This week me and my 3rd year Audio production course received a guest lecture by Dan Shepherd. Dan is an audio producer who set up Far Shoreline Productions, an audio production company offering a range of services like Case studies and podcasts to public, private and third sector organisations. Dan has been making feature programmes for BBC radio for twenty years.

Prior to attending the lecture I listened and made notes on two feature radio programmes Dan had produced. The first programme was ‘Indian pacific’ which followed a range of perspectives on a train journey from Sydney to Perth. The second was ‘Cutting Up The Cut-Up’ which runs through the development of the ‘cut-up’  from avante garde to music to parody.

Dan began the lecture by outlining that he would be explaining the process of making a feature radio programme for the BBC by running through the production process of the 2 feature radio programmes we had listened to. Dan let us know that this would be followed by a more open discussion about radio or anything related in general.

Before Dan went through his examples he pointed out the difference between radio features and radio documentaries. Radio features have a wider spectrum of subject matters and allow more creativity than a conventional documentary which is more limited in the field of journalism. Dan expressed his appeals to feature radio programmes which were going into a subject in great depth by exploring nuances in a more grey area, creativity, scope to explore a subject in any way you want and transporting the audience to another place . In terms of transporting the audience to another place Dan told us how some radio feature programmes require the audience’s imagination over other formats like TV and that the audience can interpret radio feature programmes on a number of levels.

Dan explained the two categories of radio feature programmes, presenter led and montage. Presenter led radio programmes are structured in a way where the presenter is guiding the audience through the programme and they are typically recorded in a studio. Montage radio programmes don’t have a presenter, instead a collection of voices that are cut together coherently for the audience to make sense of.

Dan started with the montage feature programme ‘Indian pacific’ and brought up the challenging question he faced when producing the programme which was ‘How am I going to convey what this train journey is like?’. Dan explained how his original goal was to find people people who describe what its really like inside the train. Dan pointed out that the first part of making a feature radio programme is research, followed by logistics. During the time of the programme (1997) BBC news covered little on the issues happening in Australia such as the heated debate around immigration, land rights and natives controlling land so Dan’s plan was to incorporate these issues into the train journey. The next part of the plan was to experience the train journey and interview passengers to gather a range of perspectives. Dan went on to say how in practice the passengers had little to say then made the point that plans often go off schedule so you have to adapt. To adapt to this problem Dan interviewed experts at the end of the train journey in Perth to fill the gap in knowledge of the issues within Australia. When recording Dan used omni directional microphones for interviews and stereo microphones under to train to pick up moving train sounds.

In total Dan had recorded 30 hours of content and went through the lengthy process of sifting through everything down to 23 minutes of voices. Dan told us the next steps were creating the crafted feature programme in the editing and mixing stage followed by the studio managers polishing up the programme in doing the final mix. Dan let us know that after the programme was complete the BBC owns all the rights in perpetuity, a term previously highlighted by Lol Hammond.

Dan made the key point that it’s critical to create feature radio programmes objectively with the audience in mind. Not yourself.

Dan moved on to his next feature programme ‘Cutting Up The Cut-Up’ which was presenter led in the studio and generally more conventional. In this instance there was no authority figure around the cut-up so Dan pointed out that as a presenter you join the dots. Dan explained that as a starting point in a presenter led feature programme you educate the listener as they know nothing about the subject

Dan concluded his lecture by discussing the rise of the podcast and how its transforming the whole spectrum of speech radio. Dan continued to say how radio doesn’t know how to deal with the rise of the podcast and the future is going to be challenging for radio stations like BBC4 that hold onto traditional models of communication. Dan advised us that doing podcasts is a good starting point for anyone interested in broadcast media because of its accessibility and freedom to explore a subject in any way you want.

I learnt a range of valuable terms, lessons and advice. In terms of terminology I learnt about the two categories of radio feature programmes, presenter led and montage. In terms of lessons I learnt that in practice with many projects plans often go off schedule so you have to adapt. Furthermore when making a feature programme it’s critical to create the programme objectively with the audience in mind and to research the topic. In terms of advice I learnt that a good starting point to get into broadcast media is podcasts due to having the freedom to openly discussing topics and the high level of accessibility.