Insomnia
Music for the awoken
Queue opening ident for the darling of my teenage years — a 1-hour weekly radio programme inviting prominent cultural figures to weave their life story through 10 pieces of music.
The programme was pitched to BNR / Radio St Zagora and ran from 2007 to 2014, when it moved to Radio Plovdiv as "Moleskin" along with original creator Viktor Yankov and producer-presenter Stefka Tsaneva, among other colleagues. The last episode was aired in 2019.
During its first iteration as Insomina, we featured a plethora of musicians, artists, authors, journalists and actors, including Hilda Kazasyan, Todor Kolev, Beloslava, Doni, Neti, Georgi Lozanov, Irina Florin, Ivan Zvezdev, Deo, Svilen, Vanya Shtereva, Nikolay Urumov, Krastyo Lafazanov and many others.
A simple production (from today's POV), Инсомния was a feat for two people to produce on a weekly basis. From the initial sonic branding, procuring contacts, recording interviews to digitising magnetic tapes, editing and mixing the programme, it was a privilege to learn the ropes of radio production in this way.
The recording session with Todor Kolev (a major TV, film and music personality of the 80s and 90s) gathered everyone who worked in the studio block to listen in, and remains a highlight of my time working on the programme.
Client: Bulgarian National Radio / St Zagora
Head of Entertainment: Teodora Ivanova
Head of Music: Violeta Todorova
Creators: Viktor Yankov, Vasil Dzhagalov
Producer-presenters: Viktor Yankov, Vasil Dzhagalov, Stefka Tsaneva, Katerina Kondova, Yana Philipova,
Editor & Mixer: Vasil Dzhagalov