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and be the resident guest for that week? And I did. So I said to the guy who was
presenting that show, who happened to be the chairman of the station at the time, I
said to him, do you have a blues show? And he said no, I don't. And I said well, I could
do you a blues show, and he kind of pondered a moment, looked at me and said, okay,
you’re on after me next week.
BiTS: Wow!
GG: And that was it.
BiTS: And tell me where Bishop FM is. What does it broadcast from?
GG: We're based in Bishop Auckland.
BiTS: Okay, and remind people, it’s not for me, but for people who may be reading
this, whereabouts is Bishop Auckland?
GG: In County Durham.
BiTS: Okay that's fine. And tell me something
about the kind of things that you started to
play when you first started off on your show.
How did you put your shows together?
GG: Well, the first show, which I've still got a
copy of on a CD somewhere, was of tracks
that I really, really liked. Obviously, I'm not
going to play – I don't have many rules for my
show, but the one rule I do have really is, if I
don't like it, I won't play it. It doesn't matter
who it's by. So I like everything that I play,
obviously. And the first show, I'd just got a
copy of a B.B. King album, “One Kind Favor”. I remember playing several tracks of that
because at the same time I was writing some reviews. I had a blog at the time, which
covered all kinds of stuff, but I was writing some reviews and started getting sent
some promo copies of things. Now, obviously, I played music that I liked and that's
been the same for the past 16 years really.
BiTS: I think you do a three-hour show. Isn't that right?
GG: I do now, yes. The first lot of shows were one hour, and several times I kind of
said to myself, these shows aren't long enough. I need more time. And on my 250th
show, I asked for and was given a two-hour show. And as I was chairman of the board
at the time I just gave myself permission and did it. And then I moved from a Monday
evening to Sunday, which was better for me and also for any guests who I had in. And
then, I can't remember, at some point I got a three-hour show. I think I gave myself a
three-hour show ages ago.
BiTS: How do you find the music for it? Three hours is a long time to fill.