From the word go my obvious talent in life has been communication with people. This is immediately obvious when you meet me but by taking a deeper look into my choices of study and jobs it becomes clear I am a person who loves to communicate and wishes to use that skill to work within the media.
The experience I hold most valuable is my 1 and a half year working at Edinburgh based speech radio station Talk107. Despite it sadly no longer being in existance, it was a fantastic media venture to be a part of and I hope another station may arise in Scotland soon.
During my time there I worked as a researcher, assistant producer and producer.
Some of the shows I am most proud of are the ones in which breaking news would occur and as producer I’d be required to get good guest speakers to come on the show quickly. For the Virginia Tech masacre I called around numerous American radio stations untill I was able to find a news editor in the area who was able to speak live on the show and tell us what she knew from an American perspective. It was a real buzz managing to secure relevant guests quickly and efficiantly and such short notice.
I was also around when the Scottish elections fiasco broke and we all spent the entire day getting the latest updates and relevent speakers to give us the latest. This was clearly a very big story for Scotland and I was there at 5:00am in the morning when the disasterous nature of it was really becoming clear.
Another big story was the body of Vicky Hamilton being found. The news editor of Talk 107 Gwen Lawrie was standing next to me when she recieved the call from her close police source, she wasn’t allowed to broadcast it on air untill the press conference but it sent an electric buzz through rippling through the office as we all heard. It had to be established quickly what could be said on air regarding the law and the mention of Peter Tobin’s name. It was unclear what we were allowed to say and that was a big learning experience for me.
Working at Talk107 was the most highly pressurised experience of my life. I’d have 3 hours, sometimes less to set up an entire show and with advert and news breaks regularly being executed, the producer has to keep on top of the timing. It was incredibly nerve wracking but empowering being given that much responsibility.
There were times when the whole station would, for some reason, go off air for a few seconds and everyone, including myself and the presenters visible through the glass, would go white faced as our hearts stopped beating for a minute and we desperately try to figure out what’s going on and fix it. Then within seconds it’s sorted and you’re dialling the next interviewee to put them on air. A 3 hour show goes past in what feels like a minute.
I think at Talk107 particularly, due to it’s low budget and low number of staff, I was forced to learn even more than I would at a more estbalished and well funded station. In the producers booth I was required to answer all calls, dial up all interviewees, keep an eye on the back timing and tell presenters when to break, print out the emails and texts and travel news and generaly remain calm and collected in order to keep the presenter calm and on track. Essentially playing the role of 3 or 4 people.
