Good Night and Good Luck

So there it is. After weeks of frustration, complications, hard work and eventual success , Refilwe and I have finished our Upstart on Radio project.

Upstart makes its mark on RMR

The nerves somewhat jangled as I entered the radio labs for our workshop on Friday! My nerves resulted in the growing concern of repeat disappointments. Will everyone pitch up this time? Have they done the work that was assigned to them?

Upstart back on track

So obviously last weeks blog post was evidently a frustrated one. After taking another look at it, it is clear that I pretty much used it as a space for venting my feelings- getting everything on paper before it bottles up to the brink of boiling point.

Crunch time..without the crunch

So the Upstarters just seem to diminish with every week. At the start of first term, we had 6 kids, delighted about being chosen to produce a radio show- enthusiastic and eager to start. Now, it seems that Fifi and I are lucky if three pitch up. 

Newspapers and No-shows

The first workshop of term two commenced last Friday. The aim of this workshop was to start generating content. This however, did not happen.

Term 2 Commences

After an intensely productive and, as expressed in previous blog entries, occasionally problematic first term, we enter second term, the term where all our hard work comes together in the second ever year of Upsrtart on radio.

Resounding Recordings

This week, one of our main concerns related to the logistics of preparing the team, given various difficulties that we are experiencing with ensuring their presence at workshops.  We had planned to split this week’s workshop into  two parts; one two hour session on Friday and another on Saturday.

Upstarters begin Radio Education

This week, the young Upstarters began their radio education. Last week was a meet and greet and discussion of issues, but this week Refilwe and I commenced in teaching them the skills of how to write for radio.

Upstart Up and Running

Last week, Upstart radio finally came together. On Tuesday, we chose our final six children to make up the production team. All in all, I’m very happy with our selection. We have an even mix of three boys and three girls, namely Nkubecko, Reggie, Xabiso, Aphiwe, Aphiwe and Aviwe. From what I have seen of them so far, they are enthusiastic, talkative, keen to learn and excited to be part of the team.

My Community Partnership Commences

This term Refilwe and I will be working with Upstart, a newspaper written by the youth for the youth. One of our  partners will be Rhodes Music Radio, who will be hosting the show on which Upstart Radio will be broadcast. We will also be assisted by  Shireen Badat, the founder of Upstart, in preparing six Upstart members to work as the production team for  the show.  Our aim this semester is to help this team  to run a series of radio productions. The following passage outlines my assumptions and beliefs of the task ahead.