Changing all the time

Walter Love talks to journalist and broadcaster Sarah Travers.

When did the idea of a career in journalism first occur to you?

“I think probably back in secondary school. I’d always fancied being a journalist. I’d chosen subjects which would take me either to a legal career or a journalism one. They were the two things I thought I’d try out. Then when I was in Lower Sixth I was looking through prospectuses for various universities and I came across one for the Nottingham Trent University which at the time was the Nottingham Polytechnic. They had this course on broadcast journalism and I’d never seen anything as specific before. I thought that it was what I’d wanted to do. I didn’t particularly want to go into print, I was more interested in radio and television. I couldn’t believe that this was a course for me so I applied, got the grades and that was it.”

Going back a little bit, you were a pupil of Dominican College in Portstewart. Did you enjoy your schooldays?

“I had my happiest times there and I know they always say that, but they really were for me. I was back there again just recently because my son was doing his 11 plus and we were looking at various schools in the area. I went round again and saw some of my old teachers who are still there. I had a wonderful time and it hasn’t changed apart from a few more modern twists.”

Did your schooling give you a lot of confidence in yourself?

“I think it did. The school had a lovely ethos. There was a real sense of togetherness and being a team. So they maybe didn’t encourage individual strengths. Yes you were encouraged but it was always for the good of the school and what you could bring to a group of people. And you were very much allowed to just be yourself and there was a lovely relaxed atmosphere with the teachers and the pupils. So I do think it did give me confidence and I did a lot of music and drama and that kind of thing. Getting up there on stage kind of prepared me for what I do now.”

Is the north coast your home territory, is that where you’re from?

“It is indeed. My father’s actually English originally and my mother’s from Cork. My grandfather moved over from England to set up a textiles factory in Coleraine so that’s how my father ended up being on the north coast. He brought my mother up and they settled very happily there. It’s where my sister and I were brought up and now I’m bringing my family up there. I do feel really blessed. Having had three years going to university in England in the most land-locked part of the UK in Nottingham, I really did miss the sea so much. I hadn’t realised what it meant having the sea always there – the smell, the noise and all that scenery along the north Antrim coast. You just can’t beat it. Watching the sunset you can see why Jimmy Kennedy penned the famous Red Sails in the Sunset just looking out there. It can be pretty wild in the winter months but even that has an attraction.”

So going to Nottingham was quite a different experience, but what was the course like? What did it focus on?

“It was pretty unique at that stage. It was very much in its infancy. We were the first years and I think they were trying to make it academic enough so that it would be an Honours degree but would also deliver the practical side that would enable you to become a journalist as you left. So it was very much a practical course with placements in the local media. You would be two months at a time in places like the BBC’s Midlands Today or the local commercial radio station. We were really lucky to have John Snow as our honorary lecturer so he would come from Channel 4 News a couple of times a year and we would all get very excited. We also had to do media law and writing. I actually specialised in radio at that time when offered the choice of that or television.”

In broadcast journalism everything moves at a very quick pace. Was it easy to step into that on those attachments?
“I think because my course prepared me for that, I never had the shock of moving from print journalism to dealing with cameras and recording equipment and the like. That’s what we were trained to do. I wouldn’t say I was particularly good at it but you try your best. It’s changing all the time still. We’re looking at more new equipment for the newsroom. Gone are the days when you were a one trick pony. You need to be able to do lots of different things, to use lots of different editing equipment. Eventually we will all be able to go out, film our own stuff, bring it back to a central server where everybody will be able to access bits from their desktop. The future is technology.”

When you complete your course and have your degree, how easy is it to get your foot in the first door?

“I think I was particularly lucky and I think that’s often the case with so many in this business. There’s no hard rule about how you get in. I hadn’t quite finished my course, I hadn’t graduated. I was in the process of doing my final exams. But I was also in the process of spending a lot of money while I was away! My mother was asking me what I was going to do, and she was on the lookout all the time, going through all the newspapers looking for jobs in journalism back in Northern Ireland for me. So she came across an advert for BBC Radio Foyle for their freelance journalism register. Initially I though I didn’t want to do that, but she told me that I would and that I would come back as she had applied for me.

“So I flew back just on the off chance and thinking that it would be something to fall back on, to keep me going if I was called and that I could gain a bit of experience. I was just so lucky. I went in and did the interview. I don’t think I particularly shone but that night I had a call from the station manager to say that they had a round table discussion programme starting up in a couple of weeks over the summer months. Their presenter had dropped out and had I ever considered presenting? The next week I had my bags packed and I was home sitting in Derry. When I think about that now I just wouldn’t have the confidence, that would really frighten me, but back then when you’re young, at 21, thought ‘great, fantastic.’ And it was a great experience at Radio Foyle.
In local radio you have to go out and gather your own material. With the small work force you were doing everything. You could be presenting one minute and then you were out with the radio car learning how to work the equipment. And that was in the days of tape recording, editing with a razor blade. You might be working in the newsroom or on the general programmes side of things. I answered Gerry Anderson’s phones. It was a very exciting team and great fun, and when I came back and moved to Derry I just felt that I was coming home.”

How did the move to Belfast come about?

“It was probably about a year or a year and a half down the line. I was just freelancing on Radio Foyle and the then news editor Tony Maddox had visited Foyle and suggested I do a bit of freelancing in Belfast. So I did and found a much bigger operation, a much more frightening operation than the nice little staff in Foyle where we all had our lunch together in the kitchen and washed the dishes together. In Belfast there was this huge, busy 24 hour newsroom. It was the time News 24 was starting, bi-media radio and television, the development of the web. It really was a daunting place to come into but very soon, like anything else, you settle in.”

What gave you your entry into television?

“That again was just one of those things. I didn’t go looking for it. I’d been doing the radio news for about a year, Radio Ulster bulletins, through the busy times of the nineties. One of the television presenters was going off on maternity leave and my boss asked me if I’d like to have a go. So you get one trial and you’re on! And that was very scary – very different from radio, having to have your hair nice and makeup done and your clothes. All these things to think about.”

Does doing the early morning news make you hate your alarm clock?

“No because I’m a naturally early riser which I suppose is very good, and I tend not to sleep very well before my early shift. Then my day starts at about a quarter past four in the morning when the alarm goes off but I’ve usually woken up a bit before it anyway. A quick get ready. I don’t even have a cup of tea any more so that I can stay in bed as long as possible. I’ve left everything out the night before so I have little or nothing to do in the morning. Tiptoe so as not to wake Stephen or the children, drive from Portstewart to Belfast in all sorts of weather. In the winter months you’re overtaking the gritter, and you’d be surprised at the amount of traffic there is at that time of the morning. It takes me just over an hour to get in just before six o’clock. You’re there on your own, turning the lights on, there’s no glamour. People think it’s lovely to get your makeup and your hair done but you have to do it all yourself.

“Then the first bulletin is about twenty five past six. It’s a quick turn around. The news has been left for you the night before. I work with a journalist who updates the stories. He or she would have been in before me and then we just do the bulletins throughout the morning until 9 o’clock. Then I would stay on and do the lunchtime news at half past one.”

You do a lot of other things like Family Focus, haven’t you?
“Well Family Focus is a regular slot and has been for almost four years now on BBC Newsline every Thursday. It stated of as just a week long series of reports that I would be fronting to do with family issues, all ages. It was felt that so many family issues crop up on a daily basis but we never get time to explore them further within the news programme. So this little slot was created, four and a half minutes every Thursday, and I produce and deliver that every week.”

From the outside I’m sure some people think that four and a half minutes isn’t very much, that it must be very easy to do. But I imagine there’s a lot involved?

“You know you’ve a half hour news programme and you’ve maybe got about six or seven minutes of sport, a couple of minutes of weather. The average news report would be about two or two and a half minutes, so four and a half would usually involve a lot of filming and setting up through the week. Wednesday would be my day to go out reporting, gathering my material and then editing it. Then we might have a live guest or I might go out live on location wrapping around the report. Yes a lot goes into it and it’s over in a flash.”

How easy is it to manage the home and work balance?

“It’s getting easier now. My daughter, my youngest, is almost five now so we’ve moved out of the sleepless nights. That was quite a difficult time especially doing early shifts. It was all a bit hectic. Nowadays it’s great. Stephen, my partner, is a teacher so he finishes about 3.00 p.m. or 3.30 p.m. and can do a lot of the child minding. My mother’s there. She’s great, fantastic, and my dad I have to say, but mum would really help me out and she’s a great child minder too. So there’s a lot of people I have around to allow me to do this and I’m grateful to them.”

How do you like to relax?

“With the family, on the north coast, getting out for walks. Summer months packing a picnic. Friday is my day off and all my free time is spent with the kids, I keep my weekends for them.”

Do you enjoy music?

“Yes I do, I enjoy all kinds of music. I actually studied music for A level. I used to play piano and sing, but I don’t do anything now except sing nursery rhymes or the latest pop songs when we’re having a mini disco with the kids in the kitchen. The piano just sits there and looks at me forlornly some days and I think I must start again because it’s terrible to let it slip. I wasn’t very good but I think it’s a nice thing to do and to pass on.”