Rory Auskerry - Character Voiceover

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - January 2012

2012-01-11T04:28:00.000-08:00

The big move North has been almost two years in the making for me, and a lot longer for many others who were involved from the planning stage. Along with my Radio 5 Live colleagues I’ve now completed my relocation to the brand new BBC building in Salford.

Our new offices are in Quay House, which is right beside the Manchester ship canal. It’s bright, open, well laid out and I am finding it generally a much nicer place to work than in the old buildings in London.

There’s been a lot to get used to in general, and an awful lot of new stuff to learn on the technical side of things. Most of the equipment is pretty unfamiliar, so there’s been quite a lot of training going on. As the new year rolls in I am starting to feel like I’m getting to grips with the new kit now - that is good.

I don’t know whether its due to the improved layout of the building, or the fact that we can see water from every window which makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere, but I have found that everyone is chattier here. It’s often said that people from the North of England are friendlier than in the South. I’m not sure that’s necessarily accurate, but I think its definitely fair to say that people in London are not usually very keen to engage in conversation with strangers or even people they know a little. I believe that the kind of ‘keep yourself to yourself’ attitude, which prevails in the capital, was perhaps unwittingly brought into work by staff and contributors.

In Manchester the attitude is pleasantly different. Walking around in town people look at you, they make eye contact and smile. If someone almost walks into you, rather than look away and move on, they apologise. As is the norm in Orkney, shop staff are keen to engage in conversation. This almost inevitably filters into the work environment. It’s quite astonishing really, to have been working with people for months in London and barely exchanged pleasantries, then to come here and find yourself chatting about houses, their kids and holiday plans while making a brew in the communal kitchen. One producer even said to me after we’d been chatting for a few minutes, “we’d never be doing this in London would we!”

Another big milestone for me was buying my first car. My girlfriend and I are living with one of our best friends, who lives in a small village about 20 miles north of central Manchester. Al is also a Studio Manager, in fact it was he and his girlfriend who went on holiday with us to Naples earlier this year. It’s lovely being out in the countryside.

The view from our back windows is not at all dissimilar to a typical Orkney view, perhaps somewhere in the West mainland. There are a couple of small trees, which look as if they regularly take a battering from the wind, and a nicely built dry stone dyke covered in lichen, whilst in the distance there are hills providing a little bit of lee for the sheep in the fields below them. Quite a change from our old flat where the ‘view’ mostly consisted of a busy road and a direct line of sight into several of our opposite neighbour’s living rooms.

So far our W-reg VW Golf is running nicely. Admittedly we did have to call the AA out twice in our first week of membership, first for a 1am bump start and later to get the battery replaced, as it wasn’t taking any charge. I suppose you have to accept things like that with cheap old cars. It takes me about half an hour to drive into work, which isn’t too bad really. The stereo in the car is probably the best thing about it so I can enjoy some loud rock music while I’m stuck in ‘crosstown traffic’.

I will be back in Orkney for a large part of this month to spend some time with my family, and catch up with old friends. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very prosperous and happy New Year!

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - December 2011

2011-12-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

By the time this magazine hits your coffee table I’ll already be in Manchester, working in the BBC’s brand new building at Salford Quays. However, as I write this, I’m becoming acutely aware that my remaining days in London are numbered. In fact, I’ve got about a week left here, before I load the van I’ve hired to drive myself and my stuff to the North of England.

I’m very excited. I’ve been looking forward to making this move for almost two years, but now that it’s finally on the horizon, I’m starting to think of what I’ll miss about London. It’s been a steep learning curve living somewhere so big after growing up in Orkney. When I first arrived, I found it all quite overwhelming and there were days when I wasn’t sure if I’d manage to cope with it. It’s just so different from what I was used to back home, and even my city experience at University in Sunderland seemed insignificant in comparison to the vastness of London.

As I settled into the job and made friends, things got easier and I started to feel that I would manage ok. After a few months passed I began to understand the attitude of Londoners themselves. I became confident using the public transport system and I felt like I was really getting to know the areas in which I lived and worked.

I think it must take a while to get used to anywhere that is unfamiliar, but I still think London is in a league of its own, within the UK at least. I’m expecting to go through many of these ‘newbie’ emotions over the coming weeks as I get settled in Manchester, but I’m convinced it will be easier for two main reasons. For one thing I’m down sizing quite significantly – from being one of over 7 million in London to one of under half a million in Manchester. The second, and probably the most significant, is that I’m moving with a group of colleagues and friends who are in the same situation as me. It’s going to be new and exciting for all of us, and the fact that we’ll be getting to know the city together will inevitably make it easier and more enjoyable.

I’ve spent almost two years in London working in two buildings neither of which are likely to be occupied by the BBC for much longer. Next year, the various staff and departments that have not been relocated to Salford - including Radio 4 - will move out of Television Centre back to Broadcasting house in the heart of London. Their World Service colleagues from Bush House will also join them. It means that when I leave after my last shift, I’ll be leaving behind a piece of BBC history that will more than likely be just a memory when I next visit London.

Members of the public can apply to be taken on a free tour of Television Centre and I’d recommend that you go on one if you get the chance. It’s an iconic building full of memorabilia from all kinds of popular BBC programmes and shows. You’ll be shown the TV studios which over the years have been used to create shows and diverse as Strictly Come Dancing, Jools Holland, Room 101 and Not The Nine O’ Clock News - you even get the chance to try your hand at presenting a TV weather report!

Although many of the friends I’ve made in the capital are also making the move North, there are plenty who aren’t and I will miss them a lot. Now that I’ve lived in London I won’t be worried if for any reason I decide to move back for work in the future. It’ll be nice to live close to the countryside for a while though, and I’m already looking forward to my next trip to Orkney, which will be in early January.

I hope the festive period and the New Year brings excitement, prosperity and happiness to you all. I also hope it brings a few more Doonie wins in the Ba’. Happy Christmas!

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - November 2011

2011-12-01T00:57:00.000-08:00

Goodbyes and ‘the end’ of things are often sad and difficult events. The last day at school or university, leaving home or a job you enjoyed, the end of a holiday or the demise of a relationship can all be less than happy experiences. I have had to cope with some reasonably tough adjustments in my life over the last wee while. My girlfriend, fellow Orcadian Lizi Pendrey has moved out. I'm pleased to say this is not because of anything I've done, but because she has landed a new job as a Journalist. The only problem is that the job is based in Edinburgh, not in Manchester, which is where I will be relocating to in a couple of months time. This is largely great news as she has been looking for this kind of work for months in London without much luck. However, we've both got used to each others company and we were looking forward to finding a new flat together in Manchester when my job with Radio 5 Live moved North.

I must admit that I wasn't overly keen for her to accept the job to begin with, but after discussing it with Lizi as well as with family and friends, I came to the conclusion that it was probably a good move in the long term. I've been very fortunate that my career has started off pretty well, and I'm very lucky to already be working in the industry that I’d like to succeed in. Lizi has not been so lucky, in fact journalism jobs for university graduates appear to be about as rare as rocking horse manure.

We both think that aged 23, and without wedding rings, kids or a mortgage, now is the time to take some risks in order to try and get our careers onto a good trajectory for the future. It's far from ideal as you can imagine. The distance between Manchester and Edinburgh is over 200 miles, which will take more than 4 hours to drive. Add that to the fact that because of my shifts, we don't often have days off at the same time. Living apart when you've grown used to having someone there all the time is difficult, and it's giving me a greater empathy with folk who's work means they spend prolonged periods of time away from loved ones.

As you’d expect, I’ve have had a fair amount of time to contemplate since Lizi left. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will just have to keep myself busy, and with a bit of luck the next few months of being apart will pass by quite quickly. I’m very fortunate to have a fantastic group of friends around me, many of whom are also in long distance relationships. I also have various other projects outside of work that I’d like to spend more time on.

The main one of these ‘extra curricular’ activities I’m involved in is voiceover work. I’ve been interested in the industry for several years, and as I researched more about it, the more I came to realise that it might be something I could turn my hand to. It’s a notoriously difficult industry to break into because clients tend to find voiceover artists they like, then use them over and over again. It is also a job which has become cool and trendy, thanks to the prominence of voiceover artists like Pete Dickson who’s ‘massive’ voice can be heard introducing the performers on TV shows like the X-Factor and Britains Got Talent. Others include Dave Lamb, who's dry humour spices up the entertainment factor on Channel 4’s hit show ‘Come Dine With Me’, and Mark Halliley, the narrator of ‘The Apprentice’ on BBC One.

Having said this, I have been impersonating teachers, celebrities and politicians since my teens and I like to think I’ve a decent range of voices that I’m fairly good at. (People certainly used to laugh at me at school, but perhaps the less said about that the better.) Anyway, I’ve made a demo featuring many the voices I can do, signed up to several voiceover agency websites and the work has started to come in which is great. I don’t think I’ll be making millions anytime soon, but it’s good fun and if my client list continues to grow at the rate it has been I should make a few quid by Christmas.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - October 2011

2011-11-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

Fifty years ago in July 1961 Auskerry lighthouse became automated. The two lighthouse keepers and their families packed their things and left the island for the last time. Since then, the light has kept on flashing every 20 seconds thanks to a gas lamp revolved by weights and pulleys, and more recently bulbs and computers powered by solar produced electricity.

The lighthouse is, in fact, the reason behind by childhood dream to become a helicopter pilot. The bright red BO-105 chopper, which the Northern Lighthouse Board used to fly men and equipment to and from their lighthouses, totally captivated my imagination from the first time I saw it. I used to spend hours just watching the helicopter fly back and forth from ship to shore with a load slung under its belly. I thought it looked sleek and cool; the way it could move and hover was amazing, and I even loved the noise and smell of it. I still have an obsession with flying. The sound of a chopper overhead always makes me look up.

Sitting at my old home school desk in Auskerry with its sea view, the helicopter posters on the walls and the sound of the wind generators humming outside brings back many happy childhood memories. This time I’m not doing maths or English, instead I’m writing this on my laptop, a technological luxury, the likes of which I could only have dreamed of when I was still getting to grips with my seven times table. To be honest I’m not all that hot on my tables still.

It’s wonderful to be back on the island. I haven’t been here for over a year, but not much has changed and there is still the same feel about the place. Ever since I first went off to university my bedrooms in Kirkwall and in Auskerry have been more or less kept as I left them; full of my things, the walls covered in my posters and photos.

I will soon be moving from London to Manchester and there are strong arguments for my clearing out of my old bedrooms. It’s a hard thing to do though, as I’ve been discovering over the last few days. I’ve descended from a family of hoarders and therefore I have a large amount of stuff that most people would probably class as junk. I keep things either for sentimental reasons or because I’m convinced they ‘might come in handy’ sometime.

Fifteen years of this behaviour has resulted in these two rooms, and quite a large section of loft, full of old things, most of which would be best left in the recycling centre at Bossack dump. I am reluctant to tackle the issue because my rooms being full of my things make them feel like home. It may seem silly, but although I live and work in London, Orkney is still feels like home and long may that continue.

When I move to Manchester in the next few months I will be living with a friend in his house. I was going to be moving into a flat with Lizi, but she’s got a job as a journalist in Edinburgh that’s just too good an opportunity to miss. The result of this is that in the meantime I won’t have anywhere that I can call my own place. Not to say that I’m not looking forward to living there, I am, but I won’t have a place I can take all my boxes of things, unpack them onto my own shelves and begin the process of hoarding again. As a result, while I’m working on a combination of packing and throwing away in my bedroom in Kirkwall, I find myself wondering what it will be like when I come home to a ‘spare’ room, cleared of my possessions, next time.

Every time I come back I am stunned by how quiet Orkney is compared to the cities down south. In London you have to learn to live with the constant rumble of traffic, the sound of bustling life, sirens and passing trains. When I stepped off the plane at Kirkwall airport I was struck by how amazingly quite this county is. To me, coming back here it feels like an oppressive weight has been lifted. When you live here all the time the quiet feels normal, but to visitors and folk like me who can only be here for a few weeks a year it is immediately noticeable, and very comforting. As I pack away my things I wonder how the keepers felt, knowing that they would probably never return to Auskerry. I certainly hope I will be able to continue coming back here for many years to come.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – September 2011

2011-10-01T08:44:00.001-07:00

There's no column this month due to a lack of space in 'Living Orkney' magazine. I'll be back in the October edition.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – August 2011

2011-09-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

This may sound a bit daft from someone who’s recently turned 23, but I have just returned from my first holiday abroad without my parents. Up until my mid teens I was very fortunate to have been taken all over the world on family holidays. We visited lots of interesting places including Sydney, San Francisco, Toronto, Spain, France and Belgium. However, when I went off to University my priorities changed and I become more interested in coming back to Orkney to spend my holidays seeing family, friends and working at Radio Orkney than I was on jetting off somewhere exotic. As a result I don’t think I’ve been abroad since I was about 17.

After quite a bit of cajoling and persuasion from my girlfriend, I decided to bite the bullet and change this. A good friend of mine from work was also keen to go away with his girlfriend so we thought it would be fun for the four of us to go together. Having agreed that we all enjoy Italian food, we settled on Naples as our destination and booked flights and 4 nights in a hotel, online.

I was pretty anxious during the run up to our departure. I’m an inherent worrier at the best of times, but going abroad with all the potential problems you might face stressed me out. Happily, we arrived at the hotel in glorious sunshine after an entertaining taxi journey from the airport. The hotel staff were very friendly and the room was lovely.

Before we left, I’d noticed a news story on the BBC website about how Naples is currently struggling with a backlog of uncollected rubbish piled high all over the city. During the taxi ride we saw quite a few giant heaps of trash on pavements and street corners so I asked the driver what he made of it. In a strong Italian accent he said; “It’s very bad. The president is doing nothing about it. The rubbish is better than Berlusconi!”

On the second day we decided to take an open top bus tour of the city, and along the sea front past the various marinas. This was great as the bus provided a lofty vantage point for us to view our new surroundings. I must admit I often take the mickey when I see tourists in London going about on similar bus tours, but it’s actually a great way to get your bearings in a new place, and have all the main attractions brought to your attention. I think its easy to be amused, if not annoyed by tourists getting in the way when you are a local going about your business, so it was quite enlightening to have the boot on the other foot so to speak.

The following day saw us take a very run down and heavily graffiti adorned train to a town at the base of the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. From there we haggled down the price of a coach journey, which carried us up 800m of very narrow and windy road to just below the summit. This journey made a couple of my companions feel a bit queasy, but I loved watching the coach drivers negotiate round impossible bends as well as other coaches. We then walked the last 200m to the crater summit where our efforts were rewarded with a breathtaking view. Having caught our breaths and filled our pockets with pumice stone we began the decent where yet another mozzarella and tomato pizza was devoured with gusto.

The highlight of the holiday for all of us was a boat trip around the island of Capri. It’s a stunning outcrop of steep cliffs and trees jutting out of beautiful pale blue sea. It amused me that the thing I enjoyed most was a trip on a boat not too dissimilar to many that take tourists around Orkney.

We were sad to leave, but as the saying goes, there’s no place like home. Whether that’s London or Orkney, it’s always nice to get back. It’s just a shame there was no space in my case for the Italian weather, but that’s budget airlines for you.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - July 2011

2011-07-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

What is your idea of a perfect holiday? Everyone seems to have different views about what the key requirements are, but there seems to be some common themes. I think the main things are probably to do with the company you are with and whether or not the holiday destination and accommodation actually lives up to what the brochure led you to expect. Other key things might include value for money, the weather and the beauty of scenery or variety of things to do.

I’ve been discussing this with friends since returning from a fantastic weekend away in Wales. Lizi and I traveled to Abergavenny for my family’s annual gathering. My aunts and uncles on mum’s side were all there, as well as most of my cousins and our grandmother. The ‘adults’, as we still refer to them despite a third of their combined offspring now qualifying as adults themselves, had booked a 16-bed bunkhouse for us all to stay in.

We arrived in high spirits and glorious sunshine, the countryside was beautiful, the air was warm and the beer cool. I knew straight away that we had the makings of a great couple of days. As you can see from the pictures, we took a trip on the canal in Brecon, and on the Sunday we went horse riding up in the hills.

The boat was great fun. I’ve always wanted to take a trip on a canal as its an area of boating I’d not yet had a chance to experience. As well as the peace of it, and the beautiful scenery, the trip was made even better as I was able to stand outside on the stern and chat to Dave the skipper who had a fantastic thick Welsh accent. I have always loved listening to how people speak and spend a fair amount of time trying to perfect my repertoire of accents and impressions. I’m pleased to say that my Welsh accent now sounds a lot more convincing.

The other main excursion we had booked for the weekend was a two-hour trek on horseback over the Brecon Mountains and through some more wonderful countryside. I must admit I was very apprehensive about this activity. Despite having been brought up on a sheep farm I must confess I’m not the worlds biggest fan of animals. Horses are particularity frightening to me because of their size and power. Lizi has been riding horses almost all her life so while I was worrying about whether I’d end up in hospital after falling off, I was also trying to be cool about it so as not to get the mickey taken too much.

Once I’d successfully mounted ‘Harry’ I felt slightly better about the situation, in fact as our long procession began to trot out of the stable yard I began to relax a bit. As we went through the first field I even felt the need to crack some gags about the lack of a clutch or brake. All was going well until we left the flat field and began to walk along a very narrow rocky path with a steep hill to our right and an almost sheer drop to our left. The most alarming thing is that when you are on the horse, it looks like the animals legs must be about to go over the edge because their body blocks your view of their hooves. I found this very unnerving and the banter quickly stopped.

I can reveal that I didn’t fall off, and while I’m not going to be buying a horse anytime soon I wouldn’t be against having another go sometime. Everyone we met was very friendly, we all had a fantastically fun and relaxing time and I’ll certainly return to Wales.

Whatever you are doing for your holiday this summer, whether that’s jetting off to the Caribbean, having a barbeque on one of Orkney’s beautiful beaches, or simply taking a week off work in August to attend the agricultural shows, I hope it’s a good one.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - June 2011

2011-06-21T07:44:00.001-07:00

There's no column this month as there wasn't any space in the June Magazine. Too many other more interesting articles, so I got biffed. I've been reliably assured I will return next month.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - May 2011

2011-05-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

In the age of austerity measures and budget deficits it’s no surprise that we keep hearing about painful cuts to public services. You will have more than likely heard many ways in which the local council, national government and perhaps the BBC might be able to save money. Doubtless you have your own opinions about what should be shrunk, scrapped and in many ways more importantly, what should be saved.

One suggestion that has caused a great deal of anger and alarm surrounds the future of BBC Local Radio. Concern grew swiftly after an article in a national newspaper suggested that BBC Local Radio stations should stop broadcasting local content apart from a breakfast and drive time show, replacing the rest of the days output with Radio 5 Live.

The proposal, which the BBC says is only one of many put forward for discussion as part of an ongoing consultation by the corporation, called ‘Delivering Quality First’. The reason for the debate is a freeze in the licence fee until 2017, and new funding obligations - including paying for the BBC World Service. Staff across the 40 local BBC radio stations in England have reacted angrily to the suggestion. This is no surprise given that the NUJ have suggested this could result in the loss of 700 jobs.

I believe BBC Local stations are unique in their ability to engage with the communities of which they form a part. They can often provide much greater detail on local news stories than the national networks can. They cover local sporting, political and community events which commercial rivals often don’t or won’t. They provide a wealth of expertise and contacts which journalists and producers at the national stations can tap into when need be, and due to their locations in the centre of towns and cities across the country, they are the public face of the BBC, easily accessible by licence fee payers.

Radio Orkney listeners are very loyal to their station, and this is something reflected nationally. Listeners turn to their local broadcasters for information all the time, not least during bouts of bad weather and snow for up to date information about school closures and travel problems.

Another area where I believe local radio plays an important role is in providing a great learning ground for new talent and young people looking for a way into the industry. As many readers will know, when I was still at school I was given an amazing opportunity by Radio Orkney to get involved with the station. The team, which at the time was led by John Fergusson, took me under their wing and showed me the ropes. In the years that followed I was given countless opportunities to learn new skills both on and off the air. I am convinced that if it weren’t for this amazing opportunity at a young age, I would not be working in radio now.

Figures fans may be interested to know that Local Radio shares 17% of the licence fee with all radio at the BBC. The sums indicate the 40 stations in England account for approximately 34p a month or £4 of a standard yearly licence fee. For comparison, TV accounts for 66% of the annual licence fee spend.

In an article in Ariel, the BBC’s internal newspaper, Caroline Thomson, chief operating officer, said: “It's important to remember that representing the UK's regions and communities is one of the BBC's six public purposes. With the rest of the local news sector at increasing risk of market failure, the BBC's contribution to local journalism is more important than ever. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking at the most effective way of delivering it.”

Radio 5 Live is a great station and I’m sure there are a lot of local radio fans that would also enjoy 5 live, but I think it would be a big mistake, and a great loss to even partially replace one with the other. Looking ahead, the BBC’s plan is to bring all the ideas together and test them against the organisations public purposes and priorities. The findings will then be shared before being submitted to the BBC Trust for its approval in July.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - April 2011

2011-04-25T01:31:00.000-07:00

My Girlfriend and I are now well settled in our new flat in West London. It’s a cozy little pad and now that my Hi-Fi is set up, there are a few familiar pictures on the walls and plenty of our clutter about the place it feels like home. There is one thing missing though. I am a bit of an Internet o’ holick so broadband is one of my home comforts. I actually don’t know how I managed to cope with the old dial up Internet we had when I was at school, let alone the complete lack of online entertainment when I go out to Auskerry.

The annoying thing is, that we actually signed up for Broadband with o2 at the end of January, only to be told they wouldn’t be able to connect it up until the 3rd of March! I don’t remember it taking anything like that long to get our broadband connected in Kirkwall back in 2008 or whenever it was. It seems bizarre that in London, the UK’s capital and centre of business, it takes over four weeks to get connected. I’ve been told that the reason for this waiting list is due to the fact that most broadband providers have to rely on BT Openreach engineers to actually do the connecting on the street and they are totally over booked.

As you don’t start paying until you actually get connected, providers such as o2 must be loosing a lot of money as a result of the delay. I would have thought that with such obvious demand, BT would have made more effort to employ more engineers to help cut the waiting times. Luckily we have been able to get online to via a USB dongle, which uses the 3G mobile phone network, but its very slow and only really any use for things like booking train tickets and checking e-mails. For someone who’s quite reliant on the internet for entertainment and social reasons, it’s been quite interesting for me to have had to adapt to cope without it.

However, the last month has been so busy at work, that I suppose I haven’t had as much spare time to miss the internet as I would normally. This is because I have finally moved over from the World Service in central London to working at Radio 5 Live in Television Centre. As regular readers will know, when I took this job back in November 2009, the plan was for me to work for 5 Live. However, as part of our training we were initially posted to Bush House, the current home of the World Service, to learn the ropes as a Studio Manager. With 5 Live scheduled to move to the new Media City site in Salford later this year, our bosses have moved us over to TVC so that we can learn the skills and tasks specific to 5 Live programmes prior to the move North.

It’s sad to have said goodbye to my colleagues at the World Service, many who have become good friends. However, it’s very exciting to be starting this new chapter of my SM’ing career at the BBC’s home of live news and sport on the radio.

As you can imagine, learning the ropes in a new building, which incidentally is huge and like a maze is quite a challenge in its self. Imagine your first week at Kirkwall Grammar School, but it has about 5 more floors and half of it a big circle, so you can just keep walking round and round for ages with no idea where you are.

The other aspect of working at Television Centre that I hadn’t really considered is that fact that I keep coming face to face with celebrity TV presenters that you don’t expect to see while you’re walking around work, or making a cup of tea. Presenters like Sian Williams from BBC Breakfast, Kate Silverton and George Alagiah from the News Channel and Mark Lawrenson from Match Of The Day work in this building along with people like me every day. I’m just not used to it so I’m trying to learn to be nonchalant and cool about it and not draw too much attention to the fact that I might be just a little star struck.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – March 2011

2011-03-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - February 2011

2011-02-07T05:58:00.001-08:00

I knew it was going to hurt my wallet when we moved. My godmother and her family have been incredibly generous letting me live in her Knightsbridge flat for the last year. It’s enabled me to get settled in London without having all the hassle, not to mention the expense of finding somewhere to live. However, I never planned to be in her place for more than a year, so before Christmas my girlfriend and I started looking at flats to rent in the Shepherd’s Bush area of West London.

I had a viewing of a small but cozy flat in the area back in November. Because the rental market was moving very slowly at the time I decided to put in an offer to rent the place. It’s in an ideal location for us because I will be able to walk to work at Television Centre in about 15 minutes and Lizi will be able to get a direct bus to work without having to change buses or use the tube.

Anyway, we have now moved in, which wasn’t a lot of fun due to the three flights of stairs all our stuff had to be carried up. The main thing that’s hit both of us is the cost of renting on the open market in London. To say that my godmother was giving us ‘mates rates’ is a severe understatement. Not only were we paying very little rent, but we also didn’t have to worry about council tax, electricity or gas bills, the TV licence or broadband. We are now paying just over £1000 a month in rent alone, as well as two-three hundred for the aforementioned extra essentials. I’m not really complaining because we could have been paying that for the last year as well as now, just stating that it has come as a bit of a shock to our bank balances.

Since I last wrote I have been on a BBC familiarisation visit to Manchester. We went to see around the MediaCityUK site where 5 Live will be broadcast from later this year, as well as some areas of greater Manchester, which the estate agents thought we might want to live. Having seen where I’m going to be living and working in less than a year’s time has made it all the more real and exciting. Even from the brief time I was up there I got a real sense that the city has a community vibe, unlike much of London. I’ve written in Living Orkney before about how much I miss this side of Orkney life so I found it very encouraging to find how friendly and chatty people seem to be in and around Manchester.

On a different note, I wanted to briefly make a point about student tuition fees. While it will be of major concern to many young folk that in the years to come they will begin their working lives with a substantial amount of debt, I wouldn’t like to see them put off going to university. I’m still convinced that the benefits of an appropriate course can be very substantial. Many university courses, mine included did not have a timetable of work to cover 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Far from it, in fact, we had a total of around two or three days a week ‘off’ which I used to get involved in other projects like the student radio station and being a student ambassador.

I think this is one of the critical issues here; If you plan to go to university just to do the minimum in order to pass, and spend the remainder of your time in less than constructive ways then you may well graduate with a lot of debt and not much to show for it. On the other hand, if you are prepared to use some initiative and apply yourself to a variety of other projects that will either widen your skills and experience, or help to finance yourself then you’ll have had a much more valuable experience. You will probably meet more people as a result, and make yourself more employable whilst making more friends and ultimately having a much more enjoyable time.
So, if the tuition fees are raised, I hope it will mean that our universities are full of folk who are determined to make the most of the experience rather than seeing it as a way of putting off having to get a job.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – January 2011

2011-01-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

If I had been at home last September I would have spent a good proportion of my time supping lager and rocking out to the sound of local talent at the Orkney Blues Festival. I’ve always enjoyed live music, especially when the musicians happen to be my contemporaries from school. I’m thinking in particular of the excellent local group called Bad Taste, but there are plenty of others too; like the Condition and Bad Dog, No Biscuit.

Sadly I wasn’t able to attend last year’s festival, as I was committed to work in London. However, that didn’t stop me from going to several excellent live music events in the capital. The first was probably the most spectacular, a concert held in Wembley Stadium in front of over 90,000 people. It was exciting, energetic and very loud; just what I expected from Muse and their excellent support bands; Biffy Clyro, White Lies and I Am Arrows.

I’d never been to Wembley before and although I had been to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, the sheer size of the place was quite overwhelming. It struck me that the entire structure was designed and built purely as a money making cathedral of fun and entertainment. Unlike some farmland that becomes the site of an outdoor festival for three days a year, or a barn that’s used for a dance now and again, this gigantic concrete and steel oval was built almost exclusively to host football matches and music concerts. It is pretty impressive.

The other two gigs were a much smaller affair held in the rather tired looking Shepherds Bush Empire. The first performance was given by the ex Procul Harum guitarist Robin Trower, with the excellent young axe man, Aynsley Lister as the support act. Our second trip to the same venue was to see the American guitarist, Walter Trout who was touring to promote his new album.

Most of the Empire punters were men in their late fifties and sixties, and several of them had a son with them who was clearly being initiated into the classic rock brethren. After the Trout gig, the sister of one of my dad’s old school friends who had accompanied us commented that, to put it politely, the band members were not exactly oil paintings. I feel that comment was indicative of a wider change in opinion about music entertainment. It appears that the modern tendency is to place as much, if not more emphasis on the looks and ‘sex appeal’ of the band members as on their actual ability to play brilliantly.

Perhaps the influx of television talent shows in recent years has steered us towards an expectation that musical artists and performers should look like a star, as well as play like one. I think this is wrong. I have a theory that maybe some of the less charismatic youngsters, finding it hard to gain popularity amongst their fickle friends, perhaps decided to concentrate their energy on becoming highly skilled at playing their chosen instrument rather than chasing the opposite sex? But that’s just my theory.

This leads me to a second point, which is the contrast between the Muse and Trower/Trout performances. Both of the Empire gigs were very simple affairs. Musicians dressed in jeans with a fairly simple array of sound kit and some coloured lights. Conversely, the Muse concert was an epic display of pyrotechnics, rotating space ship stage platforms, flashing lights, visualisations and dancers.

Don’t get me wrong, they played extremely well and the band’s leader, Matt Bellamy, is widely regarded as one of the best guitarists of my generation. But I do wonder if it’s now considered necessary to include these elements in the concert to retain the attention of some members of my generation, many of who’s attention span has been shrunk by the fleeting nature of the Internet and the constant availability of interactive entertainment.

I’m looking forward to seeing more bands and guitarists playing in London as we go through 2011. But for me there is nothing quite like the sweaty, no frills gigs often played out in the pubs around Orkney. It will also be interesting to see who my generation get excited about going to see when we get a bit older. I wonder if Jedward or Lady Gaga will have quite the same appeal when they reach their sixties?

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - December 2010

2010-12-13T13:26:00.001-08:00

Over the last few months I have enjoyed a lot of interesting radio and TV programmes about the battle of Britain. As the 70th anniversary passed, and we as a nation remembered ‘The Few’ who fought for our freedom, it’s made me think in particular about the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots, many of whom were considerably younger than me.

There is one story in particular which grabbed my imagination; and that’s of Geoffrey Wellum who began his battle of Britain flying career a month before his 19th birthday. I find it hard to imagine what it must have been like for him and the many other young men in the same situation. I know how scared I would be if I was asked, aged 22, to fly a plane solo even in peace time. I can hardly guess what it must have been like to be sent up to face hundreds of German fighters in 1940 when those concerned had only just left school.

Fortunately I think it’s fairly safe to assume that even the inevitable government cuts won’t result in me being required to leave my job and go to war. If I chose to join up voluntarily, I would undoubtedly be given months and months, if not years of training before I would be allowed anywhere near a real aircraft, let alone the battle field. As I learned from these programmes, many of the battle of Britain pilots were scrambled to fly against enemy aircraft after just a few hours of flying practice in a Spitfire or Hurricane. I also learned that hurricane pilots only had 14.7 of continuous fire power before they would run out of ammunition. It must have been hard enough trying to control the plane, let alone make a successful attack and avoid being shot down as well.

Three of my great uncles were pilots in the Second World War. Mum and my younger brother, Hamish, were doing some family research recently and managed to find the original flight logs which were kept by my great uncle Mick’s squadron. They make for some very interesting reading as these documents reveal many details such as the length of his flights; many of which lasted eight hours or more, the targets they bombed, and later the areas over which they dropped supplies to the Resistance in parts of Scandinavia. They also show that the air crews were subjected to a pretty relentless schedule of missions. Mick’s last flight took off shortly before midnight on the 4th of March, 1945, just two months before the end of the war. Their orders were to fly to Denmark to deliver supplies to the Danish resistance but their Stirling aircraft was shot down. All the crew subsequently died in Denmark as the Germans would not allow anyone to go to the injured crew’s aid.

I’m sure that many families in Orkney have connections with those who flew in the battle of Britain and I was very interested to read about the various discoveries of crashed wartime aircraft in the November edition of Living Orkney. I would imagine that a downed aeroplane would be quite something for an Orcadian farmer to find in one of his fields, both at the time and now all these years later. In fact, one of the things I remember researching when I was being home schooled was the crash landing on Auskerry made by the Canadian pilot, Donald Franko.

Don was on his final solo training flight before he was due to join his battle squadron. It was a night time navigation exercise, and after taking off from Fraserburgh he got lost in thick cloud. Strong winds blew him North and as his fuel tanks emptied it became apparent that an emergency landing was inevitable. Dropping through the cloud he spotted the sea breaking white around Auskerry and decided he had no choice but to attempt an emergency landing.

It turned out that unwittingly Don had put down on the largest flat piece of unobstructed land on the island, saving his own life and leaving the plane almost undamaged. Unfortunately the RAF decided that getting the plane off the island would be impossible, so the engine was removed and the rest of the aircraft was burned where it had come to rest. Don went on to fly over 40 missions over Germany in Halifax bombers. Thanks to many hours of research by mum and a historian in Canada, we learned that Don had survived the war, and lived only a few miles from the Canadian who had eventually tracked him down.

Don and his wife and daughter came to visit us on the island. With the aid of a photograph taken by the lighthouse keeper who found Don and his plane the morning after the crash, we found the place where he had landed and Don told us what happened that night in 1943. He had joined up at 17, lying about his age to do so, and had found himself shortly afterwards flying solo flights in a small Oxford trainer in a foreign country. Don survived the war, living until January this year when he died of ‘old age’. Even though he survived he would have regular nightmares about his war experiences. The mental and emotional scars remained.

This year, most of us will be able to celebrate Christmas with our families, safe and warm in our own homes, without the fear of attack from foreign dictatorships. Maybe we could all take a moment to raise a glass to the men and women who gave up that pleasure to fight for our right to enjoy ours in peace. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and best wishes for 2011.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - November 2011

2010-12-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

No column this month as there wasn't enough room in the magazine and I was last in with my copy. You snooze, you loose! Back again in December, promise!

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - October 2010

2010-10-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Since moving to London I was aware that there was always a chance someone would attempt to break into my flat at some point. Since some builders had started work on the flat upstairs I was concerned that scaffolding which they had erected up the back of the property would pose a security risk. My fears were proven correct when someone climbed up and broke in over the weekend while I was away with family. I had left in a sleepy hurry after a run of night shifts and stupidly forgot to close and lock the bedroom window. Although it was only open a couple of inches it was obviously enough for an opportunist criminal to somehow remove the safety bolts and get it open wide enough to climb through.

I had been staying with my aunt and uncle in the picturesque village of Dinton, which is about an hour out of London by train. Their son was helping to organise a picnic ball in the village marquee and my cousin had invited me to come and join them.
Everyone brought their own food and decorations and there was a bar and an excellent three-piece cover band from Wales. After a day to rest and potter about in the garden, we spent a sunny Monday at the annual Dinton village fete. As I wasn’t due back to work until the Tuesday I thought I’d stay to see how it compared to the agricultural shows in Orkney.

As I expected it was a quintessentially English affair. The marquee used for the ball was left up to provide covered space for the tea and home bakes. There was a bouncy castle and an ice cream van, a coconut stand and a bric-a-brac stall, most of which was of a considerably higher quality than what I’d class as such.

A brass band replaced the pipe band, and a wheelbarrow race between three local villages replaced the sheep shearing display as one of the main attractions. I was persuaded to join the ‘visitors’ team, which got through to the final only to lose to the home side by the narrowest of margins. I think my cousin and his mates must have put a slick tyre on the barrow.

I was also introduced to a gentleman called Douglas Watkinson who has written several episodes of the ITV drama series, Midsummer Murders. Throughout the day there was an elderly man walking around the park with a wireless microphone constantly wittering about this and that. The PA was reasonably loud and I overheard a lot of people grumbling about how he was giving them a headache. I found his commentary quite amusing, especially when he was speaking about the wellie throwing competition and promoting the barbeque stall through a mouthful of burger. I suggested to Douglas that the ‘silencing’ of this man might provide some inspiration for a future episode.
To round the day off we were due to be treated to a flypast by a second world war Hurricane and a Spitfire. As I missed the one that came to Orkney I was particularly looking forward to this. However, about an hour before they were due to make the flypast microphone man announced that the planes were unable to take off due to high crosswinds at the aerodrome. This prompted my uncle who is ex SAS to make a quip about the unlikelihood that we would have won the battle of Britain if the pilots had been deterred by a slight crosswind.

Anyway, back at the flat and I found that I couldn’t get the front door union lock open. To cut a long, stressful and expensive story short I had to get an emergency locksmith to break in. When I went to my room to get my chequebook I discovered that my bedroom door was also locked, from the inside. He then had to break that lock too allowing me in only to discover that my room had been searched and my possessions scattered everywhere.

What is strange is that it looks as if all that’s been taken is an Xbox, my small backpack and some 20 and 50 pence coins from my change collection. They didn’t take Lizi’s jewellery, my passport or chequebook. I consider myself to have been extremely lucky as the outcome could have been so much worse. The police came round and a forensic expert took a copy of a footprint the criminal left on the windowsill. I’ll just have to hope the insurance will cover the theft and damage and perhaps we’ll see the culprit on the next series of police, camera, action!

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - December 2006

2010-10-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

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Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - January 2007

2010-10-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

It doesn’t seem like over a month since I last sat down to write this column. I am now home in Orkney having finished my first term in Sunderland. So many things have happened since I was home for reading week in November. Firstly, as soon as I got back down south I was bombarded with work. We were given two 2000 word essays to write about popular culture and media theory as well as TV and radio programmes to produce for assessment. As well as all this course work I was busy making a total of 22 hours of ‘as live’ radio for the radio society’s trial net cast.

One of my classmates, Danielle, and I were given the 8 till 10 breakfast show to do each weekday morning which we had to pre-record as if it were live. I also produced and presented a two hour blues show on my own called ‘Big Rory’s Blues’. This was a fantastic chance to gain further experience, not to mention demo material. Apart from a play list of current music which we were given we were left pretty much to our own devices to produce ‘Morning Glory’ as we called it. It was great fun getting on air and just talking about stuff that interested us for a couple of hours a day. However, it did result in us having little ‘off air’ chat because whenever either of us started to tell a story the other would interrupt with “save it for link material”.

All this work did not, surprisingly, have much success in curbing my social habits. My flatmates and I organized a big party on the second of December to get us ‘in the mix’ with the student party scene. There are six of us in the flat and we spent a week planning how we were going to make it top the unofficial leader board of flat parties. The result was that over 65 people turned up to a party which included a laser and strobe light show, my record decks, which a lot of people enjoyed having a play with, the all important ‘second room’ for the more chilled out chats, and obviously a lot of drink.

The party was going exceedingly well until about midnight when the constant traffic through the door into the living room wafted the product of a smoke machine into the path of a smoke detector, thus setting the fire alarm off. Our contingency plan for this situation involved burning toast and hiding all evidence of the smoke machine. Very luckily for us this worked well enough to convince the fire brigade and residential security that it was a hungry guest needing a snack that was to blame.

Once satisfied that there was no fire and that there would be no more toast we were left to it and the party continued on its alcohol fuelled journey to 8am on Sunday morning. Overall, it got a healthy 9 out of ten in the leader board with everyone saying it would have got a ten if it wasn’t for the fire alarm spoiling the momentum a little. (No smoke machine next time I think will nail it). I think my distinct lack of ability at competitive sport is evident to anyone who knows me but my friends have told me that I have taken this party rating thing very seriously so maybe I have found my niche.

Just a few of the other things which I have been involved in since I last wrote was to form part of a team on a 90’s TV quiz show organized by 2nd Year students. I have to say I was rubbish. I don’t know where I was during the 90’s as I didn’t recognize the teenage mutant ninja turtles, I couldn’t name any stars of Baywatch and I didn’t know who wrote the ‘Macarena’! Actually, come to think of it I was on Auskerry so that’s probably a good enough excuse. A particularly exciting development for me this term came when I went for a meeting with a senior editor at BBC Radio Newcastle. It looks like I will be starting a part time job/work experience placement with them in early January driving programmes at weekends and helping out with phone-ins. I’m really excited about this because if it comes off it will be fantastic experience and may lead to future employment. As you will have gathered by now, I absolutely love university life, but, in the last week of term I was really looking forward to getting home. The trip home began on the Saturday morning after a heavy night out, a last ditch attempt at consuming cheap drink I suppose. Anyway, I left Sunderland at half ten, and after a pleasant journey I arrived in one piece, on time, in Aberdeen. After spending months in a place where you don’t expect to recognize anyone I was not in the ‘looking around to see if there’s anyone I know’ frame of mind. So when I was spotted by four friends all in the space of five minutes after leaving the railway station I was quite overwhelmed.

The trip up on the boat was spent with my mates having a laugh and reminiscing about old times at home. We all agreed that going away has been a really important step in our development into adulthood, as well as a fantastic experience. I think no matter where you have been, or how much you love it, there’s nothing quite like the feeling you get from getting back to familiar territory and home comforts. Mum summed this up well by describing me as “bouncing around like Tigger”.

Being home has so far been excellent; the only disadvantage of this new life for me is that wherever you are you miss someone but that seems a small price to pay. Folk have told me that next term will be the hardest; I’m not convinced, I know what I’m going back to, I love it - and Easter isn’t that far away is it?

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Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - February 2007

2010-10-05T11:19:00.001-07:00

As I sit down to write this it’s just dawned on me that this week marked a small mile stone in my development into adulthood. This ‘life marker’, as I like to call it, occurred because dad has come down to Sunderland to visit me. What so special about that then? You may ask. Well for me, the fact that I am now being visited in my home, all be it a student flat, by my father is a sure sign of the transition I’m making between being a boy, dependent on my parents into a young adult, able to look after myself in a strange city 400 miles from home. Plus it’s cool for me to be the boss of my ‘pad’!

As some of you may have been unlucky enough to find out I started taking driving lessons with Peter Laird when I was home in November. I really enjoyed it and to be honest I wasn’t finding it all that hard. Last week I started taking lessons here. What a shock I got. Multiple lanes, large roundabouts, traffic lights, busy crossings, complicated junctions and probably most significantly, busy roads! It is so much more unnerving here and to be honest, the first couple of lessons were not much fun at all. Anyway, I’m improving again and I feel a little more in control and therefore more confident in what I’m doing. I have to say though, I’m very glad I did lessons at home as it did give me confidence to attempt it down here which I probably would have struggled with otherwise. I would suggest to any young people in Orkney who are planning to take all their lessons at home that they might be wise to take a couple of lessons somewhere slightly busier, even after passing their test. I think no matter how conscientious the instructors are at home, I just don’t think anything can prepare you for city driving short of having a go. Trust me, it’s scary! Anyway, I’ve booked 20 lessons with ‘Mr. Bus’, (I had to have him because the name amused me), and by having two lessons a week I hope to be at a test ready stage by Easter, hopefully.

Saturday 20th of January saw Flat 11 go for gold in the student party leader board. As you will be aware if you read last month’s column, we had quite a party at the beginning of December. Suffice it to say that this one was even bigger with over 90 people getting involved through the course of the night. We had a DJ from one of the local nightclubs who’s a mate of mine doing a set for us, plus a set of decks on both floors of the flat. Luckily for us we escaped without a fire alarm, in fact it was quite a civilized do. The lesson I feel we learnt this time is that you can over do it and have too many people. Not that it was a problem having so many people, only it took away some of the ‘student flat party’ atmosphere and made our modest home into a sort of mini night club! I think we now have enough friends between the six of us that we could have plenty of guests by invites only. This way we will have a more manageable group which is less stressful. Anyway, there was plenty of good vibes and lots of people told us how much they enjoyed as they left in the wee small hours.

Last Monday marked the beginning of the second semester. This is the second part of the first year and means we have a different timetable and a completely new set of classes for our new modules. I have a feeling that this semester is going to be harder than the first because the video production and the digital video effects modules are supposedly quite time consuming. As well as this I have four 9 a.m. starts instead of two. This means I will miss Jeremy Kyle, and people wont have an excuse to keep phoning me up at lunch time with sarcastic comments like; “Sorry if I woke you up”!

There is a possibility that Danielle and I will be given the weekday breakfast show to produce and present on Utopia FM which is the student radio station broadcasting to the whole of Sunderland. If we get it we will have to start at 7 a.m. so I had better get used to early starts just in case. In the meantime I am working as part of the Utopia management team to help get the station ready for going live in May. I think I’m the only first year that has a management role so at the moment I’m observing how it’s done and helping where I can in preparation for perhaps a more senior role next year. However, as deputy training and development officer I have been helping other presenters to record and mix demos for the station.

One thing I have done this year, which I hope to stick to, is set my self a New Year resolution. I usually don’t bother because I can never keep them but this time I have, and so far I’ve stuck to it. My plan is to go out one less night a week and buy a CD instead. This way I’m going to save money because a CD is cheaper than an average night out, plus the heath benefits are obvious. It also means that, in theory, when I leave university I will have better health, and a bigger CD collection than my contemporaries. I’ll keep you posted as to how I get on. Cheerio for now.

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Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - March 2007

2010-10-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Only yesterday was I thinking of a way to begin this month’s column. As if by magic at about 11:40 last night the power went off. There was some confusion over whether or not we had run out of money in the meter. However, after looking outside at the other flats it was quickly realized this was not the case. What had actually happened was a power cut had knocked out the entire two blocks of student accommodation as well as the street lights on both the road and river side of Panns Bank. It had even thrown the Southern half or the Wearmouth bridge into darkness. What amazed me is how quickly a bunch of students can gather together with a bag of newspapers, a lighter and a guitar despite being so useless at getting up for work. A nice ‘camp fire’ community spirit ensued until a pack of stressed security guards came and utilized the fire extinguisher that one conscientious student had supplied, and put the small paper fire out.

Something struck me this week to do with students eating habits. Very few of us seem to be able to cook at all. Luckily for me I have a mother who passed on a good deal of culinary experience to me when I was home educated which has stood me in good stead whilst away from home. However, the number of people I know that can’t even cook the simplest things amazes me. Some people are very bad for throwing things away that are only a day or two out of date even though they are fine. If the milk smells and tastes ok, it is ok. Frozen Margarita pizzas will not make you I’ll if they are ten days out of date and neither will a carton of apple juice that’s been unopened in the fridge! Anyway I’m doing my best to eat healthily and give advice where it’s asked for. I suppose you learn best from your own experience.

As you would expect, us lazy students consume a lot of media, especially TV programmes. For me and the rest of my flatmates, the television watching experience has changed quite dramatically in the last few months. As we are all media students being encouraged to analyse, criticize, evaluate and discuss the media in all its forms we all find ourselves constantly judging whatever it is we’re watching. Some of the most common statements are: “That’s a badly composed shot.” “That package was badly edited and the music was totally wrong for that advert.” “The CGI effect on that building doesn’t look real.” I suppose it’s what we’re meant to be doing and it is interesting. Having said that this, sometimes subconscious, analysis and debate can get a little tedious when you just want to relax in front of ‘Midsummer Murders’. Our TV decided to blow up last night so we no longer have this problem for the time being.

This week I received some of my results back from last semester. I was pleased to find that close to a first for my essays on popular culture and analysis of narrative and genre respectively as well as for my Radio module. I still haven’t heard anything about the introduction to T.V. module yet but I’m confident it will be fine. I was pleased with these results because if I’m honest I didn’t put as much effort into them as I could have. I figured that the marks I get this year don’t count towards my degree and only serve to get me onto the next level, i.e. second year, so therefore it was more important to just make sure I pass and spend the extra time on other things. So to get these results gives me confidence that with a little more effort I will be well on my way to getting some really god grades in my second and final year here.

Despite having been totally settled with a good group of friends for a while now I’m still constantly meeting new people which I think is fantastic. What amazes me the most is how many people I meet have done really cool and interesting things in their life already. One of my mates who is now 28 gutted the living room in his London flat when he used to work there and, together with his mates, built a studio. From this studio they broadcast a daily three hour live radio show over the internet. What started as a group of mates having fun turned into something which attracted approximately 8000 listeners per day. People tuned in from as far away as China to listen to live DJ sets from quite big name DJ’s at the time as well as from the guys themselves. They intermingled the music with idle humorous chat and informal interviews with DJ’s from big London nightclubs. Another lad who I was introduced to the other week whilst on a night out in South Shields has built a recording studio in his bedroom and has worked with some big name dance DJ’s and produced, amongst other things, a top 40 hit. He’s just 19.

It never ceases to amaze me how open minded students seem to be when it comes to a whole host of issues. I find it incredibly encouraging that in a society that’s currently threatened by climate change and war, my generation seem to be pretty switched on when it comes to issues like race and sexuality. I can honestly say that I have encountered no racism, those with alternative sexualities are open about it from the off and everyone seems to be, as they should, completely comfortable with it. My contemporaries come across to me as a thoughtful group of individuals who are thinking about the world we are inheriting. If what I’m seeing on this small scale is in any way an accurate reflection of what young people are like in general then I think we have a good chance of getting ourselves out of the mess that our so called ‘elders and betters’ have got us into.

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - April 2007

2010-10-05T10:52:00.001-07:00

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 5th 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 with Rory Auskerry - May 2007

2010-10-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - June 2007

2010-10-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

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 with Rory Auskerry - July 2007

2010-10-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

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 with Rory Auskerry - August 2007

2010-10-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

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 bona fide 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 6th 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 phrase exactly like it in Latin, it’s as close as I can get to… Keep It Real.

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - September 2007

2010-10-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

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 with Rory Auskerry - October 2007

2010-10-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

I’ve been back in Sunderland three weeks now. Just to recap, my self and five friends from Uni have teamed up to form Northern Hype which is essentially a promotion company. We have been given the chance to run a local nightclub every Friday and I therefore decided to come back a week before fresher’s even started so we could all work together for the final preparations. I knew there would be a lot of last minute stuff to do in preparation for the launch of ‘Hype’, the name we have given to our Friday night party, but what we have managed to achieve in the last couple of weeks has been a pleasant surprise.

We designed and bought 5000 flyers which we can use for the next few weeks as they are reasonably generic but we have already shifted 3500 of them. We did the same with posters and a large canvas banner with our logo on it. All the lads have pulled their weight consistently and after hours spent distributing flyers, putting up posters, talking to people about the night, going to meetings and on the night even going round the halls of residence with poster boards and a megaphone we felt we had done everything we could. Despite all this effort, by 6pm on the big day I was really tense, to be honest I was pretty hopeful it was going to go ok but I’m a worrier and there was just this nagging doubt that we had forgotten something or the band wouldn’t turn up or my mixer would crash or something.

In the end we did have a bit of a worry because the band turned up but our sound man who had been booked by the guys who run the club didn’t. We were faced with having to tell the band they couldn’t play, pay them and send them home. However, we were very lucky and got a stand in sound man at the last minute. In the end we half filled the club with about 250 people, the band got a good review, the bar sold out of Alco pops used to make our exclusive ‘pints of hype’ and despite letting in all the students for free and only charging non students after 12 we even made a small profit from the door. We all felt that it had gone better than we had even hoped and went home contented if a little worn out.

The trouble is, were doing this every Friday so on the Sunday night we had a meeting to decide who’s doing what in preparation for the new week, more posters to be designed and distributed, more flyers and more talking to people about the night. I feel very strongly that one of Northern Hype’s key selling points is the fact that we are all students running a club owned and managed by two young men from Sunderland who did what we are doing when they were at university. We are not some faceless money grabbing corporate entity.

Therefore people see us out and about giving people flyers and actually having a bit of banter with them, not just handing them out as people walk past, then they see us chatting to people in the pre club bar, and then they see us on the decks in the club. We are expecting a lull now after the initial ‘hype’ of the first week, but we are hopeful the night will grow and develop into a weekly fixture in peoples social calendars.

In this last few hectic weeks I have moved into my new flat, just 100 yards along from Flat 11, I’m now upstairs in Flat 30 with three of the guys I lived with last year and two new ones, Andy and Darren. The two Andy’s is proving quite confusing but nick names are helping, plus we have a balcony and an even better river view than last year so its all good.

I have also been doing the lunchtime 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM for the last two weeks. It will be over by the time this is published and I have to say I haven’t enjoyed it much as last time when I did breakfast. I believe this is due to two things, firstly the format of the show, and second the general lack of promotion for the station. First of all, doing a play listed show on my own quickly made me realize that I much better suit a format of radio programming called ‘zoo’. The Chris Moyles and Steve Wright shows are Zoo format, it basically means upwards of 2 presenters talking or at least in the studio at one time, often 3 or 4. It’s like a party on the radio and gives the presenters the chance to ‘bounce’ off each other. It’s very difficult to be funny and entertaining in a room on your own with nobody there to even smile at your jokes, whereas if you have two people with you laughing and bantering with you, you can be fairly sure you are reasonably entertaining. I would be happy playing classic rock music by myself in the evening because then the emphasis is on the music rather than the presenters banter.

The second reason for me not enjoying doing the show that much is the fact the station has had virtually no promotion. Therefore there are almost no listeners and as a result the presenters get no text messages or emails to speak of. This leads to people feeling they are making a lot of effort for it just fall on deaf ears. Also, without listener feedback you have no way of knowing whether you are funny, or rubbish so doubt creeps in, you get disheartened and a bored, the quality of your output drops and then you are rubbish. This cycle then continues. The reason there has been no promotion is because the University management have dragged their feet so much over money there is no cash available even for a poster campaign around the city. This makes me very annoyed and I’m therefore intending to run for management in May with Chris from Northern Hype so we can start making a fuss and try and make things change for the better of the presenters and the listeners. Cheers.

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - November 2007

2010-10-05T10:21:00.001-07:00

In the last four weeks the work load has really begun to increase quite considerably. I have the task of producing three radio adverts, a five minute radio package and two essays, one on media studies and one for a module called Power, Politics and the Media all to be completed in less than two weeks. Just as I sat down to get on with that I realised it was once again time to write this as well. It’s funny how things manage to creep up on you even if you are reasonably organised.

I have held the opinion for a while now that a large proportion of my fellow students are coasting a bit. I get this idea because there are so many students with very poor attendance, who don’t ever contribute anything to class discussions and who actually look moderately annoyed when people like my self attempt to debate an issue in class time. My attitude to this is simple.

The education I am getting is costing in excess of £6000 a year including £3070 for tuition fees, about £2300 for accommodation and the rest for food and the odd pint. This is pretty much the same for everyone and therefore I can’t understand why there are so many students who don’t seem bothered whether or not they get their moneys worth. This is not to mention the fact that I want to feel as if I have actually achieved something from my three year course. As a result I want to discuss things, I want to be able to talk to the academics that are here to teach us and I want to be able to voice an opinion and have it challenged and debated by my peer group. I don’t want to sit quietly in a corner, watching the clock and waiting for the end off the lesson so I can go home and play computer games.

I believe there are two reasons for this general lack lustre approach by some people. Firstly, a lack of motivation for which the parents are partly to blame because they have failed to enthuse their children and persuade them make more effort, and partly the fault of the individual for not thinking about their aspirations and deciding to get on with the job in hand.

Secondly, I blame the University for failing to have a system in place that can help students who lack motivation. I totally understand that University is about pushing yourself, and trying to learn without having someone hold your hand but this system clearly does not work for a lot of people. The result, as I see it, is a split between two groups of students, one group who feel frustrated because they are stuck in a class with people who don’t contribute to discussions, and another group who are unconvinced by what they are being taught, why they are there and basically spend their time thinking about what other things they could be doing with their time which would benefit them more.

It ultimately begs the question; why come to University if you don’t want to get involved in what I believe University life to be about? Ultimately I think our society puts far too much pressure on young people to go into higher education who would actually be much more likely to succeed and develop positively from going straight into the work place. When people arrive at the decision to come to University it should be because that is what they feel is going to be right for them at that time, not because that’s what they think is expected of them by their family, teachers, friends or in fact, anyone.
Going back to my own situation, I strongly believe that once you are at Uni, simply turning up to lectures, completing the work set, and at the end of it getting a degree is not what university is all about. That’s partly my motivation for getting involved with extra activities and having other projects such as Northern Hype and student radio.

To update you, this Friday (November 2) is week 7 of ‘Hype’. We have consistently got good attendance numbers, around 250 per week, and we are getting good feedback from people who have been down to the club. We now have a substantial core group of people who turn up every week and we are also turning a small, but consistent profit. We are all feeling pleased about how the business venture is going and are quite excited about where it may lead us.

Another thing that’s been bothering me since I last wrote is that I have discovered Sunderland University is not a member of the National Union of Students. Coupled with the recent closure of two university owned student bars and the lack of a proper central union building I’m a little concerned to say the least. Most Uni’s in this country have a central building which often incorporates a bar or a night club (often both), a shop and a café area. We do not have this and as a result it’s difficult for students to meet people from different departments because they all hang out in different places instead of everyone dropping into a communal location for a pint after work. It’s rumoured that this is largely down to the fact that the university makes three times the amount of money from international students as it does from indigenous UK residents and because the majority of international students don’t share the same drinking cultures as people originally from the UK, and as a result it’s not financially worth while to provide a union bar facility because the number of people who would use it is regarded as not being a big enough proportion of the students studying here. To me, and indeed a lot of my contemporaries, this seems very unfair and gives the impression that the University’s senior management are much more concerned about money than providing what they sell as a ‘Life Changing’ experience. Again, this is something I hope to be able to get to the bottom of at some stage before I leave at the end of my course.

On a final note I’d like to say how much I’m looking forward to coming home in a couple of weeks time for reading week and the BBC children in need appeal show on Radio Orkney.

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - December 2007

2010-10-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Living Orkney Column - Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - September 2010

2010-09-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Lizi and I were walking home from the pub when we were approached by an elderly gentleman who crossed the road to ask us for money. He must have been in his 60‘s, he was reasonably well dressed in a shirt and corduroy trousers, his grey hair was quite neat and he looked pretty respectable.

I must confess at this point that I don’t usually give money to beggars. There are several reasons for this; one is that as a child I was told that getting your wallet out in a public place put you at a greater risk of being robbed. Another is that I hate the idea that the person in question might use my money to buy drugs rather than food or to pay for somewhere to get a shower and some sleep. Add to this the fact that growing up in Orkney doesn’t exactly prepare you in ways to respond to people begging on the streets.

There are sadly quite a lot of homeless people in London and it’s something that I still find hard to accept. I know that if things got really bad in my life I’m fortunate enough to have plenty of family and friends whom I could rely on to help me get back on my feet. So why isn’t someone helping these people? Anyway, back to our old man. He didn’t just ask for money in the usual, “have you got any spare change” way, instead he told us that he had lost his wallet while in London to see a doctor. He said he had angina and that he just needed some money so he could check into a cheap hotel for the night because he had missed his train home. As we were almost back at my flat and therefore not on a busy road, his story seemed pretty convincing, and to be honest quite sad, I decided to part with a fiver as a gesture of good will. He speedily took the note from my hand, said thanks and hurried off.

I was pretty convinced that he was genuine and it made me feel good that I’d helped him out. Imagine my disappointment, not to mention irritation when a few days later Lizi tells me that on her way back from the shop she meets the same man, who proceeds to offer her the same sob story in return for cash. Needless to say she declined.

I find the homeless issue quite upsetting because I’d like to be able to help, but I don’t think giving them money is the way to do it. I suspect there is more to each homeless persons story than meets the eye and I do often wonder why a family member or a friend hasn’t stepped in to help before they have been left with seemingly no option but to beg for money on the street and sleep in St. James’s Park. The only conclusion I can come to is that somebody may have initially helped them, but they have abused that help, perhaps in pursuit of drugs or alcohol. Having said that, I am aware that individual circumstances will vary and it wouldn’t be right to generalise. Fortunately there are organisations which can offer support, like Shelter and the Big Issue foundation.

The credit crunch has exacerbated the problem and although its reassuring to know that there are organisations making a difference I still find it upsetting that more isn’t being done. Since the unfortunate encounter with the old man I spent a couple of days in Exeter with my extended family. Unfortunately the reason for us getting together was to attend my grand fathers funeral. It was a somber affair as you would expect, but he had been very ill on and off for some time and I think we all felt that for him to die peacefully in hospital having reached 85 called for more of a celebration of life than anything else. The family all pulled together to offer support to each other and in particular, my grandmother who was stunningly composed throughout. I’m convinced that a strong community network is equally as important as a supportive family. Perhaps if some of our major cities could cultivate the kind of communities you find in Orkney then for the homeless people we see on our streets things might be different.

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - August 2010

2010-08-24T02:45:00.000-07:00

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - August 2010

I’ve just arrive back in London after a thoroughly enjoyable ten days in Orkney. It was the first time I’ve been back since I started this job back in January and as the months passed I realized more and more how much I miss the place. It’s great being in the capital, the weather has been almost perfect for months now and I’m really starting to feel settled in my job. But as the song so rightly says, it’s great to be back home in Kirkwall bay.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, I’m trying to teach myself some basic video editing and production skills. To try and move this process on, and in an attempt to make the results of my efforts a little easier on the eye I’ve invested in a high definition camcorder. Although it’s certainly not a ‘professional’ piece of kit I’ve so far been very pleased with the results.

It arrived in Orkney in time for me to take it out to Auskerry, on route to which I gave the little camera it’s first proper outing. How lucky did I feel when two porpoises decided to play in the bow wave of the boat as we motored along! I’d seen plenty of porpoises before, but never this close; they were literally surfacing no more than ten feet from the boat.

While I was on the island the weather was lovely so I took the opportunity to film as much of the island as possible. I think It’s always nice to have pictures as a visual record of places and events, but I think high quality video’s that will remind me of my childhood home will become all the more special as life and work cause me to spend long period of time away from the place.

Now that the technology to record and edit high quality video footage is affordable and relatively simple, I would hope to see more of Orkney’s beautiful landscape being captured ‘on film’ by armature movie makers. I’m sure some nicely shot footage of wildlife and landscapes uploaded to the Internet would do no harm to the local tourism industry.

Back at work, and things there are looking good there too. In the last month or so, I’ve been given several opportunities to drive some of the longer, more complex programmes. It’s the first time I’ve had a chance to do this since we completed our initial training back in February and I was very excited to get back in the driving seat.

As I expected, The newsroom in the BBC World Service has been a very interesting place to be this summer. With the general election followed by the World Cup and Wimbledon it’s been busy and fast paced. Although arguably of less international significance than the football, the election was a highlight for me. I’ve always taken an interest in politics, but being in the centre of the action on election night itself was superb. Being in London meant I also got the chance to head down to Westminster to see where all the TV action as taking place on college green. As this months picture shows, it was a popular place with news-hounds, tourists and obviously journalists!

As I mentioned the football, I feel capello’d (see what I did there) to say that I was backing England. I would have loved Scotland to have been in South Africa as well, and to be honest they probably would have played better than the England squad. Having said that, the level of unpleasantness and vitriol I’ve seen and heard from some Scots and Orcadians is I think, at best, petty, at worst, plain unacceptable. There is no need to be making “come on’ the Nazis - beat the English” comments in any walk of life. It’s quite simply offensive to both sides.

I’m quite sure that fans of the beautiful game in Orkney will be much more civilised in their comments regarding the forthcoming Parish cup final. I’ll be home for the game, more than likely watching from Radio Orkney’s temporary pitch side studio. With a bit of luck the weather will be nice and for one can’t wait.

Living Orkney Column - Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - July 2010

2010-07-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

Living Orkney Column - Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - July 2010

I don't remember getting many 'black marks' at school. I wasn't particularly clever, nor was I particularly rebellious, I mostly just got on with it. I suspect I left more black marks on the floor of the gym hall from my rubber soled pumps than were ever given to me by disappointed teachers. Coupled with my good fortune in largely avoiding reprimands at school, I am also pretty organised with money. I am a prolific saver and apart from a fairly severe CD buying habit I don't tend to spend much money each month. I was therefore very surprised, and pretty distressed to discover that I had a black mark on my credit report.

The reason this has come up is as a result of some calls I made to estate agents in Manchester. My job will take me North sometime next year and I'm looking to become a first time buyer. Having spoken to some agents, who stressed the importance of a healthy credit rating, I looked mine up. Discovering that a missed payment on my credit card showed up on my report, I called the bank.

You're probably thinking, 'Rory, you didn't pay your bill on time so you've only got yourself to blame?'. Well on the face of it I'm sure that's what it looks. However, the missed payment happened after the direct debit I set up on the card was canceled by the bank without me asking them too. It started last November when I got a letter saying I had missed a payment and would therefore be charged twelve pounds.

I went down to the bank the very helpful staff called the card helpline and explained that a mistake must have been made somewhere along the line to cancel the direct debit payment. The operator on the card helpline had a look on the computer, noticed that a something wasn't right and the twelve pound charge was duly reimbursed. I was delighted with the speed and efficiency in which the both the staff in the branch and the person on the helpline dealt with the problem and I thought that was the end of the matter.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when I decided to take a look at my credit report. Discovering I had this black mark, I called the same card helpline and explained the situation. To cut a long story shorter, I basically hit a brick wall. In the end I spoke to five different people, including a very nice lady in the Kirkwall branch, and I must have spend at least 3 hours on the phone.

One of my friends, who used to work on a banking helpline suggested to me via Facebook that I ask to make an official complaint. This resulted in much swifter action. In fact, within 24 hours I was called my someone from the customer services team and informed that they had 'arranged to clear any derogatory information held on [my] credit file'. What a result! I really hope that our newly elected government make some effort to legislate against this kind of behavior. Until then the message I think can be taken from this is that persistence and not accepting no for an answer often pays off, especially with businesses or companies who want your cash.

I'm actually writing this sitting out on my balcony in the sunshine. I've been doing quite a bit of this over the last few days and I'm hoping to do a lot more as the summer approaches. One of the things that's become very noticeable again is the constant sound of planes landing at Heathrow. I know that the disruption caused by the Icelandic volcano has been devastating for some people, but for those who live near or even under the flight path of any major UK airport, and didn't plan to fly, its been a real treat.

While the skies have been temporarily free of vapor trails I've been thinking about the environmental impact the lack of flying has had on the planet. The ash its self can't be good when it lands, but the lack of flying must have saved thousands of tonnes of aviation fuel. All in all, I suspect the grounding of flights has had an overall positive impact. It also raises a question about our reliance on aviation. I'm a big fan of flying, in fact I wanted to be a helicopter pilot long before I got interested in radio. However I'm very aware of the already huge, and growing impact that flying has on our planet.

I wouldn't suggest we park up all the planes because that would just be ridiculous, but It seems that we could do worse that sit down at think of some ways to cut down on the amount of flying we all do, especially within the UK. I think one of the biggest problems is that flying is often much cheaper than traveling by train. Personally I enjoy trains; you get a much better view than you do on most flights, you can stretch your legs a lot easier, there's a lot less waiting around before you travel and you don't have to persuade security that you're not a terrorist. I'm excited about government plans for a high speed rail link to the North and I think this would be of far more benefit to people and the environment than another runway at Heathrow.

Before I finish this month, I thought I'd mention the marathon. To be honest I've never really taken much of an interest until this year. Now that London is home I felt more connection with it, plus I had a better idea of where people were as the cameras followed the runners around the course. Unfortunately I was working on the day, but I finished early enough to be able to go down to the palace and see the non professional runners crossing the finishing line in their thousands. It was really quite spectacular to see and the atmosphere was very nice too. There was a real vibe from all the spectators near me that they were willing someone on. I'll certainly be back again next year, although like the Ba', I doubt I'll be taking part.

Hit The Beach - April 2010 - Track Listing

2010-04-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hit The Beach - April 2010 - Track Listing

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
Jeff Healey - Its Only Money
Jeff Beck feat. Joss Stone – There's No Other me
ZZ Top - Francine
Randy Newman feat. Mark Knophler - It's Money That Matters
Michael Landau & Robben Ford - God and Rock n' Roll
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Never The Bride - Betty's Song
Jeff Beck - Hammerhead
Too Slim & The Tail Draggers - She Gives Me Money
The Band - Rag Mama Rag
Mountain – Roll Over Beethoven

Last in the series.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - April 2010

2010-04-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

Testing times for exams
Since I last wrote I've progressed to the next stage of development in my new job as a studio manager (SM) by passing my pre-grid assessment. At the end of our initial training period the six of us new SMs were required to pass an operational assessment before we would be allowed to begin panelling 'real' programmes on the World Service. The test involved driving a fairly straightforward fifteen-minute programme and then answering quite a lot of questions about everything from digital audio compression, how microphones work to health and safety.

The idea of the test is to make sure that we are fully ready to go 'on the grid' and start driving programmes and news bulletins without supervision. It's a two way thing because, not only does it allow us to demonstrate to the management that we are fully competent and ready to go solo, but I also found that passing it gave me that little bit of extra confidence I needed to get stuck in without too many nerves. I was pretty apprehensive, and during the days before the test I did do a fair amount of swotting up on the things we've been learning over the last couple of months.

So the day of the test came and it all seemed to go ok. Supposedly not many new SMs actually pass first time. I'm not sure if the colleagues who told me that were just being nice though. I've decided that if anyone accuses me of being a swot for passing first time, I'll just alert him or her to the fact that it took me an embarrassing four attempts to pass my (road) driving test. After that expensive run of mistakes I think I was finally owed some good fortune in the testing department!

Passing meant that I could finally be let loose on my own to prepare and drive programmes without an experienced SM there to keep a close eye on me. I was really pleased to get the test out of the way quickly as I'd been itching to get going on my own. However, when I went into the studio the next morning to drive a Business Daily programme and there was no one there to cover my back, I was pretty nervous.

So far it's all gone pretty well although many Orcadians have said to me: "It's not safe to speak!" but I'm resigned to the fact that at some point I'm going to make a big mistake. I'm therefore working on the principle that the more experience I can accrue before that happens the better, as it might help me recover from a dicey situation.

The next challenge is going to come in the form of my first run of night shifts. I've never done one before and I'm not going to pretend I'm looking forward to it. Even when I was a student I was never a fan of all nighters or partying until dawn. I'm pretty good at getting up in the morning but I need my sleep, so the idea of trying to concentrate on a complicated radio show at 4am doesn't exactly fill me with excitement. Everyone on the team seems to have his or her own way of preparing and coping with nights, so I'll be interested to learn what works best for me.

As well as trying to find my feet at work I've had time to go and visit some relations in Salisbury. One of my aunts and her family lives there so I decided to jump on a train and go down to stay with them for a weekend. It was absolutely fantastic to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and into the relative peace and quiet of the countryside. On the first day of my visit my aunt held a sale of her home-ware products in Stourton, Wiltshire. While she was busy at the stall I went for a walk in the park at Stourhead. As I've said before, I'm really enjoying living in London but just being able to walk around on grass and among trees feels pretty good when you've been traipsing around on pavements and carpet and staring at concrete and glass for weeks.

It was also really nice to be involved in the banter that goes on in a family home. That's one of the things I miss most about no longer living with my own family. In fact, thinking about how much pleasure it gave me to be in the company of my aunt, uncle and cousins made me think about what it must be like for older folk who live by themselves. A lot of families in Orkney seem to make a point of making regular 'Sunday visits' to relatives and friends who stay on their own. I think this is really nice and it's something I'll definitely try to do myself whenever I get the chance.

Another thing that's been winging its way around my head for the last few days is the dawning realisation that I've basically left home. It may seem obvious to some that when I got this job and went off to London I was actually going to be moving out, but somehow it didn't feel like it at the time. On reflection I think I just viewed it like I was heading off for an extended term at university.

In many respects I haven't properly left yet. For a start most of my stuff is still there including hi-fi, clothes, books, toys, keepsakes and an awful lot of, erm, rubbish. There's also the small point that I don't actually have another permanent home to take it to. Probably even more importantly than either of those reasons is that I haven't actually had any kind of conversation that might resemble a tearful, "Thanks for everything mum and dad, now I'm off to make my own nest." Until that occurs I don't think I can possibly consider myself as having 'left home', and to be honest I wouldn't want to. Having said that, I suspect one of my brothers will be chomping at the bit for my room, and if they don't want it I'm sure mum could find plenty of things to store in it!

From next month my column will appear in Living Orkney magazine. I've thoroughly enjoyed contributing to Orkney Today and I'm really looking forward to the new challenge. I hope you'll continue to read about what I'm up to in the magazine.

Keep it Real.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - March 2010

2010-03-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

A blast of Clapton and Beck, and a squash on the tube

SINCE I last wrote, I've been able to tick something very important off my 'list of things to do in life'; I went to see Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck perform, together and apart, at the O2 Arena in London. Clapton and Beck are two of my favourite guitarists ever, and to get the opportunity to see them 'live' has long been an ambition of mine.

My godmother bought me two tickets for a Christmas present and since the gig was on Valentine's Day, I decided to take Lizi with me. We had great seats, just a little higher than the stage and off to one side. As a result we had a good view of the entire performance, but we could also see the big projection screens that were showing close-up shots of the action.

Jeff Beck was the first to play. He walked on in a cool white and black top, jeans and a pair of aviator shades. He said absolutely nothing for the first two or three numbers, electing to blow the audience away with his unique style of playing. I've read that he has a new album coming out in April - something I'll certainly be featuring on my blues and rock show on Radio Orkney. He played quite a lot of material that will form part of 'emotion and commotion' as well as several familiar tracks like Big Block and a stunning cover of The Beatles A Day In The Life.

The other main highlight of his set for me was when Sharon Corr of the Corrs joined Jeff on stage. She played the violin for Mna Na Heireann, which I think is a Kate Bush track that translates as Women of Ireland. The track mixed her lamenting violin with a 12-piece orchestra and Jeff's inimitable guitar playing.

After a short interval, it was Clapton's turn to take to the stage. He began on the acoustic guitar - playing Driftin, Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out and Running On Faith. Then he picked up an electric guitar and launched into a fantastic set which included three of my all time favourites: Tell The Truth, Key To The Highway and Cocaine.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the concert was watching Clapton and Beck performing together. I've always enjoyed watching how musicians interact and communicate while they are playing together on stage. The facial expressions and gestures all seem to mean something, but to someone with almost no musical knowledge, to me it's a kind of magic.

It felt to me as if no sooner had it started, than it was time for the encore. I'd been wondering what they might play out with. After a few moments of discussion, and what looked like mildly embarrassed protest from Jeff, they launched into a fantastic rendition of Beck's hit single Hi Ho Silver Lining. I've never seen Jeff singing before, in fact he hardly seems to say anything at all, but he joined in with Eric as they brought the evening to an end in true 'guitar god' style.

As you have probably gathered, I absolutely loved it. Even though Lizi doesn't pretend to be a particular fan of either guitarist, she said she really enjoyed it too. The atmosphere was fantastic, the sound was great and as far as I was concerned it was over far to quickly. One thing that did amuse me was the fact that Lizi and I were probably two of only a hand full of people under 50 in the entire arena!

Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about some of the main differences between London and Orkney. The one that became obvious almost immediately centres around the underground tube network. I find that when I'm at home I get used to bumping into folk I know all the time. It doesn't matter where you are, down the street, or on one of the ferries; you just keep an eye out for a familiar face. I have always liked that aspect to life in Orkney and I've found it quite hard to adjust to the complete opposite down here.

Where it's most apparent is on the Tube. I find myself looking around the carriage wondering if I'll spot someone I know, only to realise that everyone thinks I'm being nosy. Nobody looks at anyone else; in fact people seem to make a deliberate show of not looking at you, instead choosing to stare at the floor, advertising boards or the station maps.

I have discovered that there are a few exceptions though. At peak times the trains are often so crowded you literally can't move. As a result everyone is forced to occupy what would normally be someone else's personal space, and therefore a no go area. As a result of this 'rush hour space invasion' people seem to pay more attention to each other, and occasionally, if you're lucky you might catch someone's eye and get a sympathetic 'yeah I'm packed in too' sort of look.

The other thing that happens is some people seem to take a fairly relaxed 'I'll get home eventually' kind of attitude while others get very stressed and sometimes, a little aggressive. A few days ago a woman started shouting at a man for blocking her path to the door. He was trying to explain that he literally couldn't move but that once the people behind him had got off the train, he would move to let her off. She started being a little 'fresh' with him and despite him moving aside the second his predicted space became available she continued to swear at him until she was out of earshot along the platform.

All I'll say is, it's nice to know that when Dave Gray announces: "We are now approaching the Kirkwall terminal …" we are not likely to get barged into, sworn at or squashed like a sardine.

Hit The Beach Track Listing - 9th March 2010

2010-03-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hit The Beach Track Listing - 9th March 2010

Three Times A Fool - Joe Bonamassa Album: Black Rock
Mama Kin (Live) - AeroSmith Album: Aerosmith
It's Gonna Be Alright - Stefan Schill Album: Don't Say A Word
Sweet Inspiration - The Derek Trucks Band Album: Already Free
Korean Bodega - Fun Lovin' Criminals Album: 100% Colombian
Broken Man - Scott McKeon Album: Trouble
Brimful Of Asha (Norman Cook Remix) - Cornershop
Tryin' To Find The Blues - Bad Taste - Orkney Original Music
Get A Haircut - George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Album: Greatest Hits: 30 Years of Rock
A Day In The Life [Live] - Jeff Beck
Album: Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott's
Night Life - Joe Bonamassa and BB King Album: Black Rock
Riff Raff - AC/DC Album: Powerage

Keeping It Real with Rory – Febuary 2010

2010-02-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-03T14:16:00.001-08:00

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)

Keeping It Real with Rory – January 2010

2010-01-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Quite a lot has happened since I last wrote in Orkney Today. In fact, four weeks ago I was sitting in a small office in the BBC’s Bush House building in London. I was being interviewed for a job as a trainee studio manager at Radio 5 Live.

I’d never had to sit any kind of interview before so the whole experience, including travelling down to London on my own was challenging. Trying to stay cool, calm and collected while three senior members of BBC management fire difficult questions at you is not easy and when it was all over I was pretty certain I hadn’t done enough to get the job.

In the days that followed I just couldn’t help but go over and over the whole thing in my head, and the more I did so, the more things I remembered that I thought went badly. The fact that everyone I spoke to wanted to find out how it went just made matters worse. By the following Monday I was beginning to wonder when I would hear their verdict. Trying to stay positive, I kept reminding myself that it would be worth the effort just for the experience of doing an interview, plus I knew I would be able to ask for feedback that would be helpful in the future.

Anyway, on the Monday afterwards, when I was sitting at home having lunch with mum, I got a call from one of the guys who interviewed me. After saying who he was, Chris asked me how I though I’d done. I didn’t really know how to respond to that so I just said that I hoped I’d done enough, but being my first ever interview I really had no idea what to think. He responded by saying that the board thought I’d done pretty well and that they would like to offer me the job! I couldn’t believe it, I genuinely thought I wouldn’t get it simply because it would have been too lucky to get the first job I’ve ever done an interview for.

The job is initially based in London, where I will be trained as a studio manager. SM’s are responsible for the technical side of producing live radio programmes. They press the buttons and operate the faders and other equipment in the studio to ‘drive’ the programme. I’m one of six people who passed the interview process and we will start on the 8th of January with three weeks training at the BBC’s training facility in Evesham. After that, we’ll move to London where we’ll be given more ‘on the job’ training at the BBC World Service, before moving over to Television Centre and 5 live its self.

One of the most exciting things about this opportunity for me is that, if all goes well with my operational assessment in a few months time, I’ll be involved in 5 Live’s major move to Salford in 2011. It’s going to be a big challenge for everyone and I feel privileged to hopefully be playing a small part.

The combined excitement of a new job and moving to the capital is pretty immense and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in. However, I know I’m going to miss the perks of home. I’ve had such a fantastic time at Radio Orkney over the last few years, but especially during the last six months while I’ve been there full time. The staff are all such lovely people and it’s been a real pleasure to work there and I know I’m going to miss them all. I plan to continue writing in the paper each month, and presenting ‘Hit The Beach’ on Radio Orkney. Sadly I’ll not be able to do it live but instead I’ll record it in London and send it up to be played off a CD. Hopefully they might let me make a guest appearance on the request programme next time I’m home for a holiday!

Changing the subject completely, I’ve been quite surprised by how much chaos the snow caused in the run up to Christmas. Nationally there were hundreds of road closures, dozens of vehicle accidents, several grounded flights and even channel tunnel trains that couldn’t go anywhere because of ‘the wrong kind of snow’!

Years ago I went to Toronto in Canada on a family holiday. I remember driving along the road with snow piled over two meters high on the verges, and yet the highway was running very smoothly. Here, we just need a dusting of snow and a bit of a cold snap and the entire country seems to shut down.

I’m not intent on laying the blame with any one organisation in particular, but it strikes me that as a nation, Britain was seriously under prepared for the cold weather. Some reports suggest that we face very cold winters for the next ten years or so. If that does prove to be the case, we’ll need to get a bit more organised, otherwise I think we risk loosing out economically.

I suspect there’s a good chance that you might have made at least one new years resolution for 2010. I’ve never been particularly keen on making them as I always feel like I’m setting myself up for a fall. However, I think setting out some goals to aim for isn’t a bad idea.

I’ve decided that I really what to get to grips with video editing on the computer. I’ve been trying to work on it over the last few months but there are so many distractions at home its hard to find time for it. I don’t know if it will be any easier in London though!

The other thing I’d like to start doing again is podcasting. I haven’t recorded a single one since I graduated from University. So, if there’s ever a dull moment in the big city, I’ll more than likely be mixing new jingles on the computer. Whatever you decide to do this year, I hope it goes well. Cheers.

Keeping It Real with Rory – December 2009

2010-01-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

Now that we are into December, the season of good will to all is just around the corner. Judging by the staggering total of almost 20,000 pounds raised in the county for Children in need, the act of selfless giving is already well underway.

Children in need has been a special event for me for five years now, not only because its good fun but because the live auction on Radio Orkney marks the beginning of my involvement in the station, and as a result, my decision to pursue a career in broadcasting.

It was back in 2004, about an hour or so into the live show when I decided to wander along to the studios. About an hour earlier I had phoned and pledged some money to have an unusual cover version of the Rolling Stones track, Tumblin’ Dice played for dad, who was out on Auskerry at the time.

I’d got a bit impatient, and conscious of the fact that the track I’d chosen may have proved hard to find, I thought I’d take my copy along to ensure it got played. Up until that night I had never set foot in Radio Orkney before. When I arrived I was greeted by the now retired, John Fergusson who asked how he could help.

I explained why I was there and with that John invited me to follow him upstairs and into the studio where he would check if my record was in the pile of music waiting to be played. It was very quickly apparent to me that there was a real buzz about the place and my inquisitive side took over.

“John, I don’t suppose there is anything I can do to help is there? It’s just it seems really interesting in here.” I asked tentatively. “Yes, he said. You can sit in the studio and pass the pledge sheets from Dave across to the presenters.” I’m sure that was roughly how the conversation went. Anyway, I spent the rest of the evening – until one am in fact – passing sheets of paper around the studio, watching what was going on and taking in the atmosphere.

I was only 16 at the time so when I got home at about half past one, I found a rather annoyed mum waiting up for me. I had told her I was just going to drop off a CD so she had no idea why I had been gone for so long.

I’d enjoyed the children in need show so much that the following Monday after school, I went back to Radio Orkney to ask if there was any chance I could get involved properly. They were very encouraging and John suggested that perhaps I would be able to help out by driving the request programme on Fridays.

I still get a great buzz from being involved in the marathon show and who knows what I would be doing now, five years on if my pledge hadn’t been delayed, or John and the rest of the team hadn’t been willing to give a lanky young lad a chance to prove himself.

Staying for a moment on the subject of children in need, this year I decided to make use of my new camcorder and make a short video of the evening’s events. You can find this on Youtube by searching for ‘Radio Orkney Children in Need’.

I’ve always been amazed at the power of the Internet and that feeling has been reinforced for me over the last few weeks as the Radio Orkney Facebook page has gathered momentum. For those that don’t frequent any kind of online social networking site this next bit might be double Dutch so I’ll keep it brief. However, the very idea that ‘the internet isn’t for me’ poses an interesting question in itself.

I set the page up almost a year ago when I was at University. In the last three weeks, after a few mentions on the Bruck programme and some new content on the page its self, the number of subscribers has leapt from just over 100 to almost 600. In fact, at the speed the number is increasing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not risen to well over that figure by the time this goes to print.

I love how the Internet allows people to access information and communicate with people in ways that simply would not have been possible for past generations. However, the fact that most things, from shopping to banking, communication and entertainment are all moving towards a web platform presents a major worry for those who are either not connected or capable of using the technology.

The figures vary, with some studies showing a large increase in the number of Americans over the age of 65 taking hold of the mouse. Other statistics show a greater cause for concern. UK Government studies have found that only one in five over 65’s have ever used the Internet. What is perhaps even more worrying, is the news that such figures haven’t increased in the last 3 years, instead they show a decline.

As far as I’m concerned, moving access to services and systems onto the internet is a good thing, but for people of my grandparents generation, the idea of even switching on a computer is too daunting for many, let alone doing their shopping, banking and managing their bills online.

The digital divide is a major issue and many initiatives and systems are already in place to help older people to ‘get wired’. However, I think as we move closer to Christmas and people are thinking about gifts and kindness, perhaps some of us more tech savvy folk could try and help. What grandparent would refuse a few simple computer lessons with their grandchild?

Well that’s about if for another year. I’ll be back with another column in January but in the meantime I’d like to wish all my friends, family and readers a very happy Christmas and best wishes for 2010. Cheers!

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – November 2009

2009-11-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

It’s been another busy and enjoyable month at Radio Orkney but for me there have been two obvious highlights. The first was completing a week of live broadcasts from the Orkney Library and Archive as part of BBC week there. Dave suggested to us that broadcasting live from there would be an interesting change of scene for us. We all thought it was great idea, so when the mics went live at half past seven on the Monday morning, I found myself sitting at a table in the library’s entrance lobby.

Shift patterns dictated that it was my turn to present the first programme from our new ‘studio’. I was pretty nervous about it because I’d never really presented much live stuff from anywhere other than our normal studio or the one from which we ran the student station at uni. To enable the whole thing to work we needed to have one member of the team based in the Castle Street studio to actually get the programme on and off the air at each end of the programme.

Because we wanted to do interviews with library staff about the things they were doing as part of the BBC week we also needed another one of our team in the library to carry out live interviews. So in the end I had Dave in the library with me, and Andrew back in the studio. The show went off without a hitch and I got a real buzz from the whole experience.

I didn’t present any other programmes that week but I was in every morning to press the buttons and switches in the library. This involved dialling the studio’s ISDN number (basically a high quality telephone line), setting the microphone levels for the presenters and playing in the pre recorded parts of the programme from my laptop computer.

We invited members of the public to come along to the library and watch the show going out live, and for me, one of the best things about the week of ‘outside broadcasting’ was the fact that we got immediate feedback from the folk sitting in front of us. Normally the morning show shift is handled by one of us aided by a co-presenter, so it was great fun having all of the available Radio Orkney staff in each morning. The entire week of programmes really felt like a team effort.

The second highlight of the month for me was getting behind the microphone to present the first ‘Hit The Beach’ programme of the new series. I love blues and rock music and being given the freedom to play some of my favourite tracks on the air is a real privilege. I just hope that I’m able to convey my enjoyment of the music to the folk listening at home.

Having spoken about the highlights I feel like I should give some balance and mention something, which has always been a bit of an issue for me. I am an inherent worrier. When I was a child I worried about everything from being late to missing trains and getting separated from mum in the supermarket.

Although I think I’ve relaxed a bit with age, I still worry about things more than most other people I know. In some respects it helps me because I pride myself of being on time and not forgetting important things. However, the nature of my current job at the radio station seems to be exacerbating the issue. When it’s my turn to present Around Orkney, I get up at around quarter to six and arrive in the office shortly before half past. This gives me just over an hour to check the scripts, find out if anything has happened over night that we need to broadcast such as coast guard incidents, add the weather forecast to the programme running order and make any other final adjustments. This is all fine, but my tendency to worry means that more often than not I find myself not sleeping properly the night before I’m ‘on’.

The most recent example was last week when I woke bolt upright in bed convinced that I had slept in and missed the show. I grabbed my watch from the bedside cabinet and read the time as twenty to eight in the morning. This threw me into a complete panic. I just couldn’t believe that both my alarms had failed! In desperation I checked my watch again only to realise I was reading it upside down. Suddenly twenty to eight became ten past two giving me a good three and a half left in bed.

I suspect there are a lot of people who have been in a similar situation. If you haven’t, believe me it is not pleasant. I certainly hope this kind of thing doesn’t become a regular occurrence or I suspect I may well suffer a heart attack long before I reach forty.

On a different note I have decided to put some of my spare time to good use and teach myself how to edit video footage on my computer. I really should have made more effort to learn the skills while I was at university but unfortunately none of the video production staff managed to inspire me to gain much of an interest in it.

I wish one of them had helped me to realise how I could use the skills in a news environment, or more simply for making little promotional video’s to encourage people to listen to my radio shows and podcasts. If they had I would have tried to learn the skills as a priority.

What I was shown was interesting and I enjoyed the teamwork side of video that you often don’t get with radio projects, but at the time it just didn’t enthuse me. So, in an attempt to rectify this lack of foresight, I have bought a small camcorder and some books about digital video editing. We’ll just have to see how I get on. Cheers.

Hit The Beach – November 3rd 2009 - Track Listing

2009-11-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hit The Beach – November 3rd 2009 - Track Listing

Rolling Stones Let It Rock (LIVE)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Jammin’ Me (LIVE)
Tommy Emmanuel Don’t Hold Me Back
Tina Turner Addicted To Love (LIVE)
Black Crowes Go Faster
Walk Of Life Dire Straits (LIVE)
Robbie Robertson/Eric Clapton Who Do You Love (LIVE)
The Small Faces Lazy Sunday
AC/DC Heatseeker (LIVE)
Chuck Berry No Particular Place To Go
Buddy Holly Rave On
Gary Moore Walking By Myself

More at www.roryauskerry.com
Thanks for listening!

Hit The Beach Track Listing - 06/10/09

2009-10-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

Hit The Beach Playlist - October 6th, 2009

Oasis Cigarettes and Alcohol (Definately Maybe)
Paul Rose Ninth Life (Note To Self)
Chris Rea Working On It (Still so far to go...The Best of Chris rea*)
Juliette & The Licks Smash & Grab (Four on the Floor)
Randy Newman Gone Dead Train (Perfromance Soundtrack)
Freddie King Going Down (Greatest Hits)
Thunder Feeding The Flame (Laughing on Judgement Day)
Dave Hole Lets Get Loose (Working Overtime)
Sonny Landreth Bad Weather (Outward Bound)
Chris Rea Come So Far, Still So Far To Go (Chris Rea*)
Fleetwood Mac My Heart Beat Like a Hammer (Best of Peter Green)
G3 Going Down (G3 Live)

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - October 2009

2009-10-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Carefree fresher days

Now that we are experiencing the autumn equinox, several of my friends who still have time left to do at university have packed their bags and headed away south again. I must confess that it does feel a bit weird that I'm not going away as well, made all the worse by the fact that my girlfriend is one of them and even my younger brother has headed off to New Zealand for a year.
Several of my friends have made comments on Facebook about how they wish that they were a fresher again. These discussions have conjured up great memories for me of those first few hours when I had just arrived in my flat and was introducing myself to my fellow house mates.

We were all nervous but I can recall being incredibly excited. I remember well how cool it felt having that first pint in the student bar, going to the first party, shaking hands with a seemingly endless stream of people from all over the country and the first night in my student room. The week or so that followed was a drink-fuelled haze of great fun, constant laughs, junk food, endless hellos and not enough sleep. I'll never forget my fresher's experience - it was a truly fantastic time. However things inevitably move on and I think even if I could do it all again I'd rather not, instead I'll opt to keep it as a great memory.

Although there are obviously a lot of attractions to being a student - the ability to go for a sleep in the middle of the afternoon and take a long lie in for a start - I still think I prefer having a job and working. I feel a bigger sense of achievement when I'd doing radio things 'for real' rather than an exercise at uni. Plus I enjoy having money in my pocket all the time, as opposed to the three times a year when the government decided to give me my student loan.

However, one thing about employment I am not enjoying much at the moment is trying to sort out how to do my accounts and pay tax. Although I'm working full time at Radio Orkney, I am technically a 'freelance journalist' and classed as self-employed. As a result I have to do my tax returns myself, rather than having it deducted from my pay slip automatically. I'm led to believe this has advantages because I can clam for certain things like mileage and part of my phone bill as business expenses, and therefore save money, but it all seems a bit tedious.

I know there are a lot of people in Orkney who have been self-employed all their life so this may well be a familiar issue to you. If it is then I'm sorry for reminding you about it. If it's not but you think it might be soon I wish you the best of luck because although I've always been pretty organised with money, I won't pretend that I'm not finding it a stretch. Even Vince Cable finds tax facts a challenge!

Continuing on a work theme, the Radio Orkney team and I are gearing up for the beginning of evening programmes next week. This winter will see the return of the usual favourites; Bruck, 'The Dashing White Farmer Show' with Liam Muir, 'Tuesday Folk' with Andy Cant and 'On The Border' with Norrie Drever. I will also be presenting a second series of my music programme, 'Hit The Beach' starting on Tuesday. I absolutely love having a chance to play some of my favourite blues and rock tracks on the radio and I tend to spend hours mulling over which tracks to include each month.

As well as the music programmes there are several exciting additions to the evening line-up this year. Dave is working on a new programme called 'Hoose Wark' that will look at many different aspects of building. Robbie will be presenting a programme about farming, and Andrew will be offering listeners the chance to find out more about the history and development in Orkney's many parishes, in his new programme, 'Parish Pump'.

I'm really excited about the new line-up, not least because it will involve a lot more programme trails - the making of which is one of my favourite jobs. It also means I'll be spending more time presenting programmes live 'on air' which is another. The downside of course is a couple of hours of extra work every day!

Another part of the job that I enjoyed recently was getting the chance to learn some camera skills. The team who produce Reporting Scotland, the half-hour teatime Scottish news programme on BBC One, sometimes ask for coverage of a major story happening in the county.

The requirement for camera work to be done in Orkney is sporadic and when the call does come, it's always Fionn who goes off to do it. However, as he's currently the only member of the team with the skills to put a TV piece together, Dave and his bosses further South were keen for some of the rest of us to learn some basic camera skills. This would then enable us to at the very least record and send unedited footage to our colleagues in Glasgow. That way, when Fionn is on holiday, someone else may be able to step in.

As a result we were paid a visit a few weeks ago by a video journalist and camera trainer from Glasgow who came up to show Dave and I how to use the equipment. Luckily for me, footage of the Fair Isle bird observatory pods that I shot while on a training trip to the Hatston pier ended up on Reporting Scotland later that evening. I won't lie and say I wasn't pretty chuffed! All in all it's been a busy four weeks and frankly I don't know where the time has gone. It will doubtless be Christmas before we know it, but until November, cheerio.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - September 2009

2009-09-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Stormy days and sunsets

Over the last few months I've been interested to see how the recession would manifest itsself in different areas of everyday life - especially here in Orkney. The thing that I have noticed most of all is that it seems to have, so far at least, not struck a major blow to the county.

On the one hand there are national papers like the Sunday Observer that are set to close because the company which owns it can't make it pay. On the other hand, a small business in Westray is reporting a 27% increase in trade - the biggest growth they have seen since they started the business.

On the face of it this is great news. Many people I've spoken to think the recession is on its way out; some say it will never really affect us at all. Despite wishing to share these optimistic views I am a little concerned that we could just be in for a downturn a little later than people south, much like the delay we have with getting new films at the Picky.

These thoughts were consolidated after I spoke to the Mabens in Westray just over a week ago. I stayed overnight to do a few interviews around the island on the Thursday followed by a live contribution to the Friday morning programme on Radio Orkney from the site of the new community wind turbine.

It was the first time I'd presented a live element of the programme anywhere other than in the studio, and it was also my first attempt at using the 'Bgan' satellite link. After a less than perfect night's sleep due to my predisposition to worry, I managed to do the job without any major mistakes - so that was another challenge crossed off my list.

As soon as I arrived back in Kirkwall a house full to the rafters greeted me. Almost thirty members of my extended family had made the journey North to be there for a party to celebrate four of our birthdays. It's always a real treat to see my aunts, uncles and cousins as I get on well with all of them. However, our house is not the biggest in the world and once you start trying to feed and entertain that many people it can become quite a logistical nightmare.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things to observe once you get such a big group of people together, especially when they are related is the dynamics of the relationships. It amused me to see many of the character traits I see in myself and my brothers reflected in other members of my wider family.

I think it must be true that every family has an embarrassing uncle, an aunt who gets tipsy on a seemingly tiny amount of wine and someone who is so forgetful that they ask you the same question several times. To me, the banter and laughs that inevitably occur when you get such a group of people together is one of the things that makes family time so special. It was a fantastic weekend and with the help of a stack of pictures I'll be remembering the highlights fondly until the next big get together.

August also saw two of my best friends from uni arriving in Orkney - for the second time. You may remember me recounting the events of two summers ago when five friends and I failed to get to Auskerry due to bad weather. Despite this unfortunate setback, Phil and Andy were keen to come back and try again for a second time.

The long weekend we chose was the one following the county show. Having had such great weather for the shows and the parish cup final I was pessimistically thinking it couldn't last. As it happened I was right as we did get a fairly wet and windy weekend. However, the trip out to the island was fairly pedestrian and we managed to get our tents erected just before the rain started.

Over the course of the three days we were there the lads experienced heavy rain, gale-force winds, glorious sunshine and back to calm sunny weather again. Part of me was disappointed that we hadn't had perfect weather for the entire holiday, but on the other hand I was glad that the lads were able to see Auskerry in a range of different conditions.

Over the three years I've lived with them in Sunderland I've often talked about stormy days and beautiful sunsets on calm evenings on the island so I was quite happy that they got to see these events for themselves.

One of the highlights about the trip was that one of my best friends from Orkney was able to come out with us. I was keen for both groups of friends to meet and therefore create a cross-reference between my home life and the one I experienced at university. As I'd hoped the lads got on really well and we all enjoyed a fantastic summer break.

Finally for this month's column I wanted to mention some exciting news for local radio listeners. The BBC Trust which works on behalf of the licence fee payers to ensure you get the best from the corporation has decided to back enhanced investment in regional news services like Radio Orkney and Radio Shetland.

As a result we're looking at ways to expand the range of services offered by the BBC in the county. Many of the suggestions have come from local listeners and although I can't say too much at this stage, it's likely to mean some exciting developments at Radio Orkney. Watch this space!

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - August 2009

2009-08-09T03:03:00.001-07:00

Trying To Keep His Cool

I’ve been amazed at how many people, even folk I don’t know, have commented to me about ‘the day the computers died’. Almost everyone I meet seems to have been listening, or heard about the morning when some of the computers at Radio Orkney overheated to the point where most of the key equipment didn’t work properly.
After I’d managed a few programmes without too many mistakes Dave Gray decided to let me do a programme without anyone in the building to supervise me. I was nervous about the prospect but I figured that as long as I followed my checklist to the letter and did everything the guys had told me to, it should be ok. How wrong I was.
It was during that week last month when most of the local temperature records were broken and at about half past six on that Wednesday morning we were breaking them too. The small room that our computer servers are stored in reached a staggering 42 degrees Celsius meaning that the actual brains could barely function.
The computer that prints the scripts was telling me to revert to the backup system, the computer that plays out the audio in the studio was acting up and the one that allows us to actually get the studio live to air was also on the blink. I couldn’t even call an outside line on the phones because they are also run off a computer that had decided to take a holiday somewhere hot.
More or less the only people who were cool, was Kylie Harcus, my co-presenter that morning, and Robbie Fraser who was actually several hundred miles away at the Island games in Aland. I managed to get him dialled up on an ISDN line as he was due to contribute to the show so he was there to tell what I needed to do to get on air using the backup system.
To cut a long, and somewhat fraught story short, we eventually go on air about five minutes later than normal. After 25 minutes of things continuing to go wrong we made it to eight. I was mortified at how much of a mess the programme had been and I was sorry about what the folk at home had to put up with.
Having said that everyone both in the office and elsewhere has been very nice about it. It seems that a combination of Kylie’s ability to remain calm, Robbie’s long distance advice and my days of busking live shows at Uni helped to get us through.
Dave was nice about it too and he still hasn’t sent me packing yet so I think he knows I’ve learned from it. I did laugh when I went to the pub the following night though. I walked in and asked Melba behind the bar for my usual pint of lager to which she replied; “Hello Rory, you’re only getting half a pint because we only got half a programme!”
More recently I took a couple of days off to go south for my graduation ceremony. Mum and I took the first ferry of the day from to Gills Bay on the Wednesday morning and drove all the way to Sunderland. We had arranged to stop in Newcastle to have a meal with my housemate Phil and his family, none of whom I had met despite living with him for three years. Although we arrived in the city on the nose of nine o’ clock, I managed to get lost in the one-way system so we didn’t get our meal until almost ten.
The following morning we got up early and re-grouped with my other old housemates and their parents and headed off to the Stadium of light in Sunderland. Several people have since commented that a football stadium might seem an odd place to stage a graduation ceremony and I can see why.
However, the Stadium is actually a very impressive building and the function rooms are very nicely done out. It’s also a venue signifying immense pride and achievement in the city and I think the University management therefore see it as a fitting place to host all six of the annual graduation ceremonies.
I still haven’t quite got over the fact that I got awarded a first class honours degree. I went to Uni fully intending to come away with a 2:1 at best – which I would have been extremely proud of. I went there to get the experience as much as the paper work so when the results letter came through the door I was truly shocked.
It turned out that as I had expected, most of my work averaged a 2:1 – except two of the practical radio modules - one of which was my dissertation documentary.
When it came to marking, that half hour programme about home education was given 80%. Because the dissertation module is worth 40 credits as opposed the usual 10 or 20, it and the other 20 credit radio module I did well in managed to push me up to a 1st overall. To me this indicates that if you work reasonably hard at everything, but really pull out all the stops for the things you enjoy, it seems the rewards are there.
I’ve been feeling a bit awkward about writing about all this stuff because I don’t want folk thinking I’m trying to big myself up. To be honest, I think if anyone needs to be given a real pat on the back it should be the people who contributed to the programmes by agreeing to be interviewed, offering advice or simply letting me endlessly play bits to them until I was happy with it - so thank you very much all of you!
I’m writing this month’s column while half an eye is watching a live AC/DC concert DVD. I was very jealous of all my mates who were at the recent Hamden Park gig. I’ve seen photos and it looked, and by all accounts was, a truly excellent concert.
I heard on Top Gear last week that the bands lead singer Brian Johnson is almost 62! I hope the band keep going long enough for me to get a chance see them, and I’d also like to think that I might be half as fit as them when I reach their age but somehow I doubt it. Cheerio.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - July 2009

2009-07-13T09:25:00.001-07:00

Generation Crunch

IN the wake of the European elections last month, I have been thinking about the way elections are currently regarded by young people. Until now I have had to vote via post as I have been away at university, so my first vote at the ballot box was an interesting experience for me.

As I arrived at the Kirkwall polling station, I expected to find the St Magnus Centre busy with folk queuing up in their lunch hour to mark their ballot, but it seemed that very few people were interested in the election at all. There was not a single young person there other than myself. In fact, the only people I did see voting were at least 60 years old.

I believe there are a number of issues responsible for poor turn out and a general apathy towards democracy. The first is that politics is regarded by most of my generation as boring, ineffectual and neither interesting or important. The second is the actual method used to cast and collect votes.

The antiquated system of putting an 'X' on a ballot paper at a polling booth has been the same since before women first got the right to vote in 1928. We now live in a society where millions of people vote every week on comparatively trivial issues like Susan Boyle's singing success and who gets evicted from the Big Brother house. Meanwhile we still have this old fashioned, cumbersome and inconvenient system for deciding the far more serious issues of who runs our country and what part we play in Europe etc.

I believe the Government needs to realise that if turnout is to improve, (it was just 26% in Orkney for the recent European elections) and if young people are to get interested in politics, they need to do something fairly radical, and do it soon. I suggest that people should be able to vote online by logging onto a Government website and using their national insurance number or some other individual code to cast their vote.

I'm not suggesting polling stations should be done away with just yet, but it seems obvious that the system needs modernising. If people can safely use the internet for banking, shopping and booking flights, I simply will not accept that online voting is not a safe and credible option. Perhaps investment in new voting methods would be more worthwhile than ID cards?

As a fan of the Apprentice, I'm pleased to see that Sir Alan Sugar has taken up a position in the House of Lords. However, I am a little concerned that if politicians feel the need to share power with celebrities as a way of boosting national interest in their policies then we have problems as a nation. I believe that people should care about what is going on, who's in charge and what decisions are being made without the need for celebrity endorsement.
I think Sir Alan makes excellent TV and he clearly has a great business acumen that may well help guide the country through the recession. However, it could be the beginning of a slippery slope. Imagine if the BBC Parliament channel began to look more like an episode of the Britain's Got Talent with celebrity judges hitting their 'X' buttons when MPs make poor decisions, or Sir Alan pointing his firing finger at one MP a week for filing dodgy expenses claims.

I don't think anyone would argue that it wouldn't make great entertainment, but something along those lines could trivialise politics. I would however like to see some changes in the way all Government bodies present themselves to encourage young people to take a greater interest, and feel more part of the decision making process.

I was alarmed to read in a national paper last week that the 'class of 2009' graduates are probably in the worst financial and employment position of any year of graduates before us. One in six young people dubbed the 'generation crunch' face unemployment. In the 16 to 25 year age bracket, 18.3% are unemployed - that's the highest rate for 15 years.

I still believe that people with talent, skills and a real desire to work will find a job but with the employment climate looking so dire, it's incredibly likely that many young people will find themselves out of work at some point. One of the biggest issues with this is not simply the lack of money and the inevitable damage unemployment does to a persons moral, but that employers much prefer to hire people who already have a job, as opposed to taking on people who might be on the dole or living from the 'bank of mum and dad'.

I am incredibly fortunate to have full-time work at Radio Orkney, especially because I love the job. However, I don't think the Government is doing enough to help graduates and young people to find work or training. It's perhaps only a small blessing to those with almost £20,000 of debt, but at least we don't have to begin paying our loans back until we start earning over £15,000 a year. For many graduates and other young people, myself included, that day may be some way off.

For the last week, I have been down in Exeter and Bristol seeing family. I have two sets of twin cousins who are only a month different in age to me and they celebrated their 21st birthdays with a couple of parties - one in each city.

Although going south so soon after getting back from uni was a bit of a drag, I think it is really important that my cousins and I see as much of each other as we can, especially at special events like birthdays. The parents in the family have always made a lot of effort to get us all together at least once a year and consequently we all get on extremely well.

Although it was an expensive trip for me, I think it was definitely worth the effort and I hope we all keep making it. Cheerio.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – June 2009

2009-06-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Missing Being A Student

Life as a student is now over for me. Last week saw me presenting my final show on our student radio station Utopia FM; leaving the media centre and many friends behind forever.
Because the last couple of weeks have been pretty tiring and stressful; with work deadlines, a two-hour show every day as well as packing to be done, I’m pleased to be home with some time to relax and reflect on these last three years.

Looking ahead to the next six to twelve months I have two main concerns. The first is that in a week or two, when the facts sink in that this is the end of Uni and not just another holiday, I will miss being a student really badly. The second is whether I’ll be able to get a job anytime soon! Luckily I have work sorted out at Radio Orkney for this summer, but I’m preparing for the worst-case scenario of unemployment come September. I’ll be applying for any jobs I can over the next few months so I’ll just have to see what happens.

Having said that, I have been getting increasingly despondent about the state of politics in the country at the moment. I think the media frenzy over the MP’s expenses is irresponsible. Like most people I’m disgusted at the level of dishonesty, rule bending and the lack of morals many of our elected representatives have displayed. If the public showed as little morality as some of the MP’s, this country would be completely on its knees. They should be leading by example, not showing us how to fiddle the books!

However, I think the way the media have covered the expenses debacle is actually a very cleverly crafted smoke screen to keep our minds off the bigger issues. I’m fully aware that the media have a duty to report facts and keep the public aware of what’s going on, but they also have a role in leading their audiences too.

We are all worrying about what’s going to happen now that we are suffering the worst economic collapse in 70 years. As a nation we have growing unemployment, which is especially scary for students who have thousands of pounds of debt; we are at war in the Middle East; our planet needs urgent attention to protect it, and us from climate change and yet every newspaper, radio and TV station feels the biggest story is which MP has cleaned their moat, or over ordered on light bulbs and scatter cushions.

At the moment Orkney seems to be doing alright with farmers getting good prices for livestock and the tourist industry benefiting form people choosing to holiday in the UK. But with 40% of the county’s workforce employed in public sector jobs we are in real danger when the inevitable cutbacks are made.

I’m not excusing the MP’s, who should certainly be brought to account. I think where serious wrongdoing can be proved by the Allowances Select Committee, the culprits should face the law in the same way you or I would. Ultimately though, the voters will decide who stays and who goes at the next election. I just hope people don’t vote for extremist parties as a knee jerk reaction.

On a much smaller scale, I have recently been trying to deal with some issues at University regarding the way the media department has been run during my time in Sunderland. Since before I first arrived, up until January this year there has been nobody filling the ‘Head of Radio’ role. This has led to a number of things being neglected and overlooked which I think is a disgrace, especially given the amount of money we pay each year to be educated.

I gathered a few mates together who have first hand experience of the problems I wanted to address. These included a general lack of support by university management for the Utopia student management team, and a lack of communication between the visual media and radio departments. This has ultimately resulted in radio being left out of the so called ‘media awards’ for two years running.

We arranged a meeting and hopefully the issues we raised will be dealt with and improvements will be made for future students. Although I’m not a complainer by nature, I don’t see why we should keep quiet when these things have had a direct effect on our experience at the University of Sunderland.

On balance I’d have to say that university has been a fantastic experience, and one that I will certainly remember fondly. I’ve met a lot of great people, and had the opportunity to learn and do things that I would not have been able to had I gone straight into full time employment after finishing school.

However, I am certain that my three years at Uni were enhanced greatly by the extra things I have got involved in alongside my degree course. Without Utopia radio, our Northern Hype DJ enterprise, my Student Ambassador job and the other things I did while I was there, I would simply be another average media graduate. I really hope that making that extra effort in my spare time will reap rewards if I get some job interviews, although I did them for fun at the time.

Last month I went to the Stadium of Light to watch my first premier league football match. Despite Sunderland conceding two goals to Everton early in the second half, Lizi, Phil and I really enjoyed being part of the atmosphere.

It was fascinating to see perfectly normal men and women walk up the steps and take their seats, only minutes later to change from calm, relaxed fathers and mothers, into raging, yelling maniacs! Every time something happened on the field that they weren’t happy about, they stood up, waving their arms and swearing as the blood vessels on their necks and arms looked as if they were about to burst.

Some of the chants and heckles were possibly even more entertaining than the game. Well worth the twenty-seven quid I’d say – although I wouldn’t go every week. I’m already looking forward to the parish cup final although I am sure that it will be much more civilized! Cheerio.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – May 2009

2009-05-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

End of an era

I'VE just got back to Sunderland after a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks at home. I'm reluctant to call it a holiday as I think I probably worked harder and achieved more in those two weeks than I would have done had I been down here! I was almost full-time in Radio Orkney but also trying to get my dissertation programme finished. Thankfully the 30-minute documentary is now completed and I handed it in last week.

The work is far from over though, as I must also submit a production file including scripts, music reporting forms and contributor information etc. Then a week later, I must hand in a 2500 word evaluation of the production process from the conception of my ideas right through to the final edit. I've learned a heck of a lot from the process though, so there will be plenty to write about.

I've discovered that making a feature-length documentary is a totally different discipline from a short news piece both in terms of its structure and the style of presentation. When I first recorded the documentary links in the studio they sounded far too strident and newsy. After discussion with my tutor I decided to record them 'on location' down at Scapa beach.

I got some funny looks from folk out walking their dog or driving past. I also had to try and record in between boats going out, planes flying over and the council dustcart going past! At least if you happen to have seen me you'll now know that I wasn't just talking into a furry thing at 9am on a beach for no reason!

In light of this year's Orkney population change study which was published last week I'm moved to raise a point about such matters. Throughout my life I have come across people who openly hold the view that incomers are bad for Orkney.

Thankfully these people seem to be in a minority. However such views are apparent enough that I think a debate should be had with a view to persuading such people to modernise their attitude.

The population study clearly shows that several of Orkney's communities are under threat of becoming unsustainable.

Areas highlighted as being in need of attention include North Ronaldsay, Flotta, Graemsay, Eday, Wyre, Egilsay, Rousay, Sanday and Stronsay. Even Hoy, Westray and Shapinsay are listed as having below average economic activity and a reliance on migrants to sustain the population.

I was born here and I've lived here all my life. Between them, my parents have been here for over 60 years and although I consider myself to be an Orcadian it's up to you to make a judgement on that. My point is this; if these few indigenous Orcadians don't embrace 'ferry loupers' as an addition to the work force and perhaps more importantly the gene pool, then this wonderful county is at risk of suffering in the long term. It seems obvious to me that many of the people who move here bring much needed skills, as well as children to fill the schools and young people to marry.

It's also worth mentioning that such anti-incomer views are also very hypocritical. It seems odd that an Orcadian can happily move to Canada or New Zealand to live and work but doesn't like incomers to the county.

There are so many great things about Orkney and the vast majority of people are kind, open minded and forward thinking. However I think the minority, through a feeling nothing short of racism, are potentially fraying a lifeline that is undoubtedly helping Orkney to grow and prosper.

I'm going to step off my soap box for a while now as I think the air up there is getting a bit thin. However I would like to make some comments about the county's only commercial radio station, Superstation Orkney.

I've been listening on and off while I'm home and for the most part I like the music the station plays. However, I had heard rumours that none of the speech shows were actually broadcast live from Kirkwall. It turns out that this is not the case, with the daytime shows all coming from the station's studio in Junction Road.

I do think the station management have missed a bit of a trick though, as there doesn't seem to be any buzz about the station, or indeed much notability about it at all. Most of the listeners I have spoken to seem to regard it as audio wallpaper and a lot of my mates disregard it in favour of Radio 1 or 2.

To me this seems to be a crying shame, as having a radio station that broadcasts music and chat 24/7 in as small a place as Orkney is fantastic. I can't believe that there isn't a good number of young people who love music and wouldn't jump at the chance to get on the radio!? If I wasn't involved with the BBC I would be banging on the Superstation's door every day to try and get a show.

Having spoken to the managing director of the station, I have discovered that they plan to launch a training programme in June to encourage young people to get involved. This will be promoted on the station this month, so keep your ears peeled.

I really hope that some young people get involved as I think the station would benefit greatly from some local knowledge as well as the excitement this would inevitably generate. Let's have some anarchic, loud and exciting radio from the local commercial sector!

That's all for this month. I have mixed feelings over the fact that the next time I write I'll have finished my degree and left university, probably forever. For those of you frantically trying to get things finished, as I am this month, I wish you the best of luck. Cheerio.

Auskerry: 03 Dec 2008. Barry Kirkham

2009-05-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Useless friends, airport security, leaving parties, smashed windows, pranksters and skidding on the ice. Rory is joined by his mate Barry Kirkham for a look at whats been occurring since Martin was in with Rory for a podcast. Great banter, chat and the odd jingle... Its the Rory Auskerry show.

Hit The Beach – April 29th 2009 - Tracklisting

2009-04-26T03:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the tracklisting for April 29th - the last show of the season.

1. Real Mean Bottle - Bob Seger featuring Kid Rock (Face The Promice)
2. Six Days On The Road - Taj Mahal (Best of)
3. Down In The Flood - The Derek Trucks Band (Already Free)
4. That's My Home - Buddy Guy with Robert Randolph (Skin Deep)
5. Cooler N' Hell - Ray Wylie Hubbard (Delerium Tremolos)
6. Soul - Aynsley Lister (Equilibrium)
7. My Generation (Instrumental Version) - The Who
8. Gonna Move - Susan Tedeschi with Derek Trucks (Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean)
9. Strawberry Fields - A Skillz vs the Beatles (Re-mix)
10. Your Time Is Done - Bad Taste (Orkney Group - Original Track)
11. Rock Steady - Bonnie Raitt & Bryan Adams (Road Tested - Live)
12. Heatseeker - AC/DC (Live At Donnington)

That's all from Hit The Beach this season. The show will be back on the air in October so listen out then. Thanks for listening this time. :)

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry – April 2009

2009-04-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

Jobs and all that Jazz

A couple of weeks ago I applied for a job as an assistant producer at BBC Radio 2 in London, but unfortunately I was not selected for an interview. This was the first application I’ve ever made for a job so I didn’t know what to expect.

It would have been nice to get an interview, as the feedback from that would inevitably have fed into future applications. I suspect that the current job climate is making things even more competitive than normal, as journalists and presenters attempt to get BBC Jobs after being forced to leave the struggling commercial sector. However, I think even taking this into account I was punching above my weight, especially given that I’m only 21 this June and I haven’t even graduated yet! I’m very fortunate that I have other options in terms of work and education to buy me some ‘job hunting time’.

Something that’s been playing on my mind for a while is how employment and the move to fully-fledged adult hood will effect how much I see of my family. At the moment, the only time my immediate family are all together is during Christmas holidays or perhaps a week here and there in the summer when I spend some time on Auskerry. This is because dad spends a lot of his time on the island, and when I’m home in the summer I tend to spend most of my time in Kirkwall working and seeing friends. As this has featured throughout my life I’ve kind of got used to it but I’d still like to spend more time with us all together.

In terms of my extended family, I’ve always got on well with my aunts, uncles, grand parents and cousins on both sides. I only get to see these family members once or twice a year because they all live south, so it’s always a very special occasion. Part of me wishes they live closer but I’ve noticed that a lot of families who live near to such relations often don’t see them much, or in some cases, even get on with them. I think this is a real shame and I suspect that the old adage that you can choose your friends but not your family is very true. Perhaps with family, less is more.

I’ll be together with most of my dad’s side of the family this weekend as one of my cousins gets married. I’m really looking forward to this and I hope that as my cousins and I get embroiled in work and families of our own, we can still find the time for an annual get together.

Since the last column I’ve been able to go to two interesting events in the city. The first was a concert with the BBC Big Band playing as part of the Great North East Jazz Festival, which has been running for over six years now. The sixteen- piece band are real pros and they were both great to listen to and watch.

I was able to organise an interview for Utopia with the band leader and the festival director just before the band went on stage. I was amused by the latter gentleman’s answer to my question about whether young people are into Jazz in the North East, to which he answered; “yes, they love it. You can see them all sitting upstairs.” The downstairs area of the venue was filled with rows and rows of pensioners and, as I discovered later, the upstairs area was very sparsely dressed with a hand full of young people. He certainly knew how to do his ‘theatre of radio’ PR; I couldn’t fault him for that.

I went with a few friends and we all thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the fact that none of us would actually consider ourselves to be jazz fans. It doesn’t seem to be a particularly ‘cool’ genre at the moment, certainly not like hip hop or indie is. I think this is a shame because so many current performers have their roots in Jazz, and its spontaneity makes it very exciting to listen to.

I was also fortunate to be able to attend a radio academy master class that was held in Sunderland two weeks ago. Speakers included the radio breakfast presenters form BBC Tees and the commercial station, TFM. These seasoned professionals were able to offer us a real insight into the job of a ‘jock’ as well as giving us some tangible tips as to how to be successful in the industry.

One of the most interesting things I learned came from TFM breakfast presenter Graham Mack, when he drew a parallel between politics and radio. He suggested that presenters should to get out into their ‘patch’ or ‘constituency’ and talk to their potential listeners. He said that the listeners are effectively voters when it comes to audience figures and therefore a good presenter will canvas their listeners. So watch out if Dave Gray starts chatting you up in the street!

The event lasted a full day and in addition to what I’ve mentioned we had demonstrations on everything from podcasting to in-store radio like ASDA FM. I really enjoyed it and hope that I can use some of what I learned if and when I get a job in my chosen career.

I hope that you’ve caught some of my music shows on Radio Orkney over the last few months. If you tuned in for last night’s edition of ‘Hit The Beach’ you’ll have heard me playing a new track from Orkney based DJ and producer, Will Atkinson. I’m very keen to play music from local bands and Dj’s on the show so please do get in touch via my website. www.roryauskerry.com. I’d like to finish by wishing all my readers and listeners a very happy Easter. Cheers.

Hit The Beach – April 1st 2009 - Tracklisting

2009-04-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

Hit The Beach – April 1st 2009

Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music (Blues Brother, Soul Sister)
Joe Bonamassa – Lonesome Road Blues (The Ballad of John Henry)
Beth Hart - Soul Shine (37 Days)
Paul Rose – Note To Self (Currently Unreleased)
J.J. Cale – Cherry Street (Roll On)
The Stone Coyotes – The Sailors Song (Rise From The Ashes)
Bruce Hornsby – A Night On The Town (A Night On The Town)
Will Atkinson – Enough Is Enough (Dave Pearce's Trance Anthems 2009)
Fatboy Slim – Satisfaction Skank (Not Released)
Annie Lennox – Shining Light (The Annie Lennox Collection)
The Parlour Mob – Hard Times (And You Were A Crow)
Eric Sardinas – Ride (Eric Sardinas & Big Motor)

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - March 2009

2009-03-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

Competing for a job

AS the nation sinks deeper into this recession it is difficult for students not to worry about their chances of gaining employment after they graduate. I understand that for families living close to the breadline, who have suffered a cut in hours or even redundancy, the plight of students is probably not at the top of their 'worry list'. Anyone looking for a job is at a disadvantage at the moment, unless you work for a company which organises repossessions. However, I think it's worth discussing the employment issues from a student perspective.

It is likely that by the time this year's university and college graduates hit the job market, the slump in the economy will mean there just isn't enough demand for labour for everyone to gain employment. This is going to be as much a problem for media graduates like myself, as it might be for business, engineering or any other graduate.

Students who are about to graduate should be giving consideration to all options available after the umbilical cord that is student life, is finally cut. I'm planning to apply for jobs in the hope that something might come up after the summer but I'm also looking at a contingency plan in case my employment fears are proved to be right.

I'm thinking about applying to do a one-year Masters degree course here in Sunderland to increase my qualifications, and therefore to buy myself another year through this recession. I'm hoping that I will get a job offer before September but I've never been one for leaving things to chance and I like to have a backup plan. I also feel that I'd rather remain in full-time education for a year than take up a job that's not related to my long-term career aspirations.

There is a third dimension for me because our student radio station, Utopia FM, will now definitely be going live as a full-time 24/7 community station from September. If I was to come back and do a Masters I would be in a perfect position to get really involved with its development. This would be really exciting and would offer the opportunity to do a regular show and therefore build up a considerable number of 'on air hours'. I would also be able to form part of the full-time management team and consequently gain valuable experience in radio station management.

Although the employment market does not look too good at the moment, I'm hoping that when things do start to improve again companies will be taking on more new staff than they would in a normal year. If this is the case then competition would certainly be fierce. I'm certainly interested to see where things will go over the next 12 to 18 months.

As part of the preparation process for gaining employment I've been preparing my CV. As this is something I've no previous experience of, yet it's something that could gain me that all-important interview, I have been taking extra care to try and get it right. I'm fortunate that several members of my extended family have seen a great many CVs as part of their jobs and they are therefore able to offer me some very useful advice and guidance. It has surprised me how long the process has taken already, and how many conflicting suggestions exist online for how the document should be laid out. It's not an easy thing to do and I'm very glad I started on it nice and early.

A couple of weeks ago I had the interesting and somewhat nerve-wracking experience of interviewing my first lord. Lord David Puttnam was at the university along with the Olympic running medal winner, Steve Cram, to re-name the Media Centre, the building in which most of my classes take place.

Lord Puttnam was responsible for producing several notable films including Chariots of Fire, Memphis Belle and Local Hero. One of the reasons why I liked Local Hero is because I saw in it several similarities with Orkney and its people, and the characters in the film. Everyone seemed to know each other, which is a feeling I often get in Orkney, and one of the main characters had several jobs, which also happens at home. If you haven't seen the film I would definitely recommend it.

David turned out to be a very pleasant man and an easy interviewee. In fact, far more concerning than his status was the fact that I had to interview him at the front of a lecture theatre in which were seated about 30 students waiting for David to begin his talk. Luckily my fellow students resisted the urge to heckle, probably out of respect for him rather than care for my recording.

I'm sure everyone is well versed on the Jade Goodie story which is tragically unfolding before us in the media. I admit that I never cared much for her on Big Brother; however I think it's shameful that there are people who criticise her now for what she's doing. Even though she has courted the media throughout her career, to me she is showing great bravery and courage in facing the public in her deteriorating condition. The fact that she is only a few years older than I is a scary thought, and I admire the fact that she is using her last strength to ensure some kind of stable future for her young
children.

I think people who still criticise her now are showing a very cold-hearted and unpleasant side to their character. However much we dislike her or her husband, surely the public and the media should show some compassion for her children.

Hit The Beach - Tracklisting - 04/03/09

2009-03-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hit The Beach – March 2009

Joe Bonamassa – Sick In Love
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant - Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)
Jeff Healey – The Weight
Chris Rea – Stainsbury Girls
ZZ Top – Tush
The Hot Melts – Edith
Skalder – Kev’s Tune
Skeewiff - Man of Constant Sorrow
Jeff Beck – Where Were You? (Live at Ronnie Scotts)
John Martyn – May You Never
The Smiths – How Soon is Now

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - February 2009

2009-02-06T06:05:00.001-08:00

Dreams of flying high

Before I left Orkney, I was lucky enough to be taken up for a trip in a beautiful new light aircraft built and flown by Tommy Sinclair. As you can see from the picture, it was a dry, bright day. There was a south-westerly breeze. We were in the air for almost an hour, flying over Finstown, Kirkwall, Deerness, Auskerry and Stronsay. Apart from my flight home in the Flybe Saab aircraft before Christmas, which was after dark, this was my first time in the air for months.

I have wanted to learn to fly from the age of about six when I first remember seeing the Nothern Lighthouse Board's bright red BO-105 helicopter. The chopper used to visit Auskerry several times a year throughout my childhood. It brought engineers, commissioners and replacement gas cylinders for the lighthouse every nine months. More recently, the helicopter landed tons of building supplies and equipment as part of the changing of the light from a gas-powered system to one that now runs on power harnessed by 36 solar panels and stored in a huge bank of batteries. There is also a diesel generator for back up.

Anyway, when I was younger I used to sit for hours watching with fascination that workhorse of a helicopter flying to and from the NLB ship, MV Pharos with load after load slung under its belly. Over the years I had the chance talk to many of the pilots and I was even lucky enough to be taken for a couple of trips around the island. As a result of all this I wanted to be a helicopter pilot for most of my childhood. When we started spending the winter months in our house in Kirkwall, mum arranged for me to get involved with Orkney Flying Club. I used to cycle out most Sunday mornings and the regular guys at the club often treated me to a flight. This only served to reinforce my desire to become a pilot.

After doing this for a couple of years, it was time for me to begin looking at my career options. Before leaving school, I contacted all three of the armed forces to find out if they would take me on and train me to fly. All three of them asked me the same question; have you any history of asthma? I had guessed that this might come up and pose a problem and unfortunately I was right; although I rarely wheeze much now, unless cats are present, my medical records showed that I did suffer with asthma when I was younger.

This, coupled with the fact that I'm six foot four inches tall, meant that all three rejected me. The height was a problem for the air force because their training process meant I'd have to be at least physically capable of flying fast jets as well as helicopters and transport aircraft. Although I have never envisaged myself at the controls of a Tornado or a Eurofighter they insist that you can fit in the cockpit, and be ejected, without the control panel relieving you of your legs. So I had to look for another career!

To come back to my flight with Tommy, it was fantastic to see some of Orkney from the air and to have a go at the controls of his lovely four-seat Jabiru J430. I still get the same buzz from flying as I did as a child and I hope that one day I'll be able to afford to pay for private tuition so I too can fly myself and my friends around for fun.

The debate over Home Education has surfaced in the media again recently after the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) launched a Review of Home Education and a short online consultation. This suggested that home educators are potential child abusers. It also inferred that elective home education should be overseen by the very authorities that have let some families down to the point where they have had to withdraw their children from the state school system. Home-educators have fought to be allowed to home-educate which often means using teaching methods very different from those advocated by Education Authorities, so I think that this would be a backward step.

I listened to the Jeremy Vine programme on Radio 2, (as I often do), when they were discussing this issue. I'm disappointed at the government for showing this level of distrust in home educating families. I don't see any reason why parents who home educate their children would be any more likely to abuse their children than any other adult. I have so far not yet found any evidence to support their claims.

Last week we had the screening for our third year TV studio project. My group decided to make a short drama about a young girl who gives birth to her son in the breakfast room of a Travelodge, accompanied by her mother, three businessmen and a taxi driver who's stuck because of some heavy snow. It's a modern version of the Christmas story and I think it turned out OK in the end.

Although radio is clearly my main passion, I have enjoyed the TV studio modules throughout my course. It's a good opportunity to work as part of a team and I must admit I quite like playing up to the camera. In the end I acted a wise man in the drama despite having never acted anything other than the proverbial village idiot before. I think it went OK and although there were several mistakes, both from the technical side and in the acting, we got good feedback from the lecturers and our peer group after the screening.

Now that semester one has come to an end, I'm looking forward to starting my new modules next week as well as concentrating on putting my CV, audio demo and job applications together. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone taking exams at the moment the very best of luck. I remember how hard I found both the revising and the exams themselves. Cheerio.

Hit The Beach - Tracklisting - 04/02/09

2009-02-04T11:31:00.000-08:00

HIT THE BEACH – Wednesday Feb 4th 2009

Thunder – On The Radio
The Verve – Love Is Noise
Teddy Thompson - One of These Days
Wiley Feat. Daniel Merriweather – Cash In My Pocket
Frankie Miller - Over The Line
Queen & Paul Rogers – The Cosmos Rocks
The Stone Coyotes – Fire It Up
Paul Rose - Get Carter
Brookes Brothers - Tear You Down
Bruce Springsteen - My Lucky Day
Molly Hatchet – Down From The Mountain
Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton – Things Get Better

visit www.roryauskerry.com for more information and links to the BBC Listen Again feature.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - January 2009

2009-01-10T05:35:00.000-08:00

Resolution to get a job

Now that the whirlwind of Christmas is over the realisation of what I need to achieve in the coming year has begun to hit me like a brick wall. That's not to say it's not going to be an exciting year, but it's certainly going to be a busy one.

I'm due to graduate from my Media Production degree in early July but to do that I've got several programmes I need to produce and essays to write, not to mention a CV to compile and covering letters for job applications to work on.

I always like to have a plan, and to know what's ahead so that I can work towards goals and targets. However, this year is going to include a very important target as after I graduate. I'm going to be looking to start my first 'real' job, whatever it may be.

I'm hoping that I'll be fortunate enough to get work for a radio station or a production company as a junior researcher or broadcast assistant somewhere, perhaps in London, but given the current employment and economic circumstances I think getting any job after university is going to be easier said than done.

I would imagine there are a lot of young people who are feeling equally uncertain about the future. I think the best thing I can do is to just keep working away at things, gaining experience and with a bit of luck things will turn out OK.

Something that has interested me for a long time is the ways in which parents deal with the inevitable developments in their sons' and daughters' behaviour as they mature and become adults. I've discussed this aspect of growing up with other adults and my parents as well as people my own age, and I've come to the conclusion that it all goes in one big cycle.

Here's an example; a year or two ago I might have had to ask to be allowed to go out drinking into the early hours or to have a girlfriend to stay. Heated discussions would almost certainly have ensued between my parents and I, based on my thinking that they were being a bit square, and them thinking I was not yet old enough to be allowed the level of freedom I was asking for.

I would argue that they must have hated it when their parents curbed their freedom, and mum and dad would respond that it was their house and I was living under their roof and therefore their rules.

Now that I'm only months away from turning 21 these rules seem to have relaxed and consequently the arguments have stopped.

I've come to the conclusion that these arguments occur because parents wish to protect their children and make sure they don't take on too much, too soon as it were. Now that I've grown up a bit I can understand this better; seeing it as a level of care that I can now be grateful for, even though two years ago I would have loved to have had parents who would, 'let me do what I liked, when I liked'.

I would always argue: "I bet you hated it when your parents kept you in so why are you doing it to me?"

This is what really interests me - the fact that when you're a young person you just want to do whatever you like and the parental input is more often than not a total pain, but when you become a parent you're prepared to go through very emotionally painful arguments to protect your kids. I remember in the heat of an argument, vowing that I would be a 'cool' parent. I'll be fascinated to see what I'm actually like if one day I do become a dad.

Moving from parental influence to that of the church, I was very shocked to hear of the comments made by the Pope about homosexuality and the environment. Speaking just four days before Christmas, in the middle of the season of good will to all men, Pope Benedict announced that saving humanity from homosexual behaviour was as important as protecting the rain forests.

Although I don't consider myself to be religious at all anymore, I have been brought up as a Christian. I cannot understand how the Catholic faith can allow itself to be led by a man who clearly has unjustifiable anti-homosexual views. Pope Benedict is in a position of considerable influence and should be using that power to promote peace and tolerance, not to alienate a part of our society which has just as much right to live as they please as any other.

One of Jesus' two principal teachings was that you should love thy neighbour as thyself. It does not say, 'love thy neighbour as yourself, (unless your neighbour happens to be gay)'. Apart from the fact that his comments are, in my view, entirely unacceptable, they are also very offensive. Even if Pope Benedict actually believes that to be true, surely one of his advisors should have suggested that the season of peace and goodwill was perhaps not the best time of year to take a pop at an already marginalised group. It begs the question as to whether the media should actually give airtime to any specific religious leader, especially one who is prepared to punt ideas like that around the world's media.

An early Christmas present came in the form of my new website which my house mate Andy has built for me.

www.roryauskerry.com will be a first point of contact for potential employers as I hunt for jobs this year. It's also an ideal way for me to provide easy access to my podcasts. Andy is a bit of a wiz at this sort of thing and although I'm trying to teach myself how to build sites, I don't think I'd ever get one to look as nice as he has managed to. I hope you'll have a look around. Cheers.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - December 2008

2008-12-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Spenders not savers

AS we enter this period of economic recession and financial uncertainty I've been thinking more about my own money issues than I normally do. Because of the high level of media coverage, the subject of finance often crops up amongst my friends, both the ones who are working and those studying.

I've been brought up in a family which has always been careful with money, saving for a rainy day and generally living within our means. This has resulted in a strong feeling of financial security throughout my life. I might not have had the latest trainers or the coolest clothes but I never really wanted for anything. I'm very grateful for this and I'm keen to make sure that my own family might one day feel the same security that I have enjoyed.

During the discussions I've had recently I've discovered that very few of my friends have any money saved up anywhere.

There is literally a handful of people I know who have money in the bank for future use. I thought that anyone with a job, but still living with one or both of their parents would be able to afford, and therefore be saving. However, it seems that my generation are spenders. Despite being a full-time student I've managed to put a bit away from my summer jobs and DJing but it's become clear to me that people who are on the face of it in a much healthier financial situation than me, have not made any effort to prepare for the future.

I'm keen to understand why this might be as saving up for something I want or just saving for the future has been ingrained in my nature ever since I could count. I have a friend who I once lent a small sum of money to when I was at school. She wanted to buy a present for her boyfriend and hadn't been paid yet so I lent her about twenty quid. The fact that she told me she had no money until she was next paid should have rung alarm bells but I was naive and handed over the cash.

After weeks if not months of asking, pestering and eventually demanding my money back I got a phone call to say that this girl had my money and would bring it round to the house! I was so pleased to be getting it back because after all that time I'd begun to wonder if it was worth nagging about anymore. Anyway, I suggested she just put the money through the letterbox as there was no one at home and I would collect it later.

Her response was: "It won't fit through the letterbox Rory." Why on earth not I thought; has she got me gold ingots? "Well put it in a carrier bag and leave it under the garden shed then, I'll find it when I get back," I said. I got home about half an hour later to discover a carrier bag containing twenty pounds in unsorted one and two pence coins. As you might imagine after months of pestering I was a little annoyed and I promptly phoned her and asked her to give me 'proper money', which she did. I now think this is very funny and, in case you're wondering, we are still friends.

I have a hunch that once I started asking for my money back my friend had started a change jar and the excuses for not paying me back were simply because the jar wasn't full yet!

The other aspect to this is that many of my parents' generation saved enough money to buy property at a young age, especially in Orkney. If I knew where I was going to be in nine months time I too would be seriously thinking about this option as to get on the housing ladder in my early twenties would be excellent. Given that the housing market is coming down again I would love to see my friends investing in property and getting themselves some 'bricks and mortar' security for the future, but judging by what I've learned recently, most of them are not fortunate enough to even consider this option. Perhaps as parents my generation will go back to the older values of prudence and keeping some in reserve.

As you will know if you read last month's column, or heard my podcast, I was down in London for the 2008 Student Radio Awards. Although I didn't win in the end it was a very interesting and inspiring experience. To sit in a room with over 400 other people, many of whom are likely to become the next wave of producers, presenters, researchers and station managers was very exhilarating. I also got the opportunity to introduce myself to Andy Parfitt, the controller of Radio 1, as well as DJs Greg James and Steve Lamaqu. At the time I was disappointed not to have won, but getting down to the last 5 out of over 500 entries is still pretty cool and I will certainly be entering again next year.

As a final point this December I'd like to express my views regarding Christmas cards. I can see that people enjoy sending and receiving cards from people, especially those old friends or family they don't see very often. However, because my generation can contact their friends so easily by things like Bebo, Facebook and text messaging the need for paper greetings seems almost non-existent. I would far rather get a text or a 'wall message' than a card simply saying 'To Rory, Happy Christmas, Love Jo.' It just seems a bit empty, not to mention the cost to the environment.

If I don't get any Christmas wishes at all now, I'll know I've only got myself to blame. To all of you reading this, my friends and my family I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Christmas and fantastic new year.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - November 2008

2008-11-19T13:44:00.000-08:00

Gambling on an award

As I expected a lot has happened since last months column was printed. For a start we successfully completed Utopia’s two-week broadcast without too many hitches. I’m very proud of this because it was a heck of a lot of work, and by the end of it I was completely shattered. However, when we played the last record and I flicked the power switch on the transmitter I felt mixed emotions of relief and sadness.

Having had time to reflect on the broadcast I have been able to understand exactly what I’ve learned from it. I’ve had to manage people, overcome technical problems, coordinate promotional events and coach many of the presenters; not to mention juggling all this with producing and presenting a two-hour news and local affairs show throughout the week.

It’s been great fun and I’m extremely glad I took on the challenge back in May last year. That doesn’t mean to say I haven’t got regrets. There were plenty of things that could have been improved and I’m still kicking myself for things that I messed up with, both on and off the air.

Ultimately though, I think we all did a good job, it was great fun and everyone seems to have benefited from the experience. The university staff in the media department seem happy too which is a bonus.

I had some good news about my own work a couple of weeks ago; I’ve been nominated for a student radio award! Back in June I put together four minutes of what I thought were some of the best bits from the evening show I presented on Utopia last May, together with a covering sheet to explain a bit about me and the show itself. I posted this off to the Student Radio Association and didn’t really think much more about it.

Last week, to my delight I got a message from one of my lecturers congratulating me on my nomination. I suddenly remembered that the night before had been the date for each of the regional nomination parties so I checked the website and sure enough I’d won the nomination from the North East. This means that I’ll be heading down to London on the 6th of November to the awards party in the O2 arena. I’m one of five lads nominated in the national scheme for the ‘best male presenter’ award this year so it’s very exciting and could prove to be a handy career boost.

Now that term has started properly I’m turning my attention towards my Uni modules and most important of all; my final year dissertation. This is going to take the form of a half hour radio documentary, which I must research and produce by April next year. I have pretty much decided to take home education as the subject of the programme and look at the many different aspects of this method of teaching. Having been home schooled my self for several years it’s a subject I know a little about and at the same time I’m keen to find out more from other people who are currently, or have been, home educated.

The night before I found out about my nomination I had my first experience of gambling. The fact that it’s taken me until the age of 20 before I’ve had a go should provide some indication of my general attitude towards this ‘pastime’. Despite being firmly against gambling I was persuaded to accompany my mates on a trip to the Sunderland Greyhound racing track. I think it was the free pint promotion that swayed it for me but I felt that trying it once would be interesting and fun. In total I bet the astronomical sum of seven pounds on a number of races and I’m pleased to say that I won absolutely nothing. This has reinforced my opinion that I’m right to avoid gambling and instead keep any spare money I have in a saving account. Having said that, in the present credit climate some may argue betting on the dogs is a safer bet than the bank! Of course if I had actually won some money I might have been tempted to try my luck again, but instead the experience has made me even less keen on betting, but that’s not to say we didn’t have a great night out.

Last month I was asked if I’d like to DJ in our brand new ‘Campus’ nightclub. I’ve always been keen to play there, so despite the fact that the Gig was an unpaid trial run, my ever present DJ’ing and radio companion; Chris Brackley, and I turned up on the night ready to rock the house. Although we only played for an hour and a half between us we had good fun and managed to get most people in the club dancing to our mad mix of Indie, R n’ B, Cheese and Dance. According to the management it was the busiest Monday night to date and I’m hoping we will get offered some more gigs in the future.

As I’ve mentioned before, my housemates and I are living in a private rented house just outside the city here in Sunderland. The five of us decided last year that as much as we enjoyed the security and ease of university flats it would be a good idea, and a nice change, to rent somewhere ourselves in our last year at uni. I think we are lucky that between us we can organise money, sort the computer, TV and wireless network problems, make simple D.I.Y. alterations and repairs and keep up a good relationship with our land lord. I’m counting on the things I learn this year standing me in good stead when I need to rent a place on my own for the first time.

I’ve been very interested if somewhat annoyed by the recent story concerning Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and a series of phone calls to the actor, Andrew Sachs. I personally think the British press have shown little humour in escalated a small mistake into something that’s been blown completely out of proportion. Having said that maybe I’ll be lucky enough to meet the controller of Radio 2 at this awards ceremony. If I do I might as well give her a nudge and a wink for Russell’s job? Cheers.

Keeping It Real with Rory Auskerry - October 2008

2008-10-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Keeping it Real with Rory Auskerry - September 2008

2008-09-14T08:51:00.001-07:00

Act to tackle bullying

A large proportion of my time at school was blighted by bullying. As I've explained in a previous column, I was home educated for the majority of the year on Auskerry; only spending a few weeks in Stronsay School each winter. It was during these weeks and later during the first three years that I spent studying in Kirkwall Grammar School that I suffered at the hands of bullies.

At the stage I'm at now, having put three years between me and the bullying I now feel I can look back with a view to trying to figure out why I was bullied, and how we as a society might help to stop this from happening to other young people. I know a lot of my friends have been bullied; some of them have said that they were bullies themselves.

I'll be the first to admit that my upbringing was different. I think the people who gave me hassle in school might have found this a threat, and because I was trying to settle in I was over eager to impress, too loud and therefore was an easy target. However, I don't believe anyone deserves to be miserable and unhappy particularly when it's the result of a minority of children having a bit of sport.

Our society doesn't seem to me to be that committed to preventing bullying from happening, nor to adequately dealing with it when it has happened. My friends agree with me that all too often the victims of the bullying ended up being bullied even more as a result of telling the school or the police.

Teachers have lost the rights to discipline unruly pupils, parents have lost the ability to protect their children without fear of being abused or even attacked. The police seem equally unable to do anything when the aggressors are under 16. I believe this is because if the child is under 16 the police can only speak to the parents about the issue and the parents are within their rights to refuse entry to their home and decline to speak to officers.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect to this issue is the fact that nothing seems to be happening to sort this out. As a society we need to change our attitudes and our tactics. We need to establish a system that kids find easy to use to register every degree of antisocial behavior that makes their lives miserable. We also need to have a proper structure of adult response to those complaints so that the victims don't feel as helpless as I did. Apart from my parents I never knew who I could go and see on a regular basis that would be able to help me.

This said it may well be necessary to dig deeper into this issue to get to the bottom of it. Why do some kids become bullies? I just don't feel enough is being done by parents who are ultimately responsible for bringing up their children as well behaved, decent citizens. I also think teachers are not given enough support by the community to deal with bullying. I would love to see a real debate about the issue as I feel it's every bit as important as many of the other things councillors and politicians procrastinate over constantly.

Leaving the bullying issue behind for now and things are beginning to get exciting as far as Utopia FM is concerned. I've sent everyone the full schedule for our 16-day broadcast, we have had a half-page story and picture promoting the station printed in a local newspaper which circulates 55,000 copies, and we have all but signed a deal worth over two thousand pounds for full station sponsorship with the brand new student nightclub.

We are also progressing well with getting the community involved through service-level agreements and community programming. I'm now starting to think about getting the station imaging made. This is all the jingles and DJ idents (these are the jingles which are made specifically for the presenters) that give the station a lot of its character and consistency. I'm also trying to get the presenters to include interviews in their shows which have not really happened before. I have been very fortunate that everyone at Radio Orkney has taught me a lot about how to set about doing an interview and I'm keen to pass on what I've learned to the presenters on Utopia.

If you're reading this on the day it's printed I'm travelling back to Sunderland. There are things to be said for living by yourself; you don't have to argue about the remote control, you can play loud music whenever you like and you only have yourself to blame for any mess. But on the down side I find it pretty lonely a lot of the time. I end up going to bed early because there is nobody to talk to. For weeks I've been looking forward to getting back into Uni life and the way we live in our 'gaff'.

The prospect of moving into our new house with four of my best friends from Uni is unbelievably exciting. In the flat, or the house as it will be this year, there is always something going on. We all spend a lot of time together and a usual evening routine revolves around eating, drinking tea (or lager depending on our mood or the day of the week), watching TV and throughout all of this, constantly enjoying a healthy barrage of banter and good humor. It's just relentless good fun and it makes me feel really good.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you good luck if you're heading off to college or university this month. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Cheers.

Keeping it Real with Rory Auskerry - August 2008

2008-08-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

On The Treadmill

As you might imagine I left Sunderland at the end of term in early June looking forward to a relaxing summer holiday break. On my way up the east coast main line I had images in my mind’s eye of beach parties, barbecues in the back garden and long lie-ins. The reality has been somewhat different.

I started a full time job at Radio Orkney while trying to juggle the tasks of getting my student radio station on air next month, writing articles for Living Orkney, seeing friends as well as finding time to visit the rest of my family who are, as usual on Auskerry. I am by no means complaining as I feel very privileged to be doing a job that is both thoroughly enjoyable and highly beneficial to my career progression. Nevertheless it is hard work and at the end of the day I often struggle to find the energy and motivation to start working on my other projects.

The experience of having a proper job and living alone is proving to be a real eye opener. It's giving me a good idea of what I can expect when my time in the cosy cocoon of student life comes to an end next June. I am finding that keeping on top of everything I need to do is like a treadmill. I start the weekend thinking that I'll be able to get stuff done that's been piling up all week; but just as I feel I have got the decks cleared it's Sunday night again! I go back to work on Monday morning feeling that I haven't really got anywhere. Is this what most ‘grownups’ feel?

I like to keep busy while I’m at uni because I don't like being idle and I can see that I'm not going to get anywhere in radio if I don't get down to some graft. Despite my various jobs such as the radio station, podcasts, being a student ambassador and my various writing commitments, my lifestyle down the road usually involves quite a bit less work than all my current activities in Orkney.

I'm glad I'm getting a preview of what I can expect after university as now it won't be quite so much of a shock to the system. All I can say at the moment is well done to everyone who manages to juggle jobs and family all year round!

Having mentioned my commitments to our student radio station in Sunderland I thought it might be interesting to give you a bit of an update on how things are progressing. At the moment we are trying to finalise the schedule for the two weeks which we are on air for, get some promotion done to raise our profile in the community,( which will in turn help us to gain advertising), and encourage local groups and individuals to provide us with programme content.

One of the most frustrating things has been the process of going through people’s demo's and show proposals. I have to say that the general standard being sent to me by wannabe presenters is pretty poor for both the actual audio demo's and the supporting show proposal paperwork. Some people have handed in a reasonably professional sounding five minutes of audio accompanied by some neatly typed details of the proposed show, feature ideas, previous experience and contact details for the people concerned.

Others seem to think that an unlabeled CD in an envelope with an almost illegibly hand written sheet of A4 containing only a few sentences is going to cut it. To be honest I don't really know what action to take.

Obviously I want to do as much as I can to help these applicants both as a fellow student and also in my capacity as station manager. Should I be as encouraging as possible and put them on air however bad their demo? Whilst part of me can see we are a small student station here to provide students like me with their first experience of radio, the other part of me thinks that I should be running as professional a station as possible and to encourage students to think that sloppy demos will get them a job in the real world is far from helpful.

I would be willing to bet that several of the people who have submitted demo's will never get a job as a radio presenter. Some people have just been unlucky with their voice and lack a bit of charisma, but the biggest problem seems to be people who just don't have their hearts in radio. Many of them seem to be just in it for a bit of fun. That's fine, but usually this uncommitted attitude doesn't result in good radio and is therefore frustrating for everyone who wants the station to sound as slick as possible.

On the other hand I don't think it's my place to tell people they aren't very good – What do I know! Therefore I'm just going to have to try and help people to do the best they can and hopefully they will either improve or decide for themselves that being on the air isn't for them.

Finally this month, I have been interested in recent news that the government wants to increase to 21 the age at which young people can buy alcohol in pubs. I don't think they have thought it through very well because I'm convinced that people who use alcohol as a fuel for irresponsible behaviour will continue to do so regardless. Furthermore I think being treated like an adult and being allowed to drink in pubs helps many young people to learn to take responsibility for themselves in this area. I know from my own experience, turning 18 was seen by many as a ticket to a drink-fuelled funfare. As I soon discovered, the reality is somewhat less exciting and I think it would be a mistake for the learning of this important lesson to be put off any later than 18.

Keeping It Real - July 2008

2008-07-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

Sick of Tunnel Vision

Having had sufficient time to settle back into life in Orkney I’m feeling glad to be home. As I’ve mentioned before in this column, making the necessary adjustments needed to fit back in here after being in the city for a whole term can take me a while, but I’m glad to say I’m over that now.

Some of you may already be aware that I’m working at Radio Orkney for the summer. As usual this is proving an excellent opportunity to learn a great deal of skills, including those in journalism and presenting which will be of great benefit to me in my planned career as a radio broadcaster.

Because I’m working almost full time at the station, with the rest of my family on Auskerry, I’m living in our Kirkwall house by myself. This is actually one of the biggest adjustments I’ve had to make since coming back from University. I’m so used to the constant humour, noise and general banter in my flat that coming home to an empty house at the end of a days work is a bit of an anti climax. I suppose this is just another part of life which I’ll have to get used to, for the time being at least.

Something which I have been meaning to mention for a while are the comments often made in Orkney Today’s ‘Hoo’s hid ga’an’ feature. The particular bit I’m referring to is the question which asks what one thing would improve Orkney.

I am sick of seeing some variation of the answer; ‘A tunnel to the mainland’, ‘Towing Orkney nearer the mainland’, ‘A bridge to Scotland’ etc. Why do people feel the need to find room in their head for these ridiculous statements, let alone in the paper? I rarely get annoyed by people’s opinions as I think healthy debate is crucially important in any community. However, if you genuinely believe that a fixed link to the Scottish mainland will improve the quality of life in Orkney you must be mad.

Orkney’s remoteness is one of its greatest assets. Amongst many other things it gives us a strong sense of community, offers tourists something exciting and adventurous, and keeps us comparatively free of crime. I would be willing to bet that the same people publicly suggest Orkney would benefit from more permanent links to Scotland would be the first to complain when the roads are blocked with Sunday drivers from Caithness. My point to such people is this; if you are irritated by the lack of a B& Q – or whatever the reason - the solution is simple. Move.

Please don’t use your opportunity to tell us about yourself and offer us something entertaining, as a chance to moan about one of Orkney’s most defining qualities. As somebody wisely said to me when I was struggling with some school work; ‘Nothing easy is truly worthwhile.’

You’ll be glad to hear that’s the rant out of the way! There are a couple of other things I think are worth mentioning. Since getting home I have been asked by several people about my post university plans. I will have completed my degree by this time next year and hopefully starting my first job, ideally in radio. The most common question I’m asked concerns the level of involvement I will have with Orkney after I graduate.

I will always be drawn to the islands. They are my home and I can honestly say that I love it here. However, my long term goal is to become a full time presenter on national radio. This presents me with quite a serious logistical problem. How could anyone realistically live here and still present a daily show on Radio 2 for example? Even with the constant advance of existing technology it’s still not particularly feasible. For example, live guests such as singers and actors are usually based in London and to get the best from an interview carried out from a studio over six hundred miles away would be quite difficult. Perhaps more critically, to put myself in a position where I might have a chance of getting such a job, I will need to be based in London, or at least one of the big cities like Manchester or Bristol.

As a result of this my plan is to spend some time this coming academic year compiling my CV and writing letters to prospective employers. In an ideal world I would graduate from Sunderland University with a job lined up. However, I suspect that given the extremely competitive nature of the media industry, I’m expecting things to be a lot more difficult than that. As a back up I’m planning to move to London in a bid to increase my chances of being ‘in the right place at the right time’.

Another thing I’m regularly asked about is to do with the origins of my surname. As I’m sure most people in Orkney know, I was named after ‘Auskerry’, the two hundred and fifty acre island which lies on the East side of Orkney. After the ‘new friend’ discovers I grew up on this island inhabited only by my family, the questions usually begin to flow thick and fast.

The one which amuses me the most, and has surprisingly cropped up a lot, is whether or not the island was named after me! I can’t understand why people would immediately assume that an island would be named after anyone. My response is a variation on the following argument. Auskerry, the island has been around for tens of thousands of years. I turned 20 last week. Which do you think had the name first!?

Next month I’ll be busy preparing for Radio Orkney’s outside broadcasts at the county show and the parish cup final, and for the return visit from the five university mates who failed to reach Auskerry last year because of poor weather. We all hope we are a bit luckier this time.

Keeping It Real - June 2008

2008-07-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Utopian Dream Job

The last four weeks have been a mixture of stress, great fun and very hard work. In the run up to taking over as Utopia manager two weeks ago, I’ve been busy contacting various people with a view to getting members of the Sunderland community involved in the September broadcast. This work has so far been a success and we have secured an empty unit in the local shopping centre to use for a launch event. We have also involved the local music forum and we’re currently in talks with Sunderland City Council.

As well as this I have held elections for the other management roles needed to run a radio station including a head of music, head of sales and a head of news. I’m really happy with the new team as they all seem enthusiastic and motivated. I’m looking forward to working with all of them over the summer and through the broadcast in September.

Perhaps the biggest chunk of my time has gone to the evening show which I have been doing four nights a week for the three weeks we have been on air. The Rory Auskerry Show has involved several of my friends and a great deal of time but has been thoroughly rewarding. Being on the air from 7pm allowed me to choose my own music rather than having to stick to the station’s play list, which was a real plus for me. I was also able to bring friends in to take part in the show. I recruited three of my flatmates as a co-host, a producer and a writer respectively. In addition; one of the Northern Hype team, Chris, who is also managing the station with me in September, did a live DJ set for an hour two nights a week. Caroline, a second year journalism student joined me on Thursdays to co-host, and another friend, George, took professional pictures of my guests and the team.

I suspect that having so many of my mates working on the show didn’t help the listening figures as they couldn’t be doing both, but it certainly hasn’t damaged my ego!

Every show across the week featured different voices and genres of music and I have really enjoyed the variety. However, the station has been incredibly badly promoted and as a result we have very few listeners. Although we have carried on as if we are being heard with a view to having fun and gaining experience, it’s difficult to maintain enthusiasm when you feel your efforts are falling on deaf ears.

On an established station, listener’s texts and emails provide the DJ’s with two important things. One is the encouragement which comes from knowing you are being heard and not simply sitting in a small room, with padded walls and no view of the outside world, like you were in a mental asylum.

The second is the fact that listener’s stories, jokes, opinions and requests provide an invaluable source of link material and feature ideas. It is also impossible to play games, run competitions or know if you are funny if nobody gets involved. Therefore the lack of listener interaction on Utopia has had a hugely detrimental effect on all the presents throughout this broadcast.

In an attempt to overcome this issue I will be making a huge effort to publicise and promote the station in September with things like a high profile launch event in the city centre.

I have also been very busy completing projects and assignments for my course. As hand in dates and deadlines for practical work approach, more and more people have been asking me for help and advice with their radio work. I actually love this and find it flattering that both my friends and people I barely know come to me for advice, or to get answers to technical questions. It only gets a bit difficult when I’m at home writing an essay or trying to edit my own work and the phone keeps going, but as I said, I really enjoy it. How much help I am is debatable!

May saw the end of another happy year of university, and many good times living in Flat 30. I’ve always found good times coming to and end a real wrench and this is no exception. I’ve spoken before about how important a good home from home is while studying away and the lads have done that for me for a second year. Andy and Phil are moving on with me to Elmwood Street next year but I will miss living with Dan, Andy B and Darren.

One of the biggest issues both parents and students have with the idea of university is understandably the financial implications. I am aware that finding the money can be extremely difficult, and the idea of a huge debt may well be the icing on the cake to put some off it all together. However, having reached the end of my second year with a little money still in the bank, and without needing handouts, must be reasonable evidence that it is achievable. What I can say for certain is that the money which has so far been spent on my university education has been entirely worthwhile, apart from perhaps the odd lager perhaps! Aside from the obvious academic benefits, the experience has helped me to grow up, I am more confident than I was before and I will certainly not regret my decision to go to uni. Bring on next term!

However I am very much looking forward to being in Orkney this summer. As the weather improves and the days get longer, I find being confined to a city quite frustrating at times. I miss the opportunity to get out in a boat or use my push bike. I also find it hard to adjust to the different lifestyle in Orkney when I’m only home for short time, so having a three month run will be great. Cheers meantime.

Whats coming up on the show...

2008-05-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hi, here are the details for what you can expect on the evening show from Tuesday, May 6.

The show is all about phenomenal music, special guests and really great banter. My team and I will be playing everything from JX to Europe, Gina G to Eric Clapton and Oasis to the Ting Tings.

Already confirmed to join us on the show are Hungover Stuntmen, the fantastic band from Newcastle, who will be performing a live acoustic set on Tuesday 13th of May. We also have the amazing North East based virtuoso blues/rock guitarist, Paul Rose joining us on the show on Tuesday 20th of May for an interview and a live track.

As well as all that we have interviews with important people from the University of Sunderland and the wider community in Sunderland.

We also have some great features on the show including ‘Who’s mum is it anyway?’ and radio version of ‘guess who’!

So, here is the all important line up for each week on the show:

Mondays – Chris Brackley will be spinning the decks live for the second hour of the show with an indie themed mix. Oasis, Wombats, Futureheads, Cribs, Pigeon Detectives and much more. As you’d expect, we want you to text or e-mail in with your suggestions for the mix too. Texts must starts with FM, then your message to 077 66 40 41 42. They are the cost of a standard text so if you have free texts, it’s free!

Tuesdays – Andy Cheeseman come in to co-host the show with Rory. The theme will be more blues and classic rock based on Tuesdays. Rolling Stones, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Free, Led Zep etc. Plus we have the live music on Tuesdays too!

Wednesdays – Chris Brackley is back and we have the Phatplastic midweek mix form 8pm. All the best tunes for a Wednesday disco. JX, Livin’ Joy, DJ Quicksilver, Sash, BBE, The Source, Dario G etc. Again, you get to influence the mix. Text or e-mail the studio.

Thursdays – Caroline Henderson comes in to co-host the show with Rory. As she is a journalist we thought we might as well have a look at what’s been going on in the city of Sunderland and take a look ahead to the weekend. Anything good on the telly? What’s on at the cinema? And of course, what’s going on at Utopia! Plus, a great big bag of records that you are going to love!

That’s all on the Rory Auskerry Show – Monday to Thursday, 7 til 9 pm.

Join us live online from Tuesday 6^th May here on the website www.utopiafm.net

And don’t forget we are on 87.7 FM all over Sunderland from Monday 12^th May!

Keeping It Real - May 2008

2008-05-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Towards the Utopian Team.

JUST after I finished last month's column I set off to London on a visit to several radio stations. There were ten of us in total and we planned to spend three nights in the capital visiting radio stations by day, and taking in the social life by night.

I went on a similar trip last year which was fantastic. This one would have been an equally great trip if not for the fact that six members of the group went down with a nasty, although short lived sick bug. This was a huge pity because a lot of effort was made by the society president in organising the trip. However, the four of us, including me, who did not fall ill, tried to make the best of it.

Something which I have often wondered about is whether someone's mental attitude can make much difference to things such as travel sickness or getting ill.

As a result of this trip I have decided that a positive mental attitude can influence whether or not someone avoids getting sick, even against all the odds. Eight of us were sharing a very small room in a hostel next to Hyde Park, and once two members of the group had succumbed, everyone else was convinced we would all get it. I must admit I was concerned.

I can't explain why I didn't get it in the end but I'm sure it was partly down to a positive mental attitude. I just kept telling myself, and the rest of the group, that I was not going to get ill. On the second day I even woke feeling not great. It sort of felt like hunger but I was nervous so I didn't eat all day for fear of feeding the bugs. By 4 o' clock I decided it must be hunger, ate a sandwich and immediately felt perfectly OK!

I think this positive mental attitude thing is also relevant to sea sickness. I used to suffer from this, which as you would imagine is a bit of a disadvantage to someone who lives on an island. However, I don't seem to be bothered by a rough trip on the boat anymore and I put it down to a change in my attitude.

When I was about ten, I was always scared that every wave would roll the boat enough to cup it over. Since then I have seen a few boats out of the water and I learned that there is a lot more under the surface keeping it on an even keel than I thought. The point is, although I have a great respect for the sea, I am no longer scared of it like I was as a child, and I can therefore relax on the boat. I think it's this ability to relax that has made the greatest difference in making me actually enjoy a rocky boat journey.

On a different note, I have recently been elected as the new station manager for our student radio station - Utopia FM. I will therefore be responsible for the three-week broadcast coming up at the start of term in September. Later this week we will be holding a further election to decide who will form the rest of the management team.

I'm very keen to put more emphasis on teamwork and good production of shows on the air. I'm keen to have a flagship community-orientated show at tea time on week days, and a Sunderland-specific sports show on a Saturday and Sunday at 5pm. In the past the station has gone for a very music-led format with very little constructive speech. I think while this is a traditional and successful element of student radio, Utopia needs to move closer to public service community output in preparation for it becoming a full-time community station in a year's time.

It's going to be a challenge to both get the station ready to go on air in September, and to make changes which will hopefully improve the station. I am looking forward to the task and I hope I and the rest of the team will be able to make a success of it. Having this kind of involvement with a project like this can only be good for my career as it will gain me both valuable experience and something good for the CV.

Coming back to the impending broadcast which starts on Tuesday, May 6, I'm very excited to be presenting the weekday evening show between 7 and 9pm. Because it's after 7pm in the evening I'm allowed to play my choice of music instead of having to follow the scheduled play list. This will allow me more creative freedom and hopefully make the show more unique and interesting. I also have some great live guests lined up and plenty of features to keep the pace of the show going. I will have a live DJ set for an hour twice a week, and a weekly round up of the top news stories both internationally and in the Sunderland area with a friend of mine who is a journalist. I also have a couple of other mates co-hosting and producing the show.

I've spent the last couple of weeks at home in Kirkwall working on various bits and pieces and enjoying the relaxation that Orkney life has to offer. Every time I come home I find the differences between life in the city and in the islands more apparent. I assume that this must be a natural part of the growing up process but it does take me a couple of days to re-adjust at both ends of the holiday. Nevertheless I enjoy my time at home very much.

You can listen to my shows on the internet at www.utopiafm.net at 7pm from Tuesday, May 6. I hope some of you get in touch with a shout out or tune in to hear the show. Cheers.

Keeping It Real - April 2008

2008-04-07T04:28:00.001-07:00

Home schooling is no barrier to being sociable

DURING recent weeks I've had an unusually high number of discussions with various people about my being home-educated. I don't really think about being taught at home by my parents as being more worthy of discussion than most other things, however there seem to be quite a lot of people who do. As a result of these various discussions, I have discovered there are a great deal of myths and misconceptions surrounding its various advantages and disadvantages.

For those who don't already know, I was home educated by my mother from school starting age, until I was 13. I then went to Kirkwall Grammar School in my third year of secondary education. During those nine years of home schooling I did spend about six weeks each year as a pupil in Stronsay School. This was because my family left Auskerry every winter to spend the festive season in the company of others, and it meant that we could go away on family holidays.

Other than this very short stint in 'normal' school I was completely taught by my parents. Mum, (with occasional help from Dad), taught me, and latterly my two brothers, every subject in the curriculum. I imagine that it was at times quite difficult to teach three children, all at different age levels, whilst also trying to run a business and a family on a remote island. I know that the decision to choose this way of life, and to home school, was not a decision taken lightly.

Mum taught us for four hours from 8.45-1pm with a short break in the middle and she stuck strictly to a curriculum to ensure that we covered all the subjects. There were often times when I did not want to do what she asked and we would argue but in the end Mum always insisted as she wanted to make sure that we did not get behind. People often wonder how the amount of work completed by pupils during an average school day can be fitted into four hours. The answer is simply that without the distractions of a peer group you work more efficiently.

I don't see why my education is worthy of all this attention but here is a comment I frequently get when the subject is discussed: "Didn't you miss out on all the social side of school?"

I can answer this question with a very decisive, no! I believe that I have benefited greatly from my unusual upbringing. I think the argument people make about home-schooled pupils lacking social ability is based on the simplistic idea that if a child has nobody at school to talk to they wouldn't learn the skills needed to be sociable. I also believe that I developed an ability to be happy on my own and to use my imagination creatively because of the island life which has helped me to adapt to student life away from home.

I feel I am just as sociable as many of my contemporaries who went through the conventional school system. In my mind, this is because I grew up listening to adult radio and constantly participating in adult conversations; with my parents, with friends, family and strangers who visited the island, and also from our family holidays to cities in the UK and abroad. In fact research has shown that peers are not nearly as important for socialization as the interaction with other adults is during childhood.

One of my best friends at university, Chris Brackley, has always been skeptical of home education. Both his parents are head teachers, which may be part of the reason for this, but he believes that most parents home-school because the parents want to bring the child up in a strict regime of their own beliefs. It is true that this is the case sometimes and that home-schooling is used as a way to prevent any other influences from, 'contaminating' a child's mind, but my experience was totally the opposite; my parents wanted to teach me to investigate and question everything so that I developed my own ideas and learnt how to find out the information that I needed to do so.

Another common question people have is, is your mum a proper teacher?

Well if they mean, 'Does she have a teacher's qualification?' then the answer is no.

But if they mean, 'Has your mum got the skills to educate you to the standard needed to pass your exams,' then the answer is yes. Obviously I learned a great deal in my four years at KGS, but without the foundations mum had built in terms of my education, most of that would have been almost useless.

I can empathise with people when they find home-schooling difficult to accept because it is always hard to understand things which you have not experienced yourself. However I see it as having been of immense benefit to me on many levels and certainly do not feel I have been disadvantaged in any way. Apart from anything else it's a great talking point!

On a different note, this month has seen some significant developments in the future of Northern Hype. We have taken the decision to stop doing our Friday 'Hype' nights in Independent at the end of May. All six of us feel that despite the night being a success, we have not been able to achieve some of our original goals, particularly promoting and running one-off 'parties'. The weekly club night has been both a fantastic experience and a great deal of fun, but we want to try something new after the summer. The fact that we will all be starting our final year in September is also a consideration. As a result we have signed a contract for our first event in Newcastle at World Headquarters, a 600 capacity night club, where we plan to do one off events each month. This will enable access to a vastly bigger audience and therefore we can try some new things which were not possible in Sunderland.

I'm now in Orkney for two weeks Easter break and I'm really looking forwards to spending some time at home. Cheers.

Keeping It Real - March 2008

2008-03-22T06:33:00.001-07:00

Live on BBC 6 Music

Another busy month has passed since I last wrote for Orkney Today. Talking of passing, I was very pleased to have at last successfully completed my driving test on Valentines Day. I have been talking to several of my friends who have already got their pink licence about their test. It seems to me that in most cases its nerves rather than lack of ability that prevents young drivers from nailing it first time. I make no secret of the fact it took me four attempts to pass. However, when I did pass I only made three minor mistakes. The fact it has taken me so much time, and so many lessons to get to this stage has not done my bank balance any good, but I am convinced it will be of benefit in the long term. This is because all the extra time I’ve spent with an instructor has meant that good habits are now firmly ingrained, whereas had I passed quickly and been driving on my own ever since, I may well have already developed a ‘bad practice’ driving style.

It’s a big relief to have passed but only time will tell if the extra lessons help me avoid an accident, or at least mean an accident is not a result of poor driving on my part.

I mentioned my disappointment in a previous column that I was never taught how to build websites at school. After some deliberation and discussion with friends I have decided to make an attempt at correcting this. I have bought a step by step book on how to build sites using html and css code and with the help of my flat mate Andy; I hope to have mastered the basics by the summer. I feel that being a media student in the era of the internet, and not being able to construct even a simple website is ridiculous. I’m finding it quite rewarding and I’m already making progress.

Staying with the internet I think its worth commenting on the power of social networking sites, in particular, Facebook. Such web networks receive a lot of media attention, both good and bad. I must admit to using several of them on a regular basis because I find them to be a convenient and free way to keep in touch with my friends both here in Sunderland and at home in Orkney. In the last couple of weeks I have been amazed at the power of such sites as marketing tools.

Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles now has over a quarter of a million fans on the site. This may not seem that amazing considering he gets over seven and a half million listeners every morning, but when you think that each and every one of those online fans can now be bombarded with promotional messages by Radio 1, you can see why the station was keen to get involved. Perhaps even more staggering is the fact that even if you have not added yourself as a fan you will still get adverts for his page on yours in the ‘news feed’. This is because the news feed tells you what all your friends have been doing. Therefore you will get a message saying ‘12 of your friends have become fans of the Chris Moyles Show’ inviting you to add yourself as well. The result is a snowball effect.

We have begun using the same thing as a PR tool for Northern Hype and I have created a fan page for my podcast. Although it’s working on a fraction of the scale, it does seem to be making a difference. Last week was the busiest week we have ever had at Hype – with almost 300 people turning up at Independent.

I had an exciting day a couple of weeks ago when I received an email asking if a member of Northern Hype would do a live interview with Steve Lamacq about Hype. Obviously we jumped at the chance and I was picked to do the interview. We got a five minute interview at the end of Steve’s show on BBC 6 Music and I talked about the origins of our group, what the night is about and what kind of music we play. One of my friends did some filming before and during the interview and made it into a short documentary just as practice. Afterwards the production team at 6 Music found the film on youtube, and I got another message saying how they all thought it was hilarious that their phone interviews were being made into documentaries!

The deadline for the completion of Utopia FM demo tapes has now passed, thankfully. I have been constantly in the studio working with different groups or individuals trying to coach them into producing something good enough to get them on air in May. In some cases I see a great deal of emerging talent but sadly in others there is not much there worth a letter home. Interestingly, the people who could, with a little help, be great presenters tend to be very unsure of their ability while the ones who just lack the spark are deluded by a notion that they are actually, and I quote; “the, next Chris Moyles.”

I have thoroughly enjoyed helping all of them and it has been a useful learning curve for me. Partly as I’m re-enforcing my fairly inexperienced understanding of what makes good radio, but I’m also beginning to understand what it must be like to be a teacher. I am simply trying to tell them everything I have learned and give them plenty of encouragement as I feel that’s the most useful thing I can do to help them.

This month I have worked my first open day as an ambassador for the student experience at this university. Because I never went to an open day I was unsure of what to expect but by the end of the day I felt that I had hopefully helped encourage some people to subscribe to student life. Aside from the fact that I get paid to do these jobs, it feels nice to be putting something back in some small way. Cheers.

Keeping It Real - February 2008

2008-03-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Dispelling midwinter blues

A lot of people have told me that the post Christmas term is the hardest. They say it’s when people studying away from home are most likely to suffer from home sickness, or the dreaded ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’.

As far as I’m concerned this is nonsense. I’m willing to admit that waking from the bed of festive warmth into cold weather, long hours of darkness and a somewhat forlorn bank balance can easily get people down. However, it is a new year of opportunity and instead of thinking about how cold and dark it might prove, we ought to be looking optimistically towards Easter, and the inevitable summer sunshine. My policy is simple; if I feel a bit low I put on some happy music, do something productive and find something that makes me laugh.

January has been yet another exciting month for me. I have been ‘on air’ at BBC Radio Newcastle, ‘Hype’ is continuing to go well, my podcasts are receiving positive feedback and the new semester has begun.

Some of you may remember Martin Emmerson, the sports commentator who came up to Orkney last summer for Radio Orkney’s parish cup final broadcast. He lives very near me in Sunderland and he suggested a couple of weeks ago that I might like to come into Radio Newcastle while he was temporarily presenting their ‘drive’ show. As you may expect, I jumped at the chance and had quite an eventful week helping the show’s producer put people on air, take calls and usher guests in and out of the studio. On the Thursday I went in for the whole day and was lucky enough to be allowed to sit in the studio with the presenters for two consecutive shows before ‘drive’ started at 4 o’ clock.

After the first presenter realised I had some previous radio experience I was invited to talk on air about how long it takes to get from Sunderland back to Orkney. During the next show which is presented by TV actor and comedian, Alfie Joey, I was invited to chat to him on nearly every link throughout his three hour show!

I find being around radio studios exciting as it is, but getting to go live on air and chat about things as random as garlic crushers, which James Bond actor is the tallest and daft names for driving schools is, for me, pretty cool.

While I was on air, one of the senior station staff asked Martin who this student was that he had taken in to the station. To which he said; “He’s here as a fellow BBC employee from Orkney.” The senior staff member then asked why I didn’t have a proper BBC pass. Martin had to explain that having seen the relative size of Radio Orkney, a pass was not necessary!

I am very much hoping that this is just the beginning of my involvement with BBC Newcastle as I have been very keen to get involved in some way ever since I started studying in Sunderland.

The decisions as to who I’m going to live with next year, and where, are currently in full swing. At this stage it looks like I will definitely be living with two of my current flat mates, Andy and Phil as well as two girls that the three of us have been best friends with since our first week in Sunderland. Jo and Kate both study the same course as the lads and I, and they are also fun and up for a laugh. They have been living in private accommodation this year but this will be a first for the boys and I. We are currently making some final decisions about which property to rent and then it’s just a case of signing contracts.

I have been keen for a while to do some communal cooking in the flat. This is mostly because I like cooking and enjoy making a meal and having everybody sit around and eat it together. It is also a great deal more efficient and healthy than everybody shoving a frozen pizza in the oven every night. Unfortunately, despite being keen to do it, it hadn’t really happened much until a couple of weeks ago when I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

I made sure the lads in the flat were available and invited Jo and Kate round for a beef casserole. It was the first time I had eaten boiled tatties and broccoli since Christmas and I think the lady in Tesco was about to give me a medal for the amount of veg on the conveyor belt!

The six of us had a great evening and my culinary skills seemed to go down well. I have to thank mum for the book of family recipes she made me for my 19^th birthday!

Hype has been going well since we started again after the Christmas holidays. We have been doing some special promotions with free Absinthe, glow sticks and the popular ‘Guitar Hero’ Playstation game. We don’t think that giving away random unrelated free gimmicks is necessarily a good way to increase business, but we do believe that if something we give away enhances the night, it is worth doing. There are also plans brewing for us to book some big name bands in the next few months which is exciting.

I really enjoy recording and producing my podcasts every couple of weeks. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to spend more time in the studio, as well as to find out more about some of my friends by inviting them to take part in the shows. It’s also a good vehicle for me to get feedback from people as to what elements of the show are entertaining as well as what things could be improved, or sometimes removed altogether! I’m hoping this will enable me to decide on a popular format for my show on Utopia FM this May. Don’t forget you can get the shows free by searching for me in your iTunes store! Cheers.

Keeping It Real - January 2008

2007-12-30T07:36:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

Venturing into TV and podcasting

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

2007-12-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-08T06:41:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

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.