Live365's "Featured Spotlight Station" this week is The Cheese! We spoke with Simon Hawkins about their setup, what listeners can expect to hear, and the station's favorite songs. Check out the interview below!
What brought you to Live365?
The ease of getting on air is what brought me to Live365, especially the ability to get licensing and hosting in one place.
What's your studio like?
Non-existent! The whole station is running off of a PC with a great playout system from PlayIt Software. Production has all been done on an ageing Mac in my spare room (where I also voice the travel news for a major U.K. radio group) using Audacity and a buy-out production library. My business partner is an old voiceover friend of mine who slips into professional studios when no one is looking to record the voice of “The Cheesemeister” for the station! The whole station is based on how creative we can be while spending as little as possible!
What can listeners expect when they tune in to your station?
A whole new world! Literally! As two long-term radio professionals, we were getting bored with the tight formats of our employers. There's nothing wrong with tight formats, but we wanted to have some fun! We’re both in our late forties and love music, particularly classics of the 70s and 80s, but the stations playing oldies assumed we were either over the hill or lost our hearing! We were also fans of the Jack format (which sounded very different in the U.K. compared to the U.S.). So, we created The Cheese, broadcasting from the fictional Kingdom of Cheezelandia. We play mainly 80s, some great 70s, and the occasional hand-picked 60s, with dreary love songs banned. All songs are chosen by His Royal Cheeseness The Cheesemeister, and you’ll get regular glimpses into the comedy of Cheezelandian life (beware, Chris DeBurgh is on the loose in the country)!
What has been your favorite moment as a DJ/Station Manager so far?
The best part is creating a whole new world of comedy and music on a desktop!
What is the best concert you've ever attended, and why?
Any concert I can enjoy while sitting down on my sofa with immediate access to coffee and tea facilities. With that in mind, it has to be Nile Rodgers in the legends slot at Glastonbury. I had two cups of tea and was able to lie across the sofa for the entire two hours!
What artist (dead or alive) would you love to see live, but haven't had the chance to see?
I’m not a gig man, I like my sofa too much! I've seen a few legends in my time (Billy Joel, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Status Quo), but if there was one band I could see live it would have to be Pink Floyd at a summer festival with a cool drink!
We asked for some of the station's favorite songs. Here's what they had to say!
My top 5 songs from listening to The Cheese today:
- The King of Rock 'N' Roll - Prefab Sprout
- Fade to Grey - Visage
- All Along The Watchtower - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- Stand and Deliver - Adam & The Ants
- Pop Muzik - M
Listen to The Cheese on Live365.com, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter and Instagram!
Live365 Broadcasters! Want the chance to be featured? Fill out the form at the following link: Featured Spotlight Submission Form. (Duplicate station entries will only be featured once. You must have a Live365 Broadcaster account.)
