Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - October 2008

Utopia management - an endless task.

I feel like a nocturnal animal at the moment. I'm up at half past six to supervise the breakfast show on Utopia. Then I stay in the building most of the day keeping an eye on proceedings and offering advice to the presenters. I might get a break for a couple of hours at home in the middle of the day, then I'm back in to produce and present our flagship community show 'The Community Drive' at five o' clock. It's good fun and so far I think the broadcast is going well. The new presenters who started off a bit nervous and hesitant are beginning to get confident about what they're saying and how to 'drive the desk'.

I'm trying to find a balance between overloading the newbies with constructive criticism and suggestions for ways to improve, and just letting them make the mistakes and learn it their own way. I'm by no means an expert but I have had more hands on experience in the studio than almost all the other presenters. I'm trying to pass on both what I've been taught and what I've figured out for myself without coming across as a know it all.

I find it amusing that when I'm on my own in the station with a couple of new presenters I'm basically being a sort of amateur teacher. It's very rewarding when I make a suggestion of a neat way to present something, then I leave the studio and listen in the other room to them making a good job of it. I don't think I could ever be a real teacher, but if you put all that marking and kids mucking about to one side I can see the appeal.

We've had a couple of disappointments with one of the events we had planned for the launch day of the broadcast. Up until the day before, we were on track to borrow the use of an empty unit in The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland. The empty shop was going to be our base in the heart of the city from which we could promote the station, record 'vox pops', find stories and most exciting of all, put on some excellent local live acoustic acts to attract the public.

Chris and I had together met with the centre manager on three occasions to discuss the project and having completed the risk assessment, copies of the universities public liability insurance and other paperwork we thought we were sorted. Unfortunately we were told on the Thursday before we were due to go live that a business had expressed an interest in the store and we were unable to make use of it. I accept that the management of the centre are running a business and that must come first, however it has been a disappointment for us.

To come back to the Community Drive, this has always been a programme that I've wanted to do on the air. I love Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 because he manages to mix great music with stimulating and often quite complicated news stories. I love the arguments and heated debates that ensue in the studio and on the phone with guests who feel very strongly about the various items.I wanted to try something similar myself and given the fact that Utopia FM is due to become a full-time community station soon, I thought it would make sense to schedule a programme that would attempt to form a link between the university, its students and the wider community.

To a certain extent I believe this is working, but the reoccurring problem of only having a small listener-base makes it difficult. Without a decent number of texts, emails and calls from members of the community it's hard to keep a programme of such a format relevant and interesting to its listeners.

In previous columns I've mooted that people who learn to drive in Orkney should have to go down to Inverness, Aberdeen or Edinburgh to do a few lessons on the motorway and dual carriage way. I don't believe that it's safe for anyone to learn in Orkney where there are no lane changes, heavy traffic or massive roundabouts and then be legally allowed to drive alone in these significantly more challenging situations.This is no reflection on the standard of driving tuition provided in the county, simply something that my own limited experience on major roads both with and without an instructor has led me being a bit concerned about. This feeling was reinforced last month when Mum and I drove my stuff down to Sunderland. I was reasonably confident during the trip and I'm convinced this was entirely down to the fact that I had previously spent at least 30 hours on the major roads in and around Sunderland while I was learning to drive.

Last Thursday, Northern Hype held our first club night in Newcastle at a cool, underground club called World Headquarters. We were all pretty nervous about it because although the thriving music scene in the city ensures there is a massive potential audience, we were going head to head with competition from national chain clubs that can afford to throw thousands of pounds at promotion and big name acts. Having neither of these assets ourselves, we had no option but to simply talk to people, put flyers in their hands and make good use of the internet as a promotional tool.

On the night we decided to close the top floor of the club to make the place feel busier downstairs rather than have people spread out over two floors. I was pretty convinced it was going to be a lost leader but in the end we made enough to cover our costs and still have a bit left for ourselves. It was a great night and I was amazed at how friendly and polite the people were.I think we will certainly be doing another night in WHQ sometime soon, but having learned from last week, we will just hire one floor. It was an exciting learning curve and for me that's what university is all about. Cheers.