Rose Blah, co-presenter of the NG: She show, every Monday 6-9pm on NG Digital, tells us about a brand new course for women looking to get a break into the world of broadcasting, and it’s taking place right here in Nottingham.
Nottingham women – want to get your voice heard?
Women Leading Learning in partnership with the NG:She radio show bring you: The Women into Broadcasting course
Did you know that less than 20% of people working across the board in radio broadcasting are women, and at the BBC it’s less than 17%?!
Why?
Well it’s plain old sexism really and some of the things people have said over the years to justify this would make your hair stand on end!
Look at this ……..
According to Bell Laboratories in 1927: “The speech characteristics of women, when changed to electrical impulses, do not blend with the electrical characteristics of our present-day radio equipment.”
According to the Daily Express in 1928: “A woman’s voice becomes so monotonous after a time, that her high notes are sharp, and resemble the filing of steel, while her low notes often sound like groans.”
The Sunday Dispatch in 1945: “Critics consider that women have never been able to achieve the ‘impersonal’ touch. When there was triumph or disaster to report, they were apt to reflect it in the tone of their voices”
On 21 August 1933, Mrs Giles Borrett was the first woman to read the BBC six o’clock evening news (going under her husband’s name, as was customary at the time). BBC officials declared the experiment a failure because female listeners ‘didn’t like listening to a woman’
As recently as 1999, the head of news and speech of a commercial radio station in Manchester described a potential recruit to Janet Haworth, a lecturer in broadcasting, as “a great reporter, a very good journalist, but I couldn’t put her on air with that voice. She sounds like a fishwife or a washerwoman”
Only one in five of the Today programme’s guests and reporters are female as the editors’ believe that female experts aren’t available.
In November 2013, The Women’s Room thewomensroom.org.uk found 40 women experts available and willing to talk about a women’s health topic, in just 48 hours after the Today claimed they had looked but failed to find even one!
And for women who have managed to break through these barriers social class, accent, tone of voice and age have all also continued to be used as excuses to prevent them progressing in their broadcasting careers.
Joan Bakewell worked hard to erase the Lancashire from her voice after hearing her fellow students at Girton College possessing voices that she described as ‘sounding like they could boom across the entrance hall of Harrods’; now, on occasions, she’s told she’s too posh (as well as too old) to broadcast.
When Radio 5 live was launched in 1994, an editor asked Bridget Kendall, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent, “Do you think when you go on 5 Live you could lower your voice a social class or two?” (She declined).
And even one woman breaks through it doesn’t necessarily open the door for others!
Annie Nightingale was the first female presenter on Radio 1. It took her four years from first applying to getting the job as Radio 1’s first female DJ. and another 12 years before the second, Janice Long, was appointed!
So what now?
Well thankfully times are truly a-changing and here in Nottingham the Worker’s Educational Association’s women’s branch ‘Women Leading Learning’, in partnership with the NG:She radio show from NG:Digital, are offering women who want to have a go at radio production, presenting, DJing, broadcast journalism and/or podcasting, the chance to enrol on a course that will give you the knowledge and skills to do just that!
Where and when does the course take place?
Following a successful pilot earlier in the year, we are now very proud to bring you the all new, hot off the press ‘Women into Broadcasting’ course. Starting at The Lofthouse, Unit 6, 35 Warser Gate, NG1 1NU (just off Broad Street in the Lace Market, opposite the Old Angel pub), on Thurs 24th Sept from 11am until 2pm and then every Thurs for 7 weeks, (with a break for half-term).
How much is it, how do I sign up and where can I get more information?
This course is FREE to most women and you can just come along and sign up at the first session, join the ‘Women into Broadcasting’ event on Facebook, or, alternatively, for more information and/or a pre course chat, you can text 07850 524 319, leave your name and contact details and someone will call you back.
Who is teaching it?
Learn in a relaxed, safe and friendly women only group with Rose Blah and JoJoW who are the co hosts of the NG:She live radio show, broadcasting every Monday evening on NG-Digital.co.uk from 6 – 9pm (and repeated on Fri 12 – 3pm).
Is the course for women of all ages?
The course is open to all women living in Nottingham aged 19 and over.
Well ….. what are you waiting for?
Women into Broadcasting and NG:She are also very proud to share that our ambassadors are:
- Liz Kershaw – DJ BBC 6 Music
- Christine Belle – Weekday morning show presenter – Kemet FM
- Roweena Russell – Radio DJ – Pride Radio
