Hi Steve! ARfm began in 2004 as Apple Rocks FM. Please talk us through how the station got started and how it's evolved into the ARfm that's on air today. Like many things, ARfm started as a result of the misfortune of someone else. I was presenting on a Sky station called CMRPulse and they went bankrupt in mid 2004. One of the companies that used to supply CMRP was Chilton Broadcast from whom CMRP leased all the studio gear. The guy who runs Chilton was lumbered with a complete studio that he didn't want to have standing idle so he called me up and asked if I would like to run a rock station. That took me about 1 second to answer. As we didn't have our own digital licence we needed to hook up with someone that did, so we joined forces with the Exeter based station AppleFM, effectively buying airtime from them but we had to use the Apple name somewhere for legal reasons, so we became Apple Rocks FM. Ironically, AppleFM folded just over a year later so we got our own licence under the name ARfm. The only downside was that we couldn't afford to be on Sky, so we opted for the internet-only route. Our launch shows were from the NEC in Birmingham and our first live guest was Pete Way.... enough said! Actually, Pete is always good value for money and remains dear to my heart. It was a totally honest interview - too honest at times...

How do you put together your playlist? The station playlist is aimed at putting ARfm in a unique market, that being the fan who grew up with melodic rock from the 80s onwards. We have deliberately tried to position ourselves between Planet Rock (who concentrate on the real Classics) and TotalRock who are more aimed at the kiddie rock market (our view). Bands like Giant, Danger Danger etc would only get a

Who are your DJ heroes? There is only one - Tommy Vance. Tommy was a master of the mic and a true rock fan. In the mid 80s we met on a few occasions and he was instrumental in convincing me to keep plugging away at radio. I nearly gave up but a conversation I had with Tommy in Shades Records in London convinced me to carry on. His loss was really tragic and no-one will ever come near his standard in my view.

How did you get started in the world of radio? I first tried my hand as presenter on School Radio and then in 1983 joined a station in Essex as a gopher. You know the sort of stuff, go get this, go make the tea etc. One Saturday evening a presenter who shall remain nameless asked his female guest if there was any truth in the rumour she had performed an act on a certain guitarist at the Reading Festival. It would have been bad enough to ask this anyway, but he asked it live on air. She stormed out and he was sacked on the spot. The station manager just told me to get in the studio and finish the show... nowt like being dropped in the deep end. I still remember my first track(s) - UFO's Alpha Centuri/Letting Go. They kept me on and Saturday nights became mine. I hope I put my stamp on it and even managed to get in to the Kerrang! readers poll two years in a row. Unfortunately, by the late 80s specialist shows like mine were becoming less and less popular, not with the fans but with the money men who saw them as revenue losers.... so the rock show was canned. I ended up on County Sound in Guildford playing chart music and lasted 6 weeks, giving up until CMRP approached me in 2003.

ARfm has become closely involved with Firefest in the last few years - and Firefest 6 is coming up soon. What input do you have into Firefest and what is it about that festival that makes you especially enthusiastic? ARfm was asked to get involved with Firefest from day one. I was hesistant to begin with, not knowing what to expect. I had never met Kieran Dargan or Bruce Mee so had no idea how Firefest 1 would go but any fears I had were immediately quelled. The guys are fantastic and went out of their way to make ARfm welcome and to give us access to all the bands/artists.

When you consider that the whole Firefest team are volunteers it's unbelievable the effort they put in. One man who does not get as much credit as he deserves is Tony Marshall, as a production manager he takes some beating.
From that point on we have been involved with them 100%. I dread to think how much time Kieran and I have spent on the phone over the years... enough to boost BT profits no end! I know how hard it is to promote gigs (having done a few in the 90s under the American Dream banner) but I have yet to see, or hear of a problem at Firefest. A USA band who appeared last year said what sums it up for me. They told me that in 20+ years of playing gigs Firefest was the first one they had played where everything that was
promised by the promoters ACTUALLY happened. Conversely, we have had problems with other festivals. We sponsored Zrock once (when Firehouse were slated to appear) and ended up in court. One unhappy punter decided to sue us and although we won the court case and costs it left a strange taste in our mouths, so much so we refused to get involved the following years. This year, some people think we are sponsoring Zrock again, but that is NOT the case. The promoter entered into a commercial agreement with ARfm for some commercials to be run. Despite best endeavours Zrock 2009 just can't get away from controversy. We will attend this year and will review the situation after the event. Similar arrangements have been made with RockFest and MetalFest. I want to see all these gigs succeed as this genre is small and needs all the support it can get.

During the 25+ years you've worked in radio, what are the main changes you've seen with regard to airplay, listener-loyalty, sponsorship, listening figures etc. The radio scene has changed so much over the last 25 years. In the 80s music was king, now I am afraid money is the all-important factor. One thing that has not

On the plus side our audience is growing all the time and we are picking up more listeners who are under 20.When we started in 2004 we were hitting 70,000 people a month, but that figure now exceeds 500,000. More and more of these are in the USA (only 53% is UK based) where I feel US based rock audiences are getting bored with Classic Rock radio which is too predictable. Mind you, this makes our life even more expensive as we have to be licenced in 39 countries, which takes a lot of administration.

ARfm has an excellent track record for live interviews. Do you prefer talking to musicians in the studio where you can build up a good rapport through eye-contact, or by phone, where the interviewee may be at home and relaxed, and likely to come up with more spontaneous answers? Tell us some funny or momentous happenings from your veritable smorgasbord of rockstar interviews.This is a tough one. At first I thought I clearly preferred face to face interviews but then I realised I have had some good phoners. One of my best face to face ones which was REAL fun has to be Lemmy. He's smarter than a lot of people think and great entertainment. The fact we were accompanied by a serious quantity of Jack Daniels made it even more interesting.
Ironically, the most interesting ones have been the 'older' stars, the ones with nothing to prove. Some of the up-and-coming acts have proved to be total dicks! Occasionaly, I get stunned by responses. We often hear stories about stars being awkward but generally I have not found that to be the case. Loads of professionals told me, for example, Glenn Hughes was hard to interview but that could not be further from the truth in my case. I had been allocated 20 mins with him, yet we ended up with over 60 mins of usable
material, some of which was a real eye opener.

The worst interviews are phoners when the interviewee really doesn't want to talk... I've had a few of them. The main problem is you can't see them so you can't see what, if anything, is going on.

Who have been your favourite people to interview, and why? The master is David Coverdale, unquestionably. He's been a long time supporter of the station and a good friend to me personally. A close runner up is Jon Lord... one of the most intelligent and interesting people I have ever met.
And your least favourite...? My least favourite was definitely Neal Schon. I just couldn't get on with him and probably, if the truth be known, him with me. Maybe it was a clash of personalities... really don't know. Some people, in my view, forget that it was the fans that got them where they were in the first place.

Do you ever get nervous or have rock-jock's block? Share some embarassing on-air incidents with us (if you have any of course!) Definitely, before every show I really suffer from nerves. I think the day I don't would be the time to quit. We all make cock-ups (more than once I have managed to stop the CD for example) but the art is to carry on as smoothly as possible. I've the odd time when I have forgotten who it is I am interviewing... that can be embarrasing. But I have a good back-up team on hand to remind me if needed. Yes, we all get the block once in a while.... just put some music on and relax is the best solution.

You've also been known to do a bit of journalism down the years.... please tell us more about that. I used to love the written word and would love to do more of it. The problem is time as ARfm takes up most days in a week. I started writing for Metal Forces when it was launched and have also written for Burrn, the Japanese tome. In recent years I did do some articles for Powerplay but since ARfm started it's all had to stop. I did a great interview with Lemmy for Metal Forces at Olympic Studios which I thought had started badly. Lemmy arrived and immediately kicked out the photographer that the mag had sent with me...
I thought I was about to go out the door as well but once the commotion had ended we sat, drank, and had a damn good chat. There are some good mags out there, Fireworks, Powerplay, Classic Rock. My one pet hate with some of them is the habit of printing just Q&A sessions as they happened. Sometimes, if
the writers gave it a little more thought, they could put some great pieces together.

How does writing about music/bands etc compare to the buzz of live radio? Live radio has to be better. It's spontaneous and you can't go back and edit your mistakes. I think that makes it more edgy.

Have you watched the TV programme FM - and if so... how true-to-life is it? Any parallels to any of the characters on ARfm... ? Yes I have watched this, more in hope than anything. It doesn't reflect ANY of the stations I have ever worked for. Very much written for a TV audience I feel....'nuff said!

What is the best gig you've ever been to, and what made it so? Whitesnake, Jan 28 2003 in Jacksonville Florida. I'd always been a Whitesnake fan so when they got back together, or more to the point when David put a line-up together, I was chuffed to bits. Then I got a call inviting me to the first gig, with all the trimmings that go with with such an invitation. Need I say more. I ended up doing the first week of the tour with them and had a total blast.

OK, you have an hour's airtime where you have access to every record ever made - what would your playlist be? Bloody hell, these have to be short tracks.... I average about 10-12 an hour but, oh well, here goes....
UFO - Alpha Centuri/Letting Go (a great show opener)
Whitesnake - Still Of The Night
Giant - Innocent Days
Bad English - When I See You Smile
Fist - Crazy On You
Blodwyn Pig - Ain't You Comin' Home Babe
Shadow King - I Want You
Newman - One Step Closer
White Sister - Promises
Thunder - Love Walked In
Kooga - Gabrielle
Savatage - Gutter Ballet
FM - Breathe Fire
AC/DC - Touch Too Much
MSG - Armed And Ready

What have been the highlights of your career so far, the most fulfilling interviews, your best broadcasts, your proudest moments etc? Mmmm... another toughy. Of all the things I've done I think the launch of ARfm at the NEC must come close to being one of the best, a lifetime ambition achieved. A dedicated service for fans of Melodic Rock.
Amongst the best interviews I'd have to rate the one with Glenn Hughes. Glenn has not had a trouble free life and this was honest and totally frank. His management were not too keen on some of the skeletons being aired from the cupboard but Glenn let them all out in a very sincere and cathartic manner.
One of the strangest moments in my career was probably in 1983, when I received my first letter from a listener and the realisation that people were actually listening hit me hard. Another of my proudest moments has to be introducing White Sister and seeing them at Firefest V. One of my all-time favourite bands who I had always wanted to see. I got quite choked-up during that performance.

And the lowlights...? I think the change in the radio industry in the late 80s was pretty bad. It seemed at that point there was no hope for "our" kind of music. Along with that, the Grim Reaper has claimed a few friends in this business over the years, we've lost a lot of good musicians for various reasons with drugs and alcohol taking a fair share of the blame. Some of these people have been very dear to me and have been close friends.

What's coming up on ARfm? Hopefully, more live programmes, particularly during the week. As you may know, ARfm has been predominantly a weekend live service with repeats during the week but as time has gone on we've had more and more people asking us for slots/vacancies. In the first instance, we would like to go live every evening and then add daytime shows, and this is the aim.
Unfortunately, many would-be DJs get put off when they discover we don't get paid - I WISH!!! We would love to pay people but the funding is just not there. We are always on the lookout for new talent so if there are any budding presenters... get in touch. However, we don't want people who just play tracks and say "that was, this is", we want people who are passionate for the music and are keen to add some value to the station.

© Get Ready To Roll - 25th April 2009