Music Radio Week 1 – Published 12/11/17

Production week one, I took on the role as OB Presenter/Producer and helping with News. My role will be to research and book the artist or band for our stations live OB section also, I will oversee how the OB is presented and produced. From our first meeting, we discussed what roles we were going to do and the genre of music we were going for as our station sound. From this, we had a second meeting where we discussed what our station name and sound we were going for. I updated Gabriel our editor I had a look online for local artists that cover 90s Britpop and that I had found something interesting, I also have contacted Pulp and Blur to see if there was a possibility to get them for the live shows. I have received a response back from Blur who are unable to help and I have had a response from Heather from M People’s manager, however, we agreed that she wouldn’t be the right sound for the station, but will continue to look. I am also going to see if there are any 90s influenced bands at the university we can use for rehearsals and pilot shows. Next up I need to secure the performers for the live show but also create how the OB should sound/feel. I will also connect with Minnie who is our head of news and see how she wants to move forward with the news.

Here is a link to the Britpop band I have suggested to Gabriel – http://lovinthe90s.co.uk/

Music Radio Week 2 – Published 19/11/17

So this week we managed to do a successful OB and work with the studio team. So now I need to work out how I want the OB to look and get the pilot acts ready so we can record them for our social media. I also need to work with the editor and producer to work out what I can do with the acts and how long the OB is to be. I also got a chance to sit with Minnie and discuss news. I will also catch up with Minnie and see what she expect from the news going forward. I have also emailed Rob from the Music course to see if there are any artists that can cover 90s Britpop songs so we can get them in for Mock OBs to put on the social media sites.

Music Radio Week 3 – Published 26/11/17

So this week it was about confirming the OB performers for Pilot and actual shows. The bands which I approached came back wanting Fees to perform. One band, however, did offer live recordings and a phone interview for free. With a little panic, I said to Matthew that every band I approached wanted a fee. So I decided to ask the Music Department here at the university. I have managed to get one band that will fit the sound for the show which is The Oi Oi’s and the second band for the pilot show have said they couldn’t make it. I have asked Joe Pilbrow if he can ask a friend of his, as Joe said he could get that person if we struggle. With the OB we are going to have a cover and original for the live show we are also going to talk to the band and play a game of Something from the 90s, this is a game where you must choose between 2 90s phases. As with the News, I will assist with Minnie in writing the news and we are just going to add sport into the news bulletin and not have a separate segment for news.

Music Radio Week 4 – Pilot Show – Published 3/12/17

So its the week of the pilot shows, I struggled with getting a group for the pilot show after securing the Oi Oi’s for the actual show. Everyone from the Music Department either were busy or had assignments due so couldn’t help out. I asked around the group and Joe Pilbrow suggested he may have someone. However, they weren’t available Gabriel suggested he would ask someone and they were available. Also during the week, I researched 90s fashion, TV shows, and Toys. Which helped with the live OB for a game with the artist. During the week I visited a bar with my friends who are about the same age as me (29) who all grew up in the 90s and recorded some vox pops. However, there were no females in the bar at the time and to give it a balance I asked Minnie, Harriet, and Josie to help ad a female voice into the vox. On the feedback from the pilot show, I took away we need to check levels before going on air and will have to share the mic with the interviewee and that the vox pops were a bit young however, I disagree with Matthew on this as we were the kids growing up in the 90s and would be the Britpop were songs from our childhood.

Looking to next week as we will be using a full band, I will look to see if we can set the drum kit the day before for the band and hopefully everything will run smoothly.

Music Radio Week 5 – Live Show – Published 9/12/17

It was the week of the Live shows, I contacted The Oi Oi’s to see if they would be okay with using the drum kit that the radio department uses. They came back and said yes, On the day of the Live Shows Minnie, helped print off more posters for the display in the ‘Crib’ and once the first group had finished we got in to arrange the room. I met with the Oi Oi’s about 12:40, I was around to help with the sound check and make sure the room looked the way we wanted. Once the sound check was completed I spoke to Wilfy (the band’s frontman) and briefed him on no bad language and the questions I was going to asked so that they had an Idea of what was going to be asked. During the briefing, Wilfy gave some sensible answers and was expecting it when we went live. As what happened he changed his answer which really put me off, but I didn’t dwell on the answers and quickly moved on. In regard to how the OB went, I was pleased with how it looked, glad we managed to get a 90s Brit pop-inspired band, the performance sounded great, I’m personally disappointed in how the band behaved during the interview, however in the debrief Tom advised that its live radio and that’s what happens we just have to get on with it. I did notice the bad language during the performance, however, I was advised by Rhys that the studio was going to apologize for the bad language, so I was just told to carry on as normal. We did also brief the band not to use any bad language. I also thought as a team we did well and the show was smooth and enjoyed the output.

On reflection of my blog posts the OB was an important part of the show and even though we have 3 weeks to create the OB it was challenging as in looking for a band, asking for money to perform putting out an add with no response and with students at the University having deadlines at the same time it was challenging to do. I feel that if this was a radio station going live to an audience, I feel the response would have been better and would have been easier to source a band.