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.
No comments:
Post a Comment