Working with BBC TV

Working with BBC Look East - Cambridge Sub Opt. April 2008

My BBC Life

Has it really been three months since I was at sea?!

Well, I suppose it makes sense really. Since then, I have started my new job at BBC Three Counties Radio. In fact, I started around the time when all the job cuts were in the press. It was certainly a strange time to be starting my 'dream job'. Fortunately though, the cuts did not effect local radio as much as other parts of the BBC.

I do not think I had five minutes to quite digest the surrealism of being a lone female journalist on board an Italian Naval ship, in the middle of The Adriatic, in the warm Autumnal sun, before I was thrust back ... to Luton.

My feelings about Luton are not influenced by my allegiance to a certain Championship team. I think the fact that my car was broken into, in a BBC car park with four CCTV cameras, says a great deal about the town.

All of Luton aside, my new job is going very well. Thank you to people who contacted me to do a 'Video Nation' diary. If anyone else is interested (from Beds, Herts and Bucks) then get in touch!


ROKKER RADIO



How can I blog without mentioning something that I am so proud of, yet simultaneously continues to make me want to bang my head on a table?

Rokker Radio is the BBC's only programme for Travellers and Gypsies. It has gone from simply broadcasting across the Three Counties to broadcasting across the whole of the East of England. It is not only the voice of the community, but a chance to dispell the numerous myths surrounding them.

I am now the producer of the programme and I absolutely love it. I didn't know much about the community before I became involved. It started last year when I made a documentary for the show about evictions and the profit made from them. Over the last couple of months I have taken the show out on the road twice, invited numerous guests in and, I would like to think, have opened a few people's eyes on the way.

Additionally, the presenter, Jake Bowers has started to recruit young travellers as 'citizen journalists', who will not only contribute to the show, but will be learning about the media and journalism too. We have also been recently mentioned on Indymedia across the world for speaking out about the persecution of Gypsies in Italy.

The show does not just revolve around news and conflict though. The music is incredibly eclectic and we have a good number of friends of the show who are poets and story tellers, not to mention all the artists too! Gypsies and Travellers do not have as much of a documented history as none travelling people (Gorjas). They pass down their history through story telling and songs, which I find fascinating to hear.

The problem is, as romantic as I make this all sound, it is not how most people feel when you say the word 'Traveller'. People think of litter, crime and trouble quite frankly. Why? Because that is the side of the community that people see and more poignantly, this is the side that stirs up emotion, makes great photos and sells papers. I am not denying that this side exists, believe me, if I could get hold of some of these Travellers and make them see how they are not helping themselves by the way they act, I would. I believe it to be due to ignorance on both sides. Travellers and none Travellers want to keep their spheres of existence as far away from each other as possible and in doing so close their eyes to each other. I am afraid that simply is not going to work.

BBC Rokker Radio broadcasts across the East of England on BBC local radio every Sunday evening from 7-9pm. You can catch it online here at that time or click here at any other time during the week to 'Listen Again'... CLICK HERE.

You can also join Rokker Radio on Facebook CLICK HERE.




TREASURE QUEST


Ah ha! my other job! This is the time of the week where I get to make a fool of myself quite publicly on the radio and across the world on line.

Treasure Quest has seen me search windmills, play golf, scale large trees and nearly get shot over the last few months. I think my most favourite clue location was at Buckinghamshire Railway Museum, where I was honoured to meet The Fat Controller and Thomas The Tank Engine himself.

Listen Again to Treasure Quest