Presenter Workshops.

Registration and early booking is now open for our Radio Presenter Workshops in Belfast and Dublin.

I'm delighted to say that Robin Banks will be co-presenting the day in Belfast...if you missed his other Workshops with us, then this is a great chance to catch him. He's one of a kind !

Saturday Aug 22nd - Belfast.

Saturday Sept 5th - Dublin.

Info and booking from brian@bmacmedia.com

See you there :-)

Radio Head.

Just finished reading this book about radio and reckon it's worth a look.

Basically, the author listened to a different UK radio station each day - from 6 Music to Virgin, from Classic FM to Capital.

He's coming at it from a completely non-industry angle as well, so it's a fairly refreshing take on what we do. Some of the observations are fairly bang on as well.

It's a pretty quick and easy read, but enjoyable.

I picked the book up at Hoggis Figgis in Dublin city, but the Amazon link is below if you fancy grabbing it for about six quid :-)

Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/kmtlg2

Podcast #1.

Well, would you look at that - an i102104 podcast has hit the top in Ireland (and it's not Tommy & Hector)!!

Well done to all in Galway.

More Vancouver Changes.

After Rogers moved some people out of PD jobs last week in Vancouver, legendary AM'er CFUN is now in line for changes.

Back in the day, CFUN was the big Top 40 station in town...it's gone through some formats since the 50's and 60's (and even 70's) - it's most recent identity Vancouver's Talk 1410 The BUZZ of Vancouver.

Gone are my ex-colleague from CKLG Jennifer Thomson, Mark Dreisschen and Val Cole.

Jen's former co-host Joe Leary will be moving to afternoons (apparently) and the website is showing a July 2nd re-launch.

Good luck to the ones who were let go and here's to their future.

http://www.talk1410.com/july2.htm

Radio Remembers Michael Jackson.

Calgary Radio.

The other day, I was asking - is Calgary the most exciting radio city in North America right now?
Stations battling it out in Cowtown include Vibe 95, Q107 and the new Amp Radio (taking over from Fuel).
There's Energy with Freeway Frank in the morning, Jack FM and Lite 96.
Alongside Country 105, CJAY 92 and the AM'ers - 660 News, Fan 960 and CHQG, AM1060 Classic Country and on.
One other is Q107...where former Atlantic 252 guy Pizzaman spent some time.
The variety is there, more than in some other markets and the stations appear to be trying to stand out from eachother - yes, even when there are multiples of the one format (such as CHR).
Well worth taking a listen to one or more of the stations in this town.
The rest of Canada seems to be pulling back and playing safe.
Rogers have just come off a firing-spree with people gone in Toronto last week and this week the PDs of Jack and FM104.9 are reputed to have left the building on Ash Street.

Good luck to all.

Drive 105.

Best wishes to the new community station based in Derry City which launched yesterday.

Drive 105 position themselves as a "not for profit cross community radio station".

There is a Listen Live feature and pretty much everything else you would expect from a station website on http://www.drivefm.com

Launch Day pics:

Moyles Cam.

So, I get alerted to the new Live Streaming video from Chris Moyle's studio...from the man's own Twittering "Watch our radio show this morning live".
So I try.
Click the link and it takes me to the BBC page and it looks lovely...except for the fact that I can't see anything other than the logo and a bit of text etc..
Is this just for UK people again?
Boo. Pity.

Nice page...no 'live' pics though :-(

Northern Amp.

The Amp brand has moved over the border from the States and landed in Calgary.

Former Rock station Fuel is now 90.3 Amp Radio.

I hear that one of my old compatriots from LG73 and Z95.3 in Vancouver, Russell James, is to PD the new CHR format. If this is true, then they couldn't have picked a better person. Russell has been a dedicated CHR/Urban radio guy for the past twenty years and knows more about the format than practically anyone I've met. He has most recently been APD/MD at The Bounce in Edmonton.

Plus he's a nice fella too...which always helps.

Web is http://www.ampradiocalgary.com

Digital Britian.

2015 was named as the date for the 'Digital Britain Upgrade'. Basically it means, that FM services will move to DAB and AM (MW) to FM by that date.
There's a better explanation and an Irish angle in Dusty Rhodes' blog today.
His link is here:
http://www.digitalradioltd.com/2009/06/17/digital-britain-by-2015/

AMK.

Good luck to Anne Marie Kelly on the new gig at Midlands 103.

Their website has a banner ad for her show and a link leading to a recipe page, but still bills John McDonnell as the 6:30 - 9:30am person.

http://www.midlandsradio.fm/Schedule.aspx

Nice Building.

Tour around The Hit List...nice digs :-)

Bill Mitchell.

You've possibly heard by now about the BBC Radio 4 Documentary on Thursday highlighting legenday VO guy Bill Mitchell.
I was pointed towards this piece and wow - it's like a time capsule.
Bill and his other croney as Yin And Yan doing a take on Telly Savalas' chart hit from the 70s...weirdly of it's time, that's for sure.

Life's A Beech.

Me old mayte (yes indeeed), Sandy Beech will be sharing his knowledge at the upcoming JingleMad day in Nottingham on the 28th of this month. It's part of The Radio Festival.

I first met a (very) young Sandy out in Atlantic 252 back in the early 90s when he was pulling the evening show. He went on from there to Radio Luxembourg, Capital London and then got into the jingle business.

How good is he?

Ask Moyles, ask Spin 103.8, ask Absolute Radio....he's the man.

Sandy is still as nice a fella as the day I first met him.

If you are in the area, or not, you will learn a whole heap of stuff from the man I still think of as been the young kid :-)

There's a Facebook page if you want to take a look:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=70786976993

Here he is on his company website:

http://www.music4.com/studios/studio-people/sandybeech/

No Jack City.

Is the Jack FM phenomenon on the way out?

Recently Jack stations in Canada dropped Howard Cogan as their voice guy (big mistake IMHO), stations are falling in the ratings...most notably Vancouver and now Toronto is a no Jack City.

The format is gone in that city, replaced by KISS FM.

There was a CISS FM in TO before (Country), so now the name is back but with the proper spelling!

The new station's site is http://www.kiss925.ca Toronto's Hit Music Station.

Have a listen and see what you think.

No More R&R.

Well, I didn't see this one coming...

Radio & Records to cease publication from tomorrow.

That's according to Corey Deitz.

The magazine has been on the go for 36 years and I remember we used to scan their playlists and charts way back in the Sunshine 101 days. It was seen as the great radio publication.

I used to love reading their jobs section just for the heck of it, to see gigs going in San Diego and New York and Orlando - it was all very much of it's time I guess.

All of the R&R services are to end, not just the mag.

Real pity to see this legend go. I haven't read it in ages and maybe I'm not alone in that - says it all I guess.

According to Deitz: "The publication took a mild hit in the mid to late 1990s when consolidation in the Radio industry drastically reduced it's classified advertisements for jobs and related services".

It will be consolidated with billboard magazine now and that's evident when you click on this link http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/radioandrecords.html

The link kicks off with a letter from Gerry Byrne of Neilson Business Media and after half a minute automatically transforms into the main Billboard site.

So long R&R.

3 Little Things.

Looking forward to hearing a new voice on RTE Pulse over the next couple of days...

Wouldn't a Rock station (of any kind) do really well in Belfast ?

If you like stats and intelligent folk who know what they're talking about, then this is always worth a look: http://www.infinitedial.com/

Radio Station Of The Day.

U105.8 Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Operated by the UTV group, their strap line is 'Where Great Music Lives'.

The key morning gig is presented by Maurice Jay with Lindy McDowell and Nicky Fullerton (Fullerton being a legendary name in N. Irish broadcast circles).

Maurice Jay.

The big recent event was the 105.8 Hour Challenge, where Maurice Jay raised over £41,000 by living in a shop window for 105.8 hours from the 12th to 16th of May.

Other stations in the market include Cool FM and Downtown Radio, CityBeat, BBC Radio Ulster and to a lesser extent BFBS. This along with the UK independent nationals such as Absolute and Classic FM and all the national BBC's(1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)...plus the Irish nationals from 2FM to Today FM, NewsTalk and RTE Radio 1.

It's a tough enough market.

Website is: http://www2.u105.com/index.asp?a=1

The site itself is pretty much the UTV template with the presenter pictures continuing the well worn style of the past few years (ala Q102 in Dublin and Cork's 96FM).

The site has a well placed 'Listen Live' button.

The UTV corporate website is: http://www.utvradio.com

TV Ad:

BBC Cams.

Have you been able to take a look at the 'enhanced' content for the Simon Mayo show on 5ive Live recently?

It's all part of a trial run by the Beeb to integrate video streaming and images from webcams and text so listeners can see as well as hear their radio programmes.

This was tried out back in January, so I guess they've learned a few things from that experiment and are putting those changes to the test now.

You can expect more 'enhanced' shows in the next little while from Moyles to The Hub on 6 Music.

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

In Car Wi Fi.

The latest edition of RAIN has an article that says radio listeners in the States are clueing in to wi-fi routers so much that half the customers for new car sales want one in their vehicle.

90% of people said they would prefer in-car internet access as opposed to a DVD player.

With wi-fi comes internet radio streaming...see where we're going with this??

Full article here:

http://textpattern.kurthanson.com/

Stuff.

Hey, hope you had a great long weekend. I took two and a half days away from radio - not an easy habit to break, but it makes getting back into it all the better. Good to take a break sometimes.

The Weekly Radio eZine was sent as usual today though. This week I took a listen to a presenter in Toronto who showed how much you can do with Word Economy (He's a master at the art). Just email and I'll add you to the subscription list.

Also - Saturday is the Dublin Presenter Workshop. I'll be showing (for the first time) the new way to get your CV and demo noticed. Throw your old ones away - they're old news!!

Couple of last minute places still open, if you would like to come along. Guest speaker on Saturday is Dave Moore from 98's Morning Crew.

That's it!

Back into run of things tomorrow and looking forward to what the week will bring (it always brings something new) :-)