Throughout my time as a journalism student, I have been fortunate enough to gain a substantial amount of industry experience – both paid and unpaid. 

Over the last year I have gone from volunteering as a news presenter and reporter at local radio station, Bro Radio, to freelancing as a researcher and broadcast assistant (BA) at BBC Radio Wales.

In November 2021, I Initially started freelancing for the BBC as a researcher for the Radio Wales ‘Breakfast’, ‘Drive’ and ‘Sunday Supplement’ programmes. My main responsibilities within this role is finding and pitching story ideas to the producer, editor and presenter/s; finding live guests and interviewing them beforehand to make sure they’re the right fit for the story – and for radio; writing links and briefs for the presenter; editing audio and putting together small clips to be used throughout the programme and transcribing live interviews for the online team. 

Since beginning this role I have learnt and developed an endless number of skills and continue to do so. I’ve also began to get a better understanding of these programmes in terms of what stories would fit them best, as well as what guests would work well for each story. Furthermore, I have been able to widen my editing skills by using a different software other than Adobe to do so – ‘Startrack’ and ‘Dira.’

One skill I felt I needed to develop more this year after two years of gaining broadcast experience was my writing. Although my role within the BBC is for radio, my writing has still been able to develop by transcribing interviews and writing links and briefs for the presenter. I was also able to carry on developing the interviewing skills I had gained from my time at Bro Radio by interviewing live guests beforehand to make sure they were the right fit for the programme as mentioned above.

In December of last year, I was asked if I wanted to learn how to be a broadcast assistant (BA,) working alongside the producer and studio manager in the studio’s control room while the show is on air. The main part of my job as a BA is to call the live guests that our booked for the show, get them set up to go on air and put them through to our presenter in the studio; keep track of the programmes timings and inform the producer; direct the set up of any guests that are booked to be on video so TV or online can use their interview and arrange any guest payments with our finance team.

The production route was never something I had considered before starting with Radio Wales, but it has been incredibly valuable to me. As a student who has undergone her degree through a pandemic, the amount of practical experience I have obtained has been limited, therefore this experience has been vital in the development of my skills as a journalist. 

Being a broadcast assistant can be rewarding, but incredibly stressful and high pressured. There have been many occasions where the studio or guest’s technology hasn’t worked, or guests haven’t turned up with just minutes to go until their due on air, so it is down to me to use quick thinking and resolve the issue. Not only has this developed my ability to work in an intense environment to meet deadlines, but it has improved my problem-solving skills too.

I have also recently spent the day freelancing as researcher on the Radio Wales ‘Phone-In’ programme. During the show listeners are asked to call in and share their experiences surrounding two different topics that are being discussed on the programme that day. My job as a researcher was to answer the calls and pick the callers most suitable to go on air. I also had to fix guests for the programme as well as pitch new topics to discuss on the programme for the following day.

Because I have predominantly worked on news or political programmes so far in my career, it was great for me to experience a different type of programme and to learn new skills that would make me more employable. Consequently, working on this type of programme enabled me to really understand Radio Wales’ audience more, which will benefit me greatly while continuing to freelance there. 

Whilst freelancing on the ‘Phone-In,’ I took the opportunity to network with the new faces I was meeting and expressed my future career ambitions to be an investigative journalist. As a result of this, the daytime editor, Bridget Curnow, provided me with the e-mail address of a producer who makes a lot of the BBC’s investigative documentaries. I have made contact with this person and when I finish my degree, this is an avenue I have been offered to go down. 

As well as radio, I also occasionally work as a broadcast assistant in TV, so far working on BBC ‘Politics Wales’ and ‘Wales Live.’ 

Besides being an election stringer for ITV and Sky News, I had very little TV experience, so it was one of the main things I wanted to gain in this final year of university as I recognised it was an area I needed to improve on.

Although their classed as the same job, being a BA for TV is completely different to radio. The role requires far more focus on the timing of each item. The main responsibility is timing each item and keeping the presenter up to date, especially in the live chats, so the programme ends on time. 

While it was incredibly daunting at first, I have developed yet more incredible skills by doing this and have gained first-hand experience as to what it is like to broadcast live TV.

While freelancing at the BBC I also undertake regular training courses to improve my skills, including voice training, as I knew this was something I needed to improve on, despite my experience with Bro Radio. I often end up in a rhythm when I read my news bulletins and have been told my delivery isn’t powerful enough, so I have been determined to improve that.

 While taking part in this I spent half an hour with one of the company’s experienced news readers who taught me exactly how to read news and sport bulletins – which is something I hope to progress to once I have finished my degree.

The opportunities I have been provided with so far during my time at the BBC have been incredible and ones that I never expected to get while still being a student. While I’ve always been quite vocal about my career goals during my time here on a day to day basis, I still regularly meet with the Radio Wales News editor – and my boss – Chris Bolton to discuss my progression plans and what opportunities he can provide me with to get there. 

On reflection, there has been a number of things that have gone well for me there, but I also acknowledge there are things for me to improve on.

As many of the stories covered on the ‘Breakfast’ and ‘Drive programmes require experts to discuss them, a lot of our guests are taken from the BBC’s contact data base – but I believe I have been strong at finding original guests. For example, when covering the situation with Novak Djokovic entering Australia unvaccinated and eventually being deported, I was asked to find an Australian journalist who we hadn’t spoken to before. I ended up using Twitter to make contact with Tracey Holmes, the sports journalist who was covering the incident at the time for ABC Australia. Off the back of me fixing her for Radio Wales Breakfast, it was confirmed by my boss that other outlets and other programmes of the BBC had also used her. Our presenter, Claire Summers, also praised me for finding such a great guest and wanted her to come on again.

Similarly, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, we have had to find new ways to update and inform our listeners on the situation without being repetitive. Around a month into the conflict, I realised that we had heard from multiple experts and journalists on the programme – both in Ukraine and here in the UK – but not one of the civilians who were – and still are – experiencing this tragedy. As we only have sounds with radio, it is so vital that we have emotional and powerful guests – and while I understand we do still need to educate and inform or listeners, up until this point I didn’t feel we had the emotion. I made voiced this thought to the team who agreed with me and I was asked to find a guest I thought would fit that description. After scrolling on TikTok I found a woman called Kristina Corburn, a civilian who lived in Kyiv at the time with her 2 year old daughter and had been documenting her experience of living through a war. She agreed to come on the programme and after doing so was picked up by multiple other news outlets, including ones across the globe. Again, I was recognised and praised for finding such a powerful guest. 

While I recognise the things I have done well, I also recognise the areas I need to improve on. My link writing is something that could definitely be improved, which is something I have vocalised to Chris Bolton and have undergone training courses to improve. Additionally, there has been times where I haven’t been able to find the perfect guest for a story for certain reasons, but with my perseverance and determination I have made sure the story has still been able to be used by, for example, cutting audio related to the story to use instead. It isn’t ideal, but that’s the beauty of live radio, it doesn’t always go to plan.

At the beginning of my time at the BBC I also continued to volunteer as a news presenter and reporter for Bro Radio, which is something I started in my first year of university. I wrote, presented, and produced the news, weather and travel bulletins every weekday morning, as well as interviewing and reporting for the weekly news programme ‘The Vale this week.’ Additionally, I also continued to write online articles for their website as I wanted to ensure I was gaining experience in all aspects of journalism and understood my writing still needed improving. However, as I’ve been fortunate to gain more shifts at the BBC, it became impossible to do both while completing my degree and as a result I recently decided to stop volunteering for Bro Radio for now.

The industry experience I have gained throughout my final year has provided me with incredible opportunities and led me to develop new and old invaluable skills that I will take forward with me throughout my career.