Communication Project A: Sea FM

Sunday, June 08, 2003

posted by

Jon
1:52 PM

Here are the final two links for our radio shows.

First Radio Show CLICK HERE!!
Second Radio Show CLICK HERE!!

Just click on either of them and they will play in Internet Explorer automatically.

Tuesday, June 03, 2003

posted by

Jon
4:44 PM

Here's the link to our second (and final) Sunday Session for you to listen to. Radio Show

Saturday, May 31, 2003

posted by

Jon
7:45 PM

FINAL WEEK OF SEA FM WORK EXPERIENCE!! WEEK 11 OF UNI.

Well this was the final week of work experience at SeaFM. Richard was sick so he couldn't come, but me and Catherine got there around lunch time as usual. This was the week we had to do the final Sunday Session, our major piece of work. This time around it was much more relaxed, as we were used to the situation and the equipment being used, so we sounded a lot more natural. We knew we had to have Richard in it at some point, so we rang him on air and asked him the 'real' reason he was sick.

We gave Aaron some chocolates for everyone to eat as a thankyou for having us, so they decided to play a practical joke on the receptionist by eating all the chocolate then doing up the wrappers so they looked like they had chocolate in them and giving it to her. Unfortunately Ryan gave the game away on air. She came up to the studio and was not happy.

Its been great, we've learnt some really interesting things about radio stations and how they work, and met some interesting people as well. Originally having absolutely no knowledge about radio stations whatsoever, we now have many of the skills needed for employment in the industry.

Friday, May 30, 2003

posted by

Rich
1:15 PM

Well I have the flu, but Catherine and Jon have headed off to Sea FM today to record the Sunday session. Maybe if I am lucky, they will call me and I can do a bit of it over the phone!? It'll all depend on whether or not Ryan or Aaron let them do it...

Saturday is the night when we are going to go over our contract and write about what we accomplished and what we didn't :D hehe.. (hopefully I will be feeling a litte bit better by then!)

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

posted by

Rich
10:05 AM

Catherine and I went to Hedlow Airfiled to observe an outside broadcast OB take place, here is a montage of pictures that Catherine took while we were there.
(I notice the one I took of her, conveniently managed not to make it in my email inbox?!)

Saturday, May 24, 2003

posted by

Rich
7:24 PM

Friday 23rd of May:
Today was one of the more entertaining days we have had at the studio. The day started with Ryan explaining to us the significance of these sort of graphs:

This graph lets the radio stations know what the percentage of market share is for each specific age group. In this case the area is Sydney and the targeted age bracket are listeners aged 18-24. However this graph only represents a partial amount of the information that the radio stations need to customize their programs.

This table details to the station the "difference" of points over the period between the two surveys, and can help the radio station target which particular area within the stations programming that needs to be focused on, a further graph will break this down even more into a shift by shift basis, allowing the stations to pinpoint at exactly what point they need to improve upon.

In the table above 2DAY lost an entire point. During its Mon-Sun market share. However the CUME went up, what is the CUME? The cume is how long each listener that the radio station has actually listens to the station. If one person listens to the station for an average half an hour one week, then listens to that same station for 2 hours the next week the CUME will go up. Based on the table above 2DAY FM's cume rose, however the number of listeners decreased. From this, the station can work out that perhaps this is because a particular promotion only appealed to a certain percentage of that age bracket, and while others were not interested and tuned out, others stayed on longer.

Ryan also told us that one point in a market like Sydney is huge, and when a announcer like Alan Jones left a station he took 5 points with him, because of this he was able to negotiate a contract that would allow him to get paid 20 million as well as 5% of that station each year.

Jon, Catherine and I then helped Aaron create a promo for the 4RO AM station, while Aaron went into a recording booth, the three of us stayed in the mix room and manned the controls, making sure that the levels were correct, after that we stayed and watched as Aaron cut together the add, Catherine also guessed what song.. but we are not at liberty to say what it is.

That was all for Friday, Saturday was off to Hedlow airfield to observe an outside broadcast.

-Rich

Friday, May 16, 2003

posted by

Rich
4:58 PM

Today we started off by updating this page and Catherine and Jon sorted out the positioning of the previous weeks posts in the labs. After this we headed over to Sea FM, Aaron and Ryan greeted us at reception, and we were handed over to Ryan, Ryan showed us some examples of songs that he was currently working on as well as those of some of his friends. Afterwards we were taken to the music programming room where we watched and observed how the Fat 4 at 4 and the mystery 9 at 9 were selected. (We're not telling you what the mystery clue is so don't even bother asking!)

The way that the computer formats and programmes gaps means that Ryan had to manually enter songs that are in high and medium rotation as well as "Hot" songs, otherwise the computers system would not "fill" the day properly. We were also let in on a few other radio "secrets" that involved the process of a caller requesting a song and how voting is organized for things like the Fat 4 at 4.

Ryan also explained to us how nowadays it helps to be multitalented when applying for a job at a radio station. For example when Ryan first started, there was a job for someone to organized and prepare the music as well as a job for a Disc Jockey, but now these two jobs have been combined with the introduction of new computer systems in most metro radio stations.

Sea FM's "splitting" of logs between Rockhampton and Gladstone once again was explained when Ryan entered the final play list into the computer.

Afterwards Aaron came into the studio and asked us what we would be interested in doing, after a group discussion it was decided that next week the group will go to Sea FM Friday as per usual, however Saturday we will take place in a Outside Broadcast (OB). Supposedly we will be hooked up with some Sea T-Shirts and stickers etc.

--Rich

posted by

Jon
12:32 PM

Week 5 of being at SeaFM

What did we do this week? We all got a proper tour of the station and found out it was a huge maze like building, which was easy to get lost in. We were introduced to everyone in all the different departments including- Belinda the receptionist, The Finance Guy and Lady, and the Advertising People. They were all working hard and were very polite about our questions.
We learnt about outside broadcasts like when they go on location for different reasons, usually to promote or advertise a business, and exactly how much it costs and the type of organisation they have to do to go on these locations live.
Other than that we watched Ryan in action and learnt a bit more about how a regional radio station works, albeit from the view of a DJ. All in all it was a very interesting experience this week, (as it usually is) and we are looking forward to hopefully making a final radio show in Week 10 (uni time).

Jon

posted by

Jon
11:58 AM

Week four!! which was actually week 6 of Uni! But week 4 of going to SeaFM!

Well in week four of our work experience of SeaFM we knew we wouldn't be doing another radio show, we are saving that up for about week 10 of Uni I think. We arrived at SeaFM at about lunch time friday afternoon, which is when it isn't too busy and we can sit with Ryan and learn what we need to know. This time when we got there the receptionist was a young girl about 15 years old. She rang Aaron on the phone for us and said "The work experience kids are here, uhh.. Uni Students."
So we went through and sat in with Ryan and learned how the songs are physically stored, which is in a seperate room filled with machines with flashing lights called the Wizard System. We learnt how and where the programming is gotten from, how much is local content and how much isn't. Ryan showed us information on the web about other radio stations around Australia and where they get their programming from, as well as how half the 'local' presenters of some of these are actually in a different city from the station.

We also learnt how the playlists and categories work, how they've got different categories like "Hot 20" "Top 40" and "Golden Oldies" and how songs go from one category to another. This was interesting because I for one thought that radio stations just played whatever song they felt like, I didn't know they were seperated into categories and were so organised.

It looks like SeaFM has a lot of local content. Some of the stations we learnt about get their programming from the same source, using hardly any staff locally, SeaFM (while having a medium amount of non-local stuff) seems to be above average in its use of local people and content, having a fairly large staff for a Central Queensland radio station.

We also got to watch the person record this weeks sunday session, which was the girl at the reception desk, who turned out to be doing work experience too. She did a pretty good job and had her whole thing recorded in about 10 minutes!
Other than that, nothing to report, except that we should change the colour scheme of this blog...

Jon

posted by

Cat
11:57 AM

Week three...

We went back to SEAFM and met up with Aaron on Friday at around 12pm. After a short tour of the station, to show how it was all set up, he asked us whether we'd be interested in recording a SUNDAY SESSION as he didn't have anyone else booked to do it that weekend. We were a bit nervous but thought it would be great to do one, even as a practice, so that when it came round to doing our proper one we would be better prepared and would know what to expect. We were given the task of making a list of all the songs we would like to have on our show. Aaron gave us a basic outline of what how the show would be set out, which basically looked like this:

-Talk
-Song
-Song
-Talk
-Song
-Song
-Promo
-Song
-Song
-Talk
-Song
-Song
-Promo
-Song
-Talk

We came up with a whole list of songs that we liked but found that a lot were of them were not available on their database so we had to replace them with songs that were. We were then introduced to Ryan, who annouces the Drive Time segment from 12-5pm weekdays. He was extremely helpful and explained the technicalities of working in a radio station. We learned that they basically have one computer that they use, and they are able to record what they want to say and position it into the radio show where ever they like. For example, we were interrupted by three actors from the Vagina Monologues play who were supposed to be interviewed with Ryan. He recorded the interview as a whole and then cut it up and placed it in talking breaks at his show. So, even though the interview lasted around 15 minutes, it sounded as it they were there for around an hour. Ryan also explained what his job is and how the radio station aims at different people.

It was then our turn to do our show. It was a very hectic day, however, so it took us a really long time to record it as Ryan kept getting interrupted by other tasks. First he told us how to talk into the microphone. By clenching your fist and then sticking your thumb and little finger, like pretending your hand is a telephone, you can find the proper distance your mouth should be from the microphone.

We then recorded what we wanted to say in between the music we chose. Ryan chopped and edited parts of it and positioned it into the empty talking spots of the show. Jon had to leave early, as he needed to go back to Yeppoon, so Richard and I stayed on and finished it.

You can listen to our show by clicking on the link!

We were pretty suprised at how much of what you hear on the radio is pre-recorded. Especially people ringing in. As a commercial radio station it is their responsibility to censor whatever goes on air, so therefore if anyone was calling the show they had to record to make sure that the guest speaker did not say anything that would be considered offensive to their audience. Also, by pre-recording, it is easier to cover up or re-do mistakes, whereas on-air if a mistake is made they would just have to play along with it.

The announcers also use cue-cards as a way to include promotions or topics of interest in their shows. So instead of the show being fully scripted the announcers just basically have to follow any set topics they have to highlight and then fill in the rest with specific segments or general conversation topics.

Rich and I didn't finish recording at SEAFM until around 6.30pm that night.

(cat)

posted by

Cat
11:56 AM

Week two...
We arrived at SEAFM as planned with the manager on Friday around 11am. We went to the receptionist and asked to see the manager. She told us he was in a meeting and that we should come back in a couple of hours. We waited till 3pm and came back. The receptionist told us that he was still at the lunch meeting and that he would probably not be back for a while. We couldn't wait much longer so we decided to leave and come back next week. We probably should have called him to confirm that he would be available at the time that we had planned the week before.

During the week we all tried emailing him but he never replied. We established that this was because as a manager of a radio station he would probably get hundreds of emails and would be to busy to reply. Jon rang him and asked whether he was still interested in having our group for work experience:

Jon - "Hi! It's Jon Green here, from the work experience group from the uni. I was wondering if you were still interested in having us there."

Aaron - "Yeah, yeah, definitely! I've just been really busy at the moment but give a ring the week that your coming. We'll fit you in and let you sit in at one of our shows."

Jon - "Oh thats great. We'll talk to you later!"

posted by

Cat
11:55 AM

Our first week...

We commenced our project in Week Three of the Autumn Term. We established what we were going to do in our initial meeting with our project supervisor Bob O'Sullivan. In the meeting we discussed our ideas of what we were going to do and what business we would do our project with. We decided on a local Rockhampton radio station - 101.5 SEAFM. We also met with Brendan Murphy, Multimedia Lecturer, who volunteered to be our supervisor on any multimedia aspects of the project.

We all got together and discussed what we basically wanted to do and then headed off to the SEAFM office to meet with the manager. Once we we got there we approached the receptionist and told her who we were and what we wanted to do. She quickly arranged a meeting with the manager of SEAFM, Aaron Stevens. Aaron was enthusiastic about our interest in doing some work experience at the radio station and briefly explained how they operate. He also gave us the names of all the people we could be interested in working with and then introduced us to a few announcers (Nelly and Ryan) and the finance department. We then organized to meet him the following Friday.

(cat)

posted by

Jon
11:36 AM

Here's the plan of our first radio show, with songs, ad's etc. This was our original plan, which we pretty well followed exactly when we made our show.

INTRO
System of a Down - Chop Suey
Silverchair - Ana's Song
Regurgitator - Everyday Formula
TALK
Superjesus - Gravity
MotorAce - Carry On
Garbage - Cherry Lips
TALK - AD
RICH
Fuel
Nickleback
Moby - We are all Made of Stars
CAT
Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
Cake - Short Skirt
Grinspoon - Chemical Heart
Weezer - Island in the Sun
WRAP UP

Saturday, May 10, 2003

posted by

Jon
4:08 PM

Here's a link to the first radio show in streaming format. Radio Show

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

posted by

Jon
10:12 AM

I reckon we should do those things that are in our proposal that we haven't done yet too. Catherine had a list of them the other day. Also we need to change the little pictures down the bottom of this blog so that it shows that catherine posted those first few rather than me. I'm gonna see how small I can compress our first radio show in wma format.

Monday, May 05, 2003

posted by

Rich
9:57 PM

Today was the first day back at Uni after our midterm break, Catherine asked if I could contact Sea FM to arrange this Fridays session. This week I am hoping we can get a closer look into the marketing side of the station, and learn how the station promotes itself locally. Perhaps even get Ryan to show us how to make a small demo-advertisment to submit with our final Sunday session. We should also double check to see what we are allowed to do during our Sunday session, i.e. How much time are we allowed to talk (if we are at all?) As opposed to just announcing songs. If we are allowed to talk for how long? Is it possible to do a mock segment? Or would it be possible to record a segment and submit it without it actually going to air?

posted by

Cat
5:22 AM

Cat account test :D

posted by

Rich
5:10 AM

Surprise guys! :D Since i knocked this up in an hour last night .. you may not like it :P but this is why i am going to miss Dynamic Web Interfaces :D

(At least it's a new colour scheme.)

Anyway some minor tweaking to be done.. and this update will be finished!

bye -r

Friday, May 02, 2003

posted by

Jon
11:09 AM

This is a test!!!!!!!!!!!!!