The Tribune

By DONITRA DAVIS

MORE than 30 students from public and private schools across New Providence are taking part in the first ‘Kidz Radio Club’ this summer, a programme designed to train and mentor junior educational broadcasters.

The Audio Broadcasting Unit, Learning Resources section of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, launched the innovative programme yesterday with grade 10 to 12 students from C R Walker, C I Gibson, R M Bailey, St Augustine College, T A Thomson and Queen’s College. In two sessions each week up to July 23, they will be taught a core skill in radio broadcasting with theory and a series of hands-on activities provided by professional producers.

Kidz Radio Club is an after school/summer intervention programme that aims to help children find their voice by improving their oral and written literacy skills and encouraging creativity. The students will be taught how to write and perform, work with microphones, use the effects of sound and music to enhance their work and how to support each other and present to the public.

They will work together to write and produce radio shows based on their ideas and then record in the final four sessions. Each student will be awarded a CD of their work, a Kidz Radio Club certificate, badge and their work aired in the new school year on “A Time for Education” on 1540 ZNS and 104.5FM for an hour four days a week.

The sessions include how to become a radio host, script writing, conducting an effective interview, studio ethics, editing and mixing and a field trip.

The Kidz Radio club opened yesterday at the Ministry’s Learning Resources section on Mackey and Madeira Streets under the theme “Helping Kidz Find Their Voice” and to the theme song “I Dream” by Sosa Man featuring Rik Carey. The club’s goal is to bring their programme to all public and private schools in the Bahamas - in the words of Kidz Radio Club Co-ordinator, Antoinette Gibson-Sands, “the expert of anything was once a beginner”.

Also involved in supervising and producing the programme are Melvern Davis, Laverne Cooper and Dorothy Rolle while Keno Burrows is the technical producer. Dairy Queen are providing wristbands for the students.