The 24th to the 28th of March 2014 saw me complete a weeks placement at Signal 107 Radio Station. Having visited the station for the day a few weeks before, I had an idea of what to expect upon arrival, and was welcomed very warmly by all the staff. I was extremely excited about this opportunity of going to Signal as I have built up a sound knowledge about radio stations during my lessons and couldn’t wait to put what I had learnt into practice.
My days started very early, as observing the breakfast show was primarily why I was there; this resulted in (5:50am) arrivals to the station each morning.
Most of my time at Signal was spent in the Studio for the 4 hours of Toms Breakfast Show. Here I watched and discussed what was going on during his time on air each day, and how I can apply some of the things he does to my own shows. He gave me advice on how to present my shows and also how to prepare for them. As well as this I also completed prep research tasks during the parts of the show, throughout the week, that got busy, as tom doesn’t have a producer and manages himself. The prep tasks included collating useless facts from online to use for the “school of the week” feature on his show and finding about events in the local area.
My first day was meant to end after the breakfast show, as Tom was heading off to go and film some stuff for a charity golf feature that Signal were running. However their cameraman who was meant to be joining them became unavailable, therefore I volunteered to step in. By half past 12 I was in a car driving to Shrewsbury to film Tom and his co-presenter Amy on one of their training sessions with their celebrity guest Joe Whelan.
Tuesday was an “ordinary day” (as far as ordinary goes for radio days). I spent the day gaining advice from Tom and the rest of the on air team and learning about the station and how it operates. I met the sales team and they informed me about how they run their department and then I also sat down with the programming team and leaned how everyone does their little bit to contribute to the on air output. I was talked around the play out system at Signal, which is called ENCO DAD, and was also shown how the ads and weather are localized for the regional areas in which they serve. Their system plays out through 3 screens, one for news and adverts, one for the log, and then one for the quick buttons.
Again I was asked to assist filming on Wednesday at the golf training ahead of the competition on the weekend. I learnt that a lot of time and hard work goes into the features of a radio show and that the job doesn’t end as soon as the show ends. Through out the week I assisted Tom at two golf sessions whereby I filmed and edited the action, and I also went with him to a school in Kidderminster for school of the week where we obtained voxpops of the children saying different phrases and silly facts to play out during the show the following week.
Thursdays experience was slightly different to the rest. After the usual observing of the show Tom sat down with me and did a coaching session over one of my shows. We sat and listened to the links and I then had to say what I thought about the links, what was good and what I could improve on, to which he would say whether he agreed or disagreed and his thoughts.
After our coaching session, I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the Signal 107 street team and also a place to work the stations annual awards as a reward for all of my hard work during the week. This was completely un expected, however very appreciated that they thought so highly of my efforts that week that they would like me to stay with them.
Thursday was also the day that the station had a scholarship day. These days are when the gifted and talented students that are interested in media and/or radio come to the station from their schools to learn what it is like. Therefore I assisted Tom in the activity he was running – how to construct a radio show. I assisted informing the students on what to do in order to create an effective radio show and sat in the studio with them when recording their final products. I particularly enjoyed teaching other people what I had learned during my week at Signal.
To end the week on Friday I went with Tom to record school of the week. On our return I was very kindly allowed to sit in an on-air station meeting between the programming team about the fourth coming week ahead and all the plans they have and also a small de-brief from what was going on that week.
My time at Signal taught me that a lot of time and effort is involved in radio shows and that in order to present and produce quality content you need to be prepared to sacrifice your time. Being in for the breakfast show opened my eyes to how tiring job it is with such long days, but also how rewarding it is to see the whole thing come together so well. My week at Signal has definitely taught me a lot about being in the radio industry and made me want to thrive even more to achieve what I want.
Abiey Humphries 