The Radio Surgery uses the services of a number of freelance industry professionals for its radio broadcasting courses and services.  All have a wealth of valuable information and strong radio backgrounds.

Amongst the team, trainers have established and managed full-time commercial radio stations, worked on BBC national and local radio...  and of course presented programmes!

DAVID

David founded The Radio Surgery way back in 1999, but the story doesn't start there, as he explains...

I've always been passionate about radio.  When giving talks to local groups I recall that a Christmas present of a transistor radio got it all started!  I couldn't work out why listeners could get Radio Luxembourg at night and not in the daytime.  It turned out that the station was there all the time, but night-time conditions allowed the signal to reach the UK far better after dusk.

In the 1980s I started to realise that really local radio didn't exist.  Radio just for one town, or small communities.  Discovering that the law didn't allow it, I decided to prove a point and ran a pirate radio station in a small West Yorkshire market town.  Apart from music, programme content included Job Centre staff reading out vacancies and even a local vicar giving a trendy 'pause for thought' each Sunday!  Having been raided and given a nominal fine (Job Centre staff and the vicar were passed over!), I continued to campaign for 'community radio'.  Following national press and local TV coverage of the pirate radio station, I gained freelance work with BBC local radio - later producing 'packages' for national Radio 5.

By the 1990s I had resurrected the pirate station, this time legally, using temporary licences.  By 2000 I'd also run three trial licences in East Lancashire, brought together a group of people and bid for a full-time licence.  We won it and 2BR was formed.  As Launch Director and presenter, these were exciting times!

Next up was Blackburn and the surrounding area.  Here, I assisted with the licence bid and once again it was successful.  So, I now found myself moving ship and presenting on The Bee.

My links with the two stations still remain, being a shareholder in national radio group UKRD - who now own both 2BR and The Bee.

STEVE 

Radio Demo Editor, Steve, has worked on a host of UK and overseas radio stations.  Including, Mercury, Q103, Hereward, Fresh, 2BR, Radio Caroline, Radio Luxembourg and Israel's The Voice of Peace.  He's currently on air here in East Lancashire.  Using his experience, Steve will weave together a demo that will hopefully jump out at Programme Controllers!  Steve is also your man if you would like training with digital editing, or your existing show links to be appraised.

SIMON

The Radio Surgery's Myriad trainer is currently manager of two north-west commercial radio stations.  Simon has assisted stations by training staff how to use the Myriad system - from basic operation, through to the scheduling of music and the creation of 'clocks'.  Contact The Radio Surgery if you need assistance with Myriad - from initial customising, to general maintenance.   
 

In addition, The Radio Surgery calls upon the expertise of Scott Read and Diane Bramall for its radio journalism training.

The radio training courses have been operating since 1999, so please see our testimonials.