Creating Shows

As usual I am interested in any shows along the lines of Teenage Dreams to add to the playlist that you do new. The 101 shows sound good! At least your efforts to produce these good shows are appreciated by me, someone other than yourself.  Your shows run every evening at 9 PM.

I earlier promised a description of my show production cycle.

I start off with picking a theme for the show, in this case Teenage Dreams.  One show I particularly liked was 'Colors', with songs such as 'White on White' by Danny Williams, 'Black Cloud' by Chubby Checker, 'Pretty Little Girl in the Yellow Dress' by Carl Dobkins Jr., 'So Blue' by the Jades (with a young Lou Reed), etc.

Picking the songs related to the theme is next.  I try to mix in a good number of relatively unknown songs and singers, along with the hits.

The objective at this point is to get a list of songs that has around 45-47 minutes play time, leaving 8-10 minutes for talk.

I then come up with an order for the songs that makes some sense (in terms of a mixture of fast/slow, male/female, mini-themes etc.).

After that, I produce an outline script, which contains information on both the songs and the singers.   That can be rather difficult with the obscure ones, and a lot of digging has to be done.  And, of course, the material has to be interesting.

Still with me?  Good, because there are still multiple steps left.

I then record each announcer segment that goes between the songs, which means that I also have to listen to the material to get the right feel.

Once that is done, I go through each song, loading it into Audacity, normalizing it as well as trimming and/or adding silence at the beginning and at the end.  I also have to add the Teenage Dreams theme song in the beginning and end tracks ('Lolita Ya-Ya' by The Ventures).  Some themes require additional production material; I sometimes play the Top 20 songs for a certain date, taken from a Vancouver radio station survey (back in the late 1950s and early 1960s there were 3 local stations playing the Top 40 format).

Finally, I put all the tracks together and create one large show file.

But I'm still not done.  I then listen to the entire show from start to finish, taking note of mistakes (usually not many, they're generally weeded out as I go along) and also how everything sounds together, rerecording some bits as necessary.

And that's it.  One of the things I'd really like to do is to emulate Tim Bovey's Oompah Hour.  Just grab a bunch of records, and play them one after another, with some commentary in between, recording in real time.  It would save a lot of effort.  But I'm not really a professional announcer, and he's had over 30 years to craft those abilities.  I'm jealous, but recognize my limitations.

The other thing is that I really enjoy finding those nuggets of information about a singer or a song, and relaying them to the listener, that I might not otherwise if I was just winging it.

Picking some words said by Artisan Radio: "Some lament using such a station as a music jukebox. You can also say the same thing for talk shows if they are obtained elsewhere."

I am one of the "some" who have been critical of stations doing only music, but I'm changing my way of thinking about it. Probably the most important thing is that we'd like to see more part 15 stations no matter what they program. My criticism of music stations would be more appropriate directed at licensed radio. Presenting music is not "serving the community" especially because there is no music shortage in the modern world of YouTube, public libraries, and other sources of free music.

I disagree about the talk shows statement made by Artisan. Informative talk shows providing vital information are equally important no matter who produced them. The information is what's important. There are many excellently researched and prepared talk programs available which few part 15 owners would have the time or resources to create.

My comment may have been misconstrued.  I was referring to Part 15 stations playing music or talk shows, without adding any content, local or otherwise.

When I produce the weekly "Oompah Hour" shows, which I run on my Part 15, also provide to a local commercial station, and also to 28 others It takes me about an hour and a half total for a 1 hour show. Now, I have done (and continue to do) live commercial radio every day, and have marked 50 years on the air this year, so it's mostly second nature to me.  Prepping for the show includes grabbing 15 records or so off the shelves (it takes 15-17 records to do the hour show) and I use the standard grab from the left, return on the right system from the 45 and Lp shelves. There's no script. It's all live and spontaneous. Even though the show is recorded, once I hit record it's performed as it if was live. I include two ad-libbed live spots (one is a non-profit which is left in the syndicated version of the show, one is a local sponsor which is edited out of the syndicated version). I do it live and wrap it up. The show itself takes 55 minutes to an hour to produce. The extra half hour is pulling records and then saving the show in two versions - one for local commercial stations use in higher resolution and with a local live sponsor ad - and one in smaller file size for internet distribution and without the local sponsor ad in it) and then saving them and the playlist. I provide each syndicated station a playlist of the songs  in each weeks show. 

Nothing wrong with a well planned scripted show, just that I've been known for decades for live and spontaneous broadcasting, so that's what you get 🙂  Coming up on Oompah Hour show #500 in a few weeks.  Never missed a week!

Tim in Bovey