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Video won’t stop this radio star

TimFifteen-year-old Tim Bergh doesn't like being on camera - instead, he’s on the radio each week.

Tim’s programme, Tim’s Talk, features Kiwi music, technology reviews and plenty of trivia. And he must be doing something doing something right - he won a New Zealand Radio Award in late April.

That means he got to go to Auckland for a flash awards ceremony and dinner, and stayed at the Sky City Hotel.

“Yes, I won,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. Since the awards were announced he’s been on the media treadmill, running from place to place to do interviews with newspapers, other radio stations, CTV, and pulse.

The award was recognition he says, that he’s “come quite far, pretty quickly”.
“I look back at my first script and it was absolutely atrocious,” he said.

He’s interviewed all kinds of people - Rove McManus, John Campbell, and this year Hayley Westenra during her flying visit to New Zealand for Anzac Day.

He likes interviewing people, and one of the reasons he said he chose Lincoln High School was because it offers Media Studies at Year 9 level. Creating a front page for the newspaper was “really fun”, and led to a junior newspaper - which the school has now moved online. He’s keen to do journalism next year (2008) for NCEA level 2.

Tim’s been interested in radio “for a while, since 03 really,” when he won a competition to be a DJ on More FM.

His mum was so proud she set up a video camera in the corner of the studio to record the event - Tim counts it among his most embarrassing moments, but being on air was “wicked” and it set him on a path to his own radio show on Plains FM.

DeskPlains FM is a station where anyone with the energy and enthusiasm can train to make a radio programme - and Tim says the staff have been “really helpful” in making his programme better. He’s also been an MC for events the station is involved with such as Christchurch’s Ethnic Soccer Festival.

Along the way he’s had to secure sponsorship, write scripts and arrange interviews, learn about recording and podcasting, and now Tim has his own website, www.timbergh.com - which will have audio of all his programmes and archive material.

Tim’s acceptance speech was a thank you to all the people that have helped him, he says, the people who give him the ideas and the skills to turn the ideas into good radio.

Now that he’s won an award, Tim’s focusing on making his programme as good as it can be by having more and better interviews. He’ll be busier than ever, he says. Later he plans to go to broadcasting school before finding work in the industry.

Tim’s Talk is broadcast on Plains FM96.9, and you can find out more on Tim’s web site.