Meet some of Petersfield’s most interesting and accomplished people in Down the Pub with Tim Concannon.
Tim’s guest is South Downs Authority member and Petersfield Museum trustee Doug Jones.
You’ll discover why areas around Petersfield are critical to maintaining official “Dark Skies” designation for the South Downs, what makes our National Park unique in Britain and how to roll a Ewe if you see a one that can’t get up.
The fledgling Petersfield Community Radio project has been
able to buy essential recording equipment thanks to a four-figure donation from
a business based in the town.
The project – which aims to start ‘broadcasting’ initially with
a podcast in the summer – is already uploading stories and audio to its
website, but is now looking to undertake more ambitious production with the
purchase of handheld audio recorders and accessories, to capture stories around
the town, and a pair of broadcast-quality microphones that can be used for
interviews in any indoor location.
The donation came from financial planning company Informed
Choice, based in Station Rd, and director Shelley McCarthy is hoping other
local businesses will follow suit.
Shelley McCarthy, Director of Informed Choice
She said:
“This project is a great opportunity for the town of Petersfield, which is sorely underserved when it comes to local radio, owing to its location. But as it doesn’t have the backing of a media conglomerate it is being driven by a large group of enthusiastic volunteers, of which I am one.
“Hopefully other locally based businesses can see the potential there is here for a community radio station and join us in supporting it financially. We were delighted to become the project’s first donor and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”
Petersfield Community Radio’s Stephen Martin added:
“The donation from Informed Choice was most welcome and we’d like to thank them for supporting the concept so early in its development. The money has already proved a real boon and is enabling us to record a number of different features which will be used in long and short forms.
“We also have local business support from Antrobus House, which is providing our accountancy services, while we have partnered with four local schools – Bedales, Churcher’s College, Ditcham Park and The Petersfield School – and the town’s museum.
“The project is gaining momentum and we’d be delighted to hear from anybody else who would be keen to support it or volunteer to be a part of it.”
Meet some of Petersfield’s most interesting and accomplished people in Down the Pub with Tim Concannon.
In this edition, Tim’s guest is Buriton resident and amateur meteorologist Richard Marks.
In their pub chat you’ll hear how Richard mixes community theatre with a love of good food, wine and life as a father and grandfather, and his thoughts on climate change based on decades of weather observations from his home in the village.
Their conversation was recorded in The Five Bells on 15 March 2019.
With thanks to Churcher’s College for hosting us in their Lecture Theatre, here are headlines from our first Creative Day which took place on Saturday 2 March 2019.
Thirty two volunteers joined us for the day which moved us from great ideas to practical implementation, and shared skills necessary for everyone to get out and start making radio content.
Turning ideas into content
Dave led us through ideas submitted to our Ideas Magnet and found volunteers to take them forward. This Wordle shows the most popular themes from the ideas submitted…
Now we’re turning ideas into actual content and some highlights include:
News stories. Dave will assemble a team
What’s on / entertainment information
Women’s discussion with Suzi, Mandy, Noni, Rita and Dawn
A cycle of weekly schools reports, managed by our schools representatives Cathy, Debs, Rob and Ian and their students
Walking / rambling / out of doors features – Tim, Suzie and Tom
Property features with Dawn, Alan and Barbara
Faith feature – Josh and Tim
Down the pub interviews with Tim
Money features – Shelley
Book club / local writers with Suzie and Laura
Haunted Hampshire with Emily and Ryan
Hard Work – job interviews with Alan
Recipe exchange with Noni
Twin Town reports with Ian
Dave is maintaining a full spreadsheet of content and owners. Let him know if you want to look through it or add your name to something.
Podcast
We want to start in June with a half-hour weekly show.
Richard proposed that our podcast could accommodate a flexible mix of different content within a fixed presenter-led format.
The longer audio features will live on the website on demand. Short clips in the podcast will encourage listeners to them.
We’ll cast a couple of entertaining presenters to link the elements together and establish a weekly production routine.
Someone must take responsibility for editorial production (the output editor) and someone must commit to the audio editing each week (the audio producer). It could be the same person. It could be you.
Production workflow
Stephen stepped us through how we’ll make things and get them to listeners. We’ll use free and open source tools wherever we can.
We also have an account with OmnyStudio, thanks to the educational radio production website and podcast, Earshot.
This is our workflow:
There are several ways to make audio recordings:
Zoom H1n handheld recorders (we have bought several and they’re great for indoor or outdoor recording)
A portable rig of large diaphram Rode microphones on stands (we have one rig so far and it’s ideal for indoor interviews, performance and presentation work)
Voice Record Pro on smartphones (a free app for both Android and iOS). Another way to record interviews and easily upload to Google Drive.
In all cases, we save our recorded audio to Google Drive (free up to 15 GB of storage space) and share it between volunteers from there. Sign-up for a free Google account if you don’t have one.
If you’re using a laptop or PC, this free tool helps you sync files between your Google Drive and your computer.
And you can grab Voice Record Pro from your phone’s app store. Again, it’s free.
Our Intake form lets you submit completed audio, or raw audio that you need someone else to edit.
Alastair and Ryan will work out a booking system for the portable equipment. It will be held centrally in Petersfield Museum which we hope is convenient for everyone.
We will publish some tips to help you get the best use from the portable recorders soon, and some more detail on the intake process.
Oral History
Ryan from Petersfield Museum explained the key features of Oral History and how our audio interviews can help build a permanent record of Petersfield life for future generations.
He also shared some good advice for interviewing subjects: get to know them first, get their permission, don’t lose the recording!
There’s more information at the national Oral History Society website. https://www.ohs.org.uk/
Technique workshops
We split into two groups with some volunteers practicing news writing technique, breathing and smiling and interview practice with Richard and Sarah.
Meanwhile, a parallel session with Stephen looked at the technology we’ll use, and practiced recording on portable devices, moving the audio to Google Drive and editing it on laptops before publishing with OmnyStudio.
Most volunteers were in the first group – this is quite normal for radio!
When the two groups came together afterwards it became apparent that Julian has amazing skills in both areas.
Brand update
Thanks for your initial brand and naming ideas. The Impact team will take this forward and we have some professional contacts to help us including Charlie Mawer who has developed many broadcast brand identities including the TV channel Dave because “everyone has a mate called Dave”. True.
To help this process, we discussed our values:
And some thing’s we’ll try to avoid!
Coming soon
Legal and compliance training
Paul Chantler hasn’t just written the book on this… he’s written three…
This session with Paul is confirmed for Saturday 11 May at Churcher’s College. It will run from 9am to 1pm.
It is a requirement that anybody who writes or broadcasts for the project completes this training.
The BBC Editorial Guidelines are a good reference point too – considered a gold standard for independent journalists around the world.
Schools audio day
As part of our delivery of social gain in the community we’re developing an audio journalism and audio production day for students of our four partner schools.
This event is likely to be in late June and will be hosted by Bedales School. More information soon.
Knowledgebank
Several volunteers and representatives from the schools asked for an online guide to audio recording, how to use the equipment and submit audio.
Stephen is writing some guides and we will publish it on this website. If you’d like to help him please get in touch.
Author Jeff Towns discusses his book Edward Thomas and Wales before a live audience at Petersfield Museum with extracts read by Ceri Murphy.
Hear how a poet held so dear to us in Petersfield was influenced in his life and his prolific writing by his connection to Wales.
The topography, landscape history folklore and language of Wales all affected Thomas and his work as you’ll discover in this illustrated talk recorded at Petersfield Museum.
After the talk you’ll hear reaction from audience members Linda Tipple, Hugh Davie and Kate Wilson.
The Edward Thomas Fellowship
If you want to explore the work and life of Edward Thomas further, and deepen your understanding of his connections with the Petersfield area you can join the Edward Thomas Fellowship.
Every March the group organises a Birthday Walk for members, their friends and families.
You can find out more about the Fellowship at edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk
The Edward Thomas Study Centre at Petersfield Museum
You can read an extensive range of books by and about Edward Thomas at Petersfield Museum.
The Edward Thomas Study Centre houses books collected by the late Tim Wilton-Steer including rare early editions of some works.
Contact the museum at petersfieldmuseum.co.uk to make an appointment. There is no additional charge to consult the collection.
Memorial stone and seat
Climb the Hangers above Steep village to find the Edward Thomas memorial stone on the Shoulder of Mutton Hill.
You’ll be rewarded with a welcome rest on a seat provided by the Edward Thomas Fellowship.
