BBC Essex: on track for 2012
By Gerald Main, Editor, BBC Essex
It's still five years away but there's already a real buzz of excitement and anticipation about the Olympics and Paralympics in Essex. BBC Essex's first special week-long radio broadcast on the Games at the end of November 2007 revealed a high level of local interest in the run-up to 2012 and a readiness among listeners to get involved.
Preparation for the Olympics couldn't be much closer to Essex: the Olympic village, stadium and many of the planned facilities are just over the county border. Each day, tens of thousands of Essex-based rail and road commuters pass through Stratford and witness the fast-changing landscape. So this is very much an Essex story.
BBC Essex's 2012 Olympics Week aimed to start a conversation with the audience around four broad Olympics-focused topics. The first of these looked at the opportunities that are emerging for the people of Essex – local businesses hoping to grab a slice of the cake; local authorities planning to transform their leisure and sporting facilities; youngsters, inspired by the Games, who dream of competing, and the more mature, who want to play their part by joining the army of volunteers.
The second strand concentrated on the Games themselves – the 'action'. Reporters spoke to past Olympians and even attempted to compete against would-be Olympians in the fields of archery, swimming and the 100 metres, inevitably losing at each contest.
Third, we looked at what the Olympics means to BBC Essex's audience and how they could become involved over the next few years. One of the more unusual appeals during the week was for extra bell-ringers to help 'ring in' the Olympics in 2012, with the aim of having the bells sounding in every church tower in the country at the time of the launch. Surprisingly, the phones didn't stop ringing following the broadcast.
The final theme tackled the issue of legacy. Will the Olympics transform Essex's sporting facilities and inspire us all to become more active? Will Essex be able to 'kick on' after 2012, or will life be much as it was before once the famous flame is extinguished?
Now the conversation has begun, BBC Essex will revisit all of the above strands regularly. With plans already under way for Essex's 2008 Chinese Cultural Festival as the Beijing Games end and the London Olympiad begins, BBC Essex is proving to be a key source for news and information about the Olympics in this region – and it will continue to be in the run-up to 2012.
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