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"Forgotten Favourites" on Plains FM

14/4/2015

Good evening to all! I hope you're all well and that it's not too cold where you are, unlike New Zealand having an early Winter for some reason. Break out the hot water bottles!

I have a special announcement. On Facebook and Twitter I've hinted towards this, and a small handful of my friends and family already know about it. For the rest of you, here's the backstory...

It all started as far back as 2001, believe it or not. There was a time in my life where I was listening to the radio a lot. Christchurch's 92 More FM was my station of choice, and I found myself tuning in to the Morning Crew (6am to 10am weekdays), which was then hosted by Simon Barnett and Phil Gifford, and the rush hour slot (roughly 4pm to 6pm), hosted by James Milner and Chris Parkin. It seemed I had a thing for radio shows hosted by a duo of funnymen.

While listening to these shows, I would eventually consider a career in radio as an option. However, at this point in my life I was only a few years out of high school and still unemployed. To top it off, I was led to believe that if you ever got a student loan, it would take years to pay it back. This put me off ever getting one. In 1999, I attended a (free) course in audio engineering. After the 6 months of training, each student left with a copy of what the tutor called a "CV CD-ROM", which is basically a CD-ROM disc full of examples of your work, as well as a printable copy of your CV (or résumé for those who prefer to call it that). Fast forward to 2000/01, I decided to use this concept as a possible shortcut into the radio industry by creating a home recording of myself pretending to be a radio DJ talking about random topics, playing great music, fake news stories, etc. But with my love for radio duos (a 'tandem' line-up, by the way), I didn't feel confident enough in recording alone. This is where my long-time buddy, Forbes, stepped in.

Together we recorded a show (then called "M.O.S. FM" - short for 'Ministry of Sadness'), which first had low sound quality due to my limited hardware. Because of this, I decided to try another one. This kept going on for a while, leading to the foundation of what would eventually become an online comedy album series, later renamed "Ducksel FM" (Ducksel = Duckman & Weasel, our alter egos).

During this time, I paid a visit to a local community radio station called Plains FM. Here I had a bit of a chat with somebody there about the possibility of starting a show (with the same idea behind "Ducksel FM"). Got a grand tour of the station and everything. But because I was unemployed and a beneficiary, I was unable to cover the costs needed to make it happen.

However, my plans for radiowave domination were put on hold for a while after I decided to have an application form for the Broadcasting School sent to me. There were 2 things that I wasn't quite ready for - the first being the old student loan issue and being unemployed; the second being the essay they wanted me to write. As mentioned earlier, I was not long out of high school, and was not in the mood for writing stuff.

A few years later I continued to work on "Ducksel FM" with Forbes until we put it to rest in 2011. But deep inside of me, I still thought about how much fun it would be to get behind the microphone and talk about the awesome music I wanted to share.

Jump to the last few months of 2014. Using the knowledge I've gained since close to 15 years, I decided to pay another visit to Plains FM. It all started with an e-mail asking about how much it costs to do a show (prices may have changed since my first visit), and I also pitched an idea for a show I had up my sleeve. This lead to a few more e-mails and eventually my second visit. From there I got my application forms and information sheets to go over and have a think about. Then Christmas came along and delayed me somewhat.

After the Christmas rush (and flying up to see Roxette perform in Auckland in February), I finally got the application forms filled in and paid another visit to the station...

You are now looking at one of the newest members of the Canterbury Broadcasters Society (CBS), who happens to be hosting a new once-monthly 55-minute radio show on Plains FM every last Saturday of the month (except December, which will be the last Saturday before Christmas) starting on May 30th!!!

Excited yet? I hope so!

This may be a community-based radio station, but that doesn't mean it is limited to just Canterbury. You can listen to them via their website...and eventually, my show as well!

The show will be called "Forgotten Favourites", which will play only songs released before the year 2000 (with a few occasional exceptions). The 'forgotten' part leans more towards songs that were big hits in their day, by big music acts or otherwise, but have since been overshadowed by the bigger and more popular songs we all know even today. It'll be loads of fun!

I will share more details on the show closer to the first night it goes on-air.

Also, I'm looking for sponsors to help cover the costs of the show. More on this in the next few days.

So, YAY!

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