BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra Interns

Our first week at Radio 1& 1Xtra

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:15:00 -0400

Hey everyone - welcome to our first proper post!

Our week in a nutshell:

THE red BBC lanyard
Toured around the amazing Radio 1 & 1Xtra offices
Sitting in on Greg James where we got to select callers for the Going Home Song as well as meeting the lovely team behind the show
Creativity and Insight training with the amazing Alex Dalton to ready ourselves for many a brainstorming session with the show teams we will be working with in the next eight weeks.
Radio 1 Playlist Meeting - where the songs that come through your speakers get selected…
R1&1X Editorials - where everyone shares the content of their shows for the coming week
STUDIO TRAINING [[amazing - more details below]]
And, erm, just having the Queen pop round. Completely standard at the BBC.

Reuben’s week:

Ok so let’s recap on the first week I spent at Radio 1 & 1xtra. It consisted of constant deja vu on my behalf, everywhere I went through the building I had some sort of recognition of individuals that I could have sworn I’ve seen before. It wasn’t until I actually sat down and thought about it hard that I realised: hang on of course I’ve seen these people before, I’m at the BBC, they are televised EVERYWHERE. Silly me…

My first day had me sorting out my login details and going on a tour of the offices and studios I would be working at for the next eight weeks. Every corner I turned, I could see collages of previous special guests that had visited plastered onto windows and walls in such a spectacular fashion. These included people from the likes of Professor Green to Adele.

It was definitely a lot to take in and if that wasn’t enough, myself & Millie got to actually sit in on Greg James’ show and even help select lucky callers to feature on the Going Home Song. Everyone from the Producer, AP and Greg were great to be around and helped explain exactly what they were doing behind the scenes. Might I add, Laura is VERY funny.

A highlight of my week was sitting in on the Radio 1 playlist meeting. It was nothing like I had expected and to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. The meeting was to update the current playlist for Radio 1 for the next week onwards. This is done by a representative of every show discussing each track and what they like about said track one after the other. So what you’re hearing on the radio now is what was played in the meeting. Wicked. I also got to meet my mentor Rob, who has already given me tonnes of advice that won’t be falling upon deaf ears. He’s a great guy & I feel that he can definitely relate to my concerns if I have any over the course of my time here.

The last two days consisted of Studio Training in Nick Grimshaw’s studio (let’s hope he doesn’t find out). We got to practice using the various equipment inside by ourselves which was great, everything was hands-on and it was an experience like no other. Flipping through tracks and BBC idents to suit the mood of my own imaginary show!!

Millie’s week

There have been SO many highlights so far. Even just walking round a corner in the office and seeing a famous face is enough… BUT, if I had to pick – it’s the Radio 1 Playlist Meeting and Studio Training.

So the Playlist Meeting is where the songs that are played on Radio 1 get chosen. It involves meeting a representative from every show on the network, listening to A LOT of music on huge speakers and then discussing each track in depth. We didn’t just speak about what we thought about the track but what stats it already has online, where it would sound good on the schedule, and, most importantly, what the AUDIENCE wants from the choices that Radio 1 makes. There’s not much else to say other than being in the Playlist Meeting really got the heart of why Radio 1 and 1Xtra are so important to not only the music industry but also the young audience that they strive to get listening on a daily basis. The music that’s played on the airwaves isn’t just a repeat of what might be in the chart but a reflection on new artists, new sounds and what us young’uns want to hear.

And I can’t finish talking about my highlights from the week without talking about all the studio training we’ve had. Today, after all the excitement of the Queen, we went in the studio for the whole afternoon to learn how to drive the desk. This was BRILLIANT. Coming from a student radio background I called up all my knowledge of DJ’ing at university and applied it to a Radio 1 studio. The equipment they have is incredible, but even though there’s a lot of technical wizardry going on the desk is still simple to use once you get the hang of it. We practiced links, switching between tracks and idents, connecting up a phone into the studio, and did a bit of dancing about. All of this motivated me massively to continue to practice in the studio and take presenting forward after all the student media I did, as well as learn a lot from all the productions teams at Radio 1 and 1Xtra.

Right, now it’s time for the weekend!

It is time for some new interns: Reuben & Millie

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:00:00 -0400

Oh hi everyone - I’m Millie. Over the next couple of months I’m going to be all over Radio 1 & 1Xtra and blogging about it for you here. First up I’m at Rock Week, before joining Phil & Alice in the legendary John Peel slot. After that I’m at BBC Introducing where I’ll be going all the way to T in the Park with the Live Events team… and THEN onto Scott Mills where I’m hoping I’ll experience Innuendo Bingo LIVE. The whole process is amazing, but I really can’t wait to learn how to drive the desk in a Radio 1/1Xtra studio, get some invaluable presenting advice and continue all the experiences I’ve had in student and professional radio and television so far. So thanks for reading here and stay tuned for more updates.

Hey guys, its Reuben here, you’ll be seeing loads from me over the next two months as I take you on my journey across Radio 1 & 1xtra (Hashtag winning). I specialise (self-proclaimed) in video production and will be getting deep into the visualisation aspect of the shows I’ll be working on. Expect to see loads of pictures of behind the scenes of random things that fascinate me. I think I’m the only one, but I’m really excited to have the chance to work on the 1xtra Breakfast Show, which will include me getting to the Broadcasting House at 5am… YES 5AM in the morning. I’m also definitely looking forward to working on the Official Chart Show!!

Or vote Charlie!?!?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:39:32 -0500

Or vote Charlie!?!?

Are you going to vote grimmy???!

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:39:10 -0500

Are you going to vote grimmy???!

Last week was another mad one. Started off on Monday &...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:48:34 -0500

Last week was another mad one.

Started off on Monday & Tuesday on Alice & Phils team!

Monday, we went around Brick Lane & Shoreditch filming our cover version of Macklemore - Thrift Shop. This was for Dan & Phils challenge which airs tonight, probably right now.

I was an extra (wearing loads of fur) and also on the cameras. Basically just copying whatever Moses was doing as he’s the guy when it comes to filming! It was a wicked day and I felt like I actually made a difference towards this video as the team especially Phil Stocker (producer) were more than happy for me to do my own thing and voice my opinion. Looking forward to seeing the final thing later tonight.

In the studio on Tuesday was a lovely lady by the name of Laura Mvula. I’ve been super lucky so far as her & Sam Smith are my favourite artists at the moment and I’ve somehow managed to be on shows with both of them as guests. It was interesting to see how they prepared towards interviewing musicians and how they approach a show. So far, every team plays it completely different to the next. One thing I have learnt is how much of a big job the producer has. The presenters essentially just voice the show that the producer has created.

The dynamic of teams is another thing I look at while spending time with them. Zane Lowe was Thursday & Friday for me. I came into the office Thursday very excited as nearly everybody I’ve met in the building has said how incredible Zane & his team are.

They definitely didn’t disappoint.

James & Sam are the team behind the show and they were both ridiculously organised. I mean, overly organised. Every little detail was prepared towards the show.

I scheduled the music for the show, edited an interview for the Hottest Record then helped with the intensive music notes Zane requires to perfect his delivery of the show.

When Zane arrived we had a wicked chat in his studio where he gave me some brilliant advice as well as the basic formula to his show. “You let the bands tell the fans why to listen & you…” the rest I’m probably not allowed to say. But yeah, it made loads of sense.

Zane gave me advice on how to use what I’ve gained here to go on to better things in the next few months. Advice that inspired me to work harder towards my goal when my time here is up.

The show itself was only live for an hour where the Dave Grohl interview was a pre record so I didn’t “see the full effect.” The three guys operate so well in the studio wether its editing & looping beds live in the show to updating the schedule to whatever else needs doing.

Then on Friday, I prepared the script for Huw Stephens covering show on Monday, as well as scheduled all the music for the next week ahead. (told you they were organised)

The interns came back together to film the Charlie Sloth response to Toddla T which will go online tomorrow along with Grimmys fighting talk.

Look out for those as our show is WEDNESDAY. Going to be great fun. You’re in for a proper treat, promise.

@pete_intern

TODDLA T is going for it! What happened on new years eve with...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:33:00 -0500

TODDLA T is going for it! What happened on new years eve with him and Charlie?!

Tune in from 7pm ON Wednesday!

THE INTERN TAKEOVER: PREPERATIONS

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:17:00 -0500

1 WEEK TO GO AND PREPS ARE UNDER FULL SWING!

There is a lot to pull off in a week, but we have every confidence that we will!

Aled and Leanne have been so great at working with us to put our big ideas into reality- something that 4 creative but new-to-the-business kids forget to do sometimes!

Just out of a brain storm session. I have found that these work in a great way- one huge burst of super fast scribbling, everyone getting louder and more excited, ideas churning and churning and then………… crash. They are SO productive and so simple to do, and don’t take long cause you crash so quickly, your brain goes into overdrive!

We are splitting our show into 3 sections, 45mins, 30mins then 45mins. The middle is taken care off. Trust me!! What we have been working on today is filling the first and last sections. As our presenters are such wicked personalities and goes with out saying professionals, it would be very unnecessary for us to script for them- almost patronising to these legends! (If you didn’t catch our launch trail this morning, im talking about Grimmy, Toddla T and Charlie Sloth!!!)

So, what we are going to do instead is give them a prompt list with suggestions from: how to sabbotage their opponents shows and tamper the flawless musical rep of these selectors, to letting us into whats going to come up in their fight for the title!! We may even tip off a few plans of a few djs to the others… to throw ultimate fuel on the fire!

We are so excited, lock in 27/02/13 7-9pm and back your dj!!!

Alice xx

KAE: THE INTERN TAKEOVER, THE FUTURE OF RADIO. THE TRAIL Now if...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:22:00 -0500

KAE: THE INTERN TAKEOVER, THE FUTURE OF RADIO. THE TRAIL

Now if you didn’t hear the trail go out this morning on the breakfast show at 7.45am here it is, a lot of work went into this and I was very proud with the outcome, we still had to re-do more of the voices to sound like normal people! lol!

Big thank you to Patrick who helped make the trail possible he edited it all and mixed it and it sounds amazing. The best trail that we could have hoped for aaaaaaaand it’s as amazing as the show will be.

Here’s myself and Patrick below when he was mixing it, listen in!!!!

https://twitter.com/Kae_Intern/status/304174765269213185/photo/1

@kae_intern

KAE: CREATING A TRAIL

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:34:32 -0500

I was in charge of getting a trail ready for this show of ours. I enlisted the help of Patrick, who creates all the trails for R1 and 1xtra.

Script writing then getting others to look over it and about 500 re-drafts later I had a script that worked and everyone agreed with! As the interns we all recorded our bits, there’s just a few people left to record there’s which I’ll chase up tomorrow ;).

Patrick will then have it ready for you guys to HOPEFULLY hear on Thursday. Yezzzzzzzzzir.

Tomorrow I’ll be working with the Review show so be ready for me on your airwaves YEAAAAAAAAH.

(OH the vlogging will still take place when i’m not as tired as I am now)

Have a wonderful evening.

*inserts picture of Kae with Patrick here*

@Kae_Intern

Today is rather hectic! If you don’t know outside my work...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 05:52:58 -0500

Today is rather hectic! If you don’t know outside my work with the wonderful Beeb I’m a filmmaker and I have a film being screened at the BFI and I need to talk to a room full of hundreads of people about the craft!… That means me leaving in the middle of the day, it should be fine since I’m with the Visual department of Radio1/BBC 1xtra (The guys who make radio that bit better looking) so I’m hoping they understand :/

Anyway here is the first video I worked on with the Visual department!

@Moses_intern

Friday. Sat in with Grimmys Breakfast show again, spent the...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:13:12 -0500

Friday.

Sat in with Grimmys Breakfast show again, spent the morning burning CD’s for the Jen Long mix from texts and callers. Onto artist notes, ideas for Call or Delete guests and writing an honest review of what I thought of that mornings show.

Nick & the team were really welcoming and gave me things to do and invited me to the ‘Comic Relief’ meeting for the plans for that big show!

Rita Ora was in the Live Lounge and bought us all breakfast! Thats one for my CV right there…

We also recorded the Radio 1 attempt at the ‘Harlem Shake’

Spot me in the wig & binocular combination..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IueV2JE_f94

The afternoon ended with a really important meeting regarding our intern show! Got some amazing ideas & plans ready to come into action but really need to know what you lot, yes you want to hear/see/do during the show. Me & the other interns are essentially the same as you. I mean, a month ago I was at uni and working every weekend selling sofas…

We need to know what you want from this show. This is our chance to do stuff thats never been done on radio before so if you have any ideas please let us know via this blog or our twitter accounts (@ourname_intern)

Tomorrow, I work on Phil & Alice’s show for the next two days followed by the man himself Mr. Zane Lowe to close the week!

Anyway, going to have yet another nap.

@pete_intern

What really happens during #Nickstape every Friday…

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 14:00:26 -0500

What really happens during #Nickstape every Friday…

12 HOURS OF DANCE!

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 06:34:15 -0500

Last night was by far the most exciting night at Radio 1 for me, in that I got to be part of so many things that started my passion for dance music, the music industry and ultimately radio.

It’s hard to describe how much it meant to me but I’ll do my best!!

I have written music notes and formed schedules for other shows while i’ve been here, but last night I got to do so for two of my absolute heros- ANNIE MAC AND PETE TONG! As Aled could back up, I was a bit all over the place as I handed Annie my notes and said hey! And then the fun began…………..

I got to sit in/dance with them for 4 hours of the most eclectic, perfectly hand picked, quality dance music and over-all see how the masters of music do it! (Both with very different styles may I add!) (I did do some work too….collected the texts for shout outs!)

Both shows are produced by Becci Abbott who just seems to be a master of her trade. She knows the DJs she works with down to a T, from the styles they prefer, to how they like to start a feature. She is so good at what she does that although she is in charge of the smooth running of each last bit of the show- she’s also in love with the music, so has a wicked time dancing while she’s working! Becci is leaving to manage some big names in dance music soon…. she’s one of a so many inspiring people i’ve met whilst being here.

I imagined the nerves I felt handing the music notes to the DJs and the adrenaline that ran through the shows is exactly how the producer feels before, throughout and after as their show they’ve molded comes together flawlessly.

So, needless to say, last night was a huge reminder of why I’m here and just made me even more sure and determined to have a life long career in the music industry!

PS. Also met the boom DJ from the steel city….. toddlaaaaaaaa!

Alice xx

KAE: SCOTT MILLS SHOW - RITA ORA - IDEAS!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:38:00 -0500

You guys are probably getting bored of my blogs, so from monday I’ll try and VLOG. Let’s face it it’ll be easier for both of us.

Sooo Thursday was spent on Scott Mills’ show. If you guys saw Innuendo Bingo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_rxIOMlxCQ&list=UU-FQUIVQ-bZiefzBiQAa8Fw&index=4

It was WET, but yeah anyway Thursday morning I was going through emails that had been sent in for suggestions for clips to play, I cut them up and submitted them to Producer Emlyn (who btw is a hilarious genius) and some of them were used on that day! This was pretty fun.

Once the Thursday show was over I was with producer Chris (Not Chris Stark we’ll get onto him in a minute) I helped him a teeny bit with putting out the Scott Mills daily podcast which takes about an hour to do, lots of cutting up clips from the show required and finding out what order they sound best in. That was my day pretty much over after that!

Friday, I had to prepare notes for Scott for All Time Low coming in. ON a side note Rita Ora was in the Live lounge, now apparently she needed socks so Chris Stark volunteered to give his socks to her below is a picture of how delighted she was with the whole experience I’ll show you the video tomorrow because it’s too big to upload so I’ll have to edit some of it and to be honest on a Friday Night it’s a bit long! lol

After this wonderful mission with the lady in canary yellow, the show began. We were joined by All Time Low it was a funny interview. Great lads. The production team on Scott’s team are amazing they run like clockwork and all have great chemistry together and Emlyn is hilarious my highlight of the afternoon was when someone came round on a tour of the building and he said to them ”Yes we have a variety of Dench buttons in the studio” absolutely hilarious. Scott’s amazing as a presenter as well not just because of his confidence behind the mic but because he looks like he knows how that studio works better than most people which is commendable! Anyway here’s myself and Scott pointing at each other:

We had another session working on the intern show after our own shows and it’s going be HUGE. Trail’s going to be coming soon…and guess who’s in charge of that? YEaaaaah exactly.

Have a great weekend, and I’ll try and upload that vid tomorrow.

@Kae_intern x

KAE: IDEAS AND BRAINSTORMING/GREG JAMES FEATURE

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:10:32 -0500

Whassup you gorgeous looking people (you in the blue, you look really good, you been working out?)

Anyway, today was spent working on our show which if you hadn’t realised already is on the 27th 7-9pm (Shameless plug-cos i’m a badman like that) but yeah loads of ideas flying about and I can’t really reveal much but just realise it’s going to be epic and you can all get involved.

It’ll be radioactive by that i mean it’ll be radio,interactive and just out of this world (not the rita ora song). So keep your eyes peeled for more information we shall be revealing soon.

Also today Greg invited us on his show, made a song for us called “Meet the Interns” he’ll soon be doing this is a live lounge so look out for it (one can only dream). In return he wanted us to come up witha feature from a list of names that had been tweeted into him, we chose ”Russian Poolette”, yes we went straight for toilet humour. We got a few DJ’s to give us their best straining noise and Greg and Chris Smith from Newsbeat had to guess who’s who. In the end Greg won this weirdly fun battle listen online on the iplayer although i’m sure moses will have a link up soon, he’s epic with the editing.

I’m off to sleep, tomorrow I’m working on Scott Mills show up until Friday!

Innuendo Bingo anyone?

@Kae_intern

Hectic couple of days! Yesterday I worked with Edith Bowman and...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:20:34 -0500

Hectic couple of days!

Yesterday I worked with Edith Bowman and her team on the Review Show.

Her team were absolutely lovely and welcoming, I was a bit worried as it’s all very edgy after 7pm on the radio!

I began by preparing all the pre show notes on artists, tracks and putting together a list of comments to read out during the show.

My job within the show was to be the voice of the listeners by reading out opinions via Facebook & Twitter. The interaction this show gets is silly. #R1Review is mega.

The guests were my favourite artist of this year Mr. Sam Smith (@samsmithworld) and a guest blogger from Dots & Dashes!

Anyway, all went ok and I managed not to swear or read out any comments from somebody with a rude name!

Today, I didn’t stop.

We all came together to really start putting ideas together for our intern show in 2 weeks. To cut a long story short…It’s going to be the most incredible thing you’ll hear in ages. Promise-ish…

I then had a cheeky look in at Alt-J’s wonderful live lounge! (Took a sly picture through the door)

I then took over the BBCR1 twitter page for the 3 hour long Radio 1 playlist meeting. A VERY important debate which can make or break careers.

I think overall I got at least 239809345796345 RT’s so hopefully that means I did a good job!

If you were listening to Scott Mills show at the time, he thought it would be funny to hack the account and pretend to be me tweeting live from the show…

Anyway, I’ll leave you to see how I handled that ;)

It caused big named blogs & companies to write articles about it and it all got out of hand! - another reason to go and check out what happened!

www.twitter.com/bbcr1

After the playlist meeting we all went in on Greg James & Charlie Sloths show were we updated you lot on whats happening!

Right, tomorrow I’m joining Grimmys Breakfast show team for the next two days so I’m off to bed! Early early early start!

WE NEED YOUR IDEAS FOR OUR SHOW THOUGH!

Tweet us! @pete_intern - @alice_intern - @moses_intern - @kae_intern

- Pete

@Kae_Intern trying to dance to some new tracks I’ve...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:05:52 -0500

@Kae_Intern trying to dance to some new tracks I’ve found!

- Pete

Time flies when the music's good- Toddla T

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:55:11 -0500

And so it does…. week three already!

Thursday and Friday was spend working with Grimmy’s team- Ian, Fiona, Matt and Esme, who is a floating assistant producer. The partnership with these guys is brilliant, and they work so hard to make such a variety of content come together. I had the pleasure of going to a brainstorm with them, and they give Pete a run for his money when it comes to ideas! I can’t give anything away but some v. exciting things are coming on the breakfast show thanks to these wicked people.

LAST NIGHT and today, I have been working with Phil and Alice’s producers, Phil and Mel! I think they are the world’s loveliest producers! They make everything run flawlessly, and have great choice in guests; Baauer on the phone and BMTH in the studio. Definitely a very eclectic show. Tonight me and Phil are answering questions in ‘Ask the other Phil and Alice anything!’

Alice xx

If you watched my introduction video you would know that when...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:13:09 -0500

If you watched my introduction video you would know that when Grimmy asked who I would most like to meet here at at Radio1 and 1xtra. I told him the legend Trevor Nelson, well over the past two days I’ve had the chance to work on his show. Shout to his producer Adele Cross who has been showing me the ropes.

One of my favortite things to do was play ‘true lies’. Play the clip above and you get to hear the maddness that went down lol

@moses_intern

KAE: 1XTRA BREAKFAST AND 1XTRA DRIVE TIME WITH CHARLIE SLOTH

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:44:17 -0500

After a weekend where I got to recharge my batteries, I was up bright and early to help out on Twin B’s 1Xtra breakfast show. Let me just say for a start Twin B puts the B into Breakfast, you probably wonder is he really like that on in real life? Yes, Twin is actually that random and funny in real life so it was great being around the studios with him producer Dari and Robby!

I helped with some behind the scenes stuff which was pretty cool, stuff that helps go into making the show a success on a long term basis which when you work in such a place you understand is vital. There’s a saying ”if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” but that’s not always true sometimes you have to just try and improve and improve so you’re one step ahead!

I had great fun!!

Did it stop there though? Nuh Uh

We had some more training sessions (obviously this is the best part of working at radio one…) then I had the pleasure of working on Charlie Sloth’s show with Producer Daleesa and Charlotte. They had #YouControlTheDJ today and Sarah-Jane Crawford had to interview Joey Essex with listeners giving things they wanted Charlie to make SJC do during the interview. I had the job of choosing which ones I’d submit to Charlie! Which was pretty cool, who can say they get to control what comes out of Charlie Sloths mouth for however long it may be?! lol

Charlie’s another funny guy, was great fun to be around. We’ll be on his show on Wednesday (Alice, Peter and Moses), updating you guys about how we’re getting on with our preparation for the big show on the 27th.

But yeah, Peace out and stay safe.

@Kae_Intern