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 Tuesday, 27th May 2003 National Broadcasting School launches
The National Broadcasting School has been launched by two radio news veterans, Rory McLeod and Nik Coleman, to help potential radio journalists realise their dreams and to produce the sort of journalist that the industry wants. The School will run four intense, eleven-week courses in broadcast journalism each year on the campus of the University of Sussex, commencing in October 2003.
McLeod says that new technology has made music so easily accessible to listeners that many radio stations are having to appraise the quality, quantity and appeal of their speech content.
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Mcleod goes on to say that news editors are desperate for new staff who are reliable, imaginative, and well-trained.
McLeod and Coleman want the School to win a reputation for the thoroughness of its training.
The NBS courses have been designed for "A" level school leavers, graduates and people with media degrees who wish to sharpen their act. "More practice, less theory is our motto", Nik Coleman says. "The NBS will focus on presentation skills, core journalism techniques, the kit and and the software that both the BBC and commercial stations use, and knowledge - of the law, the judicial system, the structure of government and current affairs." The School will also encourage originality and a will to counter PR spin in order to get at the truth.
McLeod and Coleman will limit the number of students on each course in order to provide the closest supervision. Students will join one of several news teams on their first day and, by the end of the course, will provide news, information, sport, business news and features for various formats, both BBC and commercial. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three students on each course and when their eleven weeks is over, students will be offered the opportunity of a short attachment to a real radio station.
McLeod trained students at the original National Broadcasting School in London in the 80's. Several have progressed to become household names in UK radio and TV. "The demands on news journos are quite different now as a result of the way radio has evolved," McLeod said. "But what happens between the songs is becoming as important as the songs themselves. Good music is accessible from many places. Good content isn't. So more than ever we need talent and originality, but we also need the journalistic know-how that is sometimes missing in our newsrooms".
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