Ex-BBC Local Radio Berkshire presenter Phil Kennedy has launched a podcast which he started after he left the station.
The format for Phil Kennedy Mildly Getting Away With It, is similar to the show he presented at the BBC, a mix of celebrity interviews, previews and gossip.
Phil is one of the many BBC local radio presenters who were recently culled following the decision by the Corporation to move some of its resources from on-air to online. Phil was with the BBC at Berkshire and previously Oxford for almost 19 years. Before that, his over 30 years in radio includes working at LBC, Virgin, Heart, Radio 1, Radio 2, 6 Music and GLR.
“Once I’d left the BBC, I felt there was something else,” Phil says. “My wife said to me ‘well there’s a podcast, you could do that, they’re really big’ and I thought podcasting is the future, they’re incredibly popular and I can keep my hand in. I’ve got a lot of contacts I’ve made over the years, so I thought I really ought to give it a go.”
He says it’s been quite a process making the change, because it’s very different to radio, with much more to do, but he’s learnt very quickly and is glad that he’s done it.
Phil’s wife Janice, who is a journalist, helps with the production by listening and offering a critique before each episode is published. Everything else – finding and setting up guests, presenting, recording, editing, publishing etc., is Phil’s job!
It was also Janice who suggested that the format of the show should be like his radio show, with a guest, regular contributors talking about TV and film, plus a conundrum feature where he gave the answer towards the end of the show.
Without the restrictions of radio: news, travel, weather etc., it means conversations with guests can be longer and go into more depth.
“So far, so good,” says Phil. “It feels like it’s a lot more relaxed, just not very relaxed getting it out there,” he joked.
“The recording, that’s relatively straightforward but the actual process getting it to be published is quite a frantic 24 hours or so getting it right,” he adds.
Guest who appears, are people with a story to tell and so far, have included Carol Kirkwood, Greg Wallace and Daliso Chaponda among others.
“Daliso Chaponda is a fascinating character,” says Phil. “He’s a stand-up from Malawi and his dad was a part of the UN so he was brought up around the world from Canada to Australia, to Africa, to Europe – Switzerland, London and it was interesting hearing his story.”
Phil has also interviewed Vitaly Shevchenko, a journalist he worked with at the BBC, who is also one of the hosts of the Ukrainecast podcast.
Phil explains: “He’s Ukrainian with family there and he gave a really interesting insight about covering a war in his home country from London.”
Finding guests isn’t too difficult because Phil has made many contacts during his career. He says that even though there’s a high demand for people to appear on podcasts, he’s realised that he’s made not only a lot of contacts, but also a lot of friends over the years who are prepared to help him out when he needed it.
Getting the right kind of guests to keep listeners engaged is important for Phil, he says: “It’s a bit like a book or drama or a play, there’s got to be a decent story to tell – it’s like the difference between a soap and a primetime drama. The soap is a bit like the radio because you can almost have it on in the background and catch up on the story in the next episode, whereas if you’re watching a one-off drama, it demands your attention, so the story has got to be good.”
The title of the podcast came about after an off-the-cuff comment from a musician during a conversation. Phil explains: “I was talking to Nick Heyward of Haircut 100 fame and he came on the line and asked how I was and I said ‘I’m fine, mildly getting away with it’ and he said ‘OK that’s it, that’s the name of your podcast’ and that’s how it happened, it’s Nick Heywood’s fault!”
The latest episode of Phil Kennedy’s podcast Mildly Getting Away With It featuring Britain’s Got Talent star stand up Daliso Chaponda is available now on most podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify and Buzzsprout.
