Five Live
| “ | I always thought I'd like to go back to music. But I also loved exploring a subject from scratch to interview a nuclear physicist. The job was a bit like an Open University degree course. The longer I did it, the more I realised how little I know, which is part of ageing. | ” |
|
—Mayo, after his move to Radio 2 Drivetime |
In May 2001, after 15 years with Radio 1, Mayo joined another national BBC station, Radio Five Live to present an afternoon programme.
Mayo began broadcasting on Five Live every weekday from 1.00pm to 4.00pm, where he remained until December 18, 2009. He was on air in 2001 when the 9/11 attacks took place in the United States, broadcasting live as the events unfolded.
The programme generally combined topical debates, interviews and reviews. It came live from Westminster each Wednesday for live coverage of Prime Minister's Questions, with discussion and debate afterwards with political correspondents and MPs. The programme also featured Mayo's old Radio 1 sidekick Mark Kermode reviewing the new movie releases each Friday afternoon. The banter between Mayo and Kermode in this section of the programme was described by both men as "wittertainment at its most wittertaining." (The neologism wittertainment is a portmanteu of witter and entertainment, and was coined in a – now deleted – Wikipedia entry. However, Kermode and Mayo took note of the article before its deletion and have since been using the term regularly to refer to their show.)
In a May 2008 interview with The Guardian, Mayo mentioned he "signed a contract for the next two years" and was uncertain whether he would still be at Five Live when it moves to Greater Manchester. It was later confirmed that Mayo was to move to the Radio 2 drivetime slot, though he will also continue to host a weekly two-hour film review show on Radio 5 Live with Mark Kermode.
In May 2009 Mayo and Kermode won a Gold Sony Radio Award in the Speech Award category, due to continued good work and passion for radio
Read more about this topic: Simon Mayo
Famous quotes containing the word live:
“I live to hold communion
With all that is divine,
To feel there is a union
‘Twixt Nature’s heart and mine;”
—George Linnaeus Banks (1821–1881)
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Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”
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