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 11th and my driving test is booked for May 24th. 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 6th 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.
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