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Yes,
I've worked on the radio as well. My interest in this
began back in the 70's when Pennine Radio started in
Bradford, that was my local station at the time. I used
to visit the sudio's often and won lots of their
competitions !
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didn't get a chance to actually work on the radio
for many years, in fact it took until 1997 before
that oppportunity arose. Doncaster was about to
get it's own radio station and there were several
trial stations planned to go towards the
full-time station application. I managed to work
on 3 of the 5 that operated during 1997-1998
(I've since learned that nobody else worked on
more than 2 of the 5) The first
was Doncaster FM, March to April 1997 operating
from studio's at the YMCA in Doncaster. I nearly
missed my chance here as I had spoken to the
station manager and we sort of lost each other
via mobile phones. I didn't hear anything from
him until the station actually took to the
airwaves, at which point I called them and
reminded them I was about! That resulted in
several shows, mainly late-night, ending with the
closedown show of the station for 2 hours.
Then
came Don Valley Country FM, a 24 hour country
music station. Because I was working full-time as
well I could not take much on, so ended up with a
3 hour show every Sunday - opposing the
mainstream chart shows. Crossover Country was the
working title, and featured either mainstream
country hits or country versions of songs that
became hits. The pic below shows the Don Valley
studio, complete with TV crew on the opening day.
I'm at the console and was on air as everyone
crowded in.
Finally
I got involved with D106.6 Doncaster FM, by now I
was unemployed again and was able to spend more
time on the station. I took the main Mon-Fri
Drivetime show from 4-7pm plus a 'party' show on
Saturday teatimes from 4.30 to 7pm. I was often
in the studio quite early in the day, one day I
wasn't there quite so early and made the 1
o'clock news - they thought it was funny to make
me a headline "It's one o'clock and Gordon's
not yet in the studio...". I really enjoyed
doing my shows there and was dissapointed when
another station got the license in the area.
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On Don Valley
Country FM - 1997
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I got back on the radio again, this
time with Trust AM - Hospital Radio for Bassettlaw and
Doncaster. Doncaster Royal Infirmary had not had a radio
station operating for several years, they teamed up with
Bassettlaw and the people down there started to move
things again. In the nine years I've been at the station
I've progressed from being a simple presenter, to taking
on production (making jingles and adverts etc.), looking
after computer systems (the station has automated output
for 60%+ of the day, so it's quite important to get that
right) and being on the management team.
Not only that, they put me in charge of the
Doncaster project and I've gradually built up a studio
that is fit to broadcast from, oiriginally using a lot of
my own kit as the station is a charity, no paid workers
(I'm a volunteer) or funds to just go out and buy things.
In 2005 we switched on a link between the Worksop and
Doncaster studio's that takes the broadcasts from
Bassetlaw and relays them to Doncaster. In the summer of
2005 a brand new network was installed, bringing a new
system of TV/radio/telephone and even Internet to
patients bedsides. Our station is on that, as a free
service - a lot of it will be pay to view/use. September
2005 saw the big switch-on with Rosie Winterton MP in
attendance, as well as people from the former Thorne
Operatic Society, the Doncaster Lions, and the Hospital
Broadcasting Association. We had hopes that this would
increase our profile in the Doncaster hospital and allow
us to build up a team of people to run the station there.
Over the years it's become clear that the
Doncaster Royal Infirmary was a victim of the bedside
network project running out of money, only some of the
wards were fitted out with the consoles and even then,
some have been removed. Less than half the DRI wards have
the facilities to hear Trust AM. I could go on about
Trust AM, but if you'd like to find out more why not
visit www.trustam.com
But
the link with radio does not end there...
Through
my involvement with the Doncaster studio of Trust AM I
was invited to 'help and advise' a group who were
starting a new Community Radio station in Thorne. This
resulted in a job for me from mid-February 2005 as I set
up and then ran TMCR 87.9FM. We had a successful run
on-air in July/August 2005 and eventually gained a 5 year
license for the area. Check out fuller details on the next page, there's quite a
story to be told !
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