"Ignite the Spark"

So i know its been a while since i set up this blog but i now have something finally to write about, I've been down in Poole now for just over two weeks and today i started my lecture programme reading Radio Production Ma at Bournemouth University, the course itself is run by a man called Prof. Sean Street (http://www.seanstreet.com/) who seems to know most things radio related,he's worked both in the commercial sector and at the Beeb being commissioned for numerous programmes.

The first lecture was rightly given to us by the Professor himself and was a brief introduction into the history of radio itself we listened to some classics such as War of the Worlds (1938) by Orson Wells and others such as Under Milk Wood (1954) by Dylan Thomas. Both of these and the rest of the extracts are classics and are highly regarded in the radio History. What amazed me was that Prof. Street spoke for over two hours with little or no notes about the history of radio from the first broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1896 right up the present day were commercial radio seems to be in a "rut" as it were, I know that I've made the right choice in being at Bournemouth as it can only further my career.

So as I'm sitting in my room overlooking Poole and its theatre some of the key things that stand out from my notes that I've learnt stand out:
1) In music radio your play list for your life is the music you listen to when your 14 till your 21
2) Once you plan a seed in the listener in your programme it can cause chaos, just think of the reaction to War of the Worlds!
3) To be a successful commercial radio station you need to be saying what we should be listening too not playing what we already listen to.
4) The partnership between the producer & the listener is to 'ignite the spark'.

We spent the rest of the afternoon training on Marantz recorders (some more successful than others), which will surely bring my nightmares back over these digital audio recorders, as lets just say I've had some serious issues with them in the past! We've also been set our first task of the year to make a 3 minute programme that could eventually go onto my final show wheel that would be featured on the Bournemouth Internet Radio Station (http://www.birst.co.uk) that if you get the chance do check out! So that's my first update into my life at BU I'm now going to knuckle down at start work on my first assignment that i will tell you more about in my next entry.