500 Up, 500 Down

Farewell August and hello September.

When I was at university I was introduced to radio and b that I mean actually having a go on radio. I had never considered it before although I did enjoy listening to radio growing up at home. I remember especially Saturday nights with the radio on and listening to smooth tunes in the night. I also remember listening to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman’s Pick of the Pops.

I am so grateful for Lloyd Clarke. He was the first person I met at university and I knocked around with him quite a bit in the first year. He took me to the university radio station as he had a show on it getting to play the tunes that he was so obsessed about at the time as well as develop his love for music. I went along with him and eventually was allowed to talk on it to provide a few links from one track to another.

Before I knew it I was really into the whole radio thing. Not so much the music side, although that was a great education, but the production values and creative opportunities radio provided. I absolutely loved it – all that preparation, research and thinking on your feet involved with it. I eventually got to produce and present my own programme on a weekly basis and I think I had a daily show as well. Absolutely loved it – what should go in it, what regular features, what thing to say in between, who to have on it, what creative pieces to include in terms of sound effects and the like.

I don’t pretend to be any great radio genius although with a name like Chris and the success of Chris Morris, Chris Evans and Chris Moyles I’m sure I was supposed to be good! I liked the whole concept of ensuring there was enough to keep a programme going keeping people informed and the like without ever lagging or becoming boring. Never got brilliant at it, but loved practising it. So much so that it’s still a desire today to be doing radio shows – not music based but with music in it.

All that to say that sometimes when I consider blogging, it’s the nearest I get textually to a radio show – again like the radio, not that I’m brilliant at it, but I like the challenge of putting something together, maybe on one subject maybe on more than one that will at least keep the reader interested.

This is poignant as this is the 500^th post that I’ve blogged on this my first ever blog. Now when I say it’s the 500^th that doesn’t mean there’s only been 500 that I’ve ever posted, it means that there’s been 500 that’s made it online. There have been a fair few drafts that stayed in draft mode and eventually got deleted and a couple of posts that stayed for a bit but eventually got deleted. For all of that I am so grateful to make it to such a significant landmark. I mean if you would have told me back when I wrote that first post in 2005 that I’d stick at it over the next four years and 500 posts I would have been mildly surprised. Yet here we are having covered personal, spiritual and whimsical issues covering the ups and downs of life as well as the issues that have been pestering me. Sure, I’d like to have been more consistent over that time and perhaps would have hit this landmark earlier, but I’m sure you’d agree that this year in particular business has picked up in terms of regularity and I’m hoping to hit the big 200 posts for the year before the end of the month which can be seen as progress.

What matters, though, is not just hitting targets, but being committed to doing what that radio experience was all about so long ago. That is having ideas, exercising the passion for words and communicating ideas and thoughts for people to consider. Not is it an issue of doing that, but doing it to the glory of God from whatever angle and concerning whatever issue.

Thanks for reading this blog – whether new or old. I hope it has made some impression on the thoughts running through your head wherever you are in life. In the meantime my heart’s desire is to get better at this blogging gig, and hopefully a bit more consistent. Here’s to 500 down and who’s to say there’ll be 500 more at a quicker rate? Only time …

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd