East Coast FM - Day 3

Laura Wood and Rob G

 Bright and early on Wednesday, I went in to the Radio Center to meet Rob and Laura, presenters of 'Freshly Squeezed'. From 8am, I sat next to them as they presented their award-winning breakfast show. I was amazed at how much they could do ad-lib, and how they presented so naturally. The banter between the duo was so natural, and was definitely not rehearsed - I can confirm this. The pair have worked together for a number of years on the station, yet the show maintains an energy that is unbelievable when one considers that they've been up since 5am. I observed them run competitions, a quiz, play requests and read out the traffic and travel. It was an excellent experience watching two seasoned presenters who are so good at their job.

 Next, I met Claire Darmody. She produces the 'Declan Meehan Show', East Coast's flagship magazine programme. She gets in each morning at seven to prepare for when they go on air at 10. I was immediately struck by this woman's passion for radio. While producing Declan's show on East Coast, she also juggles a job as a producer for the Vincent Brown programme on TV3.
 Declan's show is a mix of guests and chat about topical issues; ranging from light-hearted talking points to politics. Declan was joined by a number of guests including Gavin James, and up-and-coming Dublin singer-songwriter. He performed in studio and talked to Declan.

Declan Meehan with Gavin James

 After the show, I got talking to Declan, who is an Irish radio veteran. We had an enjoyable chat about the Irish radio industry today, and the challenges it faces. I then joined him in studio 2, where he edited out the best bits of the show for a 'best-of' edition broadcast on Saturdays.

 After lunch I joined Tommy Greene. Tommy is East Coast's afternoon jock, and presents weekdays from 12 'till 4. He explained how the studio equipment works and told me about his show. Tommy, who has worked for stations including Today FM, Q102 and Sunshine, expressed his worry about the lack of security in radio - "One day you can have a job, and after a bad JNLR book, you'll be unemployed". This is the attitude taken by some stations in Ireland, but he told me that luckily East Coast FM is not one. Tommy gave me some advice regarding entering the radio industry and how I should be wary of the low salaries and freelance arrangements.

Tommy Greene

East Coast FM - Day 2

 It wasn't long after I came in at 11am that I was sitting in studio 2, alongside Rob G and Laura Wood. The duo present Freshly Squeezed, the station's breakfast show, which runs weekdays from 6-10am. Rob explained to me that he comes in at 6am, but Laura gets to have a lie in and arrives at 7 o'clock. As a result, they pre-record a number of their links for the 6 o'clock hour. I observed them recording their links and programming them into Myriad, the software that they use. After that, I got to chat to Rob about his career in radio; how he got into the industry, how he juggles the two shows he presents (breakfast on East Coast FM and weekends on FM104) and some other geeky questions that I had.

 Next, It was to Rob Diggins. He is the production director of the station. His role is to produce all of the advertisements that are broadcast on air and to create jingles/imaging. We observed Mark Robinson, the Programme Director at the station, record a promo about an outside broadcast which East Coast are holding in Arklow. Mark is new to the station, only taking up the role two months ago. Yet he brings a wealth of experience to the team. The Aussie has worked at stations all around the world and presents a weekly podcast about sports. After he recorded his voice-over, Rob edited it. It was our task to choose a piece of music to be played with the voice-over. After much deliberation, we chose a light-rock track called 'half of double'. The promo was then put together and is currently on air at the station.


 After lunch we returned to the gloomy reality of office life. It was my job to fold and envelope numerous invoices and statements of accounts for Sunshine 106.8, East Coast FM's sister station. A long and painstaking process, we finished with ten minutes to spare. Unfortunately, there was a catch. Sales manager Margaret told us that we had only done a fraction of the work that needed to be done!

Roll on tomorrow....

East Coast FM - Day 1

Just another Manic Monday!

 In the morning, I was greeted by Anne, the receptionist, who said that she had a mountain of paper work for me to do. Anne, true to her word, handed me three large A4 folders and a pile of invoices. Each invoice had a reference number, and my job was to order these reference numbers among the invoices in the folders. Forever trying to be organised and orderly, I dealt with small numbers of invoices at a time, ordering them and piling them up. After about two hours of painstaking work, the task was complete. I could finally breathe a sight of relief.

 After a short lunch, and game of coin toss (of which I am a master), it was time to get back to work. Our job was to erect the Christmas tree in reception. A logistical nightmare, we were confined in a small space, with a large tree. Half an hour later, the Christmas tree was up, but looking quite bare. We found a box of decorations and began to embellish the tree. It was not long before we realised that decorating Christmas trees is not my forte!! - Nonetheless, we got our picture put on East Coast FM's Facebook page to thank us for our hard work!

Onwards and upwards...

DCU Open Day

 At 9:30, we crossed the city to go to the bright and modern DCU campus.

We had read the list of the various lectures on at different times, and chosen the ones we wanted to see. First, it was to what is called the Henry Grattan building. I willingly went inside to the labyrinth of corridors, classrooms and lecture halls. After seeking help from a student, we promptly got to the Law and Politics talk. An interesting lecture, the head of department told us what to expect if doing the degree in DCU; the coursework, job opportunities and class sizes etc.

 Soon it was 11:30, and time for the talk on 'Global Business'. We heard about the great variety on the course, DCU's partner universities around the world. What interested me about this degree was that you spent two years in another country, achieving fluency in the local language, and spending 6 months completing a work placement. Then, it was back to Dublin for two years, where you would study and complete a two year work placement. An interesting degree that has many practical elements to it.

 After lunch in Spar, I split off from the group to pursue my interest in journalism. Unfortunately, I only caught 15 minutes of the lecture, but I learnt a lot. Including the impressive pupils who have passed through the course over the past 30 years. A sample of whom are shown below:

Ardal O'Hanlon

Laura Whitmore

Kevin O'Sullivan

RADMUN 2014

  For anyone who doesn't know, Model United Nations is a programme run all around the world for teenagers to get a feel of how the UN works; how resolutions are passed, how topics are debated and how delegates relate to each other. One of the largest competitions in Ireland is RADMUN- Rathdown Model United Nations.

 It was a first for all of our team, we had never done anything like it before. After a number of meetings with Thomas, Ferdy and Cameron (part of the St. Gerard's MUN 'Dream Team'), we we're set to go.... well, only sort of.

 Suited and booted, we went to Rathdown on Friday evening after school. We got a welcome pack complete with lanyards, placards and information on writing resolutions. Soon after, we went to our committee rooms. I was part of the Disarmament and Security committee. Armed with my speech, and a Bic four-pen, I was ready for battle. Over the two hours following we debated, amended, questioned and defended each others' resolutions. If your resolution was passed through the committee, you would have a chance to discuss it in General Assembly, with all of the delegates.
As darkness set upon the leafy Dublin suburb, it was time to head home.

 Well rested, I headed across to the school at 9am on Saturday. We spent tireless hours debating, voting and amending. Unfortunately, my resolution was not debated. Nonetheless, I still got hours of enjoyment out of critiquing the other delegates presentations. After lunch, we joined together in GA, where we could collaborate, debate (again) and question.

 In spite of the serious and formulaic nature of the tournament, it was a great experience. We made new friends, built up our confidence and learnt more about problems facing the world today.

 Well done to the fifth year team, who won Distinguished Delegation for their contribution, and to Shane Keneally for getting Distinguished Delegate!

Public Access to Law

 On Tuesday, I attended the 'Public Access to Law' course.

 In the morning, the group discussed different aspects of being a lawyer, and different cases in criminal law. After this, we watched a documentary on solving crimes. We then reviewed the two cases, which were both murders.

 Next, we held our first mock trial. The case was about an assault in a bar, in which a man was knocked un-concious by a woman with a pool cue. Barristers were chosen, as were witnesses, the victim and the accused. The rest of us acted as a jury. After the prosecution and the defence had made their case and interrogated the witnesses, we came to our decision. The verdict was that the defendant was not guilty, and had lashed-out at the attacker in self-defence.

After lunch, we began our second trial. The case featured a man who had been accosted by airline staff on a flight. Unfortunately, the prosecution (for which I was barrister), lost the case.

Altogether it was an enjoyable day, where I got to learn more about the legal system in Ireland.

Web Summit

I was delighted to hear that the school had 50 tickets for the Dublin Web Summit 2014, prized as one of the worlds largest technology events.

I arrived back at school at 6pm on Tuesday, eager to see the wide range of guests at the conference. Following a 45 minute bus journey, we had reached the RDS. The event was held in a gigantic hall, with seating for around 1000 people. There was a large stage at the front of the auditorium, in front of two large screens. After a 10 minute wait, it was time to see the first guests.

 The audience was introduced to CoderDojo, an organisation that runs courses around the world teaching children how to create apps and websites. This Irish-born movement is currently spreading across the globe, and now has over 27,000 members internationally. It was something that I had heard about before, but unfortunately never had the chance to do. Onto the stage came the CEO of the organisation along with three kids who had attended the courses. One of whom, was only nine years old and had already created her own series of websites!

In my opinion, the last guests were by far the most impressive speakers on the night. We had a woman from Google and the founder of Indiegogo, the online fundraising site. Full of charisma and passion for their work, they told us about the future of technology.

The lady from Google (who's name escapes me), told us about the internet of things. This is a concept in which many of our devices are connected and in communication with each other. For example, the heating can be turned on by your mobile, and you can boil the kettle with an app! This is the future - and by that I mean the near future. In two or three years, we could be experiencing connected homes.






Danae Ringelmann is an American entrepreneur, and the founder of Indiegogo, the online fundraising site helping millions to raise cash for their causes. She discussed some of the success stories on the site, how groups of teenagers had raised over $100,000 to build a new library, American school kids had raised thousands to help the families of those affected by a recent school shooting.

Danae's ideas were about being a social entrepreneur. She talked about providing services to the world, creating solutions to the many problems we face today. It was this message that struck a cord with me. Business is as much about ethics and ethos as it is about profit.





 I thoroughly enjoyed the event. It got me thinking about how people my age were using technology to shape the world.