Tess Lewsey

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Broadcasting

Tess Lewsey is an experienced broadcaster who can currently be heard on Wey Valley Radio in Alton and Radio Redhill. She also produces the Saturday Night Party for ABC Productions.

You can listen to Tess Lewsey's Star Stories every Friday 8-8.30pm

The Saturday Night Party streams live every Saturday 8pm - 11pm. 

Her regular show on Wey Valley Radio (Friday 12-2pm) features the local events diary for the Alton area.

 

"I started broadcasting in 2000 on Radio Addenbrooke's in Cambridge. My big break came early in 2014 when I took over the daily morning show on Redstone FM, broadcasting on DAB across the whole of Surrey and SW London.

"I was always interested in radio and was inspired by Phillip Schofield when he broadcast on Radio 1 in the 1980's. Marcus Deaves, a local nightclub DJ and presenter on the old Q103 in Cambridge, was instrumental in showing me how radio worked.

"I have always liked music and am fascinated by the technical side of the studio. I don't claim to be brilliant but I love what I do. I get a real buzz out of interviewing people, hearing about their experiences and discovering new and interesting things that I can share with my listener".

 

Tess Lewsey's Talking Point is taking a rest at present. The archive of previous talking points can be found here.

Click here for recent interviews and features by Tess Lewsey

Community Radio Awards

I recently submitted (summer 2019) two entries to the Community Radio Awards. There were over 400 entries and although I didn't get short listed, I received some positive feedback.

Tale of Two Pubs

The "Tale of Two Pubs" is the story of two pubs in Redhill that, in 2017, were threatened with closure.

The story has been documented over a two year period in a number of short features. These features have included interviews with members of the respective 'action groups' who spoke of their aims and challenges plus successes. There have also been interviews with a borough councillor who supported their aims as well as regular drinkers at the pubs.

The aim of both pubs was to become community pubs. 

One pub (the 'Limes') subsequently closed and fundraising efforts to raise the capital to build a new pub on part of the site was not successful. The other pub (the 'Garibaldi') is a thriving local community pub.  

Judges comments

"This covers an issue that goes to the heart of many communities so is a good one to cover, and following the story across two years will provide more in-depth coverage than the usual short news story would do. There is a good range of voices, and it's well packaged."

"Identification of the target audience and engagement with that audience - really good, making clear why this is important to the local community and hearing from local people who are directly affected."

There was ". . .  a really good mix of local voices - getting behind the issue and finding out what is being done to support the local community."

"This was a great treatment of an issue common to so many communities, and I appreciate the effort which went into tracking progress over a period of time and highlighting the types of action communities can take in the face of negative change."  

"This presenter has done a great job of gaining access to a number of people with vested interests in the pubs under threat. She clearly has a professional approach to interviewing and the excerpts featured here demonstrate her capacity to synthesize material and provide analysis."

"Really enjoyed this topic and it was nicely narrated by the pub landlords and those involved themselves."

"This is a local story which is also a national story. The audio is full of local colour and interest and illustrates faithfully 2 different conclusions to the same problem. A well produced and edited piece. Well done Tess, this is the best of community radio."

" This is a really important issue, local pubs are such an important and well-loved part of the community. I'm so glad to hear a submission addressing this issue. The presentation and editing here are excellent! This is clearly well-researched and the interviews help propel the story forward. I really enjoyed listening to this."

"Nicely structured with some good presentation."

·            Lucy Rayner Foundation

This feature deals with the topic of depression and mental health problems in young adults.  

It is the story of Lucy Rayner who took her own life on the 5th May 2012, aged 22. No one saw it coming. She explained how she felt in the letter she left in the moments before she took her own life. She didn’t love herself or her life, it was a struggle for her and she wanted some peace.

Her parents knew that she had mood swings and she did go to the doctor, but she was not diagnosed as having depression or any form of mental illness. Lucy didn’t talk about her feelings and found it hard expressing her emotions.

Although devastated at the time, Lucy's parents,  Stuart and Jenny Rayner  were motivated to raise awareness of suicide by young people.

The Lucy Rayner Foundation was set up in memory of Lucy, and aims to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of depression in young adults through education and campaigning, to facilitate change in the way mental health is perceived by society, and to help prevent young people committing suicide.

The aim of this feature was to feel the pain of the parents who had lost a child, in this case by suicide. As painful as it was to do, the parents wanted to get the point across about suicide. This was one of the most emotional interviews I had done and hope that I have done it justice.

Judges comments

"This is an engaging listen on an important topic that does seem to connect with the local community. It's well presented and the music mixing is sensitively done. The interviewer elicits not just factual information and advice, but the emotive personal story as well, so it makes for a strong listen. These are two really good speakers and as a piece of radio, the piece works really well in catching the attention - and emotion - of the listener."

"This is clearly a story about someone in that local community and could be about anyone of 'us'."  

The treatment of the subject matter was "A conversation with the parents of the young lady who took her own life. It is a simple interview but is very effective."

"This was a sensitively conducted interview. Congratulations for dealing with such a difficult topic with such great respect for the subjects."

 

 

All images, audio, text and documents on this website are copyright Tess Lewsey who asserts her intellectual property rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (unless otherwise stated or acknowledged).
No images, audio, text or documents may be reproduced in any form without written permission of Tess Lewsey.