Electric Train(er)

Trust and the broadcaster's dilemma

In amongst all the very public soul searching by broadcasters in recent weeks I've been looking into my own dark past, trying to remember whether I might have misled any of my audience.

Of course I no longer broadcast for the BBC, but in the spirit of the age I thought I'd better check myself out.

One incident does spring to mind...

About a million years ago I was a breakfast show presenter on BBC Radio York. I remember meeting a fan of the programme who claimed I "wasn't as tall as I sounded".

Should I turn myself in?

On winning awards

I was delighted to read that the Guardian student media awards are to have a broadcast category once again. It's a little reported fact that there always used to be one. I know, as I won it in 1981 with a programme I'd made for University Radio York. It always struck me as odd when the student radio award was dropped a few years later.

I agree with Paddy O'Connell that it's a good thing to win. I have no doubt the award helped me get my first job at the BBC, even though the winning entry was just a bit of radio fluff about a trip down the Roman sewers of York. (It may have been full of shit, but it was classy archaeological shit.)

My main memory of the win was receiving a plaque from the Guardian's James Cameron. I was just proud to be in the same room as this legendary correspondent, and here he was shaking my hand and congratulating me. It made me feel the world was mine for the taking.

Not sure I've lived up to that dream , but I still have happy memories of the experience.