My final undergraduate adventure at DMU meant a lot of things had to come to an end but I think the thing that has made me saddest of all is saying goodbye to Demon Media and no longer being a part of it.
Demon Media Magazine
During my third and final year, I made the most out of my opportunities that being part of Demon Media offered me, one of which was regularly contributing articles to ‘The Demon’ magazine both in print form and on the online platform. I enjoyed writing for the magazine in its different forms especially contributing my various film reviews to the publication. I enjoy now looking back and seeing my articles in print or on the online platform of the magazine and it has given me the courage to continue to get my articles published.
Becoming the Producer of The Demon Chart Show
After an eventful year on Demon FM, here’s my story of becoming the producer of the Demon Chart Show!
Producer Application – Demon Chart Show
Being a part of Demon FM throughout my time at De Montfort University was definitely a highlight for me. Over the three years that I was at University, I had the opportunity to work with some really talented people and to produce live radio shows; in first year I presented alongside two presenters on a Tuesday’s Afternoon Show and then in my second year, I co-presented on Thursday’s Home Run Show. A few months prior to beginning my third year, I applied to be a Demon FM producer. Glancing through the list of producer roles available, there was one particular role that caught my eye; I wanted to become the producer of the Demon Chart Show.
On the application, I was asked whether I had any previous producer experience and unfortunately, I didn’t. I was careful to articulate my answer to say that being involved in Demon FM for three years had given me the specific knowledge and skills that I can use in the role. Finalising my application, I submitted it and could feel a sense of pride and enormous satisfaction that I had applied. My application was successful and I was shortly invited to interview. During the interview I highlighted how I had thoroughly enjoyed my involvement with Demon FM over the past two years, using the memories to see past the interview and visualise being the producer of the Demon Chart Show. I expressed my love for chart music and how I wanted to build on the show and ensure it remained vibrant and current.
I felt really pleased after my interview and now I had an anxious wait for an email to see if I was successful. Regularly checking my emails for a reply, I was finally happy to see I had got a response and was successful in becoming the producer of the Demon Chart Show! Now over a year on, I can say that I had a fantastic time in this role and I would love to do it again
Demon Chart Show Recruits Freshers 2018
My first mission as the producer was to pitch the Demon Chart Show to freshers and try to recruit them to sign up and be a part of the team. As I was preparing my pitch for the freshers’ introduction to Demon FM, I was approached by one of the previous presenters from the Demon Chart Show who asked if they and their co-host could present on this show as well. I decided to go ahead with them taking the presenter roles and to recruit freshers who were more interested in the production of each show.
I spoke to freshers about joining Demon Chart Show and working to produce and enhance the show. After delivering my pitch to the group of freshers, I had a number of freshers approach me and sign up. I took their details and promised to be in touch. I started to roughly plan how I wanted to operate the shows while I awaited further responses, to my online posts about the show and its vacancies.
I was able to appoint a strong assistant producer who was very eager for the role and fully onboard with everything that I suggested for the shows. I began to start recruiting the rest of my team members, corresponding with those who had signed up to be a part of the Demon Chart Show at the freshers’ instruction talk and those who had messaged me following my social media posts. Arranging to meet each of them in person, I went into more detail about my ideas and aims for the show and explaining the three roles that we needed to be fulfilled; researcher, broadcast assistant and social media assistant. I conducted informal interviews to get a feel for each of their personalities and to see what role they would be most interested in and to find out what their ideas were for the show. I was very happy to meet all these people and discover their own ideas for the show.
In the end, I was able to successfully recruit every single member of my team and I was really excited to incorporate these fresh ideas in the show. I really thought that I had a strong team and each of these members of my team has different but complementary styles and personalities which could take the Demon Chart Show to the next level.
I couldn’t wait to start producing the Demon Chart Show which broadcasted live on Demon FM every Friday from 6pm-8pm.
Producer of The Demon Chart Show
Having finally formed a strong team I was ready to start producing the demon chart show and begin broadcasting live on Demon FM every Friday. First I required the current presenters to brief the new team on how the show currently operated and the matrix behind each show. This would help to ensure I was able to broadcast successfully on-air each week with minor difficulties.
One of the most imperative preparations that had to be undertaken weekly for the show was the compiling of the Top40 Chart. This included recording which artists are the most downloaded, streamed and brought in that week. My researcher and my broadcast assistant did very well in collaborating every week to make sure the chart information and the actual tracks coincided.
Often the whole team would meet up and correspond with each other via a Facebook chat. Due to the fact, the charts didn’t fix down until 5 every Friday we had to meet at this time to do the preparation for the show and make sure the chart music was all there ready for the official countdown. Meeting up at this time which was an hour before the show allowed us to discuss any entertainment stories that we had found on the news that we wanted to talk about on air. Every Friday at 5pm before the Demon Chart Show began at 6pm we had to log on to the systèm and insert everything that we wanted to include in the show. The rules of the show meant that we had to play tracks 40 39 20 and then from 10 to 1. The rest of the tracks we could choose with the exception of any that were not suitable for the show due to lyrical content or controversy. We were on a tight timescale to make sure everything played out, making sure the talking beds were accurate.
I and assistant producer managed a team full of amazing people and we tried to make each show different to the next. However, we struggled to find a suitable social media assistant for the team. Eventually, as a team, we agreed to alternate the social media assistant role between us.
The first few weeks on the job work brilliant. I got to work with a really strong team and produce high-quality shows. It looked like we were setting up for a really good year of shows on Demon FM until the changes started to happen. My two presenters wanted to continue a series of shows they had begun to set up a foundation for the previous year. I decided to allow them to continue with this but then these producers started to change their mind and the shows became fewer and less organised. As a result, the presenters quit completely.
These two presenters quitting with very short notice put us in a difficult situation. I had a strong production team with me but I needed two presenters to be available every week so the shows were able to go ahead. For a number of weeks, the team continued to do their current roles as well as taking on more responsibility due to the alternating presenters. Following my original two presenters leaving the show I had to request for presenters via our Facebook pages. Some weeks we had to cancel our show due to lack of interest in presenting. When we did get responses we had very little time to brief them on how the show worked. This put a lot of pressure on the whole team as well as the presenter who was filling in.
I met with my team and explain to them the situation and they eagerly spoke about who they would co-present with our stand-in presenters to incorporate our original idea for the chart show and to give the stand-in presenters the extra bit of support. It became apparent that we struggled to acquire presenters for the individual weeks and soon my team took it in turns or all co-presented with each other every week. I felt very guilty but grateful to them for stepping in to help us especially when this wasn’t what we asked of them in the first place. This new approach made us even more restricted on time as we had to plan and consider both roles for each person as they had to do their original jobs as well as presenting live on air. We tried several different combinations and although there were a few mishaps, thanks to a very strong and reliable team we were able to overcome.
My whole team were very loyal and helpful towards the show we were trying to create and I really appreciated their hard work and effort to keep the show going after we had that setback. I wanted to keep my show as fun as possible and not put any unneeded pressure on them. Having this in mind I started putting Facebook posts on social media asking for any presenters that might be interested to apply for two roles that were opening up on the demon chart show.
We had multiple applicants and I spoke to several of the most promising over social media. In the end, we narrowed it down to 3 of the applicants we wanted to try out on air. We wanted to see how they reacted to being on air to assess how they managed to present in real life.
The first to try out was ‘Harry’. I was really impressed by Harry’s confidence using the board and the way in which he kept the banter going with the other presenters. Dead air is a real danger on radio and Harry ensured there was none at all. The next applicant was Sirius who picked up the technical aspect of the role very quickly. Although he did not lead the conversation as often as Harry he still took the lead on a few links and contributed really interesting things to the conversation. The final applicant was Lupin. Although Lupin was very strong overall I did not think he was best suited for a role with the Chart show specifically. Accordingly, I encouraged him to try out for other radio shows and passed on his name to other producers who I thought were hosting shows that were more suitable for his interests. It was therefore decided to offer the two roles to Harry and Sirius. Both accepted the position which started the solution to our presenter problem.
I had a fantastic year producing the Demon Chart Show and working with such a fantastic team. The most emotional show of them all (and the highlight of the year) was my last show of the year. We all presented together and shared our best experiences of the year so it was a very sentimental affair and I now have it to keep and listen too!
Now having some time away from Demon Media since graduating, I have to admit that I am having withdrawal symptoms from it and my life feels a little emptier without being able to contribute to the magazine, nor be on radio every week. I really do miss it and will always remember how Demon Media changed my life.
The Life of Sophie 