Preparing to Record from Home:
We have all had to make a lot of adjustments in our life due to the pandemic. One of the biggest changes I had to adapt to is where I produce my radio shows. For more than ten years, I broadcast live out of the WTIP studios at 1712 West Highway 61 in Grand Marais. Over time, I have produced several pre-recorded shows, but that was also out of the WTIP studios.
In the last few months, many of the hosts have adapted to working out of home. We bought our own equipment, learned how to work with recording programs such as Garage Band, and shared the knowledge with our fellow hosts.
Since I am in the Apple Verse, I had to learn Garage Band. I was given hints by many of the other hosts. One of the most helpful hints was the links to certain YouTube videos that taught me the basics of recording and editing. A few months after starting to record the shows, Garage Band went through a major upgrade, and I had to learn a lot of it again.
One of my biggest challenges was digitizing my CD collection. It is a lot faster to do a show when you can just drag the song into the project, instead of having to pull songs off CDs every time. I've accumulated a lot of CDs over the years, and the process of putting them into Apple Music one by one took several weeks. When I'm doing mix shows, I still have to upload CDs from time to time.
Preparing for the Show:
The first step is to sign up for the show. It is done on a web site called SignUpGenius. I sign in, and can look at any of the shows that I host for WTIP. When I see an open show I would like to host, I put down any notes about the show and click on the button to sign up. For instance, I put down "Celtic Music" when I signed up for the Musical Chairs show which broadcast earlier this month.
Some hosts use a stage name, but I prefer to use my own name. My shows aren't controversial, so I am not worried about listeners knowing who I am. I find it can be a great ice breaker when I meet a new person, and they tell me my voice sounds familiar.
Jana sends me my underwriters more than a week before the show is set to air. I print them out, and review them before recording. Any new underwriters I read out loud before recording them. I plan which underwriters are going to be read at the top of the hour, 20 minutes into the hour, and 40 minutes into the hour before I start the show.
As far as the music, I write down some sets before the show (especially if is significant to that day). I know where the show needs to go, but I do not have every second of the show planned. For me, hosting a show is a bit like writing. It is fun to enjoy the creative journey.
Recording the Show:
It is important to have a meaningful first song and set. When I record Thirsty Boots and Classic Country, I use theme songs (A Calling On Song, and You're Looking at Country respectively). On my other shows, I usually record the initial announcements followed by the first set. Both approaches can be used effectively.
As when writing a paper, transitions are important. That includes transitions from one show to another, and transitions from one set to another. Everything has to flow smoothly.
My first full set of Classic Country is always a Country dance set to transition from my Polka Time show. The final set of Classic Country is always a Country Gospel set used to transition into the Sounds of the Spirit show which follows me.
Picking out the music is only part of the show. Announcements have to be well executed too.
Between sets, I back announce the songs that have just played. If it is time to read the underwriters, I read them next, and follow with announcing the first songs or artist of the next set. In a live set, it is a bit risky to forward announce songs, because sometimes the wrong song will play on a CD. However, this is not an issue when you are recording in advance.
One thing that is important during a radio show is to give information about the artists and songs. This can be found in books, or on reliable online sources. The information you give is often the difference between people listening to the radio, or a music streaming service.
Music selection can be a challenge. When I do Polka Time, Classic Country, Thirsty Boots, or Women in Music, I need to stay within a genre. The Monday Night Mix, Saturday Night Mix, and Musical Chairs shows only require that I do not play anything offensive and/or with bad words.
If it is a new song, I listen to the entire song before it is included in the show to make sure it stays within F.C.C. guidelines. There are also the options of looking for the lyrics in the CD cover, or looking for the lyrics online. Musicians, you are more likely to have your music included in a radio show if you list both the length of song and the lyrics.
Picking out all the music for a long radio show is a bit like flying to the Moon. The first part of the journey is uphill (gravity of Earth), and the second part of the journey is downhill (gravity of the Moon). At the beginning of the show, I often times feel like I'm having to work harder to put together the sets of music. By the end of the show, I usually feel like I have so many sets that I could go another couple of hours.
One big difference between live and prerecorded programming is the ability to edit. If I don't like the way my announcements sounded, I go back and edit them. It is relatively easy to cut out a section if dialog, and replace it with something better. The trickiest part is making sure the old and new dialogs match with volume and flow. I might record same dialog up to three times before I am satisfied.
I also edit songs to a small extent. Sometimes a song does not match a set as well as I had hoped, and it needs to be eliminated. More often, there is a bit of dead air at the beginning or end of the song which needs to be edited out.
The editing takes more time, but has helped me to be a better radio host. I am less likely to make an error again that I have already had to edit in a previous show.
When I complete each hour of a show, I share it over email with Sterling at the radio station. He puts it in the system, and is generally the one to do the weather and announcements at the top of each hour. When I record the show, I make each "hour" of the show about 59 minutes, so Sterling has time to do the announcements before the next hour or show.
Sterling sends me a message when he receives the show, and then puts it on the air.
The Broadcast
When I am broadcasting live out of the WTIP studios, I can hear myself and the songs over my headphones. It is not the same as listening from the other side of the radio.
Since I am recording from home, I am able to listen to my shows. Most often, I am sitting at home, sometimes I'm in the car, and sometimes I hear my shows going out over the speakers at local businesses. Last month, I was in Subway, and heard my show on the speakers. I was happy to hear that the locals were listening to WTIP, and that I was contributing to their enjoyment.
When I'm recording the show, I don't always listen to the whole song if I have heard it before. It takes on average about an hour and a half to record one hour of programming, and would take much longer if I listened to every song. When I listen to it from the other side of the radio, I get to hear every song in its entirety.
Listening to my shows, I also have the chance to critique my performance, and learn things that make my future shows better. Even before the pandemic, the station would give us recordings of our shows from time to time, and have us use those recordings to critique ourselves.
I miss the energy of a live broadcast. There is more pressure on a live program since the mic is live and you can't have dead air. I work well under pressure, and feel like that extra energy can come out over the airwaves.
Another thing that is enjoyable about live broadcasts is to get phone calls from the listeners. It is fun to talk to them when I am broadcasting, and can be a nice challenge to find their requests. The station does pass on any emails, and listeners can still communicate with us in that way.
On the other hand, I don't have two or more hours of driving to do a show when recording from home (which I am grateful for in bad weather). It is also nice to be able to listen to my shows from the other side of the radio.
