes (picture to come) celebrating 'St. Patty's Day' - bless the Yanks, getting that wrong. New Yorkers seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Ireland. Nearly every store had something Irish in it somewhere.

We headed from Macys to the Rockefeller Centre which was very cool but by this stage we'd be out for 5 hours and were knackered, so we will head back there at some stage. I had a fantastic cheeseburger at the Rockefeller. Yum Yum.

We headed home and haven't done an awful lot since then.

I have learnt a number of things in my time here (Yep, just 24 hours)

1) As mentioned, the New Yorkers are mentally obsessed with Ireland and the Irish.

2) Every item of food or drink are sold with a calorie counter. I saw a burger today that was 2700 calories (the average man should intake 2500 a day!)

3) After 4pm, everyone can put their 'garbage' on the streets outside their house or work. So walking down the streets at about 10pm means you have to contend with lots of rubbish!

4) The toilet bowls have more water in them than English toilets - making it impossible to piss quietly - and when you flush the water empties and then the bowl is refilled. Exciting honestly!

5) The electric sockets look rubbish, and really unsafe. Anything plugged into them looks like they could fall out.

6) There is a $1 dollar note, and 2 different types of $1 coin. Silly.

7) The sirens on the emergency services vehicles are crap, really weak and pathetic sounding. If an English siren says 'Get out the way!' the American ones say 'Could you please move if you don't mind please?'

8) There is an obsession with the word 'gourmet'. We both a thank you card today that was made by the 'gourmet card company' - how can a card be gourmet?

9) The prices quoted on the shelves are without tax (which I guess is about 8 or 9%) and so you work out how much stuff costs and then there's the tax added on! Again, for a supposedly less intelligent nation, this seems strange. It also means you have bloody silly prices such as $3.34. Stupid.

Anyway, I've eaten far too much today and am off to bed. Knicks at Madison Square Gardens tomorrow! Night!

Radio: The Cultural Look into the Differences Between American and British Stylings

This morning when I got up at 7am, I decided to get myself in the New Yorker mood and have a listen to Z100 - New York's Hit Music Station (Their equivalent to Capital - same strap line as well!) Whilst I listened I decided I'd make a few notes and compare a brief listen with my thoughts and knowledge of English radio. This brief listen and notetaking session went on for about 70 minutes and would have gone on for a lot longer if Aoife hadn't made me get into the shower so we could go and do something with our lives. I had made 2 sides of notes by this stage, so I figured that was enough for me to analysis and comment upon. 

So, Z100 - check z100.com for details - it is as I said 'New York's Hit Music Station and boasts American Idol presenter Ryan Seacrest as it's mid-morning presenter (networked mind you). I started listening at about 7.20 for the breakfast show hosted by Elvis Duran and continued to listen through to about 9.15. I only made notes until 8.30. The show has a zoo format, with 10 contributors talking at least once. I will now take you through what happened on air and my thoughts on some of the events.

TURNED ON

Elvis Duran says 'We gotta take a break now.'

ALL AMERICAN REJECTS - GIVES YOU HELL 

[When I heard the presenter say 'We gotta take a break now' I expected an ad break to follow, but interestingly, it was the above song. This highlights a fundamental difference between Z and Capital or Radio 1 - in Britain on most stations, the music is a key element, in fact, probably the main element, whereas, here in NY, Elvis treated this song as if it was an interruption into HIS programme.]

Straight onto a feature . Produced ident, into 'The Phone Tap', no explanation. Elvis introduces the prank by reading out the caller who has nominated his wife's original message. Basically, a guy wants to wind up his wife by telling her that their application for financial aid for heir child's education has been refused. The prank starts with the husband telling his wife that the application has been refused and that someone from the company will ring her soon. We then go into the conversation between the man from the company (one of the breakfast team) talking to the wife. It's very funny, with lots of bleeping going on where the woman is swearing. After this, we then hear the husband and wife arguing again, with lots more beeping going on. The word 'prick' was unbeeped, and this didn't seem to be a problem. It was 7.31am. Halfway through the couple arguing, Elvis comes on the line and tells her it's a prank. She laughs. 'Son of a bitch' is broadcast at 7.34. The feature ends with a disclaimer stating 'The Phone Tap was pre-recorded and used with permission from all parties.' We then go into an an break.

[There are a number of interesting points from the above feature. The main two really being the uncensored swearing at such an early time - in Britain, swearing isn't supposed to occur at any time of day, let alone at breakfast. The other interesting thing is the disclaimer at the end of the prank call. In England, although you have to have permission, and most, if not all, calls are pre-recorded, this is not mentioned on air. Perhaps, with America's tendency to sue, they have to make sure people know they aren't doing anything untoward.]

Out of a very short ad-break, we hear MVP - Rock Ya Body.

Alicia Keys - 'You Heard My Music Here 1st' Promo

Promo for full length interview with Pink available on demand at Elvisduran.com

Promo for full length Twilight interviews available on demand at elvisduran.com

Promo for full length Enrique Igleisas interview available on demand at elvisduran.com.

[This is a huge difference between the US and the UK. The presenter has his own website that he is directing people to with all his content on it. It appears to be all about the personalities and not so much the station. The presenter appears to be more interested in promoting himself than the brand of Z100.]

Sponsorsip Promo

Z100 Ident

Adverts

JA RULE & ASHANTI FT. FAT JOE - WHAT'S LUV? (3 songs in 18 minutes)

Tagged bed into link (bed crashed end of the song - not smooth)

Link about American Idol - 'crapped the bed' expression used, the team discuss last night's show.

Entertainment News (not an obvious segue into it - presented by someone we haven't heard yet, and Elvis comments on the story as they come) More reasons to visit elvisduran.com

Elvis makes comments about thinking about people you went to school with, but that you don't care about.

[The comments Elvis makes about old school friends, and the fact that he doesn't care about them, seems slightly aggressive and something you would be quite unlikely to hear in Britain (although Moyles is likely to say something like that I guess).]

More comments and discussion, including clips, of last night's American Idol.

[At this stage there have been no time checks, or no real local content or mention.]

A very casual mention of the weather and the forecast. Not easy to take in as there was no trail or introduction - he just went into it, as if he'd just remembered he ought to.

Production (head to elvisduran.com for more)

Ad Break

N'SYNC - BYE, BYE, BYE (straight into song, no ID)

Z100 ID

KELLY CLARKSON - MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WITHOUT YOU

Link (there was absolutely no reference, before or after, the music)

Discussion about what food should be eaten at Baseball games. All of the team give opinions, callers on phone too. Rude to one or two callers. This link went on for nearly 10 minutes.

Elvis says 'Into the Stupid Newsroom' and another presenter talks about some silly stories (no production to break it up)

There was then some crazy caller on the phone and then an off-hand sports result and I couldn't really follow that part of the show.

Adverts

DANIEL BEDINGFIELD - GOTTA GET THRU THIS

EVE FT GWEN STEFANI - LET ME BLOW YOUR MIND

Bed crashes end of song again.

END OF NOTETAKING.

Right. Phew. That was busy. I have a few points to make on the above.

The lack of music in the show was incredible. I was listening for about 70 minutes and there were only 7 songs in that time. When a song was played, there was no mention that a song was coming, and no back anno. Of the 7 songs played, only 2 are new, which is strange, considering it's a Hit Music Station. (Perhaps this shows a difference between what Z and Capital think this means).

The swearing and content was unsuitable for a British breakfast audience, but sounded standard for this Z100 show.

The way the presenter came out of a song (with a bed) he crashed the end of the song a few times (you wouldn't hear that on Capital or Radio 1 very often at all)!

There was no signposting or production to signal a new part of the show which I found very confusing, and hard work to listen to. Especially as radio is a background medium. This was particularly apparent when Elvis mentioned the weather.

The Elvis Duran brand seemed to be far more important that Z100. Elvis Duran himself seemed more important than the music. I agree with this, as I don't like the way that British stations deal with the balance between music and links. In England, especially on Capital, there is lots of music, and only a few links, most of which are speed links. This format doesn't offer anything different from listening to iTunes or Spotify, especially when you have to listen to adverts too. At least with Elvis' show, there was something different, you know, there was a reason given to listen to the radio, rather the just shoving your iPod on.

The lack of new music was interesting, but not important as I enjoyed hearing some songs I hadn't heard in the morning, and as I'm typing this, the drivetime show is on and the jock, JJ, is playing a number of new tunes, in what appears to be a request show.

With Americans supposedly having a shorter attention span than us Brits, it's seems strange that so much goes on for so long during the show. I would have thought that the current Capital format of 40 minutes non stop would go down better over here. I don't know.

To summarise then, as I know there is a hell of a lot of stuff up there, that probably only Robin will read, I found it fascinating listening to Z100 and it was a really enjoyable listen. They just need to tidy up segues, and perhaps address the balance between Music and Speech and they will have a great product. This is something that Capital also needs to look at. I felt that Z100 didn't have very many of the prerequisites for a breakfast show that we consider are necessary in the UK. For example, Traffic and Travel, Time Checks, Weather and News segments.

Apologies Rob, that I didn't really look at the Idents!

Comments would be welcome, if anyone has actually braved the length of this post! This has taken me over an hour to write and as such I am now tired and my arms and wrists hurt. Consequently, I haven't written everything that I could of, and therefore could amend this later on. Would love to hear your views ladies and gents!

Cheers

Good Morning America

Morning everyone. It's 9am in NYC, and I've been up for 2 hours already. The plan is to continue with our normal schedule in terms of sleeping, eating and waking and that way we should have no problem adjusting both here and when we get back. This morning I've been listening to New York's hit music station z100, the equivalent of Capital. I've made 2 sides of notes and will blog a pretty in depth analysis of the differences later on, when I have time. 

We're now off to Times Sq to enjoy the day. It's pretty overcast at the moment, but nevertheless I'm sure it's gonna be cracking. Okay, so we're off - I'll struggle with crossing the road I'm sure, and we're gonna now get the subway for the 1st time!

Wish Me Luck!

The City That Never Sleeps

Hey Y'all. I am currently sitting in my apartment on East 14th Street, Manhattan! That's right - we made it! Our apartment is great, and in a really great location. We took a wander round a little while ago and found 4 Duane Reed's, which is a pharmacy - New York seems to be obsessed with pharmacies. There is a subway station right outside which will prove very useful. We found a cool little pizza diner called Papou Pizza where 2 'slices' (more like slabs) and a drink were only $4.50. Bargain, and very filling. 

One thing I am very much struggling with is crossing the road. Now, this may seem silly but I think not. For a start, whilst the light is on to cross, cars can turn into the road from the right - what the?! So the light is red for cars but if they are turning right, then it's OK, even if that means they are going right toward a crowd of people? Only in America! Also, it is well known that Jaywalking is illegal in America - i.e. crossing the road when the traffic light says not too. But everyone seems to do it - so I'm not sure when I can cross or not! Very confusing, and I shall be making this a key area of study after the next couple of days!

Whilst I am here I am gonna say 'mate' and 'cheers' as often as possible. It's not really conscience, as I say those words all the time, but I feel I should inject some Englishness into NYC.

I've not even seen much of NY yet but it already seems awesome. Anyway, been up 18 hours now and feeling knackered. Don't wanna be too tired tomorrow, so gonna head to bed soon, even if it is before 10 local time!

Until tomorrow,

Night Y'All!

Up In The Air

All right all? I haven’t blogged for over a week, which is terrible. My apologies for this – I didn’t wanna feel like I was just blogging for the sake of it, and actually had something to say. I think I have quite a bit to talk about as I am currently sitting aboard flight VS045 half way over the Atalntic on my way to New York City! Obviously, I can’t access the internet onboard (not without a cost anyway) and so I’ll post this online as soon as I get chance in Manhattan.

 

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was scared of flying, and I have to say I have struggled at times during the flight – take off wasn’t fun anyway! But, I’m pleased to report that flying on Virgin Atlantic is awesome. There are several reasons for this:

 

1)    Free alcohol – I’ve not partaken yet however, but there’s still 3 hours to go and the return flight.

2)    Virgin have a brand new kind of in flight entertainment. It has about 60 movies to choose from, 50 TV shows, 15 games and the opportunity to text messages to other passengers. Imagine how cool that’d be if you saw a fit girl across the way there and wanted to talk to her, without actually talking to her! The movies on board include Burn After Reading, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, Max Payne, The Dark Knight, and many many more! There’s 4 episodes of Family Guy, which I’m currently watching and also games such as Tetris and Solitaire.

3)    It’s pretty damn comfy.

4)    Free food and drink! (Including Choc-Ices!)

 

We were 40 minutes late taking off but it’s no problem now that we’re over halfway. There’s rather a lot ot turblence at the moment, but Family Guy and this blog are distracting me from nerves. The plane has a surprisingly number of empty seats, which means there are a few lucky people who are able to spread themselves across 4 seats to sleep! I’m jealous, as I’m knackered but can’t sleep sitting up in this position! There’s not quite enough leg room though to be honest! It’s ok if you’re small like Aoif, but I’ve got long legs and it’s not the most comfortable!

 

As for our trip, our apartment is in the middle of Manhattan, and we have tickets for a NY Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, which is well exciting! Probably the most exciting bit of the trip I think.

 

Well, I think that’ll do me for now, I’ll report later from my apartment. Talk to you soon, cheers. Take care.

Nearly 96 hours of life unblogged...

I'm really sorry, I've let the side down, dropped the ball, or some other expression for failure. I haven't blogged for 4 days. That's shit. Truth is, I've just wanted to get into bed and sleep every night, and that's when I tend to write.  It's gotten to the point that I nearly didn't want to write this blog even, due to the fact that I have a fair bit to update you on. Not that my life's been exciting or anything, I've just done a few things I'd like to write about.

Right, where I left off, Saturday morning. Work was fine, and I came home and slept through most of the day. I watched England's vastly improved performance in their defeat to the Welsh. It's become a bit of a joke in the house that Stoobie is our new rugby correspondent, due to him trying to learn the game so he can watch it with the 2nd years. The evening (Valentine's remember) was spent with Aoife watching a bit of tele, whilst eating pizza and then settling down to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (yeah, it was illegal, sorry Brad). I wanted to do a mini film review but I've left it too long and already have enough to write about. I will summarise by saying that I thought the film was brilliant. The story was beautiful and I did cry at the end of the movie. Now, whilst I appreciate I cry at a number of films, I just loved the story in this film. It was 2 hours, 45 minutes however, which was about 45 minutes or so too long, and was almost a chore to watch for that reason.

I also finally installed Spotify, although not on my PC, that's still being a pain, but on Aoife's Mac. An example of Apple being better than Windows (you won't hear me saying that often) and is the best thing I've played with in a long time. It's up there with the iPlayer - genius I tell thee. What excites me, in a geeky radio way is people's acceptance of an advert every 5 songs, which is often a reason given as to why people don't like listening to commercial radio.

Right, blimey only just on Sunday. Sunday, I worked in the pub. I started at 11, and worked until 5, and I was in charge for pretty much the entire shift. It wasn't too busy and I actually enjoyed it, which is incredible since I generally would say I hate it. Sunday evening saw Tudor's arrival at the Big Gay House along with two extra controllers for the Xbox, and a night of gaming and Wrestling ensued. We played Fifa, Madden and Smackdown vs. Raw, with Stoobie getting involved too, and Robin joined us later. It was cracking, to be honest, and we hadn't even got on to No Way Out which I was mostly looking forward too. Again, I would like to write about all the matches in detail, blog my thoughts and feelings on the outcome, but I would be here til Easter. Robin fell asleep as soon as the 1st match came on, and then when he did watch the wrestling, he found the buzzer noise used in the Elimination Chamber more entertaining than the wrestling. I ended up staying up until 5.30. I had a great night, and a big thanks to all involved, and we must make sure we do it more often!

Monday, Monday! Not a lot of interest occurred, other than I completed my seminar paper on advertising and the media which I'm due to present in the morning. I then went to work at Classic where I'm currently covering the 6-12am slot until tomorrow night. Nothing of note occurred there, and American Pie was on the TV which was a result.

I'm rushing things now just to get this done. So, on to Tuesday. I took part in Steven's focus group which was about Newsbeat and in particular a special broadcast they did back in June with David Cameron. I very much enjoyed taking part in this, and it led me to come up with the suggestion that Radio 1 should have a phone-in/debate section of the mid morning show for the listeners to discuss issues, mainly political, but other things as well. It would work in a similar way to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. The more I think about this, I think it's brilliant, well, if I do say so myself.

I also had work again this evening which was fine. I think I'm suffering from a crisis of confidence though, something I'll go into in more detail I'm sure.

Right, really rushed through that. Pity, really. I'll try and post more often. As for Wednesday, got my presentation tomorrow and work again. Wish me luck! 

Night

Happy Valentines Day to all!

Good morning to you! Hope you're well.

When discussing news items this afternoon, I appear to have missed the biggest one of the day - the story of the 13 year old father. He's apparently only 4foot tall, his voice hasn't broken yet, and he gets £10 pocket money off his dad sometimes. His 'girlfriend' is 15, and lives with her mum, and dad, who hasn't got a job, and 5 brothers. They live off benefits. The father, who was 12 at the time of conception, lives with his mum, who's separated from his father, who has 10 kids in total. Now, I have a number of things to say about this, but I'm not sure how to do so without sounding snobbish and very middle class. But, what I will say is that it's a perfect example of how Britain is becoming fucked up. Now, he isn't the youngest father we've ever seen in the UK, but it's just ridiculous. The best quote of it all comes from the boy's father, who has said he is going to sit down and explain the birds and bees to his son, so that it doesn't happen again - what a idiot. Honestly, some people should not be allowed to have kids, and I can only imagine the life this new poor child is going to have. I'm completely shocked by the fact that kids have sex when they are 12 - I'm pretty sure I didn't know what it was, I didn't even kiss someone until I was 15, and sex didn't come knocking until I was 18. Given, that I'm probably later than average, but still, 12. I remember joking around in the playground about 'humping' at around that time. Unbelievable.

Another big story is the decision by Amazon to sell a Japanese game in which the objective is to rape women. You can even play online, meet up with friends and gang rape someone. How shocking? The Japanese are mental. As for Amazon? I hope they don't get in too much trouble for this, a simple apology will do and let's hear no more of it.

I'm currently at work, and am playing out the Howard Goodall on... repeat from last Saturday. Very shortly I need to work out all my timings for Matthew Stiff's show so I hit the news from IRN on time. All geeky and uninteresting I know.

I think I've ranted for long enough and need to get back to work. Oh, and Happy Valentines day!

Cheers!

Friday the 13th

Howdy! Today I have done nothing, I got up at 1, got out of bed at 2 and I will return to bed for a wee kip after writing this blog, before I head to work tonight. Exciting(!)

The big news story of the day is the plane crash in Buffalo, NY, which following last month's Hudson River experience fills me with great apprehension considering Aoif and I will be flying to NYC in just 12 days. I really don't like flying, and the silly thing about that is, that I have developed a fear of flying for no reason. I first flew when I was 11 or 12 (well I actually went to Borneo when I was 18 months old, but I don't remember that!) and it was grand. I remember my sister hated it, especially taking off, but I loved it and thought it was really cool. But now, I hate taking off, and I hate just being in an aeroplane. It's just the noise of the engine as the plane levels off, it sounds like it cuts out, and as it levels, my stomach turns, and the whole experience renders me quite scared. This is due I think to the fact that I worry about everything, and if there was one thing I could change about myself it would be the amount I worry about silly, pointless things. Despite this fear of flying, I am determined not to let it stop me from doing things, but I have to say I'm not looking forward to the 8 hour outward journey to JFK, although I've flown for 8 hours before, to Barbados and back.

Other news today talks of the Twestival that happened either yesterday, or the day before, the England test match being postponed due to a dangerous outfield, and the fact that Chelsea have lost loads of money due to sacking Mourinho and Grant, and the figures don't include the sacking of Scolari either. Incidentally, it was revealed that Man Utd are the 2nd richest club in the world to Real Madrid, but would be first if it wasn't for the weak pound. I still find it bizarre that money can change in value from day to day, maybe one day I'll get my head around it.

Something I haven't mentioned yet on my blog, is the fact that my cat, Poppy, who lives at home with Mum and Dad, is ill, bless her. She's not eaten for about a week, and if you could see the size of her you'd realise that something must be seriously wrong. She had a blood test at the vets this week (£169!!!) and had to stay over for a night, but the vet can't work out what's wrong, and the whole thing is getting Mum and Kate down rather a lot. Hopefully she'll get better soon.

I've been considering what phone to purchase next, and it simply comes down to Blackberry vs. Nokia 5800 vs. the iPhone. Now, if I had to pick my favourite, then it'd be the iPhone. But the fact that the other handsets are free, whereas the iPhone is £100, probably means I can't afford one, and I already have a Nokia, so when it comes to upgrade time, we'll see what happens. The injuries sustained to my phone are growing, by the way; the battery life is down from about 2 days to 7 hours, the wifi coverage is now terrible, and the 8 key is temperamental, and you already know about the broken 0 key. 7 months 'til upgrade. Ho hum.

Right, well I'd best be trying to get some sleep before work tonight. It's the last shift on my current hours, before my new hours which I mentioned earlier in the week come into affect. It's also my last handover with Andrew, the guy who trained me, as he's leaving the station tomorrow. I'll blog again in the early hours. Until then!