SETUP - PLANNING YOUR STATION
Choosing Programming Elements
The two most-critical points to consider in the designing of your radio station's format are:
- The programming elements you will include (below)
- The order in which you will present them (separate page)
SELECTING WHAT YOU'LL PLAY, AND WHY
Consider your audience and your goals when choosing the elements your format will contain. Here are some of the possibilities:
- Music
If you are positioning your station as a "music station," you need to have portions of your format clock in which you offer music sequences of at least three songs in a row, either uninterrupted, or interrupted only by quick jingles, sweepers, or image lines. When you use music as a a filler to take you to the top of an hour, or for timing purposes following pre-recorded block programming such as concerts, sermons, or pre-produced radio programs, instrumentals are preferable to songs containing vocals. A "music station" requires a minimum of 300-400 songs in its library to avoid listener fatigue.
If you are designing a radio station that supplies music for people who are "on-hold" on a telephone system, you need to consider the length of time the average person is on hold on that system and how much information you want to supply them. You also need to keep in mind the "rest time" the mind needs between messages. Many on-hold systems use ten seconds as a minimum gap between messages. Restful, friendly, and low-key music selections work well for these systems.
For a corporate Intranet environment, in which you're programming to staff members or clients, consider the demographics and likes of your "target audience." Consider circulating a questionnaire to find out their favorite music styles and artists. Remember, especially in this sort of environment, that any "public performance" of copyrighted music requires that you pay royalties to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.
- Announcements
- Promos
Virtually every station, regardless of its format, audience, and style, benefits from the inclusion of station promos. Promos are used to identify the station's content, purpose, and message. They point out the station's special features and planned broadcast events. Strongly consider regularly-scheduled station promos in your radio format. Promos can take the shape of longer, commercial-length announcements, as well as little one and two line announcements interspersed into your broadcast day.
- Commercials
While TuneTracker™ isn't presently suited for integration with commercial traffic systems like SuperLog, you can indeed schedule commercials onto program logs manually, or if they are to be run long-term, they can even be built into the master logs. You can also put links to your ads in folders, and use our "PlayFolder" command to play whole clusters of ads in one shot, as we do on BeOSRADIO. Keep in mind that commercials don't always have to be announcements purchased by third parties. Commercials can also be ads for products or services offered by your organization or corporation. They can also advertise seminars and other events you will be holding, point people to your web site, and give ordering and technical support information.
- Jingles & Sweepers
Jingles can be quick instrumental signatures or sung themes which are used to reinforce the image and style of the station. Instrumental image themes can be acquired inexpensively in buy-out libraries. They can be played alone as "sounders," used as news intros, and longer versions of them can be used beneath station promo announcements. You can find them all over on the Internet, often for under $50. Sung jingles are generally much more expensive, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars, but for a large, serious station, they can be a great addition.
Sweepers are the quick, exciting one-liners you hear leading into music segments and as seques between songs. They frequently contain gee-whiz production and synthesizer effects. If you are a smaller station or a hobby station, but would still like some sweepers, they really do add a nice touch, and you might be able to prevail upon a local DJ with a good voice to record some for you inexpensively or free. Sweepers have the benefit of having impact similar to sung jingles, but less-expensively.
- Voice-Tracking
By recording regular voice-tracking "DJ" announcements, which will play during the course of the broadcast hour, you can give your automated programming a friendly, live feel. Keep them brief and topical, and use them to frequently reinforce the station's image and promote its programming. The more often they can be updated, the better your station will sound. If you cannot update them frequently, it is best not to include voice-tracking, because it will quickly become boring, and its recorded nature will be obvious.
A carefully-planned voice-tracking system can be used to announce songs just before or just after they are played, or to "back-announce" a group of songs that were just played back-to-back. Such a system requires a considerable amount of time spent regularly recording the messages that will announce song titles and artists. We suggest that you print out the daily program log for reference, look at the songs on the list, and record each cut into the voice-track file whose name is adjacent to the song you are announcing. Obviously, each filename must be unique, and pre-assigned to the position where it appears in the log. A logical way to name the files is by hour, and position within the hour, such as "vt_hour04_cut09." To save yourself typing time, you can reload existing liners into your recording program and just record over them. Make certain to remove any leftover audio from the tail end if your new announcement is shorter than your previous one. Note that a deadroll (gap) is commonly placed at the start of automated liners. On BeOSRADIO, all voice-tracks and other non-music events have 1.5 seconds of front-end deadroll, and a half second of silence at the end. Corresponding with that, we have our overlap in Preferences set to one second. It causes very clean transitions.
- Live Programming
Do NOT underestimate the power and listener-appeal of live programming. It is one of the very best ways to help you gain a larger listening audience, especially if you promote the live programming in advance. Listeners find the spontaneity of live programming irresistible.
- Block Programming
Block programming is extended-length feature programming such as countdown shows, news and public affairs features, lectures, concerts, sermons, even "hot mic" programming akin to the webcam experience, are all valuable options to consider in your format mix. Block programming can be either live or pre-recorded.
Once you've decided upon the programming elements you want in your format, the next step is to decide on how you would like to arrange them.
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