Thursday, March 29, 2007

News Just In....

After visiting all the departments and learning how the radio station operated, I spent a couple of days in the newsroom, this was the place that I was really keen to get into.
I was shown how the journalists got their news stories and where the national news came from. I followed the reporters out on stories and watched as they edited their audio for the news bulletins and programmes.

It was 1995, before the internet was being used publicly, and the back of the Red Rose Newsroom was full of reference books and research material. It also housed huge filing cabinets full of scripts dating back years. Amazingly the newsroom was still using typewriters, and all their scripts were being stored in the cabinets in case of any issues relating to the stories that had been broadcast.

My first task was to sort through most of the scripts and make some much needed space. It was something I was dreading, but I found that I actually enjoyed reading through what was effectively Lancashire's recent history. More importantly I was absorbing like a sponge the writing style and radio journalism techniques. From Keith Macklin and Mike Green's coverage of the terrible Abbeystead Disaster, through Richard Frediani's coverage of the IRA bombing of Weeton Army base to high profile cases at Preston Crown Court. I was given the task to decide what to keep and what to save.

Next I was given my first taste of recording audio to be used within the news bulletins. I was shown how to take the national news feed. IRN supply many commercial radio station newsrooms with audio of national and international stories. Like all things, it's all done online now, but every hour they used to send selection of `clips` - short bits of interviews with people making the news - via satellite from London. I had to record them on the equivalent of an 70's `8 track` cartridge tape, known as a `cart`. It was an important and stressful role, because if you messed it up, the newsreader would not be able run the clip of John Major, or equivalent, in the next news bulletin.

Next: I'm sent on my first assignment, and the typewriter with no `M` !!

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