Listen up! We’re in charge now

28th December 2001, 12:00am

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Listen up! We’re in charge now

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/listen-were-charge-now
Sue Law tunes in to Takeover Radio, a pioneering station where children run the show.

Takeover Radio is a small station with big ideas. It’s an internet-based station for the under-15s where the young volunteers do everything from running planning meetings to attending press conferences, recording and editing. They even cold-call companies for sponsorship.

The station, based in Leicester, has had a good year, and 2002 promises to be even better. The Children’s Media Trust, which runs Takeover Radio, has now been granted charitable status. The autumn announcement was followed recently by the news that the Radio Authority has granted Takeover a full-time pilot licence under the experimental Access Radio scheme. With an FM radio frequency, it can broadcast to Leicester and surrounding areas. From next month, the output from Takeover Radio will not only be heard live on the internet but through standard radios.

The new licence should not only be of interest to the under-15s of Leicester. The station has ambitious plans to involve children from all over the UK in recording contributions for shows through a network of linked bureaux. There are also plans to involve schools, and primary teacher David Morris has just joined as the education co-ordinator.

Mr Morris has been teaching for 22 years and now works at Dovelands primary school in Leicester. It was the contacts he made while working at Hospital Radio Fox that led to his role at Takeover. A keen advocate of using audio material in his teaching, he says the use of radio as a teaching resource is diminishing. “Sadly, over the years, other colleagues, in particular NQTs, have failed to use this resource enough, perhaps due to the constraints of the literacy hour. I have found that children’s listening skills have diminished. My role is to address these issues,” he says.

As well as listening to output, Mr Morris wants to involve schools fully in the creative process. “Our schools programming gives children a unique opportunity to produce their own material and listen to work from others,” he says. “I want to break down the barriers. Many people regard radio as a one-way process. True local radio should involve the people it represents, including children of eight to 14 - our main target audience.”

Mr Morris has produced a schools’ pack with information on using community radio in the classroom and ideas on how to produce your own programmes.

To get this far, the station has had to corral the varied interests and talents of 300 young volunteers who answered an advert in the local newspaper. Many of them are hoping to make a career in broadcasting. But whatever the future holds they’re having fun learning a whole new set of skills.

Helen, 13, bagged an interview with former athlete Linford Christie when she went to an athletics event in the summer and approached him for an interview. “I’ve learned how to write better and I’ve improved my interview technique. You have to pick up on what people say but keep one step ahead with questions. I have always wanted to do presenting. I want to be recognised for my work, not just for being a personality.”

Helen even enjoys phoning potential sponsors - but with a telephone sales script to hand.

Back inside the studio the recording light glows red and David, another fledgling presenter, puts on headphones to record a television review. There is an outbreak of fidgeting by two youngsters on swivel chairs in the corner, and they start a whispered argument.

“Shsshh,” hisses Jamie, the show’s anchor, cutting the recording and reaching for a minidisc. “David, we need more to it than that, can you work on your script a bit?” At 17 he is the oldest in the team, and after several years’ experience on other community radios, confidently handles the vast studio control desk. James, his 13-year-old co-anchor, is just learning the ropes: “I write reports and can talk to people more directly. It’s better than sitting at home watching TV and getting bored,” he says.

The studio is on the top floor of a rundown 1960s office block in Leicester city centre, but it is gradually being transformed with bright orange walls, a new studio built and painted in the shape of a brick, and plans for a space-themed cafe. The reception area features a wall of huge clocks, and along the corridor are clusters of desks with computers, and a small boardroom for meetings.

It’s Saturday afternoon and a dozen children are putting the finishing touches to this week’s show. It is recorded in three one-hour sessions and posted on the Takeover website, where surfers can click on icons to hear the mix of music, jingles, quizzes and reports.Eleven-year-old Chantalle comes along most weekends: “When I first came they showed me how to use a mike,” she says. “I have done the birthday dedications and things. It’s fun. I was shy but coming here has made meI ” - “confident,” chips in Lois, a 12-year-old presenter. “Sometimes it’s chaos and people talk over each other in the studio but generally we are quite organised,” he adds.

Even though Takeover can now be heard exclusively on the web, the concept of a national kids-only radio site has already attracted sponsors such as Golden Wonder and Domino’s Pizza, which are keen to tap its marketing potential.

Like all independent broadcasters, Takeover needs corporate finance. But rather than sustaining a workforce of professionals and keeping the shareholders happy, sponsorship funds will be used to underpin a network of small Takeover centres all over Britain. This would allow distant contributors to record audio files and send them to headquarters for inclusion in the shows. With charitable status, the trust will also be able to apply for lottery funding. If successful, it won’t be so reliant on sponsors less keen to spend their money in a depressed economic climate.

Takeover Radio isn’t the sole preserve of children. Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson is the group’s patron, and Philip Solo and Graham Coley, both community radio veterans, are the wise hands working behind the scenes. The duo piloted the kids-only format in a series of 28-day broadcasts through a local station. They are impressed by how much the volunteers have been able to do themselves since the show was launched on the internet last May.

“I didn’t think kids would be capable of producing a programme,” says Coley. “I didn’t think they would have the concentration or be able to commit themselves to the job. But they have surprised me. “They learn so much through play - teamwork, deadlines - as long as they have adults to guide them and teach them new skills. I am a strict taskmaster and they respond to that.”

Philip Solo defines Takeover as a kids’ business for kids. He encourages the children to take an active role in all tasks, including presentations for potential sponsors, promotional activities such as opening a new pizza store, and interviewing for the show. There are also junior journalism projects with local newspaper the Leicester Mercury, and a programme of visits to venues including the nearby National Space Centre. Parents and adult volunteers help with supervision. “It’s not an adult station for kids. Our children are the substance, not the gloss. We got kids together and asked what they thought kids wanted,” says Mr Solo.

“This is the first time the Radio Authority has given a full-time licence for anyone broadcasting to the under-15s. Until now, kids had no voice in the community to express themselves professionally. We have created what is effectively the first ever national children’s radio station,” says Mr Solo, who is hoping Takeover Radio will grow to entertain and help children around the UK develop media skills in an exciting live environment.

Takeover will start test transmission in early January and will be fully operational on February 2. For details of the frequency, tune in online at: www.takeoverradio.com or www. takeoverradio.org in the New Year.For a schools’ pack, send an email to: education@takeoverradio.org.uk

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