Tim Johns – Producer
From Broadcast Assistant at BBC Lincolnshire, Tim went on to produce breakfast at BBC Radio Humberside, before returning to Lincoln as Station Sound Producer. He was heavily involved in student radio, in Edinburgh’s Fresh Air and then the Student Radio Association.
Why did you want to be a Producer?
I always wanted to work in the media – and I always wanted to work for the BBC. As soon as I started my degree I got involved in student radio, and got the ‘bug’. I spent far more of my time doing radio than my actual degree, and tried my hand at everything I could.
After gathering up lots of experience I got a job with the Beeb – and production is what I enjoy because it’s on the front line of exciting, immediate, live broadcasting – it’s varied and creative, and career options as a producer are pretty open.
Did you do any formal training?
No. I believe the four years of student radio and work experience – and the hours of being on air and making radio that came with it, gave me nearly everything I needed.
The only gaps I’ve since had to fill in have been knowledge of broadcast law and writing copy.
Were you involved with hospital/student/community radio?
Yes - and in my four years at Edinburgh’s student station Fresh Air I did all sorts – from my own show, to head of music, and finally managing the station. After that I got involved with the national Student Radio Association. To this day some of my best examples both on job applications forms and in interviews, come from students radio.
What was your big break?
Probably moving from working as a Broadcast Assistant to producing a highly-rated news and speech-based breakfast show as a Broadcast Journalist.
Having managed to get a foot in the door in the first place, I was able to prove myself and ended up being offered that position.
What was the interview process like?
BBC application forms are always a long-winded pain! The interviews for the jobs I’ve had have all been about 45 minutes long, and haven’t really taken me by surprise – they’ve mostly been ‘what you’d expect’ – if you can prove yourself, and know you can do the job, the process is ok. For the job of Station Sound Producer I had to submit a demo in addition to the standard BBC process.
What is your career high-point to date?
While I was at Radio Humberside a colleague mentioned someone they knew had been cut off from their ISP for illegally downloading files. I followed this up with a lot of research and digging, and came out with an all-singing-all-dancing exclusive story.
I broke it early in the morning on 5Live, wrote the story for the frontpage of bbc.co.uk/technology – and later that day the company the story was about (who hadn’t commented up to that point) reversed their entire policy. It was great searching on Twitter and seeing hundreds of people talking about it!
What’s day-to-day life like?
Being a Broadcast Assistant was good fun – it can be very varied in BBC Local Radio – I got to cover-present some shows, work on different programmes, get production experience and I had time to be creative and get stuff on air.
Producing breakfast was very busy and stressful – the early part of the day you’re minding the show on air, reacting to breaking stories, dealing with guests, writing cues, dealing with technicals and sorting problems, and after that you immediately move on to thinking about filling the show for the next day.
As station sound producer I primarily think about on air branding and promotion, and make radio trails. I think about what needs promoting, and how and when to do it. Working on trail campaigns can be really satisfying when they get on air and sound good. There’s quite a bit of admin in terms of scripting and scheduling trails, and plenty of time editing audio.
What would you being doing if you weren’t doing this?
Not a clue. I’m rubbish at monotony – I get bored of doing the same thing for too long – so whatever I’d be doing would have to be varied.
What 3 pieces of advice would you offer to someone just starting out?
- Get good at editing. If you want to work in radio, audio is your thing – and the better you can use tools to shape what you do, the better you will be at it. I think people take this one for granted. If you’re quicker and better at editing, you can be more creative, make things sound better, be quicker and more productive in everything you do, and stand out from your colleagues who aren’t so good.
- In a similar vein to the first one – don’t ignore technology. Lots of people in the industry do ignore it, especially journalists – but the next generation of radio people can’t afford to. Be interested in how things work, in how websites are put together, in audio formats, in multimedia journalism techniques, in how studios operate – you’ll be better at your job.
- Be good at what you do! While you don’t want to turn down opportunities if they come up – make sure if you get some paid work you do a good job of it. Make sure people are aware of what you are capable of – so don’t use your CV to say you can do things that you can’t, because you don’t want to let people down who have given you a chance – and if you do you might not get another!
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