Uni life documented first hand
by Emma
Station Manager at Pure FM
Entertainment Technology Student

>>Written at 2:32 pm. 0 comments

We were then joined by our next tour guide and taken to the BBC Club for lunch, a sausage pannini, a smirnoff ice and a diet coke, whilst being serenaded by an Irish women on a guitar promoing her music.

After chatting about Rajar, Internet hits and many other bits and pieces with our BBC and Bauer tour guides, we left for Bauer.

The radio part of Bauer Media was on the first floor, it is a huge office with lots of people at desks, with small studios all along the left side, and a few in the middle of the room to break up the desks. Walking along you see Kiss then Magic then another station all back to back. Its a slick business, but thats what it is, a business. There was a huge amount of desks for all the sales and promotion people, we passed by them and went to speak to the man behind station imaging, he played us some bits he's made for Kiss as we discussed the wonders of student radio, he was jealous of how open and enjoyable radio can be, "the best radio is often radio with no listeners", which is true, we aren't there to hit targets or sell-out, we do radio for ourselves, and luckily our friends and family like to listen from time to time too.

We also spoke to another man who worked on adverts and such for Kiss and Magic, its hard to remember his actual title because it used a lot of words I've not heard used in that context or together in a sentence. He also asked lots about student radio and showed us some of the things he does, a really great piece of music he made for London zoos entrance, and a piece for a radio promo, 30 seconds of audio worth £6000. Granted he had to make a few different ones to pitch to them, and he doesnt see the money because its all through Bauer, but still! We joked about the potential of him going freelance and keeping all the money for himself, he said he's thought about it a few times, but not in this current economic climate, at least when he's employed his got some kind of job security.

That was about it for Bauer, we finished talking and were passed on to out next guide, a man called Dave who I recognised from the Nottingham festival. We had a brisk walk south through Soho, a road full of sex shops, pretty sure I recognised someone leaving one of the shops, looked much like the restaurateur from hotel babylon, Dave thought it was Paul O'Grady, it wasn't.

We reached Leicester Square, discussing how ontop of Radio being an unpredictable beast, working at Leicester Square only made this a lot more unpredicatable, all sorts of things happen their day in day out. At the entrance of Global we had our bags checked and had to use alcohol rub to wash our hands, they were obviously more worried about bugs, which was fair enough, this building was HUGE. We started at the top of this horseshoe building, winding backwards and forwards down the levels, again as seen in Bauer, 90% of this space was people at desks, we swiftly walked through hundreds of people on phones. We then saw studio after studio after studio, all kitted out nicely, very funny how XFM were moved temporarily but haven't been put back to where they were... standing in the spare studio to one side XFM, the other was Classic FM. One of the bits I found particularly interesting was LDN, they have around 20 people at desks with mics on them, ready to go live whenever need be, constantly browsing through tons of stories coming in every second. TV's with Sky News and BBC News on silently on the walls. The studios were set up to have one man in a room with a mic, a computer and little other distractions, the room had space for 6 guests also. In the room adjacent there was a guy typing up his script on a word document which was viewable in the studio, also taking calls and everything else to keep the show going. Sadly, despite such slick broadcasting, LDN has been losing money for a long time.

Before the tour finished we were shown the branded meeting rooms, which had been mentioned a few times during the day, starting at the heart room, with sofas and such to give it a friendly atmosphere, the other side of the curtain was a 12 seat cinema, with a two way mirror projecting the image, allowing someone to walk behind it during the film and be illuminated to appear to the people watching. We were told this cinema was mainly there for the loophole of getting to have stickers in the window above the 1st floor, genius! We then went on to see each of the other rooms branded the hell out of, each for their own station. So Capital had actual bus seats, with london wallpaper, XFM's main focal point was a big stone U shaped bar, with a mini fridge full of becks and pepsi. Again, contrasting with Classic FM next door, which had soft white curtains up covering all walls, a glass dining table and even a harp in the corner. We joked about the music discussions they would have in there "I have some new music for you to play... its 200 years old"

So that wrapped up the tour, it was 4.30pm, and they had put out all the stuff ready for the "The Ugly Truth" film premier. I bid farewell to Safia, and gave Jacob a call, someone I was in contact throughout the day saying to say hello if we were shown round Radio 1. I gave him a call, and he invited me to Radio 1 to have a proper look around, of course I walked as quickly as I could back to Great Portland Street, I was pretty walked out at this point. I met Jacob outside Yalding House, the tour begun half way up the building where he finished off some work, giving me a chance to sit down for a bit. Then beginning at the top he showed me everything from 1Xta, to Newsbeat, stopping at Station Sound, where I spoke to a man in charge of the Imaging for Radio 1, very interesting chat with him there and hoping to keep in touch with him. We then went down to the Daytime and Evening Radio 1 offices, where I bumped into Hayley, someone I'd met at the Leeds SRA Con, she'd got the summer work experience and was loving it. I gave Huw Stephens a nod, I've got to be careful otherwise he's going to think I'm stalking him! We then went downstairs to the studio, showing me the live lounge, the den, which is a lovely little kitchen and seating area. We stood in a studio for a bit, Jacob showed me the computers and stuff, through the studio to our left was Zane Lowe, and ahead, the other side of the Live Lounge was Greg James. It hit newsbeat and Greg left his studio just as a Tech came in to fix something in the studio we were in so Jacob decided to see if we were allowed in to Y2 to talk to Neil and Ian, which wasnt a problem and Greg turned up. We had a bit of a chat discussing what I'd been up to that day "Ewww why did you go there" Was Greg's response to Bauer and Global, followed by "We're there just loads of dead bodies" Very funny, we left the studio to let them get on with their radio show, and I really needed to head home too. As I was leaving Jacob quietly pointed to a lady sitting at the front desk, scribbling a letter madly on a little piece of paper, apparently she's not all there, comes in daily and writes really long letters to Chris Moyles.

I might have to try that ;-) :-P

Eeek a lot of writing.

Great day

Emma

>>Written at 2:19 pm. 2 comments