My experiences on Bayrak TV and Radio
By Kathy Martin……
On Tuesday 12th January I received a private message from Can (pronounced Jan) Gazi on my Facebook page that he wanted to interview me for his weekly programme “Cup of Conversation”, my immediate reaction was “Wow – not used to all this – it happens to other people not nonentities like me!” He swiftly replied that he wanted to talk to me about Alistair, my late husband – how could I refuse?
Thursday 14th January at 13.45pm found me in the Bayrak studios in Lefkoşa/Nicosia being wired up to a small label badge sized microphone. As I sat clinging onto the photo of 
Alistair – when I was leaving home I felt it was very important that he shared the experience with me, something he would have never agreed to doing when he was alive – I was feeling quite relaxed as I have known Can for several years, as a listener to Radio Bayrak International and meeting him and several of the other DJs on a couple of visits we both made over the years. Also, as Alistair was the “Random Rambler” on Soner Kioufi’s KibKom Times, an online newspaper, and latterly the KibKom Forum, to which Can also contributed articles about his weekly programme “Cup of Conversation” guests, Can and I had met socially at parties Soner had arranged for his contributors.
When Denise Phillips, “Radio Angel”, who was to interview me at 15.00pm to record her 
“Main Event” show rang me to chat about coming on her show, she told me to forget about the cameras and just imagine I was just having a cup of coffee with a friend.
Once the show started I found it very easy to answer Can’s questions, the first opportunity I had to see the show was Saturday 23rd January 2016 when Can put a link to the “Cup of Conversation” show, on You Tube, onto my Facebook page. To be critical, I was shocked to see what I look like to others!! I knew I had put on weight BUT as I never look in a full-length mirror! Oh dear!!
The other thing I spotted were the mistakes I made when I said we first came here in 1975!! It was 2005, which I did get right the next time!! Also, as my daughter, Sasha, also pointed out to me I made a slight faux pas with the funeral music – the Queen song we played wasn’t “Barcelona“, it was “Bohemian Rhapsody“. And the song that was nearly 10mins long was “Bat out of hell” by Meatloaf, which was another of Alistair’s all time favourites – I was able to imagine him sitting playing imaginary drums and shaking his head in time to the music!
I lost all sense of time and had no idea how long the show was going to be.
Following on to this TV interview was my radio interview with Denise, with whom it was so easy to chat. The hardest part of her show was being restricted to 6 songs! It was very difficult deciding – apart from ‘Hallelujah’ sung by one of Alistair’s all time favourite singers Leonard Cohen.
All in all, I found the whole experience very interesting and as I continue to live my new life as a widow I am enjoying so many new experiences, which I will continue to publish on my blog pages and in the meanwhile I have pleasure to show below my TV appearance with Can Gazi.
You can watch the video below:
