Notes on radio

The meaning of a show is broken into parts, these parts are:
The style of the show, the genre but most importantly connotation and denotation. (what the audience hear).
Connotation: "an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning." "the word ‘discipline’ has unhappy connotations of punishment and repression".

Denotation: "the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. The action of indicating or referring to something by means of a word, symbol, etc."

When analysing a radio show, you should look at the jingles, conversations, music and guests, these are important aspects.

The term "frequency" consists of, popularity, how often it lasts (duration), how often it is played (e.g. weekly), how often is it updated and whether the audience is mass or niche (how many people play it or tune in).

Community radio stations such as Sheffield Live consist of a small number of volunteers and is distributed to a small range. It serves the community and plays what the community wants, it doesn't have many adverts and the adverts on the station promote local businesses.  It is non profit and reflects the community, unlike commercial stations such as Hallam FM are designed to make profit, play chart music and show adverts of big brands.

Radio stations have to abide by the laws of OFCOM, they say community radio stations must be for social gain, small scale and non profit.

A play server is a program where all the music is stored, this keeps updating and is different for different shows as genres are not always the same.

Analogue radio is old and has now been replaced partly by digital radio as it is far quicker, less expensive and less skill is required as in an analogue station or show the DJ would have to choose vinyls, talk, buy hard copies of the discs, cut up tape for idents and playlists, however today all hosts have to do is click on a song. (splicing).

A mixer is now used which stores, jingles, adverts, sound effects and controls the volume of songs and conversations. A cartwall is where these are played.

Non linear packages such as Cubase, sound booth and Adobe Audition are used in the studio.

In this video you can see how the different sliders, cartwalls and monitors are used and how they are crucial for the show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135562 

Production process (H)

Pre Production - planning meetings, running order, producer, DJ, guidelines and regulators

production - software and hardware used (audition, cubase. pre recorded/ live, soundbooth, cart walls, desk. play servers)

Post Production - software and hardware used (audition, cubase, pre recorded, sound booth, cart walls)

production process (H) answer

1. who is producing it

2. target audience

3. commercial or non-commercial (organisation/individual/charity)

1. analysis of the following 5 audio products

A) podcast
B) music and talk radio show
C) audio book
D) jingle
E) ident

2. analysis of 3 of either

A) music and talk radio show (must include a variety and 1 that you want to pastiche)

B) podcast (must include a variety that you want to pastiche)