The BBC Radio blog

The Radio Manchester takeover took place

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:32:24 +0000

Editor's note: John Ryan wrote two blog posts about the build-up to to the Radio Manchester takeover. Read them here - SB.

A married couple of comedians, a beauty queen and the receptionist at Manchester Piccadilly Station made their radio debut this week as part of BBC Radio Manchester's New Year Takeover.

They were all among the 293 rookies who auditioned for the opportunity to present their own hour-long show.

Deciding who to put on air was a daunting task. My team and I locked ourselves in a quiet room with a notepad and a laptop and started listening to the minute long auditions.

We wanted authenticity, the ability to tell a story in an engaging way - and across the project, a range of voices from different parts of Greater Manchester, ages and backgrounds.

The most impressive were those who casually wove fascinating life stories into their minute. Like the asylum seeker from Afghanistan who told us in perfect English how he arrived in Cheetham Hill unable to speak a word just eight years ago. Like the woman driver from South Manchester who booked onto driving lessons just to meet her long lost brother - the driving instructor. He still doesn't know. And like our married couple, the Wagmans. The improv-comedians met at a comedy conference in Meg's native Dallas, fell in love, and she came back with Ross to Whitefield.

Those that failed to impress were those who affected, perhaps subconciously 'the DJ voice'; that practised the over-rehearsed anecdote devoid of all spontaneity; and those that replied to a minute long audition with two words and a long silence!

Our first sift gave us a shortlist of fifty. We ranked those and worked our way down as we invited successful auditionees to come and record their shows. Nerves got to many. We made several offers to people for whom the idea of a whole hour of radio was terrifying. We thanked them for auditioning, and called the next one.

Finally we found our lucky 17. Each has time to tell us a little about themselves, to introduce one of our best interviews of 2010, and to talk between the songs. Apart from a break for live football from 1400-1700, they took over the station from 0600 to 0200. Our youngest was Yasmin, an eighteen year old from Stretford. Our oldest was Vincent from Royton, who's 67. There was a banker, a hairdresser, an art gallery worker and a charity volunteer. And the aformentioned current Miss Manchester, Elicia.

John Ryan is Managing Editor of BBC Radio Manchester

Listen to the whole takeover on the iPlayer.
The picture shows four of the successful candidates, clockwise from top-left: Janette Allen, Vincent Gillibrand, Ben Peck and David O'Hara.

Radio Manchester takeover - 151 candidates so far

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:53:50 +0000

Editor's note: the BBC Radio Manchester Takeover is an ambitious plan to put twenty-four new voices on the air across one day - 3 January 2011. The Takeover Taxi is currently touring locations across Greater Manchester to audition candidates - SB

I'm often asked how radio stations find presenters. My two favourite metaphors are the football team, and the teaching hospital.

Like a football manager, you're constantly juggling your star players (big local established presenters), your youth team (the star players of the future) and looking to talent-scout from elsewhere (prospective presenters on other stations). A big part of the station management team's job is to establish the culture and personality of the station in which all of those different breeds work effectively together.

And like a teaching hospital, BBC Local Radio stations are often where talented young broadcasters gain experience and learn the techniques of speech broadcasting on a deadline - and on a budget. A good hunting ground for new voices is community, student and hospital radio. That's where I started. Promising work experience alumni often build on their relationship with a station and get paid casual shifts. We will always need these people, for whom radio is a career goal and whose ambitions in pro-broadcasting were often nurtured from their teenage years.

But increasingly, we're also looking for something else. People with a unique take on the world, with life experience, with authentic local voices. To help us better reflect the communities we serve, to be part of it. The radio techniques, we can teach. That's what The Takeover aims to find. Up to 24 individuals, in 42 locations across Greater Manchester.

We're halfway through and have 151 auditions recorded. December 14th is blocked in my diary to listen to every single minute-long audition. The winners will get a one-off pre-recorded show on 3 January - and I'm hopeful some will go on to be regular contributors on our side of the microphone. I'll let you know how we get on.

John Ryan is Managing Editor of BBC Radio Manchester

More about the takeover, including the schedule of visits, on the BBC Manchester web site.
The picture shows the BBC's Manchester headquarters in Oxford Road.

Getting closer to listeners in Manchester

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:11:12 +0000

Editor's note: BBC local radio has always been pretty close to its listeners. In Manchester they're putting them on the air. We'll keep keep you up-to-date on the experiment - SB

When the marketing department came up with 'Be Part of It' as a slogan for BBC Local Radio, I wonder if they ever imagined we would take it quite as literally?

BBC Radio Manchester is giving over a whole day of programming in the new year to the audience. 'The Takeover' will put up to 24 people with no previous experience on the air.The idea began when we were looking for ways to demonstrate our unique closeness to our audience. Radio Leeds famously described itself as 'your walk-in-and-talk' station when it launched in 1968. Audience expectations (and a shed-load of new rules) would never allow us to be quite as 'free love' nowadays.

But if we could find a simple audition process, that took us all over our two cities and eight boroughs - then pre-record and check a number of hour-long shows, what could possibly go wrong? Well... I don't know yet. As the process is only just beginning.

The Takeover taxi begins its tour today, visiting 42 locations over three weeks. We'll be asking each candidate to record one minute in answer to a random question about themselves pulled from a hat.

The radio station management team will listen to every single one, and rank them. Then we'll invite up to 24 of them to some brisk training, idea gathering - and the inevitable compliance - to come and record an hour with us for transmission on the New Year Takeover. You can hear our debutantes on 3 January.

'Search for a Star' mechanics are hardly new. There are very few genuinely new ideas in a 100-year-old medium. But we reckon this is a new take on an old stunt.

Who knows who we'll find, what stories we'll uncover, and what lasting contacts we'll make with Greater Manchester communities as we go? We'll let you know as the weeks unfold.

John Ryan is Managing Editor of BBC Radio Manchester

More about the takeover, including the schedule of visits, on the BBC Manchester web site.
Alan Beswick launched the takeover on his breakfast show this morning.
The video is the one made by the marketing department for the 'Be Part of It' campaign and the picture shows Alan with his Takeover taxi.