As you may know, next Friday I have got a two hour stint (from 11pm-1am) on PlayRadioUK. I went down to their Arundel studios on last Friday to learn how to use the studio. Very exciting. I promise not to use the Fader on callers (unlike certain more illustrious talk radio hosts :) ) without good reason!
While I was there I discussed doing some live election coverage on Friday 5 June and the evening of Sunday 7 June. Most county councils will be counting during the day on Friday rather than overnight on the Thursday.
The idea is to do live radio programmes from 9am to 4pm on Friday 5th June and from 6pm to midnight on Sunday 7 June. These would be very much akin to how we covered the local elections on 18 Doughty Street on local election night in 2007. Very rough and ready and using citizen journalists all round the country to provide information and updates on what is going on in their area. It will be a sort of PoliticalBetting.com on radio...
The BBC is not doing an election programme on the 5th and won't be on air until 9pm on the Sunday, so it seems to me there is a lot of scope to do something very innovative.
I'm looking for correspondents to cover each of the County Council/Unitary elections and also for the Sunday, correspondents to cover each Euro region - preferably more than one. We have the facility to get people on air by phone, Skype, email, text and Twitter.
I'm also looking for volunteer interns to join us in the studio backroom to crunch figures and collate information on the 5th and the evening of the 7th. If you love near the studios in Arundel, and want to get involved, I'd love to hear from you.
We're not going to try to repeat the kind of election programme the mainstream broadcasters do - it will be very much live and loose, and totally reliant on citizen journalism and bloggers to make it work. We'll be talking to leading politicians and pundits over the course of the programmes too, but the bulk of it will be devoted to people like you.
During the course of this week I'm putting together a proper programme plan. So if you'd like to be part of it, do get in touch by email.
18 comments:
"If you love near the studios in Arundel,"
I hope that isn't an invite to the 'dogging' community of Arundel to get involved with politics - one has standards dear boy.....standards!
‘Silent Hunter’ beat me to it.. as it were. Iain, how about a ‘top ten typos’?
Oh bugger, someone else got there first! Nice typo anyway!
How much do we get paid?
Not near Arundel, otherwise I'd do it :(
I love the pub near the castle — is that any good?
There's a pub/hotel about halfway down the high street on the left that's pretty good.
Hope it goes well, and works. In some ways it is back to the 50's involving a lot of people, and may be even back to the 1930's. Bring back Stanley Baldwin!
Just remember to turn the mic off in case of calls of nature this time!
What expenses will be paid?
If you are in Arundel you should look up Stephen Paul Dendle who is a local Tory Councillor and a seriously good man for the locality
http://www.pauldendle.com/
It's a Bank Holiday!
What happened to Disneytime?
Iain,
In London, I understand the count is being done by the Boroughs as they would for a borough wide election.
That means your old stomping ground of Waltham Forest will be counting in the Assembly Rooms of Forest Road.
Happy to offer to cover this for you.
Election night programmes have always been dull as ditchwater. The last thing we need is yet another bunch of boring old farts talking to one another inanely about what the results of a particular constituency might actually mean for the residents of that place.
I want to see the presenters doing the programme drunk. We should get you, Guido Fawkes, (he loves his Guinness, doesn't he?) Dizzy and some other bloggers to do this. I'd also suggest inviting Derek Draper on because Labour will certainly need someone to laugh at come the day.
Talking about elections it is a real pleasure to watch the 1979 election.
Despite the nonsense the LD's talk about incumabancy affects, having watched election 1979 it is clear to me that when the Liberal vote falls sharlpy/collapses it does so pretty uniformly including in seats where the LD candidate is MP!
For LD's to claim that every LD seat will buck the trend is arrogant and misleading. You may get 1 in 10 but otherwise i think you are looking at a wholesale Liberal Democrat defeat at the next election if the work against them is put it.
P.s. I am sitting with a big grin on my face thinking of Labour and LD defeat in 2010! Election 1979 is just but a taste of the sweet fruit of 2010!!!
Her Majesty's Prison Ford is just across the road, turn right past the Hawker Hunter mounted on a pole. They could lend someone a bed. It was good enough for Jonathan Aitken.
Iain,
Suffolk is as London, counted by district/borough. I'll be at the Mid Suffolk count, and will cover it for you if you need someone there still. I would have e-mailed you but the e-mail link appears to be broken...
Mark, That's great. Email link works for me. Anyway, it's iain AT iaindale.com
Post a Comment