hertfordshire's Mercury 96.6 FM

"Whenever one of your staff leaves the station, you're always disappointed, but on the other hand, happy for them to be moving on to bigger things. We hope the time that Eric spent at Mercury, helped contribute to him doing just that! A hard worker, focused, determined and a guy who'll represent any business with pride. A real team player!"

Tank Montana - Programme Controller/Presenter, Hertfordshire's Mercury 96.6 FM

Mercury FM is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to southern Hertfordshire. It reaches an audience of roughly 40,000 listeners from its studios in Watford.

Between 2005 - 2006, I was the Field Reporter - reporting the latest news and entertainment happening in and around Hertfordshire.

media player

national reports

It was quite a year for local news; Europe's largest explosion since the war happened a few miles away at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead weeks after I started.

Major breaking news (such as Buncefield) were often shared on the 'wires' with other stations around the country. For example, I was able to provide details of investigation findings nationwide:

local reports

Local reporting was an important part of my daily work. Each morning I scoured Hertfordshire for the latest news, interiewed opinion formers and local residents, before creating a script to be read for the hourly bulletins:

	Reporting from the Buncefield site when it reopened after the blast.		Summary of the report findings into the cause of the Buncefield explosion.
	Court report about a man from Hemel jailed for shooting a dog.		GCSE results day at Watford Grammar School for Girls.
	Interview with Watford's mayor about why Bonfire Night won't have a bonfire.		Watford FC's Vicarage Road stadium announces a £30m redevelopment.
	Lunchtime with some children and their school cook who spruced up their menu.		Voice report about a murder suspect being questioned in India.

news reading

I have been voice trained by radio professionals to deliver bulletins in a clear, conversational and credible way. Here are two examples of my skills as a news reader:

News bulletin 1

News bulletin 2

packages

Emotive stories of interest sometimes warranted a more in-depth approach. Creating a package two minutes in length required a considerable amount of work to interview people from both sides of the subject matter. Nonetheless, the end result was often engaging and produced to keep audience attention. Below are two examples:

Package 1

Package 2