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“ 50 % U . K ., 50 % U . S . – THE TWO SIDES OF GEMINI TWINS JANI AND JANI !”
I ’ m a firm believer that early gifts offered to us in our childhood can have a massive influence on how we shape and develop our future careers and aspirations . In my particular case I can nominate three such significant items — a small transistor radio , a rudimentary reel-to-reel tape recorder , and a simple electronic construction kit . The combined effect of these gifts on my early learning processes became far greater than the sum of their individual parts .
But that scenario was to be put on hold when following my fruitful grammar school education in the north west of England where I excelled in music , art , physics and English grammar , my father , a highly successful architect encouraged me to study for , and become qualified in his lucrative profession . So for the next five years I enrolled in two British universities and proudly emerged in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in land and building surveying , construction management and economics ! And ‘ behind the scenes ’ during this period I learned to play several musical instruments whilst continuing to experiment with recording techniques and associated electronics . My developing musical interests were enhanced by listening to many UK radio stations .
Not surprisingly because of my high qualifications I very quickly achieved a position as a senior land and building surveyor for a large British construction company , and for the following two years I was responsible for managing a host of projects ranging from new petrol filling stations to large hotels and entire home subdivisions .
As luck ( bad luck as it turned out !) would have it , a massive recession fast approaching a depression hit the UK hard in 1982 , and all new construction development ground to a halt . The upshot of this devastation resulted in hundreds of thousands of job lay-offs , and unfortunately I became one of them !
Accepting that this was going to be a long term recovery , I temporarily put aside my profession in construction and began to focus and refine my ongoing interests in music , radio and electronics at home . My local BBC ( British Broadcasting Corporation ) radio station was running a fun competition inviting musicians to compose , record and submit original short songs covering a local topic . Just for laughs I quickly rattled one off and sent it to the station expecting to hear nothing further . Amazingly less than a week later I got a surprise call from the station telling me how much they liked my song and that it won the contest and would be played on their airwaves ! Thrilled is hardly the word !
The BBC continued requesting new topical songs and even jingles from me , and one day invited me to meet them in person at the station . I was flabbergasted when out of the blue they offered me a contract to come and work full time for them .
That opportunity became my 180 degree turning point , and in a finger snap I had become an employee of the world ’ s most respected broadcasting authority , never again to return to the construction industry .
The following 8 years rewarded me generously with the finest on the job tuition in quality broadcasting , and allowed me many opportunities to advance my position from local radio to regional groups of stations in the north of England , and ultimately becoming a senior producer in London and Manchester for national and international BBC broadcasts .
In late 1989 I received an unexpected call from my father inviting me to join him on a business trip to Indianapolis , USA . Whilst there I spent much of my
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