My Christmas Story (Its long and from the heart LOL) : 14 years ago, almost to this actual day having worked for TEN glorious years as a sales exec, commercial producer, on air DJ, club DJ & Head Of Commercial Production Department, the new owners EMAP finally removed the remaining 26 of us original Kiss FM employees. Words can’t explain how distraught I was having taken on a bigger house & larger mortgage as my two eldest children had been left with me by my ex-wife. I joined my colleagues and friends (and Madeline Ingram-Peters (Now Mrs Deadly) joined us down there from her new MTV office having left Kiss a while back ) at the pub on Holloway Road and being a non-drinker couldn’t even drown my sorrows. News filtered to my buddies at Choice FM and other agencies too and I was inundated with calls of support which I passed onto my colleagues. It was a miserable Christmas, yet I was still thinking this was just gonna be another typical Smedley set back and challenge to start the New Year Off. Once the dust settled and dozens of clients had asked if I could still produce their ads, I set up from home and worked my butt off to build up Deadly Productions (based on the old on air name of Deadly Smedley). Business slowed down about 4 years ago but we’ve still kept on working away. Despite my love of radio being eroded away by EMAP I also still felt an area of my life was missing having spent so many happy days at Kiss including meeting Mads (a young 16 year old volunteer who eventually became Mrs Deadly Smedley many years later. Yeah I know 16 years old ). I spread my wings into other areas of work as well as running Deadly Productions and DJing out and about, and I am just as passionate about my other areas of work too as you all know. I then got a call from my Dear Friend and old Kiss FM boss Gordon Mac around 3 years ago, telling me about a new project he was working on called Mi-Soul and this was with another old buddy and ex financial director from early Kiss Martin Strivens. I started to feel the old tingling current running through my veins and produced some initial station idents which started the radio blood pouring back through me again BUT I had a new strand to my working life that needed a lot of initial dedication and work to get through the first two years, and so the juggling began, knowing of course that as soon as was possible I needed to do more and more with Mi-Soul. So this time last year I chatted with Gordon and said I’d love to be back on air and get back out into clubs rather than just producing bits from my home studio and got some great ideas for shows, idents, promos etc. On Boxing Day 2013 I presented my first show for Mi-Soul and my love affair with radio was reborn in a passionate way. I now have my own weekly show, conduct fill-ins for the Boss and many other shows and produce a wide range of commercials and idents for the station, and of course finally getting to work on the same station as my DJ idol Greg Edwards and doing my first stint at Notting Hill Carnival for many years (albeit we should have broadcast from an ARK) . Walking into Mi-Soul HQ just reminds me of the happiest days of my life at Kiss 100 Hollloway Road in a new format, and it’s a beautiful thing. I am grateful for the busy life I have and have undoubtedly met some of the best people on the planet during my journey so far. I am blessed with a lovely wife, 4 fantastic children, great bosses in my various industries Gordon Mac, Velda Birch and I look forward to everything that 2015 has in store for me and thrive on the challenges its going to bring. Thanks for reading my Christmas Story 2014 – you too are a part of my life.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 14:46:20 +0000
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