RadioShow/Preparation guidelines
Contents |
Before the Show
Wiki Page
Song Template
| Song: | |
|---|---|
| Artist | |
| Title | |
| Duration | |
| Album | |
| License | |
| Description | |
| Artist's website | |
(LICENSE)
- COMMENTS
A good preparation on the Topic that will be discussed is of utmost importance as the moderator of the moment will need to ask Questions on the various topics.
- Gloomy answers without facts aren't really interesting for the listeners (too complex answers neither, so balance it)
During the show we will need a way of communication. A piece of paper and a black marker are ideal.
Also handy if you want to note something down you don't want to forget.
- Write down keywords, NOT entire phrases. Believe us it will only confuse you and you will start stalling and people will notice you read off a sheet of paper.
Preparing music
Put all mp3s into a directory
Use replaygain --show *mp3 which you can install with sudo apt-get install python-rgain (mp3gain is dead since debian 8 jessie)
As VLC does not seem to honor mp3gain, neither in track nor in album mode, you need to reencode all mp3s into normalized versions. sudo apt-get install sox libsox-fmt-mp3
mkdir norm for i in *mp3 do sox --norm "$i" norm/"$i" done cd norm
Use a player where you can see when the song is over and which does not start automatically the next one. Also showing the waveform of the full is nice (like soundcloud does). As this has never been documented, well now it's 2015 and nobody knows. Commandline VLC is somehow ok. Switch "pause at last frame" on.
You can get the length of all your mp3 with
mp3info -p "%02m:%02s %f\n" *mp3
and get a total of all the playing time with
mp3info -p "%S %f\n" *mp3|awk '{a+=$1}END{print int(a/60)":"a%60}'
Mic check
check, check Mic? Dude, is that thing on?
Yep and you've #failed on national radio :)
A few tips about becoming a Radio Star (sorry Eldoradio, if you claim rights on that so be it)
Speech
If you speak into a Mic be yourself. Speak normally. Due to the nature of our program you can talk to the moderator as if you would know him for years. No special intonation needed, no grand-ducal form has to be applied, be yourself (or practice)
You don't need to yell at the Mic, with as little as one fist away from it you will be heard loud and clear. Also try and keep the same distance from the Mic at all times (otherwise Leveling your voice will annoy the operator)
Articulation is very important, you can practice this by exaggerating pro-noun-ci-ation but do this during dry runs otherwise you sound like broken speech synthesizer.
Practice
Should 'yourself' be: extremely shy or absolutely CRAZYYYY - try and practice in front of a mirror a few line until you get the drill and feel confident enough (have cooled down)
Moderation
It seems at least one person has to moderate the talkers (think of it as a switch board)
If ALL speak together (full-duplex) #fail will occur.
So everyone needs to wait her turn. But you can time yourself and maybe sync (via eye-contact or paper-sheet) with the current-speaker and add to the coversation. (This is basically where it differs a bit from a regular conversation between pals)
Good practice for moderators
- try to give a short overview of the topic before your "guests" get into it a little deeper
- after an information block, it's always good to summarize the things that were said and give a little outlook of what will come next (after the next song, for example)
- imagine your listeners are blind and have no arms. The only sense they can use is hearing. So you need to guide them trough the rough sea/the labyrinth of information that lies before you. Fortunately, if you are well prepared, you might have a "roter Faden"/map you can hold on to navigate the labyrinth/the rough sea.
- two person moderation is fun. (A: An dir lauschtert Lët'z hack um Radio ARA op de Frequenzen 103,3 B: an 105,2 an um livestream op ara.lu) But don't overegg the pudding and do it too often.
- Don't use the same boring phrase over and over. (Dir sidd ageschalt um Radio ARA op de Frequenzen 103,3 an 105,2 an lauschter d'Emissioun Lëtz Hack. An daat do waar ...) Try to mix up these sentences in order to make the show more colorful.
- However, catchphrases may be fun.
- Moderation should be personal. Be yourself and not the OMGLIFEISSOAWESOMEANDWEAREPLAYINGONLYTHEGREATESTHITSFORYOU guy of your local commercial station or the we are now listing to a 1824 recording from the London Philharmony Orchestera of Bachs 2nd Symphony state funded social cultural station guy.
- Don't talk about technical problems too long. Often it's better not to say something than explaining it all. However, if you made a big mistake, you should excuse yourself, blame it on the computer in the studio or the microwaves from the kitchen underneath and carry on.
- If you already know the topic of the next show, announce it!
Songs
Playing relatively unknown songs? Don't just stop at that. Tell a little something about the artist and his song. Where's the artist from? How does he create his music? What year is the song from? Has it inspired any other songs? Has it been on a movie soundtrack? What license does it use? (CC?)
