Breaking into radio, Karen style

Karen Wight is part of the breakfast duo ‘Steve and Karen’ on one of the most listened to radio stations in the North East ‘Galaxy FM’. And it was her work at Utopia that gave her the radio bug.

Karen’s interest in the media world began back in 1995, when she started her degree studying Media and Communications. Like all media degrees at the University they involve aspects ranging from TV to film, journalism to public relations, but the part of the degree that interested Karen most was radio. Read more

Internet killed the video star

The Buggles once stated that video killed the radio star. Times have changed since the advent of the humble video; the internet has become a more popular source to watch films by fresh faced budding Spielbergs. We live in a time where the internet is killing the video star, and it’s an exciting new world.

YouTube has fast become the most popular medium for ‘ordinary’ people to get their voices heard and to produce films of their own, with a good chance they will be seen by hundreds, if not thousands of viewers. As a result, some new, YouTube directors have entered into the consciousness of popular culture, such as the haphazardly nerdy Star Wars Kid, who has been featured on ITV’s Moving Wallpaper and Emmy award winning satire South Park. Read more

The Ranconteurs

Coming at the end of the ‘Broken Boy Soldiers’ world tour, it was actually the first time their new hometown had a chance to inspect them at close quarters.

Since then, though, they’ve become more a part of the social and musical fabric of the city, collaborating with local musicians, attending shows and, in the case of Brendan Benson and Little Jack, dating some Nashville gals.

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Santogold over it

If Santogold was any more ‘of the moment’, she’d be sat in your lap, reading this out loud to you.

Through a mix of furious networking and artistic fearlessness, the former Santi White has become a totemic figure for the current crop of genre-bending acts currently blowing raspberries at the parameters of pop. During her short career as Santogold, she’s collaborated with some of the producers at the frontline of 21st century music, from Timbaland via futurestep visionary FreQ Nasty to Mark Ronson. By sheer dint of these associations, she’d been mentioned in the same breath as MIA, James Murphy and Crystal Castles even before unleashing her first single. Read more

Flight of the Conchords

Music is their radar. And it is forever sending them off in completely the wrong direction. Once you’d pieced together its unconventional concepts (New Zealanders in New York? An Office-style comedy with big musical numbers in the middle of each episode?), last year’s Flight Of The Conchords quickly became cult viewing. Spun out of a BBC radio show and much-lauded theatre act, the songs weren’t just tacked-on either – the Conchords arrived bearing instruments and built their sitcom around them. Bret McKenzie even had a previous 2004 album, ‘Prototype’, released as Video Kid – “a character trapped inside an electronic arena, where love and escape do not compute”. These two believed in the lost art of the spoof song. Read more

Newcastle, Sunderland regions’s top performers

Newcastle and Sunderland Universities have maintained their lead in the delivery of media and communications studies programmes, according to the National Student Survey released today.

While Newcastle fell short of its prized first place in 2008, dropping two and a half points to 97.5, it was even better news for Sunderland, whose overall score for the quality of its provision shot up from 69.5 to 75. This score is an aggregate of all the survey measurements, provided by the Guardian, for the overall student experience on media and communications courses.

Oxford increased its gap over Cambridge as the country’s leading university across all subjects. Bolton remains bottom. Read more

‘It’s not all about looking pretty’

Aimée Grandidge, 21, currently in her last year at Sunderland University studying Film and Media studies, founded a Cheerleading squad called the Sunderland Stars less than two years ago. “Cheerleading isn’t all about looking pretty and dancing,” said Aimee. “It’s a hard core gymnastic sport which takes dedication, strength and determination.” Read more

‘The man in drag was my dad’

On the stage a man is dressed in a frock, a red feathered scarf and he is covered in makeup and dancing in size nine white stilettos like a true pro. The crowd scream for more and applaud at the end of the act, Richard included. But for Richard, the show means a lot more, for the main attraction “Miss Kitty”, also known as Kevin, is his dad. Read more

Standby for… Standby Art

Last summer Frankie Cavanagh found himself turning 30 with a degree in Animation and Design. His time had been well spent, as along with fellow student Andy Watts, Frankie won three Blueprint business awards for Standby…Art, an innovative art gallery and network which makes use of every artistic medium they could promote through new media. Read more