Purple Radio
2008-2011
From October 2008 until the end of my studies at Durham University I was a DJ on Purple Radio, Durham University's Student Radio Station.
Shows
Over three years I was part of three shows.
Jonny Arnold and Friends ran for 3 years on a Saturday afternoon, where I would invite one of my friends onto the show each week to play some of their favourite songs and talk about anything at all. Unfortunately, often I was unable to get friends onto the show and had to do it all by myself!
The Wednesday Evening Show launched in October 2010 and featured the same line-up of presenters that went on to do The Sunday Evening Show on The Mix Radio. This show was one of the station's branded shows and reached high listener figures in its 5-7pm drive-time slot.
Purpre Radio Presents was the weekly showcase of the updated playlist presented by the Music Team, broadcasting on Sundays between November 2009 and April 2010.
Head of Music
I liked Purple Radio so much that in April 2009 I was appointed Deputy Head of Music, working alongside the Head of Music in reviewing new music and deciding the station's playlist. In late 2009 I was promoted to Head of Music; a position I held until April 2010.
Whilst I was Head of Music I created a website for the Music Team to solve a problem around reviewing music. The Music Team was regularly sent music to review, but through an account only the Head of Music had access to. The Music Team website allowed members of the Music Team to listen to and review all of the music that was sent to Purple Radio.
The website succeeded in bringing music to more of the Music Team, and received hundreds of posts in the months it was running.
Head of Technical Services
In April 2010 I became Head of Technical Services. As part of my tenure I single-handedly rebuilt the Purple Radio website as well as helping with the station's rebranding.
The rebuild included a bunch of new features:
- An online registration process allowed the Executive Committee to keep track of who signed up to the society, record payments and message members.
- The station's scheduling system was brought into the site, which allowed presenters to apply for shows and for the Station Management to assign presenters to time slots.
- Each team of the station was given their own intranet hub, allowing members to upload files and advertise meet-ups.
- A Content Management System was built into the site, allowing News and Music to post news stories and music reviews.
This was all hand-written in PHP alongside my studies. I was very pleased with the end result, and owe a lot of my first experiences in web development to this website.
Other Work
As part of the Executive Committee I did a number of things that don't fit into the above categories:
- Having helped with the rebrand of the station, I did some design work for posters and business cards.
- I contributed to a number of production elements for the station, including beds (the songs that the DJs talk over) and jingles.
Purple Radio is still going strong (but with a different website!), so give them a listen!