So this year I’ve been part of a couple of crews in preparing and presenting a show for community radio station 3RRR’s Room With A View which plays every Monday at noon. The reason I took radio over TV this year at RMIT was simply because.. well I’m terrible with my social skills. You can probably ask anyone in the class about how I just stay very quiet and keep to myself.. when inside I’m constantly at war with myself trying to talk to anybody at all. Well I swayed over to radio on the basis that I had to work with less people. The first thing I would probably say is that, whilst it was probably not the best reason to pick radio it did pay off the moment we walked into 3rrr made me feel right at home. The first room they got us to sit in just had this giant wall of records on it and I just wanted to sit there and got through them all one by one! Just when I thought I knew a thing or two about music -pfffffffffffttttt-

I was put into the panel position for most of the shows because once again, my social ability -coughdisabilitycough- made me want to veer away from being the presenter, but I knew I had to keep trying if I wanted to break these demnd chains of anxiety. Working at any panel for the first time for most people probably seems like they’re about to get training on how to send the room they’re in to outer space (the looks on their faces is just pure gold) but since I had done some audio work before the panel job didn’t really scare me and I picked it up pretty quickly. That doesn’t mean it was a relaxing time sitting behind that booth! You had to be constantly vigilant and always be making sure something is on air and that your buttons and tracks are working and everything is lined up on cue and that the levels are good and just..yeah. My groupmate Zoe pointed out after her first live show as panel operator that after presenting a show she always felt great but after paneling  it left her felling stressed out till even after the show was done.

My first time going live on air? Holy shit I was terrified! I mean I can’t even stand the sound of my own voice the few times I actually do speak out, now it was being sent out to the general public for an hour? Hahahahahahahahahaha! But it turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought! I actually kinda enjoyed talking to people and asking questions. Maybe the thing I can learn from here to apply to my daily life is to have scripted questions to ask everyone I meet, that way I’ll actually have conversation starters .lol. I kid, I’m not that bad. OK maybe I am.

Doing this show at 3rrr has been really fun I would say compared to making TV shows because it’s more to do with the message. I would definitely like to still work in film related mediums, but for now at least after what I’ve experienced in 3rrr I would love to continue being a part of radio. The only problem for me is I hate ad’s so much I refuse to listen to most radio. I mean I hate them with a dark passion.

 

If I had my own  show !! I have no idea how I’d run it to be honest.. I guess I realize the importance of ads amongst other things and that I could probably endorse things that support my ideals. I’d have to try it to find out but I don’t know the protocol behind running my own radio show. I would guarantee a lot of swearing and arguments which is just the way I like it! And probably what would not let my show stay on air =(

Besides that though I would say the biggest issue was forcing topics out of thin air. I don’t know if I’d run a show where it was necessary to have effectively schizophrenic topics every week that had no connection to anything besides a preferably obscure nature. It’s like we had a direction which was no direction besides what we explicitly couldn’t do. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be shows like it, don’t get me wrong, people need shit to fill up their time when they’re bored and can’t stand the sound of their own thoughts – it’s just not what I would want to do with a radio show.

Apart from my little rant! I loved working in radio and I really hope to be better at talking to people.. I see Australians do it so well and easily and I just don’t know how they do it.. and if I do get better then I can meet awesome people who know awesome things and it could be fun! Or extremely terrifying. I guess we’ll just have to see. Peace!