Synoptic Reflection

In 2016, I updated my cv looking for a presenting job role or experience. I had already had three months of training with a business-oriented radio. It was a launch time chat show and the name of the organization is called Gage CIC. The purpose of this radio company is to educate, inform, discuss and promote independent black businesses worldwide. In my opinion, the motive behind this idea was very interesting and I was therefore excited to be part of such greatness. base on my experience as a co-host, I felt much more comfortable within that field. I had seen change in my communication skills, listening skills as I was able to interview individuals and ask reasonable or suitable questions. Whiles looking for work experience within the radio field. I was leaning towards presenting and I therefore engage myself in different forms of research to gain insight into the presenting field. The information I gained from my research was to be focus on a specific topic and think of a programme. Furthermore, presenters require the skills of being engaging, interactive, excellent team player, great leadership and writing skills. I therefore decided to take an action by creating a portfolio on YouTube whereby I would post audios and interviews edited and put together by myself. I felt like when applying for work experiences or jobs within the radio field, you need to have evidence of your crafts and work.

Moreover, I also was consistent in listening to different radio channels to gain an insight into the presenting field. I am a huge fan of BBC radio 1xtra and love to listen to most presenters on there. This is because I feel like I can relate to it youthful genre, contents in terms of their style of music and use of young presenters. I believe I can always absorb knowledge from their list of presenters based on their style of communicating, choices of music, activities they include in their programmes that make them stand out. For example, I love listening to presenters like Yasmin Evan and Kenny Allstar. When I listen to Yasmin, I notice her engagement with the audiences or listeners. She allows listeners to call in and sometimes she may have activities planned for her audience. Kenny is also energetic, his vocal abilities or the manner in which he communicates with his listeners is captivating and you have no other option than to listen or pay attention whenever he is on air. I believe it very important to listen to as many radio presenters as possible if you are interested in any form of job role in the radio fields.
Whiles looking for experience or job role in the radio field, I was lucky enough to be contacted by “Gage CIC” as they were looking for an intern to participate as a co-hosting to hopefully become the presenter of the show after a few practices and produce content for their social media page. Because they noticed my flexibility, hard work and interest in presenting during my voluntary experience with them in 2016, they decided to contact me in 2017 to assist them with their launch time chat show.

Like I said I had already worked with this radio company before and since it was business related, I was very excited because co-hosting for a business programme would be an eye opener into the business field and would have been educational or informative.Whiles working with Gage CIC, I was a co-host and a digital content creator. I was responsible for the social media page. It was quite interesting handling the contents on social media because I felt like it was a leadership role. I had to be creative, imaginative, level-headed, great communication skills, excellent writing skills, flexible and many more. Moreover, I was responsible had for announcing and sharing all activities, programmes and networking events on the social media page.This approach always gave our audiences heads up to all events and also prepares them for all our programmes whether networking or radio related. During my work placement, I learnt a lot and noticed so much improvements in terms of my communication, listening skills, creativity, writing skills and many more. My job role and the field of presenting enabled me to be much more interactive and come out my shell when necessary. For example, during events like networking, people all around the UK whether they were business start-ups, experienced or people whom just wanted some form of knowledge within the business field would come together.

Throughout the event, it was my duty to greet, welcome guests and lead them to their seats. Also, I usually speak to some of the guest to find out more about them. Through my conversation with them I may request for an interview in the end and get to know them. I also make sure I speak to celebrity guests and experienced entrepreneurs about their brand and discuss tips and skills necessary for business starters. Also, one of my important responsibilities is to record an audio interview with the guest to get their opinion about the events. The recorded interviews could be in the format of both audio, video, written and more. I also take pictures of highlights of the programme so I can write about it on our online platforms such as social media. Interviewing people helped me improve my listening skills as I noticed that in other for me to ask relevant questions or get more information from interviewees whom are also identified as the guests, I had to listen attentively. Paying attention to interviewees responses and developing conversations through their answers made the interview instinctive and flowed natural. Practicing numerous duties during events helped me with my time management and handling pressure. This is because I had to concentrate on more than one job role which can be quite difficult but focusing and writing out a plan made dealing with different responsibilities at the same time easier.

All these responsibilities enabled me to enhance my multitasking skills as well as leadership skills. I used my leaderships skills to approach people for interesting conversation and many more. In terms of leadership, I remember there was one specific event of which I was supposed to interview guests however there was technical difficulties. What this meant was the fact that I couldn’t interview clients. I used my initiative to take action and try something different. I took out my phone as a second option and made the interview successful. If I had not got recordings of the interviews, it would have made the radio show a bit dull as our audience are used to us capturing great moments and discussions from our networking events. Also, without the audio our listeners would have been a bit disappointed especially those who missed our events because they always look forward to that aspect of our show mainly because networking events do not occur frequently. Furthermore, my experiences helped me to be very comfortable to approach interviewees, communicate with individuals from different backgrounds and of different personalities. I became use to speaking with strangers, asking questions and most importantly convincing people to participate in interviews. It was always nerve racking at the early stages however after a few practices, I became much more confident.

My audio project was about black businesses and influencers or youtubers being crowned as modern entrepreneurs. Before this idea came about, my original idea was about a true story based a young lady whom was abandoned by a farther. I wanted to recreate this story of a girl whom never received a father love and never reconnected even as an adult. If this had come to plan, my genre would have been drama. I did make sure I listened to a lot of audio drama programmes especially on BBC. The reason why I decided to listen as many radio drama as possible was because I could gain further knowledge, understanding and ideas in terms of sounds, use of background noise, equipment and every little detail that makes radio drama stand out. Whiles looking for a commission, I did my research and found out about Camilla Byk whom is the co-founder for the “podium.me” which is an award-winning audio platform. The podium.me tells stories which are not being told in the mainstream and give individuals whom are interested in pursuing a career in the media the chance to do so. After my research about Camilla I came to a conclusion that she would be great to commission my project since she is the co-founder of the podium and it’s of their interest to help young individuals with a career in the media. I did speak to her about my story and she felt it was a good idea. However, I changed my idea because I believe I found something more interesting. This was about people of colour creating businesses and struggles of black influencers. Although I did not discuss the change of idea to Camilla, I felt that I had the best person in mind to commission this topic.

The genre I felt was suitable for this idea was documentary. Although I am not the biggest fun of documentaries, I begun to pay attention to variety of documentaries on BBC such “black girls don’t swim” and this gave me more knowledge about documentaries and their approach. Trying to find interviewees was not hard as I already had an idea of the type of people whom would be suitable for this style of topic. I believe speaking to influencers, entrepreneurs and businesswomen or businessmen would be a great idea. I used social media as my source of communication and messaged a lot of influencers and entrepreneurs using Instagram. There were a few rejections, but I got great interviewees in the end. This is because I had numerous of people to contact and I just had the hope that my idea was a great and interesting one and would definitely grab the attention of individuals I disclosed and had a conversation with concerning my idea. I spoke to Samuel Boateng whom is an ex member of BBC apprentice. Samuel is responsible for managing over 700 businesses across London.  After I disclosed my idea to him, he replied and was amazed by the topic and after sending all the details he accepted my interview request. After my interview with him, I asked if it would be of any interest to commission my work. He was happy to do so and that was how I came about the commission for my individual project. What I intend to do with my experiences is to have my own radio show. I have an interesting plan for my radio programme which am putting together and thinking thoroughly about things that could make it stand out. The show is about trends within the media mainly focusing on celebrity gossip. Although this will be a radio show, am also thinking of creating a social media page in connection to the radio show. The social media page is more like a blog and it will highlight topics discussed in the radio programme.

This is an interactive programme and listeners would be of a huge importance because as part of the show, the audience will call in on air to give their opinions about the different topics which will be discussed every week. It will be a 1-hour programme which will keep listeners updated with trends, celebrity news and gossip. Some important practical steps I will be working on are most importantly getting as much experience as I can within the as I will try not to focus on just the presenting field, but I could try other roles such as radio producers and broadcast engineer. I believe getting experience about other fields of the radio industry broadens my knowledge concerning more than one aspect of radio. Secondly, I believe following radio channels and all of their available contents such as their apps, websites and social media pages will keep me updated and aware of any changes.  A portfolio is always important as it sells your craft and shows your work, strength and skill, abilities and literally sells you whenever looking for a job. I have decided to take steps in posting on my soundcloud every Friday for my radio show as it will gradually build, and I could write proposals to different radio companies such as BBC Because I am very interested in the presenting field, I would keep listening to more radio presenters and more podcasts. This is because I believe I could learn one or two from the different presenters and improve my skills just by listening to others shows. I will also be looking at my previous work in terms of recorded audio and I believe it will provide me with a clear understanding of things I could improve and progress.