I’m sure I won’t be the only one doing this sort of thing but I thought it would be  good to write a year’s review specifically from me.

I officially joined the Charlton Live crew on a cold Tuesday night, when the Addicks were up in Hartlepool, which sadly saw Chris Powell take his first loss as a manager. When I say I didn’t know the others I really mean it. I had met Peter Finch a few weeks beforehand at Yeovil, and a few days before the meeting I was beeped and waved at by some guy in a car who I later found out was Steve ‘Gadget ‘ Clack.  Apart from that, I didn’t know any of the team and I wasn’t following any of the Saturday show cast on Twitter.

At the meeting from memory there were around 10-15 newbies ready to join Charlton Live, of which most decided the radio show was not to be their thing, which is perfectly understandable with the amount of work that goes into it. I myself never volunteered to get involved with the radio show and didn’t have any intention to, but my email address was somehow added to their list and I decided to turn up and see whether or not I should get involved.

Talk about luck, as after deciding that I would join the show it was an odd experience to turn up to the Brentford game on March 12th and find my name in the club program and then on the club website 2 days later.

The first Saturday show was broadcast on Saturday 19th March when Charlton played away to Dagenham and Redbridge. Although I came in a few weeks beforehand to see the studio, this is the first time I really spoke to any of the Saturday team, as there was not time at the meeting, so it was a new experience for both the team and the listeners.

A quick breakfast in the Valley Café allowed everyone to learn each other’s names, and all bacon-ed up we headed for the studio around 9am. In the studio with myself were Paul ‘Glovepup’ Glover, Matt Fricker, Olly Groome, Cath Blair, Matt Clinch and Liam Happe. Also ‘not’ there were Dave Lockwood and Gadget.

So many words can be used to describe the first Saturday show but from a group of people who had little or no radio experience I don’t think it went too badly. The show was broadcast between 10am and noon and Matt Fricker hosted.  I’ll always remember predicting the team selection and forgetting that Paul  had already mentioned Frank Nouble when I asked him who his second starting striker would be!

I’ve always been interested in media editing-based work but I’ve never found any project which I can sustain and release and which I can be proud of, that people would want to watch/listen to, until I got involved with the Charlton Live podcasts. There are a few emails I keep which I deem to be important for life  rather than deleting, these are mainly when I’ve been followed by certain people on twitter but I also still have all of the original podcast emails.

Matt Wright is one of the nicest people you’ll meet but also one of the most hard working so I thought the least I could do is help him out with the Saturday show podcasts. So on the 27th March at 22:13 I contacted Matt offering to help with the podcasts and at 8:09 the next day he sent instructions on what the podcasts should include and how to edit and upload them.

After trying out a few editing styles I picked how I wanted the podcasts to sound and since then over 60 podcasts have been released (between me and MW). The feedback I have received on the podcasts has been brilliant and I will not release a single podcast that I am not proud of. The more observant of listeners will realise all of my podcasts start with a Scott Wagstaff ident.

Moving on with the Charlton Live show, as the performances on the pitch seemed to be getting worse, our show got better as we each managed to take on different roles on the show. My role for example was and still is to create a look at the opponent, which features both knowledgeable and jokey rubbish stats.

Although our listeners intake was nowhere near what we wanted, we got a lot of downloads and we ploughed through the season and eventually reached our final show on Saturday 7th May at home to Hartlepool. A good show was topped off with a farewell for the season drink in Bartrams.

The crossbar challenge took place but I sadly missed this so you’ll have to read about this in one of Glovepup’s blogs! The next stage of my Charlton Live movement was on Wednesday 6th July when the whole team had a meeting in the Valley to discuss the new season.

It was decided that the Saturday show format was not working so the timeslot was changed to 1pm to 2:30pm and only on away days, with Olly as host. Although I would not say there was any previous division amongst the Charlton Live members, the Saturday team merged more with the Sunday team, so we were a united “squad”.

As we have seen this season, although we have people who attend Saturday shows more than Sundays or vice versa, we now have a show where anyone can turn up to any show and special events and interviews are conducted by members of both shows. The final major change is podcasts are now 45 minutes long rather than the previous 30 minutes.

I was unable to attend any of the pre-season shows and extras so my first show of the new season was Saturday 13th August when the Addicks were away at Notts County. For me this felt like a big change from the previous season where I only missed around 4 games all season as I now had to skip away trips to fulfil my new radio love. And since I’m based down near Maidstone it meant after doing a radio show I would get home (by train) once the Charlton game had finished so I couldn’t even listen to the match commentary on the ride home.

The show itself is best described as a “successful car crash” as we were getting used to a few new bits of equipment. We have since seen both with this show and other Saturday shows an increase in listeners and audience participation through tweets and emails.

The final change to the Charlton Live show was made mid-November when we were moved into the temporary studio in the St-Johns Ambulance Room. Although this room wasn’t too shabby, we were only in it for a few weeks before we got moved into our brand new studio. I have only been in the new studio once, which was on Sunday 18th December, but the facilities it offers are a lot better than previously so hopefully throughout 2012 and beyond you will continue to hear the show quality increase in all its beauty.

So there we are: that’s a summarised 2011 for me, and had you told me in 2010 that a year later I would be in a position where I’m known in the club I would laugh and say no way but so much has changed. Just one final thing to say and that’s thank you.

Thank you to Dave, Peter, Gadget and Terry Smith who have allowed the Saturday show to join the team and a big thanks to a great Saturday team of Paul,  Olly, Matt and Cath.

I’d also like to say thank you to two people who have really helped out the show. Firstly is Gary Haines who oddly I have only met a couple of times but has been a great help securing guests, and to Matt Wright who helps out with all the niggly bits like helping to make sure the show goes out fine on CAFC Player, advertising the show on the club website and editing and uploading the podcasts.

2011 has seen me conquer radio,  so let’s see what 2012 brings and how much further I can go. As Liam once told me, you have never completely succeeded as there’s always something new to gain.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all you Addicks!

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