Hi, my name is Ari and I’m currently in Year 9 at Emanuel School. I am participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award at the Bronze Level. That means I have to complete roughly 13 hours of a sport, skill and helping out in the community. For the community aspect, I chose to volunteer here, at Eastside Radio.

Throughout my weeks spending time here I learned the ins and outs of radio. I learned about the studios and how they work, recording podcasts, locating information for presenters to use on air and also uploading articles to the website. If you’ve been reading the community billboard for the past couple weeks, then you’ll have read some of the stuff I’ve been helping to put up there.

What I found really great about this was seeing all of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes: audio editing, prerecording, how presenters choose music and topics to talk about, giveaways and so much more. I got to go on air a couple times and really enjoyed chatting with the presenters.

Volunteering at Eastside has been an eye-opening experience into the world of radio. Meeting great people and learning great things that will stay with me forever. As my time volunteering here comes to a close here and I get a chance to reflect on what I’ve learned I just want to thank Gemma for being a great mentor and showing me the ropes. I am looking forward to coming back for my Silver Award next year.