I wanted to have my own radio show - everyone else seemed to have one and some of them weren't very good. I thought I could do better.
So I started casting around and though there didn't really seem to be much interest, Dan Reed, the programme director at WXPN in Philadelphia was interested and asked me to submit a couple of demo shows. I figured that they wouldn't want to listen to me chuntering on for ages so I made two half hour programmes.
The people at WXPN loved the shows and particularly the half hour format but the economy had just crashed and they weren't in a financial position to launch something new. It would have been a different matter if I'd have been Elton John or Bruce Springsteen but I'm a relative unknown - Britain's best-loved underground household name etc.
I decided to do it myself, do it on the internet. I started a blog site and on Sunday June 7th 2009 I put up the first show. I was amazed by the reaction.
I kept the half hour format because it's a reasonable amount of time for someone to commit to listening and manageable for me without playing something to fill in time that I might later regret. There might be a couple of things that I wonder why I played but I must say I don't regret I Love To Love by Tina Charles or Jethro Tull's Living In The Past.
I include old records, new records, pop, jazz, bubblegum, rhythm 'n' blues, country, folk, easy listening, electronic music - anything I like including a fair amount of charity shop or thrift store trash. I don't subscribe to the guilty pleasures syndrome - if I feel like playing a Lynyrd Skynyrd or a Kathy Kirby track I'm not going to apologise or make excuses. I like a lot of music on a lot of different levels and I'd encourage other people to do the same.
I don't really have any rules except that the programmes won't be much longer than thirty minutes and I won't play downloads. CDs are OK but I prefer vinyl if possible - that's if any artists want to submit something.
I talk about the music and I talk a fair amount of rubbish too, which is what I think a DJ, disc jockey or radio presenter as they're now called is supposed to do. And it's what I do - it comes naturally. I have fun with it.
I've had a lapse in broadcasting (if you can call posting stuff on the internet broadcasting) after an epic relocation - from France to America. I'm still trying to organise my record collection
So I started casting around and though there didn't really seem to be much interest, Dan Reed, the programme director at WXPN in Philadelphia was interested and asked me to submit a couple of demo shows. I figured that they wouldn't want to listen to me chuntering on for ages so I made two half hour programmes.
The people at WXPN loved the shows and particularly the half hour format but the economy had just crashed and they weren't in a financial position to launch something new. It would have been a different matter if I'd have been Elton John or Bruce Springsteen but I'm a relative unknown - Britain's best-loved underground household name etc.
I decided to do it myself, do it on the internet. I started a blog site and on Sunday June 7th 2009 I put up the first show. I was amazed by the reaction.
I kept the half hour format because it's a reasonable amount of time for someone to commit to listening and manageable for me without playing something to fill in time that I might later regret. There might be a couple of things that I wonder why I played but I must say I don't regret I Love To Love by Tina Charles or Jethro Tull's Living In The Past.
I include old records, new records, pop, jazz, bubblegum, rhythm 'n' blues, country, folk, easy listening, electronic music - anything I like including a fair amount of charity shop or thrift store trash. I don't subscribe to the guilty pleasures syndrome - if I feel like playing a Lynyrd Skynyrd or a Kathy Kirby track I'm not going to apologise or make excuses. I like a lot of music on a lot of different levels and I'd encourage other people to do the same.
I don't really have any rules except that the programmes won't be much longer than thirty minutes and I won't play downloads. CDs are OK but I prefer vinyl if possible - that's if any artists want to submit something.
I talk about the music and I talk a fair amount of rubbish too, which is what I think a DJ, disc jockey or radio presenter as they're now called is supposed to do. And it's what I do - it comes naturally. I have fun with it.
I've had a lapse in broadcasting (if you can call posting stuff on the internet broadcasting) after an epic relocation - from France to America. I'm still trying to organise my record collection