From the 8^th June until 12th June I received a brilliant opportunity to work at an independent radio production company called Whistledown Productions. The indie produce weekly programmes for BBC Radio 4 including Feedback, BBC World Service’s Over to You as well as several documentaries on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. Whistledown have won a variety of awards for their work including a Sony Award in 2003 and Indie of the Year at the Radio Production Awards 2014.

I undertook several jobs at the company which included learning how to use SADiE which is a piece of editing software that the BBC use and is a very important programme to learn if you want to create programmes for the BBC. There were several programmes being created in the office that included Feedback which is on BBC Radio 4 which listens to viewers opinions on the BBC’s programmes. One of my duties at the production company was to listen to the voicemails that were left by listeners and data input these into an excel document. What I enjoyed about the job was that they threw me into the deep end a lot and trusted me to go out and conduct an interview.

One of their employees, Emily, called me up from France and asked if I would be able to go to a Yoga Instructor’s house and interview them about breathing techniques. So I was sent out with a Marantz to go and record the interview. I had to call Emily and pass the phone over to the yoga instructor who Emily then asked questions and I had to set up the Marantz to record his responses. Overall the interview went well and Emily gave me some good feedback.

I also edited some material for an upcoming series on BBC Radio 4 called What is a Story? This consisted of several 40 minute interviews with authors who have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize award. My job was to cut down these interviews with the guidance of a transcript.

I had a great time at Whistledown Productions and learnt some valuable skills that will benefit me in my future radio career.