Keeping It Real with Rory – Febuary 2010

Learning the ropes at 5 Live.

THE past month has been like a whirlwind for me. For the last three weeks I've been spending Sunday night through to Friday afternoon at the BBC's training centre just outside Evesham in Worcestershire. I'm one of six new recruits who were successful in getting jobs as trainee studio managers, and we're currently being brought up to speed on all the different aspects of the job.

Leading up to this, at the beginning of January, mum and I set off on a road trip with most of my belongings in the back of a hire car. I drove into the centre of London at about 10pm and after getting my stuff into the flat I conked out almost immediately. There isn't much scope for preparing for a ten-hour drive down the motorway when you've been living in Orkney!

Anyway, the following morning I needed to get a tube to BBC Television Centre where me and the five other new recruits were due to meet for the first time. I was apprehensive but it was really nice to be able to walk into the building knowing I wasn't going to have to do another job interview! The purpose of the induction day on the Friday was to give us a sense of where we'd be working after the initial three weeks of training were complete.

That's all but done now and I think I can speak for the whole group when I say it's been a very steep learning curve. Having said that, it's also been a lot of fun and I know that I've learned a great deal of very useful information and skills that will certainly come in extremely handy in the months and years to come.

Aside from the training it self, the six of us have bonded really well and I've really enjoyed spending so much time with them, both at work and socially in the evenings. I'm pretty sure we have eaten in almost all the restaurants in Evesham over the past couple of weeks! We've had a lot of laughs together and several of the staff and management have told us that groups of delegates like ours usually remain good friends long after the training course is over.

To get away from the pressures of work I arranged to spend last weekend with some of my best friends from university. One of them works in Birmingham as a sound assistant on the BBC lunchtime TV soap, Doctors, so I travelled North on Friday to catch up with him. After a relaxing evening chatting in front of the telly, and a welcome lie in on Saturday morning, we drove up to Sunderland.

The house I rented in Sunderland last year is still occupied by two of my original housemates so the four of us went out on Saturday night to Independent, the night club I DJ'ed in while I was studying. We had a fantastic time and it was really nice to get back together again and check out some of the old haunts as mum calls them. I'm hoping that we'll be able to get together again in the next couple of months as I think it's important to catch up with friends in person, and I think I'll also be glad of an opportunity to get out of London occasionally.

Having said that, I have been extremely fortunate in terms of my new home. My godmother recently bought a flat in Knightsbridge to use when she needs to stay overnight in the city. When I told her I had applied for the job she very kindly offered me the spare room if I needed it, so once I heard I'd actually got it I was able to tick accommodation off my 'to do' list!

The flat is spacious and warm and the living room windows look out over a 'D' shaped garden, which is shared by the houses across the street. It's a five-minute walk to the South Kensington tube station where I can get a direct tube into work in about 20 minutes which is extremely handy. The prospect of living in London for the next wee while is really exciting, and I'm looking forward to exploring bits of it and getting to know the areas where I'll be living and working.

When mum and dad used to take me there on holiday as a child I was always a bit scared of the place, I suspect mostly because it is so much bigger and busier than back home. However, now that I've got a few years of living away from home under my belt I feel ready, and excited about taking on the challenge of getting settled in and making myself feel at home in the place. Whether I'll have much time for exploring anywhere during the next four weeks is any one's guess, as I know I'm still going to be kept very busy with work.

Although we've been simulating real programmes during training sessions in Evesham, it's essential that we get familiar with the broadcast desks that we'll be using in London. As a result, we'll spend all of February training on the 'real things' in Bush House, which is where the BBC World Service is based. Several people have asked me why I'm learning how to 'drive' World Service programmes when my job is actually to work for 5 Live. The answer is that because we are the new recruits, there are a lot of people who need to be re-trained in preparation for 5 Live's move to Salford next year before we do. As a result, we're going to get the chance to build up our 'on air' air experience at Bush House before we move over to Television Centre in the summer, and eventually, sometime next year, to Salford Quays.

Hit The Beach – February 2010 – Track List

Hit The Beach – February 2010 – Track List

Dandy Warholes – Bohemian Like You
Never The Bride – 2 Into 1
Jimi Hendrix – The Wind Cries Mary
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Nature Boy
Them Crooked Vultures – Reptiles
The Raconteurs – Old Enough
The Almighty – Free N’ Easy
J.J. Cale – Mama Don’t
Eric Clapton – Cocaine (Live)
Skeewiff – Delta Dawn
Ryan Adams – New York, New York
Cheryl Crow & Keith Richards – Happy (Live)