I was gutted when they announced Chris Moyles was to be axed from the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. He was appealing to the wrong demographic. Radio 1 is apparently supposed to attract 18-25 year olds and yet “old” men in their forties, like me, were clinging onto their youth and still enjoying the daily banter from the larger-than-life Yorkshireman.

So where to go then? I tried Radio 2 (despite his devoted audience Terry Wogan was never going to be for me), Radio 4 (made listening to the radio feel too much like work), Radio 5 Live (all over the place), and even local radio (couldn’t cope with the adverts). It was then that I first came across podcasts. Podcasts are basically pre-recorded radio shows, but the beauty of them is that you can choose exactly what you want to listen to and when. I discovered that on iTunes there are literally thousands available.

So I found ‘Coffee Break Spanish’ and started to learn Español. I discovered The Fantasy Football Scoutcast to feed my unhealthy addiction to fantasy football. And I really enjoyed ‘The Tim Ferriss Show’ because I love his books (‘The Four Hour Work Week’ changed my life, but that’s another story…), and he interviews some fascinating people.

I also looked to see whether there were any good healthcare podcasts. There is Radio 4’s Inside Health and a number of other examples from the “pills and piles” school but I couldn’t find anything for someone like me working in healthcare.

When I started up Ockham Healthcare one of the things I really wanted to do was see if we could create such a podcast: one about the delivery of healthcare specifically targeted at people working in healthcare. I wanted it to provide examples of good practice that could go into more depth than a written summary, which could really get underneath how people were able to make the changes they did, and overcome the resistance that they inevitably faced along the way.

But where do you start? Is making a podcast easy or difficult? Well, it turns out there are various technical challenges, but nothing insurmountable. Yes, I have found myself on the end of a frustrating Skype call with someone miming ‘I can’t hear you!’, and yes I have had to record a 30 minute call in 5 minute bursts because I didn’t realise the ‘free’ version limited you to 5 minutes of recording. But, as it turned out, there was plenty of freely available information on the internet to get me through.

On February 9^th 2016 we published on iTunes the first episode of ‘The Ben Gowland Podcast’ – a name which, unsurprisingly, I came up with myself. We publish a new episode every week and I have had the privilege of speaking to some fantastic people along the way. These have, so far, ranged from a practice manager in Gateshead explaining how their work with the local community saw her organising Christmas dinner and a tea dance, to finding out what is going on behind the scenes in the development of the largest ‘super-practice’ in England.

Will anyone listen to a healthcare podcast? It is early days but it is beginning to look like they will. More and more people are listening every week. Have a listen here and let me know what you think. Be brutally honest with me, I want it to get better and I can take it. Plus if you think there is anyone I should be interviewing on the podcast let me know.

In the end I think the controllers of Radio 1 did me a favour when they axed Chris Moyles. It was clearly time for me to recognise I am no longer in my twenties, and to “update” my listening behaviour. If they hadn’t I am not sure I would have even discovered podcasts, let alone have my own show. You could say it changed my life…