September 1999 RAP
September 1999 Highlights
Feature: Alternative Realities
By John Pellegrini
After careful consideration of about five minutes, I realized that I
create alternative realities. Think about that for a second. What does
anyone who writes anything actually do? They create an alternative reality.
This alternative reality can be based on real events, or it can be fiction.
But whenever you create a promo, commercial, or whatever, you are creating
an alternative reality. If you are writing a parody or a comedy bit, you are
creating an alternative reality. Any time you use your imagination, you are
creating an alternative reality.
Interview: Stephanie Snyder, Yahoo! Broadcast Services,
Dallas, Texas (formally broadcast.com)
By Jerry Vigil
Broadcast.com features programming from 420 radio stations and networks
and 56 television stations and cable networks. It also delivers a large
selection of non-traditional broadcast programming including full-length CDs
and audio books and broadcasts games and other programming for more than 450
college and professional sports teams. Basically, broadcast.com is in the
business of delivering audio and video programming to computer users. If you
have a computer with Internet access, you have access to all of the above.
And like traditional broadcast mediums, web-casting also has commercials and
requires audio production. Thats where Stephanie Snyder comes in. Stephanie
is the person responsible for creating broadcast.coms audio production
department from scratch just two years ago. She was hired as the companys
Production Director and is now their Technical Director. The company itself
has also gone through some recent changes. It has been acquired by Yahoo!,
another Internet giant, and now bears the name Yahoo! Broadcast Services.
This months interview with Stephanie takes an inside look at production and
more at one of the worlds biggest and fastest growing Internet companies.
Technology: Vegas Pro From Sonic Foundry
By Tom Richards
Not "if," but "when?" That was the question. Just when would Sonic
Foundry enter the multi-track market? After all, for years, their Sound
Forge has been considered one of the premiere two-track digital editors,
with gratifying updates that brought enhanced power and connectivity. Then,
with last summers release of their audio looping tool, ACID, Sonic Foundry
introduced a whole new breed of editor that flanked the field with its
imagination, innovation, and ease of use. "OK," we said, "thats fine. But
when are you going to build the multi-track we know youre capable of? One
that will raise the bar for all multi-trackseven the Mac-based ones?"
"Patience," came the reply from headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Vegas
Pro will come and it will answer your prayers. But were not going to release
it until were sure itll beat the pants off any multi-track out there." They
rolled a seven. Vegas Pro brings fast, accurate multi-track editing to your
Windows PC while rivaling editors costing up to ten times more. It even
scrubs!
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - Interns Part 1
By Jerry Vigil
With today's consolidation come expanding work loads and longer days.
Interns can be a huge asset today, but they can also give you even more to
do. This months Q It Up takes a look at what stations today are doing with
interns and provides insight for those thinking about using them and tips
for those who already have them. Once again, we had a lot of great responses
and will present them all in two parts with the second part in the upcoming
October issue.
Q It Up: Do you use interns in your production department,
or have you used them in production in the past? If so, how are/were they
most valuable to you? What tasks do/did they perform? What tips would you
offer others about using interns? Feel free to add any other comments you
might have.
Radio HED: Production Parity
By Jeffrey Hedquist
The average production budget for a national television commercial is
over two hundred thousand dollars. Some can cost more than a million. The
average production cost for a national radio commercial is less than
one-tenth the cost of television production.
The effectiveness of a television spot is very often dependent on the
dollars that go into producing it. Television is a more passive medium.
Theyre not just telling you the story, theyre showing you the visuals, and
those visuals cost a fortune to produce. Its much less expensive (and more
effective) to let the listeners create their own visuals on radio.
Way Off The Mark: Calling Perry Mason
By Mark Margulies
Last month, we received a request for creative from a salesperson whose
client built a radio commercial around the song, "Rock and Roll" part
whatever, by Gary Glitter. Most of you, if you watched any sporting event,
know the song. Its copyrighted, used only by permission. Well, the client in
question didnt know or even care about that. They wanted to use it.
Copyright laws prohibit the use of commercial songs for promotion of any
products other than concerts by the artist, or promotion of the artists
products (music stores, etc.). Radio station licenses have been interpreted
as to NOT cover their use for commercial purposes. That means, if the client
had been left unchecked, and the production department didnt understand the
rules or just plain "missed" one, a spot using Gary Glitters music could
have aired, have been heard by an ASCAP or BMI rep, been reported to
Glitters lawyers who would then have taken great joy in slipping a nice fat
copyright infringement suit on the station. And your client? Long gone,
pleading ignorance.
...And Make It Real Creative
By Andy Capp
Maybe if we all took a little time to look at how we are all related in a
common cause, in a common life, we might actually start working together to
fight the real enemy, lack of respect. Perhaps in the twilight of this
century, when weve grown accustomed to demanding everything, we should try
to gain our respect the old fashioned wayby earning it.
The Monday Morning Memo: Second Hand Knowledge
By Roy H. Williams
Which testimony is stronger in a court of law, "I personally witnessed
it, your honor," or "someone told me who should know?" So why then, outside
a courtroom, do we give the greater credence to second hand knowledge?
Everything we know, or think we know, is the result of someone's
observation; either a strangers or our own. Why are we willing to trust a
strangers observations more than we trust our own? Why do we tend to swallow
whole everything that is printed in a textbook? (Find a twenty-year-old
science book. Look at it closely and you'll see that much of what is printed
there has since been proven to be wrong.)
Why do we place so much trust in second hand knowledge? Have we become so
adept at learning from others that we have forgotten how to think for
ourselves?
|