Michael Flatley and
his ladies used to
run up bills that
would come to about
£4,500 or £6,000 a
night.
I helped launch Arrow FM in Hastings
and Sovereign FM in Eastbourne. I did
Spirit FM in Chichester as well. I kept
working on shows and the great thing
was that they were pretty successful.
Unbeknown to me at the time, a
campaign was building and hundreds
and thousands of people were writing to
Southern FM protesting over the axing
of Night Time Heart and Soul. Simon
Bradshaw, the editor of The Argus at
the time and a reporter, the late Rowan
Dore, started a campaign in the paper
and it just grew and grew.
I got to know Rowan very well. I went out
for a drink with him just the week before
he died and I still know all of his children.
I was there at his funeral and I think we
all kick ourselves because when you get
to know somebody you think could you
have done anything for them.
I knew he was depressed but I didn’t
realise how depressed he was.
[Rowan Dore committed suicide in
December 2005].
Between Rowan and Simon, they raised
an unbelievable campaign. There was
stuff in The Argus every single day
for months and months and people
were writing in all over the country and
beyond. MPs took interest, all the MPs,
you know, even Tim Laughton. I met
him a few weeks ago and he told me he
had campaigned. Lots of MPs, lots of
councillors, everybody, and it was just
unbelievable. I honestly didn’t realise how
popular the show was until I got the sack.
Within 18 months they asked me to
come back because we’d taken away so
many listeners from them – they’d gone
to the other radio stations. So they asked
me to come back and I said, ‘no, I’m not
coming back’ and, anyway, they tried all
kinds of things. They eventually collared
me. Bob Hood got hold of me and said,
‘listen, we want to talk to you in London’.
So I had to go to Capital Radio (Capital
owned Southern at the time), and they
said ‘listen, we want to come back and
we’re really sorry but…’ blah, blah, blah.
I sat in there and they took me out to
lunch and they said they already had
a contract for me. I felt bad and I was
worried about letting the other stations
down – they had saved my bacon and
had really helped me.
Anyway, after a lot of thinking, I sat
down and looked at the contract. I was
there with them. I got in there, had lunch
with them and I was there till about one
o’clock in the morning. The contract
they gave me first was paying me twice
what they were paying me before and
the contract was for one year. I said
‘no way’. Eventually, by the time we left
they changed the contract round and
extended it to two years and agreed to
pay me four times what they used to
under the proviso that my first show was
going to be on Valentine’s Day which
was only three weeks away.
I had to quit Arrow and all the other
stations that I worked with. I handed in
my resignation ready to be on air on
Southern on Valentine’s Day.
The other stations were upset but they
did understand. I didn’t do it in a nasty
way, I went and sat down and said,
‘listen, we really need to talk’ and we sat
down and went through the situation.
I told them how much they are paying
me, what the contract was and they
said, anyone would do the same for
that contract and they were very, very
understanding so we left on the best of
terms but it was difficult.
My first day back w 2