Author Archive

If you were in Nottingham this week for the SRA conference you might hear yourself in this week’s podcast. Heather talks to many of the delegates and the distinguished speakers and finds a palpable air of optimism and confidence about the future of radio. Amen to that. Click here to listen. Oh, and have a good Easter.

The Radio Academy’s Trustees ensure that we do what you, the members, want. Each of them serves three years and this year there are TWO vacancies. So please vote by visiting our website or by clicking here. The candidates include two retiring Trustees (our current chair Bob Shennan and John Baish), a distinguished member of the Sony Radio Academy Awards committee (Mark Story) and a former chair of our trading company (Greg Watson). Nicky Ness from BFBS, Sali Collins and Sam Gregory from SunTalk are also standing. It’s a great list and I’m sure all of the candidates would do a good job. There are details of all of them here. Vote early and make your voice heard!

RADIO FESTIVAL GOES TO SALFORD

The Radio Academy has announced that the 2010 Radio Festival will take place between October 18th and 20th in Salford. Tim Davie, Director of BBC Audio & Music, will chair the Festival with Travis Baxter, MD of Bauer Radio as his deputy. Representatives of Global Radio, Bauer Radio, GMG Radio, Absolute Radio and the BBC are among those who’ve accepted invitations to join the committee.

Trevor Dann, Chief Executive of the Academy said: “this year’s Festival will be the biggest and best ever. We are rolling some of our annual smaller events, including the Radio At The Edge conference and the Hall of Fame Dinner into one unmissable occasion which everyone in UK radio will want to attend. The Sony Radio Academy Awards in the Spring and the Radio Festival in the Autumn will be the twin peaks of UK radio’s year.”

Tim Davie said: “I’m delighted to be chairing the Radio Festival as part of such a strong organising committee. I’m particularly pleased that this year the whole industry will come together and am looking forward to being part of what promises to be an outstanding event.”

Travis Baxter said: “This year’s Festival will secure radio’s place at the centre of the consumer media revolution and build on radio’s creative success that delivers over 45 millions listeners a week.”

More details of the programme and venues will be announced shortly. Booking will open in May.

For further information please contact Mandy O’Connor, The Radio Academy’s Events Manager on 020 7927 9920 or click here to email her.

The latest RadioTalk was recorded at the University of Sunderland’s fabulous media centre. Macs, Sadies, RCS-equipped studios … it’s really lavishly equipped. Not to mention the huge TV studio with its HD gallery. Prof Guy Starkey was on hand to answer the invevitable accusations that he’s turning out too many media graduates with no prospect of a job. And Paul Campbell explained why he’s running a national digital station (Amazing Radio) from Northumberland. A good listen – click here.

The latest RadioTalk is now online. Enjoy some top banter with Sony winner Matt Deegan from Fun Kids, Moz Dee from TalkSport and Mike Owen plus some listener posts. Please post your own comments here.