YESSSSSSSS, at last.
What we've all been waiting for is going to happen in just a weeks time. Riviera Fm will be broadcasting on Fm for the first time. We've got a license to cover us for two weeks of Fm broadcasting from the 13th of September through to the 26th September.
This means there are going to be temporary changes to the line up, especially for Riviera Country.
During the two week period, we won't be hosting the show on Friday afternoons from 2 till 4. Instead we are going for two 1 hour evening slots for each of the two weeks. The first one on Monday 13th from 8pm till 9pm, and then again on Sunday 19th from 5pm till 6pm. The same times apply for Monday 20th and Sunday 26th, which will be our last day air.(FM anyway for now). We will be back again on Internet only broadcast after the 26th. The show should resume it's original time slot of Friday afternoons, but who knows, maybe we'll get an evening slot. Watch this space.
So, what differences will there be to the show format?
Well firstly, because of the timescales on the show for the two weeks, We'll probably drop the top ten slot, however this hasn't been decided yet, and I may work the Sunday show around the top ten count down.
On the first show I will be interviewing two friends of mine Bobs and Suze, who perform together as a duo called 'Tamarisk', and they have just recorded their first album 'Tilly'. They also just performed at the 'T in the Hall' festival Near Honiton. They also perform locally at various pubs and clubs, this will be their very first radio interview ever, So in order to hear 'Tamarisk' on air for the first time, don't miss Mondays show.
As for the rest of the shows, well it will be back to good old fashioned Country and Western music. As always there will be an eclectic selection of music from the 1920's up to this week. Plus all the other little bit and bobs like 'It happened this week in history' and the 'Birthday List', plus the latest news in country music both locally and from the states. It's gonna be good.
Tune in, Talk soon.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Getting Started.
As I've said, I have had no experience at all in commercial radio, I'm not even the sort of person who enjoys standing up in from of people and having to talk, so working on and producing my own radio show was an extremely daunting prospect. So how have I gone about it.
Well first off I needed to get some music in. So I went on Amazon and ordered in loads of compilation albums, just to give myself some variety to choose from.
Secondly, I decided that the best way forward was to take a step at a time, and try and come across as professional as possible. What must be remembered is that I listened to Country music as a child and knew the names of some artists that my parents followed, however they were mainly from the 1950's through to the 1970's, mainly artists of the Nashville Sound era. But I hadn't followed Country for the best part of thirty years.So I had to start learning quickly.
The format for the shows became thus, I would introduce an artist, and then give some background information on that artist. It could be something like where they were born, how they got into singing, what they aspired to do before they got into music (a lot of male singers had promising sporting careers ahead of them, before injury forced them into a different line). Or I might try and find an interesting story about an episode in their life, some sort of anecdote, just so the show wouldn't become just one song after another, after another, after another. So I started to develop a catalogue on the stars as I went along.
For each show I produce a play list of the songs I'm going to play and for the most part I follow the play list religiously. However, I do leave myself room for any changes on the day. I then get the information on the artists on that play list. Doing it this way has enabled me to build up a catalogue of over 150 country artists, and that is a catalogue that is growing weekly.
But music isn't all that is on the show. Riviera FM is a local community radio station, and so I try to highlight things happening in the bay area. Due to the show being aired on Friday afternoons, what's happening over the weekend and following week are ideal events to highlight, be they concerts, shows, festivals, family days, exhibitions or charity events, if it's happening in the community I want to put it on my show.
So that's two aspects to the show, but I wanted to add more, to give listeners a bit of variety. So I started to read out the Billboard top ten country songs each week. At first these were just read out , and then I gradually stated to add music in the background, Just to make it easier to listen to. This went on for a few weeks, then I thought why not get hold of some of the tracks to play on the show. So that's what I did. Now when you listen to Riviera Country, you will listen to music ranging from the 1920's and 30's, through the Nashville Sound Era of the 60's and 70's right up to hit music of today including the current number one hit from America.
I also decided to highlight certain artists and each week I play three of the best from a featured artist. For these I pick out three well known tunes by the given artist and play them back to back, no talking, no interrupting, just straight music.
Something I've started adding in is relevant country news. Who's doing what, and where and to whom, that sort of thing. If it's of interest to the listeners, I'll try and include it.
But its not just American music that is played. I am also trying to promote the rich vein of talented country artists that we have on these isles. Singers like Pedro, Middi, Double JR and Chris James and a whole host of others.
Another segment I've recently introduced is the ''It happened today in History'' segment. Each Friday I read through a list of important historical events that happened on that particular day. It's something that appeases the history buff in me. I'll also read out a list of people celebrating their birthdays on that particular day.
So all in all it's quite a packed show. In fact after typing it all out, I have to wonder how I find the time to get it all together. But that's a story for another day. Thanks for reading.
Well first off I needed to get some music in. So I went on Amazon and ordered in loads of compilation albums, just to give myself some variety to choose from.
Secondly, I decided that the best way forward was to take a step at a time, and try and come across as professional as possible. What must be remembered is that I listened to Country music as a child and knew the names of some artists that my parents followed, however they were mainly from the 1950's through to the 1970's, mainly artists of the Nashville Sound era. But I hadn't followed Country for the best part of thirty years.So I had to start learning quickly.
The format for the shows became thus, I would introduce an artist, and then give some background information on that artist. It could be something like where they were born, how they got into singing, what they aspired to do before they got into music (a lot of male singers had promising sporting careers ahead of them, before injury forced them into a different line). Or I might try and find an interesting story about an episode in their life, some sort of anecdote, just so the show wouldn't become just one song after another, after another, after another. So I started to develop a catalogue on the stars as I went along.
For each show I produce a play list of the songs I'm going to play and for the most part I follow the play list religiously. However, I do leave myself room for any changes on the day. I then get the information on the artists on that play list. Doing it this way has enabled me to build up a catalogue of over 150 country artists, and that is a catalogue that is growing weekly.
But music isn't all that is on the show. Riviera FM is a local community radio station, and so I try to highlight things happening in the bay area. Due to the show being aired on Friday afternoons, what's happening over the weekend and following week are ideal events to highlight, be they concerts, shows, festivals, family days, exhibitions or charity events, if it's happening in the community I want to put it on my show.
So that's two aspects to the show, but I wanted to add more, to give listeners a bit of variety. So I started to read out the Billboard top ten country songs each week. At first these were just read out , and then I gradually stated to add music in the background, Just to make it easier to listen to. This went on for a few weeks, then I thought why not get hold of some of the tracks to play on the show. So that's what I did. Now when you listen to Riviera Country, you will listen to music ranging from the 1920's and 30's, through the Nashville Sound Era of the 60's and 70's right up to hit music of today including the current number one hit from America.
I also decided to highlight certain artists and each week I play three of the best from a featured artist. For these I pick out three well known tunes by the given artist and play them back to back, no talking, no interrupting, just straight music.
Something I've started adding in is relevant country news. Who's doing what, and where and to whom, that sort of thing. If it's of interest to the listeners, I'll try and include it.
But its not just American music that is played. I am also trying to promote the rich vein of talented country artists that we have on these isles. Singers like Pedro, Middi, Double JR and Chris James and a whole host of others.
Another segment I've recently introduced is the ''It happened today in History'' segment. Each Friday I read through a list of important historical events that happened on that particular day. It's something that appeases the history buff in me. I'll also read out a list of people celebrating their birthdays on that particular day.
So all in all it's quite a packed show. In fact after typing it all out, I have to wonder how I find the time to get it all together. But that's a story for another day. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
In the beginning......
Well, this is truly a first for me. I have never done a blog before, never even contemplated doing one before and now here I am starting one. Well, here goes.
I'll tell you a bit about myself before going on to the main subject, a bit of beating around the bush, so to speak. My name is Richard, I am married to Michelle and have three wonderful children aged 13, 11 and 5.
We live in Paignton, Devon, and have done since September 2007. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to start a new life, and jumped at the chance. So we have now been down here nearly three years, and do we love it.
After moving down here, I started my own company, Osborne Cleaning Services, which as the name suggests, is a cleaning company. I specialise on the outside of a property cleaning mainly windows, patio's, drives, decks, gutters and fascia's and conservatories, although I have recently started to diversify into other areas, but more of that later.
What really prompted me to start a blog, was that only a few months ago, I got involved with a local community radio station in Torbay, Riviera FM.
Now, the only experience I have had with radio work was in the RAF. I served as a communications operator during the 1980's, but that was nothing like working on a radio station.
Now I've always been a shy retiring type, very introverted, and never really given to making a spectacle of myself, not whilst sober anyway. So working on a radio station was something I had never before, never even contemplated doing before, ( this is starting to sound familiar).
Anyway, some friends of mine Allan and Maggie have a show on Thursday evenings, in which they invite guests to discuss their hobbies. Interspersed with the chat is a very eclectic selection of music, and the Chemistry between Allan and Maggie is magnetic and a joy to behold, that's probably why their a couple in real life too. Anyhow, I was kindly invited onto the show, and to be honest I was dead nervous. Because Allan and Maggie are good friends, I got into the idea that I was just chatting to them, and ignoring the fact that we were going out live.
Well that seemed to work, because I enjoyed doing the show so much, I decided to go completely against the grain, and try and host a show myself.
Well Riviera FM is a very new station, and at the time there were openings for new presenters. Now, one of the important things about Riviera FM is the fact that all the presenters are amateur's or have done a bit of hospital radio, or have been working as DJs, but I think it is safe to assume that none of us are really professionals. We do it for the love of radio, to give something to the community, or maybe to push our own boundaries. Whatever peoples reasons for doing it are, there is always a good atmosphere when presenters get together.
So I contacted a guy called Martin, who had worked for LWT and the BBC. He is the guy behind Riviera FM, the guy that makes it tick, and the guy that gets things done.
When I first met Martin, I had decided that I wanted to do a Drive Time type programme, with music covering the 70s and 80s, my era. But, after sitting down and discussing this with Martin, we decided to do something different. Anybody can do a music show, the 70s and 80s are well covered on other programmes, and by other radio stations. No, what we decided to do, was something that doesn't get a lot of airplay locally, something that would appeal to a wide audience, and something for young and old alike.
During our chat I mentioned that I had been brought up listening to Country and Western Music, because of my parents love for the genre. Well, that was it, Country it was. And that is how Riviera Country came into being.
I'll tell you a bit about myself before going on to the main subject, a bit of beating around the bush, so to speak. My name is Richard, I am married to Michelle and have three wonderful children aged 13, 11 and 5.
We live in Paignton, Devon, and have done since September 2007. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to start a new life, and jumped at the chance. So we have now been down here nearly three years, and do we love it.
After moving down here, I started my own company, Osborne Cleaning Services, which as the name suggests, is a cleaning company. I specialise on the outside of a property cleaning mainly windows, patio's, drives, decks, gutters and fascia's and conservatories, although I have recently started to diversify into other areas, but more of that later.
What really prompted me to start a blog, was that only a few months ago, I got involved with a local community radio station in Torbay, Riviera FM.
Now, the only experience I have had with radio work was in the RAF. I served as a communications operator during the 1980's, but that was nothing like working on a radio station.
Now I've always been a shy retiring type, very introverted, and never really given to making a spectacle of myself, not whilst sober anyway. So working on a radio station was something I had never before, never even contemplated doing before, ( this is starting to sound familiar).
Anyway, some friends of mine Allan and Maggie have a show on Thursday evenings, in which they invite guests to discuss their hobbies. Interspersed with the chat is a very eclectic selection of music, and the Chemistry between Allan and Maggie is magnetic and a joy to behold, that's probably why their a couple in real life too. Anyhow, I was kindly invited onto the show, and to be honest I was dead nervous. Because Allan and Maggie are good friends, I got into the idea that I was just chatting to them, and ignoring the fact that we were going out live.
Well that seemed to work, because I enjoyed doing the show so much, I decided to go completely against the grain, and try and host a show myself.
Well Riviera FM is a very new station, and at the time there were openings for new presenters. Now, one of the important things about Riviera FM is the fact that all the presenters are amateur's or have done a bit of hospital radio, or have been working as DJs, but I think it is safe to assume that none of us are really professionals. We do it for the love of radio, to give something to the community, or maybe to push our own boundaries. Whatever peoples reasons for doing it are, there is always a good atmosphere when presenters get together.
So I contacted a guy called Martin, who had worked for LWT and the BBC. He is the guy behind Riviera FM, the guy that makes it tick, and the guy that gets things done.
When I first met Martin, I had decided that I wanted to do a Drive Time type programme, with music covering the 70s and 80s, my era. But, after sitting down and discussing this with Martin, we decided to do something different. Anybody can do a music show, the 70s and 80s are well covered on other programmes, and by other radio stations. No, what we decided to do, was something that doesn't get a lot of airplay locally, something that would appeal to a wide audience, and something for young and old alike.
During our chat I mentioned that I had been brought up listening to Country and Western Music, because of my parents love for the genre. Well, that was it, Country it was. And that is how Riviera Country came into being.
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