STAR Awards

[Guest]

So who won which awards last night? Link to the results, anyone?

[What?]

The awards are tonight, starting from 9pm in Venue 2.

If you're so desperate to know you can come along yourself and pay the £2 entry fee for an evening of great entertainment and May Dip pregaming!

[Jono]

What are the STAR awards, and what are they in aid of?

[Bizarre Atheist]

I believe they are awards for STAR folk for doing the best STAR things. Best DJ, producer, technical jiggery pokery etc.

[Delts]

So basically everyone giving themselves a great big pat on the back for managing to gain those two listeners for that half hour.

[Anon.]

What are the STAR awards, and what are they in aid of?

Erm - what is STAR, and what is it in aid of?

[Guest]

What are the STAR awards, and what are they in aid of?

Erm - what is STAR, and what is it in aid of?

Just a little ego boost for those good people who spend lots of union money on a project no one knows/cares about

[RandomMusings]

I think the profile of STAR has certainly increased this year, and I do like the podcasts that can be listened to on their website. The KK debate audio is well recorded, the On The Rocks podcasts were very interesting, and the election specials seem to have been popular again. I must admit, I rarely listen live, but that's mainly because I only listen to the radio first thing in the morning and then when walking around town.

A number of societies seem to have got involved this year to mean that the station is reaching out to more people on the production side. We can only hope that this translates into more people listening. Give it another couple of years and we might have a radio station that people listen to on a more regular basis.

[RandomMusings]

Oh.... and winners now posted to STAR's website - here's the list (and there's a hell of a lot of them, I'm wondering if everyone won one :p)....

Best Dance Show: The G&T Show
Best Rock Show: History of Rock
Best Alternative Show: Music to Listen to While Wearing a Sweater
Best Hip Hop/Reggae/Afro-beat Show: The Chris & Myles Show
Best Pop Show: Our Show
Most Eclectic Show: A Questionable Hour
Best Chillout Hour: The PM Show
Best Theme Show: India Calling
Best DJ Chemistry: The Kate & Soph Show
Best Talk Show: Faces for Radio
Most Likely to Talk Over Each Other: Dubucation
Most Likely to Ramble: Headspace
Best Interview: Judi Dench (AJ Jenkins)
Best On Air News Reader: Jess Alexander
Best Sub-Editor: Ross Hamilton
Best Live DJ: Funkstasy
Funniest Show: The Sam and Joe Show
Most Likely to Not Show Up: The Sabs Show
Most Likely to Break Something: Mark Briggs
Most Likely to Be Drunk On Air: The Secret Show
Best Special: Bling Mirth
Best Radio Persona: Joe Marshall
Best On Air Team: Sex on Air
Best Presenter: Kayleigh Mills
Most Listened to Show: Down the Rabbit Hole
The Steve & Sandy Lifetime Achievement Award: Georgie O

[Jono]

What are the STAR awards, and what are they in aid of?

Erm - what is STAR, and what is it in aid of?

What I meant is, were these awards for STAR itself, or was it a wider set of awards sponsored and promoted by STAR.

To be honest, the latter would have been a far better use of everyone's time and effort. Reaching out to the student community is what the radio is all about, and hosting an award ceremony to celebrate the achievements of student projects would have done the station no end of good. This does come across as a bit self-congratulatory.

[Dempsey]

They left a bloody impressive mess in venue two! Party poppers, burst balloons, badges and those annoying little glittery stars will be haunting my (albeit bland) dreams for days to come...

As a general comment, I have been listening to STAR more and more this year and I have actually been enjoying most of it; the production qualities seem to be getting better in my opinion, and the show list is varied enough to pique my interest every now and again. That said, I was slightly disappointed not to see the Whiskey Girls on the list; despite my utter disdain for country music they've always put on an interesting show and kept me smiling throughout even the most yawn-inducing reading and essay-dodging.

[unknowngrape]

he STAR Awards Ceremony was created to help boost community spirit within the station and its active members. Call it a pat on the back, call it an ego boost - it was meant for people who are active in the station and give two shits about it.

Also, giving awards out to other societies or members of the community is a good idea, but pointless at this junction because no other societies really care about STAR. We gave out a 'Best Special' award which went out to one of five different societies, but none of nominees showed up to the night anyways.

Lastly - the point of STAR, or any student radio, is ultimately not its listener figures. It's about the experience. It's about building a community around common grounds - media and music - where the same cannot be found elsewhere. You can slag off the station for hours upon hours for not getting enough listeners, but you'd just be missing the point and heart of STAR. It might be an expensive community to support, but it's certainly cheaper than setting up a media course for this university.


Oh, and sorry about the mess.

[Eiken]

So basically everyone giving themselves a great big pat on the back for managing to gain those two listeners for that half hour.

You cynical, CYNICAL man.

[Duggeh]

Eiken your avatar isn't nearly appropriate for your username. Churchill dog is not fanservice.

Spoiler: show

[Fawksie]

Lastly - the point of STAR, or any student radio, is ultimately not its listener figures. It's about the experience. It's about building a community around common grounds - media and music - where the same cannot be found elsewhere. You can slag off the station for hours upon hours for not getting enough listeners, but you'd just be missing the point and heart of STAR. It might be an expensive community to support, but it's certainly cheaper than setting up a media course for this university.

Whilst you're here, I didn't get an answer to this question last time I posed it on the Sinner, so forgive me if I repost:

Star should consider the production of good quality programming to be of equal importance to its role in educating people. If Star has a duty to provide experience in broadcasting then it should be realistic, useful experience, and the way to do that is to run it as if it were a "proper" radio station, something I seem to remember Olly Mills specifically mentioning when he was elected Broadcast Convenor. Quality control is being almost entirely ignored in the interests of including as many people as possible, without regard to their skill or talent. Actual hands-on training of presenters and producers in small groups would do a great deal to improve the sound of the station, instead of dumping inexperienced people into a studio with no more than a cursory introduction delivered to a massive group.

There were 5,952 undergraduates and 1,306 postgraduates in the University in the 2008-2009 academic year (let's forget about staff). If 56 people (the peak of this broadcast so far) listened concurrently, you'd be reaching 0.8% of them. At the current average of 2 listeners, you're reaching 0.029%. Think about how useful Star is to the rest of the University and the rest of the Association members. Is it worth neglecting their interests (i.e. to have a decent-sounding radio station) in order to provide experience to anyone who wants it?

[unknowngrape]

I don't believe I said anything about inclusion over quality when I spoke about STAR as a community.

[Fawksie]

Well, ignore my concerns about quality and focus on the lack of listeners then. If it's not quality or lack thereof that's affecting listener figures, what is it?

I'd still like to know if you think it's worth running the organisation like a media school where everyone can come along and have a go, at the possible expense of the market appeal, rather than running it like a commercial radio station where presenters and producers and whomever else would be held accountable for poor output?

[Eiken]

Eiken your avatar isn't nearly appropriate for your username. Churchill dog is not fanservice.

True enough sir. Although, my username refers to something entirely different, and any links to well endowed anime girls are purely coincidental.

[Bizarre Atheist]

It might be an expensive community to support, but it's certainly cheaper than setting up a media course for this university.

If you wanted a media course, why not go to a University that offers one?

[Andrew W]

I'd still like to know if you think it's worth running the organisation like a media school where everyone can come along and have a go, at the possible expense of the market appeal, rather than running it like a commercial radio station where presenters and producers and whomever else would be held accountable for poor output?

We've talked briefly about this before and I share your views. I am committed to concentrating on quality over quantity of programmes this year. Past training has been done to a sub-par standard - I should know, as someone who was told I was trained then almost shat a baby elephant when put in front of a board for the first time. This is a large reason for output has been 'poor'.

I believe I was appointed to my committee position this year because in my interview I made it clear I would cut crap shows with no listeners in favour of improving the quality. For example, I've just come off air with reasonable figures though perhaps not the highest-quality output I've ever created. Before me was tonight's STAR Special called 'Explain Yourself' which is a documentary series presented by postgraduates interviewing some of the weird and wonderful people across this university. I think we are improving our appeal to different demographics of the University already. We need to improve quality by weeding out the crap, but any slight potential should also be nurtured. We are on a level footing to the Debating Society within the Students' Association - as a sub-committee everyone is automatically a member. If I wanted to try out debating I would hope I could go along and learn, and if shaky and pretty bad the first time I'd expect to be trained properly and given advice. The same will happen at STAR next year.

BA, I know you have never been STAR's biggest fan, but I get your point. However in my experience of seeking summer work in the media industry - and I have done a bit - those hiring seem to be very keen on people having a degree then a postgraduate media qualification instead of one of these HND's on steroids in media studies from Paisley University called a 'media degree'. STAR gives people early experience in media and journalism from an early stage in their higher education and I believe that is what it is valuable for.

Andrew Watson
Head of Programming, St Andrews Radio