Hi everyone we’re live here with Damon Rose from BBC Ouch
And we’re just gonna have a little chat with him and share with you all
-Hi Damon Hello
-Thanks for joining us today -Thanks for coming to our country
Yes —It’s alright for it (laughter) Thank you, it’s quite lovely actually
So, we can just get right into it? Maybe you could tell us how you started BBC Ouch
How did we get it started? Oh, it all started with a meeting some years ago.
[inaudible]
I wouldn't be telling you but I am Good, so how did the name come to you?
The name literally, I know people say this, came to me in the shower.
One morning we had, oh goodness, the idea of coming up with a name
for a disability website, is a bit of a nightmare
for any kind of disability project, We desperately wanted, forgive me,
but we didn't want anything with the word "able" in it, for instance, because
it was such a, people do it a lot. Every single disability project
is "able" this, "able" that, work "able", media "able", radio "able".
Whatever, you know. So I was keen not to go through that
and I wanted something that had a bit of attitude as well.
I'm trying to think of other things we went through. Some of the ideas
are probably worth dwelling on a bit. Some of the names we came up with
as we went along, I remember at one point, when our working title was
Disability Noodle, I don;t know where that
came from. [Laughter]
Someone in the marketing department once decided
that a good name for it might be "I Dance to my Own Song"
and you sit there and you think, that's a bit floaty
It's a bit, I don't know, pretentious or something
[Laughter] Don't know how that one came about
but people come at disability from all sorts of different angles, don't they.
Clearly. Someone even suggested that "Minefield"
might be a really good name for Ouch because people think of it as, you know,
you can't say this, you can't say that. It's a bit of a minefield.
But, then we of course, had to point out that there's plenty of disabled people
that were unfortunately disabled in minefields.
So, perhaps it wasn't the best title. [Laughter}
So, what would you call a new disability website, Leah, that's what I want to know.
I would, just a period. I don't know. I think you guys did a
great job with what you came up with. I think it's perfect,
Thank you very much. -Yeah, absolutely.
-Can you think of the most memorable reaction you've gotten from an audience
or listener? Most memorable?
-Yeah, anything that really stands out to you?
-Funny, negative, positive, something that just pops in your head.
Oh, yeah, things aren't popping into my head right now.
I mean, it's always nice when we get people now, course, podcast's been running
10 years, but we get people who say, "you changed our life with your podcast.
We've never heard disabled voiced in that way before."
We had created a kind of radio show, that had never been done before, in that way
and it was really out there and really said, horrible things some times but
you know, quirky things and amusing things and it had a but of an attitude so a lot
of people have written to us over the years and said if it wasn't for the
podcast we wouldn't have the same kind of self-esteem we have now and wouldn't
really have gone down certain roads to becoming happy, really.
Which is, you know, very exciting. I don't know if everybody thinks like that
I'm sure they don't, but some are particularly gratifying.
They've happened. I guess that's why we do this disability media stuff, isn't it?
-Sure. Change attitudes, bring awareness. Yeah.
-So, anything else you want to add because I am pleased with our chat.
[Laughter] What else can I add?
Well, if anybody wants to come see our staff, it's bbc.co.uk/ouch
We do podcast, video, articles, you know. -Thanks for joining us.
Thank you. -Yeah.