CATHEDRAL AM

It's Cathedral AM this morning at Leicester Cathedral Visitor Centre. This bi-monthly networking breakfast brings together people working in, living in, or otherwise concerned with Leicester city centre. For the first time in a long while, I actually get there in time to have breakfast! There's a smaller turnout than usual today (maybe only half what we're used to) which host Canon Barry Naylor blames on "the July effect". I guess that means a lot of people are on holiday just now.

Our speaker this morning is John Florance (photo above, with Barry Naylor) from BBC Radio Leicester. He gives us a whistlestop tour of the past, present and possible future of local radio in general and BBC Radio Leicester in particular. Leicester was the first city in the UK to have its own radio station (from Nov 1967) and it pioneered certain aspects of radio broadcasting that we now take for granted, such as the on-air phone-in. John is very funny (if a bit risque for this time of the morning) and he provides an enlightening and entertaining 20 minute talk. At the end of the session I get the chance to tell him that BBC Radio Leicester's web page on Inter Faith Week was featured in a presentation to delegates at the Inter Faith Network UK national conference in London just last week. This web page was, in part, based on the content of an interview John conducted live with Noel Singh, Ibrahim Moghra and myself on the first day of that week in November last year.

Speaking of Inter Faith Week, this morning I meet Mark Murphy, who has recently been appointed General Manager at Highcross. After introducing myself, I speak with him about the possibility of Highcross once again mounting the Council of Faiths exhibition when Inter Faith Week rolls around again later this year. It's a friendly first meeting and he asks me to drop him a line soon, so that Julie Ann and I can explore this with him and his staff.