Phil Pinnington - My Job Talk

Phil Pinnington ~ My Job Talk

Thirty years of self-employment were summarised in thirty seconds: – delivering media related courses and developing individual’s preparation and presentation skills.Phil then ably demonstrated such skills with alacrity, passion, enthusiasm and good humour.

As a variation on the theme of a ‘my job talk’, Phil focussed on the early years of his ‘unplanned career’ during which he was lucky to meet many strange, weird and wonderful people and had a lot of fun in four different roles.

First, working for a firm of stockbrokers, the trading floor of the Liverpool Stock Exchange became his oyster.It was a magical world of ‘Stock Jobbers’ and strange practices.Above the trading floor, the Gallery was inhabited by ‘The Members” ~ individuals from a variety of backgrounds including veterans from two World Wars, as well as an assortment of sportsmen, millionaires, eccentrics, lunatics and charming rogues!Phil’s first instruction to buy shares in ‘Burbo Bank’ involved him shouting that loudly on the Trading Floor to bemused looks and silence ~ until someone explained that Burbo Bank is a sandbank in the Mersey estuary!

Next, a period of journalism with the Cheshire and North Walesgroup of Newspapers working on the profitable Cheshire Observer during the golden age of local papers before joining BBC Radio Merseyside.During his time with the BBC he produced and presented ‘Morning Merseyside’.This involved a 4 am start for a programme that was broadcast from 6 – 8.40am as part of the offering that made Radio Merseyside the most listened to station outside London at the time.Phil’s interviews with individuals, both local and nationally well known, were promised as a theme for a future talk to Rotary!

Finally, before his self-employment, Phil became the Founder Director of the Ariel Trust.This was set up to provide opportunities for small groups of young people to gain work experience in radio broadcasting.It involved a 12-week course, the first half of which provided background knowledge to enable the second half to be devoted to the production and recording of a programme of broadcast standard.Attracting individuals with a wide range of abilities who worked together as a group, it soon became apparent that the Trust was able to provide an effective vehicle for the development of a wide range of essential communication skills.Such skills were often needed by the young people involved and were eminently transferable whether or not group participants entered radio as a career. This made the Trust’s activities extremely valuable and Phil’s involvement in it, highly rewarding.

Vic Croxson

21 March 2017