The above picture is a Strohviol or Stroh violin. It has other names, but essentially it was used in the early days of recording when violins and fiddles lacked enough volume to be recorded effectively. It’s named after a German – Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh – who patented it in 1899. They sound remarkably like a violin, albeit with a very tinny tone.

I mention this on New Radio Strategies as an example of how things developed to try and get the best out of what was available in order to get where you wanted to be. We still do it, of course, and I think we’re at a point in radio development where we need the modern day audio equivalent of the Strohviol.

We have some fantastic things happening in the radio world – read articles by Robin Valk here and by Billy Sabatini here – for a flavour. Yet it seems to me that we’re not quite there yet in terms of the hardware.

We all know the strengths of radio – one to one and mobility. I can listen when I’m driving, having a shower, cooking, ironing, alone or with friends and this isn’t going to change. But using the internet closes off some of the options.

This web audio interface (or radio) really locks me into a room.

There is a lot of great stuff going on – from Pandora (but not in the UK, unfortunately), last.fm through any number of podcasts and live audio from pretty much anywhere in the world – but at the moment I have to be locked into my computer to receive all this.

Where is the portability?

Why can’t I get web radio (or whatever you’d like to call it) up a ladder, in the middle of my garden or on a hike? I know we’re making progress around the house, and via mobile phones, but much of my listening is in the car and I feel I’m missing out on a lot of stuff.

I believe this is a central issue to development and is currently an essential difference between radio as we knew it (the wireless!) and most current types of web audio (the future!).

Is it an infrastructure thing? Is it a lack of hardware? Do we have anyone developing web receivers for travel? Or is it the typical Catch 22 conundrum of developing new technologies? Am I living in dreamland? Will it ever happen?

I suspect the mobile phone wifi route must surely be the way forward, but I’m not up to speed with developments.

Any thoughts anyone?

Meantime it’s back to the fiddle……..

I’ve never been very good at predicting the future. Witness all the failed lottery tickets for a start, never mind all the old technology and pieces of kit that litter the loft, supposedly both cutting edge and future proof.

But now I need some assistance in predicting life in 2012.

Over the next few months I will begin to re-appraise our current Media Production Professional Practice degree here at the University of Teesside. The current degree has served its purpose well with strands in radio and television, but it is coming to the end and a new one must be written for an autumn 2009 start.

The new degree will still have radio and television in it, but it’s the area where these two sometimes meet – we’ll call it new media for want of a better term – where I need help.

What skills will students graduating in 2012 need? Clearly they will need to know one end of a microphone from the other; they’ll have ideas on editing, packages, documentaries, news bulletins, music, podcasts, commercial production and all the other myriad programming and technical aspects of radio. But how will this interface with the internet? Will graduates seeking radio jobs need a variety of web skills? Will the software simply do it for them? Will there be new ways of listening to radio that will influence what they need to know in their undergraduate years? How will this connect with television?

Or, as some people have said to me, radio is radio is radio – why worry? The skills remain the same; it’s just the platforms that differ.

I’m not worried about programming and production styles that might go in and out of fashion – if you’ve observed the industry any length of time you’ll know what goes around comes around and this month’s flavour is last month’s bad taste. But that aside, it’s important to get this right for any number of reasons.

I was at a conference in January and in one of the workshops a senior BBC editor was asked what skills she wanted graduates to have. “Just give me people who can think,“ she replied. This was less than helpful. All our graduates can think. It’s impossible to graduate without being able to think, despite what you might read in the popular press.

So what do 2012’s graduates need to know?

Any ideas, anyone?

Lottery ticket, anyone?

My concern is this:

I teach a lot of talented individuals. They produce fantastic work – audio, video, web, podcast. Much of it is up to or beyond professional standards. They all want to work in the “meedja”.

Many never will.

Why?

There are many reasons, but predominantly I think it’s the leap between producing awe inspiring artefacts and selling them and primarily yourself to the industry. It’s having the confidence, chutzpah, or sheer balls and belief in yourself to convince someone, somewhere to give you that first chance.

My question is this:

How do we encourage students to have a realistic view of their own worth and promote themselves in a confident and professional way in the industry?

I have one first year student who took it upon himself to approach the BBC locally (after researching the right contact) and ask for the usual look around and tour. He is very talented and becoming increasingly confident in his abilities. Yesterday he couldn’t attend a meeting with me because he was working on producing trails for their mid morning show. Fantastic, I applaud him. I believe he will succeed in radio.

I have a third year student who recently received a rejection from the BBC. He is quite distraught and is now considering joining the armed forces (I kid you not) as he feels a lack of worth because of this one (first and only) rejection he’s had to suffer. He is a competent student. He produces work to a high standard. Yet it is almost as if he feels unworthy of working in the radio industry because the BBC rejected him. It could just as easily have been an independent radio company; this is not BBC specific.

What made this difference between these two students?

Now I can hear the cynics saying get real, life is full of knocks, whatever happened to realistic expectations, and welcome to the real world. I agree to some extent and I forget the number of applications I made before my first real radio job – as I’m sure you do, too. But if that student does join the armed forces the industry has lost some talent. If most of my cohort decides to do other things, the industry has lost a lot of talent. I suspect this situation is replicated elsewhere and I know that particular student is not the only one in my current cohort who has skill and ability but not necessarily the confidence to get the work.

Ah but kids today – they want it all on a plate don’t they? Well no, actually they don’t. They work hard to produce some great material. It seems to me to be a difficulty in transferring the work ethic into the go and get a job type ethic, if there is such a thing.

We all know what this industry can be like. We’ve probably all suffered in various ways over the years. We can perhaps identify to some degree with each student’s experience.

I have asked a variety of students what they think about this situation. Most have agreed it exists to some degree or other. Their suggested solutions range from “confidence building exercises” to “more mock interviews” to a “fight or flight approach” to “those that can, will”. Even “two years in the army” was one response from an ex-army cadet.

But my question to you – industry practitioners – remains – what can be done to aid and encourage talented students with obvious ability to overcome this situation? Mentoring, perhaps, or some sort of hothouse? And if we can’t or don’t want to solve it, what future for the industry?