What’s your earliest memory? On my first day at preschool I sobbed my heart out. A taxi picked me up at the end of our road. Another four-year-old, Simon Cussons, was already on board. Simon remained a friend for the rest of his life. Who are your heroes? As a child I was a junior member of Lancashire County Cricket Club and my hero was fast bowler Brian Statham. My adult hero is my late wife, Alex, who always got a buzz from helping others. What book last changed your thinking? It has to be
The Nordstrom Way by Robert Spector and Patrick D McCarthy, about a US department store chain. The management chart is upside down: that told me how to run our business.
A breath of fresh air time: Graham Dene kicked off Boom Radio
Credit: Handout
Boom Radio believes it is at the forefront of a quiet listening revolution. Targeted at the country’s 14 million ‘Baby Boomers’ (approximately those born between 1945 and 1963), the station aims to serve a generation who have been abandoned both by mainstream commercial stations and by BBC Radio 2 which is now trying to attract ‘Mood Mums’, a term given to women between the ages of 35 and 44 who are time-poor and family oriented.
The new station began its broadcast with a statement read out over the woozy organ of the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever: “You are the original influencer, your generation moved from Instamatic to Instagram, Mac Fisheries to Matalan, Dan Dare to Danny Dyer, into the Common Market and back out again.” It concluded: “You’ve lived through a lot and you’re still busy living.” It seemed to be a gentle reprimand to the stations that have given up on the B
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Robert Sayle in St Andrew Street (Image: Matthew Power)
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