B|B|C
World Service
Radio
Interview with Frederick Dove
January 31st 2006
I had the honor to be contacted by BBC
Outlook team member Peter Shevlin to talk about my passion for watches. The topic
of the Outlook discussion was "Are Wristwatches doomed? Are mobile phones the
culprits?" As news sites move fast, I am not sure whether the Outlook
segment is still aired on BBC World Service. But you will always be able to
reach BBC at their home page.
First there was a Wall Street Journal article talking about less younger people
wearing wrist watches because of electronic portable gadgets (phones, mp3
players etc.). Then Chicago Tribune published an article about the topic.
Obviously Peter Shevlin from the BBC had found my website and thought my watch craze might be
a good contrast to the before mention trend. In
the London studio was presenter Frederick Dove and John Goodell, a watch
journalist and representative for the
Federation of the Swiss Watch
Industry (FH). And I was sitting in the BBC Bangkok studio. Since this was
the first radio interview for me, everything was quite new. But the staff at BBC
Bangkok and London were very helpful.
We recorded the interview at 11:30 GMT and
then it was broadcast an hour later on
BBC World Service, the
international radio program of BBC. The funny thing was that I did not really
know whether we were already on air during the recording or not. Because I was
sitting alone in the recording room and was connected to BBC studio London via
audio.
My tension
before the recording had been pretty high, but when I heard the calm voice of Frederick Dove,
most of the nervousness was gone. I was not really aware that there would be an
hour delay between recording and broadcasting. Rookie's stage fever I guess. I
was reassured by my wife that my voices sounded calm. She was recording the
interview at home. I did not have the questions before hand, but of course I
prepared for the topic. I had sent the BBC some information about myself, my
forum and my collection.
It probably would have been more fun if all three of us where in the same room.
Switching from one talker to the other would have been smoother. And I think BBC
got what they wanted. John Goodell and I were not always on the same side.
Making this interview more fun.
It was a very good experience, thanks to the friendly people at BBC London and
Bangkok, thank you for this opportunity!
You can hear 4 minutes 47 seconds from the 20 minute radio interview by clicking the link below: