Dawn Le Men - Boom Radio's Head of Sales writes:
I took a very deep breath when I jumped into the world of radio a few months ago – and Boom Radio seemed a great landing place. I recently celebrated my 58th birthday and I can wholeheartedly sign up to the station’s tag-line ‘Still Busy Living’. Life gets busier and busier these days – and there’s always time to learn new things.
It’s odd looking back to how life turns out. I have spent almost 40 years in media generally, although I never considered it seriously as a career when growing up. Not least because I really knew nothing about media at all.
No. My dream was to be an air stewardess. Much like most of my friends, I aspired to trip to far-flung hot places in sparkling company, resplendent in a lovely uniform.
Those thoughts stemmed from knowing I wanted to work with the public - and I landed an early job in the hotel trade. After only a few months, I saw an advertisement for a receptionist for Tyne Tees Television in London. A TV station looked an exciting place to sit in the foyer, so I applied. Instead of the receptionist post, however, luckily someone must have seen my potential and offered this innocent 20 year old a role in the TV advertising department selling ads.
TV advertising in those days was like the ‘Wild West’ and no one really knew what they were doing, so I felt I was in good company. I never looked back and spent my career working for ITV and Sky as the companies grew into the carefully-focussed companies they are today.
Then. Boom. I had the pleasure in being introduced to the founders of Boom Radio, David Lloyd and Phil Riley. They wanted a head of sales for this new venture, a radio station for Baby Boomers. It came at that stage of life when I could have hung up my coat tails, but you know when something feels right – and exciting.
I took a deep breath and entered the world of radio alongside these veterans and lots of very experienced radio personnel and - wow - what a journey so far. I have been learning about the radio landscape; been introduced to so many people and learnt all the technical stuff you need to know. A lot echoes with my former life, albeit every acronym is different.
It’s so rewarding to be part of a new business and building a radio station from the start amongst fellow baby boomers. It’s exciting too seeing the response of many of the commercial brands and agencies to whom we’ve outlined our plans already. We want to identify the best possible relationships to ensure they benefit the companies we work with – and our listeners. Do drop me a line if we should be chatting.
Like so many of our generation, radio has always been a powerful part of my life as a listener. We’re confident of gaining listeners who want to hear a radio station that really does appeal to their past and present. I can already tell you that it will be a radio station that is firmly in your favourites as I am fortunate enough to listen every day to the test schedule and I am already hooked.
Dawn
