Stephen, Gerry, Hugo and Me
Are you the woman responsible for unleashing Stephen Nolan on an unsuspecting world?Ah, (she laughs) many people have tried to take credit for Stephen – and also the blame! Introducing Stephen Nolan was the first part of our six phases of schedule change. BBC Radio Ulster has a long tradition of bringing listeners the best news, information and speech. Talkback has been the Peoples’ Parliament for decades. Stephen Nolan is a man of the people and part of the changing shape of how people use their radio station. It’s natural that after 30 years of the Troubles we in Northern Ireland are seeking to understand ourselves and our society and our local radio station is a great medium for exploring that. Wasn’t a topical phone- in at 9am risky?Yes. We didn’t know whether anybody would ring a radio station at 9am – would they all be at work? But the number of people contacting us and the depth of the connections surprised us, even shocked us. There was a time, not so very long ago, when we would have struggled. When we’d think ‘we’ll never get good talkers to ring in any numbers’. But the depth of engagement of our listeners is amazing. It’s something we treasure. It allows listeners to get very close to us. We can only do that if the radio station has been trusted over many years. We’re trusted as a vehicle for people to tell their stories, at base that’s what it’s about. And we are creating more and more ways for people to come to us. People (in the industry) look to us as an example of best practice on what talk radio can achieve.
BBC Radio Ulster is a broad church. Alongside cutting edge talk you have the evergreen ‘wee man from Strabane’, Hugo Duncan with his mid-afternoon country request programme.Hugo bucks the trend. He has managed to build and retain audiences in the afternoon slot. Listeners come to us for world class coverage in all areas – and they also come to us for craic and banter. Essentially, Hugo has deep roots and connections with his audience. He knows his audience better than anybody else. We are not in this game for ourselves – we are there for our audiences. Talking of craic and banter, Gerry Anderson, who’s also a Belfast Telegraph columnist, has that market pretty much cornered, has he not?Gerry’s programme deals in ‘profound inconsequences’ – which he has elevated to an art form. I’ve never worked with a mix like this before – a radio station that’s a world leader in something for everyone. And it works so well. Ours is not a niche market, we can’t afford to segment our audience. Your three years as managing editor and, more recently, Head of Radio at BBC Radio Ulster have seen rolling schedule changes. Such as?We’re now in the sixth phase of schedule changes. Earlier changes included the development of the highly interactive Nolan show; a new Saturday morning line-up – I regard Saturday morning as the station’s ‘shop window’; more community programming, with people telling their own stories, often in their own voices; a new and highly successful Comedy Zone and a shift of classical music from Friday nights, when fans are more likely to be out at concerts, to Sunday nights. This sixth phase of schedule changes – launched this evening – focuses on music. What’s on offer?What we’re offering is, I think, unrivalled, with the widest music range and the most talented and experienced broadcasters. There’s jazz, R&B, soul, pop, indie, sacred music, Irish, pipes and drums – literally something for everyone, the most exciting music line-up we’ve ever had. We’ve put our best music experts at the heart of the evening and night- time schedules, ready to share their passions and discoveries across the widest range of music genres. Ralph McLean is our trusted night- time guide and his new music shows will have a broad appeal. Across The Line is refreshed and relaunched for a new age. And we have zoned the schedule, making it much easier to navigate.
Tuesday-Friday, 8-10pm, brings a range of popular music to a discerning adult audience; 10pm-midnight is the home of The Late Show, our popular easy listening strand which goes out six nights a week; while After Midnight, our new nightly strand, is the place to find specialist music with some familiar and some rising talent. Radio Ulster has always had a ‘heavyweight’ reputation. Are these changes ‘dumbing down’?I’m immensely proud of our track record on current affairs. We lead the field when it comes to bringing listeners the best news, information and speech. That’s a given. That doesn’t change. That’s the bedrock of our station. But people’s lives are changing and people need a reason to get up in the morning. They look to us for high level entertainment and comedy. If people didn’t like it, Gerry (Anderson) wouldn’t have the listeners he has.
Northern Ireland is a society that has changed enormously over the last 10 years – it’s hardly recognisable. And to have a radio station absolutely in tune with its audience is more important in Northern Ireland than anywhere else. People feel they own their radio station – and, why not? After all, they pay for it. They go there to find arts and culture and music and a laugh, as well as news, current affairs, opinion and debate. Is it change for change’s sake? Remember the old adage about the baby and the bathwater …It’s important to change with care, but some radio stations get it wrong and change too slowly. Our philosophy is basically ‘the listeners know best’.
It’s essential to ask your listeners, track what’s happening in their lives and match their needs and moods. I’ve been surprised how open people here are to change. I’ve worked for Radio 4. I know how entrenched listeners were there about change. In Northern Ireland we have an enormous ability to change and move with the times. Listeners vote with their tuning dial – how successful are you?We are the UK’s most successful station in terms of reach and share in our broadcast area. I love telling people that!It grows from many, many years of exceptional closeness to listeners. We are often asked (by others in the industry) to try and explain the phenomenon that is Radio Ulster. The latest figures show our weekly reach is 39.4% – that’s almost 40% in a population of one and a half million – and our share is 26.1%. Both those figures are up from the last quarter. It has been higher, though, hasn’t it? Your weekly reach figure was once fractionally over 45%.Around this time last year was our record figure in the history of the station. It appears as a big spike on the charts. We can’t really explain it – though that doesn’t prevent us claiming credit for it! Three to four years ago when I came to the station we were number one and we still hold that position. You state a commitment to promoting new and emerging talent. How do you find it?Lots of different ways. Some people come to us and talk to us. I feel it’s part of my responsibility to make sure we are seen as somewhere that you can approach. There are people in our phone- in rooms who have an interest in presenting. People start off in all sorts of different ways. We are the market leader and have the pick of the very best talent. What was the seed of your passion for radio?I grew up on a Bangor housing estate. There were no books in the house but we always had the radio on – our guide to what was happening in the world was through Radio Ulster. Also, I remember being interviewed in the middle of a bomb scare at Aldergrove Airport many years ago by a radio journalist.
I was immediately taken by it. Growing up in that time, radio was what connected us to the rest of the world.
Radio has an intimacy that television lacks – and, often, it is a solitary pursuit. Would you agree?It’s to do with the power of the human voice, speaking to you. It’s an exceptional power and doesn’t translate on television in the same way. For some people radio is their only companion – we are very keenly aware of that.People treasure that companionship and write to us about it.
What does the digital age mean for radio?It’s changing times and an extremely exciting time to be in radio. Content is king. Without that, there’s no point in diversifying. We have an extremely loyal core audience but we are also looking to bring in a new, replenishing audience. BBC content needs to be made available across more platforms and the technology now exists to do that. Over the next year and two years we’ll see more Nolan content being available on television. Across The Line is becoming more multi-platformed so you can get the content the way you want it. It’s a luxury to say ‘I only work in radio’ or ‘I only work in television’ – those days are going. Yes, there will be traditional radio but also content ‘on demand’ and multi-platform – it’s happening now with some of our key brands.
You left Northern Ireland as a teenager. How did you fit in across the water?I went to university – history and politics at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
I was the only person in my family ever to have gone to university. I had some exceptional teachers at Glenlola, with a real vocation. From a very young age the family was enormously supportive of everything I did – happy if I succeeded and also happy for me to have a go and fail. There was no enormous pressure. It was a huge cultural leap coming from a housing estate in Bangor to a Cambridge college. Entrants from state schools, at that stage, were still not the norm. It was an amazing experience and opened my eyes to another world but I was so ill-prepared in many ways.
How did you get your big break with the BBC?I began on a BBC training scheme in 1990 which meant working on local radio stations around Britain for three years, getting my three stories on air every day, driving around, interviewing people. It was hard but there’s no finer training ground. If you love radio, as I do, it was a great way to start. You made it to Radio 4, working on flagship news and current affairs programmes. What are your memories?I worked on the World at One and PM, working with legendary radio figures like Nick Clarke, who, sadly, died last year, and Chris Lowe. I worked my way up to be day time editor. We were making the case to all the political parties for major interviews and conducting searching investigations.
Certainly, we were working under the spotlight every day and to extremely tight deadlines. You learned about team work and getting the best out of your team. Your thinking became their thinking. And you were also raising a young family.Ian (Sansom) and I have three children – Joseph (10), Isaac (7) and Aife?(6). In combining work and having the children I’ve been lucky to work for the BBC. That’s how the BBC manages to retain good people. Ian is a freelance writer and between us we juggle the responsibilities.
Why did you decide to return to Northern Ireland?Aife was born in 2001 and we came back just as she was about to be born. A small flat in West London with two children and one on the way concentrates the mind! We felt Northern Ireland at that time was enjoying peace and change and its outlook had a great deal to offer.
It was also an opportunity to contribute something back to the society that raised me. It felt like a time when people who’d gained from being Northern Irish could contribute to the future – otherwise I wouldn’t have brought my children here. The children have a quality of life here unrivalled anywhere else in the UK.
At first I was on maternity leave, then I looked around, applied for advertised posts and got a job in the BBC NI newsroom. It was a fantastic introduction to Northern Ireland, where I hadn’t worked for many years, and I went on from there. Coming home was definitely the right decision.
Ralph McLean From Tuesday through to Friday, from 8pm-10pm, Ralph McLean will present four major music programmes on BBC Radio Ulster. On Tuesday nights the focus is on Soul Music; on Wednesdays he plays legendary voices of popular music; on Thursdays he looks at classic albums and on Fridays he presents the long-running McLean’s Country. Across The LineTurning 21 this year, ATL now has a stunning new multi-platform presence across radio, online and television which will continue to champion the best in new and local music. From Monday, ATL will have a new portal at bbc.co.uk/atl with interviews, gigs, live sessions, festival coverage and reviews. On BBC Radio Ulster, the programme can now be heard on Monday nights at 7.30- 10.00pm presented by Rigsy. Paul Hamill’s Across The Line – Dance, meanwhile, moves to Saturday night from midnight to 2am. After Midnight …BBC Radio Ulster has extended its listening hours to offer even more quality music and choice and develop talent.The new After Midnight music strand has a host of music experts at the helm: Donna Legge will present her own pop programme, Monday-Wednesday midnight-1am; on Thursday nights Mickey Bradley (of The Undertones, presents his own classic punk programme; Joe Lindsay will be offering up a bit of everything cool for his new Friday night slot and Linley Hamilton will bring the best in contemporary jazz to the airwaves on Sunday nights.
The Late ShowCherrie McIlwaine, Stuart Bailie Eamon Friel and Karen Kirby lend their musical expertise to their respective versions of The Late Show which runs from Monday through to Saturday from 10pm-midnight.
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