Forth One

I've been having a think about my superb job that is being a radio presenter and I want to share some thoughts, answering if you will, the most common questions I'm asked.

9 times out of 10, I get asked “how do you prepare for a show and what do you do when the songs are on?”
With that mind, here we go, strap yourself in for the glamour ride that is a Saturday morning routine for me!
It all starts at 4.30am on a Saturday morning (6.30am on a Sunday) as the alarm at bleeps at Monkey Mansion to tell me it's time for work again.

Whilst I try to come to life with a coffee, toast (on lemon curd of course) and a roasty shower, I fire up my laptop and Sky News to find out the latest news and goss.

Around 5am-ish it's off to the Loser Cruiser (my 1997 Nissan Primera) for the early morning drive to the mighty Forth House from my Livingston pad.

I normally arrive at my Forth around 5.30am and after a quick check on my music and prep sheets, it's on air at 6am with a smile! (Smiling on air is really important, if you listen carefully, you can normally hear it!)
I get my first 3 songs on air with some happy; good morning type chat to get everyone going!

You would not believe the amount of people (despite the hour of the day) up and around on a Saturday!

I'll sift through my prep/showbiz/music/news sheets during the song sweeps finding relevant bits to chat about as well as having the odd singsong to myself.

At the end of the day, I'm there in a (Superman) hoodie, jeans, and scruffy trainers with several computer screens for company; who is going to care if I'm grabbing some air in a boyband style whilst singing along to Wanted!

In amongst my "thank goodness no-one can see me moments" I encourage phone calls and texts as I am (as you can normally hear) a chatty person, I love to nose in on what people get up to with Forth One on.
I remember (back int' day) listening to Grant Stott and cousin Vinnie on a Saturday morning whilst having Live and Kicking on in the telly with a play on the Game Boy!

In my early teens this was my weekly Saturday norm before off to watch the mighty Whitehill Welfare in the afternoon with my grandad.

It's so weird how times have changed, I'm now the voice coming out of the speakers which is a great privilege as people choose you to wake up/have a hangover with me in the background.

Nowadays, I still go to the Saturday football (mon' the Hearts) but the morning games console has bitten the dust in favour of a big mixing desk and a microphone.

The reason I love radio is most people think it's a glamorous job: hanging out with the stars, cutting edge of music, lots of parties but in truth you can now picture me in my hoodie and jeans talking about random stuff with no frills!

It's a great job, which I wouldn’t change for the world, and you are as big a part (if not bigger) than anything I do on Forth One! I just push the buttons and thread your banter in amongst the tuneage!

Do I find the job glamorous? Not me! I'm still wee Mark from Bonnyrigg who got lucky and does his dream job for a living!

You guys are my backing singers and that makes me proud! (Pass the sick bucket haha!)