Until the 2012 Student Radio Awards!
University of Gloucestershire
The Tone Radio Story: Tone Radio is a student radio station based at the University of Gloucestershire and is a part of the University of Gloucestershire...
It's fast approaching Christmas and New Year so before the year is out I thought I'd get in an overdue update of what myself and the SRA have been up to recently. I'll use this blog to show you the two very different sides of my job.
As I'm sure many of you will know, we had the Student Radio Awards in early November. It was a very different experience for me this year, being part of the team that organised the event as opposed being an anxious audience member as I have been in previous years.
Overall the night was a success, lots of people went home happy with the awards that they had won and from the pictures I've seen on facebook it seems everyone was certainly enjoying the soundclash, the DJ's could have easily carried on for another few hours!
Congratulations to those of you who were lucky enough to take home an award on the night, you've got a great opportunity now to build on your achievement and go on to great things. Don't be too disheartened if you didn't win, a nomination is something to be proud of and there will be many more opportunities to achieve success in the future.
Plans for next years Student Radio Awards have already begun, with this year having been the 15th birthday of the awards it feels like it's time to look to the future and see how we can keep improving the awards. We want to make them as high profile as possible and make sure that they are truly reflecting and rewarding your achievements in Student Radio. We've discussed a few potential changes for next year to spice things up a bit, if you have any feedback or ideas on how you think the awards could be better then please do get in touch.
So that's the side of the job that gets to organise the big spectacular events, but what is the other side? The other side is representing Student Radio to the professional industry, we are there to make sure that our members get a fair deal and are taken seriously by the professionals.
Two perfect examples of this are the recent discussions we have had with Digital Radio UK and the UK RadioPlayer.
Digital Radio UK are responsible for the digital radio switchover, which aims to have at least 50% of all radio listening in the uk on DAB. I have attended meetings with Digital Radio UK making sure that we are kept in the loop as this plan unfolds and to make sure that Student Radio stations are not negatively affected by the governments plans. Needless to say they aren't the most exciting of meetings, but if anything major does happen that affects Student Radio as a result of the plans you can be assured that I'll let you know!
The UK RadioPlayer is a cross industry venture backed by the BBC and Commercial Radio. It is an online radio player and the idea is that listeners will be able to access any radio station in the UK from the player.
If you are a Student Radio station with an Ofcom license then you can get in straight away, for a very reasonable price. If you are an online only station without an Ofcom license then you currently are not allowed in, however I've been talking to the good people in charge of the RadioPlayer and we should have some good news for the non Ofcom stations in the near future.
The UK RadioPlayer is potentially a massive opportunity for Student Radio, at the touch of a button someone who is listening to say Smooth Radio and is a fan of Motown music could search for other stations playing Motown and stumble across a student station playing Motown. It gives us a chance to sit alongside the best of the radio industry and to be listened to by unprecedented numbers of people.
If that doesn't make sense then watch this video to see a demo of how the RadioPlayer will work
The next few months are set to be exciting ones for Student Radio. We've got lots of great events planned for 2011 such as the regional training days, the EGM, The Hits student radio presenter talent search and of course the SRA Conference which is at Crush Radio in Hertfordshire. Anyway, they are all for another post and I'll stop rambling now!
I hope you all enjoy the break from uni and use the time to recharge your batteries. On behalf of the Student Radio Association I wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope you have a wonderful New Year.
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Posted By: Scott Robinson on 22/12/10
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