ALICE WASS
Exploring Media
Placement Year Summary
What My Year at UCB looked like
Video Presentation:
Reflective Essay:
My future career goal is to become a Producer in both the Radio and TV industry. Therefore, I was delighted to be accepted to spend my Placement Year at United Christian Broadcasters (UCB), a national Christian radio station, to help me build up my knowledge of the industry and gain vital skills. In the UK there are only two national Christian radio stations, UCB is the only one which does not use advertising, and therefore is a charity making it a unique radio experience. At UCB I worked as a Broadcast Assistant, where my main role was supporting the Presenters on both UCB1 and UCB2 which have an estimated 200,000 weekly listeners per station, by carrying out key administrative tasks to ensure the smooth running of both live and pre-recorded radio shows. I also helped to complete research for both planning and production stages of the radio shows.
I gained a lot of experience helping to produce UCB2’s show ‘This Is My Story’ which runs from 9am to 1pm. This show is particularly content heavy compared to other UCB shows. When I first started working on the show, the Presenter was struggling to find a sufficient number of interviews to fill the programme and had difficulty maintain an organised system of planning. Over the time I have been working on the show there are now interviews every day. Our interviewees come from all around the world, encompassing some serious topics ranging from: disabilities, sexuality, addictions, and abuse, but also light-hearted content from comedians, authors and weekly interviews with musicians. To find interviewees I spend a lot of time researching and creating relationships with Publicists. Over time the Presenter has trusted me to decide the content completely on my own. Once I have found potential interviewees I communicate with them and organise when the interview will take place and all the practicalities of the interview. During the live show I help upload any content needed onto Zetta, which is the radio system UCB use. I also host the guests, respond to the listeners and solve any on-air problems. Then after the show I organise sending off any prizes to the winners. When I first started this role I felt overwhelmed at the thought of having to find so much content, and was concerned that I would not succeed. However, during my Placement I have grown in confidence and I believe that I have helped improve the quality of the show through the work I put in, to increase the quantity and range of interviews, which the Presenter values. As I became better at this role, I also started to help the other Presenters with similar aspects for their shows.
Confidence is a quality which I have had to develop during my Placement. Although I was happy selecting interviews for ‘This Is My Story’, I felt apprehensive suggesting content ideas in Radio Team Meetings, consisting of twenty people in a blue sky thinking session. Everyone was expected to suggest content ideas and this pressure to think of something acceptable to industry professionals made me very nervous, in case my ideas seemed poor or generic. As I have learnt more about the content UCB likes to air, I have become more confident with my ideas. I have also become more resilient, and when my ideas are not selected I learn from the experience. Some of my creative ideas were developed in a Bank Holiday Special 3-hour show. Other ideas were used in the creation of games which I have co-presented live on-air. Doing live radio presenting also boosted my confidence because if I could speak freely with thousands of people listening, I could also communicate confidently with my colleagues.
Shortly after I started my Placement, the existing Content Producer moved on. In view of my interest in becoming a Producer in the future, I was delighted to take over the majority of this role. I learnt how to use Adobe Audition to an industry standard to help me in this role. This skill has enabled me to edit all of the audio from the on-air shows and upload it onto Soundcloud where the audience can listen back to key content. This quickly became one of my daily tasks as there are in total ten live shows every day between the two stations, plus thirteen additional shows which include specialist shows and weekend shows. As my editing skills advanced, I began to edit other content. This included interviews to play out on-air for the Presenters, which I often needed to cut dramatically and improve the audio quality of interviews done over the phone. I am so glad that I have learnt how to use Adobe Audition, as this software is commonly used within the radio industry and this skill acquisition has dramatically improved my future employability.
During my time at UCB my role has significantly increased, as I have been given the opportunity to experience a wide range of tasks, which I had highlighted an interest in. After I had become confident at producing the daily radio shows I was asked to help produce UCB’s first ever Podcast, ‘Mark and Mark at Full Volume’. I helped with the planning and organisation of the days, which was a big challenge as we were having a live studio audience. I was involved with everything including content, the audience, accommodation and food. On the day I was entrusted to be the Floor Manager, as we were not only recording the audio for the Podcast but also the TV team were recording a video of it. As the Floor Manager I was responsible for giving information from the Director in the control room to the Crew on the studio floor. I had to count in the shows, supply important information to the audience, such as reminding them to turn their phones off, explaining the schedule of the day, and making sure that the Talent had everything they needed. The Podcast shoot ran over two days and was a massive success. Subsequently, the Podcast has aired weekly and been available on the UCB Player App and on all Podcast streaming services. It appears that Podcasts are the future of how audiences consume audio, therefore radio stations are creating their own Podcasts. The skills of organising and working on set is invaluable, and has given me a much better understanding of the importance of Podcasts and how a radio station can create them.
To develop my radio skills I also undertook a lot of training. I attended several Interview Training Sessions with famous Radio Presenter David Lloyd. He helped me dramatically improve my interviewing skills, with specific feedback after listening to work I had created. I also attended his Ofcom training sessions, which helped my understanding of the legal side of radio. Other training I received whilst at UCB included Presenter Training with the Head of the Presenters and one of the Presenters. During the training sessions I learnt how to plan and prepare a 3-hour show UCB2 evening show ‘Worship and the Word’. I then went into the studio and used the studio desk, microphones and Zetta to record the show myself. This was a lengthy process as it took time for me to become comfortable speaking in the right tone and pace, as well as making sure I used the software correctly. I really enjoyed the learning process, and I now understand the importance of having a different ‘radio voice’ to one’s ‘normal voice’. I will implement these speaking methods when I am back to hosting my weekly radio show on Coventry University’s Source Media.
While learning how to use Zetta, I have slowly grown in confidence. I started running the desk and using Zetta to help one of the Presenters when pre-recording their specialist show ‘The Weekend Starts Here’. Using the system every week helped tremendously in my understanding and knowledge of the system. I have helped Presenters with timing out their pre-recorded shows and I started loading content onto Zetta when Presenters were doing their live shows. At first this made me nervous because if I pressed something wrongly it would affect the live play out on the radio. However, over time, as my abilities have increased, I now feel completely comfortable doing this. One of the guests we featured on ‘This Is My Story’ was deaf, therefore we planned to conduct the interview through lip reading and sign language. However, moments before the interview was supposed to start, we discovered that the interviewee could not lip read the Presenter across the sound desk. Therefore, I quickly went into the studio to run the studio desk live on-air. I had never run the studio desk live before, and it was high pressure, as if I made any errors the listeners would hear and it would interrupt the flow of the interview. Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and there were no issues. As nerve-wracking as it was, I loved the thrill and responsibility of controlling the radio desk. This gave me really good insight into what being a Producer could be like. In some radio stations the Producer will actually run the desks for the Presenters. This is something that I would definitely enjoy doing, now I feel confident using Zetta, which is industry standard software and I have built a good foundation of competence. Hopefully this will boost my chances of future employability.
I have also used the studio desk to record interviews, both for Testimonies and also to record short interviews for one of the Presenter’s features called ‘The Wall’. For this I most often use Phonebox or Skype to call the individuals and then export the audio into Adobe Audition where I edit it and make it ready to play out on-air. While recording the Testimonies I had to learn to be very careful about the way I spoke, as often people were sharing very sensitive information and stories about themselves. I quickly learnt how to balance being kind while also keeping the interview focused, making sure that no inappropriate information which should not be aired came out. My biggest project of recording interviews was for a Christmas Special, as the two Drive shows did a feature about ‘Christmas Around The World’. I sourced and organised interviews with Christians from around the world, sharing details of the Christmas traditions in their country. This project took a lot of careful planning, due to time differences, and really helped me to improve my communication overcoming language barriers. The process tested my editing skills as I had to cut down the content into a short piece which would be played out as a stand-alone. This Christmas feature was a great success and we received a lot of good feedback from it.
Once I had become more settled in my radio role at UCB, I was asked if I had any other areas of interest. I mentioned that one of my possible potential career paths is to be a Producer in TV. UCB have their own TV department, and I was invited to start doing work with them. Through this I have had the opportunity to work on numerous Live TV Sets. Over the year I have regularly been a Camera Operator on their London TV Shoot ‘Facing The Canon’ which UCB film and edit for TNB, a Christian TV channel. Whilst on set I learnt about the technical equipment: how to set up cameras, including building Jib’s. I have experience in the role of being a Camera Operator, as well as learning how to set up a studio gallery and on a much smaller shoot I was taught how to do Live Vision Mixing alongside the Director. I have enjoyed every shoot I have been on, and appreciated learning about the different roles and how they interact. I also was invited to be a Camera Operator on a very important shoot in London, at Lambeth Palace, with Archbishop Justin Welby. We filmed in his private study and we needed to quickly re-arrange the room to work best visually for filming the interview. Working with such important people has really helped me to improve my professionalism when communicating. Through doing this work with TV, my interest has grown and I feel that at some point in my future career I would definitely want to work as a TV Producer.
At UCB, staff are encouraged to take on further training to help with their professional development. One opportunity is provided through The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), where small groups of staff are invited to take part in the ‘Level 2 Certificate in Leadership and Team Skills’. I was invited to join this year’s group, which meant attending regular sessions and completing written assignments on a range of management topics. Through this course I have explored: problem solving, presentations, project managements, how to be a team leader, how to manage myself, how to develop team work, communication, and change within the workplace. I have really enjoyed being a part of the ILM course, as it has helped me to develop my workplace relationships, and also expanded my knowledge and understanding of leadership and team work. Throughout the assignments I have developed my abilities in giving presentations, creating GANNT and Cost Benefits Analysis Charts, writing reports, and most importantly I have learnt about how these topics clearly affect the workplace. This course has helped with my professional development, as I have critically analysed my work performance, finding ways to improve and learning how to push myself to be a better team member, while discovering what skills I need for a leadership role in the future. This is very beneficial as Producers in Radio and TV have a lot of leadership responsibility.
During my Placement Year I have grown exponentially in skills that I could not have gained without working in Radio and TV. I am now certain that I am aiming to become a Producer in Radio and TV in the future and will now be able to specialise further in my final year of university, to work towards this. To enable my professional skills continue to grow I hope to be able to find a part time internship at a local Coventry Radio station, as well as continuing my own student radio show. To further explore my interest in TV I will look out for opportunities within the TV industry. Whilst at UCB I have also seen changes within my personal development. I had never previously worked in an office, or had any workplace experience for longer than a few weeks. I have matured and feel confident and happy working in a busy media environment. Over the year I have become confidently enthusiastic, where I used to sometimes appear as shy. I will be sad when I finish my year here at UCB, as I have really enjoyed it and the experience has given me a massive boost in my career.