So Heat Rays is now a successful school radio brand on FM, when short term licences become available. And students of all ages in schools can not only take part, but want to take part.

A website and domain name was secured just as the last Heat Rays went on air...but there was a problem. No time to create a web page, just play buttons. Mike Kinnaird worked with some 14 year olds to see if they can come up with ideas...

A group of students in the UK with a couple of weeks to spare to get ready for an FM radio broadcast at Christmas. With a window of opportunity, a couple of 16 year old students thought they would make some progress with jingles and promotion ideas before everything got to busy. At last they now have some jingles recorded. Mike Kinnaird was there to show them how simply that could be done and offer some other ideas on how to build some attention from the prospective audience...

With a couple of weeks spare, some students in the UK are getting ready for their Christmas FM broadcasts at their school, before it gets too busy.

Last time we heard from them, nothing went right; this time at least, they were able to get some jingles recorded with Mike Kinnaird...

With a couple of weeks to play with, a group of students in the UK have time to plan the next Christmas FM broadcast from their school.

There are jingles to record, posters to produce - a great deal to do before it all gets to busy. Except...they started work on October the 13th. They should have picked any day but the 13th!

In the first of a short series, we hear now, how not everything goes to plan...

Last time we heard how 12 mid-teens students with no experience of radio were asked to produce live programmes on the school Intranet with just one day of preparation. Mike Kinnaird led the project and gives us a second behind the scenes account of what took place. Did all the students plan programmes or did they make it up as they went along, did all the guests show up - did all the programmes get on air and what did the students think at the end?

Last time we made some jingles. This time the clock is ticking. Twelve students (coinicidentally all girls mid-teens) with no experience and just two days to get them ready to broadcast on their school Intranet.

So, programmes to plan, guests to fix, competitions to devise, music to choose and some practice in the school's studio would be good. Will it all come together in time? Or will they have all fallen out long before!

Mike led the project so let's hear the first of two reports...

I have a new school radio project coming up. I have been asked to work with 12 mid-teens who want to make a short radio programme for the first time, to be broadcast on their school's internal intranet system.

Apart from obvious programme planning, we will need to make some idents or jingles. Here's a quick overview of how to do just that...as Mike explains.

Last time we heard a live two-way between students in the US and UK talking about their political systems. It was originally broadcast live as part of a school FM radio project.

Two points came from that.

Was this purely a piece of entertainment or did the process have an impact on exam grades and confidence as a result, and can we use the experience elsewhere in the curriculum?

Kerry has been talking to Mike...

Still with content for our radio programmes - but this time bringing two sets of people together that are thousands of miles apart.

Students in the UK and students in the US - four hours time difference, but they joined together for a really sucessful education and radio project. It was live and it was free!

The end result? A bit of fun obviously, but also a real prospect of better grades, as Mike explains...

It's OK having fantastic equipment in your school or college - if you're that lucky. But what about the programme itself? Great equipmwent doesn't make a great programme. It's ideas that count. In future podcasts we'll break this down into parts - interviews, mic technique, idents, news and all points in between. But first,an overview. Content is key, as Mike explains...