Radio Show:
I had a fantastic time in my group creating our radio show. Ours was at the end of the semester, which meant we had the largest amount of time to plan and prepare. While at first this seemed like a huge benefit— really we were all ready to go after about a week and spent the rest of the time meticulously planning the show. What resulted was an hour of radio which we were all very proud of. My group consisted of Ben, Luca and myself.
At first when we found out we had to do a full hour of radio I was very nervous about the whole experience. An hour seems a lot longer on paper than it does when you actually go to air. It wasn’t until about a month into the course when we recorded our demo that I realised that it was possible. I remember when we drafted out the full hour for the demo and then recorded it, we were all sitting there very confused as to how time went so quickly.
Two of our guests were in person and one was remote because they couldn’t make it on the day. It took an equal amount of coordination and effort on and off the air. Allowing enough time between segments to meet the guests and getting them out of the studio on time was monumental. It made them comfortable and adjusted to the radio setting. All of our guests were fantastic and Ben and Luca did a great job at asking follow up questions to stories the guests told.
Overall our radio experience was incredible. Something I would improve next time is to not interject as much when the guests are speaking. It’s very difficult not to verbally affirm guests like you would do with your friends in real life. Another aspect we would improve is to conduct over the phone interviews in a radio studio as opposed to over Zoom because it would drastically help the audio quality.
Radio Feature:
The radio feature was such a fun project to work on. Our group chose the story of Federici who is the ghost who supposedly haunts The Princess Theatre. One thing we thought would be a massive challenge was getting an interview since the incident occurred too long ago for anyone to give an eyewitness account. While originally we were planning on using archival interview recordings for our piece, our tutor Jacinta was insistent that we could track down a guest. Due to her persistence and encouragement we managed to successfully reach out to an individual who performed in Phantom of The Opera at the theatre and in a production of Faust, and later worked at the venue as an usher. He was able to give a personal account of multiple experiences he had with the ghost.
Because we were only able to secure this interview so late into the production process, we essentially had created a framework of the show without the interview and just dropped it in at a later date. In hindsight we would have secured an interview at an earlier point in time so we could have restructured the plot and framed the hook around him.
On a further note, our tutor Jacinta made this class as collaborative and fun as possible, showing us lots of tips and tricks. My favourite trick we were taught was when a guest is talking for too long and you need to wrap up a segment, all you need to do is audibly inhale, and something in their brain will switch to slow down. It was little pieces of knowledge like this that made the course as engaging as it was.
In Class Tasks:
- One task we worked on in class was the audio postcard. This was very helpful in both recording and mixing the background sounds and atmosphere for the radio feature.
- The second was the radio demo, where I learnt that an hour really isn’t that long when you go to air— and the more prepared you are, the quicker time passes.
References:
- I found this first reading incredibly helpful, as it discussed radio conventions such as setting the ‘time and place’. This reading did a fantastic job of explaining the history of radio while providing context with modern day examples like ‘Hamish and Andy’.
Ahern S (2022) MAKING RADIO AND PODCASTS : a practical guide to working in today’s radio and., Routledge, S.L.
2. This reading was brilliant at breaking down the methods of interviewing. One thing I learnt from it is how different interviewing someone on radio is from other scenarios, when you can only communicate to your audience through audio, live on air.
Beaman J (2011) Interviewing For Radio, Routledge, London.
3. While not an academic article, this piece from ABC on the importance of composition within radio features shaped how our group went about creating ours. From the history of how they came to be, as well as discussing them in its current form, we were able to add elements into our own projects from this.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-history-listen/the-art-of-the-radio-feature/13829982