I'm Quirky - John MacCalman

ABOUT THE AUTHORJohn was born in a big house next to Scotstounhill railway station, Glasgow, Scotland on 2nd of July 1947. He attended Hillhead High School but was expelled in the 6th year for truancy, as he preferred to spend his time at Scottish TV studios watching the production of their live lunchtime show The One O’clock Gang. His early railway influences resulted in an 8-year employment with British Rail (BR) after leaving school. BR put him through a 2-year course in Business Studies at the Central College of Commerce and Distribution in Glasgow as part of a Railway Studentship scheme. His enthusiasm for broadcasting had met with a major obstacle in finding a career entry point due to lack of experience, so he, along with a couple of friends started Radio Phoenix broadcasting to Forresthall Geriatric Hospital in Glasgow on a weekly basis. The Sound Broadcasting Act of 1972 presented the major opportunity for him with the commercial radio franchise for Glasgow being awarded to Radio Clyde. He was fortunate enough to join the pioneering team as a Production Assistant in November 1973. During his 34 years at Radio Clyde he became Production Controller, produced many award winning programmes, created the Kelvingrove Free Music Festivals and organised live broadcasts from the USA. He acted as Travel Editor taking opportunity to experience many overseas destinations. His enthusiasm for aviation resulted in several documentaries on the subject including “Tales from Kai Tak†about Hong Kong’s old airport. Parallel to this he became interested in the local music scene and formed Publishing and Management Companies to develop local talent. He travelled frequently to the USA West Coast ending up with Million Mile status on Northwest AirlinesIn 2007 he was made redundant by Bauer Media, the new owners of Radio Clyde, and took a year out to research a ten-part proposed TV series on aviation in Micronesia. This featured Air Mike – the Island Hopper at that time part of Continental Airlines. In 2008 he joined Travel 2 as a Sales Consultant advising UK travel Agents on worldwide travel. As part of this job he travelled to Australia and New Zealand many times. In addition he had a love of casinos as well as flying. So frequent trips were made to Las Vegas, and Australian cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Perth and Cairns. In November 2000 he took voluntary redundancy from Travel 2 and now works freelance consulting and writing.