Radiothon 2020

It’s been two weeks since the Radiothon so I thought I’d give you an hour by hour account of what actually happened. This has been a difficult year for many people so far and therefore we felt it would be difficult to beat last years total of 25,363.11€. Preparations had gone really well. We had every single hour sponsored, we had 15 varied and amazing auction prizes(the most we’d ever had) and over 50 raffle prizes(once again the most we’d ever had). So that was already over 100 companies or individuals who’d stepped up to help us. Now was the time for us to get the message out there for people to help in any way they could.

7am, Hour 1: We were greeted by Grieg and Sam from the newly reformed Anchor Bar San Agustin. Now if you’re going to be broadcasting for 36 hours the last thing you want is alcohol particularly in the first hour and remember it had only just gone 7am! These boys were having none of it as we were made to taste test some non-alcoholic beer against alcoholic. Non-alcoholic beer has come a long way since the 1980’s when I grew up with Kaliber. Suffice to say we got the test wrong and if that wasn’t enough the boys brought in some of their special shots and all this before most people were awake.

8am, Hour 2: Mark Racine from Electro Marine who have been based in Mallorca for the last 25 years and have established themselves firmly in the power generation and DC distribution market for boats of all sizes on the island. Mark had kindly brought in sausage rolls and a banoffee pie which was just what we needed after drinking first thing. He is a regular listener to the station and had brought a great list of songs.

9am, Hour 3: A2 Dental Portals. Anna comes from Orlando Florida which is always a great starting point of conversation. She’s moved around various different countries including Germany, Poland and Spain. She obtained her Degree in Dentistry in Valencia (UCV) and then returned to Germany where recognized her degree in order to be able to practice there as an Dentist. After a year, missing Spain, she moved to Mallorca and fell in love with the island. We also talked about the new protocol in place for dentists which as we know are always very clean but are doubly so now.

10am, Hour 4: The guys from Pelion Consulting, who are Yacht privacy and maritime cyber security specialists, couldn’t make it in but it gave us a chance to start playing requests that people had asked for. There was also a steady stream of people very kindly dropping in food and drink to help us along.

11am, Hour 5: Nicky Landymore had literally launched her website the night before called Nicky’s Healthy Lifestyle. Her goal is to help as many people as she can worldwide to learn simple daily healthy habits that lead to a sustainable healthy lifestyle & body confidence. A very interesting chat considering we’d already drank alcohol and eaten cakes and sausage rolls that morning. Nicky is very passionate about her work and someone worth talking to about improving your health, lifestyle and confidence.

12 Midday, Hour 6: unfortunately Debbie from the Boathouse in Palma couldn’t make it but she sent in some songs for us to play which we did with other requests we were getting throughout the day. We also had delivered an amazing case of wine kindly donated by Isabel and James from Revival in Son Bugadellas which we immediately put up as an auction prize.

1pm, Hour 7: The guys at Nauti Parts had just got a massive delivery of Seadoo Jet Skis so they couldn’t get in but said they’d come later. They sent in some songs too and we had a delivery of cakes very kindly baked by one of our oldest listeners, 78 year old Ida. Who doesn’t look a day over 50 by the way.

2pm, Hour 8: Bosuns Locker were running around really busy and set us a full list of songs culminating in You’ll Never Walk Alone for Scouse Ian. Jeanine from Es Jardi restaurant kindly called in with a voucher for dinner for two. We’d also asked Paul from Key West in Palma Nova to set up a bar outside, because the hotel was shut and we wanted people to be able to have a drink. Also the guys from a Cancer Support Group Mallorca popped in to say hello and delivered us a beautifully baked cake by another listener the lovely Helen O’Pitt.

3pm, Hour 9: The guys from Crocodile Properties came in to chat about the housing market and how they were looking for new listings. We also had a visit from the Tatasu Turf Cutters and Universal Náutic who were a golfing team that had won last years Pinmar Golf. Part of their prize was to donate money to charity and they’d very kindly chosen us. What followed was totally unbelievable as their donation was 4,575€! Massive thanks to Ady, Martin, Christian, Steven, Leon and Paul. To be honest that was a great lift to us and gave us the momentum to push on. We now believed we could possibly beat last years total.

4pm, Hour 10: Everybody knows the Corner Bar in Palma run by Matt and Penny. It’s a great meeting point and a great bar to spend the night in too. We had a great hour with them playing a great list of songs.

5pm, Hour 11: Byron from Something Borrowed is an all round good bloke. They supply anything for weddings, parties and any other celebration. I used them for a friend of mines wedding and I can’t recommend them highly enough. He is also a DJ and is always sending me music especially the long songs that we wanted to play through the night.

6pm, Hour 12: Helen and Sam from Delicioso had bought in some of their delicious food and a challenge for us to make a cocktail. Mine unfortunately wasn’t as good as Ayesha’s according to the judges. Good fun with the girls and a good hour of music.

7pm, Hour 13. A third of the way through! Helen and Ian from Real Homes have been big supporters of the radio and are always very generous when it comes to anything involving charity. Unfortunately Helen was in the UK but we spoke on the phone. Ian was in the studio though and he was making us his now traditional Rum and cokes to give us a lift. There was a great atmosphere with people milling around the studio, office and the terrace outside.

8pm, Hour 14: Guillermo from Paella Lover is one of the most passionate foodies I know. He’s from Valencia and that means he makes the best Paellas. He very kindly gave us a prize of a cooked paella for 6 to raffle off in his hour too.

9pm, Hour 15: Meg from Stick No Bills was such an interesting person. They are the number one destination for vintage and retro poster art and retro travel poster design. When the war ended in Sri Lanka in 2009 Meg, a former insurgency/security risk analyst, and her husband Phil; an advertising photographer and tsunami survivor, wanted to ‘be the change they wanted to see in the world’ by doing something good for the country and good for them; something original and uplifting that would raise positive awareness about this remarkable island’s rich heritage and stunning natural beauty all around the world. Go to their website or visit one of their galleries to see their amazing collection.

10pm, Hour 16: A couple of our regular listeners Phil and Jaimee took this hour and we chatted and played songs. Last year they bid and won the cruise that we had as an auction prize.

11pm, Hour 17: Lizzie Graham from Natura Cavall had come especially from Manacor to see us which was lovely. She and all the gang there had just completed a 19 day horse ride around the whole of the island. Which to my knowledge had never been done before and they were raising money for the Allen Graham charity.

12 Midnight, Hour 18: Golf pro Peter Ledwidge had told us he couldn’t make it as he was organising a golf tournament that day and it happened to have a free bar. Surprisingly though he made it sober and we had a great chat about golf. Peter knows his stuff and is a great golfing coach too.

1am – 6am, Hours 19 – 24. Were sponsored by Tot Fruti, La Casita Del Mar, ThreadWorks Palma, Premier Design & Build, DreamMakers and Calvia Vet. Unsurprisingly these guys didn’t make it in but we plugged them all and played the songs they asked for. This is what we call the witching hours where it’s just us, it’s dark and you’re tired so it’s hard to keep awake. Lots of people had sent us loads of long songs including Neale Pilkington, Stuart Wood, Stuart Bray and Byron Leversuch.

7am, Hour 25: Paul from Wow yachts brought us champagne and orange juice to wake us up a bit. The sun was up now so we were back in the groove and looking forward to a busy day.

8am, Hour 26: Kev and Lara from El Toro Foods had very kindly brought us in some breakfast. We had a good chat about their new place in Santa Catalina market and Kev’s escapades as a boat captain.

9am, Hour 27: Craig from Palma Jump brought some amazing cookies that his wife had kindly baked. With their facility not yet open because of the lockdown we were looking at all their plans for getting open.

10am, Hour 28: Nick and Charles from Premier Pools & Gardens had brought us in an eating challenge. There were five cakes that all had different flavorings in them that we had to guess. The fish one wasn’t great! Big thanks to the lovely Helen O’Pitt for helping with that, we love you Helen!x

11am, Hour 29: Stuart at Bray Marine is a regular listener and always sends us a good list of music. We talked about the current state of the yacht brokerage and charter industry as Stuart is also a Captain. Nick from Yachting Gives Back popped in to give us an update on the charity and thanked everybody for all their help.

12 Midday, Hour 30: Mr Lee the Barber popped in between appointments and we hit on a great idea for next year. He’ll actually set up a mobile barbers to do haircuts while you wait. Can’t believe we hadn’t thought of it before.

1pm, Hour 31: Andy from Liquid Nano blinded us with all the science that goes into all their products. You should look them up because right now with hygiene high on everyone’s agenda they’re a must. The boys from the brand new cocktail bar Origin came in with some unbelievable cocktails for us to try. They open this week so I recommend you pay them a visit on Son Matias beach.

2pm, Hour 32: It was the first time that the boys and girls from the PQ Academy had got together since the lockdown began in March. They treated us to some monologues and songs. They’re a very talented bunch and I hope they will be able to put on their Fame show that I know they’ve worked so hard on.

3pm, Hour 33: Elissa and Mikey from the World of Wine had very kindly set up a bar outside and weren’t short of takers! Mikey sent in a great list of songs and we tried to fit in as many as we could. Always good to chat with them about what’s the go to wines this year.

4pm, Hour 34: Simon from the Meat and Fish Society unfortunately couldn’t be with us as the boat he’s cheffing on was in Croatia. He did though organise a great list of songs for the whole hour. He was listening with all the crew in Croatia along with the owner of the boat a certain Roger Taylor, yes him of Queen fame! Simon also very kindly doubled up his auction prize as we had two bidders who were battling all afternoon. Thank you Simon!

5pm, Hour 35: Hugh Jones from the HSJ clinic was in and we talked about all the treatments they offer in their clinic in Bendinat. He had a real mixture of great music during his hour.

6pm, Hour 36! Tony and Sammi from Deep Blue Sea Training were our final guests and we chatted about all their courses as they had just reopened after the lockdown. It was completely manic in the studio now and bids were coming in left, right and centre. At 6.55 we said our thanks to everyone that had helped us and it all got a bit emotional as we gave out the total. Unbelievably we’d reached 27,586.50€ beating last years record of 25,363.11€. We knew that we still had some more money to collect but could we break 30,000€?

Since then we’ve caught up on our sleep and collected all the raffle tickets and money. Yesterday we drew the raffle and all the winning tickets are on our Facebook page and webpage. After collecting everything I am delighted to say we raised 30, 948.82€! Which is 7,737.20€ each to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Son Espases children’s intensive care unit, Cancer Support Mallorca and Yachting Gives Back.

We are blown away as we are in such difficult times right now, so thank you to each and everyone of you that helped us.

Take care everyone and enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday07.30-11http://www.radioonemallorca.com.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him atrprior@globobalear.com