Changes at Ilfracombe TV

Hi and welcome to this new post from Moonshadow Media

Several quite major changes have happened within Moonshadow Media since the last blog post I wrote. The most significant of these changes is the Ilfracombe TV update.  Thanks to the power of Facebook we are now able to transmit a live update every morning and this has, in effect, replaced the Capstone Bulletin and has taken the audience figures upwards dramatically.  Today alone in just 3 hours the Morning Update had reached almost 1000 people which is on average 5 times more than the Capstone Bulletin did.

To say that I am very excited by this is an understatement!

The weekly What's Going On video still proves to be popular and we are working hard to improve that as each week passes.  This week we have added the opportunity for people to make contact with us and see exactly how much it would cost to place some form of advertising with us.  We can look at programme sponsorship, simple name and contact info (the cheapest option) and more.

The other things that have happened in the past weeks are :-

A new show for Capstone Radio entitled Home Grown hit the airwaves and Home Grown 2 is in production at present

2 new shows hit the air for CauldronFM - the North Devon Firefly and Faery Fayre update and the Litha show

Coaching Radio continues the serialisation of the Tao Te Ching

Wytchwynd Photography has had a very busy week starting last Sunday (11th) with photographing the official Victorian Celebration gathering, then the Pip n Jim's Queen's Birthday Garden Party, and on the 18th Mr Alexander, Steampunk Alice and Celebration Fireworks

So as you can see it has been a busy old time, not that I am complaining, especially when I read some of the positive comments on Facebook and when people stop me in the street to shake my hand and thank me for doing this for the town.

And this leads me to my final point - I am looking for people who care about the community and the issues / celebrations that are raised on a month by month basis, to join the team.  It is all voluntary as yet, but if you care, as I hope I do, about things that go on in Ilfracombe and the surrounding communities,  the money tends to fade into the background

If you would like to have a chat, please email me to arrange a mutually suitable time so that we can discuss the ways you could get involved.

email - moonshadowmedia@mail.com

Tel - 07050 644101

All the very best

DAve

Copy of an interview for fellow blogger "Ghostman"

This is a transcript of the interview I have just completed for a fellow blogger who goes under the name of "Ghostman"

Ghostman - What inspired you to set up the radio station?

Well that is a difficult question - many things have inspired me to do it. So to be able to answer fully I need to go back in history.

I have always been involved with the entertainment industry, from the early age of 5 I was on stage, at 11 I was studying music with the London College of Music.

By the age of 15 I was playing in a band, songwriting and had my first song published by a company called Belsize.

I continued life as a musician through various ups and downs and eventually set up an artist management company called Westworld

My songwriting consisted of what I would call "normal work" but then I went to Glastonbury and that visit changed my songwriting style and my life forever.

During this trip to Glastonbury I met a person who asked me why I had gone to Glastonbury. I could not answer him properly until several days later when I went to the top of the Tor and that revealed to me why I had gone to Glastonbury.

From that visit onwards a love affair began and I could not get enough of the place and that love affair continues to this day.

During one of my visits in 1989 I did a meditation on the top of the Tor at 5.30am and during that meditation my whole future spread out before me like a roadmap on the satnav.

As a result of that meditation I was inspired to write my very first album of instrumental music. In its very rough state I took the basis of that album to a company that was called Pagan Media and they had a record label of the same name.  The owner – Steve – really liked what he heard and on the basis of that he offered to help me record the album.

We continued to produce the album and although I changed recording studios in mid – stream so to say Pagan Media stuck by their promise.  The album was called Somerset Story

During the time we were recording the album I was also working with Halton Borough Council as a freelance consultant to develop a community music project.

One part of this project was to set up a community radio station and I was invited to go into the broadcast studio and be interviewed about the album Somerset Story. (The DJ who interviewed me went on to become a senior lecturer at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts)

As a result of that interview I was offered a presenting post on the next round of broadcasts which were to take place some 6 months later.

I was unsure about accepting the offer but I did and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

So I suppose you could say the die was cast and the seed was sown.

Lots of things happened with the band and the work I was doing we were scouted by London Records, I became the Musical Director for the Spotlight Theatre Company, worked with a duo, recorded with OMD and much much more.

But now the story has to move forwards to my move to Devon and here as part of my work with Westworld I met someone who was to become a long-standing friend of mine.   Between us, this person, Tom Armstrong (who was also a broadcaster) and I worked on books, CDs, advertising, show production and lots more.

We had several projects running one of which was a recording studio based in Georgeham and then Braunton.

As part of the studio we set up a video/audio link between control room and recording area.

We were also involved with our own theatre and performance training school which was the All-Stars Academy and we put together several productions and as part of that work we recorded the artists in our studio.

One of our conversations during these recordings sessions went along the lines of wouldn't it be great if we could broadcast these sessions either on radio or TV?

However at that particular time this sort of idea fell at the first hurdle because of the cost and so we continued to work this way until Tom migrated to Lanzarote and I stayed behind with my family.

Cutting a long piece of the story out the next major thing that happened with regards to my work in radio was that I was working in a show at the Queens Theatre in Barnstaple when I was interviewed by Lantern Radio as it was then.  This interview was with TV presenter, broadcaster and former Bond Girl Jenny Hanley.

From this interview I got a telephone call asking me to attend a meeting I did and the upshot of that meeting was that I had my own radio programme on another radio network.

The terms of my engagement with the station were that I was allowed to feature music that I wanted not necessarily what was on the playlist. I negotiated hard for this and told the manager that if he wanted me on his team then he would agree to my terms.

I stayed with that station for two years and during that time I witnessed and was enthralled by the growth of podcasting.

I saw podcasting as being "the future" and decided that getting into this method of broadcasting would give me an opportunity to reach a global audience for very little money and also give me total control over what I broadcast.

Now that sounds like I'm a control freak but I'm not!  It also sounds like I operate from a place of ego and to a certain extent at that point in my life yes I was!

Now however I take on the philosophy of a very highly respected gentlemen Dr Wayne Dyer and his philosophy was and I quote

"I like approval I enjoy approval but I don't need approval"

So to pick up the story again - from getting the equipment and starting my podcasting I found other people who shared the desire to broadcast their own programs. And so I offered them space on my podcast channel.

This podcast and several others that I was doing started to grow in popularity and I then began to look at ways of being able to broadcast a streaming service online rather than having people needing to click to play

So I spoke to various people one of whom said I can make that happen for you - and he did!

And hence CauldronFM was born alongside Coaching Radio and more lately Capstone Radio

However of the three radio channels that I operate only CauldronFM broadcasts 24/7 at the moment

Ghostman - What are your aims?

Wow another great question.

I suppose that the main aim for the radio side of me is to go onto mainstream broadcasting such as an independent radio station the ethos of that being of course that the programming will still be the same.

However mainstream "proper" broadcasting comes with constraints on content so maybe that is simply a flight of fancy

Ghostman - What plans do you have for the future?

The immediate plan is to obtain a new computer and to link that into my broadcast accounts which will enable me to broadcast Capstone Radio and Coaching Radio on a split daily basis i.e. eight hours devoted to Capstone Radio and four hours to Coaching Radio then 12 hours off air

I also want to get back into live broadcasting rather than pre- recorded programmes. There is something very special about doing a live show - you have to think on your feet and I like the buzz that doing that gives me

Another thing that I want for CauldronFM and Capstone Radio is to bring more presenters on board so if anyone reading this or listening to it feels that they can become a part of the Moonshadow Media family please get in touch with me

Ghostman - What music do you play and do you interview the artists?

Ok let's look first at CauldronFM - since this is a pagan orientated service we mostly feature pagan artists or world artists.  We are currently play listing an Appalachian prog. rock outfit Tuatha Dea; Danish pagan rock band Omnia; American singer/songwriter and personal friend Celia Farran and local to N Devon, reggae band Malachite

Moving over to Capstone Radio the music on there has a more local feel and is currently playing Jess Richards (Bideford); Maggie Davies (Ilfracombe) Dumbos Feather (Exmouth) and Ange Hardy (Williton, Somerset) among others.

I often interview the artists about their work and try to get a feel for who they are away from being a performer and touch into their likes and dislikes etc.

Probably the three most famous people I have interviewed recently are Paul Brett (guitarist with The Strawbs and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to name but 2) Paul also has a range of signature guitars on sale internationally), The Strawbs were a UK chart topping band of the 70s with Union Man reaching #2;

Tom Newman who produced Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells - the groundbreaking Virgin album of the early 70s. Tom is a multi – platinum producer;

and finally actress and TV presenter Jenny Hanley, Bond Girl, radio presenter and presenter of the children's tv programme Magpie

Personal Information

I am not just a radio station owner although that is something that takes up a fair amount of my time. I have a number of other things that I do :-

• I am a singer / songwriter
• I am a press photographer and run wytchwynd photography 
• I am a personal development coach, a Reiki Practioner, Crystal Therapist and “fingers crossed” soon to become qualified as a music therapist

To contact Moonshadow Media

call - 07050 644101

email - moonshadowmedia@mail.com

A Little Story Telling

The Little Seed

Once upon a time.............. or maybe twice there was a little seed, and that little seed wanted to become a big strong tree.  So the little seed made the incredibly long journey to the bottom of the garden path and stopped by a giant Daisy. " Excuse me Miss Daisy but can you tell me how to become a big strong tree?"

"Hmm let me think" -

"Go to the foot of our stairs and stand there for a week or more"

"Will that make me a big strong tree?" the seed asked

" Maybe" replied the daisy.

So off the seed toddled to the foot of the stairs and waited and waited, then one day a speck of dust flew by

"Excuse me Mister Dust Particle" it asked enquiringly "am I a big strong tree yet?"

"Hmm, not yet, but I'll tell you what,  climb onto that sunray over there and follow it until you reach the Rainbow's End"

"Right Ho!" the seed called cheerily and climbed aboard. It was warm and pleasant and our little traveller felt just like a seed on a sunbeam.

When the seed reached the Rainbow's End he hopped off and stood there bathed in sunlight - suddenly he was aware of a tiny voice,

" excuse me Mr Tree, but can you tell me how I can become a big strong tree just like you?"

Looking down the little seed was amazed to notice that he had grown tall, strong and erect, he had become the tree he had always wanted to be but without him realising what was happening.

So remember that in this life we can often achieve our desires and not realise that we have done so...

When you have a goal, make it huge, make it your destiny and take the little steps towards it that are necessary and then sooner than you think you will achieve what you want.



To contact Moonshadow Media

Call: 07050 644101
email: moonshadowmedia@mail.com