Olivia Miceli

Olivia, who graduated in 2022 with a degree in music and music technology, is now a Studio Director at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays, where she works across programmes on Radio 4, 5 Live and World Service. 

The job involves working in a live broadcast environment, alongside presenters, producers and editors and making sure everything runs smoothly in the studio. And Olivia, who has been in the post for almost two years, doesn’t think she would be where she is now if it wasn’t for her degree. 

She said: “I studied music at GCSE and A-Level and I have always loved playing instruments and writing music, but I never realised there was more to music until I came to Keele. 

“My course was a dual honours degree and the music technology side of it really introduced me to the technical side of production, which I found interesting, and it pushed me to explore new things and have confidence in what I was doing. I realised that becoming a music teacher wasn’t the only career choice at the end of my degree and I don’t think I would be doing what I am now if it wasn’t for that exposure at Keele.” 

During her time at Keele, Olivia gained work experience at 6 Towns Radio, a community radio station in Stoke-on-Trent, and then at BBC Radio Stoke. 

She said: “The work experience was really helpful and it made me realise working in radio would be quite a good career to pursue. I did a bit of everything, from presenting to producing and shadowing staff and I saw how much work went into producing radio shows. Before my work experience at BBC Radio Stoke I’d applied for the job I am in now, so I literally did two weeks’ there, finished on the Friday and started in my new job on Monday. 

“I absolutely love the job I am doing. The BBC is an exciting environment to work in with a good mix of people from different backgrounds, and every day is different. With working mainly on news and sport shows, there’s a lot of breaking news and it does feel exciting to be part of that, especially when it is a big story that we are covering.” 

In the long-term, Olivia is still keen to pursue a career as a singer / songwriter. She wrote her first song at the age of 15 and has had her music played on BBC Music Introducing and Radio 6 Music, and shares her music on streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music. 

She said: “As soon as I started studying music technology at Keele, I found a new passion for producing the music I was writing, and through lockdown, I had even more time to practise this. There are so many different opportunities relating to music, from writing songs to creating music for adverts, and it is something I definitely want to keep exploring.”