Station News

BusinessLive! – brand new series about business startup and growth

Sheffield Live! is thrilled to announce a new series of programmes, every Friday morning, covering business startup and growth.

Featuring interviews with businesses from start-up to fully established, the series will offer advice, news, ‘how-to’ features, discussion and inspiration.

The series will offer content of particular relevance to micro and small firms (0-49 staff), SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises, up to 250 staff), sole traders, and also social enterprises.

Tune in every Friday from 9-10am on 93.2fm or livestream here.

Or download the podcasts afterwards:

22/11/2013 – High growth businesses, traits of an entrepreneur, and social enterprise day. Nigel Brewster described the strategy for launching and growing his recruitment business – and his take on skills. Sam Tarff of The Key Fund and Sam Walby of Opus Independents / Now Then magazine talked about social enterprise. Details & podcast

15/11/2013 – The Sheffield City Region and its growth strategy. James Newman of the City Region’s Local Enterprise Partnership in a 20 minute interview; Fiona Greaves and Johnny Reay on the Start Up Loans scheme. Details & podcast

08/11/2013 -business growth: award winning business leader Jaqui Copley, who has grown her business – which she started from home in 2002 – now to a turnover of several hundred thousand pounds a year. And Jay Bhayani, another award winning business leader, talked through the key elements of employment legislation which businesses need to be aware of. Details & podcast

01/11/2013 – business and the green economy – two Sheffield businesses active and trading in the green economy and a topical debate about energy and insulation. Details & podcast

25/10/2013 – access to finance, investment readiness, crowdfunding, social media marketing and a debate about nuclear and renewable energy. Details & podcast

18/10/2013 – featuring top tips from three very different newly established businesses – podcast here

Got a topic you want us to cover, or want to appear as a guest? Email your suggestions to our presenter Jamie Veitch.  Or want to advertise your professional services to other businesses? Get in touch by email here.

BusinessLive! is sponsored by The Sheffield Enterprise Programme. More about them in our advertisers page.

Interviews with Steve Peat & Mina-Leslie Wujastyk

John Horscroft and Steve Peat

Sheffield Live!’s series of cycling and climbing shows, Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels, today featured a bumper interview with mountain biking legend Steve Peat. Recorded earlier this month by interviewer John Horscroft and Jamie Veitch, the 27 minute interview includes in-depth and candid commentary from Steve.

Steve and John discuss:

– the history and roots of mountain biking
– competing at a high level
– Steve’s plans for the future
– training
– road biking
– the Sheffield scene
– Steve’s three top tips for aspiring riders
– and much more!

And Steve picked three tracks of music which we played between segments of the interview.

Mina in the studio

Today’s show also featured climber Mina-Leslie Wujastyk, excelling in the climbing discipline of bouldering. Mina has recently returned from a trip to South Africa during which she climbed 8 boulder problems graded 8A and one of 8A+ – a brilliant achievement from this Sheffield-based climber. Mina is also a member of the British Bouldering team, competing in the bouldering world cup events and this year came 2nd in the British Bouldering Championships.

Simon Lee of UKBouldering.com was a live studio guest today and explained the intricacies of bouldering and Jon Barton of Vertebrate Graphics featured within a pre-recorded interview too.

This was a bumper 90 minute edition of the show, so our podcasts (available for 2 months) are in 2 parts:

You can listen to the podcast [available for 60 days from today] of the first 60 minutes of the show here.

Approximate timings for the 1st hour of the show:

Intro / Simon Lee 0-12 mins; Mina interview 12-22 mins; Simon Lee 22-25 mins; Jon Barton interview 25-33 mins; Simon Lee wrap up 33-37 mins; Steve Peat interview – part one – 37-52 mins; interview with show sponsor, Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative 52-60 mins.

And you can listen to the podcast [available for 60 days from today] of part 2 of the show here (30 minutes total) – which includes Steve Peat’s chosen tracks of music and parts 2 and 3 of our interview with Steve.

Earlier episodes of this series have featured interviews with climber Lucy Creamer, alpinist, big wall climber and author Andy Kirkpatrick, a diverse range of cyclists, and representatives from Awesome Walls, UKClimbing.com, Ride Sheffield, CycleBoost Sheffield, Pedal Ready & more.

The series was sponsored by Awesome Walls Sheffield and the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative.

Interviews with Steve Peat & Mina-Leslie Wujastyk

John Horscroft and Steve Peat

Sheffield Live!’s series of cycling and climbing shows, Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels, today featured a bumper interview with mountain biking legend Steve Peat. Recorded earlier this month by interviewer John Horscroft and Jamie Veitch, the 27 minute interview includes in-depth and candid commentary from Steve.

Steve and John discuss:

– the history and roots of mountain biking
– competing at a high level
– Steve’s plans for the future
– training
– road biking
– the Sheffield scene
– Steve’s three top tips for aspiring riders
– and much more!

And Steve picked three tracks of music which we played between segments of the interview.

Mina in the studio

Today’s show also featured climber Mina-Leslie Wujastyk, excelling in the climbing discipline of bouldering. Mina has recently returned from a trip to South Africa during which she climbed 8 boulder problems graded 8A and one of 8A+ – a brilliant achievement from this Sheffield-based climber. Mina is also a member of the British Bouldering team, competing in the bouldering world cup events and this year came 2nd in the British Bouldering Championships.

Simon Lee of UKBouldering.com was a live studio guest today and explained the intricacies of bouldering and Jon Barton of Vertebrate Graphics featured within a pre-recorded interview too.

This was a bumper 90 minute edition of the show, so our podcasts (available for 3 months) are in 2 parts:

You can listen to the podcast of the first 60 minutes of the show here.

Approximate timings for the 1st hour of the show:

Intro / Simon Lee 0-12 mins; Mina interview 12-22 mins; Simon Lee 22-25 mins; Jon Barton interview 25-33 mins; Simon Lee wrap up 33-37 mins; Steve Peat interview – part one – 37-52 mins; interview with show sponsor, Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative 52-60 mins.

And you can listen to the podcast of part 2 of the show here (30 minutes total) – which includes Steve Peat’s chosen tracks of music and parts 2 and 3 of our interview with Steve.

Earlier episodes of this series have featured interviews with climber Lucy Creamer, alpinist, big wall climber and author Andy Kirkpatrick, a diverse range of cyclists, and representatives from Awesome Walls, UKClimbing.com, Ride Sheffield, CycleBoost Sheffield, Pedal Ready & more.

The series was sponsored by Awesome Walls Sheffield and the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative.

Interview with alien life Professor, Milton Wainwright

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Professor Milton Wainwright works at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. Last week he attracted national and international media attention after writing in the Journal of Cosmology that he has recovered biological entities from between 22 and 27 kilometres above the earth that – he concludes – may originate from space.

And this week Professor Wainwright spoke with Sheffield Live’s Andy Cooper about his conclusions.

You can listen to Andy’s 49 minute interview with Professor Wainwright here:

Or you can listen to an abridged 11 minute version of the interview within the Communities Live programme from 26/09/2013, here.

Wainwright claims that it would be impossible for particles of the size he has recovered to ascend from Earth to this distance above the earth without an event such as a violent volcanic eruption, and that nothing like this occurred within three years of the sampling (done via a special balloon). He’s also emphatic that no cross-contamination occurred.

“Potentially a history making story,” says Andy. Listen to the complete interview, above.

Lucy Creamer, one of UK’s most accomplished climbers, interviewed on Sheffield Live

Lucy Creamer

Lucy Creamer

Sheffield-based Lucy Creamer is one of the UK’s most accomplished climbers.

In rock climbing terms she’s climbed routes on the local gritstone and the sea-cliffs of Pembroke at a tremendously difficult level; as well as sport climbing, climbing adventurous routes, ice climbing and bouldering at the top of the sport. And Lucy has been the British Climbing Champion eight times.

Lucy was interviewed live on air today by Jamie Veitch for Sheffield Live!’s climbing and mountain biking show, Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels.

The hour long show featured 4 pieces of music chosen by Lucy, and she discussed in depth her passion for climbing, training, climbing as a sport and adventure climbing, motivation, recovery from injury, yoga, and making a living as a professional climber – as well as taking us through the 4 pieces of music.

The show also featured short pre-recorded interviews with Alan James of UKClimbing and Dave Douglas of Awesome Walls Sheffield.

You can listen to the hour-long show in full by streaming or downloading the podcast, here.

And you can enter the fabulous competition to win a family climbing pass at new Awesome Wall here.

Some ‘this week’ music picks from Sheffield Live presenters

Sheffield Live’s schedule features current affairs, comedy, sport, film reviews – and of course all sorts of music. What have our presenters and volunteers been listening to this week? A few picks:

Chris Welch of Sounds Like This (Sundays, 5 – 7pm): Sophie – ‘Bipp’ – “Big ‘n’ brashy and stays on the right side of cheese,” and Pipes – ‘Crooked Love’ – “Crunchy soulful house from a Sheffield legend.” Sounds Like This podcasts.

Laurence Peacock of the Communities Live (weekdays 12 – 1) team: “I’ve been enjoying Gillian Welch‘s album The Harrow and The Harvest, which I discovered via Max Munday’s “Introducing” interview with Pete David on Americana. Current fave track is Dark Turn of Mind: equal parts soulful and mellow.”

Alex Bassett of the LGBT Hour (every Wednesday, 2 – 3pm): Make it Stop (September’s Children) by Rise Against. “From album Endgame, it is about LGBT people committing suicide and how the band want it to stop because they are getting bullied for being who they are and they say it’s wrong because there is nothing wrong about it. The track is based on real teens who took their own lives in the month of September a few years ago.”

Lee Price of Vancouver Manouver (Saturdays, 1pm-3pm) has three picks for us:

“1. Kid Acne‘s ‘South Yorks’ – Sheffield’s multi-talented Kid Acne released this a few years back on his ‘Romance Ain’t Dead’ album.  It’s a great local take on Boogie Down Productions’ seminal ‘South Bronx’… It’s all the sounds you love from the 80’s BDP joint brought bang into this time and place.  This came from a discussion about rappers using local dialect and accents in their music.

“2. Hot For Astronomy’s ‘East Van’ – Hot chicks from East Van recount seedy misadventures on the seedy side of town over seedy electronic sounds.  Their current EP ‘Drugs Rock, Sex Roll‘ (free download) is bangin.  Literally.

“3. Moxy Fruvous ‘Gulf War Song’ – A song from the first Gulf War era with a message that stands up today, sadly.  These guys were a really entertaining Canadian pop accapella group in the early 90’s.  Really cheesy stuff, like – however this is a serious one and I let it fly last week.  Jian Ghomeshi from the group looms large nowadays as a media figure in Canada, being a journalist and presenter for the CBC and other media.”

The Hot for Astronomy and Moxy Fruvous tracks featured on the 7th September edition of Vancouver Manouver and Kid Acne’s ‘South Yorks’ was on the 31 August show. Podcasts are here.

Jamie Veitch (presenter of Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels on Saturday at 10am): “Today’s show featured a track from Adam and the Ants’ first (and completely different to the rest) studio album, Dirk Wears White Sox. The track was Digital Tenderness. Also played Nick Drake, The Payroll Union, and La Roux on the show.” Podcast is here.

Graham Marshall of Spirit of the Wapentake (wednesdays, 5 – 7pm): “This week both Sinead and I indulged ourselves. Sinead’s favourite track was ‘There She Goes’ by The La’s. It takes her back to when she was young(!) My track of the week was the very last on this week’s show, the live version of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.  I remember hearing it for the first time when I was a door to door breadman. One of my customers was playing it at full volume in his house with the windows open. It sounded amazing; don’t think his neighbours were as enthusiastic for some reason.” Listen to both on the podcast of this week’s show.

Andy Cooper of the Communities Live team: “This week Rednex‘s biggest hit ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ has been going around my head. Ex Rednex singer Julie Anne (AKA Scarlet) is now a solo-artist, writer and producer, and was a guest presenter with Charlotte and myself on Communities Live’s 12 September show. Also Emily Heath’s Cliffdiving has proven very catchy – and Emily was a fabulous interviewee on the show on Thursday.” Listen to Communities Live, 12 September, including guest presenter Scarlet and interview with Emily.

Dale Le Fevre of the Max Chance Show (Tuesdays, 5pm) and (sometimes) the Mix Tape Show – 6pm on Tuesdays: “Last Tuesday I played ‘Autobahn’ by Kraftwerk on the Mix Tape Show, first track. It’s a 23 minute track and I like it because it brings back memories of when I first moved to San Francisco. A guy I met there liked the track a lot. I’m not crazy over it, but I do like it and find it interesting. I came across it again while I was in Germany at my friend Wolfgang’s. He played it and his wife, Marianne, gave him a scolding – she was trying to do something on the internet and it made her unable to concentrate. Wolfie had gone to a concert of Kraftwerk’s at a museum. He said the audience was over 80% male. Hmmn.” Listen to the Podcast.

Dave Eyre of Thank Goodness It’s Folk (Fridays, 10am – noon) The Spooky Men’s Chorale – ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’ – this week’s show also featured an interview with Nancy Kerr. Here’s the full playlist and link to the podcasts.

A few picks here from some of our presenters. Remember, if you miss your favourite programmes on Sheffield Live you can download the podcasts afterwards. And why not discover some new music by tuning into a few more shows?

All about cycling in Sheffield – and beyond

Today’s episode of new show, Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels, covered cycling in Sheffield – for transport and for fun. Listen to and/or download the podcast of the show here.

Cycling has doubled in Sheffield since 2001 – and this rise has been accompanied by a reduction in the likelihood of an individual cyclist having a road collision. It offers significant wellbeing benefits to individuals, saves money, and benefits employers if staff cycle to work.

There’s now alot of support available to individuals and to businesses, and today’s show included interviews with:

  • Bob, Mark, Colin, Paul, Pete and Melissa from Symmetry Medical with CycleBoost's David Bocking

    Bob, Mark, Colin, Paul, Pete and Melissa from Symmetry Medical with David Bocking

    six workers from Hillsborough-based Symmetry Medical who are enjoying many benefits of cycling to work thanks to the company’s involvement with Sheffield CycleBoost.

  • David Bocking of CycleBoost talking about the scheme, a three-part support service for residents and employees in Sheffield. Services include bike-loan programmes, bike doctor sessions, maintenance classes and cycle skills training.
  • Pauline, Jan, Betty-Ann, and Shirley, all enjoying cycling throughout Sheffield, the Peak District and further afield thanks to attending courses run by Pedal Ready.
  • John Horscroft with Betty-Ann, Jan, Pauline and Shirley in the Sheffield Live studio

    John Horscroft with Betty-Ann, Jan, Pauline and Shirley in the Sheffield Live studio

    Nick Brelsford of Pedal Ready on cycling training.

  • John Horscroft of Ride Sheffield, an advocacy group which helps mountain bikers and other organisations such as the wildlife trusts work together for the benefit of all. John joined presenter Jamie Veitch in the studio for the programme and discussed positive working relationships between mountain bikers and other organisations, new trails at Greno and elsewhere, and the value of cycling and outdoor pursuits to the Sheffield economy.
  • Bicycle mechanic Russell of Russell’s Bicycle Shed, offering a bike repair service at the station and at Parkwood Springs, on common repairs he undertakes – and about maintenance classes offered by Recycle Bikes.
  • Russell doing some bicycle maintenance in the station

    Russell doing some bicycle maintenance in the station

    Plus two competitions: listeners can win a bike, courtesy of show sponsor the Edinburgh bicycle Cooperative, or a family climbing day and month pass courtesy of sponsor Awesome Walls Sheffield.

  • Listen to and/or download the podcast of the show here.

Interview with the Payroll Union’s Pete David

Pete David in the Sheffield Live studio with Max Munday

Max Munday – presenter of Mouthpiece on Sheffield Live each Wednesday from 9am to 11 – welcomed Pete David of acclaimed Sheffield alt-country-folk-rock-Americana band The Payroll Union onto his show today.

The interview marked the start of a new series on Max’s show, Introducing…(covering different musical styles or genres each week).

Pete discussed Americana music, explored its defining features and themes; his influences, several favourite songs and recommendations for further listening.

A must-listen for the growing fan-base of this superb Sheffield group (pick up their compelling album The Mule and The Elephant from The Old Sweet Shop and other good music shops!), the 30-minute interview came at the start of hour-two of today’s Mouthpiece.

If you’ve never heard of Tex-Mex or Desert Noir music, Pete will educate you – as well as tell you about the structure, meaning and message of a good old murder ballad – and much more.

The show also covered the 40th anniversary of Pinochet’s coup in Chile and included an interview with Pedro Fuentes, chair of Sheffield Chilean Community Association who was imprisoned by Pinochet.

What next?

Climber Andy Kirkpatrick interviewed

Accomplished climber, author and public speaker Andy Kirkpatrick featured in new show Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels this morning.

Sheffield-based Andy has made some astonishing ascents on Alpine faces, in Patagonia, and on the soaring granite rock faces of Yosemite in the USA.

Not only that, he’s twice won the Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature for his books Psychovertical and Cold Wars.

But it’s Andy’s journey from remedial student to successful climber, writer and author that often fascinates his audience the most. Brought up from the age of 6 on a council estate in one of Britain’s flattest cities, Hull, Andy suffered from severe dyslexia which was undiagnosed until he was 19.

Andy spoke openly in the interview about his climbing, danger, suffering, reconciling personal life with ambitions and obsessions, and the process of writing. And he chose a few tracks of music that have accompanied him on his travels. During the course of the hour-long show Andy revealed many fascinating and thoughtful insights into his own motivations.

Download and listen to the podcast of the show here.

More about the Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels series here including details of how to enter two exciting competitions.

What our presenters have been listening to this week

Sheffield Live’s schedule features a fabulous and eclectic mixture of music (and much more: current affairs, comedy, sport, film reviews).

What have our presenters and volunteers been listening to this week? A few picks:

Adam Ellis, co-presenter of the Talking Balls show about sport (Fridays at 6pm): “On a long drive down to Sussex last weekend I was enjoying the Stereophonics most recent album ‘Graffiti on the Train’ – I especially like ‘Indian Summer.’ I was also enjoying Survivor‘s ‘Burning Heart’ from the Rocky 4 soundtrack, one of the most underrated Rocky songs.”

Chris Gibirdi co-presents Talking Balls, and comments: “I’ve been listening to Calvin Harris’ new track ‘Thinking About You’ as it sounds like summer is staying around just a little longer. As a second track I’d go for ‘Summertime Sadness’ – Lana Del Rey vs Cedric Gervais – I’ve heard a few dance remixes of Lana Del Rey tracks and they sound great!”

Natz Beard, co-presenter of the Local Talent Show (every Friday, 4-5pm): “This week I’ve been making Ollie (co-presenter of the Local Talent Show) jealous by listening to Dom Major‘s new EP ‘Me and You’. I’m the only member of the Local Talent Show team who has a copy so far, and I’m quite enjoying hogging it all to myself. This however is soon to change, as we will be giving it a play on our show in the next week or two and hopefully getting the man himself in the studio again (come back Dom we miss you!)  I particularly love the song ‘Spin the World’ as it’s really upbeat and catchy.”

Dale Le Fevre of the Max Chance Show (Tuesdays, 5pm) has just returned from a quick trip to Germany: “At one stop, I listened to a lot of oldies, and will feature many on my next show. Songs I will be playing include Otis Redding (Try A Little Tenderness), The Boxtops (The Letter), Los Bravos (Black is Black). These songs are the soundtrack of my younger life, so hearing them brings back memories of what I was doing and what I was feeling during this time.”

Jamie Veitch (presenter of Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels starting on Saturday at 10am): “Tomorrow’s guest Andy Kirkpatrick sent in some choices of music that he’s played while scaling the kilometre-high rock faces in Yosemite, USA. You’ll have to listen to the show to find out all of Andy’s choices, but one was the funky ‘Night Call’ by Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx from the soundtrack of 2012 movie, Drive. And on a drive I made myself to and from Stoke-on-Trent one evening this week, the journey was enriched by the Low Duo‘s ‘Dive and Slide into the Blue’ EP – Leigh and Adam are two Sheffield brothers making astonishing, dramatic, indie-folk-minimalist-pop with poignant songwriting. My final pick was played in Lee Price‘s latest Vancouver Manouver show last Saturday – Maestro Fresh Wes‘ ‘Drop the Needle’ had me dancing around the kitchen to the embarrassment of my son.”

Graham Marshall and Sinead Rankin, co-presenters of Spirit of the Wapentake (Wednesdays, 5-7pm), really enjoyed The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ which they played in their show this week. “An amazing one of a kind with a really strange ending for a rock track.”

Andy Cooper of the Communities Live team: “This week I have been mainly listening to ‘Angels Unite’ by Scarlet. This is the same Scarlet aka Julie Anne Tulley who used to be a part of 90’s pop group Rednex, whose biggest hit ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ is still a perennial favourite. Now a solo-artist, writer and producer, Scarlet will also be a guest presenter with Charlotte and myself on Communities Live next Thursday (12 September).”

Sdot Phillie presents the Saturday Soundclash, 5pm – 7pm (every Saturday!) packed with grime, UK Garage, hip-hop and house. He’s been enjoying DJ S.K.T.‘s ‘Kick It’ and Coco‘s version of ‘Hey Mambo’.

Dave Eyre of Thank Goodness It’s Folk (Fridays, 10am – noon) featured special guest, multi-talented musician and photographer Elly Lucas on his show today and loves her track ‘A Place Called Home’, which he played on today’s show – podcast including interview with Elly is here.

Barney and Paul presented today’s Peace in the Park show at 5pm: “Toots and the Maytals’ ‘Funky Kingston’ and Bola Johnson‘s ‘Lagos Sisi’ were just two stops on our global musical tour on the show today.” Listen to these and the whole show on their podcast.

Paul Sellers‘ show Eclectica, is every Sunday at noon. “I’ve being listening to The Clangers Soundtrack! What a beautiful thing, composed by Vernon Elliot! So good that I will share it with you all, this Sunday at 12 noon on Eclectica at Sheffield Live!”

Simon Thake of the Monday Uprising (7am – 9am on Monday mornings): “I love the Arctic Monkeys‘ single, ‘Do I Wanna Know’ and have been playing that to death on Monday mornings. Cracking lyrics and melody from Alex Turner. I also really like the Katy B track ‘What Love is Made Of’. Great dance track and a really good comeback for her. That will be played this Monday for sure. I’m also counting down the Sheffield A-Z  of great Sheffield bands and artists. We are up to letter  J so are actively looking for suggestions over the weekend.” Email Simon.

A few picks here from some of our presenters. Remember, if you miss your favourite programmes on Sheffield Live you can download the podcasts afterwards. And why not discover some new music by tuning into a few more shows?