To introduce myself first, I'm Chrissie Cochrane and have been working at the Arts Council here in the UK for some 13 years. This particular organization is very hot on career development and training, and one of the options offered is the chance for what is known here as a "secondment" -- I think called a "detail" in the U.S. The chance came up for me and they suggested that, if agreeable to ACB, working at ACB Radio for a year would broaden various skills I have and give me new ones as well as hopefully being of benefit to ACB. To make a long story short, I am starting a year's detail with ACB Radio at the beginning of April 2005.
Personal Background
Born in New Zealand, I have been a professional musician for more years than I care to remember, and most recently an administrator for the Arts Council of England. I have been doing volunteer DJ work for ACB Radio Interactive, as radio is a particular love of mine, as well as doing much live music work -- I'm a keyboard player primarily, but have a working knowledge and can play, to a greater or lesser extent, many other instruments. I have also been involved in a certain amount of music production in the commercial world.
I am very interested in the programming side of radio and hope to, during my year, enhance the ACB Radio Caf‚ stream with perhaps some live programming. Actually while I'm on that subject, one of the things I really hope to get going is a program in which blind artists are interviewed. I say blind artists, and hopefully the program will embrace all art forms eventually, but it will probably begin primarily with blind musicians as, judging by the music up on the Caf‚ stream, there are plenty of them. So I would like to make a plea here for any blind artists who have music on the Caf‚ to get in touch with me, firstly with a view to possibly doing a program and secondly, as one of my other projects, I will be constructing a database of artists whose music appears on the Caf‚ which eventually will give details of where people can buy tracks, should the artist wish to sell any, and where to get in touch with the artist, plus interesting snippets of biographical information.
What do I hope to gain working for ACB Radio?
Having worked as a DJ for almost a year, I have gained much knowledge of radio from the broadcaster's viewpoint. I now wish to gain knowledge from the point of view of the station itself: administration, programming, and technical.
What do I hope to give to ACB Radio?
In short, as much as possible. Having worked in administration for some 13 or so years, I can bring those skills to the project, as well as various production skills I have learned during my time as a professional musician on the outer edges of the recording industry, but most of all I hope to bring enthusiasm and dedication.
Referring back to the idea of an arts program on the ACB Radio Caf‚, I would appreciate any artist who has music being played on that stream getting in touch with me. I can be reached at [email protected].