NEWBITES FOR KIDZ AUG. 2004������������������������� � From News for Kidz�
This is what kids did all over the world!
TURNING
TROUBLE� INTO TRIUMPH
Foreign
students adapt to U.S. living
TURNING TROUBLE� INTO TRIUMPH
Radio - On the right wavelength
SOURCE: http://www.ypnmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=full_news&ID=4679
Radio: On the right wavelength
By - 28/07/04
Radio projects provide young people with a
valuable forum to air their views. John Plummer finds out what is involved in
setting up a successful station
The sound of R'n'B fills
the studio as Monica Lawal, 18, prepares to present
her next show on Issue FM. "I love debating," she says. "This is
a great chance to talk about things that interest me and to represent young
people."
Issue FM is one of a growing number of
Issue FM was born in south
Titus Lucas was a 19-year-old single father
almost �15,000 in debt when he hit on the idea four years ago while watching
Jerry Springer on TV.
"I thought it would be great if there was a
more serious, practical way of helping people," he says. "Paying my
daughter's nursery fees and going to college was a huge struggle, but I was
fortunate enough to know about organisations that
could help me. Not everyone is as lucky. I thought radio would help them."
With the support of four college friends, Titus
secured a �15,000 M Power award from the Millennium Commission to set up a
radio station. They hired premises, purchased a mixing desk, devised a schedule
and taught themselves how to present shows before the station aired for a month
on a restricted service licence.
"It was easy to use the equipment,"
says Titus. "The hardest part was getting rid of the jitters before you go
on air. You become very self-conscious about everything you say."
Exams prevented a repeat venture in 2001 and
2002, but Titus resurrected the idea last year with three of the original crew.
This time they have secured grants and loans totalling
�25,000 to broadcast for another month and are determined to make the venture
last.
Young people-led
Titus has established a voluntary organisation called the Issue Group, which is run by a
management committee on which seven of the nine members are aged under 25, to oversee the station's development.
Issue FM has once again secured a restricted
service licence that permits broadcasting for just a
month. The station was due to relinquish its airspace at 101.4FM today (28
July), but the young presenters have made the most of their time by organising a lively four-week schedule covering subjects
from paganism to the Nation of Islam.
"We've been trying to get someone from the
British National Party to come on the show as well but it's been hard to get
their number," says Titus. Debates on the new world order, teenage
pregnancy, gun crime and a Navy commander talking about fitness were also part
of the mix.
The music is similarly eclectic. "R'n'B is the new pop, which is why we mainly play it, but
we try to include other forms of music such as jazz," says Titus.
The airwaves are an unforgiving place with every
mistake transmitted from the station's Brixton base across
Sixth-form student Beatrice Dibia,
18, co-presents an afternoon show called Youth Counsel with Monica. She says:
"I have never had this kind of opportunity. I talk to people about issues
such as drugs, revenge and homosexuality. It's up to me to put questions on
behalf of young people."
Beatrice hopes presenting will be a stepping
stone to a TV career, while Monica thinks it will enhance her prospects of
getting into university.
All the training is on the job. "I've
always been around computers, so I find it pretty easy," says Martin Igbinedioen, 18. "For me, it's a good chance to talk
to people in
Licence changes
With communications
industry regulator Ofcom announcing this year that it
is to grant community radio licences, Titus is
preparing a bid on behalf of Issue FM. His long-term vision is for the station
to broadcast in disadvantaged communities across the
The initiative is also helping him to achieve
his personal goals. The Conservative Party probably doesn't count too many
young, Black single parents from Brixton among its membership, but Titus is a
staunch Tory.
He wants to become a politician and hopes that
his entrepreneurial zeal will help him climb the ladder.
Cost restrictions prevent Issue FM from tapping
into the benefits of radio's digital revolution, but an online initiative
called RadioWaves has enabled more than 40 schools
and youth groups to make radio programmes at a
fraction of the cost of traditional broadcasting.
RadioWaves stores
sound files on a central server and streams them across a network. The system
allows young people to make their own recordings and upload them to the server.
Sharon Ashley, manager of Radio-Waves, says:
"Giving young people a microphone is extremely liberating for them. It
gives them the confidence to go up to people they would not normally approach.
They learn so much more through doing it themselves and it gives them a real
life experience."
The Learning and Skills Council and lottery
money originally funded the initiative, but now youth groups pay �500 a year
for a licence. "We want it to grow on an
international level, so young people can collaborate all over the world,"
says Ashley.
Takeover Radio, which claims to be the only
full-time FM station in the world for young people, gives 70 teenagers
broadcasting experience. Young adults operate the station during school hours.
Structured training available
The station, which has
60,000 listeners across
Advertising, money from Connexions
and income from training courses fund annual running costs of around �100,000.
Unlike many youth stations hamstrung by severe
finance problems, Takeover Radio offers structured training. Applicants go on a
20-hour course guiding them through the technology, how to put together a show
and how to do news and links.
One hundred young people have been on work
placements at the station in technical as well as presenting roles.
Robin Webber-Jones, trust manager of the organisation, says: "In terms of delivering education,
the cost per head of radio is cheap. We can get our message to 60,000 people
and young people thrive when you put them in charge.
"We tell them they have two hours airtime,
it's up to them what they do. They respond to that."
YOUTH FM BUILDS SELF-ESTEEM
Hundreds of young people in the London Borough
of Sutton have tasted live broadcasting since Youth FM first went live in 1996.
Martin Smith, the borough's youth media worker,
has little doubt about its value. "We're not interested in radio per se,
but it's a great youth work tool," he says.
"Anyone can stick a CD in, but the main
thing is talking on a microphone. It raises self-esteem and confidence and
encourages people to work as a team."
Smith's team recruits in Sutton schools and
youth clubs each autumn.
By the summer, 30 presenters aged 14 to 21 have
been trained to run the station between 7am and 10pm before pre-recorded
transmissions fill the night slots.
Entertain and inform
Information bulletins every half an hour inform
listeners about services and events across the borough. The youth service pays
about �2,000 for a restricted service licence, which
entitles it to broadcast at 87.9FM during July. The young people involved pay
for the licence fee by organising
Club 15 party nights for 11- to 15-year-olds in the borough. The money also
pays for Pulse, a young people's magazine distributed in Sutton.
About 2,000 people call the station during the
three weeks it is on air.
The number of listeners could increase if plans
to broadcast on the internet from 4pm to 10pm receive the go-ahead in 2005.
Programme controller
Terry Everest, 21, has been involved in the station for seven years. "It's great experience and talking to others really opens up
shy people," he says.
TOP TIPS FOR RADIO PROJECTS
- If using music, remember you will have to pay
royalties to both the Performing Rights Society and Phonographic Performance,
which collects fees for public performances of music. For a restricted service licence, this may come to around �2,000
- Consider pre-recorded material for graveyard
(late-night) slots to avoid having young people coming and going at antisocial
hours
- Ofcom is more likely
to issue restricted service licences to radio
stations that are linked to a particular event, such as a local festival
- Think big. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced in March that �500,000 was being made
available for not-for-profit community radio stations, administered by Ofcom (www.ofcom.org.uk).
So there could be Government money to support your venture
- Get young people to think about setting
boundaries by asking them to agree on their own censorship rules. But remember
that broadcasters and guests who incite hatred or encourage listeners to break
the law could land the station in trouble
- Make sure the presenters know where the panic
button is in case callers abuse your code of conduct or the law
- For information on how to apply for a
community radio licence, visit Radio Regen's web site, www.radioregen.org,
and the Community Media Association's web site, www.commedia.org.uk.
Foreign students adapt to
By Carol Bronson of the Tribune Staff
http://www.pratttribune.com/articles/2004/09/16/news/news3.txt
American students have an easier time in school, take their sports more
seriously and structure much of their lives around school activities. Aniek Busscher and Erina Arakawa are adapting to the differences at
In the
Aniek has completed secondary school in
"If you want to do something like this, you have to do it in this time of
your life," she commented. "I want to see more of the world."
In her last year of school, she took eight subjects: economics, math, biology,
Dutch language, English, French, history and geography. Although she had
previously played soccer and team handball - sponsored by a sports club, not
the school - she opted to concentrate on her studies for her final year.
"It was very hard," Aniek said. "You
have to do a lot on your own."
English is a required subject in
Erina has also studied English and lived with her
family in
An assignment in a PHS class mentioned "Big Dog." Erina
understood it to mean a large canine - not the most important person of the
company. Some phrases just aren't in the computerized English-Japanese
dictionary she carries in her backpack.
At home, she wouldn't rely on electronic devices.
"We can't use a calculator in algebra, we only use our brains," she
noted.
Her family lives in a town of about 300, Matsubushi,
near
The girls talked about other differences they're discovering.
"It's weird to see 15-year-olds driving," Aniek
said. In
The legal age for drinking alcohol, however, is 16 in
Japanese students don't move from class to class, their teachers do. Students
wear uniforms and sit in assigned seats.
American diets are more unhealthy, both said. Erina misses Japanese rice and fresh fish, although she has
developed a fondness for spaghetti and other pastas. Aniek
would eat more vegetables and bread at home.
Both are familiar with American fast food.
Both said that if language were not a factor, classes at Pratt High are much
easier than they're accustomed to. Activities are less a part of schools in
their homelands.
"School is important for an American student," Aniek
said. "For us, school is just school."
Japanese students do not hold down part time jobs.
The back-to-school dance at Pratt High was a new experience for Erina, who laughed about doing a "chicken dance."
Both are happy with their placement in Pratt. Erina
particularly likes seeing trees and grass, a change from the concrete she is
used to in
"I think I'm learning more of real American life in a small village than
if I lived in a big city," Aniek said.
Aniek will be in Pratt for the school year, then
return to
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