Swan FM Description

Description of the Swan FM Project

The main aim of the Swan FM project was to fulfil the coursework requirements of GCSE Short Course Citizenship Studies.

In addition Swanlea’s role as a Business and Enterprise College aims to provide students with opportunities to develop business and entrepreneurial skills across the curriculum.

Although the Swan FM project did not involve students in handling money and making profit orientated business decisions, it did involve;

Risk

Decision Making

Problem Solving

Modelling professional roles and practices

Service to the community

Negotiation with adult authority figures

For these reasons I applied for Pathfinder funding in September 2004, although at that time I had little idea of what the final costs of the project would be. I was awarded funding of £1000 to develop Swan FM.

I also had little idea of how a radio station actually worked and had to read up media studies textbooks and network with media professionals to develop a vision for Swan FM.

By the end of September 2004 I had decided on the overall structure of the project, although not its final delivery.

The Planning Stages I decided on were;

Research of radio broadcasts to record and plan the basic format of a pop/talk broadcast

Visit a radio station to find out how a show is planned and to practice technical skills

Use the result of the station visit to make a basic plan for Swan FM

Present the plan to Swanlea’s leadership team in order to win permission to broadcast in school

Conduct audience research to ensure that Swan FM met the needs of the whole school audience

Plan an music and talk format based on the results of the audience survey

Allocate roles to students and ensure that the students had the opportunity to practice and develop different roles

Practice broadcasting on a Saturday morning

Select a week for Swan FM to broadcast

Evaluate the project.

The precise delivery of each stage involved my reflection on the progress being made by the students and especially the areas they found challenging and required extra support with.

Three points made progress with the project potentially challenging

The low level of confidence of many of the students in making on-air presentations

A reluctance to do detailed planning as highlighted by the comment that ‘all you do in radio is chat on the mic’

A reluctance to organise work based on the requests and needs of the wider school community – whether students with different tastes in music or the leadership team setting boundaries to the project.

It was here that I found that the influence of pirate radio stations operating outside usual legal or editorial controls have a significant influence on the listening habits of the students.

Overcoming these challenges was a major factor in the final success of the project, but it was hard work at times.

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