Advice From Hack To Student

Alan Soady’s career in Radio has gone from strength to strength. He has worked for Radio Tyneside, BBC Radio Kent and Galaxy Radio in various locations. When I finally get to speak to him, he’s in a busy BBC office in Marylebone. The building he’s in has been besieged by a media scrum, following a meeting between the BBC director and Jonathon Ross over his phone messages to Andrew Sachs – a hot media topic at the moment. I get the feeling staff there feel harassed by the fact that they have been effectively blocked in for several hours, and are anxious for the press mob to leave. Alan seems to find the whole situation amusing, “A friend of mine who works for Sky News is outside, waiting for the Director to come out. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s sneaked out the back, but someone should really go and tell them that he’s gone, otherwise they’ll be out there for hours.” He barely stifles a laugh, and something in his voice tells me he’s not so concerned that he’s going to go outside and tell anyone anything.

At just 29, Alan is a Senior Broadcast Journalist at BBC Radio London. An impressive title for someone who has only been in radio for six years, though he is quick to tell me, “Officially I’m just a Broadcast Journalist really but for a while I’ve been acting Senior Broadcast Journalist.” He pauses to think, as I ask, what should I say then? “Oh, go on… Just say I’m a Senior Broadcast Journalist, that’s what I’m doing at the moment anyway”

When we get down to the nitty gritty, Alan is full of ideas about what makes a really good journalist. “There’s no such thing as a dictionary definition of a good reporter. There are different types and they are good in different ways. Some people are really good at getting exclusives and digging into stories, and others can take boring content and make it into a creative and original piece.” He recounts two journalists which fall into these categories and continues, listing key skills which he thinks are essential for journalists, “Confidence and intelligence helps, and you have to be sharp. In broadcast you need to have the capacity to bullshit. You need to think on your feet, as sometimes you go live and know very little about the story. I can’t think of a better word to describe it, you literally just have to bullshit sometimes.”

“I think the most important thing is to be friendly to people, whether they are the press, PR people or just interviewees. People will trust you and you’ll get a lot more out of them if you are open and friendly, you won’t get very far if you approach people aggressively.” We end the conversation after a lengthy 20 minutes, and I put the phone down feeling positive and enlightened. Clearly being friendly and open is something that Alan fully endorses in his own work.