Hello, we are Tim Drew and Tom Morgan doing our work experience at Deddington OnAir. Our 2 shows vary in content. The first is about The Warriner School Farm, while the second is about social media and technology.

 

 


 

Warriner School Farm

 

The farm, in Bloxham, opens its doors to all people and offers many experiences for you to discover. Our show gives you an outline of what is on the farm as well as opinions about it.

 

 

 


 

 

The Technology Show

 

This show includes detailed information about the two social media giants Twitter and Facebook. We also talk about technology companies such as Apple and Samsung, with a news section adding extra depth.

 

 

 


 

Tom Morgan

 

I chose to do my work experience at Deddington OnAir because the whole package sounded like something I have never had. The chance to do before, such as the tour of BBC Birmingham and to produce radio shows in my own home. Since Journalism is a profession that I want to go into, naturally, I jumped at this work experience opportunity. We firstly had the tour, which was very interesting. We got to see inside some radio studios such as BBC Asian and BBC Birmingham, which boasted the latest high-tech radio show producing hard- and software. After this, we went into a recording studio and were able to reproduce our own version of The Archers, using 3 microphones and a script from a pervious episode. So, as we all stood round microphones reading the script, 4 people had the job of making realistic sound effects. It turned out to be a lot better than I first thought. After this, we had the opportunity to go into a real life news centre where the news was being gathered. A door away from the offices, there was a news recording studio, which contained a news desk and chair upon a small stage, surrounded by screens and just off the stage was the weather screen. In front of all this was 4 cameras, all with autocue and, above everything, a whole barrage of lights. The main factor that surprised me was how small the studio was. When I watch the news the studio looks enormous, but apparently not!

 

The work experience week soon came along, which involved using a laptop with Audacity, a Zoom H2 microphone and a pair of headphones. Audacity, is a free piece of software whereby users can record and edit sound with ease. The first time I got to grips with this program and microphone was at the training day. On this day, we were asked to write, time, record and edit a 30 second radio commercial. This didn't sound too difficult at first but after the script was written, I quickly found out that it was too long, so I had to re-write it. Once it was the right length, I recorded it, which I managed to do first time - much to my delight. After this, I loaded it into Audacity and cut bits out, put an audio track over it and generally polished it up so it was a good as I could make it. When this was done, the whole group had a script from The Goon Show. We went through it to decide which parts were recorded outside and which were to be recorded inside, read through it to get a feel for the script then we recorded it straight away. Once this was all done, we loaded the audio files into Audacity and got clipping and adding in sound effects to compliment the script. Once this was all polished up, we were left to make our radio shows.

 

Before the week started, I was given the brief of what our radio shows had to include and how long they had to be. Since I was working with my friend Tim, we got straight to planning the shows. The first show idea was given to us and the second, we had to think of ourselves. The first show was about The Warriner School Farm and the second was about social media and modern technology. Our weeks work experience went like this:

 

Day 1: Tim and I produced a script for the show, including intros, outros and conversation cues to help the radio show move along well. After recording these, we went out to The Warriner School and interviewed Mr Holloway and Dr Kay. We also went out into Bloxham and recorded an interview with a local to gain their views of the farm.

 

Day 2: With fresh heads, we got down to editing. We ordered the work correctly, cut out pauses, "ummms" and coughs, and then put in a backing track. We then listened to the show back a few times and deleted things we felt were unnecessary or didn't sound right.

 

Day 3: We planned the second show, which ended up to be based on Social Media and technology. Tim and I made a script, which included intros, outros and conversations. When everything was ready, we recorded the main parts of the show.

 

Day 4: All of the audio files were loaded into Audacity and the editing went underway. We cut parts out, played with the amplification and compression tools and faded in and faded out music where appropriate.

 

Day 5: Tim and I listened over both shows to ensure we were happy with them and then took them to Deddington OnAir's producers: David and Deborah. They listened over the shows and suggested slight changes to make the shows the best they could be. Once they were fully edited, we gave the shows to David to upload.

 

Overall, I would rate this experience 10/10. I learned lots about radio and what parts are important when producing a radio show. Everyone I met provided great support and I had an amazing experience at Deddington OnAir. I would definitely recommend Deddington OnAir to anyone who is interested in radio or journalism or anyone who wants to try something new.