Damon Rose - BBC's Ouch!

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 all brighter for it.

[Laughter]
Thank you, it’s been quite lovely actually

So, we can just get right into it.
Maybe you could tell us

how you started BBC Ouch!

How did we start it? So, it all
started with a meeting some years ago.

I think it was back in about 2001,
we had a TV show on national station BBC2

Which was a disability magazine show
that was on every week

and it was filmed at the time the internet
was beginning to grow.

[inaudible]

And it could be a two way conversation

It was a bit like the website Ouch!
which was always a little bit different.

[inaudible]

Very keen not to be wordy

[inaudible]

We wanted to do disability at the time
in the way that disabled mates might talk

about it down at the pub.
You know, that sort of thing.

So we set it up.

[inaudible]

And that went on 8 or 9 years
when we went on to BBC news,

we took one leg of what we were doing,
which was the journalism side of things

and we concentrated on that and kept
the podcast as well, which we do

[inaudible]

So that's where we are these days.
-And you're happy with the way things are going?

Yeah but I'm standing in the BBC foyer
so if I wasn't happy

I wouldn't be telling you.
[Laughter}

But I am.

Good.
Good, so how did the name come to you?

The name literally, I know people say this
literally did come 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 at the time.

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 hear,
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 we 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 stuff, it's bbc.co.uk/ouch

We do podcast, video, articles, you know.
-Wonderful. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.
-Yeah.