Since graduating with a degree in television and video production in 1995, David Croxson has gone on to forge a 25-year career with the BBC.
BU was still a polytechnic when David applied to join the course in 1992, although by the time he graduated it was with a degree from Bournemouth University. He said: “I have fond memories of the course. At first the video kit incorporated separate cameras and huge ‘portable’ video tape recorders. The radio kit included shoulder-wrecking reel-to-reel UHER tape recorders to lug about.
“Audio editing was done with a razor blade and sticky tape, video editing was two-machine U-Matic. There were one or two of the computer graphics machines that were linked to something called ‘the internet’ which appeared to just consist of students in the US talking about communications protocols and little else.
“By our final year though, kit had been brought up to a higher standard with new Sony cameras, plus a new radio studio had been installed with others updated. It felt like we were using the kind of kit we would encounter in real life – and so it proved.”
Away from the course, David recalls the early days of student housing which mostly comprised first years staying in various B&Bs and guest houses around the town. For David, this meant living at the Westover Gardens Hotel in the town centre, where he also met his future wife. The pair married in 1998.
After graduating, David started out as a VT operator in the presentation department at the BBC, working with the announcers and transmission controllers on BBC 1 and 2. He went on to work for BBC Bristol, where he began directing regional news programmes, and had further stints at BBC Oxford and Southampton. Today he is one of the BBC’s lead news directors, directing the national news bulletins for BBC One, along with programmes for BBC News Channel and BBC World News.
David said: “I can’t speak highly enough of my time at Bournemouth and along the way I have met many alumni of the Media School. The skills and experience I learnt between 92 and 95 provided a great start in the industry.”