The stage at the Town Hall for the Forum on the Rugby World Cup 2011
Friday 24th July.
I read the news bulletin at 5pm on Wellington Access Radio yesterday.
WAR is a community radio station, and relies on voluntary contribution to run effectively.
It was a lot more difficult than I imagined, and it took me about forty minutes to get a five minute report completed!
The report centred around news in Wellington, so the following sites were used to source information:-
www.stuff.co.nz – this is the Dominion Post site, which is the Wellington produced national paper
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/ - an independent news resource site.
The information was already drafted for me, and I just had to read it a few times, and feel reasonably comfortable with it before recording it. I got to the studio at about five to three, feeling a little nervous, having worried about it since the morning when I was asked to do it.
However it was all very relaxed. I was ushered into a recording room by Laura, who is a programme manager. There a microphone was set up so it was positioned about 3 inches away from my mouth. As these things are quite large and have long metal arms to them, it made it difficult to read the report as they seemed to get in the way.
Laura would be doing the recording, and I would be reading. She would direct me as to when a phrase, sentence or word had to be read again. So, when I was comfortable, and had had a sip of my freshly made instant coffee, Laura said we should make a start.
She gave me my prompt and we began. I started to read the words, and suddenly realised that my mouth forgot how to work! It felt like I was reading something from Harry Potter, with long words and phrases which you don’t understand.
However on looking at the sentences they were all simple words, but just not written by me in my style. I have found that trying to read clearly using a piece of writing written by someone else can be quite difficult, no matter what type of words are used.
The whole idea of simply reading the News sounds very easy, especially on the radio. But there is a certain art (for which I don’t currently have) required to make each news piece serious and interesting. It does come with practise, Laura told me, but I’m not sure how much practise I’ll need!
Anyway, I struggled my way through the reports, making mistakes all the way. The beauty of it was that it was recorded, and not live, so I could stop every now and then to catch my breath or go over anything I needed help with.
Some of the problems I had were with local Maori place names, and Pacific Island names. There is a certain way of saying them. Your ‘r’s have to be rolled, and whereas the British pronounce it ‘Mauw rie’, they pronounce it more like ’Moe ri’. I’ll get there on the end.
Apart from that, and a few tongue twisting sentences, it seemed to go alright. Unfortunately I didn’t listen to the finished article, but I guess it must have been ok! For my first piece of radio journalism, I felt quite pleased.
After this Laura asked me if I could write the news on Tuesday, for someone else to read, which I agreed to do. I did a trial run today to see what writing the news was all about. Again, it’s more difficult than you think, and you have to read it out aloud to yourself to make sure it sounds good. The secret is to start with a Headline, which will be a short sentence summarising an event. This needs to be ‘punchy’, so as to generate interest from the listener. Then you need to state the facts, perhaps have a quote from and expert, and then state the outcome. So I had a go and after a few re-writes, and changes to grammar and spelling I submitted it to Laura at the studio. I’m still waiting for feedback, but I’ll listen to the radio at 5pm to see if they have included any of my pieces!
Also, last night, was a meeting of the Wellington council and the Rugby World Cup 2011 Chief Executive. This was to present current progress to key stakeholders and local business’ around Wellington.
Wellington has been chosen to stage seven games, with two quarter finals. Knowing how fervent Kiwi’s are about loyalty to where they come from, you can imagine that there may have been some jealously for Auckland as they have the semi’s and the final. But listening to the council last night, it seems that they are happy to be behind Auckland, and understand that they would be further up the pecking line, so to speak.
My only disappointment is that England play all their games away from Wellington, and even in the quarters they won’t be coming here. Still I guess it’s an excuse to go on a trip to the South Island for a few days of drinking and Rugby!
The only teams that will be here in Wellington from the North will be Wales, France, and possibly Ireland or Italy depending on whether they make it through to the Quarters. Yes, I know that the AB’s will be playing here, and I guess that’s important for Wellington, but it would have nice for me to have seen our lads with the Red Rose on they shirts playing here too!
Anyway, this forum was a good place to do some networking and get to know people, which I did, and I came away with a few contacts in Government positions and within the council. Not to mention there was a very good buffet spread and assortment of refreshments afterwards! I found the whole thing very interesting, with the concept of making this event a countrywide concern, and trying to get everyone involved being a great idea. It gives me a warm feeling inside when I think about it!
There were a some slogans that backed up what they are trying to do, and which we all might see more of in the next couple of years:-
1) One Stadium – Four million people – There was a video shown where the outside of a stadium formed a wall which ran along the whole of the coast of NZ, and inside were the people of NZ trying to make sure that the tournament is a success.
2) Success is not the work of one, but many - Another reference to get everyone involved, because it is felt that a tournament such as this can lead to bigger and better things in business, and future growth as a whole. It may open doors to hold further bog events in future years, such as the Commonwealth games, and possibly the Olympics one day.
3) Absolutely Positively Right by Your Side (Wellington RWC 2011 Slogan)
There were presentations made by the mayor of Wellington, Kerry Prendergast, the Chief Executive of RWC2011, Martin Sneddon, a senior lawyer at the Ministry for Economic Development, Rob Rendell, and the chief executive of Wellington Council, Gary Poole.
The overall message is that they are working tirelessly on getting everything in place to make it a great tournament, and the emphasis will be on including as many local residents and business’ as possible. They want to entice supporters to come to NZ in the first place, and they want them to leave with a favorable impression when they leave. For more information visit www.wellington.govt.nz/services/events/rwc/rwc.html
After all this excitement and information I was ready for refreshment, and I have found a great little place in Newtown that provides beer like we get in England. That is, fairly warm and flat! They do give it to you in a really cold chilled glass, but hey it warms up after a while, and it has a real hoppy, earthy, English beer taste! Well done Tuatara, which just happens to be a local brewery! Perhaps a future brewery trip may be in order, or buying shares in the form of beer vouchers?
