Diary of a Presenter - Christmas Cheer at the Station

The Secklow Sounds family

The Secklow Sounds family met for their Christmas Meal on Thursday 17th December. We booked Calcutta's Indian Brasserie - a lovely restaurant in Stony Stratford that is part of a converted Abbey. With a new set of presenters, the funniest thing was trying to place a face to a voice!

Audrey & Gill - LifestyleMK get into the Christmas Spirit

It was a really lovely turnout, with many of the presenters and management team in attendance, and as always a great opportunity to chat to the person behind the sound. What a varied world of people make up community radio - trainers and teachers, gardeners, conductors, administrators, managers, engineers to name but a few. That's what enables each programme to have the human touch. It's not just about knowing your subject, it's about living life too.

Many of the shows will now break for Christmas although we do have some festive live shows and specials over the Holidays:

SOUL STEPPING - The Xmas Special will go live this Sunday 20th, then repeated on the 27th Dec


HARRY AND EDNA ON THE WIRELESS - Seasonal special shows fall on 23rd & 30th Dec


EYE ON MK - now "DRIVE TIME" - Sean will be doing a live 'Getting ready for Christmas' show Monday-Thursday up to Xmas Eve. There will be a pre-recorded "Best of the guests" show for Xmas Day. ...and Sean is live on Bank Holiday Monday 4-6.


BUSINESS BRUNCH is broadcasting a "best of" compilation shows on the 23rd and the 30th Dec

Diary of a presenter (4)

Shows left to do ON OUR OWN(!!!)       1

Shows we got through ON OUR OWN    1

Number of people very pleased with themselves   3  (and hopefully Mike too!!)

It was THE BIG TEST today as Mike threw us in at the deep end by opening the door to the studio and closing it on his way out!!!

Left alone, we decided we had two options - run for it and he'd never know...until the 30 minutes of dead air... or jump in sink or swim.

Hopefully we were waving not drowning...

In the very capable hands of Dave, we lined up our programme.  Everything was in the right dropbox and in the right format, so that was a good start.  We double checked our timings and content and then went for it...and it went ok...

Well...ok except for... memo to Audrey - let's turn to mic to face Gill if you're going to turn your face to her to chat!!  (And stop making "encouragement noises!")

Memo to Dave - girls get louder in broadcast than they are in sound check

Memo to Gill - those "OMG blank moments"...normal!!! (so don't worry ;) )

We learned from last week that sometimes you have to allow for conversation to settle, so we were pleased with the segment timings.  There are some great things going on in Milton Keynes including: Heritage Open Day  and of course the Rugby World Cup is on its way, plus the start of term at Milton Keynes College meant there was a LOT to talk about in terms of doing something new for the first time.  Dave's "Man Cave" was about your first car, and one of the funniest moments (doesn't matter how often we hear it) was "How To Guru" Ashley's first time exercising in a year!!  Content wise, we're pretty happy.

We're easing into co-ordinating timing, banter, content and features - so come October 3rd - we hope to have a real cracker of a show.  We'll be introducing you to other members of the Lifestyle:MK team then too - Alex who'll be talking about "living on a budget", Rachel who'll give us the News (ONLY positive news stories that is!), Robb our resident Personal Trainer who will answer your questions on fitness, and Dr Jamie, our resident Vet who'll be hosting "Pet's Corner" with lifestyle tips for your furry friends...in fact - check out the team HERE!

We're looking forward to chatting with you, so please make a date with us from 12 - 2pm on Saturdays from October 3rd, 2015.

...and if you missed today's show, you can find us on Spreaker: HERE

Lifestyle:MK, 12 - 2pm, Saturdays on Secklow Sounds, Community Radio for Milton Keynes

@Secklowsounds

@draudreyt

Diary of a Presenter (3)

Dave and Gill at work - supported by Mike

• Mistakes 1

• Salvageable mistakes - also 1

• Nerves 1...billion

Today's training was a 30 minute pilot...and overall...   

The content is there, the personalities are there - and with a little refining - WATCH OUT OCTOBER - the Lifestyle:MK team are on their way!!

Lesson 1: Planning a radio show is heavily constrained by timing and an understanding of what the audience wants to hear.  (This is where Mike, Secklow Sounds' CEO and presenter of "Sweet Inspiration" really knows his stuff).  The first thing we learned was not to try and pack too much into each segment because it's important to give you, our lovely listeners, time to digest - while today's show was "lively" - it was verging at times on the radio equivalent of "candy jar in abundance".  

We know now to give a little more time to pause for breath!

Lesson 2: Not all files are created equal... I made the rookie error of thinking an mp4 file was an mp3!!  Argh...cue dead air - literally!!  Thanks to Mike and Dave (Lifestyle:MK's Producer/Sound Engineer) we managed to re-group while live...and clean up the edit which will go up on Mixcloud!!

Lesson 3: There is a point of no return... There is a point towards the end of the show where the timing needs to be set up for the next presenter - and it's MUCH easier to do this when you are in control of the time...rather than using a recorded vox pop!!!  

...but, to those who tuned in - THANK YOU, and actually, we are really happy for a first run.  Dave has decided he will call himself "Man Man" for his "Man Cave" segment...it'll never catch on ;)   Gill and I now know what films we're going to watch and what to try (for FREE!!!) on our next nights in and out with the girls.  Thanks to Ashley we can all make the PERFECT hot chocolate - and we even had a live tweet from Alex - so - high fives all round ;) !!

We're going to do it all again next week - after all, practice makes perfect - and we want to be perfect for you!

...So do join us next Tuesday at 8.30pm when we'll discussing the "First Time for Everything"!!
Meanwhile - you can catch today's pilot on our Mixcloud or Spreaker !

Lifestyle MK begins on Saturday October 3rd, 12noon - 2pm on Secklow Sounds, Community Radio for Milton Keynes - live the moment with us!

@secklowsounds
@draudreyt

Diary of a Presenter (2)

Dave - our Producer/Sound Engineer at work



• "Life hacks" learned - to help a swift start to the broadcast - 3

• Playlist songs thought of when put on the spot - 1 (...if you're really lucky!)

• Minutes overtime for a 1-minute trial "chat" slot - 4

It was day 2 of training for the Lifestyle:MK team with Secklow Sounds' technical chief, Mick Bannister (Mick also hosts "Plane Talking" which repeats tonight (Tuesday) at 11pm!...check him out here)

Dave got straight in with checking mic levels - and concluded that "excitable girls get gradually louder", as Gill and I were given a short "live chat" section in order to practice cueing.  

The most important element of the session was the speed at which the "turnaround" needs to happen.  Every show is cued right up to the second because presenters change over on the hour, and the next show needs to be ready to start so that you, our lovely listeners, can be sure you've got the right station.  This means each show team being aware of little things like the (silent) doorbell to allow the next show in, and making sure that our own show is structured to give as much time at the start and end to settle - while maintaining impact and interest for our audience. Not only that, but every show retains the Secklow Sounds identity on the hour (otherwise poor Mick has to do a lot of editing prior to sending out a recorded programme!)

Mick gave us a number of little pointers for an efficient start - I won't give away all his secrets, but suffice to say "drag and drop" of a singular structure is the way to go...so planning ahead is the key.  

We also recorded our promo - backed by a fantastic original jingle written specially for Lifestyle:MK by the marvelous Simon Gargrave - for more about Simon, click HERE .  He's created a lovely, jazzy sound - perfect for easy listening and Saturday chat!

Next week we are going to have a go at a mini show - so if you fancy tuning in, please do at 8.30pm on Tuesday September 1st when Gill and I will be having a "Girls' Night In"...but gents, don't despair because Dave will be there with a "Man Cave" section.

...and of course we took a few cheeky camera pics:

Audrey and Gill get down to some girl talk

30 minute "Girls' Night in with Lifestyle:MK" Tuesday Sept 1st 8.30pm


Lifestyle MK begins on Saturday October 3rd, 12noon - 2pm on Secklow Sounds, Community Radio for Milton Keynes - live the moment with us!

@secklowsounds
@draudreyt

Diary of a presenter...

• "Ummms" during broadcast 3
• What does this button do again? questions 4
• How excited are we!??! 500000%

The LIFESTYLE MK team had their first day of training with Secklow Sounds' CEO, Mike Johnson!

The most important (and probably frightening) step was finding our way around the broadcast desk.  There are a LOT of buttons and sliders, but thankfully, many can stay in the very position in which they have been left!

A lot goes on whilst live shows are being broadcast, including some of Secklow Sounds' recorded shows being syndicated (played on other stations) all around the world.  One of the first things we all scribbled down frequently was which buttons NOT to press!

The next part was getting the sound balance for the team.  We're a talk show (and we'll be expecting to hear from you @secklowsounds !!) so we'll bring you interviews, banter, tips, tricks and other features as well as our favourite (topical) tunes.  Radio sound needs consistency, the last thing we want is you, our lovely listener, having to turn up the voice only to have your ears "blasted" when a song is played - so one of the most important things for our sound engineer, Dave, was to get our mic levels right....he seemed to really like this bit - he gets to turn me down...and sometimes off!

...and of course we got the chance to speak into the mics too - something that scared our producer, Gill, at first ;) - but, ya know the girl did good - and she'll be in charge of reading your tweets and emails :) .  This is also the moment we discovered our "night voices" as well as our "Lifestyle" sound...mellow can be rather seductive!

We got a flavour of the other fantastic Secklow Sounds shows which we are privileged to promote through Lifestyle MK, and started putting together our own programme.  We go on air on October 3rd, playing from 12noon - 2pm and we've got a host of treats lined up.  We'll be looking at food & community, health, relationships, and have specials shows such as a "Halloween Special" in store!

Our homework for now is to structure our first broadcast so it's just perfect for you!

Check back with the "Diary" to see how we (and others in the Secklow Sounds team) are coming along.

Happy listening. xx

Cheeky phone pic! So excited to be part of the community!

Lifestyle MK begins on Saturday October 3rd, 12noon - 2pm on Secklow Sounds, Community Radio for Milton Keynes - live the moment with us!

@secklowsounds
@draudreyt