Saturday 8 November 2008

First job and reality...

Got me first job.

I'm a reporter at a brand new local station, Perth FM 106.6. After working there for only one week, I've realised a few things about University newsdays:
1/ We went to HUMUNGOUS lengths to get a 20 second audio clip, which no one has time time to do in the real world.
2/ We took three hours to edit something which really only takes about 30 seconds.
3/ Clips dont have to be perfect, a few umms and aahs go unnoticed.
4/ Sheffield is an AMAZING news patch. Barnsley, Peniston and Rotherham are all pretty good compared to Perth.
5/ About 20 of us did one persons job.
6/ No one actually listens to local radio news anyway, apart from the newsreaders mum and a few of her friends.

Now, lets give everyone a little run down of my day. I arrive for 9am. I usually get someone to come to the studio for an interview, and half the time I cant get rid of them till 9.30am. Then I have half an hour to find three stories for the morning (Tayside police/NHS press releases/a few vox pops I took the day before...). I have to write the bulletin, record it, fart about with the settings, edit my clips into it on a waveform, mix it down, then add financial news plus jingles and sports news plus jingles. All in 30 minutes.

This then happens on the hour every hour, but in the meantime, I have to prepare bulletins for the rest of the week, organise interviews, and on a Friday I go to the football stadium, wait for the football manager for half an hour, then get a 3 minute interview with him.

It's VERY stressful, long hours, and I'm on minimum wage.

But that's what we all knew anyway, didn't we?

2 comments:

Chris Ratcliffe said...

'Why, why whyyyyyyy.... dear journ's..... did we ever choose this job?'

I'm feeling the same except working in a theatre box office and taking a month on a piece of freelance work for Mixmag.

Don't worry my dear, soon we will be high flyers working as editors on New Zealand's press.

xx

RB said...

Awesome post, Jenny. I've responded to your hilarious list and added a few of my own: http://afternoonsandspoons.blogspot.com

Let me know what you think of my additions and how the job's going. It's all about the blogging community...You coming down next weekend? Kate, Em and Luke are..