Caver Keith on the Radio (and TV)

I'm Nearly Famous 3

Following on from the Birmingham Mail article and my not so modest success on social media I was invited to appear on the Danny Kelly Show (which was being hosted by Rachel New) on BBC WM 95.6FM to talk about my caving adventures on Thursday 15th February.

After the interview I was walking down the steps from The Mailbox when I received a comment on one of my YouTube videos from a researcher for The One Show:

"Hi Keith, I work on The One Show and we are working on a Sport Relief challenge for the show. We'd love to use some of your amazing caving footage."

To illustrate the caving part of Sport Relief 2018's 'Mother of All Challenges' she was looking for caving clips and really wanted clips from Porth Yr Ogof - a South Wales cave that I've never videoed! I was planning a trip to Craig A Ffynnon on Sunday 18th to try out some new Fenix FD65 3800 lumen torches I've acquired to use as video lights.

5 seconds of fame

The team were easily persuaded to divert to Porth Yr Ogof and about 5 seconds of the video we took on the day appeared on The One Show on Wednesday 21st February.

The torches performed very well and proved to be excellent for video with a very white light, no hotspots and of course very, very bright. Oh, and Brendan tested out the waterproofing of the torches when he accidentally dropped one in the underground river. It survived a 10-minute dunking at a depth of 60cm while we frantically searched for it.

This is the video we took at Port Yr Ogof:

Keith

Caver Keith Videos on Social Media

I'm Nearly famous 2

Back in October I received an email from an intern working for Extreme on Facebook asking if he could use clips from Caving Claustrophobia Kill or Cure.

Extreme

I said yes and a shorter edit was uploaded to the Extreme Facebook page on 24th October last year under the title Claustrophobia Level 9000! To date it has been watched over 7 million times, shared 59,000 times, has had 35,000 post reactions and has attracted 33,000 comments.

Extreme Adventure

I was then asked if it was OK to upload it to the Facebook page Extreme Adventure. This was uploaded on 14th November under the title Claustrophobia over level 9000! This version has been watched 600,000 times with 2,700 shares, 1,300 comments and 1,200 post reactions.

More Extreme

Extreme obviously recognised a good thing and re-posted the video on 20th December. This time the statistics are:

• 20 million views
• 200,000 shares
• 62,000 comments
• 85,000 post reactions

LADBible

On 12th February I received the following message via the Dudley Caving Club Facebook page:

Hey guys,

I work at LADbible on facebook

We came across this video of you guys..

https://www.facebook.com/Extreme/videos/574940612847693/

I was wondering if we could make a news video about what you guys do

We think our audience will love it!

The video appeared on Facebook on 13th February under the title ARE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH TO TRY CAVING. It's a mix of clips from Caving Claustrophobia Kill or Cure, Best Extreme Caving Video Moments 2017 and Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot.

The statistics for this video are:

• 2.2 million views
• 7,500 shares
• 15,000 comments
• 12,000 post reactions

All of this exposure has led to mainstream media fame, but this will have to wait for the next instalment.

Keith

Daring cavers delve into UK's tightest, deepest and darkest spaces - Could you handle it?

I'm nearly famous

On 30th January I got an email from Newsflare who thought they might be able to sell one of my videos - Caver Stuck in The Lobster Pot, Sidcot Swallet. It sold twice, to Right This Minute and MSM. The videos did the rounds of social media and then on 5th February this message arrived via the Dudley Caving Club Facebook page.

"Hi there, I'm a reporter at the Birmingham Mail, would love to run a story about what you guys do and the amazing footage you have inside the caves, would that be at all possible? Thank you, Stephanie"

Several messages and a phone interview later this article appeared in the Birmingham Mail.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/daring-cavers-delve-uks-tightest-14252136#ICID=sharebar_facebook

To date the article has been shared 96 times via the Birmingham Mail website. It has also resulted in one potential new recruit to the caving club.

Keith