On air week 4 – 25/03/19 

This week’s show was based around desserts and marked the end of our pop up station module! 

The guests booked and featured on this weeks show were:

 

• Terri Mercieca – Dessert Chef
• Dan Beasley-Harling – Great British Bake Off Contestant 2018
• Dina Dacy – Founder of Free Cakes For Kids of Camden

• Ella Rauen-Prestes – CEO of FitBakes

• Laure Moyle – Pudding Fairy

• John Holland  – Baker from Baker on Board

• Peter Joseph – Dessert Chef

 

We suffered with a lot of tech issues before the show, this was due to broadcasting the whole show through RP 2. (This decision was made due to a delay in the output audio from studio 6, down to our pop up kitchen).

 

The first issue we had was with the lapel microphones. They sounded to high and distorted across the desk, and over the live stream. Tim kindly enough helped us in fixing this issue, and we adjusted the gain from the studio. Kaylee was much louder then Joe, so I made sure to monitor her levels throughout the show.

 

We then had a issue of talkback to Kaylee and Joe throughout the show, as we didn’t want them to wear headphones. Tim suggested they wear in ear pieces, and this was quickly sorted. After that I set up the desk and quickly realised that Burli wasn’t working, this was vital as we needed to have access to our pre- recorded news. Tim said it was a issue with the computer and not Burli itself and he had to spend more time in the studio restarting the computer.

 

Time we had overcome all these tech issues, we had little time to rehearse. We practised a few opening links and cues into the pre-recorded package. Then it was show time!

 

The show flowed really well, and we had a nice mix of guests. The in studio cooking worked fanatically as, it gave a nice texture for the listener. The option of visualising the whole show worked for the new digital age, and hopefully made Bite a memorable pop-up station for years to come.  

 

We had one major issue throughout the show, which meant when the telephone guest was put through the desk, they could hear all of the conversations happening in the control room. We allerted Tim, but due to the short time frame there was nothing he was able to do. We made sure we told the guest we were having some tech issues, and stayed as quiet as possible. This meant we were unable to use talkback with Kaylee and Joe, so we set up a chat screen so they had instructions of when to wrap up.

Overall I have found the pop-up station module mentally challenging, but I’m glad I persevered as, it was a module that I am so incredibly proud of and will cherish memories forever. I feel that I can take the skills that i’ve learnt into future employment.

On air Week 3 – 18/03/19

The guests for this week’s seafood theme are as follows:

• Barry Vera – Celebrity Chef
• Helen Money – Nutritionist
• Johnnie Jackson – CEO of Pescetarian Society
• Dan van der Vat – Co-Author of Eel Pie Island
• Miriam Greenwood – Researcher in the British seafood supply chain
• Emily Penn – Nekton Trustee and Sky Ocean Rescue Ambassador
• Toby Lobb – Fishermans Friends 

 

Myself and Rhys began by completing the Myriad log, and worked with Gabriel to put all the new ‘themed’ imaging into the system. (Gabriel had created seaside themed idents and beds) We then had a quick rehearsal of a couple of links, with Kaylee and Joe. We went to air at 12pm, and did the first and last new bulletin live this week (I believe the studio equipment wasn’t working correctly, so the news made the executive decision to have Minnie read it live).

I feel the groups mark of 69% represents the growth and development throughout the past three weeks. The shows continue to get stronger and stronger! This weeks show had a nice balance of guests, pre-recorded interviews and extra added texture (sea food package and movie trailer).

I was proud of my work this week as, our guest editor commented saying ” I don’t think I heard one silent gap”. I made sure it sounded sleek and avoided any gaps. I had one minor error at the beginning of the show, as the bed played out and I brought down the wrong fader, meaning the music bed was to loud and distorted Kaylee and Joe’s speech levels.

Next week is Dessert week and we hope to go out with a bang! We are planning to have live cooking going on throughout the show and will turn RP2 into our pop up kitchen. I think it makes sense to keep the main show hub in studio 6, and just move presenters during tracks and adverts, in case of any tech errors.

 

On air Week 2 – 11/03/19

This week’s show is world food themed, celebrating a collaboration of food across the globe!

Throughout the two hour speech slot, we have booked the following guests:

 

• Peggy Brunache – Food Historian
• Jackson Bashford –  from CoolChille (Rhys confirmed him to come into the studio)
• Kenny McGovern – Author of The American Diner Secret: How to Cook America’s Favourite Food at Home
• Dan Toombs – The Curry Guy
• Rachel Redlaw – Writer and Cook

Before going live at 12pm, myself and Rhys sat down and completed the Myriad log. We had to add and change a few adverts, update world food themed beds / imaging. I had to add in the package Mary made about ‘pop up world kitchens’. Rhys received two calls from contributors just before we went live, saying they wouldn’t be available at their allotted times. So we arranged to pre-record interviews with Rachel and Dan, and edited them with written cues for Kaylee and Joe before show time.

 

I really enjoyed this show, I feel that the whole production team felt relaxed and calm, even though we had a few issues pop up during the broadcast. One of the first issues was with one of the adverts. The time remaining on Myriad hadn’t been correctly edited, consequently there was a few seconds of dead air. We put the mics lived and played some imaging, we immediately made the ad’s team aware of the issue, and replaced the advert. Jackson arrived late, but this wasn’t a major issue as we asked Bethany to come in early for the food news. We played a track and got him settled in the studio, ready for the live Mexican taste testing.

 

I made a small stupid mistake with some music. Joe cued for the 60 second clock sound and I pressed the wrong button, therefore Myriad starting playing music. We quickly faded the music out and replayed the countdown sound. I was annoyed as it was silly and could have been avoided, but I dealt with the issue and It won’t happen next week.

The tieline worked this week, and we had no connection issues. The OB sounded amazing and the team did a great job at keeping the slot feeling authentic.

Next week will be Seafood week!

On air Week 1 –  04/03/19

This week was our first live broadcast on Bite Radio!

Myself and Rhys started with Kaylee and Joe in the studio, working out some logistics. We were certain that Kaylee and Joe felt confident, although due to feedback from last week, we wanted to practise a few openers with music and sound effects.

Rhys arrived early to make sure the Myriad log was complete, and I sat and made sure all the stops were placed in the system correctly. This was to ensure ease throughout the live show, and relieved pressure from my role as, I had to deal with mic’s, levels, phone guests, tieline ect…

In my opinion I feel that the first live show went really well! We had taken on feedback from Matthew and made sure that the first and second hour was full of interesting speech content. The third hour flowed and I feel that we were able to keep the continuity from the second hour. We had a few tech issues, the first was that the OB team struggled to context the tieline to the studio in their first slot. We solved this issue quickly, as we had Harriet describing her experience of the restaurant over the phone. It turns out the internet had a low connection, so we made sure they were in a area with wifi for the second hit. There was a issues with the pre-recorded news, as it hadn’t been edited correctly. But i’m hopeful that the whole group will make the corrections before next week.

Next week’s show is world food themed , so the next week will be spend finding appropriate speech guests.

Production week 3 – 25/02/19

At 12pm today, our second Bite pilot went live, and if i’m honest I think everyones hard work paid off. In comparison to last weeks show , I feel that we had made progression. Although there were a few logistic issues, I’m confident they will be resolved by next Monday.

Myself and Rhys sat in the studio with Kaylee and Joe, to to run through a couple of links, just so that everyone felt comfortable with 2 hour speech show. We didn’t get a chance to rehearse the third hour, although we wanted to keep links pretty similar to keep the continuity throughout the three hours. Matthew was the set-up producer for the third hour, and myself and Rhys continued to produce the third hour this week. We wanted to see how it would sound, and In my opinion it flowed. I think Matthew has to change a few elements of the third hour, as we all decided that it needed a food guests to help the continuity from the second hour. The third hour was a lot more energetic and more music heavy. Although I believe the music team still need to sort out the music schedule, as their was some confusion about the rotation of A, B and C music. We had a lack of music themed songs as well. But this should be fixed by next week.

As this week was Vegan themed, it makes next weeks live show easy for myself and Rhys, as we planned on asking some guests to appear again. We agreed to change a few, as we felt we could find better alternatives. Here is a list of the guests that we hope to have on the first live show:

• Ben Coomber – Nutritionist
• Dominka Piasecka – Spokesperson for The Vegan Society
  
•  Benarsh Laly – vegan chef and owner of Leafychef
• Stephanie Brookes – Food Critic
• Michaela Pontiki Founder and CEO of www.arapina.co.uk
• Jane Lambert-  Marketing Manager for Vegan Life Live  

This week we resolved the OB talkback issue by making sure we broadcasted from studio 6, we had no issues what so ever and the OB sounded much clearer.

 

Production week 2 – 18/02/19 

 

This week was our first pilot, which meant the group had a chance to try and experiment with features, music, imaging, ad’s, the live OB and socials. In pre-production before the live hour speech pilot at 2pm, myself and Rhys sat down in the studio with Kaylee and Joe to have a couple of run throughs on links.

 

Although we ran into a few issues, this is due to a miss of communication from the whole group, and highlights the reason of why we have pilots. The music team had put songs into Myriad, although we needs the songs to have been labeled into A, B and C categories. This is so we could see where we needed to play certain musics, due to the music scheduling policy. The songs had not also been correctly edited in Myriad, which meant it was impossible to tell how long each song introduction lasted. This meant that we were unable to give our presenters direction of how long to speak before the track kicked in. There was some confusion on who was to build the schedule in Myriad, as this hadn’t been done. Consequently this mean that myself and Rhys had to spend more time, building a schedule before we could even do rehearsals.

 

We also had a tech issue with the tieline, which meant the OB team couldn’t hear us on the talk back. This was due to the studio as, we had limited time to sort this issue out, Rhys had the idea of putting the tieline fader up in studio 6, which meant we could be able to communicate with them. It was annoying, but we now know to use studio 6 from next week / for the live shows in order to overcome this issue.

 

The pilot went well in my opinion, I have since listened back and felt like the first hour sounded like a upbeat cookery programme. We had a few things to change and re-gig. The first of them being how we make the second and third hour flow. There was an issue with the music hour sounding like a completely different show. This may have been because of several reasons. The first of which meant that Joe self op’d the show and Matthew produced. I think we need to decide as a group, going forward if Joe self op’s the show , or if i stay on to tech op. The levels and overall sound of the show was different, so this is something we need to decide within the next week .

 

My role has slightly changed too, as previously mentioned above. In the rehearsals I was the tech op, as Stuart was busy calling potential advertisers. Myself and Rhys worked together throughout the whole day, and came to the conclusion that it would probably be best if Rhys studio produced and I tech op’d. Although this does mean I am unable to help Rhys with live guests and other bits and pieces throughout the live show, so we have asked Jasmine to be the Assistant producer. This means more support for Rhys when the show is one air, for example, Jasmine will deal with getting phone guests ready before and ad’s or songs ect…

 

It was also agreed that Kaylee and Joe write their own scripts, this means they are able to word interviews how they see best. Myself and Rhys can now focus on booking guests and give them direction on wa questions need to be asked.

 

Throughout the next week myself and Rhys will aim to book the following guests:

 

Dominka Piasecka -Spokesperson for The Vegan Society

Ben Coomber – Nutritionist  

Maxine from Vegan Apron

Stephanie Brookes – Food Critic

Clarisse Flon, Vegan French Pâtisserie

 

Once these guests have been booked, we can work on researching and developing some bullet points / questions in order for Kaylee and Joe to write their scripts.

 

Aims for the following before to be completed before the second pilot:

• Music team to add the intro times to songs in Myriad as well as, putting the tracks into the completed running order. Myriad schedule needs to be built each week.
• Discuss how the second and third hour can flow together as one
• Work on how myself and Rhys can incorporate more social media into the show… we need to work on a listener call to action
• Book ALL guests ready for next Monday
• Continue to book / put in bids for weeks 1,2,3 and 4.
• Make sure Kaylee and Joe have research about guests, and they have written scripts

 

Production week 1 – 11/02/19 

 

Since starting the ‘pop-up’ station module in January, as a class we have all decided to choose cookery as the theme of the station. We all worked together to agree on the name ‘Bite’ and use the slogan ‘a feast for your ears’, as the tag line. I’m honestly very happy with the station genre, even though I was in the group that presented the noughties theme, I feel like London offers a diverse range in food and drink facilities. Which offers us a wide range in features, guests, cook alongs, OB’s, branding and online content.

 

This week myself and Rhys worked on really planning guests and features for weeks 1-4 (which will be vegan, international, seafood and dessert themed), as well as planning for the first one hour pilot (next Monday 18th). We agreed that the practice show will be ‘world food’ themed, as this gave each team a wide range of contributors to approach.

 

We began to think about how we could incorporate a range of speech content for features and guests, each week, but shaped around the particular theme. Here is a brief outline of how each week will be run:

 

Brief template of speech running order each week (2 – hour slot)

 

• Intro to themed week (live guests or pre-rec package)
• My experience with … (themed week, a one – to one interview with somebody who has a special connection with that particular theme)
• Food news of the week (two way with a member of the news team)
• OB (outside broadcast team will arrange this)
• One to one interview with a restaurant / or someone connected with a food business  
• How to cook on a budget ect… (hope to have a chef in studio giving advice on how to cook high quality food with a tight budget / hopefully a tasting session for presenters! This would be good for visuals and would work well in connection with the online and socials team)
• Food event of the week (speak to a food based event)

 

(The two hour speech show will contain a range of music… which will then be followed by a one hour music show)

 

Myself and Rhys spent the majority of production week 1 researching and sending out bids to possible contributors. This meant sending out lots of emails and waiting for responses, this would then allow us to add them to the running order.

 

On Monday we had about 3 / 4 responses, these included the Sushi Queen for week 3, as we wanted her to come into our Harrow studios and educate/ challenge Kaylee and Joe (our presenters) with making sushi. Hopefully we hear from other contributors soon, as we will have to start sending out more bids. The major challenge with this task is asking chef’s to come in for free and to bring food / recipes. It can be a lot to ask for, but hopefully it all pulls together.   

 

My aims for production week 2 (next Monday) are:

 

• Get through the first pilot
• See what works and doesn’t work
• Confirm more guests for weeks 1- 4
• Plan for the second pilot (Vegan week)
• Find out where the OB team will be visiting