Student Radio Association

So, you like the idea of joining the likes of Greg James, Neil Fox, Simon Mayo and Scott Mills in dabbling in student radio (Scott wasn’t even a student!), but don’t know where to start?

You’ve come to the right place – see below for our five step guide for getting involved, and an idea of the variety of different roles there are to play in student radio.

1. Find the nearest student radio station to you. A good place to start is our listen section on this site, or The Student Radio Association’s members section, or if you’re a student – have a look at your Students Union webpage, and find out if there’s a station at your uni.
2. Get in touch with the station – there’s not much point emailing the studio though – have a look around the station’s web page – most have a head of training or a program controller (who looks after what shows are on the schedule) – this is probably the best place to start.
3. Find out if you can get involved. If you’re a full-time student at the university this shouldn’t be a problem, unfortunately though some Stations are limited in who can join from outside the student community for insurance and legal reasons.
4. Visit the station – if you like what you see, join up (most stations charge a small fee to cover admin etc.)
5. Get trained up in one or more of the areas of student radio below, and become part of the UK Student Radio community.

A final tip – most student radio stations are more than just societies or organisations – they tend to be large groups of friends. Lifelong friendships have started through student radio (not to mention a good few marriages) – it’s well worth becoming part of the social life at the station you join, as well as taking part in the activities of the station.

There’s a whole lot more to student radio than just turning up and talking into a microphone. There’s as much to running a student station as there is to running a professional station – although on a slightly smaller scale.

Here’s quick overview of some of the jobs/departments in student radio – it’s by no means comprehensive, and different stations will approach this areas in different ways.

Programming may be the area which jumps to mind as soon as you think of the radio – but there’s a whole lot more to it than just turning up and playing records. Most stations operate both daytime and specialist shows, as well as having news, comedy and drama programmes.

If you don’t see yourself as the next Chris Moyles or Zane Lowe – you might fancy a behind the scenes job like Producing, keeping the on air presenters in line – whilst planning features, and getting involved in the running of the show.

Student stations receive hundreds of CDs every week from record companies, promoters and bands keen to get exposure for their music. Unfortunately it’s not all that good, or suitable for the audience – and someone’s got to sort through it all to get the best on air. You might discover the next big thing, or you might find out that actually James Blunt’s new track does sound the same as his last 10.... who knows! There’s even a chance you might get to meet and interview your favourite band!

The station sound is really important to Student Radio – idents, sweepers and stagers (you might know them as jingles...) need to sound fast paced, interesting and relevant to a student audience; there’s no room for Cheesy jingles or dull adverts (well maybe a little room for cheesy jingles...). If you’ve got a flair for music production, a creative writing streak or you just want a go at putting the whooshes and bangs in the right order – Audio Production might be the role for you.

There’s no point having the world’s best radio station if no-one knows about it! Marketing is all about making sure your listeners know what you’re up to on the station – and usually for virtually no budget. A job for graphic designers – and anyone else creative, marketing isn’t all posters and banners  - it’s one for ‘thinking outside the box’!

Running a radio station costs money, there’s licences, music, computers to be kept going and fun toys to buy – unfortunately even with the most generous of grants from universities and unions – student stations always need a bit of extra cast. It might not all be from on-air advertising, but there’s a whole number of ways local businesses could sponsor the station – all that’s needed is someone with the ideas, and the knack of going out and selling it!

People break stuff – it’s a fact of life, and one which is never more apparent than in a radio studio. All stations need people who can keep the station broadcasting, sometimes quite literally on a shoe-string. If you’ve got a knack for circuitry – or just know what to plug in where, the chances are you’re the person to get involved in student radio engineering.

‘New Media’ is becoming more and more important in the radio world – and every great station needs a great website to support it. If you’re a coding genius – or have worked out photoshop, there’s bound to be a role for you here!

Student radio is less confined to the studio than any other area of the radio world. Student stations are always out of the studio at events and club nights. If you fancy yourself as a master of ceremonies – or you have a DJ talent, there’s a place for you in the world of student radio too!