'I'm very creative when I'm blow drying my hair

Sally Aitchison

Metro Radio

SALLY Aitchison took a sales job at Radio Tees as a 20-year-old only because they offered her a company Fiesta. Now, as MD of Metro, she drives a purple Mercedes convertible with personalised number plate.

"When they offered me the Fiesta back in 1983, I was a receptionist and working in three other jobs - two pubs and Stockton market - just to keep my car on the road. A company car was irresistible!"

She'd never planned a career in radio. The receptionist job at the old Dovecot street studios - which involved dealing with guests, callers, presenters and homeless alcoholics who wandered in off the streets - was just a fill-in between school and university.

But she made the most of it and had her own rock show on the midnight shift. "I enjoyed that, and I was good at it, but I knew I'd never be really brilliant," says Sally.

But she turned out to be brilliant at selling advertising.

"In those days it was still so new that you still had to convince people that radio was a good place to advertise. But if you were good at it, you could almost write your own cheque."

Sally was persuasive. She became group sales head, then sales manager and sales director. Radio Tees became TFM, was taken over by Metro Radio Group, and then by Emap. In 1998 she was appointed MD of TFM and three years later, of Metro. It had been the jewel in the crown, but audiences and revenue were both falling,

"When I came here, there were a lot of hard decisions to be made. It was very challenging," says Sally.

Those expensive highlights hide a razor sharp business brain and the streak of ruthlessness that every good manager needs.

Within two years she had turned the station round. Ratings soared, revenue rose. Metro won the Station of the Year. And Sally won a Woman of Achievement Award for herself in the process.

Now, as a very visible sign of its success, Metro has moved from out of town Swalwell, next to the scrapyard, into swish new offices in the centre of Newcastle at 55 degrees north, on the Swan House roundabout - with stunning views over the city and state-of-the-art equipment inside.

"We knew for years that we had to move from Swalwell, but it was a question of the right place. And this is definitely the right place. Thirty-three million cars and 32,000 trains go past here each year. This building is just one big billboard. Commercial radio is a very competitive market now. It can't hurt for everyone to see our name."

Instead of hiding herself in a plush private office, Sally has her desk in the big open plan office with everyone else, partly to be part of the team, partly, no doubt, to keep an eye on things.

"I've done just about every job in the place and I still like being in the middle of it all. It's the best place to be. The knack is to make it seem like fun."

As well as the rising ratings and revenues, the other great change is the acceptance of commercial radio in the life of the city.

"Newspapers and TV stations wanted nothing to do with us in the beginning. Businesses weren't exactly suspicious, but they were certainly unsure of us. But now we have a track record, we work together, we've built partnerships with different businesses and organisations and we have developed a real sense of community,.

"Then there's our charity Just For Kids, all the events we organise. We're a real part of the city. And, of course, there's a whole generation now that's grown up with us. We're part of their lives."

Somewhere along the line, Sally stopped briefly to have two children, Catherine, now ten, and Christopher, seven. Behind every successful woman is usually another woman looking after her children and in this case it's Sally's mum, and Sally's very supportive husband, who works in the music business and is based at home. "I couldn't do it without them, but I try and make weekends sacrosanct," she says. "That's family time."

Because of the family back-up, Sally still lives in Stockton and commutes every day in her flash car.

"I actually like driving. It's great thinking time, very creative. My other great creative time is when I'm blow drying my hair.

"But I love my job. Coming to work is a joy."

Cath Ellington

TFM

WHEN Cath Ellington started her job at TFM in Stockton she was hopeless. "Absolutely hopeless! There were 52 sales people and for that first year I was always 52nd. They kept giving me targets and I kept not hitting them. I just couldn't do it. "

That was back in 1988. Cath had a degree in English and Media from Leeds University, had done her work experience in radio and wanted to be a producer but was offered a sales job. "I'd never thought of selling, I wanted to be creative," she says.

Luckily, her bosses - including Sally - decided to stick with her, and one day something clicked. Maybe it was the thought of the money she could earn. "I just announced that next year I would be top and I was - from 52nd to first."

And she never looked back....

Cath has followed Sally Aitchison as MD of TFM Radio and loves to tell new recruits that story. "Though I think it's much tougher for them now. Radio is a tough market place. There's much more competition.

"When I started out, it was all still very American - because that was the only radio advertising we knew. The ads themselves, our way of selling. But now we've developed a much more English way of doing things, which is much better."

Two years after starting at TFM she was sales manager, then moved to Metro in different posts until Sally went up to Metro as MD and Cath came down to Stockton. This year TFM was named as the Commercial Radio Station of the Year.

Even back in the late 80s when she started out, the North-East still trailed the rest of the country in its attitude to women. "But one of the best aspects of radio was that there was virtually no sexism here," says Cath. "There might have been one or two men who thought women were getting too far, too fast, but if they did, they kept their opinions to themselves.

"It may be because it was a young business, but it had a very open, equal attitude to people. It didn't matter what sex you were, all that counted was that you could do the job. And if you could do that, you had all the backing and encouragement you needed to go further.

"I still go out on sales calls. I like meeting clients. And I like the community aspect of the job, getting involved, building partnerships. But above all, it's a radio station. However seriously you have to take it, it's still a fun place to work. I just love it."

Cath took five months off for the births of her children Lucy, now nine, and Jacob, six. "Now we live just 20 minutes away in Darlington and I can drop them off at school on the way to work and spend a lot of time with them."

She, too, has a wonderfully supportive mother and has even decided to learn how to bake. "I'm a hopeless cook. But I decided I had to do something about it, so I learned to make a wonderful chocolate cake from Nigella's recipe and I make it every week.

"My children know I work, that I run a radio station but they also think I make the world's best chocolate cake. And that's important too."