Radio Cambridgeshire Features

It's day five - the final day - of the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Apprentice-style-search-for-a-future-star-type-thing. Only ONE apprentice can go through to land a much-coveted week of totally unpaid, back-breaking work experience here at BBC Cambridgeshire.

Sam and Nicki interview guests

We began with five bright, shiny, hopeful students from the Radio Broadcasting and Journalism course at Cambridge Regional College, and after four days of increasingly demanding challenges we're left with the final two - Sam and Nicki.

Darren, Gary and Chelsea fought hard and produced some great radio, but were eliminated from the running by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's answer to Sir Alan Sugar, our Cambridgeshire Breakfast Show presenter, (Sir) Jeremy Sallis.

You can see how all of our apprentices fared over the first four days and listen to their broadcasts here:

Now it's down to Sam and Nicki to prove how much they've learned over the week as they cope with the final challenge - to co-present our breakfast show. That's two hours live on air, introducing regular features such as the travel news, reading the weather forecast, chatting with guests and asking some hard-hitting questions.

Jason Horton and Phil Pethybridge

The clincher

Now, it's generally agreed that there's very little to choose between them. However, there's one final challenge to deal with, as Sir Jeremy welcomes once again, the Station Manager, Jason Horton. He's got just one simple question - in the style of a BBC job interview:

"You've each got one minute to critique the output of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. Don't spare anybody's blushes - tell us what's good; tell us what's not so good..."

Nicki really enjoys the quirkiness of some of our programmes and loves the Naked Scientists. She also feels that the presenters really understand their audience.

Sam and Nicki are enjoying this!

However, she does find that if she listens to the station throughout the morning, sometimes the same subjects are repeated; but, she understands that it's our job to get the news out there, and often that means targeting an audience that might NOT have been able to listen to our entire output.

Just one more thing...

It's a toughie. (Sir) Sallis is having to weigh-up both Sam and Nicki's performance on this final day AND how well they've completed their challenges throughout the week. They've both got different strengths, and also, some areas where there's room for improvement, so, it's the classic deal-breaker question:

"Tell me WHY I should choose YOU?"

(Sir) Jeremy Sallis

Nicki's response: "I am enthusiastic, I'm on time, I'm innovative, I'm always organised and I will try really hard. I really, really want this."

Sam's response: "I've always wanted to work for the BBC, that's why I want to get into radio; so any work experience with the BBC would be great. I really want this and I think I've shown during the tasks during the week that I can cope with the pressure that we've been put under and both the producing and presenting of the tasks I think I've done very well.

The verdict

It's all down to (Sir) Jez now... "They both want this. They can taste it. They can taste one week's work experience at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. I think I can taste it too. It's bitter. And sweet at the same time. Those are the emotions that they're going to feel...

"Nicki is very natural on air, has shown that she really wants this; but I have to say... just over someone who wants this equally as much. But, the person that I'm going to hire for the week's work experience is...

The face of a winner - Nicki

"Nicki. You're hired."

SO, Nicki wins the much-coveted and frankly priceless 'prize' of a week's unpaid work experience at BBC Cambridgeshire where she'll hone her skills in radio, television and online. In fact, the next time you read about Nicki on this website, she'll probably have written the feature herself!

Well done to Nicki and well done to all of our hard-working apprentices - Sam, Chelsea, Gary and Darren.

A final word from their tutor

Throughout their 'ordeal', the five apprentices have been accompanied by their course tutor, Phil Pethybridge, who says:

Runner-up, Sam

"I'm very proud of how all of the apprentices have done this week, especially Nicki and Sam for making it through to the final... It's been great watching all the students grow and evolve, and finding out where their strengths and weaknesses are so we can work on those throughout the year now."

You can find out more about the media and radio courses available at Cambridge Regional College by visiting the CRC website at www.camre.ac.uk (there's a direct link to the right of this feature), or why not pop along to their open day at the King's Hedges site in Cambridge on Saturday 14th March 2009 from 9am to 1pm.

If you've missed any other 'episodes' of the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Apprentice Challenge, you can catch up with all of the five apprentices here: