We just added another affiliate..."Choice FM" in Spain. And yes, they're in English! Check them out. This just happened, details have yet to be ironed out. When I know more (time, etc.), I'll pass the info along.
By the way, I just finished "Show 50". Listen for cuts from "The Godfather", "Welcome Back Kotter", and a snippet from a classic interview with Linda Ronstadt. This show will air on most affiliates in two weeks.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Show 50
Today I began production on Show Number 50! Highlights include what sounds like a gender-bender from Jim Stafford, but really isn't. Also there's a clip from Saturday Night Live early on, and more classic Top-40 Jingles from the glory days of personality radio.
I talked with Scott Edwards, Operation/Program Director of Big River Public Broadcasting in Alaska yesterday. What a great guy. What a fascinating place! We're pleased to be heard on KIYU Saturday nights after "A Prarie Home Companion", and soon on a network of stations across Alaska! Best wishes Scott, and thanks for making the time to take the annoying call from N.C.!
I talked with Scott Edwards, Operation/Program Director of Big River Public Broadcasting in Alaska yesterday. What a great guy. What a fascinating place! We're pleased to be heard on KIYU Saturday nights after "A Prarie Home Companion", and soon on a network of stations across Alaska! Best wishes Scott, and thanks for making the time to take the annoying call from N.C.!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST AFFILIATE!
"Saving the 70s" can now be heard above the arctic circle! Welcome to KIYU in Galena Alaska, a public radio station. "Saving the 70s" now follows "A Prarie Home Companion" on Saturday nights at 7pm. But the news gets better...soon KIYU will serve as the anchor of a six station network that will carry the show that celebrates our favorite decade across Alaska. Pretty darn cool, right? To quote Alaska's governor...."YOU BETCHA!"
Show 49 IN THE CAN
Show 49's in the can, and accessible now at our website http://www.savingthe70s.com
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Show 49---Tommy Who?
Production began today on Show 49. The first segment features "Couldn't get it right" by the Climax Blues Band, and one of those great sweet soul songs..."In the Rain" from The Dramatics. Another highlight of the first segment, a song that immortalized "Tommy Mattola"...record executive, and future (now past) husband of Mariah Carey. Remember it? "Cher Chez Le Femme" by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. If you got that one, you truly are a 70s music GENIUS!
Monday, May 11, 2009
YES THAT IS MY DESK-Geek Stuff
To answer a question I recieved via e-mail, YES the photo at the top of the blog IS taken at the desk in my studio where the show is produced.The show is done on Adobe Audition 3. The photo shows the "Edit" window. Many bits are recorded and "sweetened" (tweaked for best sound quality) here. Mixing is done in the "Multitrack" window, using the automated "flying faders" mixing option, which remembers and recreates fader moves.
Once the file is mixed to stereo, final audio "sweetening" is added to even out levels and provide maximum impact, plus any necessary edits are performed in the "Edit" window.The completed show is saved as a Windows Media LOSSLESS file, which takes up only half the hard-drive space as an uncompressed .wav file, but with no loss in quality.
Files downloaded by stations are encoded at 320kbps mp3 using a custom preset tweaked for best sound, and made available for download by affiliate stations "officially" on Thursday, but usually as early as Wednesday of each week.
Once the file is mixed to stereo, final audio "sweetening" is added to even out levels and provide maximum impact, plus any necessary edits are performed in the "Edit" window.The completed show is saved as a Windows Media LOSSLESS file, which takes up only half the hard-drive space as an uncompressed .wav file, but with no loss in quality.
Files downloaded by stations are encoded at 320kbps mp3 using a custom preset tweaked for best sound, and made available for download by affiliate stations "officially" on Thursday, but usually as early as Wednesday of each week.
Show 48's "in the Can"
Show 48 is "in the can". Actually I completed it Friday May 8, but it was a busy day so I didn't have time to update the blog.
Highlights include "Alice's Restaurant" from Arlo Guthrie in Segment 02.
Today is Monday, when I usually begin production on the new show. But due to appointments this afternoon, production will be postponed until tomorrow.
If there's something you'd like to hear, something you'd like to suggest for the show, or any comment, please let me know. Your comments are welcome. They ARE moderated, but only to prevent things like foul language, personal attacks, etc...never to prevent criticism or stifle debate. I merely ask that comments, criticism, and debate be limited to the show, the music, and 70s culture. For other topics, start your own blog!
Cheers!
;)
Highlights include "Alice's Restaurant" from Arlo Guthrie in Segment 02.
Today is Monday, when I usually begin production on the new show. But due to appointments this afternoon, production will be postponed until tomorrow.
If there's something you'd like to hear, something you'd like to suggest for the show, or any comment, please let me know. Your comments are welcome. They ARE moderated, but only to prevent things like foul language, personal attacks, etc...never to prevent criticism or stifle debate. I merely ask that comments, criticism, and debate be limited to the show, the music, and 70s culture. For other topics, start your own blog!
Cheers!
;)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Show 48 begins
I just produced segment one of show number 48. Highlights are a clip from "The Bionic Man", The Sanford Townsend Band's "Smoke from a Distant Fire"....one of the all-time great summer songs, and a snippet of the great "Spam" routine from a 1970 episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus". I played that many times when I was a light-night FM jock back in the late 70s!
Also featured in segment one is a clip from the great coming of age film "Summer of '42". This show will air in a couple of weeks. I hope you'll listen!
Also featured in segment one is a clip from the great coming of age film "Summer of '42". This show will air in a couple of weeks. I hope you'll listen!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Producing the show in pieces
Saving the 70s isn't done the way you may think. Live radio shows are done in real-time, and ALWAYS include mistakes, and things that didn't go exactly according to plan. I did a live radio show every day (usually six days a week) for 24 years...1974-1998. And being a perfectionist, I almost always left the studio angry at myself over some tiny little thing that went wrong...an event (commercial, song, promotional announcement, whatever) that didn't fire when it was supposed to, a segue (transition) between songs that wasn't as smooth as I'd expected, a time when I got tongue-tied, was short with a caller who irritated me (I always put tons of callers on the air live...reacting in the moment to what others say or do was always one of my strengths as a personality, so I tried to surround myself by people who would create events, or express opinions, or talk trivia, anything that I could react to.
How does this relate to "Saving the 70s"? Since the show isn't done live on a radio station, but pre-produced and then aired on many stations, I had to re-think how I worked. I decided that since pre-production was mandated, I would make "Saving the 70s" a real production piece...in an attempt at satisfying my self-critical, perfectionist side. I would make sure every "talk-up" over a song intro was perfectly timed, every segue between songs was exactly "on the beat" and made musical sense, and use other production techniques (editing, mixing, processing) I've learned through the years to make "Saving the 70s" the "perfect" show I was never able to do live. And NO I don't think it's perfect. That's why I put it in quotes. But it is more consistently "ont he money" than anything I was ever able to do live. Since perfection is something I'll never attain, I suppose that will have to do.
For the first several months of production, I did the show all in one "spurt" on a Monday morning. That is until one Monday I had so much commercial production work that there wasn't time to do it all in a day...so I only did the first (of four) segments on Monday. Tuesday was busy too, so I did segment two on Tuesday, and segments three and four on Thursday. Know what? The show was better! I was able to take whatever creative ideas I had, sit down and put them "make them real", then walk away while my mind was still fresh. I've done the show that way ever since.
Segment one is produced on either Monday or Tuesday, segment two the following day, and segments three and four later in the week. On Thursday or Friday I apply the final "sweetening", getting the audio quality just right, evening up the levels, and making any last minute edits. Then I burn the show to a cd, and listen to it in the car over the weekend as my wife and I drive around...absorbing it as a listener would, and observing my wife's reactions. She's just what I need...brutally honest, and always ON MY SIDE!
I work two to three weeks ahead of time, so the show I'm working on this week will air in a couple of weeks. When I finish the production process, "Saving the 70s" is one long, unbroken file. On Mondays I split the show that's to be aired that week into the four component segments, save each as a losslessly compressed audio file on my computer's hard drive, then convert each to high bitrate mp3 format for upload to my website, where sations can download for airplay.
Blah, blah, blah...TOO MUCH INFORMATION, right? Isn't that what blogs are for? Feel free to ignore ALL OF THE ABOVE, and simply enjoy the memories. THAT IS, after all, what the show is for!
Hear the show here http://www.savingthe70s.com
How does this relate to "Saving the 70s"? Since the show isn't done live on a radio station, but pre-produced and then aired on many stations, I had to re-think how I worked. I decided that since pre-production was mandated, I would make "Saving the 70s" a real production piece...in an attempt at satisfying my self-critical, perfectionist side. I would make sure every "talk-up" over a song intro was perfectly timed, every segue between songs was exactly "on the beat" and made musical sense, and use other production techniques (editing, mixing, processing) I've learned through the years to make "Saving the 70s" the "perfect" show I was never able to do live. And NO I don't think it's perfect. That's why I put it in quotes. But it is more consistently "ont he money" than anything I was ever able to do live. Since perfection is something I'll never attain, I suppose that will have to do.
For the first several months of production, I did the show all in one "spurt" on a Monday morning. That is until one Monday I had so much commercial production work that there wasn't time to do it all in a day...so I only did the first (of four) segments on Monday. Tuesday was busy too, so I did segment two on Tuesday, and segments three and four on Thursday. Know what? The show was better! I was able to take whatever creative ideas I had, sit down and put them "make them real", then walk away while my mind was still fresh. I've done the show that way ever since.
Segment one is produced on either Monday or Tuesday, segment two the following day, and segments three and four later in the week. On Thursday or Friday I apply the final "sweetening", getting the audio quality just right, evening up the levels, and making any last minute edits. Then I burn the show to a cd, and listen to it in the car over the weekend as my wife and I drive around...absorbing it as a listener would, and observing my wife's reactions. She's just what I need...brutally honest, and always ON MY SIDE!
I work two to three weeks ahead of time, so the show I'm working on this week will air in a couple of weeks. When I finish the production process, "Saving the 70s" is one long, unbroken file. On Mondays I split the show that's to be aired that week into the four component segments, save each as a losslessly compressed audio file on my computer's hard drive, then convert each to high bitrate mp3 format for upload to my website, where sations can download for airplay.
Blah, blah, blah...TOO MUCH INFORMATION, right? Isn't that what blogs are for? Feel free to ignore ALL OF THE ABOVE, and simply enjoy the memories. THAT IS, after all, what the show is for!
Hear the show here http://www.savingthe70s.com
Sunday, May 3, 2009
WELCOME TO SAVING THE 70s!
Welcome to the new Saving the 70s blog. On this blog, I'll share notes about the show, and about individual installments...including information about the music, about affiliate stations, etc. And of course, I welcome your comments!
First some news...Saving the 70s this week added two new affiliates...internet station Old Wolf Radio http://www.oldwolfradio.com and a biggie...Talk Radio Europe http://www.tre.fm
See our web site for a complete list of stations and times. Any comments about the show? Come on, let's hear 'em!
First some news...Saving the 70s this week added two new affiliates...internet station Old Wolf Radio http://www.oldwolfradio.com and a biggie...Talk Radio Europe http://www.tre.fm
See our web site for a complete list of stations and times. Any comments about the show? Come on, let's hear 'em!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
