Best New Presenters

thebeertalking

http://www.bestnewpresenter.ie/

"This award is here to recognise YOU."

I saw this earlier and thought - Recognise you...for what…being a wet week in Radio? You didn't save a drowning kitten or avoid getting the clap after a reckless weekend in Thailand.

It's hard enough being a new presenter. You've presumably waited your whole life to get there, you've listened to, enjoyed and learnt from heaps of radio, and eventually thought - "I wanna do that!"

Then you get in the door and the first thing someone wants to do is fill you with ego, give you false hopes and expectations and lead you to believe the industry will die without you and you alone.

All talent, be it radio or TV, is under more pressure than ever to be "hot in a week". There's so many different contents vying for attention that it's hard to give the time it really takes to break a mould, to be allowed develop and grow into something unique that will 'stand out' - not just a manufactured piece of dross hiding behind a massive marketing budget.

And competitions like this - don't help. If you fill someone enough with "you're great" and "you're the best", they'll eventually start to think they don't need any help, or indeed that the Station is 'nothing without them'.

No single talent is bigger than any station.

The New Presenter site talks about being "recognised by your peers".

Now I understand where the site's proponents are coming from, as they run a commercial venture which trains and advises new presenters, and so a competition like this raises their profile - it's good marketing.

But breeding a school of thought that those same presenters are the 'be all and end all' - is wrong.

It leaves others in a station feeling like they're inferior, that they're always playing second fiddle.

Now I'm not saying any of the winners didn't deserve their awards - not for a minute - but to put that kind of pressure on people who are at an exceedingly important and fragile point in their careers, is grossly unfair. You get enough knocks and kicks without the X-Factor element.

Like I said earlier, a lot of stations want you to be "hot in a week" - there's no room for errors, for mistakes, you can't get things wrong, you can't try new things because "the market [allegedly] won't respond well to it".

The household names that we all know today - got to where they are, not by being told they were 'great' on the first day. They got there by doing it - and doing it wrong - doing it again, and again – until eventually, doing it right. And being left alone to do so.



Just my thoughts....

buzzbomb

you've put way too much thought into this tbh.

if new presenters can't stand the pressure of entering radio awards then they shouldn't work in a medium where JNLR results come out every three months, internal tracking is done on a weekly basis and where market research and focus groups are never ending.

I'm sure others better qualified than me will say mroe about it, but the JNLR results coming out must be like getting your exam results four times a year. And it never ends. That combined with poor money (for the most part), internal politics and more means that the 'pressure' of trying to win a radio award probably isn't as bad as you might think.

plus, if they went to college instead of getting into radio they'd probably have to do college exams anyway!

thebeertalking wrote: »

http://www.bestnewpresenter.ie/

"This award is here to recognise YOU."

I saw this earlier and thought - Recognise you...for what…being a wet week in Radio? You didn't save a drowning kitten or avoid getting the clap after a reckless weekend in Thailand.

It's hard enough being a new presenter. You've presumably waited your whole life to get there, you've listened to, enjoyed and learnt from heaps of radio, and eventually thought - "I wanna do that!"

Then you get in the door and the first thing someone wants to do is fill you with ego, give you false hopes and expectations and lead you to believe the industry will die without you and you alone.

All talent, be it radio or TV, is under more pressure than ever to be "hot in a week". There's so many different contents vying for attention that it's hard to give the time it really takes to break a mould, to be allowed develop and grow into something unique that will 'stand out' - not just a manufactured piece of dross hiding behind a massive marketing budget.

And competitions like this - don't help. If you fill someone enough with "you're great" and "you're the best", they'll eventually start to think they don't need any help, or indeed that the Station is 'nothing without them'.

No single talent is bigger than any station.

The New Presenter site talks about being "recognised by your peers".

Now I understand where the site's proponents are coming from, as they run a commercial venture which trains and advises new presenters, and so a competition like this raises their profile - it's good marketing.

But breeding a school of thought that those same presenters are the 'be all and end all' - is wrong.

It leaves others in a station feeling like they're inferior, that they're always playing second fiddle.

Now I'm not saying any of the winners didn't deserve their awards - not for a minute - but to put that kind of pressure on people who are at an exceedingly important and fragile point in their careers, is grossly unfair. You get enough knocks and kicks without the X-Factor element.

Like I said earlier, a lot of stations want you to be "hot in a week" - there's no room for errors, for mistakes, you can't get things wrong, you can't try new things because "the market [allegedly] won't respond well to it".

The household names that we all know today - got to where they are, not by being told they were 'great' on the first day. They got there by doing it - and doing it wrong - doing it again, and again – until eventually, doing it right. And being left alone to do so.



Just my thoughts....

Fago!

I was under the impression that it was just for voluntary radio, and thought "Ah Neat-o!!!" An award for ther people TRYING to get into radio. The community DJ, the average Joe Soap Radio DJ... ... but then I see the shortlist fulla "Pro" DJ's? Fm104, I 104-106, I 105-107, Cool Fm and Radio Kerry?*

I'm sure there are loadsa community DJs across the country who feel ripped off!!!

Still despite my annoyance of that, fair balls to Killian Murphy who won!

*I just read the site and it actually sez for all radio, commercial or otherwise...

MarkN

When Lady GaGa got Best Newcomer at the MTV Awards did Madonna start to sh*t herself? No. What about 2FM's DJ for a day? Sony Radio Awards?

I wouldn't take it too much to heart, there's nothing wrong with having a "one to watch" aspect to these awards, PDs can't be everywhere and a good PD is too busy listening to their own station and the main competitors to hear what's going on, scouting across every station is impossible.

Things like this raise the profile of the "best of the newcomers" and can't do them any harm - they have enough standing in their way as it is, why not help them out a bit? Just because a presenter may be on a large station, their on air shift may not mean every dog on the street knows who they are or gets a chance to hear them.

Fair play to Brian Mc for actually giving a toss about new talent - the man doesn't have to try help them. He only has a full time gig and a company to keep himself busy with.