ALICE WASS
Exploring Media

Happy 2019! This has been my first week back from my Christmas holiday, and returning has taught me some important lessons about the working world. Unlike at university and school, where everything comes to a halt, a busy radio station, which does not stop for Christmas, everything continues. Therefore, I spent time catching up on replying to tons of emails and requests. This has been a good thing to learn and next time it will be less of a shock what a busy week I will return to! Thankfully, now I am back on top of everything and ready to get back into a normal working routine.

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Apart from the emails, I have been involved with guests coming in for Ruth’s show, and I dealt with a last minute cancelled interview which needed filling. There was a bit of a panic when we were on air trying to contact an interviewee, but I managed to successful fix things although it did include some frantic phone calls and running around the office! The Soundcloud uploads are back in full swing, with lots of content to edit and upload. I also helped Kat to quickly find content to use in the UCB Newsletters.

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There have been a lot of meetings this week including meetings with the Executive about ‘Special Partner’ guests to go on Ruth’s show. This is very important, as it will be part of my job to contact them and This needs to be done in a very specific way, to maintain good relationships with these important people. There have also been meetings about regular guests for Ruth’s show that we have been asked to fit in last minute and possible “tricky” interviewees. I attended a meeting with the brand new Assistant Content Producer, Ed, who has taken over Sam’s old role and as I have been helping to fill that role, we had a catch up and planned some future things we might work on together. One especially exciting meeting was with Anne and Samuel, to kick start my Presenter Training over the next few months. This will include me learning how to plan and prepare Samuel’s evening show, to complete it, track the show in the studio and then go through the final show and do an air check to identify areas to improve. This will continue to help me improve my skills and help make me a good presenter. I will also be helping to plan Samuels Easter Bank Holiday Special, which can be as creative as possible. I am very excited to undertake this new project and believe it will give me a better understanding of working in radio and the pressures of it.

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I have been trying to re-contact potential guests for February, as due to Christmas, there is less ahead content than we normally like to have guest wise. This week we have also had a lot of book give aways on Ruth’s show, so I have been contacting the winners and getting their prizes sent off to them.

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In February we are having a 3 day Radio Appeal for Prayerline. Therefore, as part of my role in Testimonies, I am phoning people to find dates to record their stories of using or working for Prayerline. So far this week I have completed 7 recordings and will start editing next week when I have a bit more time. I will be interested to see what my role will be in the upcoming appeal, as last time it was not my favourite activity, as I missed my normal work roles.

I have also had ILM training this week, I am really enjoying the ILM as it is teaching me so much about leadership, management and team work and the more I learn the more I am understanding the structure of UCB and how it may be different to other companies.

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Lastly, I got back into the studio with Simon this week to help with the pre-record of ‘The Weekend Starts Here’. After not having used the system for a long time, I was surprised how much I could remember, and felt pretty confident using it. These skills I have learnt will be a massive help when I start my Presenter Training and need to track my own show. However, I am hoping that the Presenter Training will help develop me sufficiently as a Presenter, that Simon may let me start doing some co-hosting on the show, as well as using the desk.

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I am looking forward to next week at work, now that things are more under control, I can work on getting things finished, and start up some new exciting projects for 2019.