As a community station, one of the roles of Cambridge 105, is outreach.
In July, two of the team took one of our outside broadcast vehicles to the county line in St Neots, bordering close to Bedfordshire. This vehicle we code name with some affection ‘Flossie’ is put to work on some 20 outside broadcasts across the year.
We had arranged to spend our Friday morning with some of the staff and pupils of Year 10 at the Ernulf Academy and were welcomed by Phillipa Hardy, Head of the Creative and Performing Arts Faculty and her colleague Sarah Walker. They assisted us with locating some electrical power for Flossie and while we were routing our cable safely above the covered walkway we were provided with some refreshment.
Once we had electricity the crew in attendance set to. We set up the vehicle with a computer, mixing desk, amplifier, loud speakers, headphones and microphones and stands. Later a couple of bin sacks were thoughtfully supplied by a teacher in a computer science class located opposite when thundery showers threatened. The sacks kept our loudspeakers dry against a touch of hail.
By 9.00 we were set up and ready to go and had already chatted with interested pupils who were on their way to morning registration.
Across the morning, girls and boys joined us in groups of four and five. Each group had previously chosen a piece of radio content to deliver as a recording using the computer software. They had worked on their scripts with advice and help from their teacher and each group arrived prepared with their sheets of paper.
A quick introduction and briefing was given to each group before they boarded Flossie and were handed over to one of the station’s presenters, Tim Willett. Topics included a suspense drama, a local, national and international news bulletin the pupils had compiled themselves and a chart rundown.
Tim set up each groups’ recording levels and got them used to wearing headphones. There was initial chuckling as many of the children had not heard their own voices before but they quickly settled themselves and all were very focussed to their tasks.
It was a visit from Cambridge 105, made with only four days left before the Academy was to break up for the Summer holidays. With copies of their recordings handed over to the Academy, we left with many young people feeling more confident about their ability to show presentation skills and perhaps a little inspired too to become our future in broadcasting.
