Re: Spring 2014 | Page 13

as well. So we went on to two shows and eventually he said we had to do it on three nights. So up it went, we then had a Love Hour for three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Eventually, we increased to seven nights a week. Then from there, the Love Hour became so popular that we changed the name from the Love Hour to Night Time Heart and Soul and that was for three hours every night. Southern FM then became Southern Radio and we took over Ocean and Power in Hampshire and the show was broadcast from Brighton to all these other places. So I was getting letters from Portsmouth, Fareham, everywhere. You know, it was just absolutely unbelievable, just crazy. I was there for about eleven years and then they told me that the show was going to be taken off. We had a new programme controller who came from Birmingham who decided that he didn’t want the show anymore. He said they wanted to become a dance radio station and didn’t want all these love songs… blah, blah, blah, blah. The show was doing really well and there was no reason to stop it but I got the sack. And that was disastrous for me because at the time the only thing I did was the radio and I loved it. I just thought ‘oh my god, what am I going to do?’ You know, I had a mortgage and everything else. My other boss Bob Hoad said it wasn’t his decision and that it was the decision from the new controller and the people from London. He told me I was the best PR person in the company because of all my contacts and I represented the station on a lot of I honestly didn’t realise how popular the show was until I got the sack. committees and attended meetings in London and Birmingham and wherever I was needed. Bob said everyone knows you and everyone wants to see you so I decided to do a PR course. I did this in London for six months and gained a diploma before deciding to set up my own PR company. I still wanted to work in radio too after I got the sack so it was good that other smaller radio stations wanted me. 11