For a number of years I have been contemplating the possibility of listing some of my favourite films here on mikeshaft.com. As you can imagine, I must have seen thousands of films in my life and I think it is only fair that I pay tribute to some wonderful entertainment.

Tomorrow night in Manchester as many people as possible who worked on the programme Open Air, will gather for a celebration to mark 25 years since the programme was on the air. I am truly looking forward to this event. Hopefully there will be a report and some photos. But for now, this is the story of Open Air and my part in it.

This week saw the 23rd anniversary of the launch of the UKs first legal Black Music station, Sunset Radio on the airwaves of Manchester. To celebrate this anniversary I am reprinting an article written by me and published in Radio & Music Magazine in June of 1984. I hope you enjoy it.

While updating stories for this new-look mikeshaft.com, I came across this paper I wrote in December of 2003. I think it makes interesting reading.

As someone who has been in the mainstream media for many many years, I have been very critical of the some programmes which purported to be for the ethnic communities. Some have argued that there should be no need for specialist programmes but in my opinion, the mainstream media does not do the ethnic communities justice. The programmes tend to be about them and not for them. They fail to cover the full spectrum of ethnic life in the UK and as a result leave most thinking viewers unsatisfied.

So there I am working at The Bay radio station in Lancaster when the phone rings and reception puts it through to the studio and tell me that it's Mark Sharman from Sky Sports. Immediately I think it's someone taking the micky, so I answer, yea this is Mike. A voice at the other end says "this is Mark Sharman from Sky Sports, we're doing some live basketball games and I'm told you're the man to talk to for the commentary".

Back in the day, I wrote to the BBC 1 Television programme 'Open Air' trying to get them to do a feature on the lack of black people on British television. It took some time and discussion but we eventually got it done. After the programme I was told that if anything ever came up they would be in touch. Eventually something did and they got in touch.