Yes, that’s right. I’ve got a new job working for BBC England as editorial manager for the 40 BBC Sounds local audio rails covering every area of England. You’ll find yours – or a rail for either Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales – at the bottom of the BBC Sounds homepage or app, as long as you’ve signed in with your BBC account and you’ve shared your postcode with us (that’s how we know which rail to serve you).

I was on the launch team for BBC News Catch-Up for the BBC Sounds apps and website in late 2022. It was part of the wider rollout of Back to Back Sounds for on-demand speech content. I’m one of the presenters of an audio news bulletin – of between five and eight stories – followed by a curated selection of new or relevant podcasts and programmes from across the BBC.

After a few weeks of on and off work, I’ve finally relaunched my website/portfolio as something much more minimal — in fact minimalfyi is what I’ve sorta taken to calling it. It’s a very basic Hugo theme based on PicoCSS with some additions here and there so that I can host audio and audio playlists nicely (cos — you know — that’s the job I do). After a couple of years hosting my website using Hugo with a variety of themes, I think I understand enough Go to make this theme work — just about.

Went stateside. Spent loads, tipped more. Here’s a couple of photos that I took while we explored Manhattan and Brooklyn (also ever so briefly Staten Island and, while not pictured, Queens) 1.57mm f/1.8 1/3534sec ISO 32" 5.7mm f/1.5 1/120sec ISO 125" 9mm f/2.8 1/723sec ISO 32" 9mm f/2.8 1/995sec ISO 32" 1.

I took myself on the bus from Kendal on a day off all the way to Keswick to walk a few Wainwrights. It was mostly commuters and school pupils on the morning 555 bus I caught, before changing to the X6 towards Workington outside Booths in Keswick. Stopping off at what was once the Swan Hotel, I was perfectly positioned to begin a steepish climb to Barf, via Beckstones Gill and not the rock scree watched over by the Bishop of Barf.

Here’s a digital audio news bulletin I wrote, produced and voiced for Amazon Alexa devices for BBC News in May 2022. The green items are examples of extra content which can be accessed by saying “Alexa, More from BBC News” while listening to the previous story. Welcome to BBC News The cost of living sours as inflation hits 9% Why is inflation so high? Russian soldier admits war crime in Ukraine Commons Speaker says MP on bail will not attend Parliament BBC can publish MI5 agent story, says High Court Teachers in Afghanistan set up secret school for girls Afghanistan's secret school for girls (excerpt) Shopper creates petition to stop self-service tills JVT misses knighthood ceremony.

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It was mostly commuters and school pupils on the morning 555 bus I caught, before changing to the X6 towards Workington outside Booths in Keswick. Stopping off at what was once the Swan Hotel, I was perfectly positioned to begin a steepish climb to Barf, via Beckstones Gill and not the rock scree watched over by the Bishop of Barf. if (!

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One of the tricks of the trade in newsreading is having to read a bulletin to time. Radio is obsessed with timings and making sure things are to the second. The listeners who come back day after day bring you into their life routine - and they might even decide to go to work based on when something happens on air, at the same time, every day. Here’s an example of when I had to read to time on Christmas Eve, because the next programme on BBC Radio Cumbria was pre-recorded.

I was lucky to spend the best part of two years helping to create a new sound for BBC News' smart speaker briefings as part of a joint project of BBC News and BBC Voice and AI. The style we developed was taken on into the BBC’s current Interactive News service for smart speakers and it’s being taken into account for the future of the corporation’s radio news output.

Here’s an example of an interactive news bulletin I wrote and produced in September for Amazon Alexa devices, now with faux interactivity provided here by my slightly hacked together javascript playlist function! The audio that’s grey coloured would usually be available when you say the words, More from the BBC, so feel free to mouth them to yourself. Welcome to BBC News with Lee Macaulay Over half of Wales' population in lockdown by end of day Labour says most students must get to go home for Xmas Were the university Covid lockdowns predicted?

One of the things I’ve really come to appreciate during my time working on the BBC Voice News team is that we can be a bit more agile that other parts of the corporation when it comes to doing new things. I’m using the word agile specifically, bearing in mind the way it’s used in software development. One day back in March, when coronavirus was starting to become more of a concern outside of China - we had the idea to create an regular update for smart speakers with the very latest on Covid-19 for UK audiences through the BBC Sounds skill on Amazon Alexa.

One day back in March 2020, when coronavirus was starting to become more of a concern outside of China - we had the idea to create an regular update for smart speakers with the very latest on Covid-19 for UK audiences through the BBC Sounds skill on Amazon Alexa. At first, it was - roughly - the biggest story at the time, a UK roundup, the latest government advice during lockdown, a world roundup and whatever else we found interesting… all in between three to six minutes.

It feels like an eon ago since we’re in the middle of a global pandemic but there was an impeachment trial in the US earlier this year. Here’s how I covered it for our BBC News interactive audio bulletin.

The Westmorland Gazette is a newspaper for South Cumbria and the Yorkshire Dales which celebrated its 200th anniversary in May 2018. All sorts of famous writers and journalists have been involved in its history, including William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. I was able to take part in a week-long series of reports marking the milestone for BBC Radio Cumbria. First up, I went into the archives with Kendal historian Peter Holmes, where I even ended up finding myself among the pages.

Part megasale, part social gathering, part competition and part excuse to end some scran1, the Borderway Agri-Expo has become one of the UK’s biggest agricultural events and it’s held every year on the edge of Carlisle. I went along for BBC Radio Cumbria to meet some of the people taking part. Cumbrian dialect for food ↩︎

It’ll take you much more than a weekend if you really want to see a lot of what’s going on in Stockholm - but that’s all we had… We still managed to do f§erries, trains, saunas, nightclubs and government-owned off licenses (but these are not all featured in the video).

I was in charge of BBC Cumbria Live on the day that the Settle to Carlisle line fully reopened to passenger trains for the first time in 13 months. A landslip at Eden Brows near Armathwaite had moved 500,000 tonnes of earth underneath the track. The live page covered all the day’s activities celebrating the reopening including a visit from the Flying Scotsman.