Sothport Visiter

Have you ever opened a newspaper to see your own face smiling back at you? Well that is exactly what happened to me this week.

Sat back having a minute at work thumbing through this week’s edition of The Southport Visiter.

To my surprise it was a picture of me. And I was sharing page 40 with 1986 legends Simon Groom, Peter Duncan and Janet (mum of Sophie Ellis Bexter) Ellis "the team from Blue Peter" and Southport Icon and best mate of Sooty "Connie Creighton".

Click on the Southport Visiter title, to go direct to the article which can be found in the LookBack section.

The section is created by Robert Alcock who is looking for your favorite children’s TV show, holders of the coveted Blue Peter Badge and local people who have been on the show. Robert can be contacted on 01704 398276 or e-mail robert alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk.

Thanks for putting me in Robert

JJB Health and Fitness

What a shame for the team at JJB in Southport. Will and the team have been really good fun on my new Lunchtime quiz "War of the Workforce" on 107.9 Dune FM.

They have managed to fend off the competition for the last three weeks but have been tamed by the new kids on the block from Wayfarers Arcade shopping center in Southport.

This week we have new "sporting" contenders to take on the mighty Wayfarers team.

By the way, what about Ant and Dec copying the music from my quiz (B****rds)

Aimee visits Dune FM

What a treat we had at work on Friday, as local Singer Aimee Kearsley came in to the Dune FM studios to see us, and to tell us about Eurovision 2008.

Aimee and her best friend Emma Beard (both former members of the group "CLEA") now form singing duo ‘LoveShy’. They are making a bid to win the Eurovision song contest in Belgrade 2008 with their new song 'Mr Gorgeous'.


Emma and Aimee "LoveShy" will be joining Eurovision veteran Terry Wogan and Claudia Winkleman on a two-part contest - Eurovision Your Decision, on BBC1 in March. The competition will see six acts split into three categories going head-to-head to decide who will represent the UK at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest -


It would be great to see them win so lets give them our support.

Pointing

A little while ago I managed to get around to fixing my garage roof. However, since then a little water has managed to find its way inside.

One possible cause could be a slight defect in the new roof OR water seeping through the rear brickwork.

On seeking advice I have purchased some stuff to spray on to the brickwork to give it a water tight seal. Reading the instructions (as you do) it said check your pointing, (the bit between the bricks)

It didn't take long to find a few dodgy bits that needed attention, a great excuse to whip out my tool kit.

Not being used to using a trowel I found myself using my finger to smooth the mortar, and as it happens I did tend to use my pointing finger. Wonder if that’s where it got its name??

Guess who's been to the gym ???

I knew you wouldn't believe me. To be honest I have actually been to the gym twice this week. And, true to form I managed to pick up an injury on my first visit..... well nearly. After my visit on Thursday and managing to do ten minutes on the chocolate machine in the reception area, I woke on Friday morning with ded bad cramp, and it hurt all day.

The true reason for going was actually work related. As mentioned earlier I have a new feature on my Radio Show called War of the Workforce, and we thought it would be a good idea to go and meet the teams in person and put a photo on the stations web site.

Not all of the team at JJB Health and Fitness were available on thursday so i had to make a return visit. They are a great bunch of people and they were made up to be the victors of week one.

The team who came in second place (sounds better than losers) were from Queenscourt Hospice.



I also made a visit th the hospice and had a tour of their fantastic facility and met some truly amazing people.

No Sunday Lunch

Don’t you just hate it when an hour long job turns into a marathon?

For the past few days, Carol has been telling me that she can't cook, Nothing new there I thought to myself, and just replied with "Yer I know" just like Little Britain.

As it turned out, our oven had packed in and..... She couldn't cook... even if she could.
Saturday was spent out and about trying to bag a bargain. Eventually we purchased a separate oven and matching hob (because our old oven and hob were matching green)

Up bright an early Sunday morning and ready for action, within five minutes I struck a problem and needed to pop to B&Q for some bits and bobs. Being a Sunday and as yet no chance of Sunday Lunch, I stopped off and purchased all of the ingredients needed.

Lately things haven’t been going my way, and today was no exception. SIX HOURS-THREE TRIPS TO THE SHOPS AND NO SUNDAY DINNER.

But I got the job done. What do you think??

HELP !!!!!

For a little while now, I have been known on Dune FM as a master quiz master, for my twice daily ABC quiz (The hardest quiz on the radio)

Well from this Monday, it’s just got a little harder for me, and I need your help.
Each day two teams will be trying to answer as many questions as they can in 60 seconds with my War of the Workforce feature.

What I need is good quality quick fire questions. I know that the internet can be a great source of questions, but a lot of the time the questions are out of date or a little too obscure.

I found one the other day that was asking for the name of the British Prime Minister, It gave the answer as Margret Thatcher, (that must be over a year old)

Therefore, I really do need your help. After a few dry runs, I may need between 20 and 30 questions per day, 7300 to 10950 per year.

If you get a minute, please let me have some questions (with correct answers) preferably on a word document, with a font big enough to read by a blogger. (If you do, I will give you a mention on the radio (honest)

Email to dave@daveturley.co.uk

National Lemon Meringue Day

One of the many alleged "Perks of the Job" working in radio, is one I shouldn't really share with you.

Almost every day, some poor listener will find themselves being enlightened, entertained or sometimes learning something they never knew before from a very knowledgeable Radio Superstar.

I learnt very early in my radio career that interesting and fascinating things don’t necessarily happen every day, or to be very honest, every week. It is therefore at times (purely for entertainment value or occasionally personal gain) obligatory to tell the odd little white lie.

One of my favourites is to announce fictitious National Days like national Kit Kat Day or National Lemon Meringue Day my favourite.

After Six years at the same station, my listeners have twigged, and what a pleasant surprise today when Stuart ( A Master Baker) of Grayson’s of Ainsdale rang to tell me it was National Lemon Meringue Day and made one especially for me with my initials on it. He even brought my Mum a massive Cream Cake to cheer her up.

How cool is that.!!!!!

It Never Ends

Again with one thing or another. I have had very little time for my Blog.

For the past few months my Mum has not been in very good health. And to cut a long story short she has been taking more tablets than were good for her and ended up collapsed in a heap with some very nasty bruising.

To get her back on her feet (literally) she was sent for a little restbite while all her drugs were re-assesed.

She was taken to a lovely place that reminded me of a travel lodge (apart from the stink of p*ss)which seemed to disapear within ten minutes or if you stop breathing.

Today I get a call from my Brother. My mum has been robbed, she had all her money taken from her bedside table whilst she slept.

A male member of staff was busy looking in on her every half hour on the night the money dissapeared, asking if she was still having trouble getting to sleep and if she wanted a cup of tea (she never got one)

The last check mum remembers was at five in the morning. A girlie member of staff did bring a cup of tea at Seven O'Clock.

If only the the Male would have spotted who was sneaking around between Five and Seven.

What a shame... Bas**rds

First Day Back

It was my first day back in work after a Christmas and New Year break (aren't I lucky)

I don't know whether it was over excitement at the thought of going back to work or just first day nerves (I bet I have forget what all the buttons and faders do). But I found it really hard to get to sleep on Sunday night.

For the last few years "Big Brother" has kept me up till late (not this year.... its s**t)Plus my bed always feels like its got lumps in (until my alarm clock goes off then its the best bed in the world)

Being woke up at about 5AM with a bad case of wind (outside) made me want to roll over and stay put.

However I made the effort and set off to work with my packed lunch and all my show prep (pre done just in case)

As it turned out, I loved it... plus for the first time in all my time at Dune FM The staff had a whip-round and got me a few Birthday Presents (NO CARD)They said I would have nothing to moan about if they got that too.


Pictured with me is our latest competition winner Sue, she is about to start "The Inch-loss Challenge" with gymophobics (A Girly only Gym)

With a bit of luck i will be going there on Wednesday (for research) honest. Good Luck Sue

At It Again

It would seem that every single time I have a break from work, I get drawn in to a little bit of DIY. (I cant help it... It may be a bad influence from the TV).

During the summer we started on the mammoth task of putting up a new fence in the back garden. After a lot of hard work and a lot of money, the job had to stop. The plan was to wait until This Summer and Finnish it all off then.

This week, for some strange reason we found ourselves counting up how many fence panels it would take to finish off around the back garden. And before we knew it we were on the road to get the stuff in CHEAP in the sales.

(We soon found out that you cant actually buy stuff in the sales that you need or actually want)

To add to this we even had trouble buying the fence panels anyway.

The first thing we tried was to go on-line and buy them (we could have them delivered) BUT NO "not available to order online"

The next day, armed with our List, off we went to B&Q. We made our way to the customer service desk to place our order (we knew exactly what we wanted so knew it Wouldn't take long)

SHOCK HORROR... The customer service desk had been removed (as a cost cutting measure) However, all was not lost because they had installed a button on the wall to press for assistance.

Only trouble being didn't get any assistance. We went to see the Three members of staff who were busy rearranging things in the garden department (well having a meeting about it)but no luck

After a whole hour of button pressing and having "Assistance calls put on the Tanoy" we decided to leave B&Q unable to buy stock they had on display because they had cut staff to save money.

Thanks to the guys at Jewsons for sorting us out.

This Year has flow by

Have you felt the same as me this year ?. Every week, I seem to have made reference to one person or another, that this week has flown by.Now its not just a week its the whole year gone.

Looking back on 2007, I must say it has been an eventful and busy one.

My mum has been in and out of hospital. There are many tales to tell about that, and every tale seems to involve Neglect, red tape and penny pinching,so maybe less said the better.

Ive not been in the best of health either. My Cholesterol was quite high this year, I was put on a great drug to fix it called Statins. It didn't do the trick, and it may have damaged my Liver. (thought I would share this with you)

I've not even had time to get to the dentist to have a filling sorted (because work say you have to go in your own time, and I didn't have any)

I did however, manage at long last to get my wall built at home, and of course the Garage roof repaired (still got a leak somehow)

As for work, well lets just say it has been very busy.

I have had some great opportunities too.
Hosting The Advertiser Sports Awards at Edge Hill University, Me and Carol getting on the Tele with The Merebrow Giant Pumpkins and Gigging in London.

Doesn't sound a lot when you say it like this. (maybe I am just a lazy B***ard)

As for New Years resolutions..... I have nothing left to give up other than moaning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Typical Bank Holiday Weekend

Being a Bank Holiday, forward planing is a must. One of the perks of working at a Radio Station, is that you can get the weather forecast in advance for the whole weekend.

The forecast I managed to get, informed me of a super weekend until Monday. Armed with this privileged information, it was off to the shops to stock up on Bank Holiday Beer and BBQ stuff.

The Plan was BBQ on Sunday. and a nice Sunday lunch on Monday. (cool eh)
As we have come to expect, the weather forecast turned out to be a complete load of cack.

Saturday was spent picking the most expensive bricks on the planet for our garden wall. We were assured that they were top quality, and even suitable for building a nuclear fall out shelter. (we only wanted them cos the colour matched our remaining gate post)

Even as the temperature reached above 95 degrees, the other job of digging out the footings for the wall had to go ahead, to make lots of eating and drinking time.

Come Sunday, within seconds of digging the BBQ out of the garage, the sky turned a strange shade of ..... lets say ..... errrrrrmmmmmm BLACK.

If you have bought any meat from a supermarket recently, you will know that it has to be consumed within hours of purchase, otherwise that too changes colour, to a shade of genetic Green. So The BBQ had to go ahead, regardless of the rain, which, by this time was dancing six inches back up from the ground.

Lighting the BBQ inside the garage, isn't ideal, but at least I got the job done. My eyes got so much smoke in them, its took me till today to find my laptop, so I could complain about it.

I would have posted a picture showing me and the BBQ but all you can see on the photo was smoke.

Saturday Night TV

TV show "Any Dream Will Do" on Saturday night was a complete farce.
Chris Barton was ousted from the show after a phone vote by the general public.

Surley the phone vote should be reserved to save contestants after the judges have done there job and weeded out the bad singers and poor performers.

This week was the second time Chris has been unfairly put into the sing off. Neither Chris nor the other bloke should have been in the sing off anyway, but out of the two, Chris was by far the best.

Loved the version of Close every Door at the end of the show.

Lets hope Chris gets a shot at the big time soon.

No thanks to the shower of bast***s who supported the cr*p contestants.

Chris Barton Visits Dune FM

Monday afternoon at Dune FM was one of those days. On a flying visit home from London, "Any Dream Will Do" contestant Chris Barton, took time out to call in and say hello to us.

Chris who is a really nice bloke had our sales girlie's in a daze (CHECK OUT THE PICTURE ABOVE WITH HEATHER") he also had my mate Dan's studio phone red hot. But he did his bit and answered listeners questions and read the traffic and travel news.

It was a close shave for Chris last week as he had to take part in the sing off but was saved by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This week Chris had a better ride.

At the end of the competition we all hope Chris will win and star as Joseph in the West End. In the musical about a bloke that loses his coat.

Joking aside Chris is even more proof of the incredible talent that can be found in the Northwest. And I would love to be there on his opening night.

As a treat for all the boys at Dune Chris brought some of his family in to see us (total babes) Mum Jane, Cousin Lucy and Lyn (cool).

Chris has a great gift, but can only get through with our help. I know Graham Norton is on it, but please watch "Any Dream Will Do" this Saturday, and VOTE CHRIS BARTON.

for more info click on the link below.

I Think I've Caught The Sun

Today was the first birthday of The New Fleetwood Inn in Banks. DuneFm were invited to provide the entertainment for the day.

We did everything from a pop quiz to an egg and spoon race and the ABC quiz.



With a Bouncy Castle BBQ and face painting there was something for everybody.

The BBQ was a huge success, keeping everybody well fed throughout the day

Apart from lots of regular listeners, it was great to have Heather from our sales team, Dan from Drive time Dune an Andy from Sunday Afternoon (and Nightfreaks) plus our Boss Anna. Not to forget Carol and Charlotte from Turley Towers.



Oh look its a DuneFM listener nearly burning her Bits

joking aside it was a joy to be out and about meeting our loyal listeners and making new friends.

Ten Pin Bowling

Wednesday evening saw the first Ten Pin Bowling Challenge as part of Southport’s Charity Fun Fest.

Nineteen teams gathered at Premier Bowl at Ocean Plaza in Southport for a night of fun and to raise money for local charities.

Entrants included the local newspaper The Southport Visiter, Dune FM,and lots of local busineses.

Our Radio station managed to get enough volunteers to make up three teams. In honour of my daily quiz on the Radio, rather than have silly names, we just called ours team A, B and C ( like my ABC quiz, ...good eh )



This is our Team... TEAM B. Me, Dan Roach, Neil Jackson and Katie Collins (she's a girl )

After the first game, our team was winning our inter Dune competition. It was at this stage John Storey (our PC and Brekie jock)from TEAM A bought us all a pint, and possibly tampered with our balls.

Not only did we lose our inter station game. But out of the Ninteen teams playing, we came Nineteenth..... oops

That said it was a great night that raised over six hundred pounds for charity.

SOUTHPORT’S Charity Fun Fest takes place at Princes Park, Southport, noon-5pm on Saturday, June 2.


For more details phone Andrew Brown on 01704 398271 or e-mail: visiternews@southportvisiter.co.uk

See you there.

Happy Easter Holiday

Its been five years since our last holiday. This year I am determined to break the cycle.

To ease ourselves back into getting away, a short break to Wales seemed like a good start. A few people including my Mum and Producer Paul from Dune FM had recommended a hotel called The Grand in Llandudno ( its big. )

So we packed up the car, and, to speed things up a touch I took my extra Ladies with us. The ladies being My Sat Nav and My Cars Traffic Master. The pair of them never shut up, all the way there,every two seconds, it was ( turn left turn right Que ahead Turn Bl**dy left)

On arrival, both Carol and myself felt like we were in that film Cocoon. I was about the youngest there...... Honest. We got stuck in though, we bought dabbers and played Bingo, and even went to the Ballroom to watch a stream of nightly entertainers reminding the audience how old they actually were and singing along to endless medleys, all of which seemed to include such classics as, "Pack up your troubles","If you were the only girl in the world" and "The Ovaltinies".

I have to admit some of the elderly guests did seem to lap it up, but I have to wonder if they were just being polite.

Just as we were at meal times.( Carol wouldn't let me kick off ) Things had changed since my mum had been there, Cold soup, veg cooked in milk, Rubber eggs for breakfast and rock hard cold toast. (YUK)

I must have really needed a break because at the end of it all, I feel like i've had a great time, I even managed to get Carol up the Great Orm (on a tram) What a view.

What a shame I didnt manage to win Producer Paul a Crazy Frog.

If my mates can do it !!!

I bet you didn't know it, but I have got some seriously famous mates.

Radio Presenter and all round good egg (That reminds me ,,, It's nearly Easter) Mark Blackman and his mate Gary are set to grace our TV screens with Dale Winton's Supermarket Sweep very soon.

My Other mate Derek (That doesn't mean I've only got two)Has been on TV for ages. Derek used to work with me at Dune FM and is also a great bloke. Well Derek has mastered the art of Presenting on a shopping Channel.

If I lost about three stone had my teeth whitened and re grew my hair..... I could do that. I would be really good with Power tools and Gadgets,,,, Oh I would need to regrow my finger nails too.

I may leave it for a while.

Charity Fun Day with 107.9 DuneFM

Saturday morning was spent out and about. My mate Andy Hilbert was doing his very first outside broadcast. He was presenting a show "Live!" from the Charity Fun Day at the Somerfield Store on Fylde Road in Southport.
The event was to raise money for the Antony Nolan Bone Marrow Foundation, The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and most of all to help two little people who are desperate for a bone marrow transplant, Little Ella & Sam Wright from Birkdale.

Here is Andy Hard at work.

As you will see, rather than broadcast from a little table or flashy "Roadshow trailer" We enlisted the Help of Jack and Kim and their MONSTER TRUCK (they even held an auction to win a ride in it) Pictured is Me, Andy Hilbert, Neil Jackson and Jack.

Lucky winners on the day. (A Signed Steven Gerrard Picture)

Dan Roach wasn't so lucky, we paid for him to take a little ride. He got himself a sore A*se.

The Day was a huge success, plus it was great to meet so many of our listners.


well done Andy