ALICE WASS
Exploring Media
Placement Information
Short Term Placement at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire is a local radio station for the Coventry and Warwickshire area. I managed to gain a placement there by applying via the BBC Careers Hub.
Official Website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbccoventryandwarwickshire
The placement was from the 8th of May 2018 to the 18th May. During my time there I was involved in all areas of the station and worked on a variety of the shows that they produce.
Reflection on Placement:
As radio is a career path I am seriously considering, I applied to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire to gain experience in a fast paced professional environment. I was delighted to gain a place, as less than 3% of applicants achieve work experience at the BBC.
The first week of my placement was focused on shadowing people with various jobs. I really appreciated this as I did not have in-depth understanding of the possible radio roles and how they all work together. My shadowing included working with a News Editor, Tom, who taught me how he picks and organises the news and how he edits the audio. He allowed me to be in the studio with him whilst he presented the news. I shadowed a Reporter, Ben, who travels around Coventry and Warwickshire preparing original stories. Ben was from a newspaper journalism background and has adapted his skills for radio. Going out and about with Ben and doing a pre-record for an interview was a great experience which demonstrated how hands on radio can be. I had a very different experience when I shadowed Rich, who is a Reporter who mainly presents live-on-air. I had the opportunity to accompany Rich doing his live interviews, learning the best way to conduct interviews and how all the technology works to get it to broadcast. Rich gave me lots of helpful industry advice, as he has been working in radio his whole life and has been through all the struggles involved in getting into the radio industry.
I also shadowed the Producer for the Afternoon Show, Emily. I learnt a lot as Emily explained how she does her pre show preparation, and I got to work with her whilst she did a live broadcast. Emily is from an office background and gave me her tips on how she transformed her office skills to improve her organisation for working as a producer. This included using an Excel spreadsheet to plan out all of the shows, so that she does not repeat content or guests. I realise that to be a Producer you need to be extremely organised and very focused on everything that is going on. It was when I shadowed Andrea and Alice, who are Producers of the Breakfast Show, that I realised how hectic and stressful being a Producer can be. The Breakfast Show is news based, meaning the show can completely change, as it goes live-on-air. This meant that the Producers had to be extremely good at multitasking, having to edit audio pieces just minutes before it is played and keeping in contact with their live reporters and guests at all times.
Lastly, I shadowed the Senior Broadcast Technician, Eddie. This was one of my favourite shadowing opportunities as he was very willing to teach me all about his job and explained all the equipment he was using. I worked with Eddie whilst he set up for a band who would be broadcast live-on-air. This involved setting up all the speakers, microphones and sound desk, as well as working with the sound desk during the broadcast. This opportunity made me realise how much my technological understanding of radio is lacking. I am currently searching for opportunities to improve this.
As well as my shadowing, I got to do a lot of hands-on work. I attended the Breakfast Show meeting every morning for a debrief of the show and planning for the next day, giving me the opportunity to be involved in the show’s content and contribute to possible ideas. The best opportunity was creating my own Vox Pops for the Breakfast Show. Creating a Vox Pop involved going out into Coventry and finding people to interview and recording them. I then edited the content into an interesting and engaging audio piece, wrote cues for the presenter to read. The first one I did focused on Tattoos. As I had never done a Vox before I struggled at first as I had to build my confidence to talk to strangers, get used to the rejections and then I succeeded in getting some good interviews. The hardest part was editing the audio, because I had never used the software before and after a brief demonstration during my shadowing I learnt how to use it myself through trial and error. The second Vox Pop asked opinions on the FA Cup vs the Royal Wedding. This time I felt much more confident and believe I did better than the first time. Editing was also much easier as I had a greater understanding of the software. I am very happy and that my pieces were played on their most popular show and I really enjoyed making them. I received lots of positive feedback about my second Vox Pop from numerous people in the office.
My other tasks included helping producers to find guests for their shows. This involved phoning and emailing enquiries to people and writing out interview questions for them. I wrote up a detailed explanation for the presenters so they understood what to ask and what kind of answers they would receive when they interviewed guests live. This was a task I did multiple times for different shows, and I improved over time, as my confidence increased. I managed to arrange quite a few guests and I was always delighted when they went on air and it was a success. Doing this work was good experience as it is a key part of being a Producer and a skill I need to have.
On two days I was working on a big event that BBC Coventry and Warwickshire were hosting for Vic’s Mid-Moring show, which is an Open House. Open House is like a party on the radio, where around 50 listeners were invited to come to the Radio Theatre and get involved live-on-air. I helped by inviting listeners to come along, as well as setting up the Radio Theatre and being on hand during their live broadcast. It was a completely different radio experience, all very fast paced with considerable multitasking. However, the whole event was so much fun and showed me a very different side to the studio broadcasts that I had been experiencing.
I really loved my time at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire and was very sad that once it was over. I would love the opportunity to work with the BBC in the future, as I had an amazing experience and saw how their values really influenced the content they produced. This experience has taught me so much about the radio industry, including experiencing shift work. I am now very much looking forward to starting my year-long placement in radio in September.
Vox Pops:
FA Cup vs Royal Wedding Vox Pop
Reference:
