Genesis

Not that I'd imagine anyone reading this would think it for a second but no this is not a post about the English soft rock band as believe it or not I am not a huge Phil Collins fan. No today I'd like to talk about the Genesis of World of Stu and take a quick look back at where it all began.

Pretty much everyone in my social (media) circle in the year 2015 will be of the opinion that World of Stu came into this world sometme in 2014 under its original guise of Stu's Reviews which was the original title of my movie and tv review page on Facebook. From there (by way of many happy appearences on the multitude of podcasts by my main men Pancast Poductions) I decided to enter the world of podcasting myself and along with the creation of my website the first episode of World of Stu was born.

So that's where we are today, four episodes done thus far and all available on a multitude of platforms (Spreaker, Podomatic, YouTube), and along with the newly branded World of Stu Facebook page (same as before but under a new name) World of Stu is taking baby steps towards spreading my views and reaching the largest audience possible.

The truth of the matter however is that World of Stu can be traced all the way back to 1996, the year that I enrolled onto the Btec Media Studies course at Stroud College. There were many things that attracted to the subject (I had originally intended to sign up for Psychology and Sociology A Levels), all the flashing lights, the cameras, editing suites and most of all the onsite radio studio.

Stroud College had the perfect man as their head of Media back in the 90's in the form of Mike Ganley (who can be found here - http://www.thecrookedroad.com/) as he had a background in radio and that was clearly his passion. The College also ran two RSL (restricted service licence) per academic year under the name Easy FM which was a great learning experience and launching pad for anyone who had a passion for broadcasting and it was here that I was bitten by the radio bug and here that it could be argued World of Stu was really born.

During the last of the four Easy FM's that I was involved in I took a more involved role than merely presenting my own show as it was at this time that Mike was looking to launch a full time radio station in Stroud. I was present in the studio or classrooms from the opening of the breakfast show through to the close of the final show each night as I helped make sure things ran smoothly in Mikes absence (he was not allowed to be involved due to applying for the full time licence). In fact the final ever Easy FM show was presented by me and my guest was none other than Mr Ganley (I am not sure if Easy FM continued after we left the College but it certainly does not today to the best of my knowledge).

From the ashes of Easy FM came FM107 The Falcon which was a full time professional radio station launched in Stroud and providing its own unique brand of entertainment for the surrounding area. It was November 1998 and prior to launch I was preparing to be involved in the Monday - Friday 6-8pm slot as one of a handful of young presenters who would take it in turns to host a youth orientated show. You see the format for The Falcon was to be a standard daytime radio station that would present a series of specialist music shows from 6pm to its close at 11pm.

Not able to find enough former students to fill out the youth show roster however I was given the slot as my own from the getgo although in the early days I was given a producer (an ole aquaintance of Mikes, I wouldn't go so far as to say friend) as there was pressure from some of the 'professionals' to make sure that I was reigned in and monitored as I was of course the black sheep of the Falcon family. It didn't last long however as a couple of weeks in I inadvertantly dropped the dreaded 'F' bomb which resulted in being removed from the airwaves for a fortnight.

This proved to be a blessing in disguise however as upon my return the producer was gone and I was allowed to make the show in my own image. You see the show was originally a more serious affair which discussed youth issues and local affairs that were dear to the heart of the producer and his 'arty' friends, this version didn't run for long and as such is not really remembered by anyone other than those involved.

There would be several versions of my show though they were all the same, it was just the title and the co-host line-up that changed. There was A Taste of Grant and Rodgers (Rodgers was Clint Rodgers, the fictitious name I gave to the head of news Kieran Miles who was so like me that we just clicked the first time we met), A Taste of Stu, Taste of Stu and Friends and so on (I was clearly influenced by my love of Reeves and Mortimer).

Gone was any trace of taking ourselves seriously and dealing with local and youth issues, instead what the listener got was two hours of inane chat and the very latest new music. We did what we wanted (within the confines of the rules) and the playlist was left completely in my more than capable hands, needless to say there was no Spice Girls but plenty of Muse and other such bands who no longer exist. Funny story about Muse is that upon playing their debut single I pronounced that it was a terrible record and that they would never amount to anything, shows what I know right??

So for 18 months I talked the talk and walked the walk, as we basically entertained oursleves which as luck would have it entertained our listeners too. I guess it was a refreshing change from the banal broadcasting that was being offered up by our local competitors, all of whom followed the preset radio template that made them all sound the same. Were we a refreshing change? Maybe, maybe not but one thing we were was different and that made us stand out which in turn gave us some great ratings in various groups.

Not that everyone liked my unique brand of 'entertainment' of course and I was always fighting a battle against the 'professional presenters' who looked down their noses at me and my style. In particular there was the programme manager (who shall remain nameless as his run at The Falcon ended in rather dubious circumstances) who really didn't like me or the fre reign Mike gave me, I'm guessing it really hurt when he went on holiday and I was given his breakfast show for two weeks.......thats right, I was mainstream for a fortnight, well as mainstream as I could be anyway.

The flipside to this was that there were many who showed nothing but love and support for me and my brand of of lunacy. Special mentions must go out to Deborah Nicklen-Duggan who was the unoffiicial mother of us rogues at The Falcon, Steve Wilkinson and the wonderful Gary Smith (whose brilliant artwork can be found here - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CactusCounty).

All good things must come to an end of course and eventually Mike sold The Falcon to UKRD and after a rebranding to Star FM it became nothing more than another of their generic, run of the mill, paint by numbers stations which after a period of time shut its doors.

Stroud would go without its own radio station for a number of years until Stroud FM went fulltime in 2008 (it had been run on a sporadic basis for a few years prior to this). Unfortunately it went under in 2014 but radio is still alive and well with Busstop Radio (http://www.busstopradio.com/) which has taken things online and includes the Pancast Movie Show, this post has now come full circle (www.pancast.co.uk by the way for all your Pancast goodness).

It would be 14 years before I would return nto sharing my views with anyone who was prepared to listen as Taste of Stu ended in 2000 (when I went off to work in Ibiza) and Stu's Reviews/World of Stu launched in 2014. Where will World of Stu go? Will it be a success? Only time will tell but between all things World of Stu and my writing its certainly going to be an interesting ride.