La Giralda, Seville

101

Well now.....you turn your back for six months and look what happens!

First off, I have to say how delighted I am that you guys decided to carry on without me in April and that you’ve succeeded so brilliantly ever since. A man with less moral fibre and more professional insecurity than me could easily have broken down in quivering, shoulder-heaving sobs of misery on realising that The Nightshift’s progeny had in reality outgrown its parent and was leading an independent life of its own in the blogosphere, irrespective of BBC Radio Newcastle’s output.

I am, in fact, flattered almost beyond description that the community of ‘nightshifters’ is so strong that it seems to possess the will to continue in cyberspace without the originating blog. I even get the feeling that if - heavens forfend - The Nightshift was discontinued, the happy, curious, friendly and mutually supportive band of Truckshunters would ‘carry on regardless’ - and quite rightly, too. That’s quite an achievement and you deserve national recognition for it - at least you do as far as I’m concerned.

Of course, there’s nothing new about me singing your praises. I’m convinced that there’s never been a radio audience with quite the same qualities of wonderment, mischief, mutuality, affection and involvement in the history of the medium. Please accept that I’m as aware now as ever I was that I owe you a very great deal indeed.

One of the things I owe you is an explanation.

As I kinda suggested at the time, I stopped posting on the blog because......well, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Professionally, I had been told to stop mentioning the blog on-air because it wasn’t an official BBC blog. Inasmuch as this was so, it seemed pretty pointless to me to spend time writing posts to which I was not permitted to draw listeners’ attention. After all, the blog’s audience, loyal and affectionate though it was, could not expand without the blog itself being mentioned on-air.

My personal life, too, was a bit ‘brittle’ at the time. I felt an obvious need to devote as much of my personal time as possible to finding a way through the difficulties. Things are slowly sorting themselves out now. That’s one of the reasons I have returned to the fold.

Another reason is Gilly. After a long and worrying period of silence, I finally heard from her recently. Which is a very good thing indeed.

The other reasons I've decided to resume posting (though not every day!) are, I hope, reading these words right now.

So how are you all......?

CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN (England)

NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.