Pat de Whalley

Pat de Whalley :Broadcaster / Rock Presenter / Journalist -At the height of punk in 1977 - Pat joined concert impresario Harvey Goldsmith Entertainments and never looked back. “I was like a teenage kid in a candy store. Harvey promoted gigs for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Queen, Elton John, The Boomtown Rats, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, The Stranglers; I never knew who would come through the door!At the age of 22 she moved into Public Relations working for both Alan Edwards Publicity who's clients included - The Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, The Cure and Big Country and Ian Grant the then manager of Big Country.A year later she married Music Journalist and Record Producer Chas de Whalley. They now have two adult sons. James who is a Record Producer and Andrew who is a Radio D.J.On 4th July 1988 Pat joined the BBC Local Radio Trainee Reporter Scheme, one of 22 chosen from 4500 applicants. “The first time I sat behind a Mark 3 studio desk and opened the faders, I knew I had found my place”. During her three year training she worked in newsrooms the length and breadth of the country.“In August 1991 after a steep learning curve of producing, presenting, researching and reporting, I was given a variety of programmes to present from outside broadcasts to live debates, to pick of the Week but my niche was the fledgling idea of presenting a rock show called “Nightmoves” a title I pinched from Bob Seger”. Broadcast across the entire Midlands on Sunday nights, RAJAR figures confirmed that she had more listeners than her competitor Annie Nightingale on Radio One.More success followed with the groundbreaking weekday slot of the Afternoon show on BBC WM which won listeners with a major hard hitting, non-compromise approach to topical issues. This highlighted her innate ‘nose’, for the human story behind National and Local news stories.“I was determined to breakaway from the perceived notion of women presenters as a soft option. We dealt with issues such as Racial Attacks, Mental Health, Child Abuse and Policing in the community. In a way we hoped to give the establishment a run for their money and shake local politicians out of their too-often cosy complacency around the issues of those without a voice”. The shows also had a compassionate edge too and Pat’s proudest moment came on the anniversary of the Kings Cross fire when she brought together survivors, emergency workers and relatives of that and other disasters such as Lockerbie, Kegworth, Hillsborough, Birmingham Pub Bombings and Zebrugger, to discuss the challenges that they had overcome in rebuilding their lives after such extraordinary events. Radio WM received more calls of support and praise for that programme than any other in their history.Following a series of radio shows for BBC Radio Two, Pat de Whalley hung up her headphones and took on a new challenge…. She is now a Spiritual Counsellor / Poet / Author....see www.myspace.com/patdewhalley

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