#ElectronicEars redux?

Sometime in the summer of 2012, I started a radio show. It was called 'Electronic Ears' and it went out on Indigo FM, Kirkby Lonsdale's hyper-local radio station. Over the following two years, I broadcast 92 shows and played 1605 different songs. It was also available over the web and I had a few Twitter friends who listened in, including three or four whose loyalty week in and week out was certainly more than I deserved.

In terms of production values and between song banter, it was most definitely amateur but I hope it was pleasantly amateur. I stand by the music though; I played a lot of great tracks including everything by Kraftwerk (from the canonical 'Katalog', at least) plus doing the show totally rejuvenated my music listening. Suddenly, rather than playing the same old albums at home, I was buying new stuff every week, seeking out good and interesting pieces to play on the show.

In July, however, Indigo closed down and that was that. Apart from digging out the old shows and converting them to podcasts - something I still haven't got 'round to - it seemed that was the end of Electronic Ears. No more talking to myself in the tiny studio and chair dancing to the music in my headphones. But also, sadly, no more guests: having friends on to play and talk about their favourite tracks made for some of my favourite shows. And there were three or four people I was still desperate to get on.

But then something rather unexpected happened. I was approached by another community station - Cando FM - and asked if I'd like to do my show in the same slot for them. So, this afternoon I went over to Furness College, where it's based, to look around. It was a little odd walking around the college, especially seeing this view out of the window: 24 years ago I'd just started a six month job working for VSEL and during that time I even managed a visit inside the Devonshire Dock Hall - that mammoth building on the left - where they built the submarines.

I won't be going across regularly, though, as I can record the show at home and load it up remotely, at least that's the theory once I've sorted the tech. But I am a little anxious about the potential audience; it's only on the web now but from next March it'll be broadcast properly to an estimated audience of 6,500. Not that I expect that many on a Sunday evening. Not after a couple of weeks, anyway :-)

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