I have two alarms. One alarm goes off at 4am. The other alarm goes off at 4.01am. Getting up isn't the problem - it's going to sleep at an early enough time. Presuming eight hours is a good idea, I usually get six.
At 4.01am I pull on my Slobbing Around At Home Clothes and head downstairs with my ipod in my hand. Over breakfast I check my twitter feeds, which will usually alert me to any big local or national story and an interesting number of small ones. I can also check my emails and facebook messages so that by the time I go back upstairs to have a shower and get dressed I'm already thinking about what I can put into the show.
I make sure I'm in the car by 4.55am as that allows me to get a bit of the LBC paper review before switching over to BBC Surrey at 5am to a) check the early breakfast show presenter is there and b) hear what he has to say in the 5am news.
As soon as he finishes the news and weather, I switch over to Morning Reports on BBC 5 live and keep it there until I arrive at BBC Surrey in Guildford at around 5.15am.
It takes 15 minutes to make a cuppa, log on and generally adjust to being at work, but by 5.30am I am having an initial conversation with my producer about the big topics on the show.
Between 5.30am and 6am my producer is cutting, writing and editing. I am usually going through listener correspondence - deciding what I will read out on air, and how much any listener correspondence will shape the editorial direction of the show.
By 6am I am looking through the scripts we've been left from the night before, getting my head round the stories.
I know at breakfast people are dipping in for a short period of time, but if I start with a few things and a few ideas about where they might go, it helps. You need to have a few (hopefully witty, pithy and illuminating) lines ready in your head before you go on air. Scripting doesn't work - it has to sound right.
Also around 6am the papers and the newsreader arrives. We have an hour to get the programme ready and we do so by beavering away feverishly at our terminals, watching the telly and reading the papers, but also by talking - what is the big story? how do we present it? what ideas and audio will lift the programme and make it genuinely engaging?
So the hardest creative thinking work is done at the most difficult time of day - between 5.30am and going on air at 7am.
Starting the programme isn't easy - we hot desk, which means the early breakfast show presenter Ben Kerrigan finishes saying what he's saying and leaps out of his seat, giving me the duration of a song to watch his computer log off, log back in as me, re-arrange the keyboard layout to the way I need it, log out of his running order and log mine in, all the while trying to come up with hilarious, witty weather/travel/news/music-based banter which will ease the transition into my show and keep in my head the top stories and a reasonably sharp preamble.
Thankfully Ben is a past master, both technically and professionally, so we get through what is quite a sticky junction without too much awkwardness.
The next three hours (7am - 10am) are about being across my brief, and concentration.
During the programme, I interview at least ten people, talk my way around various recorded features, promote the schedule, host a quiz and try to steer the listener through the news, weather, travel and sport, without too much in the way of hesitation or repetition. Deviation is fine, though.
At 10am I switch the transmitter and saunter/stagger back into the newsroom. Usually I am assigned to report on a story happening somewhere in Surrey or North East Hampshire for the following day's programme. I wolf down a sandwich and head out in the car. After recording what I need to record, I go straight home, and try to get an hour's sleep before waking to pick my daughter up from school at 3pm. I then have 4 hours of childcare before my wife returns home.
This does not leave much time to make calls or process emails, let along grub up stories. Like anyone at work, I get around 50 - 100 emails a day and I prioritise those from listeners, and then those directly addressed to me. The rest don't really get read, let alone actioned.
Between 6-6.30pm I'll get a call from the day producer, to talk me through the next day's show. This is vital - chewing everying over with the person who has set the stories up, asking the questions you'd ask on air and making sure they're happy you know what you're going to talk about, and you're happy you've got a proper story to get your teeth into.
My wife Nic returns home around 7.15pm and helps put the kids to bed. Once they go down, usually around 8pm, we eat some dinner, tidy up, and have a brief chat before we start preparing for the next day.
Each second after 9pm I am awake has a significant impact on my ability to perform the next day. I usually get to sleep around 10pm.
It's a tough gig, but there's nothing I'd rather be doing right now. And, of course, the weekends provide a respite. It's how I find the time to do things like put together this.
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Saturday, 13 March 2010
Monday, 21 December 2009
Nick Wallis contact information
You can reach me via twitter or facebook. If you want to discuss work, please call Chris North at North Media Talent on 07989 396 901 or email chris@northmediatalent.com
Here are some testimonials.
Here's all the information you need about my BBC Surrey show, which you can listen to on the BBC iPlayer.
My full biography can be found here.
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Here are some testimonials.
Here's all the information you need about my BBC Surrey show, which you can listen to on the BBC iPlayer.
My full biography can be found here.
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F*** you, Cowell
Far greater minds will hold forth much more effectively on the same subject, but that's never stopped me piping up before, so here goes...
When did you first hear about the attempt to make Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" Christmas Number 1?
I remember smiling at the thought.
As if. As if a poxy internet campaign to get a relatively obscure, ancient and sweary song to the top of the charts would beat the X Factor juggernaut.
Well, good luck to them, I shrugged, and thought no more about it. The next thing that caught my attention was a pompous little blog post by one of my broadcasting heroes Andrew Collins.
Missing the point quite spectactularly, he notes the RATM song is old, and downloading it, far from harming Simon Cowell, enriches the company he works for.
Finally, he objects to being told how he should protest about things, concluding "Fuck you, I won't buy what you tell me."
So what if the song is old? So what if RATM aren't exactly armed insurrectionists? So what if a music journalist sniffily chooses to affect a lofty disdain for what used to be the biggest pop event of the year?
I'm an indie stone-kicking snob at the best of times, and much as I can't stand the unremitting silage that Simon Cowell has inflicted on the charts, I'm no fan of RATM.
But NONE of that matters. What matters is that someone thought to themselves: "Wouldn't it be great if there were a way of breaking the smug X Factor hegemony? Wouldn't it be great if a really sweary, shouty song was number one at Christmas instead of all those horrendous MOR power ballads? What's a really good sweary, shouty song? Hmmm.... I know, I'll set up a Facebook page dedicated to getting Killing in the Name to number one."
And that was it. The whole process probably took less than 5 minutes. And, thanks to the power of social networking, the idea took off.
With nothing in the way of resources, against the phenomenal might of ITV and X Factor, Killing in the Name got to number 1.
Watching the campaign gather momentum over the space of a few days was interesting. Shortly after various types I follow on twitter had 1) dismissed it 2) stopped talking about it, I noticed a number of people outside the self-regarding snidey London media circle were enthusiastically promulgating the campaign with a view to doing one thing, and one thing only - giving Simon Cowell a bloody nose.
The game was on. And as it played out, the RATM campaign developed something Joe and the X Factor machine simply did not have - a narrative. Oh the irony.
X Factor's brilliance lies in the brutal emotional excavation of its participants. The show relentlessly drills into the humanity of each hopeful contestant and reduces them to excoriated, blubbering husks.
All in order to satiate our cravings for mawkish (and preferably visibly raw) trauma. And yet, when the challenge came, X Factor's ability to manipulate a story was found wanting.
Joe's a nice bloke, singing a terribly average song. He won the X Factor. He's going to be Christmas Number 1. He could be as big as Shane Ward or Alexandra Burke for a bit, then we can get excited about Britain's Got Talent. Yawn. Whereas with RATM, every day brought a new, shiny, sparkly development.
Amazon's selling it for 29p and it's still chart eligible!
Simon Cowell has dismissed it as "stupid"!
RATM swore on the BBC!
RATM are ahead in the official midweek charts, but most X Factor singles are bought by kids and grannies on a Saturday, so Joe's going to have a late surge!
Will the snowy weather affect the kids and grannies shopping trips?!
RATM have endorsed the campaign and will make a donation to a homeless charity on the back of the number of downloads sold!
The underdog has a genuine chance of pulling off a shock victory! Everyone is talking about it!
The sheer exhilaration of watching this campaign go from nothing, with what seemed like absolutely no chance, to one of the most life-affirming showbiz stories this decade is gently gratifying. It is confirmation of the excellent Caitlin Moran's maxim that pop music is simultaneously "the most important yet most ridiculous thing in the world".
Of course, unlike the twitter campaigns to protect our parliamentary democracy or challenge dinner-party bigots, getting RATM to No 1 doesn't really mean anything. But to be caught up in it, to buy that single for whatever excuse or reason you gave yourself was to briefly, ephemerally (and almost certainly conveniently) do the Right Thing, and you knew it.
It also proves that, thanks to social media, someone who comes along at exactly the right time with exactly the right idea, even if they have no money at all, can mobilise more than half a million people against cynical, anodyne, corporatised dross.
A book I'm reading at the moment quotes the American author Willa Cather as saying the purpose of art is to "imprison for a moment, the shining, elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose."
I wouldn't pretend for a second that downloading a shouty, sweary pop song as part of a mass protest against the grindingly boring prospect of yet another X Factor Christmas Number 1 is in any way art.
But the sentiment within Cather's statement, the delight in being able to witness an elegant, spontaneous and prescient idea turn into an odds-defying success through the sheer enthusiasm of hundreds of thousands of people must be worth celebrating.
Well, that's what I think, anyway. Happy Christmas, y'all.
When did you first hear about the attempt to make Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" Christmas Number 1?
I remember smiling at the thought.
As if. As if a poxy internet campaign to get a relatively obscure, ancient and sweary song to the top of the charts would beat the X Factor juggernaut.
Well, good luck to them, I shrugged, and thought no more about it. The next thing that caught my attention was a pompous little blog post by one of my broadcasting heroes Andrew Collins.
Missing the point quite spectactularly, he notes the RATM song is old, and downloading it, far from harming Simon Cowell, enriches the company he works for.
Finally, he objects to being told how he should protest about things, concluding "Fuck you, I won't buy what you tell me."
So what if the song is old? So what if RATM aren't exactly armed insurrectionists? So what if a music journalist sniffily chooses to affect a lofty disdain for what used to be the biggest pop event of the year?
I'm an indie stone-kicking snob at the best of times, and much as I can't stand the unremitting silage that Simon Cowell has inflicted on the charts, I'm no fan of RATM.
But NONE of that matters. What matters is that someone thought to themselves: "Wouldn't it be great if there were a way of breaking the smug X Factor hegemony? Wouldn't it be great if a really sweary, shouty song was number one at Christmas instead of all those horrendous MOR power ballads? What's a really good sweary, shouty song? Hmmm.... I know, I'll set up a Facebook page dedicated to getting Killing in the Name to number one."
And that was it. The whole process probably took less than 5 minutes. And, thanks to the power of social networking, the idea took off.
With nothing in the way of resources, against the phenomenal might of ITV and X Factor, Killing in the Name got to number 1.
Watching the campaign gather momentum over the space of a few days was interesting. Shortly after various types I follow on twitter had 1) dismissed it 2) stopped talking about it, I noticed a number of people outside the self-regarding snidey London media circle were enthusiastically promulgating the campaign with a view to doing one thing, and one thing only - giving Simon Cowell a bloody nose.
The game was on. And as it played out, the RATM campaign developed something Joe and the X Factor machine simply did not have - a narrative. Oh the irony.
X Factor's brilliance lies in the brutal emotional excavation of its participants. The show relentlessly drills into the humanity of each hopeful contestant and reduces them to excoriated, blubbering husks.
All in order to satiate our cravings for mawkish (and preferably visibly raw) trauma. And yet, when the challenge came, X Factor's ability to manipulate a story was found wanting.
Joe's a nice bloke, singing a terribly average song. He won the X Factor. He's going to be Christmas Number 1. He could be as big as Shane Ward or Alexandra Burke for a bit, then we can get excited about Britain's Got Talent. Yawn. Whereas with RATM, every day brought a new, shiny, sparkly development.
Amazon's selling it for 29p and it's still chart eligible!
Simon Cowell has dismissed it as "stupid"!
RATM swore on the BBC!
RATM are ahead in the official midweek charts, but most X Factor singles are bought by kids and grannies on a Saturday, so Joe's going to have a late surge!
Will the snowy weather affect the kids and grannies shopping trips?!
RATM have endorsed the campaign and will make a donation to a homeless charity on the back of the number of downloads sold!
The underdog has a genuine chance of pulling off a shock victory! Everyone is talking about it!
The sheer exhilaration of watching this campaign go from nothing, with what seemed like absolutely no chance, to one of the most life-affirming showbiz stories this decade is gently gratifying. It is confirmation of the excellent Caitlin Moran's maxim that pop music is simultaneously "the most important yet most ridiculous thing in the world".
Of course, unlike the twitter campaigns to protect our parliamentary democracy or challenge dinner-party bigots, getting RATM to No 1 doesn't really mean anything. But to be caught up in it, to buy that single for whatever excuse or reason you gave yourself was to briefly, ephemerally (and almost certainly conveniently) do the Right Thing, and you knew it.
It also proves that, thanks to social media, someone who comes along at exactly the right time with exactly the right idea, even if they have no money at all, can mobilise more than half a million people against cynical, anodyne, corporatised dross.
A book I'm reading at the moment quotes the American author Willa Cather as saying the purpose of art is to "imprison for a moment, the shining, elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose."
I wouldn't pretend for a second that downloading a shouty, sweary pop song as part of a mass protest against the grindingly boring prospect of yet another X Factor Christmas Number 1 is in any way art.
But the sentiment within Cather's statement, the delight in being able to witness an elegant, spontaneous and prescient idea turn into an odds-defying success through the sheer enthusiasm of hundreds of thousands of people must be worth celebrating.
Well, that's what I think, anyway. Happy Christmas, y'all.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Live in the snow in Guildford
Well, we did it. And here's the proof...
Okay to be honest, whilst we did set up outside in the dark, I did have a desk to broadcast from inside St Saviour's Church in Guildford.
Every Friday the good people at St Saviour's provide a bacon roll for homeless people. This morning, as a Christmas treat, that was upgraded to a full English...
Around 30 people turned up to eat, drink tea and coffee, and have a smoke on the steps of the church. The atmosphere was great, and the people we spoke to were very open about their situation.
Craig, on the left in the photo above, is living in a shed at the bottom of the garden of an abandoned house with his girlfriend Dianne.
Tinky, in the foreground of the photo above, lives at Vaughan House, a hostel on Chertsey Street in Guildford. I visited there earlier this week and heard the stories of people desperately trying to free themselves from the grip of alcohol addiction. We broadcast the results on the show this morning, along with other recordings I made at the YMCA and with the Street Angels.
My thanks to the likes of Revd Andy Wheeler and Sally (below) from St Saviour's who made us all feel so very welcome.
and my final, but heartfelt thanks to the idiot standing next to me below, Producer Karl, who worked tirelessly to get the show to air and, as you can see, keep me appraised of the time, all the time.
I'm off now until 28 Dec, so this blog will be quiet for a bit. Have a great Christmas and be good!
Okay to be honest, whilst we did set up outside in the dark, I did have a desk to broadcast from inside St Saviour's Church in Guildford.
Every Friday the good people at St Saviour's provide a bacon roll for homeless people. This morning, as a Christmas treat, that was upgraded to a full English...
Around 30 people turned up to eat, drink tea and coffee, and have a smoke on the steps of the church. The atmosphere was great, and the people we spoke to were very open about their situation.
Craig, on the left in the photo above, is living in a shed at the bottom of the garden of an abandoned house with his girlfriend Dianne.
Tinky, in the foreground of the photo above, lives at Vaughan House, a hostel on Chertsey Street in Guildford. I visited there earlier this week and heard the stories of people desperately trying to free themselves from the grip of alcohol addiction. We broadcast the results on the show this morning, along with other recordings I made at the YMCA and with the Street Angels.
My thanks to the likes of Revd Andy Wheeler and Sally (below) from St Saviour's who made us all feel so very welcome.
and my final, but heartfelt thanks to the idiot standing next to me below, Producer Karl, who worked tirelessly to get the show to air and, as you can see, keep me appraised of the time, all the time.
I'm off now until 28 Dec, so this blog will be quiet for a bit. Have a great Christmas and be good!
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Testimonials
Hi - thanks for looking at this page. I now have a proper website with testimonials and more information about my availability for live event hosting.
Corporate interviewing for Brand Conversation 2014/5:
"We work with senior people in large businesses so it’s vital our team are professional, efficient, responsive, reliable and can manage clients' expectations while delivering the best service possible. Nick possesses all these qualities. He is great to work with and in particular his business interviewing abilities are highly skilled reflecting his friendly and intelligent personality, essential to relax interviewees and produce the best content." -- Russell Pockett, Production Director, Brand Conversation.
Hosting the Johnston Press South Business Awards at the London Gatwick Hilton 2015:
"We hold a number of events throughout the year, many of which are prestigious black tie events. We are all too aware of how important it is to have a speaker who is not only engaging, charismatic and professional but is also able to create an atmosphere and maintain it. We hired Nick Wallis for some of our regional business awards and he was all of the above. Not only did the audience love him but he knew exactly how to keep everything going, moving things along when needed, giving people time when needed, he was an absolute pleasure and professional to work with. I felt completely relaxed leaving Nick to run the stage and would not hesitate to use him again in future." -- Susie Marshall, Johnston Press South Events.
Roving reporter for the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2004 - 2009:
"Nick is a joy to work with and can self produce with just the shortest of briefings. We always know that he'll deliver just what we need - concise, witty, relevant reports and insightful interviews with just the right people. Nick is a real asset to the team and we're always glad to work with him." -- Georgina Hall, Sony Radio Academy Awards Secretariat.
Hosting Open Democracy Day at Reigate Town Hall, Oct 2009:
"It was with some trepidation I viewed our Democracy Day. Traditionally six schools send a group of 15-16 year olds for a Q+A session in the style of Question Time. The host must empathise with the pupils and be authoritative and focused with the panel. My fears were groundless as Nick Wallis took charge instantly. The mention of his work on Radio 1 had the students’ attention which he kept for whole session. The panel were given just enough time to make their points but allowed no deviation. We would certainly use him again if he is available – and I have learned a great way to warm up an audience!" -- Cllr Richard Mantle, Mayor of Reigate and Banstead.
Hosting Radio at the Edge 2008.
"Nick was an entertaining and effective host who spent time mastering the brief and understanding the topics under discussion. I would have no hesitation in recommending him as an MC and facilitator for any corporate event." -- Trevor Dann. Director, The Radio Academy.
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Corporate interviewing for Brand Conversation 2014/5:
"We work with senior people in large businesses so it’s vital our team are professional, efficient, responsive, reliable and can manage clients' expectations while delivering the best service possible. Nick possesses all these qualities. He is great to work with and in particular his business interviewing abilities are highly skilled reflecting his friendly and intelligent personality, essential to relax interviewees and produce the best content." -- Russell Pockett, Production Director, Brand Conversation.
Hosting the Johnston Press South Business Awards at the London Gatwick Hilton 2015:
"We hold a number of events throughout the year, many of which are prestigious black tie events. We are all too aware of how important it is to have a speaker who is not only engaging, charismatic and professional but is also able to create an atmosphere and maintain it. We hired Nick Wallis for some of our regional business awards and he was all of the above. Not only did the audience love him but he knew exactly how to keep everything going, moving things along when needed, giving people time when needed, he was an absolute pleasure and professional to work with. I felt completely relaxed leaving Nick to run the stage and would not hesitate to use him again in future." -- Susie Marshall, Johnston Press South Events.
Roving reporter for the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2004 - 2009:
"Nick is a joy to work with and can self produce with just the shortest of briefings. We always know that he'll deliver just what we need - concise, witty, relevant reports and insightful interviews with just the right people. Nick is a real asset to the team and we're always glad to work with him." -- Georgina Hall, Sony Radio Academy Awards Secretariat.
Hosting Open Democracy Day at Reigate Town Hall, Oct 2009:
"It was with some trepidation I viewed our Democracy Day. Traditionally six schools send a group of 15-16 year olds for a Q+A session in the style of Question Time. The host must empathise with the pupils and be authoritative and focused with the panel. My fears were groundless as Nick Wallis took charge instantly. The mention of his work on Radio 1 had the students’ attention which he kept for whole session. The panel were given just enough time to make their points but allowed no deviation. We would certainly use him again if he is available – and I have learned a great way to warm up an audience!" -- Cllr Richard Mantle, Mayor of Reigate and Banstead.
Hosting Radio at the Edge 2008.
"Nick was an entertaining and effective host who spent time mastering the brief and understanding the topics under discussion. I would have no hesitation in recommending him as an MC and facilitator for any corporate event." -- Trevor Dann. Director, The Radio Academy.
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