LIZ: … but they’re very much, as you’ve noticed, in the background.
MAT: Absolutely.
LIZ: Yeah, and they… that's their role. They know that from when they come to interview. There's
no surprise. There's no, you know, all of a sudden…
MAT: So are these the rules of engagement that you set up?
LIZ: Yes absolutely, totally. So I will ask them, you know, at interview, I will say, "Okay, what kind
of things can you do to respect my privacy? How will you do that at home and how will you do that when I'm out?" And I will…
so I’ll ask them. "So say I'm in a pub or something like that what would you do so that I can maintain my privacy with
my mates?" So I'm expecting them to say, and be comfortable with things like, "Well I’d go away and come back," or "I’d
sit at a separate table and come back."
MAT: Uh huh.
LIZ: "Or I’d go and wait in the car," some people have even said. You know I’d be waiting
for them to be okay with that and then I’d think, "Okay well you’re on my wavelength," because for me, if I'm
with my mates, I need to be able to be me and for me I don’t feel I can if I've got people that I employ there.
MAT: Okay.
LIZ: You know I couldn’t be rude. I couldn’t talk personally. I always think for a friend,
I mean you must find it, if there's somebody else there…
MAT: Well I was going to say from my perspective it, it’s fine and everything and one immediately,
with you, knows immediately that's how the working relationship is and you respect that. However, because I've now known you,
you know, because we work together a lot…
LIZ: Yeah, yeah.
MAT: … I'm actually getting to know them…
LIZ: Yes.
MAT: … and it’s got to the point where they are people, they’re not just PAs…
LIZ: Yeah, yeah.
MAT: … and I don’t know whether, I mean, clearly the working relationship stays the same
and my relationship is with you and not them, you know.
LIZ: For sure.
MAT: However, like, er, what am I trying to say? Like the time we were in the car…
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: … we went to Blackpool to do a gig together. We were in a car for five hours together and
I know I was a little irritated because I’d had too much coffee and I'm sorry about that but…
LIZ: You were very, very amusing.
MAT: … but, in a way your PA became part of the discussion at one point and it was… I was
like, "Oh so is this different or…"
LIZ: She became part of the discussion because you were tapping on her shoulder going [click, click,
click, click, click, click]…
MAT: That's because she's from South Africa and I thought she was going to…
LIZ: … you know, "Can you speak that Erica?" [click, click, click] "Isn’t there a tribe in
South Africa that speak like that? Do you know them?"
MAT: I was just ribbing her…
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: … with a little bit of friendly racism.
LIZ: Yeah that's nice and she’d never heard of that particular dialect had she?
MAT: No but the point is…
LIZ: And now when you rang me the other day and, er, I said, "Oh yes Erica’s working today," and
he goes, "Give her a click-click from me." [laughs]
MAT: So have I… okay well let’s use that as an example have I crossed your professional engagement
line there then?
LIZ: No. That feels fine. Yeah that feels fine.
MAT: Okay.
LIZ: Because it’s a bit like once you know the rules are there and you know people know the rules
then you can relax them in a way. So you’re… you’re with me a lot of the time…
MAT: Yeah.
LIZ: … friends and family are with me all the time, so you know, friends, partner, whoever, who
know them, you know.
MAT: Okay I'm going to…
LIZ: Go on.
MAT: … step it up a bit okay?
LIZ: Okay come on.
MAT: Let’s just… we’re going hypothetical now…
LIZ: Yeah, yeah.
MAT: … cos just for the record…
LIZ: Hmm.
MAT: … I'm very happy with my partner, how does it… well how does it feel for you…
LIZ: Yeah.
MAT: … and I would imagine that this feeds into every insecurity that a disabled person that uses
a PA has, if somebody goes, "I fancy your PA. Can I ask her out?"
LIZ: They just die.
MAT: Okay.
LIZ: They just pretty much die.
MAT: What the PA has to die?
LIZ: No the friend yeah.
MAT: Right so that's crossing the line.
LIZ: [laughs] That's very much crossing that… can I…
MAT: I can completely appreciate that, of course I do, but how is one to know? I mean I know because
I've been around disabled people with PAs for like a long time.
LIZ: All people… I mean people don’t… I think one thing you could do, I mean everyone
will have insecurities, whether it’s a friends or a partner or whatever, of somebody asking your PA out or your carer,
or whoever they are to you…
MAT: Yeah.
LIZ: … so we've all got those insecurities. How do you know? I think partly you give that off.
So I think there's something about the two personal assistants that I have at the moment, they’re very… they give
off this air of they are not there. They read, you know, if they were in here now they’d be sitting in the corner reading,
minding their own business…
MAT: Yeah.
LIZ: … they would, of course, be laughing. They’re human beings, excellent people, yet one
of the lines I give out, right, is that to me my personal assistants we’re friendly but we’re not friends.
MAT: Right.
LIZ: That said they’ve worked for me for like three or four years.
MAT: So you must have got to know them?
LIZ: I know them really well but I don’t know their life stories.
MAT: So you don’t see them outside the professional engagement.
LIZ: No not at all and I think in some work environments that's the same. If this was any other job you
know…
MAT: Well a personal assistant is a personal assistant. It’s used for work I suppose. So…
LIZ: But I think I'm quite, you know, saying this and I know that there'll be people going, "Oh my God,"
because, I, you know, I get people think I'm a real bitch because of the way that I have personal assistants.
MAT: No I don’t think that at all.
LIZ: No but people do. You mightn’t but you know.
MAT: I do actually but…
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: No I don’t.
LIZ: And some of us with do it differently and some people need their personal assistants with them all
the time, don’t they?
MAT: Do you know any disabled people that use personal assistants in a very different way?
LIZ: Oh God yeah.
MAT: Like, well don’t name names but give me an example of somebody who does it differently.
LIZ: Somebody whose personal assistant would, you know, if we went out to the pub they would be joining
in and there and talking about themselves and whatever and that just irritates me, you know, and I want to slap them, but
you have to respect that, so like you’re respecting how I do it, you respect how other people do it, you know.
MAT: Isn’t that just human Liz?
LIZ: Isn’t that human? Mmm mmm [laughs].
MAT: I have to say I respect, I respect the way you’re doing it. I'm distracted. There's a man
wandering round in the studio.
LIZ: Yeah shouldn’t we still be talking about the topic?
MAT: Oh God yeah we’re meant to be professionals, so that's fascinating Liz.
LIZ: You don’t sound like it.
MAT: Now what if I wanted a PA?
LIZ: Yeah. What would you… no I want to know stuff from you. So is it really weird for you the
way I do things? Tell me about the outside perception and when you first met me and all of that, yeah.
MAT: Okay the first consideration is, okay I don’t understand the relationship and how I'm meant
to fit into this, look and learn, stay quiet, watch, err on the side of caution, if in doubt leave it out.
LIZ: Yeah.
MAT: And after a few meetings with you everything that you've said about how you show out that working
relationship becomes immediately apparent and you just fall into line. Having said that Lawrence, for example, Lawrence Clarke,
you know listeners he's the one that does our idents and stuff, he's more, the PAs that I've met with him have more been the
also chatting at the pub type, you know.
LIZ: Yeah.
MAT: And so because everybody’s got different rules there are no rules are there? So it’s
an individual case and so you have to learn it with each person you have to learn it.
LIZ: I think that's it you don’t want your friends to be uncomfortable either but one of the things,
when I've had people say, "Oh it must be awful," you know, "You send them off and they’re not allowed to be part of
things," and I say, "Well you’re assuming they want to be part of my life. You’re assuming they want to hang round
with you," but I’d really like to know what other people do, how they do it, and what they find acceptable or not.
MAT: Well why don’t we round off this little section of PA discussion by asking the listeners.
LIZ: Yeah.
MAT: And the Podcast listeners and the actual website readers, you know, if they’ve got any, huh,
I mean perhaps you'll get a few more offers of a different kind of personal assistance Liz.
LIZ: [laughs] Okay that would be great. I mean I do think one thing to say I think you change. I think
that, you know, the personal assistant’s relationship is one, I've employed PAs now since the very early ‘90s
so it’s like over 15 years and who and how I do it is totally different now and when I began I thought, ‘I want
them to be mates, because it will be great fun. They’re with me all the time. It will be like having permanent friends
and we can do anything.’ Absolute recipe for disaster. Recipe for disaster because telling your friends they’re
not doing things properly, or asking your friends to do things, you know, you think about them don’t you?
MAT: Well I've long not agreed with, you know, sometimes you do have a friendship with a working relationship
but I’d prefer to keep them separate because they can become very confused.
LIZ: So you know you change, things change, I’d be interested in how other people do things but
I'm really glad you asked , thank you, anyway because a lot of people are…
MAT: You know I actually wanted to have this discussion…
LIZ: You were nervous weren't you?
MAT: Yeah I’ve actually wanted to have this discussion ever since I've known you and it’s
really weird that we’re doing it on air but it is right, probably right for the Podcast.
LIZ: Yes because there's other people, I'm sure, thinking it.
MAT: And I would like a personal assistant.
LIZ: Yes.
MAT: And any suggestions…
LIZ: I’d hate to think of what kind of things you’d want them for Mat.
MAT: Any suggestions as to what I might need them for are most welcome.
[Jingle]
LIZ: Earlier we sent Rob out to climb a mountain. So let’s see how he's doing now.
MAT: Yeah are you there Rob?
ROB: Yes I'm here.
MAT: Are you beyond your normal boundaries?
ROB: [laughs] I can’t even see where the boundary was in the first place.
LIZ: Where are you actually now Rob?
ROB: I’m in a climbing centre I’m sort of on top of the West Way in West London.
MAT: Ha, I know it, I know that place. Oh brilliant.
ROB: I am so annoyed you've made me do this.
MAT: [laughs]
LIZ: Oh bless.
MAT: Tough luck mate now have you got an instructor there? I blooming hope so.
ROB: Pardon?
MAT: Have you got an instructor with you?
ROB: I do I have an instructor, yes, he's called… it’s Ben isn’t it? Is that right?
It’s Ben yeah. Would you like to speak to him?
MAT: We would yeah.
LIZ: We want to make sure you’re in good hands.
ROB: Okay.
BEN: Hello.
LIZ: Hello Ben. This is Liz from the Ouch Podcast. Hello.
BEN: Hello.
LIZ: So you've got our Rob there. What are you going to do with him?
BEN: What am I going to do with him?
LIZ: Yeah.
BEN: I'm going to coax him up the wall roughly…
MAT: How big is it?
BEN: It’s roughly 15 metres high.
LIZ: Okay.
MAT: Oh my word.
BEN: Yes he’s going up what looks like a chimney, an open chimney so he's got three sides to play
with.
MAT: How many have you lost?
LIZ: Yeah.
BEN: How many have I lost?
BOTH: Yeah.
BEN: None to date. Where’s a bit of wood? None to date.
LIZ: Okay.
MAT: And you've worked with albinos before yeah?
BEN: I beg your pardon?
MAT: And you've worked with albinos before?
BEN: I've worked with albinos before.
MAT: Okay, no problem.
LIZ: Oh really. That's a perfect qualification. Let’s get back to Rob then. You take care of him
alright?
BEN: I will do here’s Rob.
MAT: He's like the SAS guy from Beyond Boundaries.
LIZ: He is, he's like Ken. Yeah so are you… weren't you the one that wanted to go on Celebrity
Beyond Boundaries Rob?
ROB: But I didn’t say that.
LIZ: Yeah.
ROB: In a moment of drunken career desperation I might have.
LIZ: Yeah.
MAT: Do you feel a little daunted by the prospect ahead of you mate?
ROB: Well I've got to be quite honest and say well I had a gin and tonic beforehand so I'm feeling slightly
numb and so it should be okay but if this is my last appearance then maybe you should get the adverts out.
LIZ: So come on, get on with it now. We’d like you to start climbing.
MAT: Can you pass the phone to Emma?
LIZ: Yeah.
ROB: Okay then I’ll put you over to Emma, alright?
LIZ: Bonne chance.
MAT: Yeah up you go mate.
LIZ: Nice knowing you mate, bye.
MAT: On his way.
EMMA: Hello.
MAT: Hello Emma.
LIZ: Hello Emma.
EMMA: Hi Mat, hi Liz.
LIZ: Is this your first time vocally on the Podcast.
EMMA: I believe I said, "Be Jesus," on the Christmas one.
LIZ: Oh excellent.
MAT: It’s lovely to have you back. Listeners, as you know, Emma Tracey is our superb researcher
and it’s nice to hear her dulcet Irish tones isn’t it? To be sure.
LIZ: It’s lyrical, lyrical. I bet you’re a good singer?
EMMA: I have been known to stand up in a pub every now and again.
LIZ: I bet you have, yeah.
MAT: Now this is going to be a little odd because we need you to describe what’s happening and
yet you’re a blind woman.
EMMA: Yeah so that's a bit of a challenge. It’s kind of beyond my boundaries as well as Rob’s.
LIZ: Wow this is really…
MAT: Well come on it’s tragic but be brave.
LIZ: We could… if only there was a film crew there, do you know what I mean?
MAT: Oh my God would it win an award?
LIZ: It would, three series.
EMMA: I've got a video on my phone but I don’t think I have enough battery unfortunately.
MAT: Well how are we… can you just grab a passer-by maybe and get them to describe to you what’s
happening and then you can tell us?
EMMA: Well okay.
MAT: You might just stick your arms out and whiz round and you’ll hit someone.
LIZ: Just find someone, shout out.
EMMA: Well all I can find is my access worker for the day, Fidelis.
LIZ: Fidelis.
MAT: Fidelis ay?
LIZ: Beautiful name.
EMMA: She's from St Lucia so she could help me.
LIZ: Do we know… we want to know if he's up the wall. He could be right up it now.
EMMA: Rob. Rob where are you?
ROB: I don’t know.
LIZ: Where’s he gone? [laughs]
MAT: He sounds like about a mile away.
EMMA: He was a bit sick.
MAT: No wonder gin and tonic and boxer shorts.
LIZ: Serves him right.
MAT: Okay well get… what was your friend called from St Lucia?
EMMA: Sorry?
MAT: What was your person called from St Lucia.
EMMA: Fidelis.
MAT: Could you get Fidelis to tell you what’s happening and you can tell us?
EMMA: Fidelis what’s happening?
FIDELIS: He's climbing down now.
EMMA: He's climbing down and he's leaning back.
LIZ: Can you.. can you shout out to him? How does he feel up there?
EMMA: Rob, Rob, come back up.
LIZ: Why is he coming down?
EMMA: He's come back down.
LIZ: Go up.
MAT: Tell him he needs to go all the way to the top.
LIZ: We want 15 metres worth. This is BBC budget, 15 metres or nothing.
EMMA: Yeah well he's actually going up it quite quickly but then when he goes up there he seems kind
of wrecked. So he’s climbing up now. Tell me exactly what he's doing Fidelis?
FIDELIS: He's climbing up.
EMMA: Yeah but what kind of motions is he making?
LIZ: Is he doing it fast? Is he like Spiderman?
FIDELIS: He's relaxed.
EMMA: He's relaxed.
LIZ: He's relaxed.
EMMA: He seems relaxed yeah. I don’t believe it though.
MAT: I think he's just unconscious, just hanging from the rope.
LIZ: Is he in a harness? Is he in a big harness?
EMMA: And you know the way our Rob can cover up these things.
MAT: Yeah. Could you get him… we need proof that he's actually up there. Can you get him to yodel
like Tarzan or something?
EMMA: Okay one second, okay hang on. Rob, Rob, Rob, yodel… yodel for us.
ROB: Yodel?
EMMA: Yes.
LIZ: Yodel.
ROB: [howls]
MAT: [laughs] This is really surreal.
LIZ: He sounds like he's howling like a banshee. Emma, Emma, can you ask him… tell him to describe
what he can see from up there.
EMMA: Rob, Rob, what can you see from up there?
ROB: Lots of strange sea-shells hanging out of the wall.
EMMA: Can you hear that?
LIZ: No.
EMMA: He said, "Lots of strange sea-shells hanging out of the wall."
LIZ: How high is he, how high is he?
EMMA: I don’t think he can see the ground. How high are you?
ROB: I don’t want to know.
EMMA: Don’t want to know. Can you see the ground?
ROB: No.
LIZ: Tell him to look down. Tell him to look down.
MAT: Tell him not to bother, let’s face it he's visually impaired.
LIZ: Oh yeah.
MAT: Yeah. Okay look we’re going to come back to you later but that’s really good. Keep Fidelis
with you because I think we’re going to need his skills. The three of you are working very well together, the four of
you.
EMMA: It’s a her.
MAT: I'm so sorry.
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: Your lovely lady from St Lucia and you and Rob and his very manly person.
EMMA: Okay do you want to speak to him, he's on his way back down?
LIZ: No keep him up there and we’ll come back to him later.
MAT: Keep him up there yes., no. Good luck.
[Jingle]
MAT: Usually when you see a disabled person on telly it’s in a documentary about them, sometimes
from a bit of a weird perspective maybe.
LIZ: But with all this new technology, more media outlets, disabled people are grasping the reins and
broadcasting themselves.
MAT: With us today are three people doing just that. Steven Scott is a presenter on Insight Radio, a
new FM radio station in Glasgow for blind people. Damon Fibraio, also blind, is a shock-jock with his own weekly internet
radio phone-in out of New Jersey and Jason Anton, who has Friedrichs Ataxia hosts a monthly public access TV show from his
couch. Hello everyone.
ALL: Hello.
LIZ: Let’s start with you Steven. I want to know, your station’s about to go on air, can
you tell us a bit about it? What’s it called? What are you going to be doing?
STEVEN: Well basically what we are is, we are Insight Radio, and what does that mean? Well quite simply
we are a radio station for blind and partially sighted people. It’s an interesting idea because most people argue that
every radio station is for blind and partially sighted people but our station’s slightly different and there are a number
of areas that we cover that allow us to be different. For example, we’re not a commercial operation so we have the opportunity
to go into a lot more depth and detail. For example, just a simple thing like newspapers. We have the chance to go into newspapers
in depth, talk about newspapers, actually read newspapers and describe the pictures in them. That's just one example of what
we’re about.
LIZ: And how often, you know, are you broadcasting all the time? What are your hours of operation going
to be?
STEVEN; Well at the moment we’re broadcasting online, on the internet.
LIZ: Okay.
STEVEN: And we’re actually… we’re just about… we’re going under a name
change at the moment. As you said we’re called Insight Radio that will be our FM name and at the moment we’re
called VIP On Air but we’re changing over to that at the moment but, as you say, we’re going to be moving onto
FM. We’ll be currently broadcasting between 8 in the morning and 5 at night and hope to continue that.
MAT: Okay well Steven good luck with that. I'm just going to bring in Damon now. Now Damon listening
to your show you do the kind of polar opposite of Steven I think. For the listeners we’re going to play a clip now of
your show, okay, here we go.
[clip]
MAT: Whoa okay.
LIZ: Okay yeah. Damon…
DAMON: I forgot that I said that.
MAT: So Damon tell us a little bit more about your show, although I think we've got the flavour.
DAMON: Well it was inspired by other radio personalities that I listened to growing up and the general
idea is like the name of the show suggests, it’s no holds barred, anything could happen, I mean we get a lot more raucous
and rowdy and violent and dirty that what you heard in that clip but it’s not geared just to blind people, although
a blind person does run it and there are some other blind people on staff who do other shows.
MAT: Okay.
DAMON: But it’s just a way for me to be creative in my own way I guess and I mean I do discuss
my visual impairment on the air but it’s not the total…
MAT: It’s not all about your visual impairment.
DAMON: Yeah I mean we try and include everybody but I want everybody that's out there that listens to
know that I am a disabled individual and that this is, you know, this is what I do.
MAT: Cool, you’re kind of rewriting disability for all the people who assume all the rubbish.
LIZ: Fantastic.
DAMON: Yeah whether it’s bad or good remains to be seen.
MAT: [laughs]
LIZ: Jason you go by the name J Rock on your TV, yeah?
JASON: Yeah Liz.
LIZ: Right we don’t have much access TV in Britain so is it a bit like Wayne’s World.
JASON: I heard I was like the first American so I just want to say thank you for that.
LIZ: Okay.
JASON: Basically it’s just, you know, comedy and entertainment.
LIZ: Okay well we’re just going to listen to a clip here so we know a little bit more about it.
JASON: Sure go ahead.
[clip]
MAT: Well quite spacey.
LIZ: I was going to say. Jason.
MAT: Are you on drugs?
JASON: That's a sort of Kids In The Hall sort of sketch.
LIZ: And what else because we don’t have Kids In The Hall really. I have heard of it but we don’t
have it in the UK. So can you give us an idea of what you do on there. It sounds a bit surreal.
JASON: Yeah it’s basic comedy. I love entertaining people and, you know, there's entertainment
and there's J Rock entertainment where 49 celebrities have called me at home.
MAT: Why?
JASON: Thank you.
MAT: No but I'm asking you J Rock why have 49 celebrities called you at home? What’s the deal with
the celebs?
JASON: Well basically to grab attention for the show.
MAT: Like endorsements.
JASON: They love helping people and they love helping me,. So I brought them to the show and if you look
at my ratings you'll know that it’s helping.
LIZ: Okay.
MAT: Okay who’s the most famous person you've had endorse?
JASON: The most famous person is probably going to be a WWF Wrestler. He put me in his book. His name
is Mick Foley and the book is called Mick Foley The Hardcore Diaries.
MAT: Okay well we've never heard of him.
LIZ: Who’s he, who’s he?
MAT: I've heard of Dan Severn, speaking of no holds barred and I was pretty impressed with that not that
any of the other listeners will know but listen if you could get, if you could get, J Rock, the most famous English person
to endorse who would it be? Who would you like? We’ll see what we can do.
JASON: Oh probably Regis Philman.
MAT: Regis Philman who’s that?
LIZ: I have no idea. Oh doesn’t he do breakfast.
JASON: He's a talk-show host.
MAT: Okay well we’ll see what we can do J. Okay.
LIZ: Okay.
JASON: Yeah.
LIZ: Steven and Damon I want to know, you know, are blind people obsessed with radio is that why you’re
doing it?
DAMON: Well I don’t think it’s so much an obsession although I know a lot of people who do
it.
LIZ: Yeah.
DAMON: But I don’t know that it’s an obsession. It may well be that we all need just something
to do. I don’t know.
MAT: [laughs]
LIZ: You see our producer is blind and all the researchers are blind and one of the main radio broadcasters
on the BBC, Peter White, is blind. Just a bit of a coincidence maybe but yeah. Steven what do you say to that?
STEVEN: Well I don’t know. I don’t think people, blind people are necessarily obsessed with
radio in that sense, not at all. I think that, I mean for example at Insight Radio we give people a chance to come on air
in the most fully accessible studios in the country and allow people to, you know, get themselves on air and try it out and
see how they get on and give them a chance to give them that break which I think they find difficult to get elsewhere. I don’t
know if Damon agrees with that.
DAMON: Well I think if you can be enough of an obnoxious pain in the butt, you can probably get on radio
anywhere just so they’ll shut you up.
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: I mean guys the point is that we’re here doing this, you’re doing what you do and I
would maybe suggest that it’s probably because none of us can do it in the mainstream. Does it bug you that there aren’t
more disabled people in the mainstream?
STEVEN: Well from my point of view, I mean, I've worked in mainstream radio for about five years. I'm
partially sighted and I don’t know if that makes a difference, maybe Damon will come in on that one but from my own
point of view I've never really had any problem, as such. I think it’s, I think Damon’s absolutely right it’s
how much you push yourself that makes the difference and you really have to. I mean I was told at school, very simply, you
will never work in radio and I was told that by my guidance teacher.
LIZ: Oh you know what they’re like.
MAT: We know guidance teachers and career officers don’t we? You should have heard my one. So J
Rock do you want to get, you know, would you… what’s your ultimate ambition J-bo, do you want to be the new Jay
Leno or what?
JASON: I want to just be heard you know. It’s, you know, we have that, you know, I just want to
be heard basically and JR TV has helped me out a lot in my life and basically I've been with them for four years now.
MAT: Okay.
JASON: And they’ve been helpful ever since I've known them til now and basically what I'm doing
is good, clean entertainment.
LIZ: Oh no.
MAT: Well good, clean entertainment, over to you Damon.
LIZ: Yeah Damon.
DAMON: Yeah sorry I was sleeping through that last thing. Oh really, oooh.
MAT: Hang on blind fight, blind fight, blind fight.
LIZ: No he's not.
DAMON: There are different ways of…
MAT: Can’t you guys go and do Celebrity Blind Wrestling?
LIZ: No he's got ataxia, Frederick’s ataxia or whatever.
MAT: Well okay could you…
LIZ: This is impairment wars isn’t it?
MAT: Impairment Wars.
DAMON: I wouldn’t want to hurt any you know.
JASON: Well we’re wrestling entertainment.
MAT: You’re very kind.
JASON: They like good, clean attention and that's what they get.
MAT: I prefer a bit of the old ultimate fighting championship myself but there you go.
DAMON: But from my perspective I just like causing chaos and mayhem. I mean to answer your previous question
there are a lot of blind people I've heard broadcasting who should not be 10 feet near a microphone.
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: Where are you out of Damon? What town are you… you’re in New Jersey.
DAMON: Yeah New Jersey.
MAT: Okay I'm coming to New York in April can I come and say hello?
DAMON: Sure why not?
MAT: Okay.
DAMON: If you can endure the abuse sure.
MAT: Oh no I can endure it.
LIZ: Actually he can, you know, he can, he can.
MAT: I’ll bring a shotgun yeah.
LIZ: Damon can you ever get on mainstream? Is that what you want because I don’t think a lot of
the stuff that you’re doing and some of the stuff that we do, you know, I don’t know that we could ever make it
on mainstream.
DAMON: There are, there are programme directors across the land who would go into cardiac arrest if they
heard two minutes of my show.
LIZ: Yeah.
DAMON: And I worked in college radio, when I went to college, naturally, and I got fired like three times
and we were clean back then and I would not want to be on FM radio. I wouldn’t want to go back to that cess pool of
corporate BS and…
MAT: [laughs]
STEVEN: Thanks.
LIZ: Thank you from the BBC [laughs].
DAMON: Sure. If anything I want to be on satellite radio like XM or Serious which is what we have here
in the United States but, you know, whether I can pull that off or not remains to be seen. I mean we get… we generally
get a good buzz about the station and the show itself. We get over 150 listeners every Wednesday night.
LIZ: J Rock how many people watch your show at the moment?
JASON: Well roughly it goes to over 150,000 now.
LIZ: Wow.
MAT: So you’re winning at the moment.
LIZ:: Winning and do you want, you know, do you want to be on mainstream TV is that your… or what’s
your hope for the future?
JASON: Well basically to get on network TV would be a dream come true for me.
MAT: Would you appear naked.
JASON: Huh?
MAT: Would you ever appear naked?
JASON: No.
MAT: Fair enough. Okay.
LIZ: Can we get you all, you know, to plug your own website, shows, whatever because…
MAT: Don’t forget a lot of our listeners are going to immediately want to know what your shows
are all about.
LIZ: Our listeners you know are used to listening to stuff on the internet and that's how they listen
to the Podcast so come on let’s start with Jason.
JASON: Okay what do you need?
LIZ: We need you to plug your show. Can we watch it, can we listen to it over here?
JASON; Well there is a website for the audio.
LIZ: Okay give us that detail.
JASON: It’s jrocknitro.tripod.com.
LIZ: Damon tell us how to listen to your show.
DAMON: Well it’s very easy I keep the website simple because people don’t have much of a
brain so it’s www.nhbradio.com, NHB stands for No Holds Barred.
MAT: Yes.
DAMON: NHB radio if you have a strong stomach and two brain cells or less, you'll fit right in.
LIZ: Steven to finish.
STEVEN: Well if you want to listen in it’s very simple all you do is you go to www.viponair.com
. We’ll be changing our name to Insight Radio and we go on air on FM in March 101, in Glasgow.
LIZ: Well good luck when you go on air and to everyone thank you, fantastic stuff. Good to hear we’re
not the only ones out there.
MAT: Yeah keep doing what you do guys.
DAMON: Thank you.
STEVEN: Thanks very much.
LIZ: Thanks for your time bye bye.
[Jingle]
LIZ: Earlier on Rob Crossan climbed a mountain. [sings] High on a hill stood a lonely albino, yodel-ay-hi,
yodel-ay-hi, yodel-ay-hi-hi. Are you there Rob?
ROB: [laughs] Yeah but I'm thinking of hanging up quite frankly.
LIZ: [laughs]
MAT: So listen do you still have the full use of your legs or did you fall?
ROB: I didn’t fall at all you know what…
MAT: [sighs]
ROB: … I asked my instructor for some feedback and he said I was really, really good and I then
asked him to stop being so, kind of, condescending and give me a proper able-bodied person’s assessment and he still
said I was really good. So either he's a brilliant liar or I genuinely really do have ability at it.
MAT: Oh you passed.
LIZ: Yes I know you haven’t got the eyes but you've got the body haven’t you. I mean there’s
nothing unable about your body.
ROB: I feel that I came, sort of saw and conquered anyway and it was marvellous I got 45 feet up at the
end I climbed right to the very top and I was told that I had cat-like agility.
LIZ: We were told that you felt a bit sick the higher you got. Is this true?
ROB: Well the trick is just not to look down and the guy actually sort of wound my up a little bit by
asking me if the air was purer up there…
MAT: [laughs]
ROB: … and so in a fit of peak I said, "Yes," and I realise now that he might have been taking
the piss.
LIZ: How many times did you actually go up there?
ROB: Pardon?
LIZ: How many times did you actually get up there?
ROB: Oh only once.
LIZ: Really?
ROB: What do you take me for?
LIZ: Well you had an hour. We paid for a full hour.
ROB: Did you.
MAT: I would say that you are now a proper disabled person. You've gone beyond your boundaries…
LIZ: Yes.
MAT: … you were tragic but you've proved that you’re brave. Well done.
LIZ: Well done Mr Crossan.
ROB: Well I'm a bit of a have-a-go hero. I'm one of those disabled people that actually deserves interviewing.
MAT: I'm going to cry.
LIZ: I know, I know. You've triumphed over the tragedy of your life.
ROB: I know if these eyes could weep and sadly they can’t.
MAT: Aw, his eyes are barren ladies and gentlemen.
LIZ: They are.
MAT: Okay well look I think you ought to take young Emma Tracey back to the pub and take a couple of
shots because you deserve them.
ROB: No sorry I'm on a keep fit buzz now. I’m on an organic fruit buzz and herbal tea. Mat I'm
ashamed of you.
MAT: [laughs]
LIZ: Have a gin and tonic on the rocks [laughs]. Okay?
ROB: [laughs] Okay I will do that speak to you later.
LIZ: See you next month Rob.
MAT: Our very own Chris Bonnington goodbye.
LIZ: Bye.
ROB: Bye.
[Jingle]
MAT: Well Podcast 13 came and went and nobody got injured nice one. You see I always said it was a lucky
time for the pagans. Podcast 13 was produced by Damon Rose, Researcher was Emma Tracey, Assistant Producer Lisa Devlin, Studio
Manager was Jo Hutton and with thanks to Rob Crossan and guests.
