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Ever wondered what it is like to present a radio show? Giles Brown, Marbella’s man behind the microphone, lets us in on a few secrets from the studio…
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RADIO
ike so many things in what is laughingly referred to as my career thus far, I fell into radio by accident. A decade ago, I was editor of a glossy magazine that reported on the good, bad and frequently extremely ugly goings on of celebrities in Marbella. This was at the height of The Only Way is Essex fever, and so mainly entailed the exploits of Arg, Joey Essex, Gemma and other intellectual heavyweights as they partied with a seemingly inexhaustible array of soap stars, footballers and assorted WAGs and Influencers. Pulitzer Prize winning journalism it wasn’t. It did, however, lead to me being invited to provide a weekly
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guest slot on Talk Radio Europe, discussing who was doing what to whom, where, and frequently for how much. As the shy and retiring person that I am (stop sniggering at the back) I took to radio like the proverbial fowl to water and was ultimately asked if I would be interested in hosting my own show. Being the solitary type of person who spends most of his spare time sitting in a darkened room, talking to himself and playing music, hosting a live radio show, where you sit on your own in a darkened room, talking to yourself and playing music, required very few new skills. Although on air you are merrily wittering away to several
thousand people – or at least you hope you are. One of my first shows was a weekend late night slot, where the audience seemed to be made up entirely of old rockers who had been on the ‘vino collapso’ all day – you know, the ones that come in cartons – and would call in, somewhat ‘over refreshed’ and ask for Judas Priest. Eventually I progressed to shows where I had the opportunity to interview live guests. The way it normally works is that the interview subject has a biography or autobiography to publicise, so is perfectly happy to chat for 20 minutes or so. Anyone who has lived in Marbella for
