Read this: World Mental Health Day on Absolute Radio

The radiator day programme with broadcast bionics working with the world's leading broadcasters and equipment suppliers to transform into a technology and workplace hello, I'm Stuart Clarkson this week on the weekly podcast from Radio today.

We're going to speak to Paul Silvester from Absolute Radio and find out what the stations been doing this to Mark worldmentalhealthday and it'll tell us about absolute radio's new Sunday night signing skin from skunk Anansie tour coming up later on first radiator days founder and editor Roy Martin is here.

He's in the medium alert zone.

I'm in the Highlands its own which means I'm not had anybody round my house keys allow people.

Hi, Stu yes medium in the south high in the North and very high heel Liverpool so it could be worse you could be in Liverpool right now they could.

So we don't have a podcast last week all sorts going on as always in everybody's lives will try and get a podcast out as often as we can sometimes we have trouble getting guest sometimes.

There's other things that can Spires does answer you know it's one of lots of different things that we both do so when we can do a podcast be well, and we apologise for not being here last week now.

I have to ask because I hear you've been having her a bit of a tough day.

I have to ask how are you Stuart little bit I know PR people I I had an understanding that I thought we were going to do something and then it turned out after I stayed up late and wrote some prep and prep for an interview that interview wasn't ever going to happen.

I found out about that quite short notice.

So that's this week's prep for this week's podcast and we'll just take it in the bin because I don't need that very body chilling in thinking what on earth is he talking about.

Don't worry about it.

It's just another week in the life of trying to organise guests for a podcast which anybody everybody has a podcast these days, so everybody will feel the struggle being told you going to get a guest not by the person themselves, but by the people managing them who have something over them to say yes, they come on and then they don't come on and then they don't don't even know that you've ever been asked to come on so it gets all the other hand if you're not on Twitter don't worry about it.

I'm thinking of deleting my account.

I'm sick of it.

Not just this week if I didn't need Twitter for promoting work things and stuff like that.

I Just Died shut it down today.

It's just it's just so I have this discussion with somebody the other week and my impression of people getting on Twitter was totally different from somebody else who has a better experience on Facebook and I was like sometimes.

It's the other way round so I don't know if it's if it's uniform or just what you mean.

Today is the safest news I mean we just publish what people send us and occasionally we get creative but for people to argue with us about what we're posting some people anyway Amazon whole Digital Spy thrown about as now for people that don't exist Matthew doesn't exist is fired and the whole thread was why I haven't put anything on Facebook and at the end of the thread.

They said well everybody just posted rubbish on the Facebook page, so they shouldn't have the things on Facebook in the first place the whole threaders self combusted morning now and I wasn't going to I was just generally quite a happy disposition type of tap and yeah, you know it's don't get me started on local Facebook groups and things in your town and villages some of those over fallen foul of this week as well.

Are you just say why they bothered nobody understands what I've tried to say here.

They've taken completely out of context that it's the same sometimes we Twitter and you know.

Upset somebody then I am really sorry about that.

It wasn't my intention always try to do is to highlight to our listeners.

Why are podcast might not happen this week or White might be late because the plan Philippa was so so sorry hands up if that got misconstrued in anyway, but at least we know that Chris McConnell has phone insurance is the biggest from this evening news phone insurance and you can always guarantee a funny comment from John Holmes I think we should have John Holmes on this week instead.

He's just dynamite whose people are right because there's much more controversial things that could potentially go on it radio like Nigel for buying talk radio this was the story in one of the one of the broadsheet or tabloid or broadsheet this week written by a political editor rather than a media editor just Nigel Farage

Do you want to buy talk radio and doesn't want to pay £15 for it? Ok? So we set up with the word system and have the most pathetic radio related news article of the year and would win it just for the fact that there is nothing in there.

The headline was just totally disputed by a comment from the people who the story was about so and azmat wrote on his blog post 15 million radio station, but just on Dobbin isn't making any money yeah, so today.

If not made a secret the fact that it's not really profitable and that's even then when they got all the back of his functions of News UK wireless and Studios and things like that which presumably wouldn't be for sale exactly yeah, it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever so we shouldn't even be talking about it because Nigel Farage he's not by talk radio and about setting up his own YouTube channel, but somebody forgot to grab selling that you got you got one setup digital radio station.

Carriage for 20-years with an amount cash another crazy news at Kelvin Mackenzie yes him again.

He wants to be the BBC chairman and the thing you would do is BBC Germany shut it all down and sell it all.

This is another stupid.

Obviously Calvin's only just done this for a bit of publicity may be needed some Calvin is not in the running to be be even if you was a chairman.

He wouldn't have the power to do any of this all they could do is suggest it so let's let you got anything to add to that.

Let's move on ok Alison about some people Andrew Neil is going to cover x radio for a couple of weeks for John Pienaar think that's quite good sign or the Andrew Neil left the BBC fairly recently setting up his own TV station that is in with gptv is it cold or something or GB news about this is going to be two new 24-hour news speech talk.

Television stations in the UK that right yeah, there's this one from GB but potentially something from News UK as well does not contend with talk radio and times radio the advertising for staff to run a TV show yes this could be having our times.tv talk.tv who knows but yeah and really is it's bang on target for them and had a good signing maybe he'll do more stuff going forward x radio just announced this morning.

I swear record this on Wednesday Naga Munchetty from BBC breakfast is going to be Emma Barnett replacement on 5 Live mid-morning zamas going to present Woman's Hour on Radio 4 Naga will do Monday to Wednesday Adrian Charles does Fridays anyway, so who knows what's going to happen on Thursdays between 10 and 1 and 5 Live and the people changing and moving things like that.

It's been quite a lot of I've noticed a big departure from BBC local radio and the regions recently Jenny Wilkes read a story on Radio today this week about her leaving.

Where's after 35 years at John Warner asaurus leaving Radio Kent in a couple of weeks time he's been there 31 years at Keith skues.

We talked about the podcast few weeks ago Harry gration is the BBC Radio Leeds and there's been a very familiar face on regional TV here in Yorkshire for last 40 years or more.

He's just announced this week that he's going to be leaving as also lots of people have been at the BBC a long time departing they're on their way of course you did they all choose to go or is this to do with the new BBC local radio regime? It's getting rid of some of the oldies.

Yeah, there's going to be a new Late Show isn't a networked and some network programs on the weekends as well coming back after they had this England white stuff with Mark Forest etc.

Little few years ago, then.

I'll bring it back again radio going on so it's only watching and those changes also affecting.

Stitches out into Greatest Hits radio with touch about the flurry stations that he said new stations popping up everywhere.

There's more released we heard about this week as well sounds radio in Blackpool K1 in King's Lynn Durham on are in Durham are there any more is every time going to get an online station.

I think it's running Chelmsford isn't there something going on in Chelmsford and Burnham as well, Burnham local radio.

Yeah, I'm sure there are quite a few more that we don't even know about yet, but they're coming online which is great news for PRS because they're getting all the royalties for these music station serving 50000 people rubbing their hands with glee you're giving them some money.

I'm guessing as well for your little online radio station.

Yeah and as a webcaster licensee out.

She got an invitation last week to come in on a consultation that they doing looking actually simplify.

This is PPL by the way not PRS and PPL looking at simplifying.

Charging structure for web casters for people run online radio stations for some it might get cheaper for something might cost them more but if that affects you and you're not heard about that at the station running until the 6th of November so it's worth getting involved in that and having your say on the future of being charged for your PPL and PRS as well.

They're all different tiers as well.

So it is at the moment.

It doesn't make sense because if you have SE10 listeners that anyone time you pay x amount of money, but if you have a million listeners at any one time you pay a hell of a lot more money more than you can probably even generate throughout income so it doesn't want you pass a certain popularity threshold online.

It doesn't actually make any sense to run it.

This is a true and also you get to a certain point where actually it's more cost-effective to put your service onto a dab Multiplex somewhere because as a dsps licence.

That you play a different PRS and PPL rates and then the web it's just an add-on to that so you're at your Ofcom licence broadcaster paying a set fee which is based on your turnover and things rather than polistena for your online straight and it's not so interesting music licence 6-month another idea to write on my list for potential things to talk about I've got all sorts on here.

It's just go around to producing content and finding guests and organising things which him and there's just one of you making a podcast try to do it every week in and everything else that's going on in your life as well.

It's not easy, but so we'll sit on the list music licensing there we go Friday and changes.

I believe there is some movement in Ipswich with regards to lock radio very soon so at let's watch that space.

I thought you didn't do it.

And also describe everything else that's going on this week the most important thing is not BBC Radio 2 as make some small changes to its jingles this week Stuart know I am listen to Radio 2 for a while and she used to be radio station to listen to all the time but haven't listened from on time.

So does a shift in radio stations set the most of the bigger ones to not promote their frequencies and Radio 2 seems to be going down this route because everybody loves to sing along to the old 88-91 FM but they've been dropped the singers that sing 8891 have dropped a couple on there, but they have been replaced with a voice-over saying you can now here is on BBC sounds.

So no more, is it fashionable to talk about VHF or MHz it's now BBC 6 all about the sounds.

It's always has been a bit order saying a radio station free.

On the air hasn't it because generally if you're tuned in on that frequency.

You don't need telling what it is.

Isn't it? If you walk into a shop and it's blaring out you want to know what is the frequency when you get out tomorrow on your Walkman on the bus home if you're in the 80s radio to being on a multitude of frequencies the scan button and it appears anyway, so I believe we've got a guest on the show this week though after everything that happened with actually got a guest.

Yeah.

I had a few offers actually thank you to everybody who came forward and said I'll be on your podcast so a few that might work for future weeks as well, but this week.

I've been talking to Paul Silvester the content director at Absolute Radio there been doing some work for world mental health awareness day.

I will find out about that the radiator day programme with broadcast bionics creators of The Bionic studio listening watching reacting to and learning from every corner suite and SMS to a mixed unlock and understand your content the bionic studio transforms everything about radio except the way you make it this is the radio Today programme and it was world Mental Health Day this week lots of different radio stations covering this and in particular Absolute Radio they did something little bit differently to Leona Graham and Sarah champion absolute this week.

Give you a bit of time to think about the importance of words and normally now.

I would start the ad break but we've taken them out to play you a special version of a song you love to highlight important words.

I'd love you to use.

To think about your own mental health and the mental health of the people around you struggling from a family member or not.

Please text to check in on them and go to absoluteradio.co.uk to join us in achieving 10000ms pledges ahead of worldmentalhealthday a bit more about the work at Absolute Radio to highlight worldmentalhealthday with his the content director Sylvester hi Paul how you getting on.

I'm good.

Thank you.

So the mental health you do a lot around Absolute Radio and worldmentalhealthday this year no exception and you did something a little bit different in taking out the brakes and putting instrumental songs on instead.

So why did you decide to do that? I think when radio stations look there audiences and decide what's important and I think.

The absolute mental health is an important subjects because for our target audience men under 40 actually suicide and depression is the biggest killer so it's a conversation.

We've got to have and it's not just a conversation for men to have its conversation that we've all got to have and I think over the course of the last 2 years we started quite Softly in terms of what we do around mental health, but the more we've done the more the audience could actually engaged with his about it and the feedback we get when we start to do something around mental health is huge weather's people saying thank you.

You've inspired me to have a conversation.

Thank you.

I now don't feel alone of thank you.

I'm going to take an action about this whether that's their own mental health for the mental health of people around them the more we do that the more the listeners respond to us and it really is something that we just can't ignore and I think especially in 2020 in the world that we live in.

Play we can see the everyone's mental health is suffering by the restrictions in the fears that that we all have in our lives at the moment so for us.

It was really important and I think one of the things you wanted to do was just do something that was different do something that had never been done before and actually we've talked a lot about our own mental health the presenters have been incredibly on about their own stories.

We've talked to musicians about the songs that inspired them and use music in that way, but what I really wanted to do was do something that nobody done before you something that actually made people stop so how does a music radio station do that ok? Will look let's let's take out an outbreak.

Let's play a song but let's really show the power of Words by actually in the words out of those songs and I think what I wanted to do with this was both give people 4 minutes to just stink and 4 minutes to do radio with song.

Music and lyrics is in it can be quite distracting.

So let's take one of those elements away to give people the opportunity to think to take action or just even to take stock and if nothing else they'd enjoy a song that they hear everyday like elbows One Day Like This but here it without the lyrics of a cushion as you mentioned you got presenters who happy to talk about their lives on the area experienced broadcaster to when they open up it engages with the audience.

I think radio in 2020 has got to be more than just the music no is going to celebrate 10 great songs in a row in this era.

I don't think Radio presenters in 2020 have had the opportunity to make some incredible connections to be nice to be the friend to be the accompaniment to be to everyone's day, and I think the radio stations in the radio presenters who really connected this year have been the one.

Gone further we've been really honest at absolute in the fact.

We were working from home and the stresses and strains that all of that raw with kids and dogs and a normal life what I think we achieved by doing that was st.

The listens.

We're just like you and I think you know there is no place in modern radio for people to be on a pedestal and see where it works is where we just like the listeners.

Nothing other radio stations have also done incredible work in that area not just a working from home honesty but also in the initials.

I saw this morning about Radio 1 million minutes of me and all that kind of initiatives that they've done when you look at Watkiss has done with Jordan and Perry King really honestly about Britain's Got Talent and the Ofcom complaints when you look at some of the work that talkSPORT is done this year.

You really see that presenters can come into their own and that's what we want from.

That's where present great presenters will succeed and that's where the Next Generation can really come through and be honest and be open and be real and city.

That's the kind of radio listeners.

Tell us that they connect best to rather than necessarily very glitzy showbiz.

We're not like them kind of approach and people have been in radio long time will know the radio stations and working in them is often not the best for your own mental health, but I get the impression that the culture absolute and a Bower is 1 people do open up and talk and it's you know it's it's a happy place to work from what we see publicly about it absolutely nobody is perfect do any of us get anything 100-percent right absolutely not and I think we're all learning we're all listening.

We're all evolving and we're all trying to be both better people better managers and Anna better organiser.

I certainly commend Bower for that, but I think you know you've got to I took a lot about the Absolute Radio family.

I think you know we can we can squabble amongst ourselves, but that's for us to do but I think what we do is we got each other's backs and certainly that the current team of presenters that we've got now is very much family everyone supports each other and I think we get that from the listeners.

We get the support listeners and that allows us to support the support the listeners more, but I think certainly you know we've got to realise that we want to give people the best opportunity to be able to perform on earth and I think you know we've learnt lots over the course of the last year about how best to equip people to be able to do that and I think you know will take the lessons that we've learnt right and move those forward you know as we go into the last bit of the Union to next year for sure.

I'm talking of your presenter Ross Stephen you enjoy new this weekend skin from skunk Anansie

Very exciting she's doing her a 10-week.

Look at her record collection from this weekend.

It is a joy to work with so far.

She's so passionate and so engaged years ago people will remember that we had Ronnie Wood on the radio station and Ronnie did a show which was all about the songs that he loved and that you know the songs that inspired and played his guitar and talked about those songs that we wanted to recreate that for quite a while, but obviously priorities come and priorities change and actually there was a moment in the summer.

We are able to go ok right luck.

Let's try and do one of these programs and we looked around and units in was one of the people.

I saw her she did a PS4 as last year as part of our mental health coverage call time to listen where she picked the songs that that actually she loved and the songs that meant something to her and listening to that.

Amazing storyteller this woman, was you know she is an icon in music and she just was able to tell them connect and communicate with these brilliant stories so we approach skin.

Would she be interested in doing this? You know she came back with a straight yes, this is this is what my vision for the show is we send her our vision of the show in the great news was both vision.

You know where virtually identical so during lockdown.

We been able to kind of start to plan this show and the first one is this week and I think what's going to be brilliant about it is you're going to hear that on Absolute Radio that you would never expect to hear an absolute radio, but actually again going going beyond what I said earlier.

It is about radio stations evolving radio stations learn and surprising the listeners and I think you know you'll never going to hear two songs like this back-to-back normally certainly on commercial radio, but I think it's about us being bold honest to store.

Skinners got stelara incredible stories and I think people are going to be really surprised that the station like absolute is doing a show like this but again I think we've got her even mentions that we're making at the moment.

We've got to try and move beyond what people expect from us, and I think that's that's certainly my ambition and the radio stations ambition is what you say about the most ideas.

You've had for years and things you were planning on doing it.

Give you time this year to bring us back.

Do you think kind of as a programmer having that space and not being in the office and then back to that meeting the people you all day.

It is allowed you this year to be more creative in thinking about ideas for programmation.

I think I've been more back-to-back meetings this year and what normally would be an over the Desk 5-minutes.

He is now 25 minutes teams called but I think it's certainly allowed us and forced us to think differently about.

We work and what we do and what makes good contact and how we deliver that contest and certainly you know there is some people who got more time.

There is some people at For Whom This is a real opportunity and you think would absolute ever have done a poetry podcast with Frank Skinner potentially potentially not but it felt right for this moment for us to work with to create this amazing piece of content that was that was going to be something different because I think we're all consumer the great news is foot for radio and huge huge flood.

It's 2-2 radio centre in call Dave really promoted.

How people are listening to audio in the audio landscape during this time, but people want more audio.

They're consuming more audio a scene from our streaming numbers that the order is doing well in this period because it's in a week and create the content that people want and I think whether it's Frank's poetry podcast which was an idea which we kind of had before lockdown, but we're able to

Leyton move through quickly to this kind of program.

Yeah, we've not been able to do some of the things that we normally do like festivals and gigs and life sessions and things like that so to look elsewhere, but what will hopefully get to moving forward is a model where we can take some of these other ideas and mix them back in with the kind of the day-to-day highlights of a radio station like was doing festivals and deliver an even better products next year and findable.

I enjoyed the tweet that you shared of the Michael McIntyre this week clearly understands project banana better than some of the presenters.

Do is have a listen to him talking to Dave Berry only ever listen to Absolute 80s.

You do pop in the middle of the 80s songs in the morning play drop you in even to the 80s music yeah, cos we got these I'm across three different playlist so if you listen to night, it's amazing that I don't understand why I'm not going to lie.

But no I've listened to I've only had it when I don't seem to acknowledge any music from 1990 onwards to get it.

They know what you're trying to do when you hope so we've been doing for the people who don't know that is One Breakfast Show with eight different playlists and one hometime show with a different playlist for a few years now, but sometimes it is really complicated and I'm 100% honest with you and stay I know how the principal works, but there are lots of much better more technically minded people than me that that actually making work, but yet it's great that we know from our own audience research in the streaming numbers that people do flick between the different stages and we certainly worked hard again during lockdown because people are spending more time at home to really promote the fact that this is a place where you can get different songs different genres well.

That's classic rock or 20s or if you just want different decades you can flick.

The two and I think you know it opens up a whole new world, but the fact that Michael McIntyre chooses to listen to 80s and will only listen to me, please if he's fine by me he is very welcome the monster family alright.

We'll let you go cos I know you're on there on holiday this week.

See need to get back to listen to magic 123 because I'm probably what you doing at this time of year.

Can I offer you one other thing to listen this week if you listen to one thing this week, please listen to Baroness floella Benjamin Desert Island Discs because it is quite simply one of the joyous uplifting brilliant beautiful pieces of radio with a woman who is an inspiration to everybody and I listen to it on on Sunday and it was gorgeous.

So I will save for 30-minutes.

Don't listen to either magic 100% Christmas Orbison please listen to floella Benjamin if you're my age it will take.

To growing up with her on playschool will check it out.

Thanks.

Must talk to you.

Thank you.

That's Paul Silvester the content director at Absolute Radio before we go this week a reminder to try out clean feed it a great way of connecting with your co-presenters or guests or back to the station from a firework or Christmas OB it's designed for radio people of the podcast as it's really simple to use and the quality is as well.

Cleanfeed won't cost you anything to get started take 30 seconds or so to sign up and then you'll be doing your first live OBE or recording for your podcast or your show within a few minutes find out more about it clean net will see you next week.