The BBC Academy Podcast

From the excitement of natural history programmes to the high drama of the Great British Bake Off, the music we hear can affect everything we watch. But does it enhance the narrative or ruin our viewing pleasure? Composer William Goodchild, Richard Bradley from Lion TV and film editor Jake Martin discuss the impact of music in factual programmes.

Interviews with the speakers of the standout sessions of the Next Radio ideas conference. We hear from Absolute Radio’s Geoff Lloyd on never underestimating your listeners and BBC Radio 5 Live’s North of England reporter Nick Garnett on how to do an outside broadcast from anywhere Plus how the BBC’s digital Glastonbury was put together and some ideas on innovative radio straight out of Africa.

The magical worlds of Pink Floyd, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere have all been vividly brought to life on radio. In this week’s CoP Show podcast Hazel Marshall and guests Dirk Maggs, Jessica Dromgoole and James Robinson pull back the curtain to reveal the rules and possibilities of radio drama.

How is technology changing what we listen to and how we will listen to radio on the move? The BBC Blue Room's Garry Green talks to the CoP Show's Ben Toone about in car listening, the rise of ‘personalised’ radio and how online media players and apps such as UK Radioplayer and the BBC’s iPlayer Radio have opened up choice for listeners.

Online and social media content is a must have tool for enhancing your production. Audiences expect and demand it, but are programme makers giving them what they want? Barry Pilling, founding partner at Telegraph Hill, Jody Smith, multiplatform commissioning editor at Channel 4, Karla Geci, director of strategic partner development at Facebook, and Claire McArdle, executive producer, multiplatform at Maverick Television, join Paul Buller to discuss how to lead your production teams to deliver a 360 experience for your viewers, using innovative and interactive add ons to engage and bring in brand new audiences, beyond the traditional TV reach.

Short Cuts is a radio show for BBC Radio 4 that showcases interviews and documentary pieces from the UK and beyond by making vivid use of sound, music and intriguing production techniques. Sophie Lording talks to the team behind the series, Eleanor McDowall, Alan Hall and Hana Walker-Brown, about how they find and create intimate yet exciting stories for radio. They discuss interviewing and recording techniques, equipment and the use of music and sound to create soundscapes.

What are the current trends in consumer TV technology and how may that present problems or opportunities for programme makers? Garry Green takes Ben Toone on a tour of the BBC's Blue Room which looks at how the world of consumer technology is changing the broadcasting industry, from connected television to interactive games, 4k TV, the latest camera capture technology and 3D TV.

JacksGap, Jamie Oliver's Food Tube and Earth Unplugged – three established channels that are engaging demanding online communities with their content. This week Simon Smith talks to YouTube champions Jack Harries, Richard Herd and Chris Howard about the golden rules of creating a successful, factual YouTube channel.

Taking the Welsh soap to a new audience online. Denise Roach talks to Hannah Thomas, Rhys Carter and Andrew Canham, part of the team who have taken Pobol y Cwm beyond its traditional scope and into the digital space with PyC, the first ever multi-platform project of its kind in the Welsh language.

Traditional TV and radio audiences are now able to discover your content via many platforms online, so how do you make sure your message and your programme doesn’t get lost? Simon Ford is joined by BBC producers Jaine Sykes and Mike Kibblewhite, and author, copywriter and trainer Neil Taylor, to discuss how establishing the right tone and structuring your copy can help both novice and more experienced writers.