Production Week One: 03rd to 10th Nov. 2016
Something I’ve always considered myself to be is a creative. Although hard work, this to me is extremely enjoyable, not to mention rewarding – The moment when you hear or see the final product. This is why I jumped straight at the chance to work on the advertising and branding team alongside Samantha Friend.
The first meeting (Thurs 03 Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to establish the genre, the roles and the name of the show.
The majority were quite decisive in opting for the Gospel genre – Although I must admit, I was quite assertive in everyone making that choice. I guess it was because it was made clear it had never been done before and also because I listen to quite a bit of Gospel music in general. After choosing the genre, we felt it necessary to get to grips with the brief in order to make sure we went forward in targeting the right audience.
An ‘uplifting’ music station featuring a variety of forms of ‘Gospel’ including Black Gospel, Southern Gospel and Worship Music.
It may also incorporate Contemporary Christian music.
Targeting a (local/national) audience aged 15+
We all spoke about the briefs target age in particular, which we all felt was quite broad. However, we didn’t speak too much about it and left it as it was, moving on to the name of the show.
The name of the show was my responsibility, of which I decided upon two names: Blessed and Fresh Feeling. To help us come to a decision our editor, James Larvin decided to use a Gospel Show Poll in which the outcome was Blessed.
Everyone more or less fell into their roles:
- Advertising and Branding – Samantha and myself
- Presenters – Curtis and Molly
- News – Beth and Tony
- Studio Production – Lucy
- Outside Broadcast – Faye
- Outside Broadcast Producer – Matt
- Assistant Producer & Social Media – Tommy
Both Andrea and James needed convincing slightly, but also fell into their roles quite comfortably.
- Head of Music – Andrea and Adam
- Editor – James
During the course of that week, James created schedules using the online scheduling system TRELLO, as well as a WhatsApp group, which Adam happily named the “A-Team” in order to keep us in contact easily and up-to-date with everything that was being discussed.
Using TRELLO, James set each team tasks to have completed by our next meeting. Advertising and Branding were asked to ensure we had an idea of what adverts were being played on Premier Gospel; The station we all decided to model our show after, and come along with a list of ads that we had heard. Premier Gospel covers a variation of Gospel genres, from traditional southern Gospel to Reggae Gospel. The station also has a variation of adverts that I wouldn’t have typically expected to be used, such as a McDonald’s ad during their breakfast show.
The second meeting – (Mon 07 Nov 16), gave us an opportunity to return back to the brief and also to develop ideas.
Faye (from the beginning) ensured the Meeting Minutes were taken and posted to TRELLO. The Gospel format stated the age 15+, which we all felt was too broad and this time around decided to be more precise in who we were aiming the show toward. Therefore changed it to the following:
- DAB, London and Online
- 18-35 year old male and females
- Young families
- Contemporary Churches
- C2 (Skilled Working Class)
- D (Working Class)
- E (Non-Working)
- Ethnicity – Black
- Station Tagline – “Music For Life.”
Advertising and Branding were advised to start to thinking of various concepts for competitions.
Production Week Two: 10th to 17th Nov. 2016
The third meeting (Thurs 10th Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to have our music playlist meeting.
This was a lot of fun for me, I really enjoyed this part of the process. Both Andrea and Adam, had selected a number of songs, with a little help from myself and Curtis, categorised them and put them into a music playlist. During this process we listened to 30 seconds of each song and decided to either place in one of the following categories or simply dump them:
A – Contemporary Popular
B – Contemporary Popular, established coming down or potentially becoming A
C – Contemporary music from 2010 onwards that haven’t been as Popular as categories A and B
Gold – Classics
James asked for the music team to ensure that the playlist was forever evolving, so to always keep the playlist current and removing tracks and replacing them whenever necessary. We also defined the music policy along with each category, which can be found under music policy within our shared folder on Google Drive. During this meeting James made it a adamant that we arrange one day every week to meet to ensure everything and everyone was up to speed. We all opted for Monday’s at 12:30pm.
The fourth meeting (Mon 14th Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to begin producing.
During this day, we decided that Advertising and Branding was too big a task to be produced only by myself and Sam. Therefore, we all decided that Faye, Curtis and Molly would work predominantly work on the ads and that I would be in charge of branding.
Production Week Three: 17th to 24th Nov. 2016
The fifth meeting (Thurs 17th Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to continue producing.
It was during this point that I come across some free SFX and websites. Beds and Beats, I wasn’t able to use, I had spoken to the assistant to the director, who advised that as an MCPS-licensed library, I wasn’t allowed download access. She advised she could only allow access to radio stations and companies who hold an MCPS licence. Therefore, I decided not to use them.
During the course of this day, I also managed to put together some ‘moc’ recordings: a show opener plus its script and a station ident. I had also found sounds for the weather and news which were all posted on TRELLO.
The sixth meeting (Mon 21st Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to continue producing.
During this time, I had put together a script for our male and female voices of the station to voice. Mark a friend of Curtis’s from his previous days at the BBC and Amanda Starr, the breakfast show presenter on the station that Curtis works at: The Beat 103.6.
Production Week Four: 24th Nov. to 01st Dec. 2016
The seventh meeting (Thurs 24th Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to continue producing and practice.
Here I was given a little more guidance from Matthew (Tutor) on what exactly was required. I felt I had a little bit more clarity of what to produce. During this listening of adverts and sounds of branding:
Branding Producer Duties
Produce an imaging ‘package’ that reflects (and reinforces) the format and ‘brand’ including station name and positioning line.
Liaise with Head of Music to ensure imaging (use of samples/music hooks) reflect music policy
Liaise with Editor & Studio Producer (and News/Advertising/OB Teams) to ensure every feature, item or sponsorship has appropriate sonics (beds, intros etc)
Ensure consistent ‘station sound’ with appropriate station voices (agreed with Editor)
Produce and direct station voice-over sessions (Male and Female)
Compile a paper log of all production elements for reporting purposes
During the course of this week, we all attempted a pilot of the pilot, to ensure everyone began getting comfortable with what they were assigned.
For the adverts, I was able to secure 2 female voices for adverts.
The eighth meeting (Mon 28th Nov 16) gave us an opportunity to continue producing and practice.
Production Week Five: 01st to 08th Dec. 2016
The ninth meeting (Thurs 01st Dec 16) PILOT.
James decided that 2pm would be best to do a complete run-through of the show. Seen as I was still in the process of still producing, I used this time to continue editing.
The tenth meeting (Mon 05th Dec 16) gave us an opportunity to continue producing and practice.
During the course of this week I wanted to finalise everything. After receiving feedback on what sounds best with the station branding, I wanted to clean everything up. That meant re-wording and re-recording the competition trail and tightening up all other radio idents and beds. I ensured that everything had been uploaded to Myriad by this point so everything was set to go for Thursday.
The eleventh meeting (Thurs 08th Dec 16) LIVE SHOW.
The live show began very smoothly, in my opinion. I was assigned, like the pilot the responsibility of social media assistant. I was in charge of ensuring that Facebook Live was up and running on time and that photos were sent to the assistant producer Tommy, who was also in charge of the running of social media accounts. A little while prior to our live outside broadcast (which I was also responsible for recording a 30 second q&a), the guest which was booked ended up cancelling. I then suggested that Matt, the outside broadcast producer and myself run down to the music department and check if anyone would be willing to take their place. We luckily came across Dimmy Rizou, who was happy to participate, allowing our outside broadcast to run smoothly.
The show in my opinion went well with a few minor glitches, one being myriad and obviously our main act cancelling. I will leave it to my critical report to analyse and critique what I feel could have been done better and areas I excelled and where I fell behind.