Classical Ann

Ann is secretary of the Felixstowe Recorded Music Society, she is a supply teacher in a local school, and is married with two grown-up daughters. She has wide musical tastes, with favourites including Finzi, Shostakovitch, Vaughan Williams, Tallis, Byrd and Dowland.

Among her musical heroes are Steve Harley, The Wedding Present, Cinerama, John Otway, Suede, Roxy Music, Kaiser Chiefs and Morrissey.

There's also a weakness for detective novels, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the Mighty Boosh.

Community Radio and Me

It all started when I innocently, in my capacity as Secretary of the local Music Society, approached the relatively new Felixstowe Community Radio station with a view to obtaining some publicity. I was told, we need someone to host classical music programmes, you can do that and put out your own publicity at the same time. So it was , on a chilly January afternoon that I turned up at an unassuming terraced house in the centre of Felixstowe to meet the lovely Trevor, station manager and main producer. Trevor and his happy band are all volunteers , operating on a small budget, but ever hopeful of receiving funding from interested organisations!

Events moved swiftly. My first show was actually a documentary about the band Suede and I have since done others about my heroes Steve Harley, John Otway and Bryan Ferry; but my main role is to be Classical Ann and produce programmes carrying titles such as Sensational Symphonies, Best of British, Composers beginning with M, and I even did one called Cantankerous and Curmudgeonly, playing music I don't actually like. At first I was not very brave, so Trevor would record my voice, add the music later and then broadcast it. However, that was a lot of work for him, so I was persuaded to GO OUT LIVE! That was when I met the amazing Nigel, whose contemporary music programme follows mine on a Sunday afternoon. We bonded immediately via our handover links, he started involving me in “amusing banter” during his show, and one day suggested we collaborate on a Eurovision Special. He is the consummate expert (he works for BBC Radio Suffolk, so knows what he is doing) whereas I took two books out of the library and watched a lot of YouTube. What followed was one of the funniest experiences of my entire life, it was a riot. Since then we have got together to do a “Movies “ Special and a 70's Special. These shows usually involve me waffling on trying to be erudite and Nigel coming in with his brilliant Eric Morecambe - like one liners.

Community radio aims to be entertaining, yes, but also informative. We cover a variety of topics such as local news, local personalities, and local issues, as well as programmes on literature, history and items of general interest such as advice on pensions – or whatever people want, really! We even have our own agony aunts. It is enormous fun, livened up by the ever -present gremlins in the system, ie “technical difficulties” when the machines decide they don't like us, but it all adds to the general merriment. For example, once a piece of Butterworth went out followed by my voice stating confidently, “that was Brahms”! Occasionally, like John Cage, we broadcast silence, but not usually for long. Access us by going to www.felixstoweradio.co.uk and our own programmes are podcast at www.canstream.co.uk/felixstowe (and you can download these onto your iPod or keep them for posterity.

Community Radio is breaking out all over the country, and there are now 400 Internet stations with over 150 also broadcasting on FM. If you get the chance to volunteer, I strongly recommend it – you don't have to go live or even broadcast, you could learn how to edit or produce.

Your community needs you!