I have a tendency to overlook the obvious in pursuit of the slightly 'left field'. Some describe this as charming, others - usually publicists - find it infuriating. This manifests itself (usually) with me getting ridiculously excited about the things a lot of people don't see. For me, big and shiny doesn't necessarily get me excited.
This coming weekend is shaping up to be a quiet one. I'm not entirely clear what I'm going to fill my free time with now that the Eurovision song Contest is over. I've been a few times before (to Azerbaijan, Dusseldorf and Latvia), but never spent my most favourite time of year in central London listening to it all play out on the radio, this in part because I've never been able to before. This year though, was different. Not only did I get to contribute to the BBC's Eurovision output (online, at least), I also got to listen to its newest radio offshoot - a dedicated pop-up Eurovision radio station from the Radio 2 mothership. Christmas came early this year. Seven months early, in fact.
Radio 2 have been in the news with two other stories this week - a cracking 15.57m listeners for Q1 2014 (up from 15.27m on the previous quarter) and the Radio Academy Station of the Year award. But, for me (and a considerable network of Eurovision fans across Europe), Radio 2 has resonated in a different way: between the 8-11 May 2014 the station became almost as important as the television programme some of us have slavishly followed for however-many years. Radio 2 Eurovision legitimised us. It was our best mate playing out of a shiny digital radio that followed us around everywhere. Or it was playing out via iPlayer Radio. Whatever the preferred distribution method, it was a special four days because for those four days it felt like this was something made especially for me. And I wanted it to go on and on and on. I knew it had to, but still I didn't want it to end.
Paddy O'Connell led the charge broadcasting from his 'shipping container' on Eurovision Island in Copenhagen, aided by his producer Fiona Day and various other contributors. For those of us who couldn't be there, or had decided early on not to be in Copenhagen for this year's festival, Radio 2 Eurovision made us feel a part of the glorious madness. Be sure to take a listen to his live shows saved for posterity on the Radio 2 Eurovision website. 'Real' radio free of the usual constraints with a breathtaking vitality which makes any wannabee radio producer quiver with excitement. (And in case you're wondering, I'm not just saying that because I'm sending the link to this blog post to Paddy O'Connell, his producer or Graham Norton's producer either. No way. I'm not that shallow.)
Radio 2 Eurovision Live Blog Central, Western House.
My role was small in comparison to the other more considerable cogs turning the Radio 2 Eurovision machine. In conjunction with the hard-working and hardly-ever resting digital team at Radio 2, I ran the live blog for the four days. In the Venn diagram of pseudo-requirements for running a BBC Radio 2 Eurovision Live Blog my skills and experience converged: knowledge of the BBC, understanding of digital, experience with social media and ... of course ... a love of Eurovision. I'm surely not the only one who could do it. There are plenty of others. I was just rather lucky to have a chance this year.
The experience I gained from working with an entirely different team was really useful. Staffers and licence-fee payers may assume that everything is done in pretty much the same way right across the organisation. But, spending a small amount of time in a slightly different group dynamic shows that there are often subtle differences, much of which can feed back into 'the day job'. The process of joining a team on a short intensive stint can be just as invigorating as a cold shower or a workout at the gym. It focusses the mind and gets the heart pumping a little faster. And sometimes that experience is the best thing, regardless of the end result. (Good show then that the BBC's Hot Shoes Placement scheme - an opportunity for for BBC staff to work on a placement basis for short periods - started in 2006 is still running to this day, a notable example example being a producer from India's time spent at Media City UK in Salford.
But, aside from the valuable experience of working in a different team for a short while, or the golden opportunity - actually no, it was a dream - to work on something you love, there's a memory from Radio 2 Eurovision which will last and last and last. While two members of the Radio 2 Digital team were busily preparing for their next 'big thing' - the Kylie Minogue Live In Concert - and the rest of us were doing Eurovision things at the keyboard, an unexpected gift winged its way across the Eurovision network from Paddy's shipping container. A heartbreaking voice floating above a strangely familiar chords played on an acoustic guitar. Eyes widened. Smiles emerged. "Who is this dude on the radio?" asked one producer peering at me above her monitor. "That," I said proudly as though the man was a relative of mine, "is Norway's Carl Espen." And the song - forty years after it won in Brighton when the BBC hosted proceedings - was Waterloo. And it was the most beautiful version of Waterloo I've ever heard. And, if you listen carefully, Paddy thought so too.
Of course, for the sake of balance and a nod to the fact that the Eurovision is about television (and because I wouldn't mind sending this to the BBC's Eurovision exec in TV), take a moment to look at my most favourite of television excerpts from this year's contest. Sure, I'm a radio boy first and foremost (at least my heart says, even if my head is in digital), but the choreography and camera direction in Belarus' bubblegum pop number Cheesecake is stunningly slick. Keep an eye for some very nifty footwork followed by a tracking shot at 2 minutes 10. One week on it's still setting my heart racing. Oh go on, watch it from the beginning.
Jon Jacob is Editor, About the BBC Blog and website
- Radio 2 Eurovision Live Blogger Ewan Spence interviewed BBC Eurovision exec Guy Freeman about his involved in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. You can listen to it on ESC Insight.
- Take a look at the Radio 2 Eurovision website and in particular, the Radio 2 Eurovision Live Blog
