Budgerigars on BBC Radio West Midlands with Joanne Malin
April 12th 2011
I was delighted to get a phone call from my good friend, Ivan Bellamy, who had received a telephone call from Brett Birks, the Producer of a radio programme on BBC Radio West Midlands, “Mornings with Joanne Malin” asking him if he would like to take part in one of their programmes when they planned to do a “phone in” about the popularity of budgerigars, especially as pets.
Ivan was asked if he could also take along a friend, and immediately suggested that it would be a good idea to invite The Budgerigar Society Chairman, an invitation I was delighted to accept.
And so it was that we duly arrived at The Mailbox in Birmingham to take part in a live radio broadcast that lasted approximately 30 minutes, about the popularity of budgies, especially as pets, and also answer listener’s questions as they phoned them in.
I had taken along some copies of "The Budgerigar" which Joanne mentioned as she introduction to the programme and then Ivan and myself, making quite a play on the fact that budgies must be very popular in the Midlands, as the Chairman of the national Budgerigar Society lived in the area.
Questions posed to Ivan and myself covered such topics as to why does my budgie lose lots of its feathers during the year? How much does a pet budgie cost and does a pet budgie need supplying with toys to save it getting bored; Joanne going on to ask how many colours of budgies are there, adding that she thought that there were only yellow ones!
Sadly the time allocated to the topic came to an end all too quickly, but it was really a great opportunity to get budgies talked about on a live radio programme that receives up to 200.000 live listener’s each week, and we are very grateful to Brett and Joanne for extending the invitation to us to take part.
The Follow-up
Joanne was so interested to hear us talk about budgies that just a couple of weeks later I received an email asking if she could visit my aviary and do a short recording to put out at a later date on her radio programme, “Mornings with Joanne Malin”.
On her visit on Monday 16th May she was totally fascinated by the size of newly hatched chicks and how quickly they grow into a totally recognisable budgie; the recording was then featured in her programme the following Wednesday.
This has been a superb opportunity to get budgies talked about on a very popular radio programme, and both Ivan and myself have been delighted to be able to be part of this and are very grateful to Joanne for the original invitation and also for her interest in wanting to do a follow-up; who knows what this may lead to?