The last Bank Holiday before Christams comes round this weekend and on Monday HRB will be featuring a brand new to radio comedy called Our Gaff for the very first time.  The show can be heard every Sunday thereafter as well as on a Friday morning and also features on other radio stations around the UK.  It’s writer,, Steven Munn will be joining me on the show this Sunday to talk more about it, what it’s all about and what makes a good comedy series in the first place. 

Whatever the answer to that last question is, Last of the Summer Wine has certainly had it for 37 years.  What has become a TV institution bows out with its final episode on Sunday evening on BBC One and no doubt we’ll be talking about it to Steven as well. 

All the regular features on the show too.  We’re live from 1.30pm.

Last Sunday, myself along with HRB’s Paul le Feuvre and Hospital Radio Reading’s Gerard Rocks travelled down to Brighton to meet up with members of othe hospital radio stations from around the south.  I had my other hat on as the Southern Regional Rep of the Hospital Broadcasting Association, but ut’s always good to see other stations and see how they do things. 

Coastway Hospital Radio is based in Abbey Road in Brighton in a building that is separate to the hospital.  In fact the whole hospital complex seems to be hidden away in the backstreets of Brighton with virtually no signs to it. 

Coastway HR itself has two fairly small studios and an office area.  They do what all hospital radio stations do, play requests for patients, and try and produce a range of shows for their audience.

It was an interesting afternoon and the weather was pretty good as well.

Back to business this weekend though with the second weekend of the new football season bringing us two Premier League matches.  We’ll have news of both plus a round up of all the other sport from the weekend including the cricket and the Youth Olympics in Singapore.  All the regular features are there as well.

Live from 1.30pm this Sunday.

A compact show this week, just 60 minutes from 3 – 4pm.  3 main features, The Quiet Quarter of an Hour as usual at 3, the current Superman 1940s Style story continues and also on the show talking about social networking and barbecues, Saturday mornign TV‘s Mr Show Andi Peters!

We’re back to normal next weekend and coming soon we’ll have the writer of the brand new radio sitcom that will be starting on HRB at the end of the month.

Less than a month after the World Cup became a memory, domestic football comes back with the start of the football league season this weekend and the traditional curtain raiser to the Premier League, The FA Charity Shield.

Somehow it never seems right playing football on a sunny afternoon in August.  I remember the days when it was August bank holidsay weekend that the football season started, but apparently more time is needed nowadays to fit in all the games. 

This year’s Charity Shield is between Manchester United and Chelsea, it’s a 3pm kick off from Wembley with bth managers and all the players hoping that the game will be all about the football and not the pitch, or worse still, injuries caused by the pitch!

We’ll be live from Wembley with reports on the match from 3 and reports ffrom the second half continue on Harry’s show after us.

It’s also Balloons Over Basingstoke weekend, somthing else that seems to come round alarmingly quickly but it really is a whole year since Harry and I were wondering round in the rain talking to the side shows and watching the arena events.  We’ll we live there this Sunday afternoon to find out what’s going on in 2010. 

Finally, we’ll be talking to some of those with an interest in the Youth Olympics which start next weekend.

Anbother packed show this week, live from 1.30pm.

The last post I wrote was all about how England would come good in the world cup and beat Germany and it would be all right in the end.   How long ago that all seems!  The only really positive thing to come out of a miserable World Cup for England was that FIFA will be looking again at using technology, but that’s overdue and it shouldn’t have taken a poor refereeing decision over a goal that wasn’t given for them to wake up. 

Back on The Sound of Sunday and the summer of sport continues.  It’s the German Grand Prix this weekend and the football season is believe it or not beginning again too.  Basingstoke warmed up last weekend with victories over Aston Villa and Southampton o they’re looking good and it is just two weeks until the Charity Shield heralds the start of the new season.

On the show this week, all the usual features including a new story from Superman 1940s Style.  Sunday at 1.30pm.

Be honest, you knew they’d come good in the end.  England always start slow and it’s always difficult to watch.  We seem to forget that, but a much improved performance has set up a last 16 clash with Germany in the World Cup on Sunday.

Many will remember 1990 in Italy, but we should also think back to September 2001, the World Cup 2002 qualifier in Mucich, a game the BBC paid £6 million for the rights to show live and BBC DG at the time Greg Dyke said it was worth every penny.  On that occasion of course, England came from behind to win 5-1 with Michael Owen scoring a hatrick.  Even Emile Hesky scored that night.   It was a result that helped Sven Goran Eriksson win Coach of the Year at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2001.

It’s the first time ever a World Cup finals match featuring England has been on during The Sound of Sunday.  We’ll have live updates from 3pm which will continue into Harry’s into afterwards as well as the usual SOS features.  SOS prediction… 2-0 to England.

Sunday, 1.30 HRB

As Paddy O’Connell said during the semi final show on Tuesday, it’s just like Marmite – you either love it or hate it.  120 million people around the world love it including 13 million who watch in the UK, although many people would have you believe they don’t watch it – I bet they do really.

I’m talking about the annual extravaganza that is the Eurovision Song Contest. 

I bet that when it began 55 years ago this week, no one would ever have imagined that over half a century on, it would still be providing the opportunity for Europe to come together.  As Paddy O’Connell also said, Eurovision is the light that shines above a troubled continent (or something like that).

40 countries will be taking part this year, 25 will make it to the final, 20 of them having gone through one of the semi finals.  All the acts have to sing live.  Whatever you think of Eurovision, you have to admire the performers for being able to do that – especially with some of the energetic routines in recent years.  Ruslana for example broke the stage with her “Wild Dance” when she won in 2004.

So on The Sound of Sunday this week, we’ll reflect on a night of what the rest of Europe takes extremely seriously, the UK slightly less so, but which always provides lots of entertainment for the millions who do like it.  And you never know… the UK might even win.

The Sound of Sunday, Sunday 1.30 – 4pm, HRB

What I didn’t mention last week when talking about my trip to London was that in over 4 years of going to the Civil Service Club for hospital radio meetings, it’s only ever rained on me once.  In fact on one occasion it was raining in Basingstoke when I left but I was so sure it would be dry in London I didn’tbother to take my umbrella.  And I was right!

Last weekend in London, the weather was hot and sunny.  A contrast to Epsom on Sunday which wasn’t oo bad going but coming home ended in very heavy rain.  Epsom by the way must have some of the most expensive hospital car parking charges around – £9 for just over 4 hours!

By the time this weekend comes around I’ll have been to London again – this time to the ExCel centre in the east end to the Business Startup exhibition.  I’ve been to this annual event every year for about the last five years ro so and once again it’s always warm and sunny.  Last year the Docklands Light Railway wasn’t working and I had to walk from Canning Town tube station to the ExCel – a walk the loudpseaker system SAID was 9 minutes.  They must have had a fast walker timing that!

One year at the Business Startup exhibition, one styand decided to have a full Scalextrix set up and invite people to try and set the fastest lap time.  Lots of people were spending probably too much time on that stand – it was very popular, but I can’t actually remember what the company was, so maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all.

A brand new story for Superman amongst other things this Sunday for the penultimate show of the series – live at 1.30pm.

No show this Sunday as it’s a busy weekend for hospital radio meetings.  On Saturday, I’m off to London for a Hospital Broadcasting Association Trustee Board meeting. 

These happen at the Civil Service Club, which sounds a lot grander than it actually is.  It’s a very old building in Old Scotland Yard with a very small lift.  The notice inside the lift says it can’t take more than 8 people, although the people they used to test this theory out must have been very small as it feels full up with 2 people in! 

The Civil Service Club is about 10 minutes walk from Waterloo station, over the Jubilee Bridge.  I’ve been doing this every other month since uly 2006 and on only 1 occasion has it ever rained on the day I’m there.  In fact on the other occasions I’ve been to London during that time, it has never rained!  I can therefore almost guarantee a nice day in London on Saturday!

On Sunday, which is the reason for no show, I have another hospital radio meeting, this time a regional gathering at Epsom Hospital Radio.  A different station hosts the region every few months as members from stations in the south get together and talk about the issues that affect us all.  It’s always very interesting to go and see other stations, and as Epson Hospital Radio is a little like us at HRB in size, and we haven’t had a meeting there for a while, it should be particularly interesting. 

The Sound of Sunday is back on May 23rd with all the usual features and then for the last show before another break on May 30th. 

No show this week as it’s the final day of the Premier League football season.  I’ll be on air live from 2.30 with reporters at all 10 games around the country sending in their reports and goal flashes during the afternoon.

In the last few years, it’s been a nail biting afternoon for those clubs threatened with relegation, but this year, with the relegation issues sorted, all eyes will be on the top as the title is decided and possibly 3rd and 4th place along with the rest of the European qualifying positions.

Spurs are in the driving seat for that 4th Champions League spot, although they could finish as high as third if they win both their last trwo matches and Arsenal lose on Sunday. 

The title is in Chelsea‘s hands – they just need to beat Wigan and they’ve done it whatever Manchester United do against Stoke.  But this season has had so many twists and turns already, who’s going to bet against one final twist on Sunday? 

It should be an exciting afternoon!