Ok. First principles.  We’re trying to fling open the doors for musicians.  We’d like to do the same for presenters: radio is as hard to get into as the record industry.

So when we say ‘we want DJs please’, we don’t mean loads of people who sound like yer average radio DJ.  We’re not asking you to give up your day job. We’re not into time checks, self-indulgence and inane babble about celebrities.  We just want new voices.

Who’s to say what a ‘DJ’ is on interactive radio?  It could be an artist introducing their own songs – and others that they like.  It could be a club DJ assembling a mash up.  It could be someone doing four links between songs in a playlist they created, and doing it again six months later.  As Aleksandr commented in a recent blog post, the links can include music, sound effects – they can be as creatively put together as you like.  It could be music journalism, interviews with Amazing bands.

Bottom line: the presentation on Amazing Radio should be as unconventional as everything else we’re doing.  It’d be great to find brand new talent, from anywhere in the world, people who would never normally imagine they could present on national radio, but have a gift for it – and are passionate about their music.  (You must be passionate about music).  But this might not be ‘a job’, or not for every presenter you hear, anyway.  I don’t envisage people working on a rota to do live transmissions. We’ll probably have some presenters on permanent contracts, but we might not.  It’s possible that we’ll never transmit live.  We might never even meet our presenters.

I mean it. When you think about it, the amazingtunes.com system handles MP3 files.  It doesn’t care if they contain a song, or a voice intro.  You can upload a presenting MP3, just as easily as uploading a song. All it really needs is you, and your imagination.

Technically, it’s easy. Every Mac and PC has, or can have, digital recording software.  So does every mobile phone. Just choose the amazingtunes.com songs you want to link between, and make this obvious in what you say.  Then find the quietest possible place to record, on the best mike you can lay your hands on, if using a computer.  A back bedroom, talking into a duvet hanging on the door to absorb any echo, usually works just fine.  Outside on a still day can work, and the background noise might be interesting.

Don’t get too close to the mike – we can’t get rid of ‘popping’ – and don’t try to sound like a ‘proper DJ’.  We’ll hate it.  Save the link or links as an MP3 (we can edit and split them later), and upload it to amazingtunes.com.  So long as you tag the upload ‘DJ’, we’ll find it easily. Or email it to info@amazingradio.co.uk You could be on the air this week.

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