Eventful is a term one would use to describe a single day in the Youths Choice office, as for the past term? Calling it “eventful” would be the bare minimum. From relaunching the radio station as you know it now, filling up the on-air roster with shows from 7am till 7pm every weekday, to rebranding our news hub, The Loop, the inclusion of much more than just the “news” with content now breaking barriers in fashion, finance and more – it is safe to say that this term has been more than just eventful, here’s a little update from the team:
Some BIG news, early on during the term, the Youths Choice management team got itself an upgrade! With Gemma Nash joining as the Station Co-Ordinator, she is in charge of all the on-air talent, making sure the presenters are doing the best job they can when doing their shows and ensuring a smooth flow of programming throughout the day and that everyone on the team is happy. To her left stands Alex Short, after spending the majority of year 12 wiring up studios and equipment around the building, he takes on the role of being the Technical Manager at Youths Choice, everything from how the station sounds, to Zetta & G-Selector, falls under his umbrella, you’ll be lucky if you find him not trying to make everybody else’s lives easier! Finally, Yaman Mohammed seals the management lid as he takes on the task of being Station Editor, that means he is always on the top of all output at Youths Choice such new music and other stuff, as well as that he oversees all the off-air content that is created at Youths Choice along with running our news team, The Loop, this entails different tasks everyday as one day he could be sending out a news bulletin to on-air presenters and then the next he’s on set filming a new long form video for the Youths Choice social media platforms.
Alex, Gemma and Yaman join Kai Randles, who’s the Station Manager, and Mark Pendergast, aka Station King. With a super team like this one, the crew is more than just excited for what’s to come with big projects taking place all year round, but it’s not just them holding the fort down…
Gemma (left) | Alex (centre) | Yaman (right)
They are supported by key players such as Ariella Vana, who presents one of the main programmes, Youths Choice Anthems from 9-10, every weekday other than Tuesday. As well that she is now a certified Zetta trainer meaning that she is the Studio Trainer. Should any new presenters join the team? (A lot of them have done so lately) then Ariella is the go to person. Since the summer, Ariella has also been in charge of the Youths Choice YouTube team, playing a major role in producing, directing, editing and creating thumbnails for long form videos that would go up on the YC YouTube page, the verdict is that Ariella is most certainly always busy with something special – as you can see in the photo, she’s in high demand by the Live TV students due to her excellent presenting skills.
Across the corridor from the live studio is the visual studio, also known as the home of The Loop, which is the news branch of Youths Choice. It is manned by a keen team of Year 13 students that cover different stories such as tips on finance with Jayden Anderson, the latest film news with Jackson Green and Mehek Kayani, and daily sport updates with Molly Sumpter and Stanley Thompson. The Loop team works around the clock, 24/7, as you never when that all important story might break, and when it does, the race to get it out there begins. And the strings are all pulled together by Stanley, who is the manager of The Loop.
Stanley has been creating content for Youths Choice for a while now, starting back in Year 12 when he and Molly joined the previous Year 13’s on the “Questioning Sport” project, which was a podcast that asked curious questions such as “why is a boxing ring shaped like a square?” He honed his skills and pushed himself to the limit when he was tasked with creating daily sports bulletins that would go out on the radio station and then later on turning them into visual episodes to be posted on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as well. With a handful of topics to cover and a high demanding yet competitive market, 2023 will not be easy on Stanley and the rest of the team, but that’s okay for him because Stanley “does not like easy.”
With a lot on their shoulders, some might argue that there is a lot of pressure on these Year 13 students, but the work ethic that they have towards ensuring only the best comes out of Youths Choice will tell you very different. Make sure you tuned to everything that is coming out of Youths Choice at the Global Academy, because there is some brilliant stuff to come. Finally, have you followed us on all social media platforms? If not, then it is now or never! @YouthsChoiceGA and @TheLoopGA on all social media platforms.
You can follow Yaman on Twitter, @YamanOnAir for more articles/content like this one 🙂
Written by Yaman Mohammed , Year 13 Student
