Graduate rules the radio waves in Oz

By UKJournalism

If you're ever in Australia or New Zealand and you hear radio news reports from the UK, chances are they're coming from our former student Enda Brady.

Since completing a BA (Hons) Journalism course here in 1996, Enda has taken on various reporting roles in print, TV and radio, and now divides his life writing for several national newspapers, as an on-screen reporter for ITV Central, and as a radio reporter broadcasting to Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

He has been working for Australiaís Southern Cross Broadcasting company for almost five years, appearing as a guest on around 20 programmes a week, every week. He said: "I'm actually quite well known now in Australia and New Zealand through my radio work, which I get a great kick out of." Endaís website endabrady.com has lots of information about his work down under.

Right choice

He tributes much of his success to his time spent at Preston. "I owe pretty much everything I've achieved to that course," he said. "I used to sit in lessons wondering if I'd have been better off just going straight onto a newspaper but I now know that I made the right choice and I haven't looked back since leaving."

After completing his course, Enda was taken on as a reporter for the Press Association in London. He spent a year with them and met everyone from Tony Blair to Elton John and Michael Jackson.

"The skills I picked up at UCLan really helped me at PA," he said. ìThe shorthand was absolutely vital for covering court cases and for big interviews. The university had also fixed me up with work experience at PA and that proved a huge advantage when it came to getting a job there."

From PA, Enda moved on to the Yorkshire Evening post in Leeds as a senior reporter, winning the BT Young Journalist of the Year Award for Yorkshire and the North-East, before crossing over to TV.

Moved up the ranks

He joined ITV Meridian as a newsroom journalist and quickly moved up the ranks to reporting and then presenting, before moving to his current reporterís job at ITV Central. Enda also writes on a freelance basis for the Irish Post, Irish Times and Irish Independent.

His portfolio includes reports from the Iraqi city of Basra in December 2003 where he lived with British troops. He covered football hooliganism in Austria where two English fans were shot in 1996 and also reported on Richard Bransonís round-the-world balloon bid from Morocco in 1997.

He said: "I can't stress how much the Department helped me to achieve my goals. The time I spent in Preston was absolutely brilliant and I'll never forget the time people took to make me feel at home. The tutors there are first class and I'm proud to say that I was one of their students.

"I get asked to talk to a lot of A Level students in the area where I live and I always give Central Lancashire a big mention."

Enda had such a good time at Preston; he actually married a student from the Departmentís postgraduate Broadcast Journalism course. She is now news editor at British Forces Broadcasting Services, BFBS. They live in a village outside Oxford.

More info:
BA (Hons) Journalism >
Postgraduate Diploma Broadcast Journalism >
Masters Broadcast Journalism >

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See also:
endabrady.com >
ITV Central >
BFBS website >

Extra and related information

Our print and broadcast courses are accredited by the The Broadcast Journalism Training Council and the National Council for the Training of Journalists. Our MA Magazine Journalism is accredited by the Periodicals Training Council.