7 - PT to Final Evaluation

Since my preliminary task, which included a short extract from a radio station with an archive clip featuring a guest, I feel a great sense of achievement and knowledge of the journey I have taken in terms of skills development and my ability to use technology. 

I am proud, not just in terms of my ability to use the technology but also in terms of the ways that my research and planning skills have developed. My preliminary task took place with limited research and therefore I realised that I would need to listen to existing radio stations more frequently so that my final extract sounded authentic and matched the correct conventions of the radio shows I was trying to emulate.

The preliminary task helped me develop my basic skills in recording and editing, and to gather ideas for the main task. I found ways to improve, making my extract sound more realistic, look further into audience and being more precise with decisions. 

Even though the conventions of both tasks were the same, I had to conduct far more research into my final extract. I needed to know more about the genre of station, the people who listen to it and the time of the show. My research included questionnaires, listening to other stations and looking at a running order. I conducted far more research for my main task, than I did for my preliminary task - which after everything I have done with my main task, sounds basic (though I thought it was great at the time). The most important thing about the preliminary task was that I was able to get an understanding of the equipment and software ahead of using it more extensively for the main task. This actually helped when it came to editing down my recordings as I already had a slight insight into what I needed to do, and what I could achieve. 

The differences in editing, technical skills and research is clear in my two extracts. I hope you can see the hard work and effort I went through to create an authentic sounding station. 

Here is my main task.

Here is my preliminary task.

6 - Technologies

In my preliminary task, and also my final radio production, I recorded all of the voices through a 'pop guard' on the Shure SM58 microphone. It was never perfect first time around, therefore using the 'Adobe Audition 1.5' I was able to use the editing software to edit the recordings, taking out pauses, mistakes and gaps. 

In the process of recording, I had decided to neatly label each file to clearly show what recording went where, and so it was easily accessible when mixing. 

There are separate folders for recorded, finished and edited sounds. Also a separate folder for sound effects and music. Using the audio editing software "Adobe Audition 1.5", I took out unnecessary breathes, pauses and compressed the voices down. 

On the editing software, the multi-track feature meant I was able to mix separate tracks together with music and sound effects. This layering enabled sound effects and dialogue to be heard at the same time and to appear to the listener to be on one track, when in fact it could be on 4 or 5 layers, mixed and compressed into one. When recording my adverts, jingles and especially outside broadcasts this was vital as the timing had to be perfect and the segment had to sound as real as possible. 

My tennis commentary is the best example of the ways in which the technology helped me be creative and use many different sounds and editing techniques to generate features such as the echo of a tennis court, rallies, serves, and the hushed (and sometimes, cheering) crowd.

I used a teacher from my college who was well spoken and sounded perfect for the part he had to play. 

Most of my recordings took several times to get right, for example a member of staff recorded my jingle in a number different voices, with varied tones and pitches to sound correct. Once I found the right sound for my jingle -  I took out all the pauses, added some effects including an 'echo' so that the voice sounded more 'booming' then added this to an extract from a music track (which I cut using the software). Here is an example of the before and after editing.

5 - Attracting An Audience

To attract my target audience, every decision made had to be spot on - Jingles, adverts, news, voices had to be chosen with audience in mind to make my radio sound as authentic as possible.

Regarding the news, I listened to various news bulletins from similar genres to my own. I found the appropriate voice, music and tone for my audience before encouraging my actors to deliver their lines in that way. I found that the music was quite hushed once the news started and that the speaker was well spoken.   

Even for the choices of story, there were many stories I could have chosen, but after looking at several of the BBC's online stories and using some imagination, I came up with a few sport and crime related news, which I thought would appeal to or attract my audience. I knew that the audience would expect to hear voxpops and soundbites accompanying the stories, so I made sure to include these in mine. 





Sometimes I had to re-record a few parts as the voices didn't sound just right and I didn't think they would be the right representations for my audience. For example, some of my news correspondents had to be changed due to the voice not quite fitting the part compared to others. This happened on many occasions but it was key that they would sound convincing to my target audience.

The jingles used took time to consider, and there were many ways of recording and adding effects onto the various jingles. In other stations such as LBC and Talk Sport I noticed they have separate jingles for the show, news, and travel. I had a closer listen to Talk Sport's station jingle to hear the type of music they used. I found this to be a kind of old rock with lots of guitar, compared to the news jingle which was a shorter, calmer version of that - I knew that my target audience would have certain expectations regarding jingles, so I created what I thought they would most expect to hear (with the voiceover bellowing the station name and frequency over the top).







For my adverts, yet again I had to think of who could play the appropriate part, so that the adverts would directly appeal to my chosen audience. I used the correct voice in my 'Vinnie's Vans' advert, using a male stereotype that I thought my audience would recognise and appreciate by having two cockney characters talking about cars and building. This type of advert will directly relate to my target audience, as stereotypically men are usually associated with manual labour and cars. I also thought the advert would add the type of humour my audience would expect (the sort of humour I noticed on talkSPORT), but that it would also be a relevant advert for my target audience in terms of the type of product it is promoting.

     

4 - Audience

My show is a sports-orientated chat show with the odd football anthem, aimed at mainly male listeners. To get an idea of what time, where and who listened to these type of shows I distributed a questionnaire (primary research) - and my questionnaire indicated that more men listen to this kind of station than women (though I am not disregarding female sports fans whom may also very well tune in). 

Regarding age, I would be targeting and older male demographic. Even though I listen to this type of station, my questionnaire indicated that most respondents close to my age would not listen to a sports station  - instead favoring hip-hop and urban music, or a broader range of popular music. This kind of sports station was most popular with men (and some women) over the age of thirty, so I would target people between the ages of 30-55.

I used some open questions to give my respondent a choice such as: Where do you listen to the radio?

Which I collated and put into pie charts as below:

 
I had to also consider my audience when creating my adverts (I included adverts on my show because I thought that this was one of the best ways to indicate exactly who my target demographis was) - I had to think carefully by listening to existing adverts on stations similar to mine, to get the representation spot on. For example in my 'Van' Advert I needed two Cockney men. Obviously there were no hardcore Cockneys in college, therefore I had to use two teachers, who put on an excellent voices to represent my characters.

By listening to existing radio, writing notes on each element - like the length of the jingle, voices used, music and adverts - I was able to then go on and script my own show with the correct idea of exactly who my audience would be. 

3 - Institution - What Type Of Station Is It?

My station is a local (serving the London area), commercial station like LBC, but dedicated to sport, like talkSPORT. 

I have named my station 'Sport Talk 90' so that it sounds similar to talkSPORT and for it to sound as authentic as the researched one itself. It follows the same conventions as the original (particularly the format of the Breakfast Show) using the same type of voices and similar kinds of adverts.

It fits into the same schedule as talkSPORT, and adapts the same type of music for the jingles and trails, with a simlar kind running order to sound as genuine as possible.

2 - Representation of Particular Social Groups

The representation of voices, adverts and music on my radio show varied depending on the part of the script and character played (for example voxpops, the news reader or correspondents and characters in my adverts). In my research and planning, I noted down different ways which I wanted my characters in my extract to be presented. There was need for different character types for separate stories and adverts, so I chose my actors accordingly.

For many of my voices in the show, like my presenters, I needed a well spoken male voice to represent how talkSPORT and LBC's show presenters came across, so my presenter had to sound as close to that as possible. This was easier than in one of my adverts where I had to select a few different people to determine which voice sounded more appropriate for the part (of Cockney van drivers - targeting a local London audience). It took the right type of voice to be accurate for the part, and I coached my actors to put on a specific accent. 



In my commentary on the 'Tribute' extended news story, I needed a tennis commentator who sounded more archaic than the average male, who was slow and deliberate in the delivery of his speech and gave the correct emphasis at the right times. This took time to get right but eventually I got the perfect performance from Jon Alsop, the Business Studies teacher.

The news presenters on talkSPORT and LBC were often also an older, more mature male. Therefore I had to match those voices for my bulletins to represent clearly the conventions I heard in my research into representation.

1 - AS Evaluation - Using Conventions Of Real Media Products

To find out what the conventions of radio were, I did a great deal of research and planning, so that I could authentically recreate these conventions in my radio production. I listened to other stations similar to mine, such as 'Talk Sport' and 'LBC'. Noting every element that was relevant to the running order, and the overall theme of my show. 

After the completion of my preliminary task, the first thing I did was listen to a range of stations, also visiting their websites to analyse the colour schemes, layout and adverts used - to see if these elements indicated conventions of the show (in terms of schedules, content, news stories and adverts) and whether they gave an indication of audience.

My idea was to do a contemporary sports station, similar 'talkSPORT' in terms of the fact it would be dominated by sports content and similar to 'LBC' as it targeted a local audience and it focused mostly on discussion and speech rather than music, with listeners encouraged to phone in and debate the sporting issues of the day.



The types of news stories were similar to those I heard on 'talkSPORT' and 'LBC', apart from on my bulletins, there would be more sports-related content, with each story having a link to the local region of London (if you listen to the clips below you can see how each of the sories has a link to London, for example the first story takes place in Islington, both football stories mention matches at Wembley and the celebrity affair story took place during the London Olympics). 





I was surprised to find so many similarities in terms of conventions, particularly in the news and sport in terms of how it was presented to the audience, and the jingles for the news bulletins. Each jingle - for most stations, included the name of the station, the frequency and the slogan. 

On 'Kiss', they have different jingles depending on the show. 'The Breakfast Show' jingle, for example was longer, and included the names of the presenters on the show. It also had modern beats and sound FX over the top. On 'LBC', their Breakfast jingle was plain and simple - compared to Kiss. It had no music over the top and only included the name of the station and the presenters.

Each news bulletin that I listened to contained three to four stories, which featured (across the bulletin, but not necessarily in each story) outside broadcasts, soundbites and voxpops.

Each news bulletin I listened to began with short, rock type beats sounding like the type of music you would relate football to. My jingles throughout my station would have similar music with different voiceovers depending on what is about to happen. I tried to include all of these elements in my bulletin, and included a news jingle, a convention I heard on each of the stations that I listened to.



Below are audio clips of my separate news stories, my news presenter's voice (showing the serious tone) and my completed news jingle. I hope that you can hear the ways they build upon existing conventions of radio news bulletins in terms of the various elements of the jingle (music, reference to station name, slogan, and reference to the newsreader's name).

 

The final research and planning I did into real radio shows related to genre. My preliminary task was from the sport genre, a different type of radio to music stations such as 'Capital' or 'Kiss', and I wanted my main task to be an extract from a Breakfast Show from a sports genre station.

This research informed the first drafts of my script, particularly the adverts, and focused my dialogue research and selection. I feel that the show I have produced is comparable to existing radio stations from the sports genre, such as 'talkSPORT'.