JOHN ROCKLEY

"Fine, if they were going to ambush me, I would ambush right back. I decided not to play. "Graham Linehan talking about the Radio 4 'Today' programme team. In 2011 Graham Linehan, the writer, performer and prince of twitter (Stephen Fry is the King) appeared as a guest on the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4. It didn't end well. I still use his appearance and subsequent push back, as an example of how media engagement can go wrong if you don't know the rules. The problem is, jo

I first appeared on the radio in 1995, and my first live broadcast was with Dennis McCarthy who was a legend. Dennis had the ability to stand in a street in Nottingham and say on-air, "I wonder who's house we're doing the programme from this morning" and 60% of the doors would be thrown open by eager listeners who wanted Dennis to come and sit in their best parlor and do a radio show. Everyone listened to Dennis... His avuncular style belied a prickly nature. He was bigger th

If you're interviewed by the press, why does it matter who owns the organisation? Media ownership is a thesis all on its own, but the main things to remember about the press, are the political standpoints of the owners and the readers. People buy a newspaper because it reinforces their world view, it feels like a friend that's on their side, that stands for the things that they think they stand for. If your political leaning is to the right then The Daily Mail, The Express, T

You're the expert that will be explaining that difficult story, you're the one informing the presenter as much as the audience, you'll be the next Martin Lewis, the next Dr Mark Porter, or even the next Greg Wallace (he was a veg expert before Masterchef). Or you'll be an abject flop. The person that no one remembers, like, you know, thingy... So how do you get invited back? 1) This is their house not yours. Show the presenter some respect. They may be an idiot but that's no

I need to give you a little bit of personal background before I start this blog because I'm going to sound like an intolerant psycho by the end of it. I was born in 1974 and lived most of my young life in the mining village of Calverton in Nottinghamshire. My father was a policeman my mother is a chiropodist. We were not well off in the 70's. When the 1980's came events took a strange turn. In early 1984 I was 9 and still at junior school. All of my contemporaries were the so