Master of Radio Part I: Dawn

If I would work as passionately on my degree as for the University of Lapland's yearly student radio event Radio Säteily (Radio Radiation), I'd be twice a doctorate already. In a sense, Säteily is a mirror of my uni life. Since 2007, I've missed only one year, 2008, during which I was going through my military service. With me returning to my studies, my voice made its come back as well.

A collection of jingels (Don Julio & Pepe by me and Antti Lindholm, winner of Best Jingle 2014)

My career as a radio persona was almost not to be. In early 2007 as the call for programs began, I was tempted, yet frightened of the idea of going on air. Not to mention my studies demanded it's share of time. Yet, thanks to the encouragement of my class tutor (who also happened to be that year's producer), I was won over.

A week before Säteily begun its broadcasting, I managed to reserve two hours of air time for two Sunday mornings. There weren't many slots left at that point, as I was acting late. The show I had in mind concentrated on my specialty: film music. The morning slot was perfect for building a concept. I would greet my listeners into a new day with the soundtrack of life. Waking up would never be more epic. The name of the show:

Dawn Breaker (2007)

I held the show in English, for two reasons: to give our international students something to listen to (most programs are in Finnish) and to practice my skills in English to pave a little road into voice acting and working internationally. I was surprised by all the positive feedback and two years later, I was ever so confident to grab that mic again. A fortnight of intensive pre-production gave form to the "sequel",

Dawn Breaker Z (2009)

In Hollywood-tradition, it was bigger in every way: twice the air time, added features (weekly contests and news reports), several pre-recorded intros and outros and a minute-long trailer, which itself took a week to create. The project was immense. Alas, I am a bit sad that it was a morning program, few listeners that be. But luckily, my handful of loyal fans kept me motivated. It was a good year.

The third edition aired the following spring and took the show into a completely different direction. Previously, I had evaded playing well-known "theme songs" and concentrated on playing score music that appears during the action of a movie, not opening or ending credits or as separate suites. Yet, since themes were highly requested by listeners, for this third "and final time", I decided to fulfill their wishes. Of course, I also had to beef up the show even more, and I reserved a total of 12 hours of air time (3 x 4h) and compiled a list of the 100 greatest film themes of all time for

Dawn Breaker: Gauntlet of Themes (2010)

Once again, the pre-production was massive, especially since I had decided to pre-record almost everything in order to save time. And did it work? Will you help me out here, Rorschach?

Um... exactly, so quite surely, I would have been far better off with going live. During recordings, there is great temptation for "just one more take". It took a month to get everything done amidst studying and everything else I had going on. Another break of the mold was moving the show into the evening, a symbolic way of expressing "the finale of a trilogy". However, since I follow the customs of Hollywood, an "end" is never THE end. Not to mention that extra sequels always arrive years after the originals. Thus, five years later, I was set for one last come back in the form of

Dawn Breaker: Generations (2015)

The fourth edition naturally mimicked the original and was a simple two-hour show during which I escorted my dear listeners through the history of film music in a three part journey (1930s-1960s/1960s-1980s/1990s-). This time I wanted to take it easy and have fun, so I did relatively little work before heading into the studio, mostly just compiling a playlist and then relying on my memory and an open Wikipedia-page. Apparently, all my years on radio have finally proven worthy, since every listener I had a chance to speak with was surprised to learn that I didn't have any notes with me. A shame, since this ought to be my last Säteily as graduation is behind the corner. I'm finally getting the hang of things.

To be continued...