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The local newspapers didn't go with it as a front page scoop but I have just returned home from making a rare return to the world of radio as a guest on Castle Rock on my old station Trent Sound, although to be fair I could save the inhabitants of an orphanage from a fire without a single death and the local media wouldn't mention it. While I don't miss radio as much as I thought I would, the feeling you get from going out live on air when anything can happen is something that never stops being exciting. Internet radio differs from FM or digital in that the shows are 'appointment' listening; I am sure that I didn't share too much of a crossover audience between The Sunday Alternative, Andy Marriott before me and More Than Jazz afterwards, so people tune in for what you are specifically giving them. You don't listen to whatever is broadcast on an online station on a casual basis because it is far easier to turn a radio on at home than to go through the rigmarole of turning on your computer and selecting a station to listen to. I still maintain that (as much as it saddens me to say it given my lifelong love of radio and preference to it over television) radio is less significant now than it once was and podcasts and other services such as Spotify are slowly but surely winning the fight. Take Steve Wright in the Afternoon for example, Wright is a brilliant technical DJ who takes the medium very seriously and it shows. As good as he is though, I can't listen to his show because the music doesn't appeal to me. If I want background music I might have BBC 6 Music on but even that no longer delivers what it once promised it would, certainly not during the day. You only have to read Good Morning Nantwich by Phill Jupitus to find out how quickly things changed on 6 Music regarding their music policy (and let us not forget their recruitment blunders). Services such as Spotify (other music streaming sites are available) put the listener in charge of what they listen to and that should have made mainstream radio stations panic and try to change their attitude but it hasn't happened.
Your taste in music is perhaps better served by podcasts dealing with something a little different. I pride myself on the range of new music that I play on my weekly podcast and I myself listen to a range of music and comedy podcasts while working at my desk because they are there for your convenience. The Sunday Alternative podcast receives listeners from all around the world and only a portion of listeners (I keep a very close eye on the figures) actually on the Sunday. When it was on radio I didn't know how many people were listening but they had to be sitting at a computer for those two hours which is a hell of a commitment. I struggled to get co-presenters to commit to those two hours a week so how did I stand a chance expecting listeners to do the same?
Having said all that, it was a lot of fun being on live radio again, especially with no preparation. I was more of a guest than a guest co-presenter this time around with three of us in the studio. Lee, who created the show, wasn't 'driving - another presenter called Ant was and they worked well together which at times made me feel a bit spare in what quite a competitive environment when it came to trying to get a word in or build on a subject. That aside it was a lot of fun and as part this week's subject on little things you find annoying I was able to appeal to people not to talk at gigs or play music on public transport. We then switched halfway through and invited listeners to mention the little things that make you happy which worked well.
Lee has presented Castle Rock since (I think) the start of Trent Sound and you can tell that he really enjoys it. Like me he loves comedy in addition to music and it shows in his presentation. Unlike The Sunday Alternative's radio audience, Lee does get a lot of interaction from his listeners and he and Ant work well together. Trent Sound now only broadcasts a handful of live shows and the studio is a lot smaller than the one we used at the old Trent Towers (not an actual tower) so I am not really sure what the future holds for it. It would be a shame to lose the city's only proper local radio station but so many changes have occurred that it no longer feels as though it has the local identity. Another issue is that in the temporary studio it doesn't feel like a radio station, but neither did Trent Towers in the last days. When I used to go in on a Saturday to do some recording and help out on Nottingham L.A.C.E. there was always a building full of people and it felt as though you were part of something with radio guests milling around waiting for their turn to go on and people in the office. This was also true for a while during the week when they used to have a full daytime programme starting with the morning show and after a pre-recorded hour (The Retro Chart) there was a 1pm-4pm show and a 4pm -6pm show, another pre-recorded hour led to the live shows at 7pm and the atmosphere was that of a busy radio station. Eventually it got to the stage where we were just turning up in an empty building, doing a show and then turning the lights off and locking up.
The Facebook page for the station keeps announcing that the station will relaunch as part of a network of local online stations in the summer which could work but it would need some of the old shows back. Nottingham L.A.C.E. was a perfect show for local radio as was NottinghamLIVE but we needed (as I did on The Sunday Alternative although I never promoted it as a local show) to have live music in the studio and that simply wasn't possible in the new place. Local music needs a decent outlet either on radio or as a podcast as NottinghamLIVE has not been replaced and there is a gap in the market waiting to be filled.
This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative can be heard here.
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April housekeeping
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