Monthly Archives

2 Articles
Presenting/Production

Downloading your show

Posted by Beth Carr on

So you’ve come out of the studio, high on adrenaline and keen to come back next week? Or are you wanting to cry and composing an email to Head of Operations saying you never want to see a radio studio ever again? Whichever one of these best describes you, we highly recommend you download and listen back to your show. Why? Here’s a few reasons:

  • If you feel like it went badly, chances are that there was a moment in your show when something happened to throw you off. Being able to reflect on what you said/did can help you avoid the same situation happening again – perhaps you tried to discuss a topic you weren’t confident about or you struggled to turn the mics on.
  • Having a recording of your show means that you can share it with friends and family, who can give you feedback on what they liked and what they’d like to hear more of. These are the core listeners for your show and can help you gain an audience if they genuinely enjoy what they hear.
  • If you had a particularly good show you can use the recording to create a podcast. This can reach more listeners and those who missed out on your live show can catch up.
  • It’s also a good idea to keep a record of bits of your show that you are particularly proud of. There are multiple opportunities to enter awards, both as an individual or as part of the station as a whole, and these often require demos – basically a compilation of your best bits. If radio is something you want to go into as a career then a good demos should hopefully help you to bag your dream job.

So, how do you find the recordings of your show? Good news is that each hour is automatically recorded, so all you have to do is download the individual hour for your show. To do this, you need to visit logs.insanityradio.com – this only works ON CAMPUS but you don’t have to come to the media suite to do it. The page looks a bit like the one below:

logs

Once you’ve found the homepage, you need to select the day of your show – this is in the format YYYY-MM-DD. This will send you to the page below:

logs2

You then need to find the file for your show – each one is in the format YYYY-MM-DD-TT.mp3 (T meaning time). As shown above, the time in the file name is the start of your show and the time printed at the end is the end time, with the files saved in hour long slots. If your show is two hours long, make sure you save both files! To actually save it, right click on the blue hyperlink and select ‘Save Link As’ or ‘Save Target As’ (depending on your browser) – this will allow you to save the file to your USB stick or directly to the computer.

There will be more training material on podcasting, demos and how you can use your logs later in the term but for the mean time enjoy listening to your shows on the logs!

Myriad/Presenting/Production

Hour Modes – A Quick Overview

Posted by Jamie Woods on

You’ve probably seen and been trained briefly on Hour Modes, but what are they and why are they so important? Let’s explain.

The log (essentially the big playlist that contains ordered songs that’s on the right hand screen) is split into hours. Every hour, the clock essentially resets.

The “TOP OF SHOW” thing that appears when you plan your show is known as a Top Of The Hour/TOTH, and often in radio there are news bulletins exactly at X:00. Usually, we want this to play as close to 00 as possible, otherwise we get either overrun or underrun. Overrun is when an hour has too much content, and underrun is when it has too little.

Both are completely preventable, and I’ll explain how to after we define each of the different modes.

Each hour in the log has a specific mode – one of the following 3. You can change the mode in the studio as you feel fit by clicking one of the 3 buttons on the top right screen.

  • LiveAssist
    This is the only mode where stops (red squares) have an effect. This mode is aimed for hours where a presenter will be in the studio, and automatically loads music into Cart Players ready for them to play to assist them.
  • Auto
    If there are stops in the log, Auto will completely ignore them. This is useful if you have to pop out of the studio for a couple of seconds, but don’t want the system to top it up with music. Overrun and underrun won’t be resolved by this.
  • AutoFade
    (This mode will only work in the studio that’s on air.) AutoFade will try its hardest to automatically time the music to finish EXACTLY at X:59:59. If it can’t, it will fade songs out early. When no presenter is on air, this is recommended, as it is the most accurate. It’s also recommended for pre-recorded shows.
screen-shot-2016-10-04-at-19-18-47

The “Hour Mode” buttons are the three above the top. Note the “On Air” one in green.

What does this mean for me?

When the hour is on LiveAssist, your show will play as normal, even if you’re not in the studio. That means that if the log hits a stop, the music stops, and silence goes out on air. This is very bad and unprofessional.

When planning a show, remember not to change the Hour Mode to LiveAssist unless you’re either:

  • Currently in the studio, or
  • Just about to enter the studio (ie. you’re planning out your show the hour before)

DON’T put the hour mode onto LiveAssist if you’re planning your show a while in advance, and definitely don’t put them in pre-records!

A studio with nothing playing out - disaster!

A studio with nothing playing out – disaster!

When you complete your last link, it is very advisable to put the log back onto AutoFade. This will ensure that you have no overrun or underrun, and is fair on the next presenter, and is the professional’s choice.

Don’t be scared, after a couple of shows this will all become second nature to you! Let us know if you have any questions.