Keeping It Real - January 2008

Bouncers and 2008

Now that we are through the storm of excitement which is Christmas and New Year, its time for me to reflect on the last year and look forward to what 2008 may bring.

I think some of the most important and interesting things which emerged from last year for me was the success of Northern Hype, my introduction into podcasting and my luck in having such great flat mates.

The people you end up living with in student halls or university managed flats like the ones I have lived in since I started my course are almost certain to have a massive influence on how happy you are while you are away from home. I am well aware that it’s a bit of a lucky dip but I have certainly been very fortunate.

I know quite a few people who don’t get on with some of their flat mates and it really doesn’t make life easy. I feel very sorry for anyone who suffers from this because when you are living miles from friends, family and home comforts the last thing you need is aggro from the people you have to spend hours with every day.

All six of us in Flat 30 get on very well and therefore deliberately spend a lot of time together in the living room having a laugh. We all keep each other amused and if any one of us is having an off-day the rest of us do our best to cheer them up.

For me the biggest success of 2007 has to be ‘Hype’. The six members of the Northern Hype team, including myself, have done thirteen Friday nights in the Independent night club since we started in September. We have a regular group of people who attend including locals, students and our own friends.

We all feel much attached to the club and its staff having spent quite a bit of time with them. One of the most interesting things for me has been talking to the ‘bouncers’ or ‘Door Staff’ as they are now officially titled. We have some regular ones, Keith and Charlie who are there every week plus others like Paul and Simon who are there most weeks. Some of the stories they tell are very interesting and amusing although mostly not recountable in print!

I have always wondered whether ‘bouncers’ are as hard in character as they look but having talked to the guys it has become clear to me that they are nice blokes who are simply there to protect us all. As far as I’m concerned they should not be seen in a negative light because unless you are causing trouble you have nothing to worry about. If you are causing trouble then you deserve to be dealt with. Even so they are fair and don’t use violence unless it is absolutely necessary. In the last weeks I have seen quite a few people get removed from the club but there has been virtually no force used just calculated authority.

I think what amazes me most is that these guys work incredibly long hours. They all have other jobs and often have to get up at five or six in the morning to go to their ‘day job’ having been in the club until four in the morning.

To take ‘Hype’ into 2008 we plan to book a big name band once every four weeks or so rather than book lots of small bands. This is simply because small bands don’t bring a crowd with them and they cost us money because we have to pay them and a sound technician. Therefore we are planning to get bigger names that will bring a crowd on top of our regulars. This will make the club busier and therefore make for a better night for everyone involved.

My new foray into podcasting seems to be proving a success. I have had well over one thousand downloads of the four shows currently online. This is a lot more than I was hoping for and has proved quite a surprise to me. I feel like I’m making progress in deciding what kind of show to settle on and its looking more and more likely it will be a mixture of discussion and general humorous banter with different guests each week. I will try and keep each show within a vague format and by having recurring features the show should be recognisable but not samey. I’m hoping to get the next one recorded in my first week back in Sunderland.

I have been writing this monthly column since December 2006. In that time I feel my writing style has changed and developed into quite a personal ‘spoken’ way. People say this makes the column easy to read which I am pleased to hear however it has presented a small problem when I come to writing academic essays at Uni. Language such as ‘I think’ and ‘in my opinion’ is not acceptable in academic essays and I am now trying to learn to write in a more impersonal way such as ‘it could be argued’ or ‘this essay will look at’. I wouldn’t say this is a big issue, only that it is interesting for me to learn how to write in different was so as to be appropriate for the subject.

The last semester has been very busy because I had five modules a week therefore I was in Uni for at least four hours a day. This next semester which begins two weeks after I get back should be a lot easier as I only have 2 modules. Because I will have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off each week I plan to make use of my time doing extra activities such as Utopia FM, podcasting, live TV and hopefully some work experience. I know it’s very important that I do something useful with the time rather than sleeping in late or sitting about drinking tea! (But I’m sure I will find time for that anyway). I wish everyone all the best for 2008 and I’ll be back next month with the next ‘keep it real’.

Keeping It Real - December 2007

Venturing into TV and podcasting

It’s less than three weeks until Christmas and I will be home in less than two. It seems daft to be returning home again so soon after being back for Radio Orkneys children in need show. This was as usual, a really enjoyable community event for which I was lucky to be involved. The fast approaching deadlines are proving a bit stressful as I still have a lot of work to do between now and home time. Nevertheless, I’m still really enjoying life here and although I’m really looking forward to coming home, I will miss the lads in flat 30 over the festive period.

As well as the essays and various other academic studies, I have been busy working on some other projects which are more fun but still beneficial to my career. The student radio station, Utopia FM, has been recruiting new management for the next three weeks of broadcasting and I have won the ‘head of training and development’ position. I am responsible for helping people with a little or no radio experience to improve their skills in anything from editing to driving the desk. Nearer the time of the broadcast in May I will listen to the demo tapes and, along with the Programme Controller and Station Manager, give feedback and ultimately help decide on the final schedule.

I have also been getting involved in the new Sunderland student T.V. station that’s being set up by one of my friends. He aims to broadcast a weekly show over one of the spare network channels recently installed into the university halls. This will be a great opportunity for a lot of people, including myself, to get some extra hands-on experience of live TV. This will build on what I have learned in my TV studio modules both last year and this. At the moment we are working on a ten minute children’s show called ‘Fun Time’. This is proving to be great fun and very interesting as we are all getting a chance to try our hand on the cameras as the vision mixer, floor manager, director etc. The whole thing is also a great team building exercise. My only real problem with TV is that unlike most radio shows, it takes a lot of people and a heck of a lot of time to produce a programme. At times I find it a little frustrating because it always takes so long to set up the studio just to record two minutes of TV, where a lot more radio could be made in a fraction of the time. Having said that, I do really enjoy the module, and as my tutor said the other day; now that I know how TV works, I can watch bad TV and still get some enjoyment from it when I see them make mistakes.

Perhaps the most exciting thing which I’m embarking on at the moment is podcasting. I remember one of my computing teachers, Russell Manson, telling me when I was at school that I should have a go at it. I always thought it was going to be too difficult, and I suspect there was an element of laziness as well. Anyway, he told me that it was an exciting new thing and in light of my interest in radio, I should give it a go.

He was right and I have now begun to produce a fortnightly podcast called ‘The Rory Auskerry Show’. The podcasting process is actually quite simple once you have been shown what to do. Basically you need somewhere to host the mp3 file online, (I use a site called switchpod.com which is free and easy to use), you also need an iTunes account which is also free and very straightforward to set up. Once you have got this organised it’s just a case of recording your podcast, either at home on a portable mic or better still in a studio, uploading it to your host site and ‘pinging’ it to iTunes.

I have decided I’d like to experiment with lots of styles of radio show, and because a podcast isn’t broadcast it doesn’t need to conform to the usual broadcasting standards for quality and content set by OFCOM. Because I have access to broadcast quality studios and editing facilities I am able to make the technical quality sound pretty professional. As for the content I’m aiming to cover quite a lot over the course of the next few months.

Last week I produced a half hour show with Ian, one of the lads who came to Orkney last summer. In the show we chat about the trip to Orkney, (including the boat journey half way to Auskerry), some news stories which amused me and the ‘Kirby’ game that resulted in a broken front window, as well as various other things. He didn’t hold back and as a result I think the show is honest and funny, if at times a little explicit.

I hope that this does not put anybody off the shows as a whole because the next podcast will be totally different. I’m going to be joined by two of the most vocal students in my power, politics and the media seminar. Like my self, Caroline and Chris get quite heated during class debates and are both quite willing to play devil’s advocate over topics like Iraq, terrorism, religion and climate change. This show will be a properly organised, professional radio debate and therefore very different from the show with Ian.

Overall I’m aiming to produce a portfolio of work demonstrating that I can take the lead role in a variety of radio shows. It will also help me to discover exactly what I am best at, and what types of shows I enjoy doing the most.

Well it looks like that’s it from me until January. All that remains to be said is happy Christmas and I wish everyone a very good new year. I hope you will have a listen to the podcast, and I will now get back to my essays. Cheers.

Keeping It Real - September 2007

If you’re reading this on the day it’s published I will be leaving Orkney tomorrow on my journey back to Sunderland to begin my second year. In am really excited and very much looking forward to getting back to my ‘other life’.

This is not to say, however, that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed being in Orkney for the summer holidays. It’s been a busy three months cramming in five weeks full time work at Radio Orkney, helping mum and dad on Auskerry with fencing, building a garden wall, general maintenance and in the last week, bringing the peat home. We have also had a lot of friends and family up to visit and I have had some of my own friends from school out to Auskerry for a camping weekend. We do this every summer as it’s a chance to have a bit of ‘lad’s time’ and get away from the town.

I have also had five friends up from university to visit Orkney, and particularly Auskerry, but unfortunately they never quite made it that far. They arrived on the Scrabster boat on the Friday night and we planned to spend the weekend on the mainland doing a bit of partying, then go to Auskerry on Monday morning and have a couple of days camping before they headed home on Wednesday. But sadly even the best laid plans can be ruined by the weather and that’s exactly what it did. On Sunday morning we had a nice day cycling out to Scapa and in the afternoon we loaded the Creole with the supplies we had bought on Saturday ready for Auskerry. By Monday morning the weather had broken and it was raining so hard that we were all soaked through by the time we got from the house to the boat. Mum and a couple her friends on holiday from Spain were on the boat too so some of the lads went below decks with the luggage as there was not space in the wheelhouse. It was a very windy day and it soon became apparent it was going to be a choppy trip, not the sort you spend sitting on the forward deck admiring the view! Anyway, we started to head up the string and my mate Mcduff and I were out on deck by the wheelhouse using our phones to film our own version of the BBC TV programme, Trawlermen. One of the videos showed Mcduff walking along the side of the wheelhouse and saying in a Peterhead accent; “It’s a pretty course day like, but err, we have to catch some fish or we can’t pay the crew.” Then he turned away from the sea, looked into the camera and said, “You can see how rough it is.” At which point a wave licked over the bow, seeing it through the camera, I ducked into the wheelhouse, and he got wet. We thought it was hilarious and I was really enjoying the trip despite being soaked from the rain.

However some of the ‘crew’ were not having such a great experience and when a wave slightly steeper than the rest knocked the boat enough for the pile of boxes in the cabin to collapse, I began to think it was time to call it off. It was perfectly safe, but it wasn’t much fun for some and it would have been a nightmare trying to get people dry and put tents up in the poor weather so when mum and Smith made the decision to turn back I was disappointed but relieved at the same time. It was a real shame for the lads who travelled miles up the UK just to get a misty glimpse of the east side of Shapinsay, but that’s just what happens sometimes.

They all enjoyed Orkney and they all agreed the trip on the Creole was a good character building experience. I’m sure I’ll not have too much trouble in persuading them to come back next year and try it again.

Meanwhile I have hardly been off the phone trying to get ‘Northern Hype’ up and running. This is the promotion company that I and five other mates at uni are setting up with the plan being to run a weekly student night in the well known Sunderland night club, Independent. I knew it would be a lot of work and we have really only just begun but were all really keen to get back and get started properly. At the moment we are working on finalizing bookings for various bands, DJ’s and venues. We also have to get posters and flyers made up and distributed around the area. Andy has completed the website and the forum has been up and running for over a month now so things are beginning to come together at last.

One of the many things that’s enthused me this summer has been talking to people I was at school with who have gone off and done interesting things, and returned with various experiences. Richard and Gary have joined shipping companies and spent the year travelling the world, visiting many famous city ports as far away as Singapore. Alex and Nick both went to America, Alex for a few weeks and Nick for a year. They have all come back with a much broader idea of life having had a chance to experience a real sense of independence.

Last week I signed up to doing the weekday 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM, Sunderland University’s student station. You may remember that last May I did the weekday breakfast show with Danielle. We decided that it would be good experience for us both if we did a show on our own this time and then we could perhaps team up again next may to do ‘Drivetime’. I’m really looking forward to getting back on the air again and I’ve been trying to come up with features and names for the show. Due to the time of day I’m considering giving it the tongue in cheek name: ‘Student Breakfast’.

Keeping It Real - August 2007

I have never been very keen on books, much to the disappointment of my parents both of whom love reading. When I was a kid I used to read Biggles stories but mostly if I was reading anything it would be genuine manuals for pilots or articles in Pilot magazines. This was because of my growing obsession to become a helicopter pilot which I had had since the age of about 8. I still plan to get my pilots licence at some stage as it continues to excite me immensely, despite my new goal of becoming a radio broadcaster.

Anyway, students are required to read academic books about the subject they are studying to enable them to write informed essays about their subject. This was always going to be a sticking point for me due to my dislike of reading. I’m pleased to say that I have passed the history of broadcasting exam and all my modules for this year which did include two 2000 word essays on the topic of popular culture. The point to all this lies in the internet and the secondary school education system. I agree that research and background knowledge is very important and I admit that books are an obvious source of reliable information. However, I am disappointed that it’s taken me until half way through my first year at university to discover some of the other, perhaps more user friendly sources of information available on the internet, particularly through Google. The story started when I walked over the river to get some books to help me write one of the essays. It was over a week before the deadline so I was not expecting any difficulty in getting the books I needed from our reading list but I was wrong. I couldn’t get a singe one of them and as a result went home slightly concerned with only a couple of vaguely relevant books that I’d picked up just to stop the trip being wasted. When I explained this to one of my second year mates he immediately said. “Why don’t you use Google?” I do of course use Google for just about everything from finding song lyrics to settling arguments over obscure issues. I hadn’t until this point ever heard of Google Books or Google Scholar. It’s worth checking out your self but basically Scholar is a section of Google dedicated to articles, websites, journals, and essays etc all of which have been vetted as containing genuine scientific or bonafide information, while Google books is a section of the search engine devoted solely to providing either the whole or selected parts of a huge range of books. It even tells you all the information about the book that is necessary in order to reference the source correctly. This means you can search key words, find a relevant book (some of which were actually on my reading list), read the parts which are most relevant, copy the text into your essay and reference the text correctly in your bibliography, all much quicker, and without having the effort of going to the library and carting books around. I strongly believe that if there is technology there which can help you then why not make full use of it. What I struggle to understand is why I have never been told about this service before, either at school or university. I did computing at Standard Grade and enjoyed it. However, I can now see that a lot of the things I learned on the course have been almost useless to me and more importantly, things I wish I had been taught I was never even introduced to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing teachers as I’m well aware that they are obliged to teach a curriculum set by the SQA and the Scottish Executive. Even so, why was I taught about programming, databases, and every intricate detail of spreadsheets instead of how to get the best from the internet, build websites, set up online banking or use Photoshop for example? Most of the things I was taught at school to do with computers was out of date and has not proved very useful. After all, computing is an area which is moving faster than most and therefore even more emphasis should be put on ensuring that it is as up to date as possible.

But I’m pleased to hear that things are changing. Senior staff at the OIC Education Department have told me a brand knew curriculum is being worked on and it should be fully in use by 2009. It will remove many of the rigid guide lines of the current system and replace them with something much more flexible allowing teachers and pupils to have more say over what is taught. Maybe even this does not go far enough. Perhaps pupils should be encouraged to give feedback to their school about their courses and how useful what they have learned has been once they have spent some time away so that the authorities can fine tune what the next generation is taught to make it as relevant as possible. I think at the very least there should be some serious debate about these issues.

I have spent most of July in Auskerry which has been excellent. I’m going to be busy this weekend as five of my friends from Uni are coming up to visit tomorrow. I’m taking them out to Auskerry on Monday for a couple of days so I hope the weather is nice as we are meant to be camping and with a bit of luck we will get out in the boat for some Mackerel, and maybe get a few creels out too.

To finish off I might as well make a school related suggestion, even if it’s a little tongue in cheek. I remember one 6^th year assembly when I suggested the school motto should be modernized because most of my year didn’t know what ‘Si Deus Nobiscum’ means. If it must be in Latin, how about changing it to something like ‘Vade Atque Vale’ because although there was never a fraze exactly like it in Latin, it’s as close as I can get to… Keep It Real.

Keeping It Real - July 2007

It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been a month since I stepped off the ferry from Aberdeen at the beginning of June. I’ve had a pretty busy time as I’ve been working full time at Radio Orkney as well as helping out with the St. Magnus Festival not to mention make time to go to Auskerry.

If I’m honest I was a little apprehensive about how I would feel when I arrived home knowing how different it is here to my life in Sunderland as well as the fact that I will be here for three months, but, after a couple of days of feeling a little lost without my flatmates, broadband and digital radio, I soon got re initiated into the ways of Orkney life. Becoming involved once again at Radio Orkney was instrumental in helping me to re adjust because not only does it give me a reason to get up and not spend half the day in bed, it has also got my finger firmly back on the local pulse. Having a purpose to get into the heart of the community and talk to people face to face about the things that effect and interest them on a daily basis is very rewarding and has reminded me what is missing in the anonymity of life in the city. Once again the team at Radio Orkney have made me feel very at home in the office and I have really enjoyed the last five weeks. In the past I have mostly filled the role of producer/tech ops for many of the evening programmes as well as presenting weather and the occasional sport report. However, this time I have been involved with compiling the morning news programme which has been a very steep but equally rewarding learning curve as I have had the opportunity to amongst other things, carry out interviews, make packages, edit audio and read scripts. I have briefly touched on many of these elements of broadcasting before, both at Radio Orkney and more recently at university. However as this last month has been ‘learning on the job’ as it were, I have crammed in a lot of new information. All of which will prove invaluable in my prospective future career as a radio presenter and in the more imminent future, passing my degree. One of the best things about radio for me is that no two days are ever the same. While I was presenting ‘Morning Glory’ with Danielle our show was always different and exciting and it’s no different here. Everyday I meet new people, hear new stories, see things I haven’t had the chance to see before and learn things that without the banner of ‘Reporter’ I would not otherwise be allowed to, at least not perhaps so easily.

One of the things I enjoyed a lot recently was covering the junior Inter County. Those of you that know me well will probably be laughing at this point as I have admittedly never had much of an interest in sport. I put this down to the fact that growing up on an island with two brothers and about 400 sheep, there wasn’t much opportunity during my childhood for a game of five a side. Anyway, for one reason or another I picked music over sport as my passion and have since struggled to feel much emotion for sport apart from perhaps the world cup. However, during the Inter County I quickly got the bug. I suddenly saw why people get so excited about the whole thing and I felt myself being swept along, quite willingly, in a tide of admiration and support for our young sports people. As the excellent result in the hockey brought the first day to a close leaving Orkney looking like they had a real chance of winning I felt myself being genuinely excited about the next day and was keen to be given the whole event as my baby to cover by myself which I was. Everyone I spoke to throughout the whole event was helpful and accommodating, people went out of their way to give me score info and the sports people from both sides were happy to speak which always make life easier. By the end of it all I had mixed feelings of both happiness that we had won, and sadness that it was all over. A big thank you to everyone involved.

More recently I have been helping out with front of house duties at the Magfest Spiegel tent. This has been really good fun. I haven’t really done anything like it before apart from a couple of times at my own parties, so again it’s been a good learning experience. It’s been nice to feel part of the team, if a very small one, still, I’ve got to meet new people and watch some excellent performances that I probably would not otherwise have seen.

One of the things I have been most glad to return to is the sea. I love boats and I have greatly missed the trips to and from Auskerry with the local boatmen. I still laugh when I get aboard a boat to Auskerry and think how much of an extreme contrast life on the island it is to ‘doon sooth’. I love the variety and am altogether glad to be back. I will be equally glad to proudly show off this beautiful place to my university friends when they come to stay in August. Looking ahead to this coming month I am planning to spend a decent amount of time on Auskerry as there is a fair bit of work to do out there with fencing and the like but I also want to have some time rowing and fishing. I will also be spending time in town enjoying my bike and seeing the friends who I have missed while being away. I just hope the weather warms up a little! See you around.

Keeping It Real - June 2007

It is with a touch of sadness that I sit to write this month’s column as tonight is my last night in Flat 11. This place has been my home since September and I have been very happy here throughout. I can’t believe that I am already one third of the way through my degree, it simple doesn’t feel like I have been here any time at all. I feel that I have learned a huge amount this year, not just academically but about myself and others around me. When I think back to how nervous I was in September when I left Orkney and compare it with how much confidence I have now, the change, to my mind, is really astonishing.

May has been the most hectic month so far as I have had lots of deadlines for work as well as the show on Utopia FM. I got all my work handed in last week, quite how I managed to fit it in around getting up at half five every week day to present a three hour show I will never know. Doing the Breakfast show was, as I knew it would be, an awesome experience. I think the most significant thing that I have taken from it is that I am now even more convinced than ever that being a radio presenter is what I want to do as a long term career. I thought that getting up that early every day would be almost impossible but I found it surprisingly easy. Every morning when the alarm went off I got the same feeling of ‘oh my god, I’m going to be on the radio in an hour!’ The buzz was immense and usually lasted until around lunch time each day. The problem was that were I suspect most breakfast DJ’s, and indeed anyone working awkward hours, would go for a sleep after lunch for a few hours to re-charge. Unfortunately, most days I could not afford the time to do anything of the sort and was instead found drinking copious amounts of coffee trying desperately to get some work done before I simple fell asleep at my desk. As dad said it would, this lack of sleep gradually built up to the point were I had to let some things slide and make time for a rest. I found this whole situation to be the single biggest problem through out the broadcast, and I have to say, sad as I was to see it finish, the return of the lie-ins was much appreciated. In my opinion, our show improved quite a lot over the three weeks we were on for. I think we found our niche as it were and were able to get into an on-air routine each morning. Danielle and I realized quickly that even if we planed things before or during the show, we would rarely stick to them so we ended up in a situation where we would literally be 20 seconds before the end of the record and whoever was operating the desk would call mics live and we would just start speaking. I really enjoyed the ‘seat of the pants’ style because it was very spontaneous and it kept the pace of the show up.

Last month saw me team up with a mate to put on another gig in the local student pub/venue. This time we booked a funk/rock band to do a set as well as a couple of DJ’s. It didn’t attract as many people as the ‘Bollocks to work’ event which I did at the end of April, but this was expected. Small bands never seem to attract as big a crowd as DJ’s but it was never the less a great evening for those who were there. As a result of the success of both the afore mentioned gigs, coupled with the fact that the student nightclub (Manor Quay) and the only other student bar are closing, a small group of my mates have teamed up to try and rectify the situation in time for next year. We are in the process of forming ‘Northern Hype’, which will be our group name, and will give us a brand which we can use on promotional stuff and for a website etc.

Within our small team we have Barry who has had three years experience of booking and promoting bands through his own successful promotion company which he has now left friends to run while he is based away from home. We have Andy, my flat mate, who is a whiz at producing good posters and websites. Chris, a mature student studying first year media, who happens to be a fantastic local DJ, very popular with the crowds both here and in London where he often goes to do gigs. And finally me, who will be the overall group leader in charge management and finance. I’ll also get a minute to play a few records as well!

We want to put on several different events roughly three times a week which will kick off in the Bonded (the local student venue which I have used before) and then move to Independent, a 600 capacity night club in the town centre. The idea to try and do something like this came to me when I first heard that the Union was selling off two of its venues as I felt that there will be a severe lack of student based entertainment for next year, for not only the fresher students, but also my self. Obviously ‘Northern Hype’ is in its early stages but I really feel that the team we have assembled will be able to make this work. We will just have to see what happens in September; all we know at the moment is that there’s a lot of work to be done.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to coming home and spending a decent spell of time in Orkney at a time of year when it really is at its most beautiful.

Keeping It Real - May 2007

Having just returned to flat 11 after spending two weeks in Kirkwall for Easter, I have realized how much I feel at home here. It was great to get home and spend some time with family and catch up with friends, but at the same time I was really keen to get back ‘in the mix’ down here.

This term is going to be manically busy with the breakfast show starting on Monday May 7th. As well as that I have a 2.5 hour history of broadcasting exam on May 11^th and my driving test is booked for May 24^th. I’m trying to maintain a laid back approach with all of the above because I don’t like stressing but I’m expecting it to be a month of hard graft.

Having said that, this seems a perfect opportunity to reassure readers that University is not just ‘a bit of a laugh’. It has been suggested that I mention parties a fair bit. Fair comment. However, I’ve never claimed that these monthly ramblings are anything more than a representation of my personal experience of university life. I’m not ashamed to admit this does involve a few socials but I’m sure if I was pondering whether or not to go to Uni the idea of lots of parties would certainly have influenced my decision.

Definitely the most exciting thing to happen last month, and one of the best things that’s happened all year, was the trip I took to London with our radio society. I won’t go into too much detail as I did all that in the April column. I’ll just say that after arriving in London and having a night of little sleep due to the inevitable chatting that ten students all sharing a room would be expected to do, we were all reluctant to get up on Monday and go on the tube to Magic. However, as soon as we arrived and our tour began, we all perked up with excitement. It was fascinating to see how a leading commercial radio station operates, it was also interesting for us to see what equipment they use, all of which was new and up to date. We were all given the chance to record a link as if we were Magic DJ’s and then we were had a Q & A session with the head of music who explained how the stations play lists are calculated and he also answered general questions about the station. One of the most interesting things for me was the fact that Magic has just 250 tracks on a rotating play list for a 4 week period. He explained that the average radio listener only listens for 20 minuets at a time and are therefore unlikely to hear the same record twice on any given day.

I had organized to go and visit ‘Planet Rock’ which is, to quote their tag line, ‘The UK’s Classic Rock Station’. It does what it says on the tin and broadcasts 24/7 on DAB, Online and on Sky. I spent an hour with the on air DJ, Mark Jeeves, who gave me some fantastic advice about how to make our breakfast show as popular as possible. I think one of the most useful things he said was that the public are interested in 5 main topics which a good presenter will constantly relate to what they are saying. There topics are, in no particular order: Money, Sex, Family, Health and Celebrity.

On Tuesday morning we again rose early and headed to the nearby ‘Princess Productions’ studios to be in the live audience for Channel Five’s ‘The Wright Stuff’. This was great fun and it was again very interesting to see how a TV show is made, the fact that it went out live and that we got to meet Lez Dennis only served to make it even more exciting!

Later that day we went to visit BBC 6 music and Radio 2 which are both located in the same new building. When we were waiting to go in we all felt exhausted from lack of sleep, neither were we expecting to get to see anything like as much as we had at Magic purely because the stations were comparatively so much bigger and getting a tour is almost impossible. However, as soon as we went through the entrance and began to climb the stairs of the building we all felt a sense of excitement just from knowing that we were only steps away from the centre of this famous national radio station which, whether you’re a fan or not, oozes talent, quality and all the fundamental qualities of good radio. We were shown everything from the open plan office’s where Brand, Evans, O’ Leary, Ross, Winton, Wogan, Wright, and many others sit to prepare their programmes, to the studio’s that broadcast these personalities to the nation. By the time we arrived on the 6^th floor and were ushered in to the empty studio we soon learned was used every Saturday by Jonathan Ross, we almost couldn’t contain our glee. To then be taken to the control studio were only a pain of sound proof glass separated us from Chris Evans as he addressed the nation was truly fantastic. I can categorically say we really did think this was as good as it got. Again we were wrong. Seconds after walking into Evan’s view he called us into the studio, live on the air! The faces of the nearby producers and senior staff went white as they helplessly watched this potentially disastrous situation slip from their control, we piled into the studio and began to talk to Chris and his millions of listeners! On the way out of the building we met Dermot O’ Leary and got a group picture with him and for a good while after leaving none of us really talked because we were simply too high! I don’t feel as though I need to say anymore. This trip was totally awesome and I feel very privileged to have been part of it.

Next month I’ll have a round up of how Breakfast goes but make sure you check it out for yourself if you get a minute. www.utopiafm.net. Cheers.

Keeping It Real - April 2007

This has been a comparatively quiet month for me although things have recently begun to get busier in the run up to exams and the hand in dates for assessments. What I really can’t believe is that after the Easter break I only have five weeks left before I complete my first year in Sunderland. It genuinely only feels like yesterday when I packed my things and set off into the unknown. Now nearly a whole academic year on, this place feels almost as familiar and homely to me as Orkney.

My flat mates and I have all been granted accommodation for next year in the same complex that we are currently residing in, however we will be moving from flat 11 to flat 30. This means we get a balcony and a slightly bigger living room, new neighbours plus some re branding for our ‘Flat 11’ parties!

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen this month was when Danielle and I were officially given the 7 till 10am weekday breakfast slot on Utopia FM. The station is broadcasting for three weeks from May 5^th and we will be online as well as on FM. All of the Utopia team are busy organizing advertising, promotion and music scheduling as well as mixing the jingles and station idents. It’s a lot of work for everyone involved and it’s hard to find time to do it on top of course work, particularly for the third year and masters students who are involved. I’m so excited about it because I know it’s a fantastic opportunity to gain loads of on air experience in commercial radio not to mention how much fun it will be. I’m already thoroughly enjoying introducing myself to people as “Rory from breakfast”. To add to the fun, 12 students from Utopia’s core team, including myself, are going on a three day Radio Society trip to London on a tour around several stations including BBC 6 Music and Magic 105.4 and BBC Radio 2. This should not only be very interesting but it is also a great way to really bond the team before we go on air in May.

My pet project this month is a DJ event/party which I am organizing in my local student pub at the end of the month. I decided that due to the growing numbers of people attending our ‘Flat 11’ parties, is was perhaps time to try and do something which could include more people and involve slightly less risk to our property. Saturday nights are expensive in town and there is almost no cheap alternative unless someone happens to be having a party. My flat mate Andy who’s a whiz on Photoshop has make the posters and although I’ll be doing a set on the decks I’ve booked two DJ’s from local clubs who will form the backbone of the event. Having foot the small bill myself the event will be free to the public and because the drink is cheap at student rates, were hoping the night will be a success. I figure that if there is ever a time in life to experiment with things like this, now is that time. If it really is a success, I will certainly do it again and I am considering following in dad’s footsteps from his Leeds University days and running for Entertainments Secretary next September as I feel that the student nightclub could do with getting some new ideas breathed into. Numbers have fallen dramatically since fresher’s week and I think it’s largely due to the fact that it’s always the same DJ playing the same music and people are bored.

As for course work, this terms big job is a film that a team of five of us are making for our ‘introduction to video production’ module. The film is only supposed to last for three minutes, and this may seem silly, but it has already taken us hours and hours of work to produce. We still haven’t shot anything like all the footage we need yet and we are due to be editing as soon as Easter break is over. It amazes me how much work is involved with making something, which is, on the face of it pretty simple. We’ve re-written the script three times and we’re still not even sure of where exactly we are going with this so I have my doubts as to how good it’s going to be. Having said that, in my experience things like this have a knack of coming together at the last minute plus it’s our first attempt at doing anything like this so I’m just going to do my best and try not to get worked up about it.

This month saw me pass my theory test and according to my driving instructor I’m not far off being ready for my practical test. I’ve booked it for the end of May in the hope that I will be ready by then. I don’t intend to get a car until next summer but I want to get the test out of the way so I don’t forget things over the summer and then have to take more lessons in September and waste more money. Having said that it’s pretty likely I’ll fail and therefore end up doing just that!

There has been an unusual amount of discussion about the weather recently as we have had two days of snow last week followed by a few days of gorgeous sunny, dry conditions. As you can see from the picture a spontaneous ball game began on the lawn outside our flat. We played for a couple of hours while I blasted music out of my bedroom window and this made me think how much of a shame it will be that none of us will be here in the summer to really make use of our balconies! I know that most of us living around here will greatly miss the people and the atmosphere in Panns Bank this summer, but I can’t say that I’m not looking forward to getting out on my bike on a warm summer evening or taking the dingy out to try for a fish. Anyway, Happy Easter when it comes.

Keeping It Real - October 2006

As much as I love Orkney, and I do, I was very keen to leave for university this October. I think there comes a point for everyone when they should step outside their comfort zone and leave home, and for me that time had come.

I was scared when I left, but just over a month down the line I haven’t regretted the decision to fly the nest for even a second.

The journey down was fine, though I had what seemed to me to be an obscenely large amount of luggage: a suitcase, rucksack and holdall, not to mention the back pack on my front. It turned out that most people had come with at least a car load so I was worried that I had left something important behind.

The first task after arriving at the flat was to introduce myself to my flat mates. First impressions really count and they have subsequently proved accurate. The five other guys are all dead right and there is a good atmosphere in our new home.

By Sunday night I went to bed totally drained from the day’s experience but happy with my surroundings and looking forward to the inductions of Monday morning.

The first day at Uni was one of numerous welcomes, with the staff introducing themselves to us in the lecture theatre. This carry on continued all week in one shape or form: being shown rooms, meeting other students and members of staff, enrolling on our modules and just generally finding our feet.

Coming to Sunderland in June for a visit has really helped me to settle in quickly as I was able to picture the place in my head and get used to it before I arrived.

Socially I have never worked so hard in my life as I did during my first two weeks!

Every night during those first 14 days I was out drinking, with only one exception – and that was only because the toll of the previous five nights had left me barely able to speak – a first hand encounter with the mythical freshers flu! Add to that the fact that, because we had all just met, I spent every waking hour shaking hands and trying to remember people’s names and where they live - something that becomes almost impossible after about 20 introductions and a few pints.

Another big excitement has been the city itself. It is a great triumph for me to be able to find not one but two pairs of nice shoes that actually fit (I’m a size 13!). As well as the shopping there are so many bars and clubs playing different music with a different atmosphere that even after a month we still haven’t been in anything like all of them. A week ago I went with a group of friends to Newcastle to sample a night out there. It was fantastic, the clubs and bars were very cool and the people are very friendly.

I always used to have a serious fear of metro underground transport and missing train connections, a phobia I have finally been able to release (though I still miss my push bike even if the Metro is suited to lazy students like me).

My digs are on the opposite bank of the river to the university buildings where I study so each day I have a 15 minute walk over the bridge and along the banks to class – a small weapon in the war against the beer gut at least! It’s also very refreshing for me to be living so close to water. I think being on the banks of the river all the time and being able to see the sea has helped me to feel at home, I doubt I would cope so well if I was really buried in the city.

Real work has begun to kick in now and believe it or not I’m really pleased it has. I like to keep busy and having a few projects, both academic and recreational is important to me. I’m currently working on a 15 minute TV news program within a team of 15 students which is really stimulating. Unlike radio, you physically can’t do a TV program with one person, (because you need camera operators, a producer, vision mixer, sound mixer, floor manager lighting operators to name a few) so this means that we are constantly working in teams which is good fun. I also have a couple of essays to keep me busy if I can find a spare second. As well as these required tasks and classes I have teamed up with another student in my radio class to start working on a program which we hope to do on the student radio station, Utopia FM, when it starts its next broadcast in May. We have booked one of the radio studios for a couple of hours a week and we’re practicing our technical skills and building up an on air rapport. Its great fun and very worthwhile because there is a real chance that if we submit a good demo to the Utopia management we will get a day time show like breakfast or drive time, so I’ve been told anyway. It’s also a good way for us to get one step ahead of everyone else because when it comes to our class being taught how to do this kind of stuff next year, we will be confident with it, which is always a good position to be in I feel.

I have to say again that I am loving every minute of university life and I would encourage anyone who isn’t sure what to do after they leave school to get involved!

If I had to give one comparison between Sunderland and Orkney I would have to say that you can get a pint of fosters for as little as £1.50 in some bars here but the biggest advantage about Orkney on a night out, for me, is definitely the lack of smoke in the pubs and clubs. Roll on the smoking ban in England. Till next time. Cheerio.

The Rory Auskerry Show on Switchpod.

http://www.switchpod.com/cats.php?a=13365

First Blog

Hello, and if your reading this then you should probably stop as this is rubbish.

I'm new to this blogging business and am still trying to work out how to get my podcast onto my page!