Radio is one of my main passions. BBC Radio 5 Live’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League is one of my core memories growing up.
Forge Media
The first thing I did with Forge Media was to get involved as a panelist for our flagship show ‘Sportsdesk’, in which we would talk about and debate the goings-on in the world of a number of sports that week. I soon did commentary for Forge Radio’s coverage of the Varsity football in Sheffield.
I then went on to do Sportsdesk every week for a long time, eventually going on to host the show on occasion, as well as guest-hosting my friend Zain’s excellent show ‘Zain Likes To Talk’, which you can listen to here. This was my first time taking the reins, so it wasn’t perfect, but it was a good start to my radio hosting career and a fun one too.
In my final year at the Uni, and therefore with Forge Media, I was Head of Sport, in which I liaised with local sports teams to provide coverage. Our main event, however, is Varsity, and for this, I selected roles for our dozens of volunteers, and briefed them when they arrived at the various events. I also enlisted people from the committee to support with the tech required for on-location coverage, which all went off without a hitch.
The PlayStyles Podcast
Part of our Uni course saw us split into groups, where we created our own magazine brands.
As part of this, we did a podcast, for which I did most of the planning, while other members took charge of the presenting and editing.
These were great fun to make, and you can listen to them on Spotify or watch them on YouTube.
The CrossCode Rugby Podcast
An exciting project that never got past the first episode due to unforeseen circumstances, but a valuable experience nonetheless, as it was the first time I’d planned and edited audio so much! The idea was that I was a rugby league fan, my co-host was a rugby union fan, and this gave us what I think was an interesting concept.
We also had a good opportunity, as we interviewed Castleford Tigers head coach Craig Lingard in the first of many live press conferences I have been to.
You can listen here.
University
On my Journalism Studies course, we were taught how to write cues, what worked for on-location reporting, and how to produce snippets, and whole news bulletins.
We had live ‘news days’, where we would bring pre-made stories that could be included in bulletins, or we would go out and report on a live story, or we could just write a short addition to the bulletin, or we could do all of the above. I produced the most stories of anyone in our news days, as well as reading the sports bulletin.
We also had radio voice training, where I discovered I read very quickly in comparison to what the pros do!
One of the final things I did at the Uni was a module where we produced a mock-podcast or radio show that was linked to the development in a developing part of the world. I chose to have some fun with it, by taking on the persona of a larger-than-life Texan radio host and exploring how this could be used when talking about, and providing information about, a really important and sensitive modern-day topic: in this case, how to navigate life as an immigrant, documented or otherwise. You can listen to it here.
This was a really valuable experience for me, as the research involved was eye-opening, and it allowed me to have some experience completely unlike the sports experience I had built up.
Ollie Mitchell 