[Yudster]

Yeah Aled, and what about people who don't have mobile phones? Or thumbs? Its just not fair!

[dimtimjim]

Aaaah, is that why you didn't text.....

[northernsteve]

the requests went out to our management, to the BBC in Essex

Has anyone told Chris he's going to have a 25 year old Mk3 desk with "upside down" faders to get to work with tomorrow? Although I'd imagine he'll enjoy the challenge!

[bmstinton93]

Aled, would anyone else on the team be mad enough to subject themselves to their own thread on here. For example. Ask Matt Fincham? (I don't actually know why I would want to ask Matt Fincham anything but oh well you get my point)

Hmm probably not. You do run a few risks being so honest. I just think being open and honest with our listeners is the best policy and having the nerve for a two way dialogue about the show is important for the health of the show - even if (and when) some of the feedback isn't exactly what you'd like to hear.

I am 100% sure my usefulness as Producer and hopefully therefore the health of the show is much better because of the constant feedback with our listeners about it.

Brilliant Answer Aled! But I don't think you should worry about being too honest on here. We aren't exactly going to report back to the BBC or anything. And I think it's great that you come on here and listen to us as we are all big fans and we hardly ever insult the show really.

Also can't the BBC just make the texts come out of our bundle? It can't be that hard! Many other companies do it. E.g. Facebook, Twitter.

While i'm here I may as well ask is there any truth to these rumours about Chris' move to Capital and would you tell us if there was?

[Emmy]

Whose head will be on the chopping block over the wrong podcast viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22197&p=420929#p420929 ?

[Longview01]

Hey Aled, any chance of ever getting Chris to do a webchat?

[northernsteve]

Also can't the BBC just make the texts come out of our bundle? It can't be that hard! Many other companies do it. E.g. Facebook, Twitter.

You can text from your bundle if you send it to 07786 201111 - this used to be listed on the website as the number for international texters

[bmstinton93]

Aled, can you confirm this?

[bwfcol]

I'd imagine that it's the phone companies that decide about bundles and not the BBC.

Alex, how annoyed are you about the podcast mixup last week? Also, is there a podcast this week with Sara on? If not, why not?

[bmstinton93]

Is there a reason why you called him Alex?

[Aled]

Aled, you often talk about having to be in line with your target audience. However, some guests don't always fit with that. You mentioned John Barrowman coming in soon, is that because Chris likes him? Or because the BBC are saying he has to come on the show?

Despite being a legend, how many of your listeners bought Sir Tom Jones new album? How many want to hear Sherdan Smith?

I'm not having a go, I'm genuinely interested if you're allowed guests that might not quite meet Radio 1's target audience on a regular basis or is it really hard work to get management to say yes?

The best way I could describe our guest policy is first and foremost who would Chris like in. After that we balance many different factors, appealing to a young audience, who'd make an interesting interview, cross-promotion for a BBC show etc

Each guest will serve one of the secondary needs - but all will be guests that Chris has an interest in meeting and having on the show.

[Aled]

Is there any chance of the webcam feeds being put on the iplayer? It's a pain in the arse if there's visual stuff, and you can't watch it because you're at work etc, so if you hear it back it's just not as good if you can watch it.

Also I kinda wanna see just how fine chris cuts it to the end of the cheesy song when he comes in on a morning :p

(I was sure I posted this earlier, but I can't find it)

lol, I can guarantee we wouldn't have the cameras on during the cheesy song for that very reason!!

I'm afraid we can't go and just do things like that - there's all kind of BBC rules which we have to be careful of. Chris refuses to do the webcam unless it looks good - whereas other shows will pick up a shaky cam and move it around we won't do that. So for that reason we need at least a vision mixer to come in to operate the cameras and that costs money.

Better to focus the cameras on certain times rather than leave them on 24/7 until we work out a way of doing it that won't use as much man power as the current system.

[Aled]

Ey-up Aled, Is there any way of finding out if my mobile number has been blocked on your R1 text machine? Just kinda curious as I never seem to get a mention etc and I text into the show a lot. I have maybe been guilty of sending Ms Cox a few fruity texts before, but never anything insulting. Rude, maybe, but never nasty!

Just thinking, if i am blocked I could save myself a ruddy fortune and accept i'm never gonna win owt. If not, I ovbiously need to try harder!

I'm told you will get a message telling you you are blocked if we ever do block you. We also have to have a very good reason for blocking someone if we do - which unless you're happy to throw in some death threats or homophobic abuse isn't going to be you.

On the quietest of days we get 5,000 texts. On a busy one anything up to 20,000. It's quite likely just down to a bit of bad luck. It also depends what you send in. you need to be thinking like Chris and pitch the right text at the right time to get his attention - something that adds something to the show, not just 'please say hi to me'.

[Aled]

Aled, gotta know the thinking behind the "fairness" of the text part of Celebrity Raspberry this morning. Was it really just "first text we received"? If that's the case, why isn't it just "first call we receive" for the first part? Shouldn't you have a limited time period (eg. ten minutes) that lets you text in and then you can pick one at random to call back and find out if they're "interesting" or not?

Doesn't affect me as I'm invariably driving to work at that time in the morning, just curious to know how it fits all the BBC Trust stuff you have to put up with!

Noted. I'm not saying you're 100% right, but I do know where you're coming from and I'm thinking about it. We never expected it to go within 8 seconds. We had a limit of 30 minutes (just to demonstrate the kind of time-scale we were thinking!). We don't have the infrastructure to do what you suggest as we'll get a few thousand texts once we open the text lines so first correct text in seemed to be the fairest.

First caller answered with the correct name doesn't work because we're interested in good radio - not just giving a mug away, whereas with a texter it didn't matter how fun they were. I didn't expect Chris to want to talk to them - that wasn't planned.

I am examining if there are any better ways of doing this with Sam and Piers. So far, there doesn't seem to be any.

[Aled]

Whose head will be on the chopping block over the wrong podcast viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22197&p=420929#p420929 ?

I try not to deal in blame culture! I find it's not a very productive way of working. I can say that person was mortified and very very apologetic.

[Aled]

Hey Aled, any chance of ever getting Chris to do a webchat?

No.

But then you knew that surely?

[Aled]

Also can't the BBC just make the texts come out of our bundle? It can't be that hard! Many other companies do it. E.g. Facebook, Twitter.

You can text from your bundle if you send it to 07786 201111 - this used to be listed on the website as the number for international texters

I checked this and yes, I can confirm this!!! Result!

I'm trying to get permission from people who worry about these kind of things to put this number out there a couple of times for our international listeners.

[Aled]

I'd imagine that it's the phone companies that decide about bundles and not the BBC.

Alex, how annoyed are you about the podcast mixup last week? Also, is there a podcast this week with Sara on? If not, why not?

That is correct, but the BBC would have been aware of this when we took the short code. I get the feeling it's a trade off for having a short code.

I was annoyed. But would have been much more so had it been deliberate. Mistakes happen unfortunately.

There is a podcast with Sara yes.

[bmstinton93]

Also can't the BBC just make the texts come out of our bundle? It can't be that hard! Many other companies do it. E.g. Facebook, Twitter.

You can text from your bundle if you send it to 07786 201111 - this used to be listed on the website as the number for international texters

I checked this and yes, I can confirm this!!! Result!

I'm trying to get permission from people who worry about these kind of things to put this number out there a couple of times for our international listeners.

I'm glad to hear that. Now I will text in a bit more now I wont have to pay for it. Are you gonna start plugging this number now?

[Aled]

I'm glad to hear that. Now I will text in a bit more now I wont have to pay for it. Are you gonna start plugging this number now?

No, it'd be too confusing on air. Only if there was a particular reason like for international texting.

[Travis Bickle]

Aled, how challenging are you finding this week? It has been great radio so far, but you seem a bit irritable and serious thus far. I note an increased level of producer intervention as well to steer things back on track. In fairness, it may have been your reaction to Dave messing up 'Making a Scene' on monday that has made me notice every little thing you have said since

Chris is quite brilliant technically, and whilst Sara is clearly very entertaining how has having her replacing Moyles affected your role as producer?

EDIT: I didnt hear the show earlier today and was listening back to the show as I posted the above comments. I have only now realised you were suffering from a migraine. That may explain why I thought you were a bit irritable today at least!

[bmstinton93]

Ah aled we've just shown that you can actually learn something from coming here. Now you can go back to radio 1 and impress them with the knowledge of this international number.

[Aled]

Aled, how challenging are you finding this week? It has been great radio so far, but you seem a bit irritable and serious thus far. I note an increased level of producer intervention as well to steer things back on track. In fairness, it may have been your reaction to Dave messing up 'Making a Scene' on monday that has made me notice every little thing you have said since

Chris is quite brilliant technically, and whilst Sara is clearly very entertaining how has having her replacing Moyles affected your role as producer?

EDIT: I didnt hear the show earlier today and was listening back to the show as I posted the above comments. I have only now realised you were suffering from a migraine. That may explain why I thought you were a bit irritable today at least!

Oh, it's all very political!

Lets just say I have more in the show this week than I would like. It's important we keep things on track unfortunately.

As for the producer role, I find Sara is much happier referring to me on air as the producer and turning to me to ask for guidance or direction. When Chris is there we work in a different way so my producing isn't as obvious on air, that's why I think it seems to be coming out on air more.

Even Chris told me last night I'm sounding very corporate with Sara. I'm just doing normal Producer stuff that other producers would do off-air. I can't do that though because Sara knows I can talk on air and the links are a lot longer than on other shows.

I would LOVE to have had a different week with Sara and the team, I think we got a better taste of it when she covered Chris for the two days - we had much more room to be random and just be ourselves!

[Aled]

Ah aled we've just shown that you can actually learn something from coming here. Now you can go back to radio 1 and impress them with the knowledge of this international number.

True!

[McGuinness-89]

Is there any chance of having at least one re-emergence(?) of One word weather with Nelson Mandela.I still think it's genius.On the red button.........please have a word, unless you hate it.