Interview - James Wilson

Name:	James Wilson
Age:	53
Job:	Head of News, Fresh Radio
Date of interview:	6 Nov 2003

Do you live in Skipton?
I don't live in Skipton I work in Skipton, I live in Barnoldswick.

Family here?
My wife and 10 year old stepson. My father lives in the Dales - in Nidderdale. But we're from Scotland originally.

What school did you go to?
Harrogate grammar school.

Do you have a favourite pub in Skipton?
Henris Bistro, on Keighley Road.

How long have you worked in Skipton?
6 years, since Fresh Radio's predecessor Yorkshire Dales Radio started.

What changes have you seen in the town over the years?
I think there's more communication from people like Craven District Council and the Town Council, than there was since we first came here. We've seen Craven College bloom over the last 2 years, its gone from strength to strength. Its quite an incredible facility now. I'm very, very impressed with how the Media Studies department's been built up and so on.

	With faster access speeds it'll no doubt soon be possible to file audio reports from anywhere in the region, very quickly

The change that I do not appreciate and approve of is those ****** traffic lights on Carleton Road end. A complete waste of space. (Do you think it would be a good idea to start a campaign to get them changed?) Good idea. I'll be backing it up. When you do it let me know, we'll do a big news feature on it.

Describe your job in 5 words
Long hours, hard work, exciting.

Do you love your job?
Absolutely

How long have you been doing it?
I've been Head of News since the very beginning, but I actually took on the hands-on role 4 years ago, basically I supervised it before now I'm doing it all, myself.

How did you get into it in the first place?
I started off basically in Television and I moved to radio - I sort of freelanced did everything and anything for anybody in television. My ultimate objective was to get on-screen but when I did I hated it. Radio is a far more exciting environment as far as I'm concerned. It leaves a lot more to the imagination. Radio is very satisfying when you're actually producing and presenting programmes. I started off actually making programmes myself and moved into news fairly late on about 4 years ago. Before Fresh Radio I worked at Stray FM in Harrogate., I was one of the founding presenters there. Myself and a colleague set up Yorkshire Dales Radio and it's evolved into what it is today - and will continue to evolve.

What's your typical working day like?
Up at 5:25 set off at 5:40. Into the studio generally about 5:50 check things like the news lines, the Police News lines, all the emergency services, that sort of thing, I do national and international as well as local news. We also check with IRN Independent Radio News, who provide us with their facilities for our own audio stuff. Then start compiling bulletins with a view to getting the first of the day on air for 7am. Then its just a rolling programme, keeping it going right through the morning, updating bulletins. I usually manage to get out by 2pm. It can be a long day. Though. Yesterday for example we went up to Sedbergh and interviewed the village bobby up there, which was a fascinating day but meant that I didn't get home till about 6pm. (Then out again for the Fresh Radio Quiz in Earby - out 'til midnight!)

What's the best and worst thing about you job?
Basically it's total job satisfaction. It can be very frustrating, you work in radio with an awful lot of very technical equipment. Equipment failure is a constant bane of my life. Computers - I mean everything we do now is computerised, the whole lot, the sound editing, the music that goes out is all on computer there is nothing on CD anymore, nothing on minidisc even, nothing on tape. Has its good sides, and its bad sides. You can imagine if a computer goes down you have to sing! You have to keep the station going with your own voice. But that's a very rare occurrence. Behind a glass screen we have a backup CD we can put on just in case (joke!).

What's the most outrageous or extraordinary thing that's happened to you, in
this job?
The most exciting thing was getting the opportunity to interview the Prince of Wales, he actually requested that I interviewed him, (request actually came from Buckingham Palace) which was quite nice, and no other media in the region actually got to do an interview so I was really pleased about that. I also interviewed his nephew Viscount Linley who was an absolutely superb bloke, a really, really nice guy. Silly things that I've done: when we launched as Yorkshire Dales radio I jumped off the Humber Bridge. Abseiled off the Humber Bridge, which for someone with a fear of heights is probably not the best thing I could have done, but that's probably the most outrageous thing. I'm too old to be outrageous, now.

What do you see happening in the future, in your business, in radio?
Radio is going to change quite significantly. One major change in the next few weeks in fact, is that the Radio Authority ceases to exist and its function is going to be taken over by OFCOM, which at the moment is a bit of an unknown quantity. The radio spectrum I think is getting fairly overcrowded and is going to get more so, so there's going to be increased competition in the industry. We are in an environment extremely difficult to work. We cover a huge area and yet we are supposed to be a local radio station, so from that point of view its very, very hard work (but we do our best). Any increase in competition would make it very difficult for a station in our position.

What effect does the internet have on you at the moment?
We use it extensively. IRN for example provide all of our audio cuts via the web, and I frequently send edited pieces of audio via e-mail - with broadband that's become quite a viable and very useful feature

How do you see this changing in the future?
Who knows? With faster access speeds it'll no doubt soon be possible to file audio reports from anywhere in the region, very quickly. In an ideal world mobile phones could be used much more extensively, but the cost of calls must come down first.

Do you have a favourite website?
Its got to be the Fresh Radio website www.freshradio.co.uk I use Google www.google.co.uk extensively, I look at SkiptonWeb www.skiptonweb.co.uk every day, every single day, I look at the chat on SkiptonWeb. I find it quite fascinating, I put my occasional two penn'orth in, quite anonymously.

What are your hobbies? How do you relax?
I hate to say this but I listen to music, play with computers including editing, I run the Fresh Radio Quiz which we take all over the place, basically I suppose to promote the station but also because I really enjoy doing pub quizzes, its a very professional, we do a good, fun pub quiz the sort of thing where absolutely anybody can win something.

What issue is close to your heart?
One thing that really, really bugs me is bad driving - people who drive around with their foglights on. Inconsiderate drivers.

If we gave you £5 million right now what would you do with it?
Spend it on a nice big car a nice big house, probably a helicopter, er, yes I'd be incredibly selfish.

Good answer. Do you have anything you want to plug / publicise?
Tell everyone to keep tuning in to Fresh Radio, watch the website, because its changing every day.

Fresh Radio website: www.freshradio.co.uk