Last Monday, May 5th, the communications and journalism program of Manchester Township High School took a field trip to tour the famous 101.5 radio station studios.
This was an amazing opportunity to take an immersive sneak peek into the day-to-day life of professional journalists, all thanks to Mr. Farrell, who set up this tour for the program. Mr. Farrell spent time working for 101.5 in his time as a journalist pre-Hawk
This trip provided much needed insight on the world of news for us aspiring journalists. We were split into two groups to ensure everyone had the chance to view each room in the studio.
Some of the most iconic local radio voices, Dan and Judi, welcomed us into their live recording station. Although Judi was actually recording from her house, a few of our journalism students had the chance to hop on a microphone and chat live on 101.5!
Once Dan was finished with his segment and went to commercial break, we went over to the 94.5 PST Radio Studio. They went in depth on how they choose the music we hear on our radios everyday and how they cover the “light” side of the news. The two employees were extremely nice and great in taking us through the steps they take everyday. They get an early start to their day, making sure they deliver us some early morning tunes to start our day. They explained they try to stay away from heavy news as much as possible, keeping it light and upbeat for the audience. They understand their target audience is adults just trying to get a few good jams in on their way to work.
The last stop in this speedy tour, the news control room. In there, they handle basically the polar opposite of the last room. The objective in the news control room is to get the listeners the hot, local news and only had two minutes to do so. There were what seemed like millions of buttons and sliders on a desk filled with three desktop computers. At first, it was all overwhelming but was fairly simple to comprehend after he went over it briefly. A couple days of training and practice and I’m sure any one of us Hawk journalists could nail the controls too!
While we were there, my group actually got the experience of watching a live news report. The reporter squeezed by us all packed in the little recording studio to his chair and started getting set. He was very chill and monotone but once that light flicked on and the mic turned on, he lit up the mic. He had that typical radio voice and delivered his written segment perfectly, finishing with a round of applause from us.
We finished through the front room that was filled with desktops for employees to do research or just switch up their place of work. It was all around an amazing experience, watching how everything goes down behind the scenes of a live radio station, hopefully a look into some of our futures!
