Wilko and I had a running gag about it. Soon, he suggested, Hughesy’s listener base might grow into double figures, and we might even be able to have a Christmas party!
It seemed like a good idea at the time, and Swelter down at the Irish bar offered to host it and provide nibbles. I did my best to talk it up, but when the big night rolled around there we were - some of the station committee, Radio Norm, Wilko, Madam and I.
Along the way there were reshuffles in the people involved with the station.
The original chair of the committee dropped out after a family tragedy that would have made anybody buckle at the knees, and, as vice-president I took over the reins. Knowing that we needed a treasurer I’d managed to exploit a mate’s momentary weakness to fill the position, and things on that front looked to be running smoothly.
After a run of secretaries, we found someone who looked like staying involved.
Unfortunately staying involved included aspirations to the top job. Not that I was objecting, but while I had the top job, that ruled me out of other responsibilities.
Namely Secretary and Treasurer.
Informed of the leadership spill, the Treasurer said that if I went they’d be needing to replace him too. Faced with an upcoming annual general meeting where there were no likely candidates for those two jobs there was no way anybody was going to inveigle me into one of them.
I had enough on my plate, and there were expressions of impending involvement from a local identity whose voice I thought I’d recognised on the other end of the phone line one Sunday afternoon. Come on, Hughesy, the voice had demanded. Play something decent.