OK, so Radio Five Live went fairly well I think. I've never done live radio before, so yes, I was nervous, but more because I wasn't sure what the procedure was rather than because I felt I wouldn't know what to say. (Let's face it, the number of times I've been lost for words can be counted on the fingers of one hand.)
So I was picked up this morning by car at 8.45am (inhumane time for a Sunday morning, in my humble opinion) and got to the Beeb at about 9.30am. Wasn't on air til 10.30am, so spent that hour talking through the script with Saira and Clare the producer, and then sat, and waited, and got nervous. I was a bit surprised at how meticulously the show was scripted, actually. I'd sort of assumed that these sorts of radio shows just … happen. But no, they're actually planned down to the second.
The show itself just went so quickly. The schedule said it was half an hour, but I swear I was in the studio no more than a few moments. I didn't really get to speak to Julian Worricker, although he did send a few reassuring smiles in my direction which were very much appreciated. And I seemed to manage to speak in complete sentences, not repeat myself too much, or sound too daft, so I'm pretty happy with the way it went. It was cool too to hear Lloyd Davis and Geoff Jones add their thoughts – some recorded at drinks last week, but Geoff was on the phone as well.
The feedback from listeners was great – apparently they had some 37 texts, around 30 emails and 18 or so comments on Saira's blog. Julian mentioned afterwards that's rather a lot for a segment like that – maybe that's the power of blogs upping radio listenership?
I'm just listening to the show now on the BBC website (available for the next week, I think, and the blogging bit starts at about 30 mins in), which does make me feel a wee bit funny. I mean, the sound of one's own voice is always a bit weird, but hearing it in the context of a very professionally produced radio programme is even weirder (compare and contrast The Movie Show podcasts I occasionally do, where we just ramble on and talk crap for an hour).
Julian is going to be talking to a blogger each Sunday over the coming weeks to try to get a feel for this whole blogging lark, so if you have a blog you think that he might be interested in, you should email to let him know.
I'm relieved it's over, though, although that now allows me to worry about finishing up my public domain talk for this afternoon's RESFEST and getting my Uses of Blogs chapter polished and sent over to the editors.
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