Student Radio Association

Over the course of the last year I have been fortunate enough to present shows on URN from day one right up to the end of the year. I was elected Head of Daytime Programming for this academic year and this gave me a chance to test my versatility by working on a range of shows throughout URN’s year.

This year my main focus has been on the Afternoon Show which I presented solo on Mondays in the first semester and with a co-presenter on a Friday. The Afternoon show is URN’s flagship daytime show. It is on 5 times a week and is primarily a light-hearted chat show which is presented by a different person each day with each presenter giving the show their own unique twist. As a person I am very honest and open about my opinions and often end up ranting about things I dislike on air. As a result, when I am presenting alone there is a danger of the show becoming too one sided. However, this creates a fantastic opportunity for listeners to text in and offer their own opinion which gives the show a broader feel and encourages a sense of community within the show. Listener involvement has always been my priority as I believe the best way to connect with listeners is by making them feel as though they are contributing to the making of the show. On a Friday with Tom things are slightly different and the focus is slightly shifted away from the texts towards the interplay between me and him. We inhabit defined roles where I am prone to flights of fancy and silliness whilst he tries to keep some sort of composure in a more straight man type role. 

Throughout the year I have also worked on a series of one-off shows that have called for different skills and styles. As part of our university’s Week One URN broadcast the Move-in Show. It was important to be as laid back as possible and to avoid being intimidating. Having been out amongst the freshers that morning I sought to answer the questions that freshers themselves were asking and avoid the more generic information being distributed. I also tried to make things humorous by taking my typically cynical view and using it to try and help make sense of all the information that was being thrown at them. As part of URN’s SU Elections coverage I was tasked with presenting the Elections Show, a daily hour long entertainment programme for elections week. SU politics is a big deal at our university and this year we were faced with a very serious two weeks of camping. It was the job of the Election Show to try and cut through this and provide some light entertainment by giving the listeners a look at the human side of the candidates and the candidates a break from the rigours of campaigning. Production, however, was taken very seriously and my team and I put our degrees on hold in order to hold production meetings, rehearsals and de-briefings each day. At the end of the year I held an OB to celebrate results day. Results day is obviously a tense, nervy time and I made sure not to pry too much and instead be a chilled out pillar of support offering advice from Careers advisors and other Graduate support centres.

Throughout the year I have tirelessly worked to combine tight production and my own spontaneous cynicism whilst also constantly trying to involve the listener to make shows that are professional, fun and engaging.