Julie Waters, Patron & Volunteer
I had listened to 3MBS over the years, but my first involvement was nine years ago when I did an Illuminations program on the British Marxist composer, Alan Bush, on whom I had written my PhD. Then eight years later, after some encouragement, I decided to do the presenter’s course.
Author: Nick Sharman: Tell us about the presenter training.
The training was spread over three months. The first month was very structured—four Saturdays in a row where we focused on creating a program. We did that working in the library with one of the presenters. Adrian McEniery did a lot of the training on broadcast technique telling us how to be succinct and delivering according to your program brief.
The aim was ‘programmed spontaneity’ you need to be able to script but it must not sound like you are reading from a script. Some programs like Intermezzo and Daybreak need to sound informal as well.
After the first four weeks of training, there was an assessment where you had to create a mini program and present and panel it. I wasn’t worried about the scripting or preparing just the panelling—I was worried about all those buttons.
The hard part though was doing the training for the flow program with the shorter pieces. I started off doing Daybreak with Loretto Perkins. The format was the same as Concert Hall in terms of training, which you gradually get to do more of the work as you go through. In the third week, I learnt about live microphones. I had to do half of the program with CDs rather than the digital Wide Orbit system. The training is pretty gruelling and when I talk to my friends, they can’t believe how professional the whole thing is.
3MBS is an excellent organisation. Everyone has a common love of classical music and the people I have met are supportive and interesting.