As Morning Show announcer of a brand new music station in Scotland in 2006 I needed to make a name for our station.
I used the national UK Music Week promotion to challenge our newscaster: learn to play the drums as well as Meg from The White Stripes after only one week of lessons. This climaxed with a live performance of Seven Nation Army on air of the band we threw together, The AMs. It created such a buzz that we went on to release a record, support established bands and do our own UK tour.
It was a marketing manager’s dream and helped me win Scottish Radio Personality of the Year.
I have since used the model of a show band with every radio morning show since, from folk-tinged Noisy Oysters at Radio 96.5 in Nova Scotia to our parody-performing Jack FM band Too Many Jeffs who carried out two hugely successful promotions: Stampede Your Workplace and Christmas in a Box which involved us taking mini versions of those occasions into workplaces in the city.
