This one is about my more creative flair, most utilised on the radio Network I broadcast across. The plan was working well, play the song and when there was the silent bit, pause song and play a random sound effect. Excellent fun! I kid you not, I even heard someone telling a colleague of theirs in River Island they had heard a random horse sound played in the P!nk song, Sober last night on the radio, ha ha.  So my plan continued, undetected by management (most importantly). That was until.... a few months into my secret plan. When, I made a school boy error. Great! I remember thinking every time I found out that P!nk Sober was on the playlist. (Contrary to belief, radio presenters don't pick their own playlist of songs).   What sound should I play tonight I wonder? Hmmmm? Oooh, I know, a fart sound, yesssss.  So off I went to research fart sounds available to download. Got one, plan in place, looking forward to continuing my random sound effect fun.  All was we...

The irony is, the great ones, the ones that do it because that's what they do best, do not ever crave that 'shout out' or recognition. It's the success of those they mentor that provides them with the most fulfilling reward and self-satisfaction.  But I'm going to give that 'shout out' not by name, because again, that's the last thing they'd want! But by influence and how we crossed paths. So here's my nameless list of those mentors that have believed in me through my career, so far... First, at the very beginning. Hospital Radio, where I was paired with someone that was already a someone in media and that was gold dust for me. I listened and learned as much as possible. I remember being given a task of prepping something todo with the first plane flight, I really did over prepare for what turned out to be a 30 second on air piece, ha ha. That person also chose the song; You Say It Best - Ronan Keating as my theme on the show promos montage, tha...

  "Feel the fear" a wise man once said, standing on stage in front of me at a conference room in the media department of Thames Valley University, as I was about to embark on my first public reading of a travel news bulletin. “Who would like to feel the fear first?” The voice boomed again. I put my hand up, heart pumping, trying to concentrate on the words I’d so carefully crafted over the space of 15 minutes… Perhaps I should explain why I was there in the first place to give some perspective to all this.  A long term friend of mine that I presented a hospital radio show with, called me one day when I was on a bus journey (he'd remember the bus number, I can't) to say he knew of a way we could ‘get into actual radio’, a Travel News course he’d seen advertised. At first I slated his idea, as I felt it sounded like an extremely boring waste of cash, little did I know what the future had in store for me. I ended up changing my mind and booking onto this weekend course ...

No, it really did! So picture this, you’re presenting your regular show, across the entire country and to whoever’s listening online around the world. You’re playing the penultimate song of that show, back timed exactly to the ads, everything is pretty normal. Or is it? Suddenly every screen in front of you (apart from the internet screen) goes blank. That penultimate song still playing away, listeners oblivious to anything of course apart from enjoying the music.  Let’s stop there for a minute and freeze that moment in time. What would you do? It’s moments like this when broadcasting live that really let you understand your character, your heart rate, your control of a situation seemingly out of your control. Do you call an engineer, run to the racks room (if you have access), but how much time do you have until, silence? Oh, there is an additional factor here, your national show goes into local shows across the country, presenters sitting preparing their shows, also listening in...