Week 1 – 22/01/18

This week we began with team building/observing. This was to see how well we could work together and also see who naturally takes what role and how people get involved. (Maybe this would help when it came to giving roles out for the Pop Up station. I found this task helpful as it made me aware of my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to pitching ideas and working as a team.

After this, as a group we threw about ideas of what the station could be based on, we researched anniversaries and events in which we could base the station on and that would create an exciting, topical listen each week. A few of the ideas we came up with were:

• Gaming
• 40 years since Disco
• Food
• JoinMe campaign
• 100 years since women rights

From this we decided to go away and do some more research on the topic we wanted to do most to pitch for it next week.

 

Week 2 – 29/01/18

This week we pitched for what we wanted the station to be based around. We got into groups and researched and created ideas for each show and how the station would unfold – covering online content, interaction and audio. Once pitched we voted for which idea we thought would work best and be topical around the time of broadcast – there was a lot of discussion before the final decision and we worked well as a large team.

The pitch that won the vote was Gaming, therefore our station will be a gaming station. We decided on this due to the events happening around the time, the fact that there would already be a real audience interested – as there are a lot of gamers that are looking for someone to create something like this, so we will be reaching our niche, also we would be able to do competitions with non-expensive give aways, and hopefully there would be online gamers that would want to get involved due to there being nothing like this around already.

Once this was decided we moved on to deciding roles. Each person said the roles they wanted and we voted on who would get it after they had pitched why they were interested in this role and what they would bring to the station. We worked really well as a team for this and each person came away happy.

The roles are:

STATION MANAGER

Eliza

BRANDING HEAD

Matt

NEWS SENIOR

Clare

NEWS PRESENTER

Bernice

PROGRAMME CONTROLLER

Lucy

SALES AND ACCOUNT MANAGER

Sam

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Ellie

EXEC PRODUCER

Adam

DIGITAL EXEC

James, Dan

DIGITAL WEB & ADS

Afia

MUSIC SHOW

Producer – Mark

Assistant Producer – Ellen

Presenter – Callum

TALK SHOW

Producer – Phoebe 

Presenter – Tony & Fay

RETRO SHOW (magazine)

Producer – Abbi

Presenter – Nat

OB 

Producer – Simon

Presenter – Beth

 

Week 3 – 5/02/18

This week we continued on the station name ideas – Eliza ran the discussion:

• AFK – OB (away from keyboard)
• Pixel
• Player 1
• Level Up – LVLUP radio
• Platform
• Glitch
• Grand Theft Audio – potential feature name
• Click
• Reboot
• Unlocked
• Zone
• Controller
• Respawn – OB
• DLC – online content (downloadable content)
• Cheat code time – potential feature name
• BetaZone

 

We then narrowed it down and went through favourites of station names:

• Unlocked
• LVLUP
• Beta
• Reload

DECIDED ON UNLOCKED (throughout the discussion Dan checked for domains online, this helped make the decision). We then thought of a way to make it look better/quirky like: UNLOK’D but decided against this. Managed to find some feature names along the way.

Next we went off into groups to work on ideas for each area of the station – talk show, ads, branding, clock for the shows, music teams.

I brainstormed what we could cover with adverts/things that would fit the gaming station. I wrote down why it would fit the station and the link to the website. I then pitched to the class. Once this was done wed decided we needed to sort out a small team to help out with the scoping together and editing of the ads (we haven’t decided who just yet, maybe presenters could help here). I have also asked the boys in the group to get back to me with what adverts pop up on their Instagram and Facebook feeds – this would give me an idea of independent companies aimed at males that i can approach.

I then decided it would make sense if the commissions were collated by one person – that would be me – so that i was able to manage and oversee who gave us the go ahead and then that myself and matt would collate scripts and ideas for the adverts to then pass onto the advert editors to create. Through this process i will be overseeing all the adverts made so that they all have a similar sound and fit the station. As we thought if everyone was given a separate ad then maybe they wouldn’t fit the station in a familiar way.

The programme teams within the stations also decided the names for their shows:

State of Play – talk show

Press Play – music show

Play Again – retro show

AFK (away from keyboard) – OB

After this session i began writing email templates that i could send on to companies to ask if they would mind us creating adverts for them. I also began working on the advert policy and i am going to create a survey to get a better idea and understanding of the brands, activities and companies that gamers invest in. I feel that we really need to focus on getting commission from more independent companies as its more likely we will get a response and will begin working on the adverts.

UPDATE – 

6/02/18 – First response to emails ‘Advertising on UNLOCKED Radio’ – INSERTCOINCLOTHING said yes to creating an ad for them

7/02/18 –

• THEGYMGROUP – passing the message on
• CORNERSTONE – gave me another email to follow on to to get a yes or no
• SHAVEKIT – passed on email to management

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MFFXR26 – Matt created an online survey to help with my market research for advertisements to suit the station. 

Week 4 – 12/02/18

Today i continued searching for more commission, i began to fill out creative briefs and assign adverts to members of the station. We decided everyone should help to create one advert each. I uploaded a document onto the google drive with background information about each company that has agreed and also any requirements from the company. I also added where everyone can search for VO artists.

I have asked for each advert to have been scripted and recorded by Friday 23rd February, this gives 3 days before the pilot for any problems or last minute edits. I also have told everyone i will oversee recordings (if VO artists need to come into the studios) and editing – i am there to help.

In the afternoon myself and Matt – as he is on my branding and ads team – wandered around Harrow to try and gain more independent commissions. We approached:

• Harrow Audio
• Calamity Comics
• CEX
• Game Gallery
• MenKind 
• Illusion

(The ones in italic are the companies who agreed)

 

Week 5 – 16/02/18

I have continued to gain commissions this week for adverts – I am starting to struggle as companies are declining and I need to make sure anyone I approach is going to fit the gaming station format. I have sent more emails out and been to more local shops to gain a few. However I am pushing some fast food companies to allow us to make an advert for them.

I decided to change the way i was emailing companies, i decided to introduce the station and who i am more and then include a an attachment for the company to read at their pleasure. I feel this would encourage the company to take more notice of the email as it wouldn’t be a page full of information which maybe others are ignoring.

 

Week 6 – 19/02/18

One week left until the Pilot show!! This week we all spoke to Eliza and Tom in our significant group to update where we were at. I am rather worried about adverts, simply because of getting the commissions, many companies will agree on the phone but take a lot of time to send a confirmation email.

However saying this, we began the day with 11 commissioned adverts and finished the day with 15! So i am very happy with this progress. Again everyone has been assigned an advert to produce and edit by Friday when i will overlook them and send them on to the companies in question. Adam has helped out a lot today by sourcing voice over artists for adverts and taking on writing more scripts – which i am very grateful for! I have continued to try and gain more commissions throughout the day.

 

Week 7 – 26/02/18

Pilot Day!! This week simply was a run through to see what needed improving and in some cases highlight who needed to start doing work as its one week until we go live! Throughout the week i have constantly been contacting companies to gain more commissions however i either get told to send them and email and they will send us a reply or some companies just don’t agree with us making an advert for them.

I set a deadline for all adverts to be sent to the Google Drive by Friday so i could review them and ask people to make any changes needed. I received 6 adverts by Friday, i had given out 16 adverts – therefore i was not happy and chased people up but still only got 10 by Sunday and by Monday morning ads were still being uploaded and some not even created. Lucy has told me to be firm and not friendly as this is a job that needs doing and having people let me down is not on.

Matthew listened to the pilot the whole way through and gave feedback on each area of the station. With adverts i was asked to provide more diversity through voices/accents and genders – i did highlight that as i noticed people were struggling to get Voice Overs artists in time for Monday that a lot of us used temporary voices for the time being. Matthew also suggested to switch the ads up a bit as they sounded very ‘samey’ this is clearly where members of the team have been lazy and not very creative. However it only backfires now as they are having to change them.

After this session i listened again through to all the adverts i had on Google Drive and gave some changes out that i wanted made to specific adverts. I asked for these to be back to me by Wednesday 28th Feb as this isn’t a difficult job, the changes aren’t huge and i need to send them off to the companies before broadcast (to make sure everyone is happy with the way we have represented their companies). They’re simply to make the ads fit the station better and make them sound more national rather than just southern and local. I put a document on the drive noting the ads in question the people who they belonged to and what needed changing.

Week 7  – 28/02/18

As of yet no updated ads have been received, i put a reminder up in the group chat, received a few excuses but stressed again that it takes minutes to edit it them and i had given them feedback asap after the pilot so there is not really an excuse at all. I am hoping by the end of today i have missing adverts uploaded and new versions of adverts uploaded. We are all in the same boat so there is no excuse.

Myself, Andrea and Adam are still contacting companies for commissions (mainly food companies now as i have not received any ‘yeses’ from these previously. Andrea and Adam have offered to help with commissions and at the moment they are finding themselves with not to much of a work load therefore i took their offer up as three people is better than one!

Week 8 – 5/03/18

Live Show 1 !! Since my last post i have been trying to chase members of the group up for their completed adverts, i am aware i am being very lenient, which is causing me not to get work received by the date and time i need to. However i have put this to the side in hope that the adverts i was waiting for would have been done by the weekend but they were not. Luckily however this was not a problem as i had enough to go out live today.

We all arrived at 8am and i began to create a advert running order in which would run through each advert break through each show. I made sure each break came to as close at it could to 2 minutes if it wasn’t on the dot (as some ads varied in length from 25 seconds to 33 seconds – this was not a problem). I listened through to make sure that two adverts next to each other did not sound too ‘samey’ as feedback from last week was that some adverts had no distinction between them as the production was very similar.

We aired 15 adverts this week on rotation (i am not 100% happy with this amount, however i have learnt it is very difficult to get companies and brands to understand this will have no negative affect on their business, so gaining commissions has been difficult throughout), we decided to play the Insomnia 62 advert a few times extra due to it being a big event and the fact that we had free tickets to give away. I have three new advert already to add into next week and through the shows i continued research into gaining more commissions and wrote some more scripts for potential new adverts.

After the show the feedback was really good. Tiny silly changes to be made on some adverts that were missed but overall i am now cracking on with creating more ads and contacting Voice artists for the following shows.

Week 9 – 12/03/18

Live show 2!!! This week i was much happier with the ads that we logged for broadcast. I took on board Tom and Matthew feedback about slight changes that would better the adverts and i worked on producing more for this week. I also took on the feedback about keeping the adverts creative, unlike in the pilot – as a lot of them sounded quite generic.

I introduced three new adverts this week: Patty and Bun, Zore and Cornerstone – a nice range of brands/companies. I created the running order this morning, making sure all ads smoothly transitioned into one another and made sure none of them sounded too similar.

While the shows have been running I listened along to the ad breaks to make sure it sounded good on air in the order i put them, i also worked more on the paperwork side of things. I already have more ad ideas lined up for next weeks show. Last week i decided i would make the rest of the adverts myself for the next three weeks as it has been more of a chore chasing people up to submit the adverts in the weeks before.

I have nexts weeks adverts all prepared and am writing the running order for Wednesday. I am enjoying creating these adverts much more after hearing them play out and receiving positive feedback and advice on how to make the new ones even better.

Week 10 – 19/03/18

Live show 3!! This week i continued with admin and was also on hand to help Bernice and Clare in case they wanted me to collate any clips from the talk show for the news – however this wasn’t needed from me in the end.

Again this week i introduced three new adverts onto the station: Crosstown Doughnuts, Special Effects and Pizza Pilgirms.

Therefore i continued to script, commission and create adverts for next week. In the feedback the new adverts weren’t recognised – probably because thats the time to talk about how the shows are doing – but all this information of new adverts are on the drive so thats fine. This week i am just focussing on making any final ads and making sure all my admin is completed.

Week 11 – 26/03/18

Live show 4!! This week i simply finished of the adverts and admin and on Monday i helped the OB team with the VR broadcast. This was brilliant, a very relaxed final day of Pop Up for me… myself and Simon had never participated in VR before and it was a strange fun weird experience, i simply helped them set up the equipment and play the game… Theres not too much to say about today as i had the best experience with a brilliant OB team and feedback was brief due to it being the last show.

I only managed to introduced one new advert into this weeks show: Sackinima. This is a YouTube channel as following feedback from previous weeks i thought it was a good idea to create another YouTube channel ad. Meaning we now have three YouTube channel adverts running through the station.

As every week i made another running order for this final week. Each week i switch up the running order to create a bit of variety as we don’t want listeners being able to recite what adverts are coming next and getting bored. Also, it means i am able to make sure each ad slot comes as close as possible to the time given for the advert breaks and to make sure the adverts don’t roll into one another in a way that they are unrecognisable (due to sounding too similar)  However, this week i found that the running order was not followed, i am unsure why this was but as i was not in uni today and was away on the OB i was unaware until it was too late and unable to do anything about it – slightly annoyed about this as its my job to create a good running order which will benefit the station and for it not to be taken notice of is annoying and makes me feel like my part wasn’t played properly.

However the whole experience of doing the pop up station has been stressful at times but very enjoyable if i look back over the whole 11 weeks. I started positively, dipped in the middle when i was trying to find more companies to create adverts for and then i peaked again near the end when i reminded myself how fun it was to create something you’re proud of.