I'm taking some of the ideas that I've worked with over the past year, and combining them.
First, the music. I believe that there's too much of Jukebox-like music currently, even though there's voice tracking.
I particularly like the Old Time Radio shows that I play, and yet I have to tune in at one particular time in the day to hear a specific show. It's too easy to miss something I really want to hear.
And finally, sometimes even a 30 minute Old Time Radio show is too long. It's definitely too long for any external listeners if they happen to tune in in this time of shortened attention span.
So here's what I'm doing.
We're going to a 6 hour block of programming, where each block is repeated throughout the day (a total of 4 times). That pretty much ensures that no matter where you are in the world, if you have a little time, you'll be able to hear what you want to.
We're also only going to be airing 15 minute Old Time Radio shows. One additional benefit is that rarely do you hear these, if at all.
We're also cutting back on the jukebox-like music.
So, here's the schedule for Monday thru Friday.
Hour 0 - We'll be playing our DJ-hosted shows, including Teenage Dreams, Wilson Beach Radio, Beautiful Sounds, Wired For Sound and Rock Around the Rockpile (sometimes 101 Below). [Midnight, 6AM, Noon, 6PM]
Hour 1 - Lost Jukebox. Our one concession to jukebox-like music, combining the playlists for what was Billboard Hits (everything that appeared on the Billboard charts for the decade 1955 to 1964) and Lost Jukebox (extremely obscure 45's from 1963 to 1972). [1AM, 7AM,1PM, 7PM, all times Pacific]
Hour 2 - Tim's Oompah Hour - Polka! We're already over Show #200. [2AM, 8AM, 2PM, 8PM]
Hour 3 - Old Time Radio Variety Shows (15 min each). Includes Guest Star, G.I. Jive, Let's Go To Town, Frank Sinatra Light Up Time, etc. [3AM, 9AM, 3PM, 9PM]
Hour 4 - Old Time Radio Comedy Shows (15 min). Includes the rarely heard shorter Fibber McGee episodes, Easy Aces (probably one of the best written comedies of the era), Lum & Abner, etc. [4AM, 10AM, 4PM, 10PM]
Hour 5 - Old Time Radio Adventure/Mystery Shows (15 min). Includes the critically acclaimed Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Bob Bailey episodes, I Love a Mystery (maybe one of the best OTR shows of all time), Superman (yes, you heard that right), etc. [5AM, 11AM, 5PM, 11PM]
The thought right now is that we'll be repeating the 5 Hosted and Polka shows in 6 hour blocks on Saturdays and Sundays, but that's likely open to change.
The reason for the etc.'s. I'm creating rotation playlists for a year. Sometimes the run of one of these shows is less than a year, so other shows also have to be inserted. Of course, these playlists can always be changed before the year is up (i.e., I get tired of them - being your own best listener has advantages).
I expect to cut over to the new schedule in a week or so.
I was think of doing the same except in 12 hour blocks. Starting at 8am - 8pm and repeating the same programs 12 hours later, except the music hours would be different songs, same songs not repeated. If I do go the 12 hour block route I would have to drop one of the news/talk programs to make it come out even.
I haven't run CBS radio mystery theatre for two reasons, maybe three,...bad audio quality on the majority of them as they were uploaded from a lousy radio as you can hear when listening, sound is muffled with interference on a lot and each episode has no time frame, some go for 42 minutes, some 48 minutes and the half hour time for most OTR's fits nicely with back to back episodes and scheduling. Also these take a lot of computer space and with 3/4 hour lengths and 500 or 600 episodes I would need an expensive computer to get enough internal storage to handle them and the other stuff like the playlist/other programs etc. But 15 minute OTR's? There's not much time for a story or a plot to unfold. Didn't know there was 15 minute ones! But now I think of it there was Chickenman and they were 5 minutes each.
As for listeners not having time to listen, or a short attention span,....they watch an hour TV show, sit an watch a 2 and a half hour movie or sports game, if they are interested they will listen.
The way KDX is programmed has also changed to better serve myself, the main listener. For years we ran a published linear schedule with programs always at the same time everyday. But being awake and available to be on top of a linear schedule does not agree with my body clock, so I ditched the SCHEDULE page of my website and now run programs when I feel like it. They are the same programs as before, but scatter-shot as far as the time they are aired.
@mark Unfortunately, radio these days isn't seen as something that you spend great amounts of time with. It used to be, but TV and now streaming has taken on that role. Even with myself, I sometimes only have time to tune in for 15-20 minutes while in the car. And I don't watch TV or videos!
As for 15 minute shows, they are often serialized. Some of the greatest shows are 15 minutes - I Love A Mystery, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar had a run of 15 minute episodes, even Fibber McGee & Molly.
I don't worry about disk space - it's cheap and you can expand a laptop easily, by either replacing the hard drive or adding external storage, even a micro SD card (the 512GB A2 ones are both cheap and fast). Desktops are no problem to throw in an extra hard drive.
I also reencode all my programs to either Ogg 32kbps (OTR) or Mp3 64kbps (music), all in mono. I broadcast and stream in mono, so there's no reason to keep them on the automation computer in stereo.
@wefr I thought about an 8 hour block and may still eventually end up with that. I want to see how my listening habits fit in with the 6 hour block first. 12 hours is too long, and kind of defeats my reason for doing this (I want at least 2 opportunities, now I will have sometimes 3) to listen to some programs. You may have a different reason for going that way.
@artisan-radio I miss some of the news/talk programming during the first 12 hours. And I'm usually still awake or can't sleep at nights that well. The 12 hour block may work for myself. I do have at least 1 other person outside my family that listens other than me and have been asked if I could rerun some programs later at night.
@artisan-radio Yes true about storage space. Just a few weeks ago got a new broadcast computer, an Asus 14" laptop on sale, not exactly entry level but with only 128gb of SSD storage, typical of middle of the road laptops. Had the service dept re-install Windows 10 to replace 11 for no extra cost. Why, that's for another topic. As for the 128gb I have about 40gb left and 2600 various series/episodes of OTR takes up 32+gb alone. They were downloaded at a higher bit rate to get the best quality as many OTR shows are not the best, some muffled sounding. Add the playlist(quite large), Artisan's Teenage Dreams (50 1 hour episodes) and waiting to see if I can add a couple of other shows of his or that he runs to that folder also, a couple of other things and Windows takes up a chunk with the installed programs that you can't uninstall as they are needed.
But this computer doesn't have a micro SD slot but I could get a mini USB drive 512gb or more and have 4X the storage and use that and not even use the computer's storage for Zara access and not worry about space and keep adding more and more of whatever but where does it end? At some point there's enough. It has to end at some point. Any songs I add now I will rarely hear. It's lost in the vastness of the playlist. Same with the OTR, although I could add another series to what I have. So the 40gb left is still quite a bit but constantly ever expanding and needing more and more space....for me there comes a point where it becomes redundant.
Bitrate is highly overrated for OTR.
The quality of the source material is key, and in the case of OTR, generally it's the limiting factor.
I've tried listening tests between high bitrate mp3 encodes and much lower bitrate ogg/Opus encodes, and they sound identical through headphones. That's how I arrived at the mono 32kbps (vbr) ogg target for all my OTR.
All those bits and corresponding file sizes look impressive, but they don't translate into better sound, even when reencoding from the original transcriptions disks. And many don't even do that - they just reencode from lower bitrate files.
I reencoded my OTR to Opus 16kbps to put on my phone, and it still sounds almost identical, with perhaps the music suffering a bit. That's because Opus uses 2 encoders - one high efficiency for voice and another for music. 16kbps is more than enough for good quality voice. To me, the space savings are worth it, since I keep my entire collection on the phone (plus my entire music collection, encoded at a slightly higher bitrate of mono 24kbps).
24kbps mono Opus gives you a frequency response up to about 12-13khz, which is good enough for that use - it's also pretty close to over-the-air FM frequency response which is theoretically 15Khz maximum. 32kbps Opus mono (or 64kbps stereo) gives you results pretty much identical to CD quality source material. You'd have to go to 64kbps mono or 128kbps stereo for the same results if you use mp3.
More updates.
After attempting to work a viable 6 hour block with all the stuff I wanted in it, I decided to go to an 8 hour block, 3 times per day.
I've also decided to go with a mix of 30 minute OTR shows for the music/variety oriented ones, and 15 minutes for the comedies & dramas. It's much easier to drop in to listen to a 30 minute variety show in the middle, rather than a plot-driven show.
I've got the weekday schedule worked out. Still haven't decided whether the weekends will be the same, or something different. Right now I'm leaning towards a weekend laden with repeats of the hosted shows broadcast during the week, but like everything else, that is subject to change (but with notice).
Regarding audio quality of programs intended for online radio streaming, I am mystified by how Zara in conjunction with Virtual Audio Cable, StereoTools, B.U.T.T. Encoder and Icecast streamer all work together to supply an end product that runs at the right speed after going through some confined tunnels. From the outset audiofiles are re-processed to end up sounding right. One example is VOA News which arrives as a 64-kbps MP3 file, passes through VAC which is confined to a certain range of bandwidths, StreoTool mashes it to 44.1-kbps, and the Encoder sets the final result to whatever it's set for, in this case 32-kbps OGG. The only program I need to process is World of Radio which arrives at 16-kbps which is not allowed by VAC, so I re-sample it to 44.1-kbps.
I've finalized the new Artisan Radio schedule, at least for now, and am taking it through its paces on another Internet stream and BETS transmitter.
It's ended up back where I started - a 6 hour block, repeated 4 times a day. I've got the new schedule here if anyone is interested. It pretty much ensures that you'll be able to hear a specific program whenever you have some free time. I was growing frustrated with missing stuff - sometimes I had some time in the morning, sometimes in the evenings. For the former, I had to listen to music and missed the OTR; for the latter, I only could listen to OTR. I was also missing the hosted shows a lot, and they're the one thing I hate to skip.
I'm not sure if the OTR I'm playing will end up being carried through. I picked some because there were lots of shows, others because I've always wanted to listen to an extended run. Some were oriented on music, others comedy, still others drama and adventure.
There also aren't a lot of 15 minute shows, so I may end up going back to some 30 minute ones. But that's the joy of running your own radio station - you can do what you want and it's not going to affect all that many people!
I like the program line up. You still didn't find out about Wilson Beach and 101 and below if I could run them?
The lineup is going to change a bit, but the new schedule gives anyone interested an idea of what it will look like. I've already replaced 10-2-4 Ranch & Just Entertainment with the half hour show Command Performance, and it fits in much better. Never mind that the former shows are pretty weak (after listening to a few).
There may be others in the same situation. I'll be in test mode all week and then make the final decisions.
Re the shows - I've sent a reminder off.
The process of changing Artisan Radio's programming has been illuminating.
Having eliminated The Best Jazz, I've found I'm missing it. I've found some of the new OTR shows good, some so-so.
Stay tuned for more changes. Meanwhile, the existing programming rolls on.
We've cut over to the new programming schedule (that can be found on our web pages).
So far, things have been running smoothly.
As indicated previously, the reason for the changes is to give potential listeners better access to our shows, as they are repeated 4 times daily (in a 6 hour block).