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Posted:
May 11, 2012
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Absolute Winner – What winning Sony Gold meant to Annabel Port

I’m standing backstage with my award tucked under my arm. I’ve just been photographed with Eammon Holmes and interviewed by someone who commented on how much I was shaking. I look around me and blurt out to the nearest person, ‘What do I do now?’ ‘Er….go back to your seat…’ they suggest with a hint of an eye roll.

Right, yes, of course. Back to my seat. And yet they could’ve said ‘Oh now you go off to be congratulated by the Queen’ and I’d have just nodded and left for Buckingham Palace. As I’ve just won the Sony Gold for Best On-Air Contributor and nothing now could surprise me.

I found out I was nominated on my honeymoon. I rang my dad to tell him. ‘Outstanding’, he said before hanging up and immediately calling his local paper, the Evening Echo, to give them what he believed to be the scoop of the year. It made it to page 36.

I was up against stiff competition including last year’s winner Mark Kermode and the legendary Moira Stewart so didn’t once dare to dream I’d actually win. This turned out to be a mistake. The reason why it’s good to dare to dream you’d win is that you might then have a vague idea of the speech you have to make.

Hearing my name announced as the winner by Eammon Holmes was a huge thrill mixed with huge terror that I’d have to stand up, walk up on to the stage and speak in front of all these people. It was all very surreal but I managed to thank everyone that I needed to and make it backstage before I embarrassed myself with the ‘what do I do now?’

I later went outside to ring my dad. We had a brief chat in which he promised not to ring up the local paper again. Before hanging up and ringing the local paper again. This time I made it to page 7.

Winning was an amazing experience. While I don’t think anyone’s main motivating force should be the winning of awards, it is incredible to have your work recognised in this way. I know On Air Contributor isn’t the most prestigious award, perhaps best reflected by the fact it was axed after 2 years. And there is a bit of snobbery about women who are sidekicks to a main male presenter. But as long as you aspire to do more than just giggle at whatever your co-host says, it’s a brilliant learning on the job experience. Especially if you’re lucky enough to work with a presenter as talented as I have, the radio natural, Geoff Lloyd.

The question I get asked most about my job is ‘when are you getting your own show?’ I finally have an answer as I’ll be soon starting my own weekly slot on Absolute Radio 70s. My award may have helped me in achieving this next step. So it would be great if more women were successful at the Sonys. I think the lack of women in top radio jobs is just a hangover of more chauvinistic times. And no hangover lasts forever. (Although I did once have one for 8 days. But that’s another story).

My Sony glory (allow me to use the word glory, the chances are it’ll never happen again) was not just a career highlight, but a life highlight. It made every second of hard work all worthwhile. My proud dad, in between ringing up the local paper to give them more quotes, told me it was in the top 5 best experiences of his life. And if that’s not enough to motivate you to make sure one day you’re up on the stage at the Grosvenor House Hotel, I’ll also add that physically the award is very hefty, so kept by the side of the bed like mine, could prove very useful one day for tackling intruders. Just don’t forget, after winning, you just go back to your seat. That’s what you do next.

Annabel Port is Absolute Radio’s Hometime co-presenter

Posted:
May 10, 2012
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North West Drinks and World Domination

By Producer and Talent Coach Kate Cocker

Two weeks ago we started Sound Women North West’s monthly get togethers in Manchester. We have started as a small affair. A venue in the city, that will let us have a bar for a couple of hours the last Thursday of every month for the foreseeable.  The plan… world domination?  Not quite.  But we should aim high right?

The plan is to create a space for women in radio in the North West to meet, create, support, find each other, inspire, have fun, and celebrate our achievements. The vision is that you can come here and share – which is what we ladies do best – and not be judged.

Watch a film about the first NW meet here

Sound Women North West started a few months ago inspired by the amazing work that was happening in London. Me, Jo Meek, Andrea Day, Jo Good and Vicky Warham found ourselves meeting in tea shops in Manchester’s Northern Quarter sharing experiences of radio and comparing the contents of our handbags (lipsticks, USB sticks and random cable adaptors covered in mascara!) over milkshake and cake. And after some deliberation, decided it was time to get the ball rolling in the North West by setting a time to meet regularly.

And so there we were on Thursday April 26th, sticking up posters and slicing up something that looked like cake in 2022s on Dale Street in Manchester. The venue is a real find. A lovely creative space that exhibits art, puts on films and has a bar. What more do you need?

Nothing it seemed. There was a strong turn out of women from all levels of the industry travelling from as far as Liverpool and Chester to meet up. The magic of bringing brilliant people together has already begun, sparking off ideas and collaborations and radio training and radio programmes. It is nothing but positive.

As the months go by and with the guidance of the people that come, we plan to create breakout workshops, invite speakers, organise formal discussion and have events that people who can’t make it at 6pm, can (eg Radio Ladies Wot Lunch). But we’ll do it like this for a few months first. The task of the ladies that came this month is to bring a friend next month… Maybe we are after world domination?

We’ll meet again 6pm on Thursday May 24th at 2022s, Dale Street, Manchester. Please come along, and if you can’t make it this month – come the next month!

If anyone would like to start a Sound Women group in their area please email regions@soundwomen.co.uk

Posted:
March 7, 2012
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Sound Women Hit the North for International Women’s Day

A blog by Executive Producer Jo Meek

 

Thousands of events happen around the world every year on in early March to include, connect and celebrate females everywhere.

This year’s International Women’s Day came early for me, and I was just one of hundreds of ladies turning up at the magnificent Manchester Town Hall.

It’s a place that has seen many women from the Suffragettes to Annie Horniman, to Meryl Streep in full Thatcher costume, walk its grand corridors.  Manchester has a proud history of strong women and their presence was all around at ‘Inspiring Futures’ – Manchester’s International Women’s Day celebrations on Sunday 4th March.

The theme binding the event together was ‘inspiring futures’, from walking into the great hall to the vibrant sound of Hip-hop collective, Re:Verb’s welcoming boom, to wandering around rooms where a powerful barrister, an inspiring astronomer, the communications director for Bentley motors, a nuclear physicist and BBC DJs and newsreaders shared their experience and stories of incredible careers – you couldn’t get much more inspiring than this.

I watched several Dads wandering around the rooms hand in hand with their toddler daughters and I have to admit I felt a fuzzy warm glow, as women from so many walks of life shared their stories.

Women from all over the North and beyond had the chance to develop skills relating to music production, photography, IT, science, construction, writing and engineering.

Sound Women brought together a panel of women in radio, including BBC 6 Music’s Liz Kershaw, Skillset’s Jo Welch, Amazing radio’s newest voice, Shell Zenner and me.

We discussed the women (and gay men) who’ve given us opportunities both in front and behind microphones, we shared our hopes, fears and ambitions for future sound women and we dreamt of the one thing we’d all change if we ruled the world of radio for just one day.

We all shared the best bits, the not so good bits and the reasons why we love working in our respective fields of sound.  I was asked for my advice of how to make it in the world of radio, but the words of the very Savvy Justine Potter were the ones I shared with some other women looking for inspiration like me:

 I do what I do because if I didn’t do this, I’d be trying to do it.  If you feel like that (or want to feel like that) then you have nothing to lose.

They rang in my ears as I left the elegant hallways of the Town Hall and will stay with me today.

Happy International Women’s Day.

Posted:
January 10, 2012
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6 Music’s Nemone talks radio motherhood

Our latest blog is by BBC 6 Music presenter Nemone Metaxas

I’m fresh back to work after my second baby and marvelling at how any of you with children has ever held down a steady job, kept your sanity and kept the little people from turning into wild, unfed feral reprobates.

I am just about getting to grips with the hat changing necessary to look after the kids for most of the week and then present two weekend breakfast shows at the end of it. Managing to string a comprehensible thought together for work in my spongy post baby brain still results in much rejoicing on my part.

I felt like I was making a momentous decision to go back to work in October, only three months after having had my baby boy. Long by French minister Rachida Dati’s standards, short by many other industries. It’s ironic but it feels like we can’t be invisible for very long in radio.

He is young for me to be back at work but I’m very lucky it’s daddy he’s with when I’m on air. And for my two year old daughter hearing mummy on the radio is the most normal thing so my not being there for Saturday morning scrambled eggs is no biggie when I am around to marshall breakfast for the rest of the week.

And radio can be an incredibly flexible a working environment when you have kids. I remind myself of this as I hurl my body 6 music wards at 5.30am having just expressed my boy’s morning feed – praying my chest doesn’t explode before I get back to him after the show. It is surreal to be interviewing Philip Seymour Hoffman in one instance and hacking back home to feed and be faced with yellow nappy explosions the next. It would be impossible for me to do what I do though without an incredibly understanding partner and the unconditional and immeasurable support of my family. I know women who’ve had to rethink their career because they just couldn’t get cover for their children. And couldn’t be at the beck and call of their radio master.

My partner and I had lengthy discussions about how great it would be to share maternity leave, especially as at the time I was still doing the Lunchtime Show on 6 Music from London. Parental leave must be an option in industries where often a woman can be bringing in a good share of the family income. It would be tricky to implement but sometimes those are the very policies we should be supporting. However looking at the opposition ‘parental leave’ came in for in recent months we’re a little way off it becoming a reality. It would be a great step towards true equality if parents could divide family life and work how it suits them best and not down pre-ordained lines.

But whilst radio seems more forgiving my side of the mic in comparison to other media environments might there be more creative ways of job sharing? Ensuring women remain ever present whilst enabling them to have a family too.

Cerys Matthews and I talked about sharing the lunchtime slot on 6 Music. She covered my show whilst I was on my first maternity leave and was pregnant with her third baby when I came back to work. We thought it could be a great solution for us both to broadcast but still be child caring for a good part of the week. What a creative challenge it would be but equally a great nurturing of staff for a network to encourage this kind of shared input into a daily radio show. Although that’s all very well for presenters to ponder I do wonder what interesting challenges that might throw up for production teams? Answers on a postcard.

And I wonder if that’s how Mark and Stuart at 6 Music divvy things up. Often one of them presents the Radcliffe and Maconie show alone. A brilliant strategy resulting in a wealth of on air creative resources behind one daily show. And an unrivalled degree of flexibility for its hosts.

So as mum and presenter I’m glad that Sound Women now exists. For me it isn’t a forum for man bashing and beating the feminist drum. But partly about ensuring women don’t get lost when they decide they want to start a family and perhaps might want to enjoy their career alongside it. And celebrating what women have achieved and can achieve in this rewarding and richly creative industry.

I take (my many) hats off to you ladies (and gentlemen) for holding it together – the job, the kids, the sanity – and making it look easy. The constant spinning of plates is mind boggling and fun to pretend you can do without any dropping.

Listen to Nemone on BBC 6 Music, Saturday and Sunday, 0700-1000 

Posted:
December 12, 2011
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Fancy a Gold Sony Award on your mantelpiece?

Then read this – a plea from a shy Sony-winner and former judge…

Dear Sound Women

Right now many of you will be working all the time given frantically getting your work done in time for Christmas, so you may be pushing the thought of Sony entries aside to the last minute. Please think again.

Sound Women are on a mission to get a higher proportion of female Sony winners in 2012 and that can’t happen if you don’t enter.

We can think of many reasons why Sony Awards have been predominantly won by men in the past, such as more male judges, women not pushing to get their shows entered, or women not being the named producer or presenter on the entry.  We have spoken to the awards organisers and have provided them with our list of 200 women in radio, so we are hopeful that this year women will be better represented amongst the judges, if not on the awards organising panel itself.

However women can’t win the awards if they don’t enter them, or indeed waste the entry they do put in. It’s down to you to you to ask your bosses to think about entering your work, or if you are your own boss – enter it yourself. It could be the best £102 -£180 you spent.  It’s also down to you to edit an entry which puts your work in the best possible light.

Here are some top tips to make the best of what you have got and ensure your entry is the best it can be.

1.   Put your best content at the start

You would be surprised how many award entries don’t do this. Imagine that the Sony judges only listen to the first 5 minutes (they may have 40 to get through) and make sure that those 5 minutes are the highest quality, most engaging, entertaining and downright special audio you have got.

2.  Follow the instructions clearly and to the letter

If they ask for a maximum of 30 minutes content, don’t enter any more, and don’t put 15 minutes either. Use the entire arsenal you have up your sleeve without cheating to make it the best it can be. Look at the rules for your entry clearly – If you put the wrong entry in you can be immediately disqualified.

3.  Clever tricks

Some stations make sure they include trails in their submissions, which have been beautifully edited with show highlights from across the month. These are valid as they went on air in that form. Do check the rules to make sure your tricks are within the guidelines though…

4.  Write an all-singing, all-dancing write-up of your programme

Needless to say, your written submission needs to be full of enticing and exciting reasons why your programme is outstanding.  The catch is that this needs to be 250 words or under (in 2011 – do check for 2012) so try to make every word count. Focus on what makes your entry outstanding, why is it unique in your category? Why should the judges pay special attention to this award? Don’t bombard them with stats and RAJARS and don’t assume the judges know your station history, the presenters or the area you broadcast in.

5. Finally just like a school essay, tailor your entry and the written material to the criteria outlined for that category  

Judging panels are made up of 3-5 people and they take each entry at face value and will simply decide what piece of audio is best for their category’s criteria.  Edit the entry so it gives the judges goose bumps, or shocks them, or simply makes them take notice. The audio must stand out from all the rest from the outset.

6. If you make a show on the internet or produce a podcast, don’t be put off by these awards, they’re for you too

If you can find a way to raise the funds, give it a go, as this category has a lot of variety in the entries and it might just be your turn in 2012.

Following these instructions isn’t a sure fire way to get a Sony Award nomination, you’ll also need a little bit of luck, but it will help…  Go for it.

There’s more advice on entering for a Sony here and here.  But you’ve got to be in it to win it…  BEST OF LUCK!

Posted:
September 25, 2011
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Let’s get this party started…

It’s been a busy Summer for Sound Women.  We’ve been approaching all the women on our Sound Women inspirational 200 List – welcome Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Anita Anand, Zoe Ball and Jane Garvey!  Also Susan Marling, Kate Bland, Jane Ellison, Janet Graves, and a host of other brilliant programme-makers.  We’ll put the full list up soon.

We’ve been talking to the BBC, RadioCentre and the Radio Academy.  All have been supportive of our aims.

We’re in the process of making a short film to officially launch Sound Women at a major event very soon.

And we’re talking to a 25-girl choir, who we’re hoping will blow us out of the room at our first big networking event in November.

This website is up and running – although we plan to add more pages celebrating the work of women in audio…   Do send us a link to work you’re really proud of, or to recommend a piece of classic audio made by women, and we’ll showcase it here.

You can also now find us on facebook, LinkedIn and twitter.  Please post and get involved!

Finally, we are moving further along the road with our mentoring scheme – news coming soon -  and working hard to get funding for our leadership scheme, networking groups across the UK, tailored research, and a series of workshops.

But it’s becoming clear that we can’t do any of this without funding of some sort.  Which is where we now REALLY need your help.  We’re talking to some big companies, both in the radio industry and outside, and to some little ones too, but in the current economic climate we clearly also need to be a bit more inventive…

Could you help us raise some money?  Is there anyone in your organisation you could talk to?  Do you have a special skill that might help us out?  We’re not asking you to run sponsored marathons, more to use your skills and knowledge of the industry to think who might be prepared to support us – even a little – financially.  And to think of creative ways of running events – or something completely different – so that we can make this all happen. Could you have a think, talk to some people, get the ball rolling, and then get us on board?

There is a lot of excitement about Sound Women right now.  We have some high profile supporters, and the will to make a difference.

THANK-YOU for all your energy and enthusiasm so far.   Now it’s time to make our big ideas happen. Let’s channel a slightly scary, leotard-clad Pink, and get this party started…