The Radio Academy Podcast

This week the podcast comes from the EPOD Conference at Morley College in London. EPOD, Education Through Podcasting, is for academics, researchers, and professionals to come together and share their research and practices using recorded audio media and podcasting. Georgy chatted to some of the organisers, speakers and students to discover how podcasting is being used in education. 

How do you put on a whole summer of live music across the BBC and handle the logistics of massive OBs? In this week’s podcast Georgy chats with Rhys Hughes, Head of Live Music and Events for BBC Popular Music, about the planning, tech and team that goes into events like Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Download and Glastonbury. 

This week’s podcast comes from last night’s International Women’s Podcast Awards, which took place at the BBC Radio Theatre in London. We’ll hear the winners' acceptance speeches, and current RAMP mentee and former 30 Under 30, Bea Duncan, was backstage, taking in the atmosphere and reactions of the winners. Ahead of the ceremony, Georgy also chatted with Naomi Mellor, founder of the IWPA and Everybody Media and Jennie Becker, the award event director. 

Scout Tzofiya Bolton won two Golds at this year's Arias, for Best New Presenter for her Prison Radio Association Rock Show and Best Creative or Technical Innovation Award for The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag. Scout chats to Georgy about what the awards mean to her, how she ‘found her tribe’ with PRA and the open and honest way she told her story through poetry and music. 

Geoff Jein has been working in the radio and audio industry for many years but he only founded his company Biscuit Jim last year. Recently they have launched two big new shows, the Zoe Ball Saturday show on BBC Radio 2 and Pete Wicks latest podcast for Bauer, Man Made. Georgy chats with Geoff about launching both of those in the same week and how you develop and nurture a new project alongside the talent involved.    

This week we have part 2 of our Arias Award night roundup with highlights from the winners speeches and backstage interviews. This batch of winners includes Best Sports award, the Radio Times Moment of the Year and the big ones, the John Myers Local Radio Station of the Year, UK Radio Station or Network of the Year and UK Audio Brand. 

This week we have part 1 of our Arias Award night roundup with highlights from the red carpet, winners speeches and backstage interviews. We’re featuring the first 11 awards of the night including Best New Presenter, Best Music Breakfast Show and Best Comedy Award, along with the surprise Special Recognition Award and the 2025 Judges' Award. Part 2 will feature the other 12 awards next week. 

 In this week’s podcast we try to demystify the world of Rajar, the radio industry standard figures released every quarter. We dive into what they mean, how they are collated and what you do with your reach, share and listening hours numbers. Georgy chats with Richard Johnson, managing director of market research company Hallett Arendt and Adam Bowie, who blogs extensively about Rajar. 

Out of Frame is a new podcast highlighting the different roles in the TV and film industry that makes the magic on the screen happen. Georgy chats to presenter, Yinka Bokinni about the career’s advice the podcast can give and the range of guests she has spoken to about their roles. Yinka also chats about her own broadcasting journey and gives advice for aspiring audio presenters. 

Georgy chats to Camilla Byk MBE from Podium.Me, the award-winning audio platform providing training to audio makers, journalists and writers under 25 years old. They talk about the ethos behind the company, young people’s voices and their new series of audio drama podcasts, My Podium. 

This week we look in detail at the 10 Arias nominees for the Radio Times Moment of the Year. Our host Georgy Jamieson highlights each entry and we hear from the people who have been nominated with the stories behind the entries and why you should vote for them. You can vote for your favourite moment here https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/radio/arias-moment-of-the-year-2025-vote/

This week's podcast comes from the Student Radio Association Conference hosted at Salford University. Adam Skinn takes you to the event, and alongside Issy Brand and Libby Hornsby talks with some of the guest speakers and delegates across the event including Jack Saunders and Dick & Dom. 

After last night’s Arias Nominations. Georgy chats to some of the head judges about their experience this year. She’s joined by Chair of judges Bob Shennan and two category head judges, Ray Paul, founder of The Playmaker Group and Rebecca Frank, Content Director for Kiss, who talk about what the standard of entries was like this year, how they picked the winners and what it means to be nominated. 

Fiona Hanlon spent 17 years with the BBC doing everything from making the tea and opening the post to launching a Radio 1 breakfast show and finally becoming the commissioner for BBC Sounds. Now she’s joined Persephonica, the Sheffield based podcast company, as their new managing director. She tells Georgy about how she got into the industry, her first jobs and what makes a great podcast idea.  

This week’s podcast comes from our Foot In the Door event at Queen’s University, Belfast. Guest producers Izzy Edge and Fiona MacIntyre from Queen’s Radio chat with some of the guest speakers from the day and ask how they got their foot in the door of the audio and radio world. 

In the last of our Meet the Fellow series Georgy chats to the Head of talkSPORT Liam Fisher, who was announced as a fellow of the Radio Academy at the festival last year. Liam talks about what it means to him to be made a fellow of the Radio Academy, his love of sport and his career highlights so far. 

What’s it like to record a podcast in an unusual and remote location? Vicky Wright, producer with Manchester podcast makers Crowd Network, tells Georgy about travelling to the Arctic to record podcast episodes for the new series of Oceans: Life Under Water, which they make in collaboration with Greenpeace. Vicky talks about the challenges she and podcast host Hannah Stitfall faced, life onboard the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise and avoiding being eaten by a polar bear! 

Fee Mak from Radio 1Xtra is passionate about encouraging women into the broadcasting industry. She tells our host Georgy about her journey into the industry via university and community radio stations, and how we break down the barriers that women, and especially women of colour, face working in radio and audio. 

This week, we meet another of our Fellows, Phil Maguire OBE. Phil is the Chief Executive of the Prison Radio Association and was honoured with a fellowship at last year's Radio Academy Festival. He chats to our host Georgy Jamieson about where his love of radio came from, how his career started, and the important role the PRA plays for prisoners and their families. 

To mark the end of one of the biggest British film franchises of all time, Bauer has developed Bridget Jones Radio on their Rayo app. Producer and music scheduler Rick Simmonds chats to our host Georgy Jamieson about the concept, commercial partnership, and technicals behind this pop-up station. 

Radio 1Xtra breakfast producer, Adele Cross, is our latest guest on the Meet the Fellows series. Adele was made a Fellow of the Academy last September and she tells our host Georgy Jamieson how surprised and humbled she felt at the accolade. She also chats about how her radio career was a complete accident and the importance of mentoring young people in the radio and audio industry.  

POV is the new comedy show made by Lead Mojo for BBC Radio 4 and features sketch comedy that started its life online and on social media. Comedy producer and owner of Lead Mojo Ed Morrish chats with our host Georgy Jamieson about the new series and finding new talent for radio comedy. He also talks about some of the big names in comedy he’s worked with, discusses the role of a comedy producer and his thoughts on visualised podcasts. 

This week on the podcast we have the first of our Meet the Fellows series. Our host Georgy Jamieson chats with Kellie While, who was announced as a Fellow of the Academy at the Radio Academy Festival last September. Kellie is an accomplished folk musician who went on to work in radio production. As the head of creative at 7Digital, she was best known for producing Radio 2’s Folk Show and the BBC Folk Awards. She now runs her own Indie production company Pomona Audio. 

This week on the podcast we celebrate Forth 1’s 50th birthday. The station first broadcast on 22nd January 1975 and joining our host Georgy Jamieson, to look back at some highlights of the station, are afternoon host Garry Spence and Boogie from the breakfast show, who has been host of Boogie in the Morning for over 20 years. They chat about the history of the station, the importance of the audience, visuals in radio and how proud they are of the Cash for Kids campaign. 

This week on the podcast our host Georgy Jamieson hosts an webinar on the new look Arias. On the panel are the new Chair of Judges, Bob Shennan, Chair of the Awards Committee, Adam Utyman and Aradhna Tayal Leach MD of The Radio Academy. They will guide you through the new and updated categories, the simplified guidelines, the different entry requirements and the judging process. There’s also advice on how to prepare your entry and what the judges are looking for.  radioacademy.org/arias/

This week on the podcast it’s a Happy New Year and news about the new look Arias for 2025. Host Georgy Jamieson has all the latest news as entries open and the details on how to enter. Visit radioacademy.org/arias for more information and the categories. 

A special festive message from the Radio Academy. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

It’s the most eagerly anticipated TV event of the year. The Gavin and Stacey finale at Christmas is nearly here but what do you do when everyone’s talking about it but your best mate has never seen your favourite show? Music DJ and sports presenter Abbie McCarthy is a super fan of the classic sitcom and Olivia Jones, presenter for Virgin Radio UK, has never seen it - until now! The friends have come together to make the Never Seen Gavin and Stacey podcast. Host Georgy Jamieson chats to them about the idea behind the podcast, finding the fans...

How do you rebrand a successful podcast and why? Russell Howard’s podcast with Avalon, Wonderbox, has now changed its name to Five Brilliant Things. Our host Georgy Jamieson chats to the podcast’s producer, Dan Atkinson, about the pros and cons of rebranding a podcast and why they decided to do it. They also talk about partnering with Adelicious and adding a new interactive listener show for Patreon subscribers. 

This week on the podcast host Georgy Jamieson chats with the recent winner of the Audio UK Award Nicole Logan. They talk about how surprised and humbled Nicole was getting the award, her career journey and her new role with Goalhanger Podcasts. Nicole also talks about her first big project with Goalhanger, The Rest is Classified. 

Outside In, from the Prison Radio Association, is their first podcast that focuses on showcasing the talents of prison leavers who learnt radio skills  while serving at HMP Brixton. Our host, Georgy Jamieson, chats to Nancy Prentice, Head Of Talent Development , and Richie, one of the presenters of Outside In. They talk about how the podcast is the first to be available outside of the Prison Radio Network, their Talent Development Programme and the work the PRA do inside prisons. 

If you’re looking to get into radio and audio then the BBC Apprenticeship scheme could be for you. This week on the podcast our host Georgy Jamieson talks to Ellena Stojanovic, who is the Schemes Portfolio Manager, and to two previous BBC apprentices, Lucy Burdett and Pearl Adewale. They discuss what the scheme is, who it’s for and why you should apply, as well as what opportunities are available afterwards. 

This week on the podcast, host Georgy Jamieson chats to Summaya Mughal from BBC Radio Leicester. 2 years ago Summaya couldn’t swim, now she’s helped her BBC Local Radio colleagues complete The 1000 Mile Swimming Challenge for BBC Children in Need. Not only that but she presented her daytime show from inside the pool. They talk about the challenge, how initiatives like these give a network a sense of coming together and the health and safety nightmare of doing a live radio show in water. 

This week on the podcast our host Georgy Jamieson looks at how podcasts have handled the run up to the US elections. She chats to Anne McElvoy, Head of Audio at POLITICO and host of their Power Play podcast and from Goalhanger Podcasts The Rest Is Politics US producer Nicole Maslen and their Head of Content, Tom Whiter. They talk about cutting through the hype of US politics and how to get to the heart of the story as well as planning for when the results come in. 

This week our podcast was recorded at our RAMP 2025 webinar. RAMP is our mentoring scheme for mid-career radio and audio professionals based in the UK, with a minimum of five years’ experience. Our host Georgy Jamieson was a RAMP mentee in 2022 and speaks to a panel of past mentees, BBC Content Editor Glyn Tansley, Producer at Heart Scotland, Andy Logue and Freelance producer Naomi Oiku, who talk about the process and what they gained from the experience. They are joined by the 2025 head of judges Adele Cross and the RAMP scheme lead Fran Plowright. 

This week on the podcast we talk about visualisation with Suzy Grant, Head of Visualised Pods and an Executive Producer at Listen. What is a visualised podcast and how is this relatively new genre changing the podcast market? Suzy tells our host Georgy Jamieson about how you make sure a visualised podcast also works for audio, why visuals are now so important and some of the marketing strategies employed to promote these podcasts. 

This week’s podcast was recorded live at the International Women’s Podcast Festival. Our podcast host, Georgy Jamieson, chatted to the event organiser Kat Molesworth plus some of the speakers, including Golda Arthur from the ‘Overlooked’ podcast and Helen Parker from Chalk and Blade. We hear about the various sessions at the festival and why events like this are a safe and encouraging space to discuss the podcast industry. 

Sean Thorne brings you the third and final Radio Academy Festival Special, where we hear from ARIA Gold winners for Best Music Breakfast Show - Boogie & Arlene. We also chat to Executive Development Producer at Goalhanger - Nicole Logan, Managing Editor at BBC Radio 5 Live - Julie Cullen, we talk grass roots podcasting with Lizzy Pollot from Acast and chat to the Quiet Riot podcast. 

Sean Thorne brings you another special Radio Academy podcast from the 2024 Radio Academy Festival. Juliette Nicholls, Ben Coley and Sharon Boadu bring you conversations with some of the speakers including Trevor Nelson, Fresh Air's Nik Gandhi, Spotify's Jon Mounsor and the ARIA gold winner for best comedy, Laura Smyth. 

Sean Thorne hosts a special Radio Academy podcast from the 2024 Radio Festival. Juliette Nicholls, Ben Coley and Sharon Boadu bring you conversations with some of the speakers including Scott Mills, Matt Chorley, Rima Ahmed, Adrian Durham, Kat Shoob & Ella Woods.