Doing my heeed in

I’m Ill today. Been dizzy all day and had an on/off pain in my stomach. I think its the Dilute drink again. I was gonna babysit again today but neither Caroline who had been up with a Baby kicking inside her all night or i was in any shape of looking after other peoples kids.

I’m really getting fustrated with the radio thing. Its really hard to get into this radio thing, i knew it would be hard but its silly and it doesnt help when people slag you off which can cause you to not get in.

As regards to my work I have sometimes questioned whether or not people just tell me what i want to hear, but then again i’m not sure because people ask me to do the odd show or jingle from time to time. I’ve been told my presenting is getting better (I regularly get other people to listen to bits of my show to see if im doing ok) but the other week i was really getting stressy about it because i’m never saticfied with myself! ITS DOING MY HEEEED IN!!!

I’m thinking on whether my demo’s not good enough or if my voice sounds crap, or if i havnt put enough if too much personality into my work or if i need to try harder or if its not what they are looking for even though i know i can do it anyway.

If you wonder why it is so hard to get into radio/ Job at a radio station, there are a few reasons that make it harder

Time wasters
There are a quite a few people out there who waste time. People have this thing of thinking they are the best. A good example is the X-Factor. look at all them people who come on saying “My names Bill Ryerson, i’m from Stoke and i know i’ve got the X-FACTOR!” and when they open their mouth its a nasty out of tune audio mess. These people waste time because if they dont sound any good they wont get anywhere. You have to be honest with your self, Really you should get a few honest friends to tell you if your any good.

On top of that If anybody considering getting into radio is reading this, dont just think “My jobs crap, i’ll try at this radio station because it sounds easy” you are terribly very wrong. You really have to be honest with yourself and you really should consider how much you want it because it is bloody hard. I would do almost anything to get into this medium. just sending a few CDs with something you havnt seriously thought about to stations wont work at all. The time wasters who do this make the Program Controllers so annoyed sometimes they don’t even listen to CD’s that come in and throw them away so not even the people with talent are heard.

Station Style
This one gets MY back up because this goes by how they want their presenters. You can’t just walk in and be the next Kenny Everett, Phil Wheeler, Scott Mills, Dave Barret, Perry Spiller, Chris Moyles, Chris Evans, Chris Tarrent, Jo Wiley, Sandy Martin, Adam Smith, Steve Wright, Simon Hirst, Mark & Lard and do what they did/do because:

1: Your supposed to be your self. DONT TRY AND COPY ANYBODY
2: Most stations want people nowadays who only want the presenter to sound a certain way, maybe your voice or your style of presentation has to sound a certain way so you will meet the stations target audience (you wouldnt expect a Fun fast action packed radio show to be on a local BBC station because their listeners are on the older end of the scale)

You have to fit in with the radio stations Style. GWR for example only want someone who can read out something, Back announce the songs and someone with a certain voice. If you havnt got the Voice you dont get in. If you have too much Personality or too little personality or you dont say the words like they want you to, you dont get in and that pissed me off. I have a personallity and thats why people listen. I can paint a picture in someones head, It keeps people, but certain places wont have that.

Its Just a show
Well actually no. Mostly a show may be just part of your duties, the rest of the day you might have to plan your show, or answer the phones or you might have to be a news or travel gatherer.

People seem to want to apply for an on air job all the time which people think is easy. The Chances are that you will most likely do something like be a tea person, Door unlocker or studio assistant to start off with and not get on air at all.

At Swindon FM i did this for about a year before doing my first show which was Pre-Recorded first before i did a Live show, however i impressed station manager with what i could do on Cool Edit Pro and also had to almost run the station in order to get that far. You really have to proove your self. If yout not prepared to do that sort of thing then you might aswell have not even sent that first letter.

In Reality you lift the Microphone fader up, the red light comes on and then it hits you. You need to get your stuff together before you even think about getting on air because turning that mic on and saying nothing or stummering isnt going to sound very good to the listeners is it?

Luckily enough the station manager was very happy to have my help at Swindon FM and started letting me on air even though i wasnt station Style, (See Above) I did try!

Back to my Point
Its Really doing my head in. the only things i can think about that is that i wish that the station managers would open my letters and like what i do! Not only that but realise of how much help i can be to the station. I could probably make a station sound Ten Million Dollars if i was there. I dont know what to make of it!

anyway 03:30 on Friday morning, i’d better be off to bed.

Jobs Jobs JOBS!

Well i’m doing a major search now for a radio job, and i mean big time!

Over the next few weeks i’m asking and applying for 19 jobs in Swindon, Oxford, Bristol, Reading, Bath, Salisbury, Gloucester, Cheltenam, Banbury, High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Basingstoke and newbury.

I’ve already sent the ONE Swindon letter to Brunel FM and also sent Oxford’s off. I Emailed Jack FM Last weekend (They arnt on air yet but they asked me for a demo) Sent Demo CD’s off on Wednesday to FM 107.9 and Fox FM.

Today i’ve also sent off a Application form and sending a disk tomorrow to BBC Bristol who have asked me to send a 3 minute demo in addition to the form. My only problem though is that the job starts early in the morning… and if i got the job, being in swindon i’d have to find a way of getting there! so i’m having a look at that.

Baby Scan

For those of you who haven’t been here for a while or if you have just joined us, it will be news to you that I’m going to be a dad this year. We went to the hospital the other day for Caroline to have a scan and thought I’d show you a picture.

Caroline is 16 weeks Pregalumped now. Were expecting the baby about October 30Th. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a boy or a girl yet but were picking names. So far we’ve got a Girls name, we both liked “Ruby” so that’s what we’ve picked if its a girl. We haven’t got a boys name though. if you can think on any decent ones then let us know. We’ve decided a definite no to Christopher because if you put that with my last name its christopher Robinson and I’m not going to have my child subject to Winnie the Pooh jokes.

It was well cool seeing the baby squirming around, it feels well weird tho because its squirming around inside my fiance! I cant wait till its ready and its in my arms!!!

Radio RSL

Just Listening to Flame fm which is currently Having an RSL in Swindon. I dont see the reason of having RSL’s unless theres a good reason like Education, Testing or Promotion of their Online or Digital Service. But i can’t see why they are on… However i think their aim is to promote Christianity and the Churches as it’s “Community Radio With a Christian Flavour”. But i’m going to dismiss that reason. Why? Because their station wont make anybody become Christian, The only people who will stay tuned to the holy bits are Christians. Everyone else will switch off… and me right now have had it with people going at me about god and trying to get me to be one of them. But Wait theres more!!!

Its good to see that its not all Music music music, BUT… The music has no Flow to it. The show i’m listening to doesnt seem to be aimed at a certain age audience or genre. One minute it was Playing Take That, then “Daddys taking us to the zoo tomorrow” which sounded like a childrens song From an Early Learning Tape from the 90’s aimed at 3 yearolds (You secretly know what i mean dont you), Elvis Presley, Talk Talk (That sounded like it was taken from Limewire.. Bad Quality) some Jazz and 60’s TV themes. I listen to this Odd mix for two hours. before that show i was listening and the Mic and Music Distortion is Verry Bad, you can tell its live. I know how to fix that problem because i saw this alot. It is caused by the Mircophone Levels or the Music Levels being Too loud, they need turning down so it will sound smooth.

The worst for that was the people after 7 oclock. That was Verry bad! i couldnt make out what they were saying because they were talking rather loudly anyway so with their Microphones going over the volume level it was hard to make out what they were on about. i switch off 15 mins later because of the christian music gets my back up, Plus my dinners ready. One thing i noticed about various shows on the other days is that there was still this confusion on who they are aiming at and “That wasn’t supposed to happen” is said quite alot. I wouldnt of noticed if they didnt say!

My point is that Having Flame doing an RSL will get the same reaction as an RSL for a radio station with a Clingon Fling. The Treckies will go nuts the others will tune for a little while in curiosity but they wont be reached by it so the listeners wont stay.