After eight vanglorious years The Steve Zacharanda Radio Show is ending.

We are going out with a bang and not with a whimper.

I would have hated the show to fizzle out like a website that has not been updated for three years.

The union that funds Scratch Radio has decided it no longer wants to be a student and comnunity radio station but rather just a student station.

That is their right and I cannot believe the decision has not been made before, I want to put on record my thanks to everyone at Scratch previously and presently.

We started when the university was in Perry Barr and I felt if they were going to have a community ethos then my Perry Barr should be represented. The place I love and breathe. The hilarious tales of working and underclass life that I heard and lived had to be given a platform.
I hope the SZRS has done that.

The idea came for the show came when I was interviewing Muff Murfin from Aston FM, I pitched the idea and wrote out a plan. After the Obama storm he bottled it but a chance meeting with old drinking compadre Kevin Moore (thanks for everything) meant Scratch would be our home. And thanks to all our producers over the years Kev, Paul Hadsley, Shaggy, Rocky, Conor, Ben Stones, Chet, Jack Press, Travis and Ewan Roycroft.

And yes the show has been invited elsewhere but me and Gurdo both believe it was a Scratch show from start to finish. 

Gurdo was always going to be part of it.

So often in life we lose touch with cool people we work with and doing a show once a week was a way we would stay in touch. In the end we did more than keep in touch, we created radio gold and then ended up working together again.

No man could ask for a better friend, how he has put up with me I will never know. Well I do know, the laughs we have had have been second to none. Making him laugh when he was angry with me was a staple of the show. Our radio personalities were so close to our real ones, you could have thrown anything at us on air and we would have dealt with it.

As a writer and journalist nothing prepared me for the sheer exhilaration, terror and joy of live radio.
There is nothing like it and thanks to social media the response is instant.

We only corpsed on air once.
When I said: Mom would have talked the AIDS out of Holly Johnson.

The adreneline live radio produces is incredible, I know I can speak for Gurdo in saying that two hours or hour have often been the best of the week. On air we can leave all our shit at the studio door.
Eight years is an incredible achievement.

I wanted the show to be dangerous, I wanted people not to believe their ears and because of that we created memorable radio.

My mantra (nicked from the peerless Paul Castronovo from Paul and Young Ron) “Live Your Life on air” often came back to haunt me. But Id like to think listeners knew I was honest with them, never taking me for granted. The Warrants Out Show and numerous “Break Up Specials” prove my point.

And that one when I was late to work and Gurdo rightly ripped me, sensing he had a contrite me to mock.
But who can forget the Cross Bow Killer bit when Gurdo pretended to be UK`s unluckiest serial killer and I pretended to be 80s pop starlets who he had to choose to kill next.
I am actually proud of that.

And then who would you rather spend a week with, a terminally ill Michael Hutchence or a smacked up Heath Ledger? We asked those questions. Or a dying Les Dennis whose last thoughts were projected on screens including a naked Amanda Holden?

Who else does that on UK radio these days?
Who ever did that on radio?
We did.
And why?
Because our listeners fucking loved it.

Our listeners are our show. Clifford (The greatest PR man a show could have, who started listening cos of Rachel Riley), Memphis Michael Moore (who likes it with fur on), the Scottish lot, Danksy (from start to the end and a great guest presenter), Tipper, Tight Bass Green (Just Dont Turn Around was the pick of the songs we asked people to come up with for his MRI scan), Sexy Sophie. Claire and Tapping Brian, Tom Watson, Miami Sam, Jill Humphries,Jez, Felton when he got his things working, Burn Burn Burns, Ab, Spearman, Mark Taylor (a great guest), Bal Dadda, Jim Big House Levack, Nicky Cunningham (she broke the law as a guest bringing us beer), Amanda Cass (that pic in the 80s), EnR Twinz (who sent us their swearing version of their song), Rachel Reid, the Keane firm so many I cant keep typing as it will be boring. Ok then Lovely Ceri Saunders, James Keatley, Anton Deck, Bal Dhadda, John Bayliss, Craig Baldwin, Dawn Cowen, Tom Davis, Japhy Ryder, Marvin, Jock, Dave Finchett, Russ Cockburn and Barnetto.
Stretch who was inspired by us to set his own show whuch did better than ours making us the john the baptist to his Jesus.

The international listeners like the Ellimans and Kevin Annett who I know enjoyed getting a slice of Perry Barr down under.

And who can forget Jeff Oram?
And Jo Doyle`s lapdancing.
And Nashville Maggie with the three passports.

Who else has a dead listeners hall of fame?
Victoria Van Loan, Billy Milk, Rebecca Wallace...
I remember Lyle Bignon messaging me “Were u just asking for sexual shout outs for ur ex who had just died?”
Yes, we did that and kept her life alive.

And it was not all pratting about and daft buggering around.

The Blacklisted special is one of the greatest things I've ever done. We were the first radio show to let Dave Smith tell his story, whilst keeping it SZRS.

 And Imagine a DJ who found he warrants out for him? And then did a show about it.

Then there is the music which was from the racial barrier breaking Gurdo`s seeping sack of Sikh songs.
He was one of his generation`s best music journalists so his choice of tunes was always going to be brilliant.

I thought my friends would listen, most of them did for a bit but were probably used to hearing my shit.
But I made new friends of listeners I never knew existed. And I loved how I became friends with Gurdo's mates and him with me, I know him and Ozzy loved swapping tunes and the same with me and Stretch.

And of course all you lot who never got in touch but listened, I know me and Gurdo always were surprised when you told us you were listening.

And there is our guests, you had our airtime so no need to name you! But obviously Rachel Reid and Jo Doyle need thanking for putting up with us.

But the breakthrough came with Tom Watson`s first media appearance since one of his resignations.
We had high zeros listeners, and they loved us, Radio One and Six DJs the lot.
And then we went off air for a year.

People say “one day you will make it....”

I already have. I presented the Steve Zacharanda Radio Show with my mate Gurdo.

And it was a fucking blast.
So for one more time..
Gentleman get ready to crash ur custard trucks.
Ladies get ready to drop ur yoghurt pots.

Because the last ever Steve Zacharanda Radio Show is a two hour special at 7pm on Thursday.
And the after party is at Peaky Blinders at 9.05...
You are invited for a game of drunken OneStopARama!