This week we met up with the lovely Becky and Jenny, legendary hosts of ‘The Morning Show with Becky and Jenny’. We asked them everything you’d want to know about hosting a URN show, how their radio careers got started and about the weird and wonderful radio fans their show attracts.
So what kind of show is ‘The Morning Show with Becky and Jenny’?
The show is a listener based radio broadcast in which we ask listeners to text in their song requests and funny anecdotes. Our show is based around the songs of the listeners, lively chat and our own random stories from the week.
Does your show have any special features?
We have a number of different features in our show, each with their own jingle which we think adds a bit of personal charm. One of our main features from last year was our music based quiz called ‘Radio Killed the Video Star’. The questions were based on music from our adolescence i.e. the early noughties. Becky would take on the role of quiz show host, with Jenny competing against, and more often than not losing to, guests we had come in to display their music knowledge.
Who has been the best guest on your show?
On URN, you have a newsreader come in hourly to read the news and each bring something different, joining in the general conversation of the day. One of our favourites was the Alan Partridge-esque newsreader who was a common feature last year.
How did you both get involved with URN?
Becky: I signed up for URN at fresher’s fair as university radio was something I wanted to get involved in when starting at Nottingham. I didn’t manage to get to host a show in my first year, but by Christmas I was asked to produce a show for two other hosts (one of which is now my boyfriend) and over the second semester of first year became more familiarised with URN, its set up and how to host/produce a successful show. It was towards the end of first year that I asked Jenny if she wanted to put a demo in for a show in our second year.
Jenny: Once Becky suggested we did this, we had a few practices before the summer holidays and when we came back to Nottingham for second year, we successfully demoed and were given a primetime slot for our show.
As radio sensations, you obviously have a great listener base, who are your biggest fans?
Becky: Well there’s Julian from Germany, who last year would text up to 12 times a show, calling us ‘The Hottest Show’ on URN. We discovered he was a 16 year old from somewhere in Germany. He would text telling us not to miss him when he was unable to listen to the show whilst away on a school field-trip and requested, if one of us was hosting alone that we called the sho, the ‘Becky and Julian Show’. He’d also often request Heavy Rock songs, slightly unusual for a daytime radio show.
Jenny: We also have Michael from Adelaide who tunes in when he can’t sleep. And my brother and his friends often texted in last year whilst on different work placements, pretending to be each other, saying random/embarrassing things about one another. And of course Neil, Becky’s dad, an avid listener of the show.
What’s the biggest challenge of hosting a radio show?
We don’t really get radio fright as we are quite aware that URN does not have Radio One levels of listeners. Technical difficulties often catch us out – once the system went down and Jenny had to ad lib for five minutes whilst Becky tried to sort out the problem. Also there have been a fair few times when we haven’t faded down our microphones when a song starts playing and have just been broadcasting our conversations.
What’s your favourite night out in Nottingham?
In first year you couldn’t beat a classic night out in Ocean. In second year we branched out more, enjoying a good night in Bodega or Stealth. And of course house parties are always a chilled, fun night out.
If readers were to tune into your show, what song would they definitely hear?
Jenny: Becky always plays, without fail, Mozart House by Clean Bandit.
Check out Becky and Jenny on URN, and find out more here!