Life of Hope

Never go outside without an umbrella.

communityradio — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:25:16 +0000

An 18 year old schoolgirl was saved by her umbrella when blown off a building in China. Zhang Haijing was on the top floor of a 6 storey building when a gust of wind blew her over the edge. However, Zhang managed to cling to he

Failure can be a learning process.

communityradio — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:16:47 +0000

If at first you don’t succeed failure may be your style

Quentin Crisp quoted on CNN.com

One week down 259 still to go

communityradio — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:12:34 +0000

Well for me at least the first week of presenting the Good Afternoon Show has been completed. So to the end of our initial 5 year licence there are now only 259 weeks to go!!

Presenting in my view is the best part of being involved in Radio as you get the opportunity to talk to some great people. People who have a story to tell, who are really enthusiastic about what they are doing and who give you hope for our town and country.

This week I have talked to Peter Brown, Bournemouth’s Leisure Facilities Manager, Beryl Bye of Fit Lives, Vic King and Patricia Davis of the Westbourne Orchhestral Society and Amy Kemp and Nicolas ??? of the Volunteers Section of Dorset Police. Quite a mix , but all of whom have a real passion for what they are involved in.

So thank you to them all for giving me a real HOPE.

What are your passions ( clean ones only please!!). You never know you may get the opportunity to talk to me on the radio about them.

We are on the air !!!

communityradio — Mon, 28 May 2007 08:55:29 +0000

We made it!!!!

At 3.00 yesterday, 27 May 2007 we started our full-time broadcasts.

I’m not sure where the last 4 weeks of my blogg have gone suffice to say that things have been extremely hectic. Why is it that however much time you give yourself to prepare, however much you plan, you still work right up to the deadline. That has certainly been the case with us. But we made it.

Radio is a bit like a duck swimming on water. When you see a duck moving around a pond all seems calm and peaceful, yet under the water the ducks legs are working away furiously. So it is with radio, when you listen in all seems calm etc (well hopefully) and yet behind the scenes people are dashing around like headless chickens.

I’m now off to do my first programme at 2.00pm; you can hear me on 90.1fm between 2.00pm and 3.00pm Monday through Wednesday. Good listening.

Food for thought

communityradio — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:34:19 +0000

Never eat more than you can lift.

Miss Piggy quoted in The Times

4 weeks to go

communityradio — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:27:12 +0000

Our big event during the week was the Access to the Air: Community Radio Conference which we held on Monday 23 April 2007 at AFC Bournemouth.

The purpose of the Conference was to explain what community radio is all about and how organisations; be they commercial, voluntary or local government; can use it to get their message out while also developing communication and other related personal skills.

Various people spoke at the Conference including the YMCA President, the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, Douglas Eyre the Chair of Bournemouth 2026, Blair Crawford the Bournemouth YMCA Director and members of the Hope Team.

The event seemed to go well with around 200 people attending the two sessions.

During his speech, Kevin Potter the Hope FM Launch Manager referred to our impending launch as a time ‘when the cows come home to roost’. I have to say that after that I did not take in much more of Kevin’s talk as I was trying to picture in my mind a Friesian cow sitting peacefully on an oak tree surveying the surrounding countryside. I must admit I found this rather difficult.

Kevin has lived for most of his life in South Africa and he assures me that ‘cows coming home to roost’ is a common saying in South Africa.

So all I can think is that either their cows are somewhat smaller than ours or that trees in South Africa are an awfully lot bigger than those you find in Europe. Have you come across any sayings from other countries that just do not make sense in our culture? Why don’t you share them with us?

The course every ambitious male needs to have on his CV!!

communityradio — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:25:53 +0000

It is hard to believe but the following is true. The mind boggles as to why it takes two days to cover the course content !!

Dozens of male council workers in Blackburn and Darwin are to be sent on compulsory breast-feeding courses. A spokeswoman said that the two-day awareness training would make the men more sensitive to the needs of nursing mothers.

A health warning to all parents.

communityradio — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:21:11 +0000

Insanity is hereditary; you can get it from your children.

Anthony Powell quoted in The Independent

A little kindness goes a long way, in fact all the way to Lithuania

communityradio — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:16:21 +0000

A Norfolk policeman has been named personality of the year in Lithuania, thanks to his efforts to make immigrants feel at home in Great Yarmouth. When PC Gary Pettengall became a beat officer, he found that many newly arrived workers in the seaside resort were desperately ignorant of local customs, and vulnerable to exploitation. So he bought a Teach Yourself Lithuanian course, and launched a scheme to help them. The Lithuanians spread the word back home and PC Pettengall found himself nominated for the prestigious Pride of Lithuania award, which he duly won.

5 weeks to go

communityradio — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:05:24 +0000

Time continues to fly by and it is now only 5 weeks until Hope FM starts to broadcast full-time on 90.1FM. One by one we are getting things done on our ‘to do’ list, although sometimes progress seems very slow.

Last Thursday was a particularly bad day for me work wise. Have you ever had one of those days that everything you try to do takes five times as long as it should? Well that is what happened to me last Thursday. It started with sent emails continually bouncing back, continued with printers getting continually jammed then running out of ink and ended with me breaking the photocopier when trying to sort out yet another paper jam. Jobs that should have taken 30 minutes were taking a couple of hours.

In fact after the photocopy incident I decided that I would not take the lift back down to our office, as the lift was bound to get stuck between floors, so I walked down the four flights of stairs instead. Have you every had an ‘everything turns into a disaster day’? Why not share your experiences with us?