Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Handling Breaking News and Audio Quality
The show was dealt a boost when the Montreal Canadiens made their first trade of the season. Obviously whenever the Habs make a move, it makes a call-in show all the more interesting. So given the news, my responsibilities were to compare Michael Ryder's and Erik Cole's stats in every category and to go through the media conference call with Marc Bergevin. Unfortunately, the audio quality was not up to par for a radio station to air.
Obviously it's important to have reaction and clips to play for news like that, but a professional radio station has to understand the importance of audio quality. Clips had been aired where you could barely comprehend what was being said, and I don't feel they should've been aired. If there were 10 commandments of radio, I'm sure one of them would be to ensure your clips are always of broadcast quality. Whoever uploaded the clip's on the station's server clearly was very careless.
Other than that, I clipped some of the show's audio and posted it to the show's blog and I did the usual of providing scoring updates on request and researched Habs news. Matthew also encouraged me to start posting articles on the show's blog, so now I will be able to work on both my broadcasting skills and my writing skills for the remainder of the semester.
This Sunday, the show is moved to mid-afternoon due to the Habs game at night, so we'll have our own pre-game show of sorts. It will be a new dynamic for me and I'm sure my research will include digging up stats and stories surrounding the Habs vs the Bruins. That shouldn't be too difficult. I will likely have to grab audio clips from the two teams and play them on air. Needless to say, I will ensure they're of broadcast quality.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Strengthening a Segment
When you're throwing out a trade possibility for the Montreal Canadiens on live air, you have to be prepared for a lot of different opinions from fans coming at you. That is why if you want to state your case for something, you have to have the information to back it up.
Matthew Ross threw out an idea of Lars Eller being traded and asked me to get Eller's stats, compare him to other players around the league and find a few realistic players that could be traded for Eller. I named Ryane Clowe and Steve Ott and gave information to back it up. I shared Matthew's opinion on the subject and this show taught me that it's important to make a strong case if you're going to give an idea on a hot topic. You can't just say something for the sake of being bold. You should be able to back up what you're saying and I feel I was able to help in that regard, which was very positive.
Matthew also asked me to look up NFL Combine news and bring it up to Moe Khan, who appeared on the show via phone this week. I went to air with reports saying that Alex Smith is on his way out of San Francisco with the 49ers having a deal in place, with the rumored team appearing to be the Kansas City Chiefs. Matthew steered the ship for the segment, but he gave me a lot of responsibility in following the biggest stories of the NFL Combine and I feel my story selection was appropriate. I went with Manti Te'o's news conference and quarterback updates. Te'o's offseason story has been one of the most bizarre in sports history, so I felt it was important to follow the Heisman finalist.
It was a really solid show overall and featured a lot of participation from the listeners, which always makes for better radio. I find in Montreal if you come up with a strong idea for a Habs topic that no one's approached yet, it's a good idea because you're bound to get a strong reaction, negative or positive. Just make sure you can back up what you're saying, or you'll sound like a hack.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Editing Interviews
This shift was more based around production work. I had to edit an interview down to 10 minutes, which was originally about 13 minutes. Matthew Ross had Marc-Olivier Brouillette on the show to talk about the Alouettes offseason news, and to upload one clip to youtube for the show's blog, I had to cut the interview down. Matthew told me that the CFL on TSN twitter feed will post the interview, so it was important for me to make sure the edited version of the interview sounded good.
The edited version is available to listen to on the show's blog.
It reminded me a little of JOUR 330 when we would have to edit down an interview we'd conducted to about two minutes. The challenge here was to edit someone else's, which is a little more difficult, because I wouldn't know what his preferences to be. I've posted it and Matthew told me I did a great job with it, not cutting out anything important and maintaining the integrity of the interview despite cutting out three minutes. It provides some satisfaction that I was able to do the job well that he asked of me.
On my latest shift, I had to do the usual, scouring sports sites for breaking news, score updates and researched recent Habs stats, which I provided on air at Matthew's request. I also helped him in his research for the Brouillette interview, looking through what he's done recently, and things of that nature.
This coming Tuesday, I will be in studio a little earlier to cut clips from the Habs game that day and have them ready for the show.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Overcoming Problems during a show
Last night's shift involved some obstacles that the host had to overcome. We had lined up Alouettes linebacker Shea Emry as a guest on the show, but he cancelled last minute. So in a rapid fashion, we had to go to Plan B for a segment and search NFL topics, which I was able to do. We got through the segment pretty well, as we were able to finish the show smoothly.
As for the rest of the show, my work mostly involved researching interesting Habs stats from their season. I even brought up to Matthew before the show that the Jacksonville Jaguars had unveiled their new logo this week, and we wound up talking about the logo for an entire segment, as listeners responded to our tweets and called in to talk about the new logo. It actually turned out to be one of our better, and probably our most fun segment of the show. I never thought we'd be talking about the Jaguars for more than a couple of minutes. It felt good to know that I brought the topic up and it was able to contribute to the show. I guess it just shows you in radio that you sometimes have to be flexible with your outline. If you're not able to roll with the punches on a show, it can become stale, dull and sound too rigid for a listener's pleasure. If you're able to adapt to what's gaining momentum on your show, I believe you have to roll with it. I commend Matthew Ross for doing that, as I felt it made for great radio, because it was a chance for listeners to have fun with it, and for us, to have fun with it.
Of course, we still had some of the usual guests on the show, and we got into hockey, but all in all, I think the lesson from this show I learned was you have to stay on your toes and realize that no matter how great you plan out a show, things can change, and you have to be ready to adjust if and when that time comes.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Production Work
My responsibilities this week were mostly on the production side of things. Besides doing my Tweet 10 list (Reasons there was a Blackout at the SuperDome), I put together an audio montage of the Ravens and 49ers runs to the Super Bowl with the clips that were provided for me by the station and set to the Unforgiven by Metallica. It was a fun little project to work on yesterday and I feel like some of my training in Advanced Radio (JOUR 330) helped me out when putting together the montage. Since I was using a new software at the station, I hadn't quite mastered it, so in my opinion it could've sounded better. I feel a little more comfortable with the station's software now, so I feel if I had to do another one in the near future, I'd be better at it and the whole thing would sound better.
We had hockey writers in studio from the Fourth Period Magazine, so I had to take a backseat in terms of active participation on the show. I basically provided the host and guests updates when necessary and researched some stats they needed.
Today I learned how much great audio can enhance a broadcast. I haven't heard of too many interns who were trusted with putting together a 9-minute audio montage, so I feel very grateful that I was given the opportunity. For the next few shifts, I'm anticipating more and more hockey talk, given the fact that the NFL season is over. I'll be prepared to help in any way I can and with my midterm break coming up, I've informed them that I'll have extra availability to work on anything else they need from me, so I look forward to that.
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