Hannah Giles

Today I went in for my last Heart FM Oxfordshire experience. Well, this time round. Today the agenda was not Breakfast with Matt and Giselle. It was Pete Bristow, taking over not only Simon Ross’s 1-4pm show but also Drivetime with Adam Ball 4-7pm. So a nice sneeky peek into not only how a presenter fares on their own but also get a feel for two other completely different shows on Heart Oxfordshire.

First things first. Songfacts. When you’re by yourself and you don’t have anyone else to talk to, all you have is the music and your listeners. How to connect with them, tell them about the music. This was my job. Music fact researcher. Other things to include in solo links, Heart ethics “More music variety”, “feel good music”, what’s coming up, shout outs! Engage the audience. Heart is all about being friendly, not polite. Mention places, banter, keep it local!

The importance of the station identity really became evident with Pete, as he showed me how to take control of the system and all the branding that has to be used. Also the importance of forward promoting (shows and features) and directing people to the webpage. DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST etc

Pete also let me in on some trade secrets, the theory behind a perfect link, and the impact of a sweeper (station ident). He also taught me the art of back timing, which is different as a solo presenter than for say Matt and Giselle. They can just chat away, create these long 2 or 3 minute links and fill up some time, whereas a presenter on their own?? Not possible. Things like the news, and ad breaks, have to air at certain times to ensure that there’s no clashing on air when certain things are programmed to be played automatically (like the breakfast promo) and to ensure the unity of Heart Nationally. For this, towards the last 15 minutes of the hour it’s necessary to figure out any gaps in the show that haven’t been accounted for. For these gaps there are production wonders called “Filler songs”. Literally, a nice long list of songs to fill the gap.

Today has been really insightful, and really helped me with the theories behind creating a radio show and with more of the technicalities of production. If anything, today has been the most influential and encouraging. I would love to do this for the rest of my life. Heart FM Oxfordshire, this isn’t goodbye!

Today I sat in on the Heart Oxford monthly team meeting. This was an interesting look into the different successes of Heart Oxford as a brand, as a station and also the individual ventures people have achieved. Being December, it was an opportunity to review the rest of the year, which is of great significance seeing that Heart only took over from Fox FM in March! I hope to get hold of these details.

It was hard work for me right to the end of the day, and sadly there is still much I am to discover about the station that I simply did not have time for during the hours I was there. I have the email contacts I need, and I have an open invitation back to Heart Towers whenever I like, so I am confident I still have access to everything I need to complete the case study.

Producer Pete is taking over a presenting slot on the 29th December which he has invited me to sit in on. This will be a further opportunity to see how a show at a different part of the day is put together and how it is tailored to that audience. It will also be interesting to see how a solo presenter controls a show when there is just one personality on air.

Week four has been as manic as ever. The main tasks this week were finishing all the small talk editing for the end of the year and finishing the celebrity advent calendar. This meant I spent a lot of time in the studio working for hours at a time on Audition.

It was an amazing teaching experience though. The celebrity advent calendar was really tough to edit, especially the last few as it was big names like Ricky Gervais, Noel Edmonds and Myleene Klass and I had to find the best bits of ten, sometimes twenty minute interviews and fit it into 1 minute 25 seconds max. This was a massive insight into the heart brand. The biggest factor in the heart brand is the feel good factor. Heart is about making people feel good. So interviews where celebrities are talking about cosmic ordering or their new baby clothing range, or even just what they’ve been up to, it isn’t necessarily going to make the cut. For a couple of the advent “doors” I had to use the podcast archive, and use the material from when the original interviews were aired which included Matt and Giselle’s responses as the response is often what creates the interest and the reaction, and what would make that 1 minute 25 seconds more feel good. For example, the very dry interview with Noel Edmonds where he talked about his local private wedding and whether or not he can tell if someone is going to win big on Deal or No Deal was cut and sliced, and for the advent edit it ends on a power out after Giselle realises she sounds like a stalker and Matt points out, admitting you sound like a stalker doesn’t mean you’re not one.

Helped Pete on the creative side with coming up for lines for the 12 Daves of Christmas (My Dad eventually agreed to claim the title of Dave number 4). This was about finding a sentence full of Christmas spirit that ended with an “ee” sound, and was obviously true to the Heart brand. Outlandish statements like “I have the biggest tree”, “I love Mariah Carey” and “Me and my kids are on the street” are examples of what made the grade!

I spent much of Tuesday, Wednesday and Today directing a video edit of the Santas on the Run charity event which is now up on the Heart website. Having spent a lot of the first half of the year editing video this was of great help, but the video footage had already been captured and I was using Sony Vegas, a program I was entirely unfamiliar with and while the end result isn’t to a quality I would have liked, it does what it needs to do!

After week three at Heart FM Oxford my placement is coming to a close and it’s time to put into writing everything I’ve learnt. I have just one week left of insight into the radio station, one week left to discover all I could ever know about how a local radio station connects with it’s audience.

While I’ve been introduced to Dave, Claire and Jo (the Heart target listeners), I’ve been a Heart Angel for a night, I’ve produced a lot of audio content, and even a web article, I still feel there is quite a bit I don’t know about HOW the station connects with it’s audience. And I don’t mean how to listen on FM, digital or Online.

I’ve split the station into six sections: Sales, Advertising and Promotions, Presenters and Producers, News, Heart Angels and the website. I believe from what I’ve seen that these are the six different access points at the station and the six different routes of access to the audience. I think that having separated the station into these component parts will help me to understand the different levels of interaction.

While I have spent the majority of my time with the presenters and station producer, mingled with the angels and the news team, and contributed to the website, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to get to grips with the commercial side of the radio. And as a commercial radio station, this is the life blood of the station, the literal “how” it stays on air and reaches a potential audience. Because of this, I hope to spend some time with the sales team, and advertising and promotions this week to conclude my study and perhaps find the gel that keeps the station together.

I’m now into week three at Heart FM Oxford.

Pete’s back this week, and I’m due for a review tomorrow. I’m about 95% sure I’m not going to be asked to leave.

Today was a very miserable day at the station, and it was very difficult to find the concentration and energy to keep going all afternoon. While I’ve been really putting my all into the audio features I’ve been working on, sometimes there’s just little blips you can’t get rid of, and connections which just don’t sound right. But Pete said very early on, “You’ve got to learn to let go of perfection” because sometimes you’ve done all you can, and it’s not possible to make it any better than it already is. I think this week will be full of coming to terms with this!

Last week, the Heart Angels co-ordinator Jim took on Pete’s role as Station and Breakfast producer. As he also had to juggle this with his normal role I was given a lot more responsibility to help him with the work load. This involved archiving the show for the weekly podcast, editing calls and interviews (including an interview with Eastenders’ Kara Tointon and Lucie Jones from X Factor) and creating each days Breakfast Promo. I also had to make sure that all the files I’d prepared to be broadcast were correctly entered into the system to either be played automatically, or to be at the touch of a button for Matt and Giselle to use on the Breakfast show. It was an amazingly productive week, and a brilliant opportunity. The Breakfast Promos I made, and all the calls and features I edited were all used and broadcast to the Heart FM Oxfordshire audience. All 164, 000 of them.

There was also lots to prepare for the run up to Christmas. Not only Christmas versions of all the regular Ramps and Sweepers and Promos (which had to be painstakingly entered into Genysis and checked), but also all the Breakfast show features. Heart FM have a returning feature called “Sleeps to Santa” which is a daily updated countdown to Santa’s visit. This is downloadable through the website, very popular with children, and a great interactive feature. Although incredibly annoying, the audience really seem to connect with this. There will also be a “12 Daves of Christmas” which starts this week, a customized tale of 12 Daves (rather than Days) in the run up to Christmas. The Daves are all Breakfast show listeners. There’s also a Celebrity Advent Calendar.

Last week I also wrote an article for the Heart FM Oxfordshire website, detailing all these exciting things the station will be broadcasting during the festive period. It is soon to be updated with a video and Christmas Cracker joke poll! 

Check it out here: http://www.heartoxfordshire.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1607001