Thursday 20th October
Today we were split into out groups for our music radio programmes. We were also shown about six different options of genres we could choose from.
When we were all aware of the genres our group, group A, decided to have a meeting to decide the genre we as a team would like to take forward. The process of voting for the genre in my opinion was very fair as everyone was free to air their views and concerns in a productive environment.
Rather quickly our group was able to narrow down the genres to two options very quickly although one option had more of a consensus although been the option that would push the team out of their comfort zones most. After everyone was able to have their say and voice their opinions it was decided rather unanimously that we would go with a Gospel music programme.
Next we decided it would be best to decide the roles rather than leaving it a few days as that would mean over the weekend people could to begin or work according to their specific roles. The way in which we went about assigning roles was people suggested the role they thought they would be bet at and then it was discussed as a group if we thought they would be the best for the job.
People also suggested roles for other people in the group and it was suggested that I should be the editor of the programme. After discussing if I was right for the job or if anyone else wanted the position the group and I came to the decision that I would be the editor.
We decided that over the weekend that it would be wise if we all listened to a variety of Gospel stations from around the world. Then we arranged to meet on Monday to discuss what we had heard and the direction we should take our programme in.
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Monday 24th October
Today was the first meeting out of our scheduled lesson time and we used it to briefly discus the gospel stations we had listened to over the weekend. We exchanged stations and shows that we thought stood out and London’s Premier Gospel.
I then set each person in the group a task to complete for the Thursday meeting. For example, the OB team needed to start to look for live acts and begin to contact them. The advertising team had to note down all the adverts that they heard on gospel stations. This means that four valuable production teams were not wasted.
I also introduced the team to a platform called Trello. Trello is collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something. The team thought it would be a good idea to use this service to stay in touch and monitor progress. I therefore took all their details so I could set them up accounts for Thursday.
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Thursday 27th October
Today we received training on Myriad, the playout system we will be using for the show. I have used the Myriad playout system for many years but had never been sat down and taught it so today was a really valuable experience.
Quentin Neild who is experienced in using Myriad covered the basics and then I was put into the advance group as I have experience of using Myriad. I had never used Myriads ‘voice-tracking’ feature before but Simon in our group had a lot of experience of using it. It was great that we could share our knowledge amount us as we all were stronger in different areas of the programme.
There were glitches in the system that I was familiar with from using the system before. Quentin did try some fixes and it would be good if they could be sorted for the show. The main issue is myriad has a tendency to crash for fourteen seconds about four times an hour.
Our group also was informed today that we didn’t have to come up with a completely new radio station as previously thought. This meant as a group we had to think of which gospel station we would like to make a radio programme for to sit in their schedule. I made sure that our team were made aware of this development and that we would have to make a decision next week.
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Thursday 3rd November
This morning we had an hour’s lecture on how to best do an outside broadcast. We were introduced to examples such as the Live Lounge, 6 music sessions and rooftop sets that all harness the power of visualisation. This is something that I made sure the OB producer is considering and thinking about in the planning process.
Then we moved on to the live music studio to learn how to set up an OB. A number of technical problems were identified by the technical team that were temporary sorted. These issues were beyond our control but I will make sure that the OB producer pushes to ensure they are sorted for the live show.
There was then time for the team to split up and work on their own tasks. This gave me time to ensure that everyone was comfortable with Trello and they were using it. I also moved around everybody to help and address any issues or questions they had. It was also important that we made full use of the lectures for advice and guidance so I ensured that everyone had a chat and received constructive feedback.
To finish the day, we all sat down and heard how everyone was getting on. This offered the chance for ideas to be shared and improved. After initial confusion because the brief gave us the target audience of 15+ we were given permission to adjust it to match the target audience of the station our show will be on. It was also decided that our show will be on the station Premier Gospel. A London based DAB and online station aimed at young families aged 18-35 with the social grade C2 D E. Our show name was also confirmed as “Blessed”.
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Thursday 10th November
Today was our playlist meeting, I thought it was very important that all members of the station attended the meeting so we could get a range of views and also all members of the team could understand the sound of the station.
The meeting was run by the music team who has created a list of possible music, they then played about thirty seconds of each track and then it was discussed. Then a decision was made whether the track should be dumped or placed in the A, B, C or gold list.
After the playlist meeting, which took about three hours the team went off to work independently on the tasks set on Trello. If anyone needed any advice, approval or help I was free to help and I went around everyone to make sure that everyone knew what they had to do.
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Thursday 17th November
This was our second full production week. We had our weekly Monday meeting to check progresses and address ant issues. It was identified that the advertising team were feeling that they could do with some extra help to write scripts. This is why we worked together to identify people in the team whose work load was not very heavy to lend a hand. It was then decided that the presenters would write four adverts each and then meet at 10am on Thursday to have a script meeting.
On Thursday, the day started off with a script meeting. This is where everyone who brought a script sat down together and one by one we worked through them. This was a great opportunity to allow everyone to exchange ideas to end up with the best end product. Once all scripts were complete the production phase begin by looking for voice over artist.
While this was going on the news team spent the morning preparing for a 12am news bulletin. The aim of this was to establish a work flow of preparing a bulletin, see how the studios functioned and also listen back to the bulletin to improve it. The preparation went well and the software Burli worked well but we did hit some problems when it came to the studios. We found that the news booth was not currently functioning so the bulletin came from the studio. This is not how we had planned to do the news and I will flag up the problem and try to solve the issue before the live broadcast. After listening back it was also mutually decided that the bulletins required a little touch of news that would be relevant to the listeners rather than nation generic news.
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Week beginning 21/11/2016
This week the focus has shifted from planning and pre-production to actually getting the show piloted so we can begin to hear the show. We have now moved away from big group meetings as each sub team are aware of what they need to complete so it is best that everyone gets their heads down and reach the deadlines. Currently I am ensuing that everyone knows is what is expected of them but also, I’m helping out where necessary and making sure that what is been produced is of a high standard.
We also received feedback on Monday about the documents that we had already completed and shared in our group folder. I was very pleased to read that it was obvious that we had a good grasp of our audience and station. This was reassuring as previously it had taken a while for our group to really nail down and understand our demographic.
We then were given a list of things that needed to ether be copied over from our online organiser Trello or needed completing. I sent to each sub team the tasks that needed to be complete ASAP and where there was feedback for something to perhaps be clarified or corrected I sorted it out. Taking action on the feedback we were given was quite a quick process as most of what was required we had but it just needed to be shared in our group folder.
On Thursday, we had a meeting with Matthew to go through what we had so far and how we could improve. I see these meetings as a really valuable opportunity to take on board feedback and make improvements. I was very happy with how the meeting went as we received a lot of positive feedback as well as some great advice on how to improve. Minutes were taken by Fay and very quickly posted online so that each sub team could very quickly remind themselves of each piece of feedback.
There was also a separate meeting in the afternoon for advertising and branding. As someone who has produced branding before I know how time consuming it can be as well as a little overwhelming at times. I split my afternoon between the pilot and the advertising and branding team as these were the teams that I felt need the most support.
After sitting down with the advertising and branding it was clear that they had made very good progress but just needed a little reassurance. They were told that there branding and advertising needed more diversity and within the space of two hours had found over six people willing to help voice over. I am now going to work closely with the team to ensure they have the support they need and are able to hit the deadlines.
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Week beginning 28/11/2016
This week was the week of out pilot. On the Monday, we all felt quite confident and happy that we were or track to be ready. We had planned to do a pilot on Monday evening but unfortunately due to equipment failure we were not able to complete a fully timed show. It provided a good opportunity to practice links and for the presenters to have experience of working together. Also, we found out that our live performer for the pilot had pulled out due to reasons beyond our control.
The following two days leading to the broadcast were quite rushed mostly due to the fact we needed to find a new live artist. The OB team worked hard and were able to at the last minute to everyone’s relief they were able to secure an OB artist. After that all the other elements of the programme fell into place.
The day of the pilot I arrived at 8am and so did the rest of the live team. This allowed us to prepare and practice. It also gave me the opportunity to solve or come up with a way around the technical problems we faced. After the show, I sat down and wrote how I think we could improve for the assessed show. On Friday, the production and music team at together and we ironed out any issued flagged in the feedback I’ve included below.
News:
Good job adapting to the studios playing up, I thought the hand signals generally worked well and just be prepared to use them again if needed. It’s important to make the levels in the news studio are right (peaking at but no higher than 6) including all clips and wraps. It might be worth seeing if you can normalise audio in Burli. It would help to have the out words of the news and weather so we can make it sound tighter. Also, just keep an eye on the time and don’t forget that the news and weather beds have intro’s so that takes away about 20 second of talk time. There weren’t any major problems with overrun but just for good practice and my OCD it’s always nice to hit it bang on. Remember we have lots of free voices for wraps.
Music:
We have a really hard genre of music but you’ve done a really good job of getting together a playlist and then getting all the tracks in Myriad. Today we’ve addressed most of the feedback from M&T but still go look at it and make sure we take on board all the feedback. Also, I would really love to make sure this music interview is pulled off with an artist. Please keep on with the PR Lady but also look at a backup if it falls through. A clip of the interview will be played on the show but the full interview and also an online written article will appear on the website. Please go to Tommy for website related help. I will message you most possibly on Tuesday and if one or both of you are free I will guide you through setting up the log.
Social media:
Well done Samantha for taking over the role this week. On the show next week, the content will be pre-prepared by Tommy but if you could take charge of posting them at the appropriate times that would be great. I have a social media guide Tommy that could be helpful but if you send me in advance the content I will double check. In the next week keeping it alive with the odd update that would be great. A competition graphic might be nice. Also, someone needs the be allocated the job of OB social assistant who can feedback content to Sam to post. The digital media approach also needs to be thought out.
Features:
Myself, Curtis and Tommy have had a meeting about features today. There have been changes that will be reflected in the running order and scripts. This will be the competition trail will have to be re-made and it is no longer a competition. Molly, it might be having a chat with Curtis/ Tommy to catch up on today’s changes.
Ad’s:
I’m really impressed with ad’s. SGIC, love the voice we need a web address. If you could get the vo artist again that would be great but if not could it go in the T and C’s voiced that could be added at the end. We did have to repeat some ad’s so it would be good to minimise this. I know we have some more vo’s lined up so keep it up. I’ll meet up with you this week when you want to make sure your happy with everything and help you out if you need a hand with anything. There’s always people about in radio so make sure to get a second or third pair of ears because you’re probably sick of hearing them over and over again. Please also make x4 ad block of as close duration to 2:30 for the show.
OB:
I know we have act’s lined up for next week but please confirm them ASAP. It will make us all feel much calmer for the show. Good job on getting an OB artist this week and I think it went really well. We have addressed some of the issues and feedback and the new artist will be performing just two songs live but that does not mean we can do an exclusive live session for online. I will get the new clocks to you soon. We will try to strengthen communication between the studios and I am looking at ways to achieve this. Also, as you found out this week it’s important to be ready about five minutes before the time your due to be live just if the studio come earlier. Finally, we need a better name than the studio, the whole setup is so much better than a studio.
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Week beginning 05/12/2016
This week marks the last few days of production and our final show. Going into this week I am happy of how the show currently stands but we have all been working since we received feedback last Thursday to ensure we act on all feedback. I started my week by following up on all the agreed improvements and ensuring that they were on track to be completed for our final pilot that I had arranged for Tuesday.
I communicated with the assistant producer to allow me to draw up a list off all audio elements that needed to be in the playout system. Once I had the list I was able to get the audio from our shared drive and most importantly check the quality of the material before it was uploaded into the playout system. I assisted in editing features such as the Spirit Drive, sourcing and producing the news and weather imaging and mastering the adverts to ensure they sounded as good as they could for broadcast.
Once all the elements were in the playout system I then sat down with the paper show log and ensured that the playout systems log matched. It all so allowed me to use the SeqEdit tool to tighten up the seq’s to sound as tight as possible. I was also able to sit with the music team to ensure that they were happy with the final log. The live team then conducted a successful pilot and only minor tweaks were needed to scripts. We were then ready for the live broadcast.
Our producer returned for the broadcast but due to absence the assistant producer took on more responsibility than usually. When the show went live I set up base in a room nearby where I could listen to the output. I decided not to sit in the studio as I had confidence in my production team and it is not the norm for an editor to sit in the studio. It also meant I was contactable through the show and was able to keep an ear on everything like the news bulletin. For the first fought five minutes everything ran fairly smoothly.
I was then informed by the OB team that the main act was unable to make it on time. We did have a back-up option and it was very important to me that we all stayed calm to resolve the issue. I contacted the producer to inform them of the change while we quickly redrafted scripts and questions. I made the decision not to inform the presenters straight away until we had the information on the replacement. This is as I wanted a calm relaxed studio as that’s the environment the presenters work in best.
The replacement was quickly confirmed and we worked together efficiently to find backing tacks for the artist as well as finding a song that they had requested. The setup of the OB had technically changed without our team’s knowledge from the pilot so I did go down to the OB studio to be an extra pair of hands. I was very pleased with how the backing track I sourced worked and was very happy with the overall show. Most of the team came together under pressure and performed in a manner that would be expected in the industry.