As most of you will know, over the last few months I have been a stand-in presenter for LBC in various time slots. Well, I'm delighted to tell you that I have been offered a permanent gig and I will be getting my own daily three hour programme.
From Monday I'll be taking over the 7-10pm slot on LBC from Petrie Hosken, who is moving to the afternoon 1-4pm slot.
I've only ever really had two real ambitions in my life - to be a Member of Parliament and to have my own radio show. Well, at least now I can say I've had a 50 per cent success rate!
I have to admit I had thought this day was never likely to arrive. Having spent a decade doing punditry I reckoned that if it was going to happen, it would have done before now. But then Tommy Boyd came along.
Tommy was a name from my childhood. He made his name as the presenter of Magpie, a kids programme on ITV, but then moved into Talk Radio, where he became a huge success. It was he who recruited me to do some programmes last year on the late lamented Play Radio. It was just me, a microphone and the listeners. I think I only did 5 or 6 programmes and a 9 hour local election night marathon, but it was enough for me to confirm in my own mind that I absolutely loved radio phone-ins and could hold my own as a presenter. Tommy was hugely encouraging and assured me when Play Radio went tits up that I had a big future in radio.
Last September I went into LBC to do a short audition session, but to be honest I felt it was little short of a disaster and I never expected to hear from them again. But three weeks later I got a call around lunchtime to ask if I could present the show that evening. Gulp. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end... But it seemed to go really well. Nothing happened then for some time as they were clearly waiting to see if I would get a seat. In February I did a couple more shows, then I asked the LBC programme director Jonathan Richards if I could put some ideas to him for an election night programme. I did, he liked it and I hosted a six hour programme which most regarded as a minor triumph.
Since then I have covered virtually every show in the schedule apart from the overnight slot. And in August I had four weeks sitting on for Petrie on the show I will now be taking over. I loved more or less every minute of it - except the one moment I got completely tongue tied!
I guess you can tell what this means to me. I am hugely grateful for the confidence shown in me by Jonathan Richards and his production team. He and I both know that I am not yet the finished article as a radio presenter but his constant encouragement has instilled a belief in me that I can actually be really good at this. That's not meant to sound arrogant. Most things in my life I have had to learn. I've always had to work hard to keep up with others. That will be the same here, but for the first time in my life I am doing something I feel completely at home with. I sit in front of that microphone and think to myself 'I know I can be good at this'.
The evening slot is a great one for me, as no one else is doing current affairs on the radio at that time. 5 Live and TalkSport do sport and Radio 4 is doing something artsy. Petrie has built up a very good audience over the last 18 months and I hope to build on that. LBC calls itself London's Biggest Conversation, but we now get a lot of listeners all over the country thanks to DAB, digital TV and the thousands of people who now listen via the website, or their iPads or mobile phones. In London LBC whoops 5 Live's BBC ass in most timeslots (are you listening Stephen Nolan?!). Excited? You bet I am.
But have no fear. I maintain my commitment to Total Politics, Biteback Publishing and, indeed, this blog. But perhaps you now realise why I have recruited an assistant. Because if I don't get some help organising my schedule and my life I'll probably end up in a funny farm. The one thing I am having to slowly come to terms with is that I won't be able to go out to dinner in the evenings, go to receptions or even slob out in front of the TV on a weekday evening for what will hopefully be some considerable time. Oh well, you can't have everything.
Anyhow, I hope you'll tune in on Monday for my first programme. That's if the Eurostar gets me back from my trip to Holland in time...
