"Luck has left me standing so tall . . . .GOLD . .

 . . . always believe in your soul."

BBC Local Radio has an annual bash and awards ceremony in honour of it's founder Frank Gillard, imaginatively called The Gillards.  When I first arrived at the BBC I'd heard this term banded about every few months, it sounded so important, so grand.  I never thought for one minute that three and a half years later I'd be sitting on the front table of the awards ceremony, not only there but as a nominee!  The Frank Gillard awards celebrate the best from the 46 local radio stations across England, the project I had initiated and run last year 'Singing City' had been nominated in the Community Award category.   The Community Award recognises a stations active engagement with their audience, inspiring people to make a difference to everyday life in their area. 

I had been told by my Editor that if we won I had to go up and accept the award and make a speech.  This had been made worse by an email from a colleague shown to me just before we went into the hall, it said "if we win, make sure you mention . ." as if I wasn't stressed enough about it, they were already piecing together a trail to celebrate! Every part of my body was wanting to win but I was also terrified about going up on stage.  There were possibly 400 people sitting in the hall, many of them big BBC executives, editors from all of the local radio stations, not to mention our Director General Mark Thompson up on stage handing out the awards. 

We won!  "Brilliant . . . oh shit!"  Well, I got up on stage and did my thing.  We were now a twice award winning radio station in 3 years, not bad going.   I think I said what I should have and it could be heard on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire every 20 minutes the following day. 

Here is the full audio clip from the Gillards. It sounds like I'm crying but I wasn't, just shocked and nervous.  (I've added the pics from my archive)

I'm an award winning radio producer.  Hooray.  

The only daunting thing is that people are already talking about Coventry Market the Musical being the next award winner.  Blimey .  . I'm only just getting my breath back from this one.