The Sony radio award judges said: ‘A joyous, entertaining  double act, having fun with the medium and unconstrained by any ingrained ideas of what works and what doesn’t.

‘They give a voice to a sector of society unrepresented on radio, and do it with a joy that puts many of their fellow broadcasters to shame.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2144508/Sony-Radio-Awards-2012-Beryl-Betty-86-90-win-saucy-brand-chat-chuckles.html#ixzz1ux4wBhrq

Trevor Dann is one of theUK’s top media personalities having worked across a variety of media including radio, television and print. His expertise particularly in the field of radio is much in demand acrossEurope. As a author he has written a celebrated biography of English rock artist Nick Drake.

He has won many awards including a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for his work on Live Aid and has several Sony awards – the Radio Oscars. His is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and The Radio Academy.

Trevor began his radio career with the BBC in Nottingham before moving to BBC Radio 1 in 1979 and worked with some of their top broadcasters including Noel Edmunds and the legendary John Peel.

‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ is one of BBC Television’s most celebrated rock shows and Trevor was a producer on the show through the 1980’s. In 1988 he was the founding programme director of the BBC’s Greater London Radio launching the careers of stars like Chris Evans and Danny Baker.

He became Head of Production for the UK’s top music channel BBC Radio One from 1995 and in 1996 became Head of BBC Music Entertainment running all the BBC’s pop music production including Radios 1 and 2, the UK’s top pop show – Top of the Pops, and the coverage of the great Glastonbury Music Festival.

In 2006 he became the Director of The Radio Academy – the organisation for Radio professionals in the UK.

Currently in addition to his radio work and writing for the Times, Guardian and Independent he is visiting Professor of Radio at the Universityof Lincoln.

The terrible trio

I don’t know if it is something we’d do on YourTV Birmingham but in the recent edition of Embarrassing Bodies there was coverage of the Ultrasound Event at Tamworth including pics of the portaloos! What we will cover is health issues and how they affect Birmingham and its population. If you have any ideas for great Health programming on TV let me know!

She was a Youtube hit with her on screen ‘legs’ in 2010 and her engaging on screen presence and a very competent and accomplished presenter at any kind of event. So where did it all go wrong? Rumour has it there is legal action in the air and I shouldn’t want to be involved in any sub-judice issues. Nonetheless I have no doubt Suzanne will emerge in the near future and enhance her career. We’ll offer a gig anyday and the future is local TV!

We are working together in the field of Cultural,Arts and events management and I’ll be happy to give anyone who is interested more detail. Our last meeting is in Birmingham in May and I will post the main conclusions then.

Obrigado

Our Lisbon meeting was excellent including a General Strike although we did have a bus driver to get us around on the day – try explaining ‘black leg’ to a Euro group!

You can hear the audio below – there are some clicking noises on it which seem to be present on the iPlayer, so I apologise for that!

We are on the verge of the demise of the original names of BRMB and the other stations in the Orion network, to be replaced by the creation of Free Radio!

It is not difficult to see what difference it is likely to make to the output as 75% of the programming between the various stations in the network is already shared. It is possible to predict the demise of the last 25% of focused local output as it would make logical, commercial sense.

In Graham Young’s article in the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail it is obvious that commercial imperatives have lead to the demise of some of the earliest station names in UK commercial radio history. According to boss Phil Riley: ‘Free (Radio) is designed to protect  revenues by making it easier for national advertising buyers to respond to a brand that can now be marketed right across the Central West TV region.’

Phil admits to being nervous about the ‘transfer’ period. Obviously the worse case scenario would be poor awareness, declining revenues and audiences. If it works then the opposite will be true and Phil can sleep easily – or in his words ‘I’ll be thought of as the butcher of Birmingham!’

Many people would be delighted to see 90 members of the legal profession leaping off high buildings. Don’t be disappointed – on the 10th March members of the Birmingham Law Society and friends will be abseiling off the Wesleyan Building in Birmingham. ‘Leap off’ starts at 10am and is in aid of the Acorns Children Hospice.

Even if you can’t be there you can donate with a chance to win return tickets to London Marylebone with Chiltern Mailine as long as you donate at least £10. This is to the Just Giving Page of Birmingham Law Society President Andrew Lancaster www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Lancaster0

If you are in town don’t forget to look up to see the legal eagles dropping from the sky!

I can’t remember the circumstances but we were just ensuring that Peter had a much access to the press as is humanly possible. We are here to please!

Click on the photo for an even larger version!

Unusually I was early to the TV and saw the end of the Daily Politics Show in which Iain Sinclair was making some rather romantic points about the mud flats and industrial wasteland  that existed before the concrete canyons of the Olympic site. He made some interesting points and time will tell if the site ends up like the many other deserted ghost towns of previous Olympic Villages. However the ‘fragrant’ Caroline Flint was spectacularly rude, imperiously waving Mr Sinclair to keep quiet and then talking over him as if he was mad. It revealed an unpleasant side to her nature that bothered me but helped me appreciate why she is so disliked by many – even those on her own side!

There are key decision makers in this region but where is the vision that set up the NEC, NIA, ICC Symphony hall etc? Birmingham and the region needs great media and some kind of focus ( place or entity) for us all to relate to. Skills that we have and skills that we need should be identified and promoted.

Our own ‘Media Quarter’ would be nice! Funding is good but let’s not make the mistake of giving to the ‘usual suspects’ let’s see openness in respect of any funding as well as utilising the great investment businesses that do exist in Birmingham – together we can squeeze money out of them for the right ‘sound’ creative ideas. In this climate no-one deserves a penny for half baked ideas that will provide no return!

Suffice it to say that the BBC is gone and may not return in a meaningful way for 20 years….if ever.