December 2001 RAP
December 2001 Highlights
Feature: Shine Up Your Crystal Ball
By Craig Jackman
Someone asked me the question the other week, and while it seemed easy at
first, its one that I cant get out of my mind: "What's the future of radio
production?" Seems simple at first, right? But think about it, and I mean
really think hard about it. This is what I've come up with.
Interview: Dave Biondi, broadcast.net/BNetRadio
By Jerry Vigil
This months RAP Interview steps away from the production studio for a
moment to focus on a unique website and a unique Internet radio station.
While dot coms were dropping like flies, broadcast.net continued its growth
and has become one of the most popular portals for radio engineers, managers
and more. The man behind it all is veteran radio jock turned engineer, Dave
Biondi, who most recently has gone full circle and found himself back
on-the-air, or rather on-the-net with BNet Radio. Dave's music-based
Internet radio station offers a special twist: its target demo is radio
people.
Radio Hed: Branding - Part 2
By Jeffrey Hedquist
I've called Radio: "The branding iron of the imagination." Since radio is
an interactive medium, the most important part of that interaction is
something we all came in with...our imaginations. Emotion is the heat for
your branding iron.
When you excite, interest, feed your audiences imaginations, they actually
become active listeners, participants. They create with you; and your name,
your store, your USP, can be imprinted on their DNA forever...if you engage
their imaginations and do it with consistency.
Test Drive: CD Burning Software Roundup
By Steve Cunningham
In the beginning, burning audio CDs was Big Voodoo. I witnessed a
CD-burning session in the mid-1980s that involved a $35,000 machine, a lot
of computer programming and some prayer, just prior to invoking the "Burn CD
Master" command. As often as not, the process yielded little more than a
very expensive drink coaster.
We've come a long way since those dark days. Today most computers come
equipped with a CDR drive and software as standard equipment. We deliver our
finished work on CDR, then use it to back up our project files for future
use. And the process is usually as simple as dragging and dropping audio
files into a list.
In researching this article I found over sixty different software packages
for burning CDs. You can get CD software for every platform, including for
the Unix variants, at prices that range from around twenty bucks (for
shareware) to several hundred dollars. For this piece well focus on a few of
the most popular commercial packages Easy CD Creator, Click N Burn, and Nero
for the PC, and Toast for the Macintosh.
Feature: Late Stuff
By Don Elliot
Even in our radio world of communication-oriented tasks, there is little
communication between people who are vying for our time in production. For
example, a salesperson dropping something off at the 11th hour is unaware or
doesn't care about whether or not someone else is doing the same thing at
the same time. They all pretty much have their own agenda.
Production Libraries: "Pop Tools Volume 2" from avdeli
By John Pellegrini
Pop Tools, Volume 2 is the latest format specific library to break out of
the Avdeli confines, with the release date scheduled for January of 2002.
Consisting of six CDs, Pop Tools Volume 2 has just about everything a
production or imaging person in a CHR, CHR-D, Hot AC, Gold, and Energy
format could use. The first two discs in the set consist of the famous short
sound effect cuts -- lasers, accents, sweepers, transitions, scratches,
rewinds, and turntable and tape effects. These could be used for anything
from emphasizing call letters, to making break points, to whatever ideas you
might have for short hits.
...And Make It Real Creative:
By Trent Rentsch
In lieu of gifts this year, I've decided to give bad advice. To my
father, the survivor of 2 angioplasties and recently diagnosed diabetes,
have a few more "fun size" candy bars what the hell, polish off the bag! To
my brother, who could give Jeff Gordon a run on the 4-94 straightaway to the
Mall of America, put the pedal to the metal! Those Bloomington, Minnesota
cops wont notice you going 90 in a 35, and if they do, make a point of
asking them why they aren't busy protecting a donut shop rather than
bothering you. To my kids, why are you studying so hard?! Like grades are
even a 100th as important when trying to get into a good college as knowing
the vitals of each and every Pokemon, or the social skills developed during
a rousing 30 frames of midnight bowling? And whatever you do, my dear wife,
make a point of ignoring that grinding sound coming from under the hood of
your car. Everyone knows that taking a car to a service station for a
diagnostic visit just makes things worse!
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - Handling Last Minute
Digital Deliveries
By Jerry Vigil
Q It Up: One of the advertiser benefits of digital
delivery systems such as SpotTaxi, SpotTraffic, DGS and others, as well as
direct email and FTP download, is that the advertiser can get their
commercials to the radio stations, literally, at the last minute. Newspapers
and TV stations can take advantage of this and provide timely and topical
commercials produced only a couple of hours before they're scheduled to air.
And for any advertiser, its possible to make "instant" revisions. These
"benefits" however, can sometimes have a negative effect on your production
department as it scrambles to handle last minute production orders. There's
also the increased chance of spots being missed because the commercial
arrived too late, which can result in lost revenue as that avail disappears.
If you use these digital delivery systems, how much are you and your
department/station(s) affected by this last minute capability? If this
creates problems for you and your station(s), how do you deal with them?
Please add any further comments you might have on the subject.
Feature: Enumeration of Sanctifications
By Ed Thompson
On November 6th, 1963, and eleven pound, ten ounce baby boy was born to a
Mr. and Mrs. Merlyn Thompson of Waterloo, Iowa. They named him Jeff. On July
12th, 1986, Jeff was killed in a swimming accident at a rock quarry. On
November 6th, 2001, on what would have been his 38th birthday, his big
brother Ed called his father and then his mother to wish them both a Happy
Jeff's Birthday.
Its a little tradition of mine. Just one way of saying to my parents that I
love them and that Im thinking of them, and of Jeff, on what can be still, a
difficult day for us all. But, something else happened on November 6th,
2001. Little Sarah Louise fell asleep in my arms, and as I looked into her
peaceful face, I cried. I cried because I have been blessed beyond my feeble
ability to fully convey the extent of my gratitude.
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