The main goal of my FMP This year was to create a radio demo that I could use as a presenter to gather feedback on my presenting style and also raise awareness of myself and put me out there more as a presenter.

I Came up with the idea for the project after remembering about the upcoming Young Audio Awards that are coming and thought that having an up-to-date demo for that would be good for that and also to overall get feedback on my presenting style. 

Initially, I planned to do a video with it as well that would cover how to make a demo however due to time and after having a chat with a few of my teachers and then spending some time evaluating all of my options of what I could do and the best way of doing things, I realised I would be better off just doing the radio demo. After doing this I created my project proposal, a project pitch that I recorded in a studio here in the academy and filled in a BIF (Better Ideas Faster) Document to help me think and come up with stronger ideas. 

Once I was set on the idea of doing a radio demo I then did a wide range of research into radio demos, looking into how to structure them, what to include in terms of links and content and then how the should be produced overall. Lots of that was done by Watching YouTube Videos, listening to other people’s demos and speaking to people within the industry. As a result of this, my research helped me understand what my main target audience is: 16-25-Year-olds who have an interest in radio but also however do need to appeal to Programme Managers & Station Editors Who would listen to the demo.

I created a form to get research from people within the industry to get a better understanding of what to include, where I was able to get a better target audience and the length of it as well which came to 3-5 minutes this is through reading articles and my own created form I sent out.

Once I Was Happy with the research I did looking into everything, listening to them and watching videos for tips and tricks I decided it was time to begin creating my own one. 

Creating a radio demo is unlike a documentary as it can’t really be scripted so I spent a fair few hours going through the website and downloading my shows, to do this correctly I followed the article on the support portal and then put all of my shows into audition before cutting them down to just links and then deciding if I liked the link or not, after this I then shortlisted them down to my best links before then combining those into one demo. After doing this I then decided to record some other links I didn’t have a copy of and then put those into the demo as well.

I Edited the overall demo on Adobe Audition (More Explained In Research & Practical Skills) running the links through processing and also making minor edits to tighten them and fade them before putting them together, overall it flows well between clips.

After doing this and finalising it I then exported the file from audition however I had to export it twice the first time I accidentally exported it as an MP3 File however I should’ve done it as a WAV, once I noticed that I did this I went back and re-exported it.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few weeks. The project taught me the importance of time management and how to avoid common issues. 

1- Where I was restricted on time I had to spend less time doing other things and put less focus on other things I originally thought about. 

2- Do Things Earier was another thing I realised as it means you work more efficiently, saving time overall.

3- I Need to look at my workflow to see how I can make things more streamlined and effective to help save time and d things better overall.

FEEDBACK ON THE DEMO:

I Planned originally to get feedback on my demo from industry professionals and managed to do this. Because of this, I have been able to call my FMP More of a success as this is one of the things I set out originally to do. The Feedback I gained from it was great and will help me as a presenter. I managed to get a response from 2 out of the 5 I sent the demo to, Jordan I have received feedback in the past and have been acting on it so there wasn’t much he said to change however Alec had lots of tips to follow on. I personally think if I sent the demo earlier I may have had more responses however id say that I’m happy with what I’ve got.

Looking back on the project I do wish I could do the video to accompany it however, I do agree with my teachers that time would have been a problem and also caused me more unnecessary stress and may have meant that other parts of the production would have had less effort and may have affected my overall work.

If I were to do this project again I would spend more time sourcing on-air clips and improving the overall production to just be tighter and sound a lot cleaner. I Would also gather more feedback from people within the industry and do it with a larger overall sample size to help me improve and also tips for the demo.

Weekly evaluations gave me a chance to reflect on my progress and make plans for the upcoming weeks. I was able to identify any problems I was facing and come up with solutions. This helped me to learn how to deal with similar problems in the future. I was also able to see what I had accomplished and what I still needed to do. This helped me to stay focused and motivated.

One thing that went well in this project is the fact that I managed to create a proper and professional radio demo and also get good feedback from some big names within the industry, this helped me to improve overall and then also helped me creatively think of how to improve this for next time I do a demo.

An improvement I could have made is using more of my radio links in the final demo and changing some of the ones I used to just slightly change what was included and get a better variety of what I do on air and how I do things as a presenter.

My top tip to anyone thinking about doing this would be to think, plan your time and do it properly. That way you make sure you cover everything correctly and it’s done efficiently. You need to make sure you plan what you want to do and stick to the timings and stick to the goals you set for yourself as this was something I noticed early on in the project and had to learn to do better at.

From this project I also learned that planning is key, without proper and clear planning this is more likely to go off track and things have a higher chance of going wrong and can cause more problems further down the line.

I Am very happy with this project overall and think it went very very well! Personally, I think the way I structured it, and chose to do it. I think it fits and suits the target audience and the project plan/brief where it was set so wide but also appeals to the younger demographic it works well and suits them as it appeals to myself and fellow students I spoke to. Im Proud of the product I have created and the overall project.