It’s been an interesting week, where my past and my future have met somewhere in the middle, and it’s been nice to remember how things used to be, whilst also looking forward to how things could be.
In my early twenties I was on the wireless, presenting and reading the news on a variety of stations across The Midlands and the South West.
As a child, once I realised a career as a professional footballer was beyond me, radio was all I wanted to do, but by the time I was 25 I’d done all I wanted in that field, so went to university.
But on Wednesday I made a return to the airwaves, albeit in a voluntary capacity as part of the request show on Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio.
It was weird not being behind the mixing desk, all volunteers have to be trained up first, so I was back in the ranks, as it were, one of three ‘producers’ on the show, along with Matt, Joe and presenter Tom.
And it was fun to be back in front of a microphone, without commercials, without a playlist and with less concern over what we were all saying.
Is this the start of a return to radio? Well I’d never rule it out fully, but ultimately this little adventure is as much about just enjoying broadcasting again, meeting new people around Buckinghamshire and hopefully passing on some of my experience to the rest of the team.
For me, video HAS killed the radio star, and as I posted on Facebook yesterday “Cracking week at work, one of the best. I’m lucky to have a job which I enjoy but also where I feel I’m still learning and improving every single day.”
My video work is improving all the time, I’m watching reports in TV news bulletins, all with the aim of learning from the professionals so that one day I can hopefully be one myself.
I’m proud of this video for two reasons, one it’s a technical improvement with evidence of what is known as sequencing, where you use different shots to tell a story, and also it’s another chance for me to plug the work being done to help people with disabilities have better lives, something that’s close to my heart following my two years working in Cornwall.
And so I’d like to finish this blog with a tribute to a woman called Anne Carron. Unless you’ve worked for Cornwall Council you probably won’t have heard of her, but she helped launch me in the direction I’m hopefully now headed.
She was my boss when I worked for Cornwall’s Learning Disability Partnership board and when I came up with the idea of making short films to promote their work, I was lucky that she said ‘yes’.
She passed away during the week after a long battle with cancer, at an age that was far too young. She’d had problems with the illness for years but remained a strong ally to the Cornish learning disability community and had a wicked sense of humour to boot.
RIP Anne, the beans in Cornwall are slightly less cool.
Thanks for reading, catch you all soon,
Andy
Twitter: @AndyHolmesMedia
YouTube: www.youtube.co.uk/buckinghamshirecc
