Radio in the Raw By Cilla continued

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She told me that she'd worked with Alan Titchmarsh while broadcasting from the Chelsea Flower Show and she'd loved that job, being a keen gardener herself. A bit of a football fanatic, Katy proudly told me she could knock spots off any of the guys in the production team when it came to knowledge of the game and its players. With strong links with the local music scene here in Hull, Katy used to be in a band and has known Alan Raw, himself a seasoned drummer, for a number of years, she certainly has the pedigree to take on this particular show. She seems tireless and is without pretension.

She's a genuinely lovely woman who's; there to make certain things run. You can't help but like her. I imagine that live broadcasting must be rather stressful to say the least and her ability to appear so calm and in control is a special talent in itself.

Katy doesn't see herself as privileged to do the job she does. She told me that women are actually well represented in broadcasting, so opportunities are always there for everyone. I'm sure she was being modest. She feels however, that there aren't enough women in music right now. 99% of bands are all male. She's looking forward to next week when The Favours will be playing because they have a female singer!

Producer of Raw Talent since its launch back in 2001, Katy told me about the aims of the show. They try their hardest to have a balance of guests and music each week. This week there were plenty of guests - As well as William Nowik and Lou Duffy-Howard, Alan also interviewed Sonic Purveyors, a band from Grimsby who had competed in the Battle of the Bands Best Original Band competition the night before and had played brilliantly.

With live music from Bhuna and thisisUll.com hanging around and taking a hundred photos, I think the balance was fair!

The show now broadcasts from 4 regional radio stations and is committed to attending 4 outside broadcasts each year. The next is to be in December this year. Katy said that they're still looking for a suitable gig for the December broadcast, so if you've got any suggestions, please get in touch! All too soon Katy had to dash off back to something, somewhere, but before she did, she introduced more of the team - Pritti Mistry; Radio Humberside website developer with the most amazing name and John Anguish; the best and coolest, calmest engineer in the business.

Kris, famous for pizza eating was also there, busy all the time. A diamond, according to Katy and important to the running of the show. Dave Reeves (The Incredible) is a perfect foil for Alan and their banter is amusing when Dave comes into the studio to read out requests and coming up events at intervals during the show. There's a brilliant rapport between them. You can see them help one another relax. These chats make the whole thing fun.

Dave is the guy who handles the calls, text messages and emails to the show while they're on air. I saw him answer a call and sidled towards him to see if I could hear the gist of the conversation. Something important, most likely; he looked like he was concentrating. Leaning towards him I heard him say Well, I'll have the prawns, just leave me the prawns.. The session band started just after 9. They played in the foyer in front of a glass wall, looking out onto the fountains next to Queens Gardens. Anyone can come and see - and it's pretty spectacular!

Bhuna, an unsigned band from Sheffield, were wonderful. Great vocals and 3 brilliant songs. Raw Talent indeed. Better than Oasis! I've got their EP. They're great. See them if you can. Tina, the bands babysitter and dogs body, tired but very happy, told me that it was a fabulous experience to be there and to hear the band be broadcast on the BBC!

Ten O'clock was here. The end of the show. I was tired. 3 hours is a long time to concentrate. I wondered how it must feel for Alan - he looked tired, too and when I asked him which was his favourite band of all time, he frowned painfully and said; I can't give you one. That's impossible, I'll give you by best 3. And I'm still waiting for the third .. But never mind that, he's sent me his Top 100 Favourite Tracks - very interesting. Take a look.

The others were a little more certain. Katy was pretty instant in naming The Smiths as her favourite, Dave's is Ben Fold Five and John the cool engineer's is The 1988 Touring Frank Zappa. Alan named Amon Duul as well as Toots and the Maytals among his favourites. So that was my visit to watch a real, live radio show go out on air. I feel really honoured to have been there. One of my friends commented to me afterwards that it was an exceptional show that night. I thought so too. Hats off to all the Raw Talent team - you're playing a blinder! Keep up the good work. My only regret is that I didn't get to speak with Alan - maybe next time ....

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