20th JANUARY - NATIONAL DISC JOCKEY DAY

No, until last year I didn’t know one existed either; a day to celebrate and acknowledge the very lucky people that have had the chance to perform and act (because that is exactly what it is) behind a microphone on a radio station.  It’s also appropriate because exactly 12 years ago today, January 20^th 2004, I began my own career on local radio on the long-gone URB FM – it stood for Urban Radio Broadcasting and nothing to do with an American addition to food!

Someone that had a very bad stammer from the age of 5 and throughout his informative years would never have considered being a radio presenter.  It was hard enough sometimes reading out quiz questions bearing in mind they all began with an H or a W – not the best of letters for an occasional stammering wreck, but to work on radio?  The opportunity came along in the Spring of 2003 when I was first approached with the idea by someone who I previously believed was a good friend.  He offered to back the project and I would be the Managing Director after setting up the Spanish Limited Company (S.L) with my own €3,006 of investment.  There is a very long story to be told here, much for the very first time, over the coming months or in the future book, but suffice to say some of us trusted the wrong people (they would and did say that about me, of course) and it all ended in tears after eight months.

I was surrounded at the time by some very loyal people – and they know who they are – alongside some of the most evil people it had, to date, been my misfortune to meet, deal with, work with and to trust.  One of these days, I’ll learn from those lessons of 12 years ago......

It’s become a bit of a standing joke with me when people say that there aren’t any other local radio stations left in the area for me to work for.  I’ve certainly done the rounds since 2004.  URB FM (which morphed into Costa Blanca FM), TKO Gold, Sunshine FM, TKO Gold again, Radio Torrevieja, Exite FM, Radio Nova, and for the third and final time, TKO – this time without the Gold as that had long since been dumped.   Why so many?  Why didn’t I just stay with one station and have a long career there?  I was never sacked from any post, so why did I always leave on my own accord?  It was my entire fault and all because of the music I played.  Let me try to explain.....

When I began on air, I didn’t really know what music to play.  We only had a limited computer database of music and our own CD collections to rely on.  I was always more of a fan of the old (not nowadays) BBC Radio 2 style of easy listening / middle-of-the-road (MOR) music having rejected Radio 1 during the Glam Rock days of 1972 / 73.  Give me Matt Monro, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and The Carpenters any day in preference to the rock and pop stars, and so it was these legends that I started to put into my own radio playlists in a mainstream Monday to Friday lunchtime show alongside contemporary performers such as Phil Collins, Elton John, Will Young, Robbie Williams, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion etc, and the choice appeared to resonate with the growing number of listeners.   I always found it fascinating over the years that many of my colleagues were playing mainstream pop and rock and yet whenever a request was received it was for one of the MOR stars or for something from the ‘50s or ‘60s.  It wasn’t rocket science to see what the listeners really wanted to listen to. The age demographic was also staring people right in the face too, but they chose to ignore it for some reason.

I then took over the best job on radio, a Sunday morning request show, and a new level of listener interaction was reached.  I deliberately based this on a combination of Uncle Mac, Junior Choice and Family Favourites and for the next nine years – almost without a break on whatever station I worked on – presented that slot from 9am to Noon.   What began with a handful of “anything goes” requests reached a peak in 2011 / 12 with the need to take requests for two weeks in advance.

It was a very simple format.  Ask a simple question or play a popular TV or Movie Theme at around 9.15am and open the ‘phone lines. Within 30 minutes, the average of 35 to 40 slots became full with requests for the following week and beyond.  During the peak of the shows, close to 100 entries were being received for the prize competition – usually a bottle of Spanish Cava – from the telephone, text, e-mail and latterly Facebook.   It was a very popular show with the listeners but that’s where the popularity ended.  Many, not all but most, in authority absolutely hated the show, as did, allegedly, the advertisers and potential sponsors.  Words and phrases like “hideous, “rubbish” and “it’s all too old” were often bandied around, but I was purely responding to what the listeners (the lifeblood of any radio station) wanted.  I’ll throw another couple of words into the mix that I often used at the time.  Jealousy and incompetence!

Every station I worked for always ended up the same.  I was told that my music was too old and too slow (often a ballad played meant that it must be an old song – quite ironic when I listen to the current wrist-slashing offerings of Adele and Sam Smith), and that – and this is the best one – “you are attracting the wrong type of listeners”!  These listeners were the ones; they still are to this day, with the most disposable income in the area.  They are the pensioners and the 50-something early retirees that know where their next cent is coming from, that have the time to listen to the radio for many hours each day, to listen to the adverts and to hopefully spend some of that income on those businesses.  Those very people that make up close to 80% of the demographic in the area. The “old farts and those waiting for God” (their terms for my listeners, not mine) weren’t wanted. 

Again, wherever I worked, I always tried to bring something else to the proverbial table.  I simply couldn’t turn up, do my job and go home.  I always had to make some suggestions, improvements, observations and always with the ultimate aim of trying to make some more money for those stations.  I took the view then and still do that the more money the radio station made, then the more stable the business is and the more chance I and the other presenters had of staying employed.  It was basic common sense, but something that appeared not to be grasped by the decision makers.  The overwhelming majority of the demographic were never targeted as they should’ve been, nor were the potential advertisers that would’ve appealed to those listeners. 

I’ll finish this blog with two perfect examples of some of the attitudes displayed in local radio.  One comes from someone in authority that once said, “I don’t care what the listeners want or think.  I only care about the advertisers!”  Another comes from someone who telephoned me one Monday morning after a Sunday request show.  “We need to talk about your show yesterday.  I don’t want any more of that Mario Lanza stuff.”  I explained that this had been a request from someone (who was 61) and wanted to hear a certain song as it was his late mum’s favourite and it would’ve been her birthday.  “I don’t care.  I don’t want it on my radio station and anyone of that age should know better than to request shit like that!” A sad and very disappointing attitude.

So, why did I leave and give it all up?  When I went back to TKO for the final time, it was as Station Manager and in the midweek graveyard slot of 6pm to 8pm.  There was nothing available at the weekend at the time.  After only a couple of months, it was quite obvious that there was no further work to be done in the managerial role - it was running itself - and I then began working full time in the office of TKO and The Courier as cuts were made to the schedule and my slot was the logical one to go at that time of day. I fell on my own sword. In September 2014, there were some major disagreements as to the future of the business; I didn't like the way it was going and wasn't confident (I wasn't the only one) and resigned accordingly.  For me, the radio station was also going too modern and too chart based and I decided that it wouldn't ever again suit my style of broadcasting.  Having tuned in again a couple of months ago for the first time in more than a year, I think (I know) I made the right decision.  I didn't want it, and I felt it didn't want me.

Apart from filling in for one show on Real Radio in January 2015, I’ve not been on radio since July 2014, and I have to say that I don’t miss it.  It saddens and flatters me in equal proportions when I still meet and hear from people who tell me that since I left the airwaves, they no longer listen to any of the local stations as “none of them play the type of music you did.”  These aren’t old farts either.  They’re between 55 and 75 who desperately miss their fix of Il Divo, Josh Groban, Barbra Streisand, Mary Byrne, Joe McElderry, Mario Lanza and, yes, Sparky’s Magic Piano, My Father Had A Rabbit and Master Of The House from Les Miserables!!  I passionately believe there is still room for something like this on local Costa Blanca radio!

In the words of the song from The Sound of Music and what will probably be my epitaph, “I must've done Something Good!”

I'll be back after the break......