| 1 | 1 | | Alan Robson, 36, presents the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Night Owls slot on Newcastle's Metro |
| 2 | | Radio. After stints as a dustman, electrician, comedian and disc jockey in clubs, he |
| 3 | | [id:45361] a local phone-in radio show. |
| 2 | 4 | | 'We try and change people's lives. It sounds pompous but really it's social common |
| 5 | | sense. Last Thursday we had a businessman from the Midlands whose Citroën had |
| 6 | | developed a mechanical fault and he couldn't get it repaired until the next morning. One |
| 7 | | of the listeners who owns a [id:45362] picked up his tools and sent the guy on his way. |
| 3 | 8 | | We spend about 70 per cent of the programme laughing but the other 30 per cent |
| 9 | | helping people, talking about [id:45363].One woman said that I had a plaster for every |
| 10 | | injury - a terrible phrase but if you have the numbers listening it's surprising the powers |
| 11 | | you 've got. [id:45364] one girl phoned in, said she'd taken an overdose and she was there |
| 12 | | in a phone box with her two children. She refused to tell me where she was. So I said, on |
| 13 | | air: "Have a look out your windows and if you can spot this girl in a phone box ne ar you, |
| 14 | | contact the police at once."The police were there within four minutes and she was |
| 15 | | [id:45365] |
| 4 | 16 | | This sort of show wouldn't work in the day, partly because we discuss subjects that |
| 17 | | might not be suitable at other times. During the day, radio is wallpaper: people are just |
| 18 | | dipping in. At night they're [id:45366].1f I get a historical fact wrong, the switchboard jams |
| 19 | | with people ringing in to correct me. That couldn't happen except at night when the |
| 20 | | television's rubbish, it's quiet and there's not a lot of people around. Daytime radio you're |
| 21 | | talking at people. [id:45367] you 're talking to them.' |
| 5 | 22 | | Stewart McFarlane, 52, presents The Late Night Phone-In, broadcast between 10 p.m. |
| 23 | | and 2 a.m. on Cleveland's TFM. Thirty per cent of local listeners tune into his programme, |
| 24 | | which. runs for six nights a week. He is a trained counsellor and works with young |
| 25 | | prisoners. |
| 6 | 26 | | 'People can [id:45368] with anything. It could be a joke, it could be a question about |
| 27 | | their unemployment benefit, it could be the fact that their wife's just had a baby, or that |
| 28 | | their wife's just left them. Why they want to talk to me on a night-time with thousands of |
| 29 | | people to hear them, I just don't know. But I understand the people who [id:45369].How |
| 30 | | many times have you sat on a bus and heard a little piece of information, and you've tried |
| 31 | | to overhear what was being said? |
| 7 | 32 | | Very often I don't know what callers want or what mood they're in. If they come on |
| 33 | | dead bright, I'll react accordingly.1f they sound sad, I'll say: "It sounds as if you've got a |
| 34 | | few problems, anything we can help with?" |
| 8 | 35 | | I absolutely [id:45370] regular callers. They get possessive about you, they feel they |
| 36 | | own you and they own the programme. Sometimes callers say: "You're going back home |
| 37 | | tonight, why don't you come in for coffee?" Well, I [id:45371] things like that. They know |
| 38 | | roughly how old lam, that I was married, that I've got a beard and some grandchildren. |
| 39 | | But that's as far as it goes.' |
