When the clock struck midnight for the start of the New Year, it was all set to be a very quiet one. I had very little work booked in, and personally a little worried about the whole situation.
All I had booked in was an introductory meeting at a radio station in Lancaster called ‘The Bay‘ and one shift at ‘Beacon Radio‘ in Wolverhampton. Lancaster was this Monday, and I was due to be at Beacon on Wednesday…but now it’s a Thursday night and I’m Blogging from a hotel in Wolverhampton.
Monday went well, after a dose of flu over New Year I was just about well enough again, and went up to Lancaster on a very early train on a very cold day. It’s been ridiculously cold over the last few days, and barely got about zero, and so when I got lost on the way to the station, it wasn’t the best idea. But, after twenty minutes of wandering in the cold I met the news editor there, Peter Storry, and we had a chat about possible work, and I did a bulletin for their sister station, Lakeland Radio. All in all, a pleasant trip, and afterwards popped in at Key 103, to have a look at the news entry for the Sony Radio Awards, I’ll blog about the at a later date…
On Monday afternoon, I recieve a phone call from Loise Easton at Beacon Radio, asking if I’d be able to work an additional shift on the Tuesday. Whilst, short notice I agreed and set off on my way to Wolverhampton at 5.30 in the morning! Not a good time… At Beacon, I work a 9-5 ‘Reporters Shift’, which involved generating stories for forth coming days, or in other word working on prospects. I find the shift quite challenging, as personally I miss the motivation I get from tight deadlines and getting stuff out for the next bulletin, all the work I do at Beacon is for future days.
After a regular day on the Tuesday, Wednesday took a change to the surreal, with me and Jessica Cooper (a permanent staff member at Beacon and a friend from uni) went to the Staffordshire MOD base to work on a series of special reports that will be on air next week. It was a special day for journalists, and involved various reports having to do different physical activities, from obstacle courses and sit-ups to paint balling and logic tasks. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do any of the activities, that was Jess’ job, I was there to record, film and photograph all the action. This was the first time as a journalist, I’d truly felt the shift towards multi-media production – and it was quite a challenge filming, whilst taking photos and recording interviews with the radio mic. I’ll post a link to the final video when uploaded…
And so, that was two days, why am I still in the Midlands? Well, whilst at the army camp, I was asked if I could work two more days, and then Monday to Thursday next week…and that seemed fair enough to me…but I had to book into a hotel, as I couldn’t face another early start on a train tomorrow!
So, I’m sat in the foyer of the Britannia Hotel – Wolverhampton (as they don’t provide internet in your rooms – and the less time spent in your room the better), watching a drunk man trying to find his phone in his pockets, when it’s on the table in front of him, thinking this could be a busy year – here’s hoping!
I’ve also spent today Tweeting non-stop – I’m going to use them for a blog at a later date…
But not it’s time for bed…
Oh, except to say I discovered the Phill and Phil ‘The Perfect Ten‘ podcasts today with Phill Juptiter and Phil Wilding, a really great listen and a great concept of pulling 10 topics out of a hat, and having half an hour to talk about them…I especially enjoyed the comments about Duffy’s dancing in this weeks…
