… And so I face the final curtain…
e-mail: rodney@rodneyedwards.co.uk
In Take That style; yes, the rumours are true - I have left Vibe FM.
After hundreds of shows and thousands of hours of live broadcasting; it really is the end of an era.
Fairly quickly the breakfast show became the jewel in Vibe FM’s crown and was easily the most successful show on the station. Top quality prizes, celebrity guests, popular features you could set your clock by and “actual” banter between myself and “actual” friend, Sean Paul Curry.
The show was lively, imaginative and bordered along the insane as we crept in and out of the line that determined what was acceptable on radio. We never crossed it, by the way. Always remained professional and never alienated our audience or treated them as fools, we kept the show natural but most of all, we kept it fun. Ensuring it was enjoyable was the most important thing and as we broadcasted for 20 hours each week - this was something we mastered from 7 - 11 each day, every day. The 5am starts were a bit of a nightmare though.
On the subject of radio features (by which I mean a repeated, formulaic item in the programme schedule) I must touch on them briefly. Features are the punctuation of shows, whether it’s Thought for the Day, the newspaper review on The Today Programme, or Popmaster with Ken Bruce on Radio 2. You can set your watch by them, and they provide a valuable sense of familiarity and connection for listeners. They are responsible for some of the most inventive - but also some of the laziest - broadcasting.
A good show, with a confident, amiable identity, will always have a strong set of unique features. Steve Wright in the Afternoon is a prime example: you might not relish his “factoids” but they tell you without doubt which show you are listening to. And I do love Ask Elvis. We had Breakfast Buster, Family Fortunes, Paul’s Price is Right and the Retro Jukebox - all of them were very successful and what the listeners learnt to expect every morning.
A massive audience from all over Fermanagh and the world tuned in religiously each morning. Sitting in Enniskillen and reading messages from Australia, America, Denmark, Greece and beyond was very surreal and unheard of on community radio. In an age that flourishes with opportunity and choice, I will always be in debt to those that bothered to give us a listen when so many other shows were available.
The Bigger Breakfast Show constantly broke community radio records for text messages, e-mails and phone calls. We’d get hundreds each morning and one time logged over 600 phone calls and over 900 text messages. Remarkable achievement for any show on local radio - community or even commercial.
I will miss the show and the listeners and I thank them and Sean Paul for contributing to a show that changed the sound of local radio for the better.
“For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!”
