Rachel Burden introduces a week of special outside broadcasts on Â鶹ԼÅÄ 5 live - an opportunity for the station to get closer to the stories of its listeners.Ìý
"Come and see us, come here and really experience what it’s like for us living here at the moment - houses destroyed, livelihoods shattered, families under stress – but also surviving and helping each other…"
That was the message we heard time and again during the recent flooding which hit Somerset and parts of the south east of England. And there’s no doubt that there are moments when it’s time to leave the studio and get to the heart of the story.
This week, on 5 live Breakfast, Nicky, Adam Parsons and I are going to do just that - see the stories for ourselves, meet and spend time with the people involved, and immerse ourselves in the lives of our listeners.
I’ve been lucky to have had many memorable assignments on the road with 5 live that have taught me more than I could ever learn from sitting behind a desk in the studio.
South Africa for example just hours after the death of Nelson Mandela was announced. I stood outside his house late at night and watched hundreds of people lighting candles, singing joyfully and dancing.
Going inside the gated walls of a mainly white middle class estate to talk to Ali Bacher, the former South African cricketer who was behind the rebel cricket tours to the country, I was greeted at the door by his black maid. It felt like stepping back in time.
I was also shown incredible hospitality by a young mum living in Alexandra township, one of the poorest areas of the country. She took me into her parents’ tiny one roomed home and invited me to share some fried chicken and mealie – a sort of cross between semolina and mashed potato.
Only by being there and talking to these people, seeing their lives with my own eyes, could I understand how Mandela was so revered, but also that his successors still faced so many challenges.
Some outside broadcasts (OBs in radio speak) are weeks, months or even years in the planning. Others just a matter of hours. But often it’s the chance encounters that prove to be the most powerful.
Earlier this year 5 live Breakfast visited Clacton-on-Sea as we looked at some of the problems facing Britain’s seaside towns. Nicky was just finishing an interview at a drug rehab centre when a young woman approached him. Her name was Helena and she wanted to talk….about how she’d been abused as a child, had become a heroin addict, had seen her best friend murdered and was now trying to rebuild her life for the sake of her own family. Without getting out of the studio to places like Clacton we never would have heard Helena’s remarkable story.
Being on the road can also help forge a closer bond with our audience and I’ve never felt that more strongly than during the London Olympics. Through texts and tweets listeners told us that they felt they were part of that Olympic experience because 5 live Breakfast was there, every morning, sticking our noses into whatever was going on, on their behalf.
Away from the athletes it was the spectators and volunteers who really made it memorable. The families who’d driven through the night to get to the venues, the volunteers who sang the crowds into the Olympic Park, the fabulously efficient and courteous members of the armed forces who processed thousands of people through security each day. It was unforgettable, and I hope for those who listened at home, in the car, at work, it brought the whole experience to life – that we all felt that tingle together.
Sure, there are sometimes technical problems when you’re on the road. Weather is always a hazard – too wet, too windy, too bright. And very often it’s a race against time to get to a location, find the right people to talk to, and set up whatever equipment you’ve managed to grab. If you’re lucky, you’ll have one of our brilliant engineers who always seem to be able to fashion a radio studio out of a couple of boxes, a few long leads and a microphone.
One memorable occasion when we weren’t so lucky, was the Sunday after the 2007 Rugby World Cup final. I was at a rugby club in Hampshire, where we were struggling to get on air, even as the seconds to the top of the programme were ticking away. Refusing to panic and being distracted by the tuck shop beside me, my first words were something along the lines of ‘pass me those sweets’. Not the text book way to start a show.
But the greatest privilege about being on an outside broadcast is the freedom to roam, explore and meet the people we talk about and talk to every day. I hope you’ll listen next week. We’ll be all over the UK, including Inverness looking at life after the Armed Forces, in Somerset talking to those who’ve lived through the floods, and in Kent with families of children with special education needs.
I’m looking forward to being on the road and hope you’ll join us along the way. Keep in touch with your own stories - one day you may find us battling with maps, microphones and satellite dishes at a location not far from you.
Rachel Burden is a journalist and presenter on 5 live Breakfast
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- 5 live Breakfast's outside broadcasts run from Monday 28 April - 1 May. via Â鶹ԼÅÄ 5 live online.Ìý
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