Claire caught up with Chinny (Mark ‘Chinny’ Davis), the voice behind the very successful Cowbell Radio, as the station looks to celebrate their upcoming first birthday.
To start us off, Chinny gave some background about how Cowbell Radio began.
“It was created in February last year and we first aired as a station on April 12 . Basically, Ed, (Ed Mahon) and myself ย had a show on another station which we both felt was going nowhere. So the logical step was to set up ourselves.ย The name Cowbell comes from the previous show. Basically everyone thinks it comes from the Will Ferrall sketch. It doesn’t. It comes from Chinny’s love of DFA, LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture etc. where the cowbell features so prominently. Cowbell’s ethos is simple; we just want to play good music . We cover most genres, but stay away from the commercial chart stuff . We do love the presenter angle though, most internet radio just seems to be ‘kids in the mix’.ย That’s not our style. We want banter and listener participation; everyone part of the Cowbell family so to speak . We also want to try and do some good for the community while on air.ย We seem to be helping more and more charities and causes etc. We stumbled into this by helping a friend, but it’s definitely the way forward for us.
Chinny reflected on the first twelve months:
We, at Cowbell, are really pleased with our first year. Firstly, we have an incredible team of presenters without whom there would be no Cowbell. All these people give their time for free and have really embraced what we are about.ย Hats off to all of them. During our first year there have been some highs and lows. A few mistakes have been made as with any start-up company . If you don’t make mistakes you don’t learn.ย On the whole though its been a massive success. We are celebrating our first birthday with a ‘social event’ at Blackpool Cricket Club. Our presenters will be playing a few tracks to really showcase the shows on the station. It’s a way of us saying thanks to them as well as thanks to all the listeners we have amassed. I think there will be many more birthdays to come if the first year is anything to go by.”
Chinny explains the future of Cowbell:
“Well, we launch our brand new website very soon. We are also involved in some massive events, some our own, some with others . There are new shows on the horizon and some incredible live broadcasts from Electric Elephant in Croatia and the Summer Soiree in Blackpool . There will also be massive shows with our sister companies Alfresco Family Events and Tha Gods.”
And finally:
“We’d like to end by just saying thanks. It sounds cringe-worthy but we genuinely love you lot and its only because you listen and support us that we have any of this X.”
Find out more out Cowbell Radio here.ย Learn more about their first birthday party here, or their Alfresco Party here.
Information about Cowbell’s September Carnival can be found here.
The Cowbell team are :-
Louis Northmore, Jonny Jaydub Wilde (tech,web,broadcasting) – Jonny also hosts the hugely popular show Tha Gods
James Hunter (design,broadcasting) – James is our design guru and also hosts Viva Bastardo
Ed Mahon and Mark (Chinny) Davis (presenting, promo, everydaystuff) – as well as being the hosts for I’ll House You, Cowbell, The Sunday Joint andย whenever needed .
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