TV station run by young people for young people

Rye, Hastings and Rother area are getting their own television station, Entertainment Workshops Lottery funded to the tune of £247,000 it is a studio specifically run by young people for young people. HOT Reporter, Lauris Morgan-Griffiths went along to their open day to take a look.

The initial idea was mooted a couple of years ago by David Byrne, who has worked in the entertainment industry, Shaun Taberer and Richard Harding who have extensive experience of working with young people. Although, OK, they are not young themselves – apologies for that – you do need people to train the students who will be running the station. And this is not to be an amateur, elastic band job of a television studio.

The very strong intention is that it should be a professional outfit. It will be programmed, presented, filmed and edited by people between the ages of 11–25 – some already attending Rye Academy and Hastings College, others attend from at school and for extra curricular activities. These studios will be part of Rye College Creative Arts and Media Studio School which opens in 2013.

Calum part of an alternative rock band, White Horizon, has really appreciated the use of the Entertainment Workshop studios “we have been able to rehearse and record here, the staff have helped us in our staging, studio management and have been amazingly supportive all along the way.  So we come back to help because they always helped us.”

The equipment is professional quality, cameras, editing facilities that are the same as those used at the BBC and SKY studios.  At the studios there is video editing, a photography and recording studio and construction department. Contrary to what is often presented in the media they are not all piling in wanting to be media stars, they really want to learn the technical aspects, the behind the camera skills. These studios are intended to be real life training opportunities, not a massage of employment figures.

There are 15 full time staff to teach, to guide to support the pupils. As well as being trained in technical abilities of editing, lighting, sound, video recording and presenting there is a strong emphasis on social skills – that area of education, that if not part of the curriculum is often overlooked. Teaching social skills to those attending the studio workshops encourage working in teams, delegation and communication to help change and raise their aspirations; to show there is more to life than working in the restaurant or supermarkets.

Richard Harding, part of the senior management team, tells me “A typical response from someone when they are given a £5,000 camera to take out is ‘you’re trusting me with this’, and we say Yup. This is what happens when working in an organisation, that’s what it’s about there has to be respect and trust.’. A TV studio run by young people for young people will reflect and allow young people to voice what they really want. From January the studio should be up and running one day a week, by end of February three times a week. We will have to wait until then to see what type of programmes will be broadcast.

Entertainment Studio, Unit C&D, Weslake Industrial Park, Rye Harbour Road, Rye. TN31 7TE  www.ewweb.co.uk

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