Last But Not Least.

The folks at Last.fm have been receiving a lot of comments (apparently) from punters who are not at all happy about the upcoming $3 a month charge for the previously free service.
So much so that they are now 'delaying' the decision on when to begin charging.
Listeners in the States, UK and Germany won't need to pay because there are more of them using Last.fm...it's the rest of the world who will have to cough up their hard earned dough.
On the last.fm blog they're now talking about the fact that they've "postponed the date on which radio will become a subscription service outside the USA, UK and Germany. In the meantime we’ll be squeezing in some additional improvements based on your requests".
Interrresting .
The blog is here:
http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/30/radio-announcement-revisited

PD on eBay.

Unemployed US PD Tim Jones has decided to advertise himself...on eBay !
Nice idea.
Start your bidding.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260383031300

Elvis is in the Buildings!

New markets in the pipeline.

I tend to point a lot of people towards Elvis Duran when they ask me who they should listen to for inspiration. Now, he may not be absolutely everyone's cup of tea (who is)? But the one thing I love about him is that he uses all of the radio basics brilliantly.

In fact, when you listen to him casually, you'd never even know he's using them - it sounds as though he's just doing his thing. That's what makes him so effective. Listen to his links and analyse them and you will be able to see how he uses the 3 Rules in every break...even the ten minute ones!

Well anyway, I've just heard that Elvis is in expansion mode.

Premier Radio Networks have the show (which comes from Z100 NewYork) networked to Y100 Miami, Q102 Philly and 96.5 KISS in Cleveland and with this deal we should expect new market announcements soon.

Juicy Wheels.

Saw this on RadioToday - just thought is looked great.

50 Black cabs in the Liverpool area will be branded like this for local station 107.6 Juice FM. That's advertising on the go :-)

Manchester Workshop.

Quite the day on Saturday at our Manchester Presenter Workshop. We had people attend from all over England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the European continent. Great fun ! Robin Banks was awesome as was our guest speaker Mark Story.
The DVD will be available soon too :-)
Next UK Workshop locations include London, Glasgow and Bristol...just email for early registration and details.
Also Dublin is on the list once more for late April.

Thanks for your support.

Robin Banks during a break on Saturday.

Craig Charles.

Always on the look out for new or different radio experiences, so I thought I'd point you towards BBC 6 Music and the Funk And Soul Show Saturdays at 6pm.

Now before you think "Not my style of music mate", let me explain.

First up - not usually my style either. The reason this show a bit different is the host - Craig Charles.

That's right, the guy from Corrie and Red Dwarf...he was Dave Lister!

I remember him when he was the punk-poet type guy on the Wogan TV chat show in the 80s.

If not for the music, then listen for the passion. Obviously a guy who is there because he wants to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/funk_soul/

Bye Bye Chum :-(

Toronto AM music station 1050 Chum has dropped their Oldies format and gone All News. Chum have been a music station since 1957 when they began as (what was then called) Top 40. They flipped to Oldies over 20 years ago and have been primarily a music station for the most part of the past half century. They were the station that brought Elvis and The Beatles to the city.

In the 70s, they gave away $1,000 in cash to listeners who answered their phone with the words "I Listen to Chum" (might sound familiar to you if you remember Sunshine 101 Dublin in the 80s)!

chum building toronto.

I understand the business part - music on AM is almost impossible to pull off, but at the same time I'm really sad to see a grand old dame of North American radio fade away like this. It was the same with LG73 in Vancouver - a powerhouse CHR station, now pumping out traffic bulletins 24 hours a day (although their call letters 'CKLG' were adopted by JackFM Vancouver, in a nice nod to the past).

The newly formatted station is called CP24. It changed over a 5am local time today.

http://www.cp24.com

Brian James.

Here's a link to a lovely piece of tribute audio...a celebration of the legend that was Brian James.

It's not just the voice, it's the delivery. It's everything.

Link is here:

http://www.jinglenews.com/2009/03/25/brian-james-tribute/

UK Changes.

Tony Blackburn, Vanessa Feltz and Gary Crowley are to join BBC London from the start of April as part of the new look weekend schedule. Blackburn back at the Beeb, eh?

Do you like a bit of Bully??

Jim "You've Won A Speedboat" Bowen is a new name on 106.6 Indigo FM in Cumbria. He's going to do the mid-morning gig. Can't beat a bit of Bowen!!

Rosko.

Legend that is Emperor Rosko on Star 107.5 in Gloucestershire on Saturdays.

KOMO-KJR Seattle : 1937 !!

We should all start wearing suit and tie again on the air :-)
Awesome piece of video.

Money At Last.

Do you use Last.fm often?
I never really took to it personally, but know lots of people who have the app downloaded and think it's great.
Up to now, they have provided the option of paying three euroo a month which removes advertising and allows for playback flexibility.
Now though, if you live outside The UK , Germany or the USA that three quid fee will be mandatory.
That's right - you'lll have to pay no matter what.
“In the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, nothing will change," posted Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones on Last.fm's blog. “In all other countries, listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month" or the local equivalent. The Last.fm social website and all of its features will still be accessible for free in the rest of the world, but in the vast majority of the world's 200 or so countries, as Wired.com confirmed with a company spokeswoman, the €3.00 monthly fee will apply".

Ad rates in the three countries listed is strong enough for a free service to continue there.

Oooh,, that damn recession !

http://www.last.fm

Meteor Videos.

Meant to post these ages ago...but anyway :-)
The promo nominee videos made for the Meteors...

i Roar :-)

i105107 are holding their Roar Off on Breakfast with Bernard and Keith. It could be just me, but I think this is the funniest morning show in the country. Bernard is hilarious and Keith's dry sense of humour and delivery is spot on. Personal opinion, of course.
The first qualifier in the Roar Off came from Naas (A Nice Place To Shop)!
Overall winner grabs a week in Spain.
Today's video:

All Heart.

As of today, twelve more stations in England are now under the Heart brand.

Early January saw nine outlets flip to Heart, so now along with the already established ones in London, East Midlands and West Midlands the total is twenty four.

The latest arrive in:

Bristol (GWR)

Bath (GWR)

Wiltshire(GWR)

Reading (2-Ten)

Oxford (Fox FM)

Plymouth (Plymouth Sound)

South Hampshire (South Hams Radio)

North Devon Lantern FM)

Exeter (Gemini FM)

Torbay (Gemini FM)

Somerset (Orchard FM)

Gloucester (Severn Sound).

Expect loads of TV and billboard advertising to support the launches.

Heart is now the largest commercial radio network in the UK.

The Goom Show.

Have you heard of Goom ?

It's a service that is due to kick off in the States later this year aimed at the 'internet generation' (whoever that is).

The blurb on the homepage talks about the top presenters, top music and top shows.

Here's a quote: "We also give you all the tools and knowledge you need to create and influence your own radio station".

They are accepting sign-ups for a Beta invite and even though I'm not in the States I figured I might as well stick the email on there just in case...ever the optimist.

There is a French version available here: http://www.goomradio.com/goomWeb/home.do

Here's the US URL : http://www.goomradio.com/us

Bear Fight.

Edmonton's 100.3 The Bear stunt.

Lots of conflicting opinions from 'genius' to'moronic'.

What ya reckon?

Irish Stations on RadioTime.

I noticed Dublin's Country are available on the RadioTime system.

I mentioned RadioTime about a year back and still love it. It's a way of recording shows and streams to listen back to over the net or download to your MP3 player. I've been using it on and off for ages and it gets better and better.
There's a free trial if you want to take a look. Purchase fee though is pretty cheap ($29 US).

Other Irish stations on there include Dublin's 98, Power FM. 2FM, Spin 1038, TCR, ABC 94, Radio 1, Freedom, NewsTalk, the RTE Digital stations, Hot Country, Q102, Dublin City, 4FM, Power FM, Today FM, All 80s, Phantom, FM104, XFM...phew !

That's as of today.

http://www.radiotime.com

Colin Murray.

With the direction his career has been taking lately, I guess it was only a matter of time before Colin Murray moved off BBC Radio 1 completely.

The Northern irish man is to take up a new full time role on 5Live.

Granted, he's already there with the brilliant 'Fighting Talk' on Saturday mornings (best sports quiz on radio IMHO), but this will also be added to with a Friday and Sunday gig too.

Not forgetting his TV work on 5ive (what's with the number 5)??

I remember when it was Colin and Edith on Radio 1 afternoons...things keep on moving.

Meteor Winners.

So, the pup Foley wins again eh? There'll be no keeping him quiet now :-) 'Best radio DJ - National'.

I'm a huge fan of Ray...I just love the way his brain works. A lot of people think his job is easy, but I've seen first hand exactly what it takes to make that show successful and it's an awful lot of work and dedication from the whole crew involved.

The fact that he makes it sound so easy is what makes him so good.

Also good on the Morning Crew from Dublin's 98 (Best Radio DJ - Regional).

Dermot, Dave and Siobhan have been plugging away for a few years now and were also given a rough ride at the start. They have come into their own with a distinctive style and humour and I'm delighted to see them pick up this award.

Some people slam the Meteors saying it's easy to win - you just need to convince enough members of the public to vote for you. Maybe - but people won't vote just because you ask them to. They will vote because they like you and they want to.

Let's give some credit where it's due.

Good job to all nominees and to Ray and The Morning Crew - enjoy your moment guys :-)

Three Things.

One: Thanks to my pals at Bob FM in Ottawa, JR and Sandy. It was fun being with them on their morning show today.

Two: Great to hear Mark Byrne back on the air with 4FM this afternoon.

Three: Good luck to all the radio nominees at tonight's Meteor Awards.

Shortwave is Back.

Today (St. Paddys Day) sees RTE crank up the shorwave gear and point it towards Africa.

It's aimed at Irish people living the more remote areas of the continent who may not have access to the internet or satellite radio and who just want an old fashioned radio signal on an old fashioned radio. Nothing better than shorwave for that.

Basically the content will consist of one hour of RTE programming each day and can be heard on 6220 Khz. The main areas covered will be East, West and Central Africa.

Brings back memories of Radio Luxembourg SW....ah the good old days :-)

Mark Byrne.

Lots of people have been on to me in the past few weeks asking about Mark Byrne.

When is he going to be on 4FM, they ask (not all at the same time obviously)?!

Well, I can tell you.

Tomorrow - Paddy's Day.

Captain Byrne will sit behind the mic on Golden Lane at 4pm for his Paddy's broadcast.

Now you know.

http://www.4fm.ie

Paddys Day !

If you happen to be near a Wi-Fi radio tomorrow then why not tune it towards Bob-FM in Ottawa Canada between 11:30am and 12:30pm.

Why?

I will be on air with my pals JR and Sandy for their breakfast show 'The Morning After' talking Paddys day and all things Irish (sort of).

Jr and Sandy.

They're a great team and are always well worth a listen.

http://939bobfm.com

Mad For Metal.

If Metal is your music of choice and you feel that you just can't find the music or the mix that you like, then you may want to take a look at the new service available from AOL Radio - Noisecreep.

Lots of metal and hard rock on here as well as links to other metal websites, news and videos.

Rock on.

This joins other AOL Radio services Spinner (rock), TheBoot (country) and TheBoombox (hip-hop).

http://www.noisecreep.com

http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb

Beeb 2 Weekends.

The BBC Radio 2 weekend schedule is out and it sees Alan Carr take up Saturdays 6-8pm from April 25th. The show will be co-presnted by Emma Forbes and will have lots of chat apparantly and music to set up your Saturday night.

Sunday has Paul O'Grady On The Wireless from 5-7pm. One of the competitions is called Tea For Two on 2, where a listener can win tea with Paul and his production team.

Beats a CD, I guess !

Johnnie Walker will do a 70s only show before that.

Looks pretty decent. At least they're cleaning the weekends up a little. Smart idea getting a pro like Emma Forbes to help out with Alan Carr.

I'm not a massive fan of comedians hopping onto radio all the time (like, the job is that easy)? She will keep things ticking along professionally.

The one 'solid as a rock' performer in there will be Mister Walker. That kind of experience can never be replaced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2

Super Q Kansas City (Late 70s).

Good old aircheck. You can see the jock in studio wearing flares and a massive wing collar with carts and vinyl all over the place.
The man in question is none other than Barney Rubble.....oh yeah :-)
Enjoy.

Positively Red.

I wrote a bit not long ago about a station in the States (KJR in Seattle) that has decided to cut out all negative news on it's AM newscasts and concentrate only on the 'good news'.
Comments ranged from 'nice idea' to 'is there a point'?
Seems the philosophy has reached our own little fair isle, as RedFM in Cork spend tomorrow (Friday the 13th) in a good news zone with 'Feel Good Friday'.
No bad news and only positive stories.
Can't hurt for one day, can it? I mean there are plenty of outlets to get your bad news...so why not?
Or maybe I'm missing something.
http://www.redfm.ie

Manchester Workshop.

Booking for the Manchester Workshop closes tomorrow.
We will be at the Hilton Deansgate on the 28th of this month for five hours of radio...and a game of pin the tail on the donkey (!).

We?

Who's this 'we' I speak of?

Well...former Kiss London, XFM London and Virgin Radio man - Robin Banks.

Plus the legend that is Mark Story. From the BBC to Magic London to head honcho at Emap/Bauer. Is there nothing this man can't do? (Thanks to Homer Simpson for that line).

Also - all attendees receive one month FREE prep from www.txmediasuite.com (worth 59 quid).

Oh and a bit of lunch on the day as well. Gotta eat.

We have people cming from all parts of the UK as well as Irelaand and Continental Europe.

Just drop me an email and we can sort you out.

brian@bmacmedia.com

Gerry Kelly.

After a year or so away from the radio and TV world, Gerry Kelly will make his return on BBC Radio Ulster starting in April.
The show begins on the 4th and runs Saturdays from 12:30 to 2pm.

Handy Number :-)

More here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7924691.stm

Meteor Awards.

So, voting closed yesterday for this year's Meteor Awards. Did you vote?
Once again - the nominees:

Best National Presenter.
Alison Curtis – Today FM
Dave Fanning – 2 FM
Tony Fenton – Today FM
Ray Foley - Today FM
Dan Hegarty – 2 FM
Rick O’Shea – 2 FM

Best Regional Presenter.
Keith Cunningham (KC) & Lenny - Red FM
Dermot Dave & Siobhan – Dublin’s 98
Leigh Doyle – Beat 102.103
Mark Noble - FM104
Jon Richards – Galway Bay FM
The Zoo Crew – Spin South West

Last year it was the young pup Foley and the master that is KC from Red in Cork.
Good luck one and all.

Now They're On Air.

Update on 92.3 Now in NYC - they officially flipped today at 5:02pm local time.
First song was "Boom Boom Pow" from Black Eyed Peas.
K-Rock will continue on HD2 (in other words, will pretty much turn invisible).
Launch stunt by Now is a 10,000 song marathon, commercial free.
Only one jock has been named so far, Lisa Paige who comes from Q102 in Philadelphia.
http://www.923now.com

To The Modern...

96.9 Jack FM Vancouver's latest TV commercial featuring morning duo Larry and Willy.
Thanks to Airchecker for the link :-)

BBC Radio 4 Viral Ad.

This is getting some strange remarks - not all positive (shall we say).
BBC Radio 4's Today Programme trying too hard to be cool?
Maybe...you can decide for yourself.

Best Line of The Day.

From @peterdickson on twitter:

"When radio announcers drive through tunnels, do they go quiet" ??

Better Than Good.

This is freakin' wonderful !!!
Thanks to Baz for the link.
It's a montage of 80s TV commercials from the US.
Outstanding !

Danny Baker.

It's great listening to Danny Baker on BBC 5Live. He hosts the Tuesday evening edition of 606 and even if you're not a football fan it's well worth taking a listen to for his comments about life, the universe and everything.

It ain't all about the game when he's on air !

His website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/606withdannyb/

Oh by the way, Wednesday's 606 is hosted by former Soccer AM man, Tim Lovejoy.

Awesome.

Radio Twit.

Have you heard about Radio Twit ?
They're flogging the idea (even though it's free) that you can maximise your twitter use to stay connected to listeners by showing you how basic twitter works and giving tips on advanced uses.
A lot of it you probably know already, but hey - worth a look.
You will also get a free subscription to the RIB Cage Blog and CAB Radio Newsletter.
I've been using twitter a lot recently since I've come back on air but also have managed to create some extra business through people I have 'met' on there.
I know a lot of people say "Oh twitter, what a waste of time" and I was one of them. Really, though, the options it gives you are endless.
End of rant :-)
http://www.cabradio.com/radiotwit/sign_up.htm

What Emergency??

You may have heard that a 'Scrap Saturday' type show will hit the nation on Saturday mornings courtesy of NewsTalk.
One of the people behind this show is Voice Over legend and 'me gud ole mate' Morgan Jones. Morgan is one of the funniest most original people I know and his work is always at genius level.
Swine !!
I've been lucky enough to hear what The Emergncy is all about and you know something, it really is clever and very funny.
You'll like it.

Media Invite. Obviously this isn't an actual invite, but rather a copy of...just making sure and all that :-)

http://www.newstalk.ie

Now it's NYC !

So...the thick plottens :-)

The Now brand arrives in New York this week.

Wednesday sees the launch of 923 Now FM, the market's new CHR outlet. The blurb says it will be more than just a radio station with Social Networking capabilities including listener blogs, interactive features and network applications.

They will be hooked up to MySpace, Facebook and twitter as well using texts for contact. They could take a leaf out of some stations here and use the Catch Bar - that's interactive.

The launch happens 5pm NY time Wednesday.

http://923now.com

Plus, it looks like Opie and Anthony will be on the hunt for a new home as K-Rock switches to CHR. They're off FM but still on air at Sirius XM.

http://www.opieandanthony.com/

Quick Bits.

Frank Skinner joins Absolute Radio this Saturday for the breakfast show.
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk

Jimmy Osmond to do some shows for Pulse FM in Yorkshire.
http://www.pulse.co.uk

Raidío Rí Rá on FM for another two weeks...online 24 hours a day after that.
http://www.raidiorira.ie

Not As Easy As It Looks.

Another example of how elusive success in radio can be...Star FM Atlanta morning team 'The Morning Mess' have left the station.

This comes a year and a half after replacing the seventeen year duo Steve and Vicki. Yup, that's right - one show has seventeen years on the same shift. Then along comes the 'all new' morning team and the listeners either don't take to them or the chemistry isn't there. Whatever. Point being, when you get a show that works, keep it !

They're hard to come by.

http://www.star94.com

i Are At It Again.

The latest promotion from the people who brought you The Naked Bus, i102104 in Galway, is called Indecent Proposal.

Starting tomorrow, the trials to take part will start.

From the website:

The two couples that get through to the final stage will live in a glass box for one week. One live-in box will be in Sligo and the other in Galway, all viewable by the public in the main shopping areas.
The couples will be set a number of indecent proposals daily by i102-104 which they can accept or reject. If a person refuses to do an indecent proposal then they forfeit themselves and their partner’s chance of winning the loot.

Prize is €30K.

Niiiiice :-)

http://www.i102104.ie/indecentproposal/index.html

Almost Time To Switch.

For a station that will only be on air for a few day, the folks at Switch FM have put together a website that any commercial station would be proud to be associated with.
Nice bit of video on there (you can watch that below), profiles of their people and the logo is perfect. Nice job.
Switch is run by the students of BCFE in Dublin and will be on air from March 30th to April 3rd.
http://www.switchfm.ie

Radiothon Total.

Congrats to the folks at Dublin's 98 on raising €282,437 for the three Children's Hospitals in the city.

Dave Moore's twitter updates were awesome too:-)

http://www.dublins98.ie

Workshop Pics.

With Workshops coming up again, I thought it would be a good time to tell you that booking for Manchester at the end of this month is closing very soon.
Mark Story and Robin Banks will be joining me in the Hilton Deansgate and each attendee will receive one month Free Show Prep from http://www.txmediasuite.com/
We have people from all over the UK coming along as well as Ireland and the continent. Looks like it will be an awesome day.
brian@bmacmedia.com

Talking Radio at Cork Workshop.

Cork Workshop February 2009.

Birthday Bash/

A couple of birthday celebrations coming up before Summer.

Mid West Radio will be 20 years on the air this year and they are holding a special bash at the Royal Theatre Castlebar on the May Bank Holiday Weekend. They have a weekend planned including music and hotel accomodation.

Have fun :-)

http://www.mnwr.ie/

Highland Radio Donegal have a 19th Birthday 'do' arranged in the Mt Errigal Hotel Letterkenny on Monday March 30th.

Again it's music and dancing and a nice way to join up with listeners for a night.

More at:

http://www.highlandradio.com/events.php

The Voice Goes Silent.

I was sorry to hear today that Voice Over legend Brian James has passed away.
pic. radio-online.
Brian was the voice behind 98FM in Dublin for many years as well as countless stations in North America like KIIS-FM LA and New York's Z100 and the UK such as Key 103 and BRMB.
He suffered a heart attack at his home in Arizona yesterday.
I remember driving through Seattle one afternoon in the 90s and listening to a newstalk station there and hearing his unmistakable pipes blaring out the call letters.
One voice in a million.
He was 48 years old.



Brian James RIP.

New Morning Guy Advert.

Canadian 'Pop Alternative' station Curve 94.3 have a new morning host, Jay Richardson.

That may not interest you too much, but I think their ad for the new show is awesome:

You can listen to this Winnipeg outlet here:

http://www.curve943.com

Cool Old TV Spot.

I love the announcer's delivery...."Your favourite per-son-a-liteees".

For Da Kids !

Didn't Chris Cary try a Kids radio station back in the 80's? I have vauge memories of something like that.

Anyway, KYDZ (get it?) in las Vegas have flipped to become 'KYDZ Radio - For Kids, By Kids'.

Expect to hear lots of Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and Camp Rock stuff...I'd imagine.

Website includes features such as Teacher of The Month and games like Frogger and Simon.

As Alan Hansen said, "You'll never win anything with kids" !

He was wrong then and I wonder will the little ones prove themselves right??

http://www.kydzradiolv.com/

98's Radiothon.

Dublin's 98 kick off their annual Care For Kids Radiothon today, raising money for the three Children's Hospitals in the city. I was part of this event for two years and must say that not only is it a wonderful expression of giving, but is also one hell of a lot of fun to be a part of. Bloody emotional too !
Their webcam is up and running:
http://www.dublins98.ie

You can follow Dave from the Morning Crew's twitter updates at http://twitter.com/care4kids

And here's Siobhan from the Morning Crew doing her bit with the recent Hugathon in the city centre.

New On Pulse.

Isn't it great when people with a passion for what they do move further towards where they want to be? You know, the type of people that you think have all the makings of a real radio success story.
Mike O'Brien has always struck me as one of those people.
The enthusiasm and dedication he put into setting up and running the recent Dublin temp licence The 90s Network shows what I mean.
So, you can imagine how pleased I was when Mike told me that he has just been asked by
RTE Pulse to present a new show on the station.
Wednesdays at 6pm Mike will be playing commercial dance including same artist double plays at half past the hour.

Have fun Mike (that's the improtant thing....and congrats)!http://www.rte.ie/digitalradio/pulse/index.html

Oh Vienna !

Midge Ure in the 4FM studios with Gerry Stevens and Jim Kenny.

Midge is in the middle (!).

Internet Listening.

Interesting work by Arbitron and Edison Media Research looking at internet radio listening in the States.

Overall, listening has consistently gone up over the past nine years with weekly cume increasing by 3 million people every year.

I'm always listening to stations online, usually FM and AMers from abroad that have a live stream running. I thought that was just a radio person's hobby, but maybe not.

Read more here on the RAIN website:

http://textpattern.kurthanson.com/

New Rocker.

It's fascinating hearing new stations from all over the world online.

If you're looking to hear how a freshly launched format-flip sounds, then pop on by Rock107 in Myrtle Beach South Carolina.

The station was known as Q107.1 WQSD (Urban AC) but is now WRXZ-FM Rock107.

bye bye.

It's interesting to watch as a station like this tries to shed it's old listenership and look for the new. Not an easy thing to do by any means.

Best wishes to staff at the former and here's hoping they all go on to achieve their individual dreams.

Hello.

http://www.wqsdfm.com/

Banks.

If you have a bit of time, take a look at Robin Banks in these clips.
The story is that his co-presenter is going on her first date in two and a half years. Robin and his crew decided to tag along.....


Part Two:

Hold It Together Woman !!!!

Cad e sin? (no fadas)!

Pic: DAP

A friend of mine who a) lives in Limerick and b) is not an Irish born person asked me about "some pirate that went on air last week".

"They sound really professional, but I can't understand what they're saying"!

Do you never read my Blog?, I said half laughing.

(Blank stare).

It's Radio Ri-Ra and it ain't no pirate. I wrote about it last week before the launch...oh never mind :-)

It comes from the DAP studios in Dublin city and is the temporary multi-city licence in full swing.

Hey, Dusty tells it better on his blog:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dapdigitalradio?format=xml

So, eh.....What's Up?

Pretty quiet day on the radio front. Not a whole heck of a lot to report on. OK, there are things but I'm sure you have your regular websites and stuff where you get your info from normally.
So maybe you'll excuse me if I give you a few Bmac Updates?
Great !

Well (he said, settling himself down), as you can see from the side bar on this blog page, the Workshops are trundling along nicely. A few sell-outs and the one coming up in Manchester too. The last few places for that are still available (honestly)!
We're there on March 28th in the swanky Hilton Deansgate with lunch and other eatables included. Robin Banks joins in and our Guest Speaker is Mark Story. I'm looking forward to hearing him :-)
As well as that, the nice folks at www.txmediasuite.com have given us a one month supply of FREE show prep to give to all attendees (59 quid worth).
Just email me for info: brian@bmacmedia.com

The eZine is now read from places as far apart as Fiji and Paris and from London to Los Angeles. Well over a thousand weekly subscribers now. It comes out every Monday.

Last Friday was the biggest day in the life of this here Blog. More hits than ever!

I'm enjoying using twitter...never thought I'd say that. I figured FB was as far as I'd go, but over the past month have really started to see the benefits of the tweets. Great for radio too as you can get good relationships going with your audience. http://www.twitter.com/brianmccoll

One last thing - I have brought in a PD and one of my favourite CHR presenters to help out with airchecks. You can choose which one of the three you would like to work with.
Just another option :-)

Right, that's me for now. There's probably other stuff but I never want to make posts too long (I never read long posts, so why the hell should you)?!!

Cheers.
Later. B.

A New Brand Of Talk.

Back when Russell Brand held down the Saturday night gig on BBCRadio 2 (remember that?), I loved when he was joined by Oasis man Noel Gallagher.

They just seemed to have great fun on air and Gallagher was well able to handle anything Brand decided to throw at him. Two pals, for sure, but it also worked on the radio.

Well...now they're back together For One Night Only, to host a special on football.

This time they will be doing their double act on talkSport.

When? Not saying just yet, but they have hinted that it may become a regular thing.

Nice move by talkSport - it will at the very least get them some extra media coverage.

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