Sam Coley is Senior Lecturer in Radio at Birmingham City University, where he teaches radio production, online radio, documentary production, commercial production and digital audio editing. He has a background in both the U.K. and N.Z. radio industries and worked as Creative Director for the Northern Region of New Zealand’s TRN Network.

He has worked as a radio trainer for the BBC World Service Trust and as a media consultant for CARE International and the Prison Radio Association. In 2006, 2008 and 2010 Sam traveled to Africa to work on various audio projects and research, including radio programmes and advertising campaigns designed to promote sexual health and reproduction awareness for young Ethiopians.

Sam is a radio documentary producer with an interest in the use of audio slideshows. 2009 he produced features for BBC WM, Spin 1038 Dublin and Absolute Radio. In 2010 he was nominated as a finalist in the “Best On-line Producer” category of the UK Radio Academy’s Production Awards and also worked a freelance documentary producer for Radio New Zealand.

In 2011 he was nominated as a finalist in the “Best Music Special” Category of the UK Sony Radio Academy Awards and in 2012 his 12 part music documentary series “Xfm 25″ won gold in the “Best Music Special” entertainment category New York Radio Festival.

Memberships

• The Radio Academy
• The Radio Studies Network
• The Higher Education Academy

‘Bowie’s Waiata’, Chapter, ‘Radio and Society’ edited by Matt Mollgaard, Auckland University of Technology. (2012)

‘The Hardest Sell’: Creating Health Related Radio Messages in Ethiopia Communication Journal of New Zealand / He Kohinga Korero, Volume 11 (July 2010)

‘Creative Juice’ In house creative magazine of The Radio Network, Contributor and Editor (2002 – 2005)
‘New broadcast technologies’ UNESCO [contributor] (forthcoming 2009)

‘Let’s Dance…. Again’ Revisiting music documentary production. Strange Fascination? – A Symposium on David Bowie University of Limerick, Ireland (forthcoming Oct. 2012)

‘Bowies Waiata; Radio documentary and online fandom’ The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum, Auckland University of Technology N.Z. (January 2011)

‘Radio Documentary, Memory and new Participatory Fan Cultures’ , Joint presentation with Oliver Carter for the Sights and Sounds Conference; Interrogating the Music Documentary University of Salford, A Greater Manchester University, U.K. (June, 2010)

“Moradio”: Towards ‘Post-radio’ Issues in the Transformation of Radio Objects and Forms, University Paris I – Sorbonne – Pantheon PARIS 
(November, 2009)

‘Spot-On Radio Production’ Prison Radio Association’s 2nd Annual Conference, Warwick University
 (November 2009)

‘Radio Futura’ 5 x audio submissions for The Future Places Festival Digital Media and Local Cultures, Conference Radio Station, Oporto, Portugal (October 2009)

‘Sound and Vision: Online Practices of David Bowie Fans’ Internet Attractions: online video and user-generated ephemera, Media Workshop, University of Nottingham
 (June 2009)

‘Global and International Music / Staff Building, Recruitment and Training / Radio Drama and Documentaries’ Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Conference, New York (March 2008)

‘The Hardest Sell: Spot production in developing nations’ The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum, Lincoln University (
July 2007)

‘Trust me – I’m on the radio: An investigation into public perceptions of free speech and accuracy on Radio Ethiopia’, Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) Africa Series, University of Westminster (March 2007)

‘The educational use of radio in developing countries’ Paper presented at MeCCSA conference, Coventry University (
January 2007)