Nick Wallis

Nick Wallis Inside Out West

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:09:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I got a call from Inside Out West asking if I'd work on a report with them. They'd seen some of the stuff I'd done with Inside Out South and thought I might be suitable.

Unfortunately one of the days filming involved a Monday morning police raid on a scrap metal yard in Wiltshire. As I present a breakfast show on the radio in Surrey, the Inside Out producer thought this might present a problem.

I took the problem to my boss at BBC Surrey, who very kindly agreed to spring me for one day. Thank you boss. One BBC and all that.

The above film is the result of two and a half days filming and a half a day in a voice booth/edit suite. It went out in the West region on BBC1 on 30 Jan 2012 and again in the South region on BBC1 on 6 Feb 2012.

It's always a little daunting working with a completely new team, but I was made to feel very welcome by everyone at BBC Bristol. I hope we can work together again.

If, for any reason, you can't see the embedded youtube video at the top of this post, you can see the report here.

***********

You don't win anything with kids

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:43:00 +0000

I have kids. Three of them. Tonight, one misbehaved so much, she ruined the evening for the rest of us. Just as she was being taken to bed, my son puked, voluminously, over himself, the sofa, the carpet and my wife. My wife took him upstairs, where he puked all over his bed.

Every week I have some time to myself which isn't taken up with working, sleeping and childcare. It's the five hours between 8pm on a Saturday night and 1am on Sunday morning. If I take all of those five hours, I wake up exhausted, at 7am, when the children come in. But you've got to live a little, haven't you?

So 3% of my week is my own. Except it's not my own, it's the time I have to spend with my wife, trying to remember who we are as adults.

I'm not complaining. I live a very privileged life. Having children was our choice. It has enriched, and aged us in ways that are more visceral and exciting than any record I've ever listened to, or drug I have ever taken (including aspirin).

As Bill Hicks said "the only thing we truly have is family."

.........

Lee Castleton - bankrupt and bitter

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:18:00 +0000

In the light of the recent article in Private Eye, I got an email from Lee Castleton, whose situation was highlighted back in 2009, by Computer Weekly.

Lee has given me permission to publish his email which has been edited slightly for clarity.

"Hi Nick,

"My name is Lee Castleton. I am a former subpostmaster. I am writing to give you my sorrowful experience of dealings with Post Office Ltd. I believe I am the only person to have defended a civil case (and lost) for losses in my branch - Marine Drive Bridlington. Case number HQ05X02706 in the High Court London. I was taken there in Dec 2006 by Post Office Ltd.

"In Jan 2004 My Post Office branch started to accrue losses. The first of which was £1103.68. This I paid. But I telephoned helpline and explained that I lost £1103.68. They told me to pay it and it would no doubt turn up the following week as a mistake on my part. The following week we again misbalanced. I was £4300 short. Again I made the phone call to helpline but I was given no help.

"I explained I had paid in a large amount the week prior and I could not afford to pay. I was told they would look in to it. Over the following 10 weeks we misbalanced every week. Sometimes we had too much money but more often we had too little. I was frantic. I received no help and even though I never hid any misbalances, no answers we given.

"After repeatedly voicing my concerns and begged for help (over 91 phone calls in the 12 week period) I asked for an audit. I knew this would stop the never helping attitude and force some action. I am naive. On the 23rd March 2004 I was audited. I was found to be exactly where I had told Post Office I was with respect to the misbalances (-£25000).

"I did not expect what happened next. I was suspended. I was told the deficit was against my contract and that I needed to pay the money there and then. I explained that I had told Post Office repeatedly and that I felt the Horizon system was at fault.

"I was taken through a procedure where my suspension became a termination yet still despite my pointing out faults in paperwork there was no investigation. Post Office now were not paying me and they then started proceedings to recover the supposed missing money. I was able to get representation through a legal insurance.

"Post Office delayed and delayed with letters back and forth. All the time eating up the insurance money.

"Finally we went to court in Dec 06. The Post office offered little evidence other than my signed accounts. I lost. From Jan 07 to this day my family and I have suffered far beyond anything I could explain.

"I had to declare myself bankrupt because the Judge order costs against me to the value of £321000. The Judge told the Post Office that it was unlikely I would be able to pay prior to the case being heard but Post Office wanted to continue. So Post office Ltd paid £321000 to try to recover £25000. Even though they knew I could not pay.

"What is still painful is even more so when new revelations are revealed by others on a daily basis. I always asked for help and explained and reported any losses. It is not reasonable to think that an average working man can just pay ever more money into a system that clearly is flawed.

"I have documents that prove the system does not work. One of which is the one Shoosmiths refer to - the Horizon records transactions whilst the person whom the Horizon says is operating the system is not even logged on to the system. This is one of the faults from my office.

"Post Office's case against me was argued on the basis that an account stated is an account owned. They argued that I signed of the accounts as a true reflection of the the accounts. Firstly over the 12 week period I made 91 phone calls asking why the system was showing shortages or gains.

"Secondly I have now found out that Horizon has 3rd party access. Which Post Office deny. How can I own an account that a third party can change?

"Lee Castleton"

Since emailing this letter, Lee has asked Humberside Police to investigate his situation. He is alleging the Post Office:

"withheld the fact that the system has had and continues to have balance problems where transactions are lost. They withheld information during disclosure and still deny that the system has serious flaws with balancing.

"They have financially gained from the non-disclosure and continue to deny they have a problem with the system. They have sought to criminalise people where possible whilst withholding this information.

"They have profited from withholding this information. Because they are able to prosecute people without any form of checks with the CPS they have been able to continue to withhold this information to their own benefit in such cases."

Lee tells me the investigating officer at Humberside Police:

"has confirmed to me that he will be investigating the Post Office. He explained that he felt there is clearly a problem that needs to be looked into.

"Whilst he also felt that it will be particularly difficult to do so he feels that it is certainly something that needs to be investigated."

I ought to point out, just in case any of the Post Office's lawyers are reading this, that the Post Office believes its Horizon interface to be "robust", and no one has ever offered any testable proof that the Horizon system has any faults whatsoever.

Namechecked in the House

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:21:00 +0000

I know exactly why Jeremy Hunt MP did this, and so do his sniggering colleagues.

Jeremy Hunt loves BBC Surrey by nickwallis

But that doesn't mean it isn't strange and wonderful to have your name mentioned by a Secretary of State in the House of Commons.

He said: "There are numerous examples which we've heard this afternoon, across the country, of where BBC Local Radio has filled a gap that would not have been filled by anything else, and I think in line with what other Hon. Members have said I do need to mention the excellent work done by BBC Surrey, which I visited recently, including the excellent Nick Wallis breakfast show." - Jeremy Hunt MP, Thu 1 Dec, 2011.

The mention, whilst extremely welcome, was gratuitous. Members of Parliament know that if they namecheck a specific local newspaper in the House of Commons there is a 99.9% chance they will appear in the paper they have mentioned (probably with a photo), and the coverage of their mention will almost certainly be favourable.

I haven't heard the full debate on BBC Local Radio that led to Jeremy Hunt mentioning my name, but as he infers in the above clip, his parliamentary colleagues were almost certainly queuing up to mention their local radio station because they knew by doing so, they would make the bulletins on the radio stations they mentioned. Hence the knowing laughs in the background when Jeremy Hunt mentioned BBC Surrey.

It's not a conscious or pre-meditated "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours", nor does the extended coverage of the mention come from any pathetic sense of gratefulness on behalf of the publication or media outlet which gets its brief moment in the spotlight. It's just the way these things work.

If someone who has a high profile endorses your work it is likely that people who already like you will be interested in it. Report it. Make a trail using it. Put it on the cover of your book or your billboard, RT it on twitter. Write an article about it. Anyone in this situation who gets all bashful is a fool.

The important thing to note is why my name was mentioned by a Secretary of State in the House of Commons. Although it may have been done for cynical reasons, it didn't happen spontaneously.

The debate in the chamber was about the future of BBC Local Radio, and it was called by the veteran Labour MP Austin Mitchell. He has concerns about the scale of cuts an internal BBC review (called Delivering Quality First or DQF) is going to impose on BBC Local Radio. Where did his concerns come from? Not out of thin air.

Since I started doing my show, I have been in regular contact with an extraordinarily committed listener who goes by the name of Darcy Sarto. He is passionate, articulate and very funny, and he cares an awful lot about BBC Local Radio. In his spare time he is involved with a group called the BBC Local Radio Forum, which has lobbied incessantly to get all the people who say they care about BBC Local Radio to do something about it. He is very well aware of the potential implications of DQF for local radio, and he sees it as his business, as a licence-fee payer and listener, to be an advocate for BBC Local Radio.

Whilst chatting (off air) with Darcy about DQF, I suggested the biggest problem that BBC Local Radio had was not enough movers and shakers listen to it. For many and varied reasons, a lot of influential people listen to BBC Radio 4 and/or 5live.

If there were a "Listen to BBC Local Radio Day", which simply asked everyone to try their local BBC station for a few moments, whether it be MPs, local councillors, charity bigwigs, NHS chief executives, police chiefs, business owners, shop workers, commuters, schoolteachers, mums, kids, celebrities, whoever - then it would raise the profile of BBC Local Radio, prove to people who'd never listened what a vital job BBC Local Radio does and it might even get us a few more regular listeners. It would also be something that the BBC hierarchy could get behind - why wouldn't they support a listener-generated campaign to ask everyone to tune in to BBC Local Radio?

Darcy agreed and suggested the date - Thu 1 Dec - the birthdate of the founder of BBC Local Radio, Frank Gillard. Poetically resonant and conveniently within the timescale of the current BBC Trust consultation into DQF. Perfect.

I am ashamed to say I did very little thereafter. Darcy and his friends did all the running - they got to enough MPs to get the debate called, and they ensured that the biggest news story coming out of DQF was the effect it may have on local radio. It won some significant public statements from people within the BBC, not least Mark Thompson, the Director General, and Caroline Thomson, the Chief Operating Officer who told the Voice of the Listener and Viewer group that the BBC had been "surprised" by the response to the Local Radio proposals.

Before we go any further, I need to state, for the record, that I have no opinion on DQF, nor on the way the BBC chooses to go about setting its budgets. I know that if there is a reprieve for BBC Local Radio, some other department will lose out. It's not my place to pontificate even if I did have an opinion.

If, however, you have a view on BBC Local Radio, and you want that view to count, please contact the BBC Trust. They are reviewing the proposals in DQF, and as a licence-fee payer, what you have to say will make a difference.

Here's the link. You have until 21 Dec 2011 to make your contribution. Please spread the word.

In the event, not many MPs attended today's debate, but the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, given his brief, was more or less obliged to do so. I have no idea of his real feelings on BBC Local Radio. Although he says I'm "excellent", I have no idea how many hours (minutes? seconds?) of my show he has listened to.

But he knew he would hear lots of other MPs talk passionately about their radio station, and so he made sure, at the very least, that he knew my name.

And please be in no doubt that however cynical I may seem, it was rather thrilling to hear it said in such a rarified setting.

It was 20 years ago today

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:41:00 +0000

This rather small and badly-cropped picture is of John Terrett. His was the first voice, and he was the first breakfast show presenter, on BBC Radio Surrey, when it launched on 14 Nov 1991.

I spoke to John on air this morning. I was in the same studio he was sitting in exactly 20 years previously. He was in Washington DC, where he now works as a US correspondent for Al Jazeera.

My former colleague at Five News, Brian Ging, tracked John down. Brian moved to "Al Jazz" as we call it in "the" "trade", and worked with him before he moved to the US. A few quick emails later and John and I were having a natter on the phone, sorting out this morning's interview on the BBC Surrey Breakfast Show.

John is a perfect gentleman and could not have been more helpful. Bearing in mind the 5 hour time difference, he very kindly agreed to stay up until 1.20am his time to talk to us live on the radio.

Speaking to John on air brought all the stories out of the woodwork. I asked people what they were doing in 1991 and as well as personal histories, I was bowled over by the number of people listening to the radio station this morning who started listening to BBC Radio Surrey in 1991.

As well as the birthday wishes and reminiscences from listeners, my news editor Angus Moorat came on air to tell me that when BBC Radio Surrey launched, he was running a student radio station at the University of Surrey.

It's name? Radio Surrey. When Angus got wind of the BBC's plans he went up to Broadcasting House in London (by appointment) with a fellow student to tell the BBC they couldn't call their new station Radio Surrey, as it would clash with their student station.

They met with a nice man at the BBC who sat behind a large desk in a wood panelled room. He listened to their concerns and then told them there was no chance of the BBC changing its mind, so thanks very much for coming and goodbye.

The student Radio Surrey is now called GU2 radio - and it is doing rather well - taking home two silvers from last week's Student Radio Awards.

Peter Stewart, my newsreader, and author of an excellent book on radio, told me in 1991 he was busy applying to be a journalist at BBC Radio Surrey. He still has the rejection letter.

BBC Radio Surrey lasted two years before becoming part of BBC Sussex and Surrey. Then they both became BBC Southern Counties, for a long time.

In 2009, BBC Surrey was born. I heard about the launch of this new station, and was delighted there was finally a BBC station representing my home county (I never knew where or what Southern Counties was supposed to be).

I went along to meet the Managing Editor responsible for this name change. One conversation led to another... and here I am.

Two years in the job

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:15:00 +0000

Just over a year ago I wrote "One year in the job", a review of my first year presenting the BBC Surrey breakfast show.

A year and a half ago, I wrote "A day in the life", a fairly extensive blow-by-blow account of my daily routine.

They are the two most popular posts on my blog, so here's an update.

There have been three significant changes to my routine in the past 18 months.

1) I no longer regularly make programme pieces for my show.
2) We have shifted the programme back an hour, so it is now broadcast between 6-9am.
3) I have taken on the Saturday breakfast show.

Stopping doing regular pieces for my show happened during the summer of last year. The time commitment was too much. I was leaving the office more or less straight after finishing the programme, going to a job, and then spending two hours at home putting the edit together.

After travel time, I often wouldn't file the piece until 2.30-3pm, making it a difficult working day. I was getting more and more tired, and whilst it was nice having three minutes of good quality audio on the show, it was affecting my performance during the other 177 quite considerably.

It also meant that I often wouldn't be around for the morning meeting, which is an essential debriefing and planning session. Here we get an early idea as to the likely stories in the next day's show. We also get to discuss those stories, and try to think creatively about how we could bring them to air.

These meetings can throw up some brilliant ideas, and can turn a weak story on paper into something very vivid when you hear it. It can also flush out the duff stories - ones which look good on paper, but are much harder to develop or execute on the show.

By the end of the planning meeting we will all have some idea of what should be happening the next day.

Then it's off home, or on to any other work commitment that might come my way. Recently I've been working with the BBC South Inside Out team again, which has been great. I have also had the enormous satisfaction of working with a Private Eye journalist to get a story about the Post Office into print, and I'm pleased to say there may be another broadcast piece to be made about the latest developments there.

More often than not, though, I will head home to have lunch, go for a run, sleep, do my share of childcare, or all of the above.

Since we have moved the show to 6-9am (it used to be 7-10am), I get up at 3.45am. I remember Nicky Campbell saying his alarm call was 3.45am when he used to start at 6am, and that's good enough for me.

It means I have less time to prep the show in the office. Some days, if a cue isn't quite right, or the producer, newsreader and myself think we need to make significant changes, it can be challenging.

The upside is: I'm not exhausted by the time we get to air, and I still get to listen to the excellent Morning Reports on 5live (and BBC Surrey!) on the drive-in, which gives you a full briefing on the day's news agenda.

The lack of prep time in the morning means it is more essential than ever to speak to the day producer at the end of their shift to discuss the next day's stories. I'll usually get a call between 6pm and 7pm, and we'll have a chat about everything. I think the producer finds it helpful too. They've spent all day with their heads inside the various stories, changing them, writing them, finding guests and working them up into something worth broadcasting; now they have to brief me verbally. Given that's what I'm doing for the audience the next day, it's a neat test of whether or not they've got the "tellability" of it right.

It doesn't matter how good the story or guest is, or how much work you've done on it, if I can't tell the listener what is going on in a simple, accurate and engaging way, everyone's hard work is wasted.

Whilst talking to the producer on the phone I can obviously ask questions that immediately occur to me. If any changes are needed (or have time to be made) the producer will make them, and I will use the basis of our conversation for some kind of approach on air the next day.

Once the scripts have been finalised, the producer sends them through to me on email, and I will read through them before I go to bed, making notes as to any further changes I think might need making, and absorbing the briefing notes which sit below the cues.

So the my current routine is:

3.45am Alarm goes off. Take phone off charge, stagger downstairs and make breakfast.
3.50am Watch last night's BBC1 Ten o'clock news on PVR whilst eating breakfast. Also check twitter feed on phone. If anything comes up on there, I'll forward it to my colleagues and to my work email to watch/read on a big computer screen.
4.20am Shower. Get dressed.
4.50am Get in car, listen to paper review on LBC.
5am Switch car radio to BBC Surrey to listen to 5live's Morning Reports.
5.20am Arrive BBC Surrey in Guildford. Discuss stories with producer and newsreader. Make any changes to cues as necessary. Get weather, write show introduction, choose 6-7am quiz question.
6am On air. The first hour has a relatively gentle start with a quiz and 4 songs before 7. But we have a top story, there is a full news, weather, travel and sport service, plus a rather enjoyable entertainment fix, and the papers.
7-9am All speech. Full on, full service breakfast show.
9am Decompression.
9.30am Morning planning meeting.
10.30am email and other admin. Occasional meetings with management.
11-11.30am Leave the BBC Surrey building.
11.30am Sleep or eat or work or carry out family-related duties.
6-7pm Producer phone call (10 - 25 mins)
8.30pm Read scripts
9pm Lights out.

Since taking on the Saturday breakfast show, I will also spend some of the post-show production time at the office thinking about what should go into Saturday. I'll talk to the news editor on a Friday and stay in regular contact with my weekend producer throughout the week. He comes in on Friday to set up the show and will studio produce on a Saturday morning.

We've only been doing this for four weeks, but I think already we've started to push the show in the direction we want to take it. It is a bit more relaxed than the weekday breakfast show - we have music running throughout the 3 hours we are on air, and it is a Saturday. So whilst we are geared up to take on breaking and important news, I think there should be a weekend feel to things.

So that's me. It's a reasonably punishing routine, but nowhere near as wearing as looking after three small children, which is what my wife does when I'm not around to assist. I also love doing it, which helps.

The main thing I have learned over the course of the last two years is that whilst good journalism is essential, the show is a performance. As a presenter, my responsibility is as much to the performance as it is to the journalism within it. Most of what I've been doing over the past year is working on my performance, and shaping my daily schedule to give me the best chance of doing it well.

To extend the point I made earlier in this post, the material I work with has to be simple, accurate and engaging, but unless I can do something extra with it, to put a smile on someone's face, or really connect with a story, everyone's hard work is completely wasted.

Up before the lark

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:56:00 +0000

It's 5.45am. I'm off work this week, and off on holiday to darkest East Sussex later. I also have four more sleeps until my first stab at doing stand-up without the Comic Relief safety net.

Last night I went to bed at 9.30pm, feeling terrible. This morning I woke at 5am - a lie-in from the day job and long enough for me to be propelled out of bed and downstairs, where you can find me drinking a cup of peppermint tea and worrying. Worrying, worrying, worrying.

Yesterday I sent the following tweets in reasonably quick succession:

"Lie-in til 7.15am. Woo. *cries*"

"Although night shifts/early starts shorten your life, I will probably have the same number of hours awake as those who live longer."

"Most of which will have been spent feeling terrible."

"I am going to spend most of the rest of my waking life feeling terrible, and then I will die."

"G'mornin'!"

It generated quite a bit of comment. Mainly from fellow broadcast journalists in similar situations. But as I said to one non-journalist who expressed sympathy, if i didn't enjoy it so much I'd try to do something different.

And that's the thing. No matter how much it wrenches to hear the World's Most Annoying Alarm go off at 3.45am six days a week, I love doing what I do. If that is the only price to pay (and the average four year reduction in life expectancy is a reasonable price to pay), then I'm in.

One side-effect of taking on the Saturday breakfast show at BBC Surrey is that I can no longer go out, entertain or stay up very late on a Friday, apart from when I am on leave.

I have one Friday night before Christmas when I am not doing a breakfast show the following day. I should be using it to relax and enjoy myself. Instead I will be risking total humiliation in a professional comedy bear-pit in Redhill. I think that tells you all you need to know.

If you want to come and see me try to be funny this Friday 28 October at 7.30pm, and see some genuinely brilliant acts, all for a tenner, find out more here, or just call the Harlequin theatre box office on 01737 276 500 (they don't appear to have worked out how to sell tickets online for this event yet). The venue is right by Redhill station.

More stand-up

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:26:00 +0000

After my experience of doing stand-up comedy for Comic Relief earlier this year I thought I'd like to give it a go without the safety net of having the compere tell everyone to be nice because I was a radio presenter and it was my first time.

The extraordinarily talented Sajeela Kershi, who hosted my first ever comedy gig at her Comedy Cottage night in Redhill very kindly said if I ever wanted to give it another go, she'd have me back.

With this in mind we agreed I'd do a slot in May. My son was born the day before I was due to do it, so I cancelled. I appreciate this may seem like something of a cop out. Sorry.

In addition to the demands on my time at home, I now do the breakfast show on BBC Surrey six days a week. However, I do have next week off, because it is half term. I asked Sajeela if her offer was still open, and, thankfully it was.

So I find myself on the bill for a Hallowe'en night Comedy Cottage special, alongside my brilliant comedy guru/tutor Nathaniel Tapley and some other very talented people, at the Harlequin Theatre in Redhill, on Friday 28th October.

If you want to come along, I would be delighted. I have seen quite a bit of comedy down the years and Sajeela and Natt are up there with the very best. The Comedy Cottage has a great atmosphere with lots of really friendly people all up for a good time, and the many other acts on the bill look most totally awesome.

A word of warning. It is definitely for over 18s only. Please do not come if you are easily, or perhaps even moderately, offended.

You can find out more here, but basically it's 7.30pm on Friday 28th October, opposite Redhill railway station in Surrey. Tickets cost £10.

If you want to see my last stand-up routine, it's here.

Sajeela asked me if I have got some new material. Right now I have no material at all, but I will be thinking very hard about that in the run up to next week. I really hope you can come along.

The Post Office Horizon story grows legs

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:57:00 +0000

This is the new issue of Private Eye (no 1299). The last issue (no 1298, amazingly) carried an article about possible problems with the Post Office's Horizon IT system (see my blog post about it, which includes the text of the first Private Eye article and links to further information).

I am pleased to say the initial article provoked a response. The above issue contains three letters about it on p.15, and a follow up article In The Back (p.31) where it is leading the section entitled "IT cock ups".
If you would like to read them, please buy the magazine.

I also need your help. If you have high level experience of working on banking/high volume/legacy IT systems and you think you may have something interesting to say about Horizon, please get in touch. If you are prepared to go on camera about it, that would be nice too.

Post Office story in Private Eye

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:38:00 +0000

I have been working with a journalist at Private Eye magazine over the past few weeks, and a piece on the Post Office Horizon system leads the investigative section "In the Back" in this fortnight's issue (No 1298 30 Sep - 13 Oct p.28).

To read the original story in full and watch the TV piece I did about it in February, click here, but if you have a chance, please buy the magazine. It's an excellent read, and the Post Office story deserves wider public attention.

If the link above expires, here is the same article copied and pasted.

COMPUTER SAYS NO...

AS Britain’s multi-billion pound public IT programmes hit the next stage in the lifecycle of botched computer projects – malfunction – alarming repercussions are being felt in the nation’s post offices. In recent years the Horizon system that 11,500 sub-postmasters are forced to use has thrown up a rash of apparent financial “shortfalls”.

These have prompted dozens of prosecutions and financial ruin for businessmen and women with previously spotless records. Fifty-five of them last week launched a “class action” against the Post Office, arguing that their troubles owe more to computer error than dishonesty.In a standard week a sub-post office performs thousands of transactions – many such as pension payments and lottery and foreign currency purchases, in cash. When the computer says the till is short, the sub-postmaster (or mistress) has to cough up the difference; and the computer is always right apparently. If the sub-postmaster or mistress can’t pay up, the Post Office’s fraud investigators swiftly descend.

No sign of any missing cash

Typical is the case of Jo Hamilton from South Warnborough in Hampshire, who one week was £2,000 down. After the helpdesk told her to press a few buttons the total doubled, and the Post Office took £4,000 off her.

When the problem kept repeating, her mistake was to claim that everything was fine so she could at least keep trading in the hope that the errors would correct themselves and she’d get her £4,000 back. Then the total hit £36,000, the auditors swooped and she was convicted for false accounting (without ever being accused of taking any money) and forced to pay the £36,000 back with the help of supportive villagers.

Others have been jailed for theft simply on evidence from a computer system that seems to be misfiring, with no indication of what they are supposed to have done with the money. One, Seema Misra, was pregnant when she was found guilty of stealing £75,000 even though no trace of the cash could be found and the judge at Guildford crown court, according to supporters present, appeared to instruct the jury that the evidence was very limited. She was sentenced to 18 months.

Since her case, others have pleaded guilty simply for more lenient sentences. Many more have coughed up thousands of pounds from their own pockets in desperate attempts to retain their livelihoods. The Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance reckons the total affected could run into the thousands.

A law unto itself

The Post Office remains the only body in the UK to run its own prosecutions and campaigners think that if it had to use the Crown Prosecution Service, many cases would not have made it to court. The last organisation with such powers, Customs & Excise, was stripped of them almost a decade ago when it was found to have over-stepped the mark in several high-profile cases.

Mrs Hamilton’s MP, James Arbuthnot, expresses a widely-held view when he says: “I find it very difficult to believe that all these sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses are suddenly found to be dishonest, if the alternative is that it may be a public sector computer system which has gone wrong. We’ve heard of that before.” But postal services minister Ed Davey is washing his hands of the problem, simply re-directing MPs’ questions to the Post Office itself.

Lost Horizon

There is no shortage of visible problems with Horizon. One sub-postmaster explained to the Eye how when selling stamps, for example, his terminal often either registered no stamp sale or not the class of stamp keyed in. And in July the entire Post Office banking system was shut down by a “Horizon online issue”. Even the 370 large “Crown” post offices managed centrally are not immune from glitches. Latest known figures show shortfalls there of £2.2m in a year, although mysteriously these haven’t produced any criminal sanctions.

These are just the latest episode in Horizon’s inglorious history. It originated in 1996 in a joint Department of Social Security-Post Office PFI deal for an automated benefits payment system with Pathway, part of ICL (now Fujitsu) on the back of a cheap but technically flawed bid. Four years and £1bn later it was ditched by the government, with the Post Office left to convert it into the Horizon automation project. Fujitsu still runs the technical side of things.
The lengthening list of “shortfall” cases, many in odd geographical clusters, has received little attention beyond diligent investigation by BBC South TV hack Nick Wallis and Computer Weekly magazine. This could be about to change, though, as solicitors Shoosmith begin action on behalf of the 55, with another 150 cases pending.

The Post Office, fearing immense further cost if its computer system is found wanting, has its head firmly in the sand. There are, a spokeswoman told the Eye, “no issues” with Horizon (which is nonsense given the ones already admitted). To say anything else would be to admit that the computer on which it depends is a pig in a poke that has not only wasted billions but might now be dispensing miscarriages of justice as well.

When politicians really don't want to answer the question

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:31:00 +0000

You might like this. The Conservative leader Dr Andrew Povey sacked his deputy (David Hodge) and then announced he was resigning. But wouldn't tell me why. Well, he wouldn't tell me really why.

NICK POVEY by nickwallis

We just happened to have an interview with a different cabinet member (Peter Martin) booked for the same morning, so I asked him what was going on. He wouldn't tell me. He really wouldn't tell me.

NICK MARTIN by nickwallis

How to deal with hate in radio and in life

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:39:00 +0000

Please take the time to read this article written by the documentary film-maker and polemicist Michael Moore. Funny, fascinating and deeply worrying.

And for some light relief, click on the fist, and listen.

It's taken from talkSPORT's late night show, hosted by @mattforde.

The odd thing is that the rage is at one level - the caller starts very angry and remains so. He doesn't get any more or less wound up - it's a steady, constant pitch of compellingly-enunciated bile, delivered without one swear word.

Thanks to @richardpbacon for tweeting them both.

Six days a week

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Now I'm doing BBC Surrey Breakfast six days a week, Monday to Saturday, 6am to 9am.

I had better go to bed.

Would you like to taste the wine, sir/madam?

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:36:00 +0000

I hate this ritual. It's awkward and odd and has no place in all but the very best restaurants where choosing wine is effectively a willy-waving competition between the sommelier and the rich customer.

95% of wines are okay. In the restaurants I frequent, 99.5% of them are okay. Most are screw-top, and modern bottling procedures are such that even cork-bottled wines are as they should be.

But still, we have to go through with it.

The tasting.

What is the advantage of tasting the wine before, you know, you taste it, er, for real?

Way back, in the mists of mythy myth, when one person paid the bill for a whole table... that person was asked to taste the wine. Not because they were the only person who could spot (through their amazing ability to taste vinegar) that a wine was off. No, because that person was the most important person at a table.

The tasting ritual rams home the point - you are here to break bread as equals, but someone more important than you is paying for your jollies, sunshine.

We all wait for the don dada, the money, the boss, the rent-payer to say that his/her choice of wine is good enough for him/her to drink, and can therefore be shared among lesser mortals.

That person had the power to reject the proffered wine as corked (or, if they really, really knew what they were talking about, substandard) and another bottle of the same grape/vineyard/vintage would be retrieved and the whole business could start again.

In terms of real, genuine practical effect, the only thing the whole fandango really achieves is that it stops the pouring of bad wine into everybody's glasses.

Who, nowadays, would blame the bill-payer for taking them to a restaurant where they are served corked wine, by mistake? Yet that is what we are mitigating against by going through the ridiculous wine-tasting ritual.

It's out of date. I don't like it.

"Hmm" I think, as I take a sip "doesn't taste corked, but I'm hardly having an epiphany here... in fact... it tastes exactly like the second cheapest wine on the menu, which is, funnily enough, exactly what I ordered. The waiter knows it's bog-standard supermarket screw-top plonk with a 400% mark-up, and so do I. He's now been waiting exactly five seconds for me to say something, which is far too long to make up my mind on something I already knew would be okay. Why are we doing this?"

"Lovely" I say. Failing to make eye contact with the waiter/boss/wife/oenophile peers.

Let's just stop this now.

In future, I'll ask for it. You bring it. If the wine is off, I'll let you know.

Going offline

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:32:00 +0000

I have been on holiday for the last two weeks. At the behest of my wife, I switched off the data connection on my phone, so my time online was limited to occasional blasts of laptop action via the pay-as-you-go mi-fi I brought down to Devon with me.

I also did my best to stop writing emails, posting twitter or facebook updates, buying papers, listening to the radio or watching television.

Obviously I got a pass when it came to the riots, but the general idea was to be offline.

Did I "relax"? Not really. I got a chance to do more childcare, which isn't exactly relaxing. I got faintly agitated about not knowing what was going on in the world. I got the feeling of being slightly trapped. I found the whole experience a bit... stressful.

So this week, whilst still in Devon. I started buying papers. It's what you do on holiday. Listening to the radio or watching television always feels a bit odd when you're out of a routine. And besides, a newspaper is the media best suited to the beach.

I used to love a good newspaper. Now I just spend my time asking myself why I spent a pound or more on this awful chod.

They always were yesterday's news, but a paper nowadays seems to be mainly lifestyle gunk put together for and by a bunch of Hilaries and Timothies. There is the occasional wonderful article (the Saturday Times magazine's piece on human echolocation was like finding an oasis in a desert of dross), and the star columnists always seem to deliver, but the overall tone of every broadsheet (and I tried them all this week) appears to be one of wittering smugness.

So I crept back online, to follow the news rabbit down various random and illuminating holes, to do some account-checking and fact-finding, to see what my friends are up to, and to fire up the email in order to catch up on some longer-form correspondence.

And to relax.

Right, I'd better go. The children are kicking off again. Never a dull moment.

Word on the Street

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 09:07:00 +0000

I have just updated my biog to take account of what I've been doing for the last couple of years.

In doing so I found a link to a language programme called Word on the Street I did for young people at BBC World.

This went out on BBC Persia, and was sold to various other territories.

I could be big in Iran.

Nick Wallis Biography

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Hello. I currently present the BBC Surrey Breakfast show, a job I have done since September 2009. You can listen to my latest show here, or find me every weekday morning between 6am and 9am online or on 104FM and 104.6FM (but only if you live in Surrey, North East Hampshire or North Sussex).

Since starting the breakfast show, I have also presented a number of reports for the BBC1 regional investigative reporting strand Inside Out. Have a look at one here.

In 2010 I presented a joint BBC/British Council language programme called Word on the Street, which has been broadcast around the world. Get me.

I continue to be available for any BBC work or non-news commercial broadcasting (eg lifestyle/pop culture programmes), and any network BBC radio.

Back in the mists of time...

After deciding I wanted a career in radio whilst at University, I got involved with my local student radio station, Shout FM.

In 1995 I became Shout FM Controller, and in November 1995 was elected Chair of the Student Radio Association, where I worked with BBC Radio 1 to set up the Student Radio Awards.

This brought me into contact with lots of industry people, one of whom, Sammy Jacob, employed me as a Broadcast Assistant at Xfm before its full time launch in 1997.

I was quite keen to get on air, so I picked up some travel presenting. Then, in 1998 I started travel presenting full time at BBC Oxford. Whilst there I was trained up as a journalist, eventually becoming a reporter and newsreader.

In 2001 I moved to BBC Three (then called BBC Choice) to help launch its news service and pick up my first TV reporting and presenting experience.

In 2004 I moved to Radio 1's Newsbeat to become a reporter, specialising in entertainment news.

The same year I went freelance, retaining a contract at Newsbeat, but also picking up presenting work at BBC Radio 5live, regularly covering Richard Bacon and Stephen Nolan.

In 2008 I started reporting for ITN's London Tonight and Five News. In May 2009 I became one of the Five News weekend presenters.

Later that year I was offered the BBC Surrey Breakfast Show, bringing us back to the top of the page.

Them's the bare facts ma'am. If you want to read a less chronological and slightly more emotive view of what I've been up to - have a look at Memorable career-related incidents so far, written just before accepting my current radio job.

If you would like to offer me some work, please call me on 07976 432174, or email nick@nickwallis.com

Start 'em young

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:31:00 +0000

Health warning: this blog post features me writing about my daughter in a proud dad kind of way. If that sort of thing makes you retch, please watch this instead, it's much better.

*waits patiently*

Okay, you have been warned. Take a look at this...

It's written by my six year old daughter Amy. According to her, it's a news bulletin, and was created entirely of her own volition. She surprised us by marching into the kitchen this morning and reading it out. I have tidied it up below:

"Nana Knickerbocker's in town. Watch out for her.

"And with her sister Gail Force.

"Get your tickets ready and entry [enter?], because you might win.

"And they'll be hiding round the town.

"Oh yes, round the town."

It's only when a child tries to communicate using "grown up" parameters do amateurs like me actually get a proper handle on how their brains are working.

So in Amy's world, "news" doesn't have to be factual, or related in any way to the real world. Nana Knickerbocker and Gail Force are stars of Gigglebiz on CBeebies, a comedy show on the BBC pre-school children's channel.

Above: Nana Knickerbocker, as coloured-in by Amy.

Interestingly, one of the other characters in Gigglebiz is the newsreader Arthur Sleep. Amy likes Arthur Sleep and Gigglebiz, but she never claimed to be doing an impression of him. Also Arthur's "news" stories are almost exclusively gags, and Amy's script was not a gag - she wasn't looking for laughs - she was "broadcasting" important Information.

Although, as soon as she had read us her bulletin, Abi, our three year old, said brightly "you're Arthur Sleep", and walked out.

On the editorial side, I have no idea where Amy got the "showbiz news/promotional plug masquerading as a news item" story concept from.

I guess Amy has only come across the didactic news style of broadcasting when a) hearing the news on the radio and b) watching/hearing some big promotional push aimed at her age group. So she has picked up that style as being "news", but the only stuff she's ever understood has been promo guff, hence her subject matter.

Above: Gail Force.

In terms of metre, Amy's bulletin has a 17th Century oddness to it. What I love about it is that it's written to be spoken. There's something declamatory about the sentence structure. As someone who has spent most of his working life writing material to be broadcast, it's great to see that Amy is developing (albeit unconsciously) an ear for this too.

The rhetorical flourish at the end is just a delight - "Oh yes, round the town." has echoes of a town cryer, but also reveals something about her thinking - she knows she has to grab your attention, and has gone for a kind of conversational repetition as a way of doing so.

I don't think my daughter is particularly intelligent, or special or anything like that. I just wanted to record a moment that meant a lot to me, for what may be obvious reasons.

I want to work in radio Part 3 - Marsha's advice

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:30:00 +0000

When I wrote I want to work in radio, quite a few people got in touch, which was nice.

I got an email from my dear, and talented friend Marsha (above), which contained a whole better load of advice in it than my initial post.

So here is Marsha's take on the whole thing. She wrote it when she worked at Xfm in London. It was initially posted up by CMUonline in 2009. Go Marsha:

"First of all, here's the bad news: because of changes in the law, a lot of stations' shows have become networked.

"Often, there are only three shows that actually come from the local town (Breakfast, Drive and Weekend Breakfast) with all the rest coming from London.

"The BBC are going to be carrying out similar cuts in staff across the next two years. What it means is fewer jobs and more people (now out of work and often over-qualified) competing for them.

"It's a very tough business to get into just now. However, someone's got to get employed, right?

"Next comes the reality check: We DJs don't usually pick the music ourselves. Actually, on Xfm, between 10pm-2am the presenters do, but this is extremely rare on commercial radio.

"On my show, I have three choices an hour (which I have to pick from an appropriate pool) and the rest are prescribed by the Head of Music.

"People always think I must hate this - actually, covering Xposure (where it's 100% free plays) is insanely hard work, so I don't, and I don't think choosing all the music yourself is what should happen, but if you do, be aware that it probably won't happen for you.

"It's also an incredibly insecure industry. We're all freelance (which means if you take a day off or have to miss work through illness, you don't get paid), and could get the sack at any time.

"I know these days that's true of many industries, but I think in radio it's particularly brutal - there's usually no notice period. You just get a phonecall informing you that the last show you did was the last and please clear your desk.

"So you often spend most of your time feeling worried you're about to be let go. In my previous job, I found out my show was being cut when I switched on the radio to hear the presenter before me telling the listeners that it was my last show. That's actually more warning than most presenters get.

"Also, the hours suck. I have worked every Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and Bank Holiday since I started. For three years I woke up at 3am every Saturday and Sunday. Which meant I could never go out with my friends without one of us having to be up for work the following day.

"Your employers generally don't care about you. You are often treated badly, and any years of good service means nothing.

"Outside of the BBC, there are very few off-air staff. If you're lucky there will be a producer on Breakfast, on the bigger stations one on drive, but otherwise you're on your own, doing everything (including research, editing etc) on your own.

"However, in spite of all of this, I still think it's the best job in the entire world. That's why I've been doing it for so long.

"Assuming I haven't put you off, here's what you have to do...

"Broadcast/media courses are good, but, unless you specifically want to be a journalist, they are by no means essential. Much, much, much more important than this is experience.

"As such, if you're going to uni or college, make whether the course has a student radio station affiliated to it a very serious consideration.

"Get involved in hospital radio (look online for stations).

"Look into community radio as well (look online for stations). If you want to be a presenter, you need as much on air experience as possible. Then start trying to get as much work experience in professional stations as you can.

"Your best bet is to tap up small local stations. Have a look on the internet at what smaller stations run in your area, call them up and ask who's in charge of work experience, write to that person telling them specific things you like about the station (if you're not familiar with it, get familiar with it, listen or listen online), outlining your experience etc.

"You can approach presenters direct too. Tell them you want to do work experience on their particular show, tell them what it is about that show you like. I get requests like yours all the time. If I think you're just some chancer I'm not interested.

"If I think you are a genuine fan of the show or someone who's bothered to make the effort to (a) find out which show I do and (b) listen to it, I might be interested.

"Then, if you hear nothing, pester them once every couple of weeks with a "just wanted to check you got my email" type email.

"Do this by hitting reply all to your original email (so they can scroll down and remember who you are). In fact ALWAYS do that when emailing someone more than once (though you only have to ever do it for one email - they don't need to read through four 'just checking you got this' emails before they get to the original one you sent).

"Also, apply to as many stations as you can, regardless of whether you like that particular station or not. You need to just get loads of experience under your belt.

"Although it's better to do more at fewer stations than do less at more stations. When a job comes up, they're more likely to give it to the person who has already done a lot at that station than someone who's just been there one day.

"Every single time you meet anyone in the radio industry, chase them up with a "nice to meet you" email (email addresses are either obvious or easy to find on google). Every time you get an excuse to email them after that (their station is in the paper with something positive, they got nominated for a Sony), drop them an unobtrusive, "just wanted to say well done. Since we last spoke, I've had some more experience doing xxx".

"This is so that, when they need help with something, you'll be a name they think of and your contact details (put your number after your name on the email) will be easy to read. If you're still a student, go to as many student radio conferences as you can - www.studentradio.org.uk.

"If you're not, go onto www.radioacademy.org and go to as many talks as you can. Make friends with your peers as well as your superiors - they'll be the ones in the future who'll be open to helping you because you were in the same boat at the same time.

"Tailor your cv. Put all the radio experience in one section at the top of your work experience.

"Doesn't matter which is paid/unpaid - the experience is most important. Two pages is acceptable length - no longer.

"Don't bother with your postal address, age/martial status and don't waste space on writing the words "email" and "mobile" - it's obvious it's an email address and a mobile phone number.

"Don't write CV at the top, just your name in big letters, with your email address and mobile number underneath. Make it easy to skim read. Get several friends to spell and grammar check it.

"And good luck."

If you want to see and hear Marsha talking about working in radio, she's on the Route into Radio website I mentioned in my last blog post. I hope you find it useful.

There's more:

I want to work in radio Part 1 - Simon
I want to work in radio Part 2 - Route into Radio

I want to work in radio Part 2 - Route into Radio

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:05:00 +0000

I want to work in radio Part 1 is here - the link to I want to work in radio Part 3 is at the bottom of this post.

Now there's an exciting photo. It's my office - studio 1a at BBC Surrey.

Thank you for all the great responses to my blog post I want to work in radio, which included some very useful advice via email from a former Xfm presenter. I will try to put it up here at the weekend.

In the meantime, if you still want to work in radio, you could do worse than have a look at Route into Radio, a project my wife worked on whilst on secondment from Radio 1.

It's got video advice from Mark Kermode and Scott Mills, my dear colleagues Danny Pike and John Reynolds, plus many other luminaries.

The interviewees are divided into categories, so as well as presenting, you've got journalism, interactive, technical, sales and marketing, management and production.

Then you've got the stuff they are talking about also divided into categories - getting started, moving up the ladder, and day-to-day advice. The idea being you can cross-reference them against the job categories.

Have a look, and tell me what you think. My wife wasn't responsible for the bits you don't like.

There's more:

I want to work in radio Part 1 - Simon
I want to work in radio Part 3 - Marsha's advice

Phone Hacking

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:09:00 +0000

On Wednesday 1 Sep 2010 I was pointed by The Guardian's front page to an article on the New York Times website about Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, which contained some pretty extraordinary allegations.

Mr Coulson, was, at that time, the Prime Minister's Director of Communications.

I thought it was a big story, yet not many other people seemed to think so. Certainly I remember being surprised at how little interest there was in making a big deal about it at network level.

I asked various people why they thought no other newspaper (apart from Private Eye which had been banging on about it for moths) or broadcast organisation thought the Guardian or New York Times story was that big a deal.

I was variously told that it was perhaps because it was an "old" story, or too "media" or "villagey" (shorthand for Westminster village, the little political bubble inhabited by lobby hacks, MPs and the rest) to be of interest to the public.

Yes, but.... I thought... these are serious allegations about someone at the very heart of government. It's in the public interest. I've seen lobby hacks getting in a froth about far duller stories - why not this one?

So I thought, well... I think this is a serious story. I am a journalist. I have a BBC radio show. Why don't I do something about it? So I did.

I wrote to every MP in Surrey asking them if they would let me know their thoughts about Andy Coulson's continued employment as David Cameron's Director of Communications. With the resources I had, it's all I could do.

Surely one of them would read the New York Times article and say "actually, this is new information, it does look a bit odd - perhaps Mr Cameron should have a think about this."

I suppose, in a way, I thought it would be mutually beneficial to give them the opportunity to come on air and say something. We could discuss it, they would sound reasonable, and I would get a line (and a local angle) on a story I thought was quite important.

I wrote to all 11 Surrey MPs via email. You can see the letter here, published a week after I sent it on the BBC Surrey Breakfast blog.

Maybe I was too trivial a little oik to be bothered with. Maybe some of them were worried about what the whips would think if they went on the record. Maybe some of them hoped it was a situation that would go away if everyone ignored it. Maybe they thought the sort of person the PM employs is none of their business. Maybe they thought it wasn't all that important what Mr Coulson may or may not have been up to as the editor of the News of the World. Who knows? Not one of them replied.

But as I said, at the time, not many journalists seemed to think it was worth bothering about either.

Either way, my actions had precisely no effect whatsoever. Maybe next time I should leave it to the professionals.

I want to work in radio Part 1 - Simon

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:56:00 +0000

Rather excitingly, this has turned into a three part series. Start here. Links to parts 1 & 2 are at the bottom of this post.

This is Andy, but let's call him Simon, because this blog post isn't really about Andy.

I met Simon earlier today. He wants to get into radio.

Simon is 23, more or less the same age I was when I was trying to find my first paid job in the media. Simon is a student, working in student radio at the University of Surrey.

Simon made the effort to find me on twitter, cultivate one of those normal but weird @ relationships, and ask if we could hook up. Fine. He wants a job in radio, I work in radio.

Simon's student radio station is GU2, which is situated about 200m from BBC Surrey. In two years of working at BBC Surrey, Simon is the second student to approach me with a view to getting on in the industry.

I set up a meeting with the first after he contacted me on twitter, but he cancelled our meeting, because he "had a lot on" that day. I said that was cool - he could get back in contact to set another date, any time. He didn't.

So Simon came to BBC Surrey and I gave him the tour. I asked if I could have a look round GU2 student radio. It was exactly as I expected. Ten year old radio desks taped together with chewing gum and love.

We went for a drink. I asked him if he could have any job in radio, what it would be. The answer: Zane Lowe's.

I once wanted Steve Lamacq's job (although once I'd actually said that out loud, I realised how ridiculous it sounded, so I never said it again), so I could see where Simon was coming from.

When I wanted a job in radio, in 1996, the BBC was expanding at a hell of a lick, and commercial radio was in its pomp. It was easy - people were recruiting, and I wasn't an idiot. I was in a very lucky position.

Things have changed in the last 15 years. Very bright people who have been bitten by the radio bug can't get a job.

The BBC, as far as I am aware, is shrinking, not recruiting. Commercial radio is... I don't know where commercial radio is, as the only commercial stations I listen to are LBC and TalkSport. Wonderful success stories, but not ideal for someone who wants to be the next Zane Lowe.

So what to tell Simon?

Having come across the World's Most Jaded Radio Manager very early in my career, I resolved, from the very start, to be as positive as possible about my industry and what it has to offer.

Every person I have met since, every person who has shown a genuine interest in getting into radio, I have tried to help to get on in some small way.

It felt different with Simon. Here was someone who loved his music (which makes it difficult to forge a career in commercial radio), who had no interest in being a journalist (which makes it difficult to forge a career in BBC local radio), telling me that he was trying to get his demo together with a hope of getting a shot at 6 Music, or something.

Lovely, bright, intelligent guy, but what sort of career will he have if he doesn't become the next Zane Lowe, or Lauren Laverne, or Shaun Keaveny, or Marc Riley?

How many presenting jobs are there in radio for people who love music, which can actually pay a living wage? 50? 100?

So I told him. I told him he was more than welcome to come and shadow one of my shows. I told him I was on nodding terms with two reasonably powerful agents in music radio, and I would send an email on his behalf, if his demo was up to scratch. I told him that he was doing all the right things.

But that at the same time, I couldn't help thinking his sideline as a successful gig promoter and club DJ in Guildford would stand him in far better stead in the future. And so I told him he might be better off pursuing a career in that area.

Should I feel bad about that? Looking at it as a numbers game, has Simon got a hope of making a good living in radio?

I'm not an embittered hack - I love my job to bits, but I'm one of around 800 people in the UK who have a breakfast time radio show. There aren't that many of us.

I hope Simon doesn't listen to me. I hope I'm so out of touch with the way radio is recruiting that there's a massive future for someone like Simon. I love radio, and I want to see it popular, ground-breaking and successful, both commercially and within in the BBC, and I hope that Simon is one of those people who will make that happen.

But maybe I did the right thing. And when, at the age of 40, Simon is a successful club/festival promoter with money in his pocket, a decent pension and a once-a-week session show on BBC Wherever/Heart FM, he will look back at our meeting, and say something along the lines of "Wallis, fetch me some more scotch".

Until then, and in the interests of helping out... if you can use someone with quite a bit of presenting, producing and editing talent, someone who really loves his music, who has no interest in becoming a journalist, but who desperately wants a job in radio, give me a call. I'll pass Andy's details on to you.

There's more:

I want to work in radio Part 2 - Route into Radio
I want to work in radio Part 3 - Marsha's advice

Made up facts about Wimbledon

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:06:00 +0000

Yesterday the BBC Surrey Breakfast show came live from a picnic bench on the roof of the media centre at Wimbledon.

We interviewed the Chairman of the All England Club, and the BBC's John Inverdale joined us for the last part of the programme, in his cycling kit. Both feature in the last 45 minutes of the programme which I've uploaded (minus the news junctions etc) below. Have a scan through and you'll get a flavour of it:

Wimbledon OB by nickwallis

Because the only people in the grounds at Wimbledon between 7am and 10am (when the breakfast show goes out) are working, I spent Thursday afternoon mingling with the crowd, soaking up the atmosphere and speaking to people from Surrey. I did quite a bit of recording and played the results out on the show. It made for a great couple of days.

Bite-size facts are a great thing to have to hand on any OB, and I duly collected a few, which I have put at the bottom of this post. I also wrote some made-up facts about Wimbledon to amuse myself.

Made up facts about Wimbledon

The only people allowed to use Centre Court outside of the tournament are HM Queen, The Chairman of the All England Club, and his wife.

After John McEnroe's "pits of the world" outburst in 1981, Americans were banned from Wimbledon for 11 months.

Thanks to a quirk in education legislation, the All England Club is still allowed to use corporal punishment on its ball boys, but not the ball girls.

In 2010, the British Comedy Writers' Association voted Mardy Fish the best name in sport. The American actually turned up at the association's annual awards to accept his title.

Strawberries and cream at Wimbledon is known by the All England Club Members as "whisket", which is why you will often hear people in purple and green ties at Wimbledon shouting "Pass the whisket!!"

Small Womble-like creatures are used in harness to power Wimbledon's retractable roof. They push a large, underground wheel attached to cables, which can drag the roof across Centre Court in less than ten minutes.

True facts about Wimbledon

This is my favourite: Goran Ivanisevic is the only Wimbledon champion whose entire name alternates consonants and vowels.

The price of a plastic punnet of strawberries and cream has been kept at £2.50, for which you get a minimum of 10 strawberries. 28 tonnes of strawberries are eaten over the Wimbledon fortnight. Most of them come from Kent.

A large cup of Pimm's will set you back an eye-watering £7. 200,000 will be sold over the fortnight. So the All-England club gross 1.4million pounds on Pimm's alone.

The name 'tennis' is thought to come from the French 'tenez!' ('take' or 'receive'), a server's warning shout.

Rafael Nadal is actually right-handed. His coach made him play left-handed to improve his two-handed backhand.

Chairs were only provided for players to rest when changing ends in 1975.

In 2001 Roger Federer became the first man to beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in nearly five years. Federer beat Sampras in the 4th round. Federer then lost to Tim Henman in the 5th (who lost his semi-final to the eventual winner - Goran Ivanisevic).

The yellow tennis balls have only been around since 1986. They replaced white balls because they are more visible to TV cameras. One ball is only in play for about twenty minutes of an average two-and-a-half-hour tennis match.

Lady Gaga ate my Hamster

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:01:00 +0000

Been reading some fascinating blog posts about content farms and SEO and all that. I had no idea.

If you have any interest why and how you come to read the things you do on the internet, please do click on the above links.

Thanks to @briancathcart for the latter and some other nice person on twitter (sorry - forgotten who) who linked to the former. Both blog posts are excellent, if lengthy, reads.

I powered up the computer because I was going to write a sappy post about how much I love Caitlin Moran and David Hepworth, but it's too late in the day now and my brain hurts.

Instead, here is a welcome to my three week old son which I put up on my BBC Surrey Breakfast blog a week or so ago. It is slightly less grumpy than the one I posted here a couple of weeks back. It contains an explanation for the name Duffus as well as an audio rendering of Amy and Abi's diary, now I have finally discovered Soundcloud.

I promise I will stop boring on about my kids soon.

(Copyright ownership info/permission on pic being sought. Will remove on request. Good though, isn't it?)

Family Guy

noreply@blogger.com (nickwallis) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:59:00 +0000

This is James Duffus Wallis*. He is 10 days old. I put him in his chair so I could write this blog post, but he has woken up, so he is now attached to me on a sling.

Whilst it is nothing special to produce and provide for three children, right now it feels a big deal. The thing that struck me about the preparations for this latest addition to the family is the parental division of labour.

Before our eldest was born, six years ago, it felt as if we were embarking on a great adventure, throwing the cards up in the air to see how they fell. We had no idea how it would work out.

This time we knew exactly what we were doing, and as the pregnancy progressed we split into the parental roles we have been occupying for some time. Mrs W dealt with the domestic sphere (bringing the baby clothes down from the loft, re-joining the NCT) and I bought a new car.

Before James was born I was amazed at the number of people who told me I was probably secretly hoping for a boy. This irritated me intensely as they were effectively suggesting I would be disappointed with a daughter.

Since the wee man arrived at least three people have offered variations on the "Get in! Just what you wanted!/You can stop trying now!" theme, which is even more insulting, as it suggests the only reason we had decided on having three children was because I wasn't satisfied with two daughters.

I doubt such sentiments were genuinely held - people just feel the need to say something when they hear your wife has had a baby, and often it's just that, something to say.

Because we didn't know the sex of our child before he was born, I hadn't really thought about the implications of having a son, and what it would mean for me. So far the girls have shown little interest in football and other "boy" things, and it has seemed natural for Mrs W to take the lead in their development. I don't know how to plait hair, and I'm afraid I never will.

Of course, there's no guarantee James will care for blokey pursuits, but he might and I expect he will require me to extend my parenting skills to areas I may not have done if he hadn't come along.

Because my daughters produce a ninety second audio diary once a week on BBC Surrey (well - I produce it, they are the talent) and because I occasionally talk about my family on air, quite a few listeners have been following Mrs W's pregnancy.

Last week the stand-in presenter on the BBC Surrey Breakfast Show called me up on air to see how things were getting on, and this weekend we recorded a special Amy and Abi's diary which is about James and the impact he is having on their lives. In this James makes his broadcasting debut. I think he's got a good broadcasting voice, but then, I'm biased.

*currently mainly addressed as "Jim-Bob" (or when I'm particularly tired, "Peter" or "Robert", which are his cousins' names)