Natasha Seery, with Milo, Willa and Eva

The Ninja Mum who's a hit on the airwaves

Bored of long car journeys? Why not start a kids' radio station, asks Dan Carrier

IT is the type of scoop any self-respecting tabloid newshound would love: an exclusive interview with singer Rod Stewart, in which the 61-year-old performer reveals he is desperate to be a father again.
This was just one of the snippets gleaned from a host of celebrity interviews by children for a new radio station set up by a Queen’s Crescent, Gospel Oak, mother of three.
Other names who were quizzed by local children include eccentric inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, cardboard headed comedian Frank Sidebottom and Green fingered aristocrat Lord Melchett.
It was on a long car journey that the idea came to Natasha Seery, who has established the internet-based radio children’s show.
Her three children Milo, 8, Willa, 5 and baby Eve, eight months, were holed up in the back: endless rounds of I-Spy and pointing out aspects of motorway scenery was no longer keeping their attention.
To make matters worse, the selection of story tapes the Seery family had on offer had been heard many times before – and no one could agree on what to listen to next. When the radio was suggested, two voices and one gurgle agreed in unison: boring!
“All we had was Radio 4,” Mrs Seery says, “a station not known for being child friendly.”
But as Natasha drove during a Christmas holiday trip, she began thinking. Why wasn’t there a radio station aimed at kids? Even better, why wasn’t there a radio station produced by kids?
Mrs Seery earned notoriety last year as the ‘Ninja Mum’, who was so worried about the sort of school dinners her family was eating in their Primrose Hill school, she sneaked into the school kitchens, rifled through the freezers and discovered a store of Thai chicken which was not only past its sell-by date, but had been banned from sale in Britain. This set in motion – long before Jamie Oliver took an interest in school dinners – a decision by the Town Hall to rethink their dinner policy.
She discovered Disney had tried to get a license for a radio station aimed at children’s broadcasting but had been turned down, so she set about producing an hour long show, to be put on the web, herself. Roping in friends in the music industry with production experience and studios to hand, turning to her son and his mates as interviewers – and a new radio show was born.
The idea of a programme by kids for kids epitomises the philosophy behind Natasha’s idea of approaching the problems parents face today.
It started with food. “I am a keen cook,” she says. “I have always been interested in what food does to us, and that is why I was not prepared to let my children eat things that may be bad for them.”
From campaigning against the food her children were eating, Natasha has turned her attention to the trash fed her children through the TV.
“They are bombarded with trash through the TV – the programmes are often very poor in terms of quality, and also in terms of the values they promote. Then you get the hundreds of adverts between each programme. Add to this the number of hours children want to watch and it is not a healthy situation. I thought it might be nice to have some control over what is being broadcast to our children – and even better if they are doing it themselves.”
And although it would be a first for Britain for the station – currently working as a podcast on the internet, while plans for selling the idea to a station with a broadcast license are formalised – children’s stations are well established elsewhere. Natasha said: “America, China, Russia, France – they all have children’s radio stations. It is time we had the same thing here.”

www.radiochildren.com

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