Radio Kerry Week Three

Week three at Radio Kerry and it seems that my time is flying past. It has probably taken me the best part of the previous two weeks to acclimatise to being back in an office environment.  As the staff in the newsroom are well settled in their jobs, and are very good at what they do, I was finding it difficult to get work.  

With this in mind I spoke to the producer of the newsroom and she suggested I cut the piece I’d done on the Mobile Library unit down to about ten minutes. This would make it suitable for broadcast, which would be great for me. So I set out the edit the three hours of recording down to only ten minutes. As hadn’t done much editing before, or at least cut out two hours and ten minutes of material, this was going to be a big task.

For the rest of the week I listened to the same two guys talk, and talk and then talk some more. It was great experience for me, being brutal, cutting out some very good material so as to keep the narrative in place. As features and documentary making is what I want to do in radio I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction. Also I’ve realised that with local radio it’s all up to you, you have to find the story and you have to produce it. No one is going to hold your hand, its sink or swim but at the same time everybody is very helpful.  By Thursday I had nine minutes and fifty-four seconds of a good piece ready and while I could have spent another week fine tuning it, I didn’t. Another thing I’ve learnt is when to stop, when to be happy with what you’ve got.

The last thing I did on Thursday evening was close the file and email it to the producer. It felt good pushing the button, sending my piece out there. The last I heard is that it will go out sometime this week, which would be great if it happens.

On Friday I decided to get myself out of the newsroom and see what else was possible in Radio Kerry. Doing the piece during the week broke my link with doing news stories, which was a good move in hindsight. I spoke with other presenters and got to know the lie of the land a bit better. It quickly became obvious that everyone does their own thing and also that nobody does just one thing alone. If features are what I want to do it is up to me to find the stories and bring them for broadcast. I went to lunch with one man who has a few different jobs in the station. He encouraged me a lot and told me of all the pitfalls but mostly it was all good. Hopefully this week I’ll be spending a bit of time with him, learning the ropes and how to survive in the radio business.

Friday afternoon I hid myself away in an empty office. The idea was to come up with ideas for small features, ones that would be of interest to a Kerry audience. After about an hour I had a long list, some strong and others less so. I approached the news producer and she was very happy with them all, if I can deliver them. This was great news and I was delighted with her response.

All in all it was a very educational week at Radio Kerry. I’ve learned a lot and now I have a lot of work to do.

A big change from where I had been at the beginning of the week...

Work Placement Week Two

Week two of my work placement went quite well. It’s not what I expected work in a radio station to be but then I had no idea of what working in a radio station would be like.I’m working in the newsroom, a busy newsroom and yet everything works on a schedule and to schedule.

The important show each day is the Kerry Today program, which goes out from 9am to 11am. It’s the show I’m most involved in and I work with the presenter and the producer. Watching a show develop from a few words in the mid morning to a complete program schedule by about 4pm and on to being broadcast live the next day is fascinating. In fact, preparation for the next day’s show begins immediately after that day’s show finishes. That morning’s show is quickly forgotten and research on stories for the next day begins immediately. It’s like the old saying about the morning’s newspaper wrapping that evening’s fish and chips.

Research for me involves calling possible interviewees and checking if their story has wings or to see if they are willing to talk on the air. One story I developed myself was regarding the problem of internet trolls. It so happened that somebody I knew has had a problem with online abuse and had been featured in The Irish Times. As he lives in Dingle, it gave the story a Kerry angle, obviously something very important to the station. My man was only too willing to share his experiences and give his opinion on how to solve the problem. He went out live on Wednesday morning and I was quite pleased that I had brought the story together.

On Thursday, I went out with the Kerry Mobile Unit to get an idea of what the service was all about and what it did. Again, this was a story I’d developed myself, after a conversation with the county library service. So with my flash mic in hand I joined the Library van in Firies and spent the morning interviewing the staff onboard, the regular borrowers and the school children from the various schools we visited. It was a great morning and wonderful experience for me. In all I got about three hours of material from my time with the mobile library and I was tired after all the talking. It helped a lot that the two Library workers onboard, Timmy and Bartie, were great characters and well able to talk.

Friday was spent trying to edit the recordings from Thursday into a usable piece for the radio. Eventually I got the three hours down to about sixty minutes, still too long for what is needed.

It looks like my third week at work will be spent cutting poor Timmy and Bartie down to just twenty minutes or so. The problem is that I like what I have too much; it won’t be easy editing out much of what I have.

All part of the learning process I suppose.

Work Placement Week One

This was to be a new one for me, at least something I hadn't done for almost fourteen years. Yes, after all that time being self-employed, I was going to work for someone else. This was different though for another reason, a big reason; for the first time in my life I was going to be working at something I liked doing. Finally, after years of doing jobs I had little or no interest in, I was going to be writing and working in a newsroom in a radio studio. Two things I like and I'm somewhat good at, writing and current affairs.

Monday morning I was nervous, very nervous, butterflies in my stomach nervous. I rationalized that I was going to give this a good shot and if things didn't  work out at least I'd have given it a try. Also, I reminded myself, that if I did my best nobody could knock me for trying.

At Radio Kerry a smiling Fiona Stack met me and brought me to the Kerry Today studio. The producer, Threasa, had interviewed me only a couple of weeks previously and behind the ops desk was Aine, a fellow student on my course. The friendly faces helped a lot.

The two hours of the show went quickly and I watched how comments came in, were vetted and passed for airing. Interviewees came and went and calls were processed and put through to the presenter. All in all it was good beginning.

In the newsroom afterwards, I watched while everyone went about their duties. Finally I was in a workplace where it was expected of you to read the paper, scan the news websites and follow Twitter. It was funny to be doing these things at work for a change. Threasa gave me press releases to follow up on and see if I could get a story. Not much luck with my first few calls but that's part and parcel of the job I suppose. My first day went well, I got a feel for what was expected on the job and I didn't make any mistakes.

Not a bad start.

On Tuesday I was asked to write the business news for the lunchtime bulletin. Also I was following a story regarding a release of a information booklet for teenagers. After a couple of calls I got an invite to the booklet launch and headed off there in the afternoon. Before that I wrote the business news and filed the copy.

At the launch I found the main speakers, interviewed them and headed back to the studio. I learnt a valuable lesson though, I could have and should have, found them before the launch began. That way I could have got my couple of minutes and missed sitting through all the speeches...

In the studio I wrote-up my piece and edited the interviews down to thirty seconds. My piece, my first piece from start to finish, went out on the news bulletins the next day. Not bad for my first couple of days.

As the week went on I was given more work to do and was involved more in program planning. Despite my initial nervousness on Monday, by Friday I felt quite at home in Radio Kerry.

Hopefully I can keep it up for the next few weeks.