Did you know I did radio too?

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Some of you may know that I also used to do little thing called radio.

I presented on Nottingham Community station NG-Digital to be precise, a studio in the heart of the Hockley area of Nottingham.  The show I presented aired for nearly 2 years on a Monday night between 5-7pm and was a radio version of NottinghamLIVE, the magazine website for which I’m Editor.

I guess you could say I researched, wrote. produced and presented the show.  I was a bit of a jack of all trades, but I didn’t mind.  I enjoyed it and it opened my life up to a whole shedload of new music I might otherwise not have heard.

The show was prerecorded, so some people asked why it was called NottinghamLIVE?  As I mentioned, it's a radio version of the website which covers LIVE entertainment in Nottingham, so this is where the LIVE element comes into it.

I miss the show and would love to do more radio and live presenting.  I've toyed with the idea of podcasts and other internet stations.  What do you think?  Do you listen to podcasts? What would you like to hear?

Well, here's a link to one of the shows which I've uploaded to my YouTube channel.  Take a listen and enjoy. Click here to listen

The show begins with a Gig Guide, a round up of whats on at The Theatre Royal, Royal Concert Hall, The Motorpoint Arena, The Playhouse, Rock City, The Rescue Rooms… in fact, as many as I can include.   I generally played a track from the appearing artist or group and gave details how and where to buy tickets.

This is where new music comes into it.  I had to find and source a track from each group and I may never of heard of them.  I love listening to one and being blown away by this unknown talent.   This is especially true when it comes to Nottingham artists.  Obviously we try to support as many Nottingham artists as we can on NottinghamLIVE, and lets face it, we have some great ones – Sleaford Mods, Jake Bugg, Ronica, Nina Smith, Rob Green.   I had a section called 'Made in Notts' I tried to feature as many local artists and bands on the show as I could anyway, but this section ensured that I always played something.  Past acts included Jake Bugg, Georgie, Sleaford Mods, Josh Kemp, 94 Gunships, Hhymn.  

I love watching live music too.  I often get invited to live gigs in Nottingham and review either for this website, The Post, Nottingham Live or Leftlion.

So how do I keep up to date? I am kept up to date by PR companies and Theatres regarding announcements. As soon as they send me the alert it runs on NottinghamLIVE and I had a section in the show which featured what had been announced that week. Again I would play music from the artist and tell the listener where to get tickets.

I had a section where I went through what else had been on the website, so I’d maybe mention somewhere I’ve reviewed in the food section, or news of a new bar or restaurant.  There may also have been local news we’ve featured on the website in the NottinghamLIFE section that’s of intertest that I’d give a mention to.

The request section is something that makes me laugh.  No matter how many times I ask, I'd always end up with the same three listeners requests.  I turned it into a bit of a competition, whereby they'd compete to be crowned the 12 incher, in other words I play the 12" version of one of the chosen tracks.  We'd get some interesting choices and often some innuendo.  

'Step Back in Time' was an idea I borrowed from an old TV programme called the Hitman & Her.  On in the middle of the night, presented by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan, I used to video it and then watch it back as a teenager, pretending I was Michaela, using my Mum's hoover noozzle as a microphone. Guess that's where my love of presenting came from.  The show visited different night clubs each week, so the music was obviously current, but they had the step back in time feature where they would play something old.  My show differs in that I play a mix of music depending on which acts are appearing in the city, so some can be old anyway.  So in my 'Step Back in Time' feature I like to celebrate some of the more quirky songs from the past, or maybe one that I just like, and you don't hear so often now.  I love music, and lots of things inspire me to play different tracks.  For example, one weeks 'Step Back in Time' was Mr Bojangles by Sammy Davies Jnr, simply because I heard it being sang beautifully by a busker in town that week.  There's probably a whole blog on how I chose my music.

In the next section I looked at what else is on in Notts. This can include activities, events, exhibitions and so on. I generally got my information for this from the Experience Nottinghamshire website. 

So that's almost it, with the exception of my closing feature 'The Showstopper'.  The name came by accident in 2016 when I decided to close the show with a track from an artist who had passed away. I think it was David Bowie. He died in January and I think everyone will remember what a year 2016 was for celebrety deaths! It felt like we lost someone practicaly every week and so the feature aptly became known as 'The Showstopper'. 

If you never heard the show, enjoy!  If you were a listener, well, enjoy the nostalgia.

Love Tx