Week 1: 26/01/17
Today I went over key words as a refresher from Radio News such as: Voicer, Vox Pops, Feature, Bulletin etc and we learnt a new element (two – way) which we will go over more next week. Also we went over what we will be assessed on.

Week 2: 02/02/17
In preparation for today’s lesson we had to listen to TalkSport Drive Time and 5Live Drive which were 2 very different programmes. TalkSport is more male driven and 5Live seemed more family friendly compared however both of them bored me if I’m being honest. TalkSport was very hard to follow as there was too many voices with the same accents for my liking and it was more of a waffle than a discussion.
We learnt more about two ways and even did our own one. They are presenter – reporter conversations normally on complex issues. There is a lot of research that happens and deeper insights to the story than normal.

Week 3: 09/02/17
Today we found out our groups (Group A) and we also spoke about running orders. Timing is key so we spoke about coming out on time and different options to have if something goes wrong e.g having two lengths of a package etc. On top of that we spoke about making things more exciting to listen to for tips with our shows. During the lesson we listened to LBC with James O’Brian but I found it so interesting to listen to! It wasn’t very nice for the caller as it was borderline bulling however how the presenter had the control was amazing and really gripping to listen to.

Week 4: 16/02/17
This week we had a guest speaker in from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme which was really interesting to hear about his job and what he has to do. I learnt that 8am is the peak listening so the programmes biggest story will be broadcast. Before Dave came in we listened back to the news programmes that we had done the previous week and critiqued them. Davide chose for us to listen to The Surgery on Radio 1 and Sports Bar on TalkSport for this weeks listenings. Surprisingly I liked Sports Bar and not The Surgery. For me, The Surgery wasn’t my cup of tea although I love the concept of the show for young people and it is presented really well and having Dr Radha in really makes you feel comfortable as a listener but I just didn’t enjoy it. I found the beds in the background really distracting for a serious topic but it was structured well for the target audience. I couldn’t listen live to the Sports Bar so I listened to The Best Bits. This podcast featured an interview with boxer Chris Eubank and I loved it. Andy Goldstein and Jason Cudy are a really good pairing as I found them both funny. It was all over the places and very ‘laddy’ however I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Week 5: 23/02.17
This week we had a re cap other some things that we have learnt in the past 5 weeks. We got into our groups and our target audience was revealed, my group have got an audience that targets predominantly men – abit of a “5 Live” audience. For the rest of the lesson we had to come up with a 15 minute show based on the news headlines, ours wasn’t quite 15 minutes as we was the first group up and very under pressure. I was presenting with Michael and had no preparation so it did go fairly bad but I know on my mistakes to be better for next time. This weeks listening was PM on Radio 4 and Late Night With Iain Lee on Talk Radio which were both very interesting in different ways.
I listened to PM on Friday 24th February so the show was based around the headlines from that day for 1 hour. Obviously it was very in depth and I like how it started by Eddie Mair telling us the headlines and then playing little montages from that headline because it drew me in as a listener as that was something different. I did find it hard to concentrate at times because it is not aimed at me but the way Eddie mixed it up with interviews etc helped.
I also listened to Iain Lee on the Friday too, it was very promising at the beginning. I liked his presenting style, he was very chatty and a big personality which is what you need to for a talk host so that the listener stays engaged however he can come across as too much. When he described the listeners as “idiots” I was abit offended however that could be how he is and listeners are used to it but as a first time listener I was no impressed. I felt that his interview went on for far to long in which I got bored and had to stop it.

Week 6: 02/03/17
This week we touched on the law. I had already done this in college so it was a refresher for me but it was nice to go back to it. Some of the examples that we learnt about were so shocking. This weeks listenings were Broadcasting House on Radio 4 and The Urbanist on Monocole. I didn’t really like either of the programmes, I feel if The Urbanist was on a different topic I would enjoy it a lot more. The topic was Migration and because I was interested it made me unengaged but I did like the structure of it as it had a nice flow. Broadcasting House was similar to PM in ways for me but I had to turn off because I was getting so confused as it was going at quite a fast pace and I was getting mixed up between stories. I did like the story about fining people who are caught driving on their phones as I felt they got very intimate with this story which was nice to listen to and I also learnt some new information.

Week 7: 09/03/17
This week we got into groups and thought about different feature ideas. This has been the first week that we have properly say down and thought out what we are going to be possibly doing. We also double checked that everyone was happy with their roles. Due to Ade being absent for a lot of lessons I am confirmed to be co presenter and Ade will be doing a package. We learnt how to do tieline which was really helpful as I have learnt a new skill and surprisingly it seemed fairly easy. We have discussed to do our OB in Chelmsford around the subject of gardening. I am now going to be listening to more BBC 5 Live programmes as that is kind of what our station is aimed at. Being presenter I need to listen to a range of magazine programmes but slightly more 5Live.

Week 8: 16/03/17
This week we assigned each other exactly what they will be doing and confirming the topics. This is what it looks like.
Chocolate 2W / Abudu

• Vox
• Expert

Football Fans PKG / Betts

• Why football fans? Compare with Rugby

Pound Coin PKG / Cross

• Explain Issue
• Expert

Going Backwards PHONE INT / Presenters

• Nokia 3310

Gardening OB / Young

• How is gardening anti-stress
• How to get into it
• Garden Boxes

Gardening PHONE IN / Presenters

? INT(S) / Presenters

Week 9: 23/03/17
This week we created a 15 minute show on the unfortunate event that happened on Wednesday. I was fairly nervous to do this at first but I surprisingly enjoyed it thoroughly. I have learnt how to treat a serious issue and how to be considerate and respectful when script writing. Our group was going to have one presenter go with Tommy and Curtis (OB Team) and the other in the studio. We were up first at half 2 and I felt overall it went really well.
The tone was perfect, we treated it very seriously and Michael was great at presenting and picking up when the technical fault happened as he filled in. The OB team was fantastic! Tommy’s presenting was amazing, he managed to get an interview with someone visiting and she was such a good interviewee, which made the OB even better. Tommy and Curtis both loved doing it aswell, which made it even better as it went a whole lot better than expected. Iona was involved in the two way and she was as very good talker and had a lot of great views, her and Michael sounded great together! Dom done a really good job at driving the desk and Dan and Fay were great at directing and helping with script writing and ordering the topics. The only criticism as a whole is we need a tad more communication and I personally need to understand the topics more so that I am able to input etc. and be confident in what I am saying.
After the show we were proud at what we done so we went into RP2 and brainstormed loads of new ideas for stories as we needed stronger ones and more. As we have a pilot next week we really need to certify our stories and start to get in touch with people. I am listening to a lot more talk radio in preparation for presenting and am going into the studio and practicing. Soon me and Michael will be going in the studio with Dan and practicing. On Monday me and Dan will be doing imaging for the show and all of us are going to think of ideas about how to treat the stories to get them confirmed.

Week 10: 28/03/17
Editor Dan asked us to come up with ideas over the weekend so he can finalise what we are doing, at this moment in time this is what we have come up with:

Items (Slug)	PKG	2W	Live Int	DSC	Phone-In	OB
Gardening						X
Football	X
Contactless	X
Easter	B	?
Evolution of UK Chart		X
Diet			?
Date Night
Renting
Electric Cars				?

GARDEN CENTRE / OB

• Stress

FOOTBALL / Betts PKG

• Personal Journey
• Psychologist -> relevant
• Hoolaganism
• Why fans love going to away games?
• Why just football?
• Why spend so much money?
• 2 Parts?

CONTACTLESS

• Royal Mint
• Explain issue in cue if still relevant
• Is there any need for a new coin when we use contactless
• Is there a need to update all these machines if contactless takes over?
• Financial Journalist.

EASTER

EVOLUTION OF THE UK CHART

• Try to get a statement from official charts company

DIET

• Dieting advice for fast metabolism people
• Contact dietitian or someone who’s done a PHD on it

ELECTRIC CARS

• London Taxis going electric
• Air Pollution
• Environmentalist
• No Diesel Cars -> govt encouraged them at one point  

DATE NIGHTS

• Young couple v Old Couple

RENTING

• Should the younger generation accept they might never buy a house because they’ll always be renting?

Me and Dan met up and think we are going to drop date nights and renting but we are having a meeting with David on Thursday so we will defiantly confirm our items.
Today me, Dan and Iona discussed imaging. We came up with BGT (Get Britain Talking) but we thought that didn’t really reflect sport. Iona came up with Radio Active as that reflects the participation of the audience in debates aswell as sport. We are thinking of people to voice the jingles and have come up with 6 to voice which we will be doing within the next week.

Week 10: 30/03/17:
Today we had a half hour pilot. It didn’t go very well, we need to get our act together as the show is only 2 weeks away and it went terrible. I was in charge of the 2 way and I also planned the phone in element.

31/03/17:
In preparation for the show, I am listening to different radio shows to give me inspiration for presenting. Today, I listened to You and Yours.
I loved listening to You and Yours, the 45 minutes seemed to fly by. Maybe it was because I was interested in the majority of the topics being discussed. It started off with the presenter (NAME) who I found really soothing giving us the main headlines. She read out the contact details for the audience to get involved.

The first story was about gel nails. Boots have removed products from their stores as they have given customers bad reactions. This was a really good piece! It included doctors responses and had a reporter on a two way segment. Aswell as that, it had a re enacted drama of different peoples stories about what had happened and some were quite nasty. The only downside of that bit was it seemed abit fake and would have been nice for the actual peoples voices to be voiced as it did not sound real at all. The presenter had a phone interview from a salon then it was back to another two way and lastly statements from boots, nail brand and a pre recorded interview with a doctor. There was so much content which made it so interesting as it was balanced and we got to hear from people experiences aswell as the experts opinions and the brands themselves.
Next story up was a story about campaign for better transport which was a package. It was reporter led and included some amazing vox pops from people of all ages, all different circumstances of why they travel on the train. It captured some great atmosphere of the train station which made it more enjoyable to listen to and as the train drew in we heard the sound of cheers from everyone as if we was there. I’m not interested in transport stories but this one didn’t make me switch off.

After there was a refresh of the headlines and what’s coming up then we crossed to the next show for news at 1.

The next story kicked in which was about food dates. The reporter was at a supermarket getting people opinions which was really enjoyable to listen to as that is the perfect location for a vox about food go off dates. Afterwards we had a statement from ‘warp’ a food compant and interviews from industry people, it was really well put together and well presented.

The next package I didn’t really understand, it was about pitching houses on a park and the presenter was at a rally so we captured atmosphere. Then there was an interview with an old man who has been on this park for years and is disgraced at the situation. But like I said I didn’t really understand it so I drifted off from contently listening.

Then the next story was interesting, it was about odd shoes. Asos have started selling sandals in 2 packs so that you can mix and match them. The presenter had a interview with the director of British Vogue and she was telling the audience that it has come from the catwalk. They had a lot of fun in this interview, joking about what would people say if Theresa May done it and then the presenter read out stories of people who have done it by accident which was funny to listen to.

The last story was very interesting; the presenter introduced it in a entertaining way. We heard a clip from Eastenders so I thought it was going to be a TV segment but it was about iPlayer and passwords. We will have to change all our details and include postcode etc which is a lot of hassle for some people. It is to create a more personalized BBC and the presenter had an interview with the director of my BBC. She challenges him which is good as the clips they played from peoples opinions were against it so she argues back at him. It was really interesting to listen to and shows what a good presenter she is.

That was the end of the show and we got told what was going to be on the show tomorrow aswell as the presenter reading emails out of stories from the stories today. I would of liked to hear them throughout the show instead of a few at the end but overall I really enjoyed this show and would defiantly listen to it again.

Week 11 04/04/17:
I met with Dan and Iona to continue with branding, Iona is getting a voice over artist for our top of the hour sweepers and I am writing a 20-30 second tails for ‘Women’s Download’ a women sports podcast. We are getting Lucy Lavery to voice the script and will add effects on the sports segment.

Here’s the script:

Listen to The Women’s Download, filled with all the best coverage and analysis of women’s sport this week.

–              Football

–              Basketball

–              Rugby

–              Netball

–              Tennis

… And loads more. Find the latest episode every Saturday in your phone’s podcast app or on the Radio Active website.

This was the first dry cut that I made in 10 minutes. I will add more effects into the real one which I will edit on Monday.

06/04/17:
Today was the day of the official pilot. I made a vox pops for a package about school children missing school and their parents getting fined aswell as making the trail. I think that I should of wrote the scripts or been able to do something else instead of the vox pops as I would of liked to practice the scripts more which I keep telling Dan but no one seems to listen to him. One of my comments David made was that I need to make the scripts my own but it is hard when I don’t receive the scripts with enough time so I can’t practice. We also had an issue with scrolling on the show as I could not see what I was supposed to say because the others were distracted so couldn’t see that we needed the script scrolling. Monday we are having a pilot which is well needed as we need as much practice as we can get because I don’t want to mess up on the day and let the team down.

This is the vox pops I made for the show, in the real thing it would be alot shorter and more entertaining but this is not being used for the real thing.

Week 12: 10/04/17
We met up and done another pilot today. The scripts were submitted an hour before which made it so much easier for me and Michael! During the process I edited the trail that I created on Thursday to make it better however I need to get Lucy to re record some bits to make to perfect. Then once the scripts were ready me and Michael went into the studio and edited them. Once the show was finished we had a tiny de brief and then Fay and Dan produced the scripts for Thursday so that me and Michael can come in on Thursday, do some copy scripts and change them to how we speak and that I can practice with him before hand.

This was the trail that I created today.

11/04/17:
In preparation for Thursday I listened to …
BBC 5 Live Daily – 17^th March 2017 13:00 – 15:00
After doing more and more pilots I can see how the talk radio shows are very similar to ours. It started off with a sting and Emma (the presenter) had a really nice warm voice which drew me in. She was asking the audience for our stories about an awkward situation we have been in. It was worded really well and it was repeated quite a lot throughout the show. What was really entertaining was it was linked to one of the main stories of the day of Donald Trump and Angela Murkle meeting. I really liked this element as it was well executed.
Emma went over the headlines of the show and newsreader Stuart Clarkson came in. The sting was played after the news to brand the show and remind the listeners what they are listening to, it is also nice to break the two parts up so it doesn’t sound all in one. For me all of the stories were a tad too long, a few took along time to get into for example the story on extremism was a lot of Emma reading out statements when it would have been nice to hear different voices or interviews. This show was good to listen to for the elements of the show however for me it was to long to listen to the stories which made me switch off a tad but Emma was a really good presenter in my opinion.

13/04/17:
The day of the show ! I was very nervous but also relaxed as I knew that I just needed to alter the scripts to how I say things. I re recorded Lucy and here is the final trail:

After I perfected that, me and Michael script edited and practiced a lot of times changing everything and making sure that we were confident.

3PM:
The time of our show. I feel like overall the show could of done better but I felt like my performance was as much as I could do, if we had to cut out the phone in and my mic wasn’t up that wasn’t my fault. The only thing I could of done better was wrap Christine (the former contraception nurse) up but she had a lot of good things to say. I really enjoyed it and felt that we did do a good job however in practice runs we have done better.