The Travelling Circus....

The travelling circus.... that's what it feels like right now - but in a good way. I'm on my first family holiday with my better half and our 6-week-old baby boy, Little D. It feels awesome to be away. The moment we get back it's time to pack and start moving house; something which I have done far too many times to find exciting anymore. Still with the experience at hand it only takes us 2 minutes to pack up and ship out!

Well what can I tell you about my trip. Not much actually... We're in Karlstad at the moment, which is a nice little town in the middle of Sweden somewhere. It seems to be a nice place to visit, and since my better half is studying at the university here, I guess we'll be back again and again and again... So of course I signed up for the bonus card system at the hotel. Apparently if I come here 1 million times I get a free newspaper!

But the trip over was good, just a pity (in my opinion) that Swedes don't seem to know how to drive. Which is strange since it costs them an average of 1,500 euro, where as back home it only costs 150 euro and we have no snow. The best part is when someone tries to cut you off and you give them the finger - haha they have no idea how to react except to give you a dirty look!
...Oh well maybe they are the good drivers and I'm terrible.

So tomorrow it's of to Stockholm, that's right ladies and gents it's time for the biannual bilateral Ikea visit! It's also one of the joys of moving house - finding out that none of your funiture matches (not even the knives and forks) and having to go off to buy a new set 'just to fit'. AND this time 'Lucky Jay' not only gets to put together 1000 pieces of funiture and then sit there for an hour wondering where the extra screw goes. This time I even get to put a whole new kitchen together! Woobloodyhoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha anyway, I should stop being so cynical I guess. I'm on holidays for a few days, my baby boy just started to giggle and smile, and life in general is excellent at the moment.

So... I hope you're all still lisetening to The Breakfast Club on Wisby FM (http://www.wisbyfm.se/) with me? I pre-recorded 9 hours worth of stuff for the three days I'm away, so hopefully at least a few 1000 people are tuning in and finding it ironic that even when I pre-record I still make a fool of myself ;-)

Oh... and if you are wondering if we have heard anything from Gotlands Kommun (council) ???The answer is 'No'.... but we're still crossing those fingers, holding the thumbs and waiting...


ends.

And so it begins...

Well the weekend has come and gone and now it's time to get back into the rhythm of work.

This week should be fun as always. I swear there's nothing better than waking up early, drinking 6 gallons of coffee and switching on the microphone one more time. This week is full of new stuff. We have a correspondent working from Målmo in the south of Sweden and another from Göteborg on the west coast. So even if we are a local station, it'll be great to get some live news from around the country (instead of me just reading the papers).

Also, fingers crossed Wisby FM hears back from Gotlands Kommun (council) sometime this week with some positive news. I've received a massive response for the 2 blogs I wrote last week. Which is nice to 2 reasons:

1. It means people agree and
2. Well, quite simply, it means that people are reading the blog!

Anyway, back to work and getting ready for tomorrow.

....alas there is no olympics to entertain us anymore.
.

Grandma with Attitude!

So, on Sunday afternoon a 85-year-old grandma in the USA has boldly gone where no grandma has gone before...

When a 17-year-old wanna-be robber broke into her house, instead of just handing over the cash she went for her gun. Then to top it off she held the .22-caliber revolver pointed at the kid, forced him to call police and report what he was doing, and then kept him there until the police arrived!

The kid is now to be charged with attempted burglary and related offenses in juvenile court.

But I wonder what was worse for the kid:

1. Getting caught
2. Explaining to his fellow inmates how he got caught, or
3. Having to listen to her war stories and how cheap things were when she was young for the 35 minutes until police arrived...

And so we try... Kommunen (Part 2)

How did we go with Gotlands Kommun (council) you ask?

Well it didn't go good or bad... In other words we didn't get a yes or a no. Instead we got advice.

Ahh good old advice, its great to get, but sadly doesn't pay the bills. This was the third department of the Kommun we have spoken to, and it seems now that we will take contact with a forth.

It's funny though, each time we meet we get a response of "Great project, great idea but it's not our department that can help - it is this one...."

I wonder if we will have a moment of Zen, when we end up at the department we started with and the circle becomes complete.

It seems strange to me that they don't jump on the idea saying "This is fantastic, this is unique, this is a great idea for the youth of Gotland! We want to be involved, we must be involved!"

But as I said it didn't go badly either. We are to have another meeting in a week or two where we will present our papers and see if there is anything we can do together. So once again fingers crossed.

Oh well as I pointed out yesterday another project here on Gotland has so far received 66million kronor - I repeat 66million! and now even though the project was unsuccessful they will receive a further 2 years of financial support. Did I make the point yesterday that with that budget we could run for the next 44years??

I think I did, but sometimes it is good to repeat things.
.

And so we try... Kommunen

Well here we go! That's all I can say...

Today we have a meeting with Gotlands Kommun (council) to see whether they are interested or as they say in Swedish, 'om dom vill satsa' on our project and for the youth of Gotland.

• We have an unbelievable project combining the radio, school newspaper, web radio and internet mediums all at once.
• We are able to connect all the kids on the island and give them a 'voice' in all mediums.
• We are able to provide education and training. (and have people waiting)
• We are able to create jobs. (and have people waiting)
• We are able to sell Gotland to the tourists from overseas and the mainland.
• We are 100% unique in what we do, and what we are tring to acheive.
• AND Ladies and Gents we are 100% Gotlandic. We transmit 24hours from Gotland, and are the only onces who do! As they say "Gotlands Egna och Enda Radiostation."

So, will they or wont they - that my friends is the golden question. We have all read in the newspaper about the money that has been given else where and nothing happened with it.

For example one project has got of 66million kronor so far, and hasn't produced anything. With a budget like that we could run for the next 44years. They have only been running for what... 4 or 5?

And don't forget that 'amazing tv' channel that got 4.5million kronor for 6 months - that's 3 years for us.

Because of this we decided to start and finance Wisby FM ourselves until we knew that we had a project that worked. Well now we have, plus we have kids and students contacting us daily wanting to join and looking for experience, training and work.

So fingers crossed, or as they say in Swedish - hold your thumbs!

.

So what happens now?

Only 2 days left until Ulas quits the Breakfast Club again, it's been a wicked 12 weeks with both of us together again and back on air. But now my head is ticking over a million ideas on what to do after he leaves.

Why is he leaving? Well apparently looking after and counting other peoples money is fun and even more than doing the radio with me... oh well Good Luck I say! I'm gonna stay home and count my own 2 kronor after work instead.. haha

So, should I search for another co-host, or should I fly solo like before? That is the million dollar question... Or actually it's the Zero dollar question because we can't afford to hire anyone right now.

Half of me loves to have a co-host in the morning who I can chit-chat with and bounce ideas off, but the other half thinks 'nah screw it, go solo like before'.

Well time will tell what happens with the Breakfast Club, but for now each morning I'll be there drinking my badly brewed coffee and trying to put a smile on the listeners face once more. So stay tuned and see... well I guess hear you soon!

http://www.wisbyfm.se/

Where art thou?

Where the hell have I been some people are asking...
The answer - on holidays!

The last few weeks has been an amazing time:

First I welcomed my baby boy, Damien Oliver Brooks into the world on the 16th of July
Then as a surprise my father arrived from Australia.
And few days later I celebrated my birthday.

Of course we also had the Gotland Medieval Festival aka The Star Trek Convention last week, which thank god we all survived once again...

Now it's back to work at Wisby FM...

So what happens now? Well the Olympics are on, and being the Olympic junky that I am every day I'll be hosting the Breakfast Club/watching the tv.... possibly both at the same time.